As always!

I should mention that, on the way home, I saw 3 cars pulled over by troopers and 2 more checking speeds from the median... Thankfully I too am a responsible driver...

 

What a great thread! I'm been playing catchup all over the place, and Albert is a handsome car worth playing catchup for!

 

Thanks!

 

Who knew...


Perfect fit

That an eight cut pizza box fits perfectly snug in the boot of the my F56 MINI... With room left over for the wings and beer. No slipping and sliding around with any unexpected hard stops, cornering, or acceleration. Not that that would ever happen in this MINI with its new fun tires...

Just though everyone should know about thoughtfulness of MINI in designing its boot...

 

I have a friend (previous MINI owner, so it is ok ) who now has a BMW 328xi M Sport. I believe that car has the an earlier 4 banger like our same B48 engine that we have in our JCWs. (Update: Nope, he has the N26 engine; earlier than ours)... He said he just had the timing chain and rod bears done on the advice of his mechanic. I asked if that is something I need to be concerned with and he said probably not; at least not until it has 100k+ miles on it. His had 115k miles and this was preventative work; there were no issues at that point.

I did do a quick search for these sorts of issues with the B48 engine and didn’t find any thing out of the ordinary, that would indicate any sort of systemic issue. So, no need to panic, but something to think about for any aging engine.

I did find a great article online about the B48 engine. It is a good read (link). BTW - the article says this engine should be good for about 350 Hp... Hmmmm - Tis to think about...

 

I am sure everyone has had discussions about what oil to use in their MINIs. There are a lot of opinions about this, that and other things about oils. I have been party to the opinion side of thing, in part, because information and specifics about various oils is hard to find.

Because of the preventative maintenance my friend had done on his BMW, I went looking for info about oils. It seems if rod bearings are wearing on some BMW engines, then choice of oil and oil weight might be important especially if the engine will be/is subjected to aggressive driving, which I would include my track adventures.

What I found was a BimmerWorld technical article (Link) about oils, including BMW spec oil requirements. It appears to be pretty definitive discussion about oils and summarizes the specs, requirements and explains the oil related acronyms.

And my conclusion is that the BMW spec oils might not be the best for the things I do, especially the latest LL oil they require.

 

Alberts life has been quiet as of late. Smokey has been in the spotlight for a little while. There is an interesting MINI friendly track called New York Safety Track (NYST). This track started out as a motor cycle track that also doubles as an airport:


Take off at NYST

Really!

With improvements made over the past few years it has become an interesting car track, especially for smaller cars that can handle the tight turns. I just finished a 2 day (over the weekend) track event there and did a pretty good write up here and have some more pictures here. Not sure how well Albert would do there, being heavier and less nimble than Smokey. Alberts turn will come. Watkins Glen is penciled in on the calendar for the end of June.

It looks like Cooper Tire is getting into the 200 TW tire game. Their new tire is the RS3-R it is a 260 TW, but it runs like a 200 according to the Champ car guys who were there testing tires. There is good discussion about them here.

 

More tire fun:

 

Did you know there were places that make custom brake lines for cars?
https://www.linestogo.com/mini-coope...ess-steel-set/

 

Albert is in the process of being prepped for a track date in late June at WGI. He suits that track well; the slight increase in power over Smokey (the R56S) is noticeable.

A new set of brake pads are on order. Neuspeed carries a pad brand called iSweep. Last year I found the iSweep 4000 race pad for the front at ECS, but not the rears and I tried matching that with a Hawk race pad. That didn’t work well. After my experience last year I went digging a little further and found rear pads on the Neuspeed site. The problem is, Neuspeed doesn’t list MINI on their site and you have dig for the pads for it. At any rate here are links to the front pads and the rear pads.

iSweep makes pads for a number of the MINI models, including the R56 JCW (didn’t see the GP, though). Here is the MINI listing from their catalog and a link to it.




Note, the iSweep pads are expensive, about 20% more than gLoc or Carbotech, which would be other options. Nothing for this car is cheap, though. Going to the track is not cheap. No point in cheaping out on brake pads For anyone thinking of taking their MINI out on the track, race pads are a must; no street/track pads. I would recommend these three brands.

I will let you know how I make out with the match set of iSweep pads front to rear.

Tires are next up on the list of things to buy. Falkens are a given at this point. Size is the question. Because of the rubbing I experienced with the NM wheels with the 40mm offset, I got a new set of wheels with an ET of 42mm. This should clear the rear wheel well with 215-45x17 tires and that size will clear the front shocks. The 225s would be nice, but they will likely rub in the rear even with the new wheels and they may rub on the front shocks. So, those are likely a pass, at least for now. I can learn the car with the smaller tires and quite frankly they did really well the last time out. So, tomorrow more $$$

 

Ok, sometimes, if things don’t just jump out and bite me, I don’t see them. All of my rant above about not being able to find the brake pads for the MINI on the Neuspeed web page was because I didn’t “see” the MINI that was right there on the web page... And, no Neuspeed doesn’t carry MINI; NM Engineering is the MINI site and that MINI on the Neuspeed site is the link to the NM Site. Now, on the NM site it is very easy very easy to find the iSweep brake pads. BTW - Neuspeed and NM Engineering are the same company, they just run separate web sites. Neuspeed is for VW/Audi and NM is for BMW/MINI.

That said, last night I got a call from Neuspeed. What? Well, they are out of stock of the 4000 rear brake pad I ordered and they wondered if the 3500 pad would work for me. I explained my issues of having mis-matched pads front to rear. He said that the pads come from Japan and he would check if they could get 4000 pad. I need the pads for the end of June which he thought was plenty of time to get them. If he couldn’t get them, I said I could use the 3500 pad.

Ok, now I want to talk about customer service. Wow, I give the Neuspeed/NM Engineering people 5 stars for this. This is the first time I have gotten a call from anyone about order maybe being delayed.

I did take the opportunity to talk to them about the RSe05 17” wheels they carry for the F56 MINI and that, with ET40, I had issues with tire rubbing with 215 and 225 tires. I also noted that a friend ordered the 8” wide version of this wheel with ET45, that is for a VW, and had the center bored for the MINI and he is using them with 225 tires with only a bit of rubbing. I thought that 8” option would be a good one for their MINI collection.

On a different subject - I got new shoes...


Racing Shoes from Summit Racing

My last pair of shoes I wore for the track were basketball sneakers. The problem was the soles got hard and disintegrated. These new ones are full on race car certified and are typically pretty expensive because of that. I also know some places are selling non-certified driving shoes for track day use. When I was searching for the “track day” version these popped up. Summit Racing sells them (as do others) but the thing about Summit was that they carry half sizes in those and no where else I looked had them, even other who carried this brand. Size wise I take an 11 or 10-1/2. I took a gamble on the 10-1/2 and it is perfect. The sizing seems to be spot on. They are a touch on the narrow side, so if looking at these, take that into account. Price on them was reasonable compared to others, but a sneaker will still be less. Summit was very quick to get them delivered. Another Company I have had good experiences with.

The soles are stiff, but grippy and they have a nice heal pad. They seem like they will be good for driving. As for walking in them, not so much. Then again, they are a “driving” shoe, not a walking shoe.

 

Cool shoes! I was thinking about a pair of driving shoes for longer 'spirited' drives, but then I tried driving in a pair of Vans and that did it for me.

Hear you on the customer service. There is a vendor here who is constantly out of stock on stuff and who does not always let you know that when ordering, or who appears to have stuff in stock when it actually drop ships. My wife has had multiple orders not ship for extended amounts of time and has had to call them to ask why. It's really nice when companies get the service part right.

 

Falken has in interesting tire that would be a good fit on the 7.5” wide wheels I have for Albert and might actually fit his wheel wells. It is a 215/40ZR17. Yup, a 40 series.

While the section width is smaller than the 225/45, it has the same tread width as the 225/45 (9”). It’s diameter (23.8”) is slightly smaller (~2%) than the stock 205/45 (24.3”) and quite a bit smaller than the 225/45 (25”). The 0.6” smaller radius than the 225/45 would mean that it would go that much less into the wheel well and it might not rub as much on the inside of the rear wheel well. It has possibilities as long as the shorter radius doesn’t cost me an extra shift as I have had happen with with the 15” wheels on Smokey. It might be close.

I wonder if this would make for a good autocross tire to give the car a little more zip off the line and out of corners than the 225/45? Hmmmm...

 

After all of the procrastination, for tires I went with what I know will work for Albert. 215/45x17 Falken RT660. This is what I ran before and liked them. The 215/40 was an option, but I felt the small diameter of that tire might push me into having to make additional shifts. Also, the sidewall will be 0.4” inch less, which will make it less compliant. Without having an ideal track suspension setup, compliance may be needed to get the most out of the tires. With less compliance in the 215/40 tire the tread may not stay fully on the pavement, or at least not as well as the taller tire. The other option was the 225/45x17, but that has potential rubbing issues I would rather not deal with at this time.

I have on order 5 of the tires. One will be a “spare” and it can be rotated into the spot that is getting the most wear. If I have an issue with a tire, then this cheap insurance to be able to stay at the event.

One of the things I will be looking at is clearance to the rear wheel well. I am not sure how I will do this. My current thought is to put in some sort of wear tabs. I actually have some foam with a sticky back that I could use. It should wear in the shape of the tire and give me an exact profile. This should help with determining if I can use the 225/45x17 tire. One step at a time with this.

I did try to order an additional set of buckles for the QuickFit harnesses I have. The only place I know of to buy them is HMS Motorsport and they are currently out of stock, with a 2 to 3 month lead time. I can live without them but that is disappointing.

I did have success (sort of) with getting brake pads. I ordered another set of the iSweep 4000 pads for the front. I wanted a set of those for the rear, to have a matched set. However, those were out of stock and had at least a 3 week lead time to get. The next pad option is the iSweep 3500. This has a rising friction profile as compared to the 4000 which has a pretty linear profile. This should be ok. At least I will have compared performance profiles, versus the miss match of the Hawk and the iSweep pads I had before.

 

Phew - 40's on a street MINI... I hope the suspension of Albert is a bit more compliant than my 2003 is! I went the other way with 50's for a bit of extra softening, and super happy with the result. Were you considering that profile for the added stiffness on the track? Are you worried about potholes and wheel lips?

I do like the Falken brand though - ran one of the sportier ZIEX tires before the crap Firestones I had last round before going back to Kumho Ecstas. I was pretty happy with the Falken tires - I may have even done two sets back to back, but that had to be prior to 2009 or so. IIRC, the tread wear life wasn't great, but sporty tires generally don't last all that long.

 

A 215/40R17 isn’t too bad on side wall height. It is close to the height of the stock 205/45R17 that came on the car and not nearly as bad as the 205/40R17 some people have put on MINIs.. . So, it would be no worse with respect to potholes and what not. Also, this would be a track tire, and not used on the street. That would not be my biggest concern.

I do have a concern with compliance. It would take much more camber up front to make that size tire work on the car. And I suspect it would be more sensitive to tire pressure. The 215/45 seems to be a good match to the 7.5” wide wheels, and the Falkens seem to not mind the lack of camber as much as other tires I have driven. Maybe because they tolerate height pressures better than those other tires. And I think the compliance plays into that too. The 215/45 has worked really well on my R56, too.

I am also trying to figure out how to fit a 225 tire into the wheel well without the rubbing I had with the 215 tires. The wheels I have now have a 48mm offset vs the 40mm I had before. With 215 tires on the 48mm wheels I will get to see how close they come and maybe I will get too see if I can get the 225 to fit. The reason I bring this up is because the tread width on the 215/40 is the same as the 225/45 and where the tire is rubbing is on the edge of the tread, not the sidewall. So I am not sure the 215//40 would fit any better than the 225/45... and I don’t know if that will fit...

Bottom line is, the F56 MINI rear wheel well is tight without modifications. Also, the thought of using the 215/40 was a whim to get more meat on the tarmac. And it would look cool... Practicality... Not so much...

All of that said... Now, I have just found a new Continental tire that is a 200TW and it comes in a 225/40R17... Hmmmm interesting. More meat without the increase in diameter. Nice combination.... Oh, no, can’t go down that rabbit hole... No, No, No...

 

A quick update... For once I am ahead of the game for getting Albert ready for WGI at the end of the month. A new set of 215/45R17s arrived at my tire shop last Friday. I brought the wheels to them yesterday. And yesterday I received the brake pads I ordered. Nice job Neuspeed/NM Engineering...

For pads I got a second set of the iSweep 4000 for the front. For the rear I wanted the same pad, but those were out of stock and would need to be ordered from Japan. This was going to take too long so I opted for the 3500 pad. There will be a slight difference in performance as they are a bit less linear than the 4000, but I expect they will be OK.

At some point I may switch over to the Carbotechs or G Loc pads. They too should be really good and a bit less expensive. The iSweep may be good, but they seemed to wear fast and they are costly.

Even though the dealer just did a brake fluid change, the MINI stuff isn’t up to the level of some fluids, so a bottle of Motul 600 will be going in. That worked well the last time.

From there it will be just drive down, have some fun and return home...

 

Ode to the bubble in the brake line fluid...
Oh, where do you come from oh bubble in the brake line fluid?
What gremlins are lurking in there?
The reservoir was never drained.
It was never below the MIN mark.
The pressure bleeder was never higher than 15.
The rear brakes bled just fine.
It was right front that threw me a never mind,
Throwing a steady mist of very fine bubbles.
That doesn’t look right. What does the left give out?
Nothing says the left, I have nothing to give.
What trickery is this? Where the right is not like the others.
And the pedal? It feels like a butter knife going though Bree cheese, right to the metal.

Oh, where do you come from oh bubble in the brake line fluid?
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Maybe there is better yet to come.
A repeat of the right is done, with a bubble coming out just for fun.
Hmmmm, that must feel better like a good belch after dinner.
But the gas is still there. The pedal is better, drivable but raceable.
My blood is boiling like my brakes would be if pushed like they are pushing me.
My Mother-in-law was a great person and had a saying for this purpose,
Sleep on it, things will look different in the morning.
And dream of brakes and wrenches and pee, but not me.

Oh, where do you come from oh bubble in the brake line fluid?
The morning is lovely and cool with a bright blue sky, but the car looks the same.
A short trip to an appointment was pleasant in deed, with only a hint of gremlins lurking unwanted.
Back up in the air for a third shot at success, but weary of the unknown, where did it come from?
Left rear, all clear, right rear, all clear, just like before.
Right front let out a stream of fuzz, then it came, like a fart after a bean burrito, that went on and on.
What!? I was enraged for a moment until it change to fuzz and then nothing.
Is it done? Is it gone?
Was that THEE BUBBLE that was causing all of the trouble?
Wheels went back on for the third time.
A short coast down the driveway, a stab on the brakes.
It was like a rock.
Something to bank on.

Oh, where do you come from oh bubble in the brake line fluid?
That I don’t know,
I am only Schmo.
Not a Pro...

 

Glad you got THAT out of your system...I mean, out of the brake system.
On a related note, when I bled the brakes on my 2019 JCW, I was very surprised how much torque I had to put on the bleed screws to get them completely leak-free. So, surprised, I was thinking of buying new bleed screws to either replace the originals, or, to have on hand in case they strip the next time it's due for a bleed job. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

Yah, me too...

The 2 inboard bleed screws on my front calipers appeared to not have been touched since new and supposedly the dealer bled the brakes back in April. They were overly tight and the threads on one had corroded or the like as it took a lot to rotate it. The outboard screws were just fine. They opened easily just like they should. The one that was hard to open was really hard to reseat, also.

Mini-Titan - When you open the bleed screws, are they easy to unscrew once they are off the seat, but then they are just hard to reseat? Or are the bleed screws hard to unscrew also? If you are worried that you might strip them, it likely will be the caliper housing that will strip, not the bleed screw itself. The caliper is aluminum which likely less strong and it will give out before the screw.

If they are easy to unscrew, but just don’t reseat, you could try to “fix” the seat. Put a pressure bleeder on the reservoir, using it just as a pressure source (no fluid), but with only about 10# in it. With a drain hose on the bleeder, crack it open and then reseat it using what you think is a reasonable torque. Repeat this 5 or 10 times to see if you can wear in a “new” seat. If you don’t have a pressure bleeder, just let the brake fluid drain when you crack open the bleeder. The idea is to flush anything out while you do this.

If the bleeders are hard to unscrew after they are unseated, then the threads are likely corroded. Just try screwing it out a ways and back in a few time, like above, and see if that helps to make it easier to reseat the bleeder. If not, then you could depress the brake pedal and hold it depressed with a stick between the pedal and the seat, this will keep the reservoir from draining when you remove the bleeder. Remove the bleeder and wire brush the threads. That should make it easier to thread it in and out, and to allow it to seat easier.

IMHO I think the bleeders need to be opened and closed once or maybe more a year to keep them from corroding up. Otherwise they can be a problem...

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try. They didn't feel rough when loosening or tightening, and they felt good and snug when loosening. I put them back about as tight as I thought they felt, and they leaked, so, tightened just a bit more. Thought they were tight enough. i was wrong. They leaked. Tightened more to the point I was concerned about over-tightening until they finally stopped leaking. Maybe it's a combination of the short wrench and a seat that needs a bit of "fixing".

Very much appreciate the feedback!

 

It must be the full moon, Albert doesn’t like me or I am becoming senile; most like the latter...

I got the race pads in, the wheels on and bolts torqued. Surprisingly the rear pads went in easily. I have a tool to compress the piston and pads fit right into place. This is unlike the Hawk pad that I had to file the ends of tangs on the pad backing plate because they were too long. Well, the iSweep pads might be uber expensive, but, maybe, you get what you pay for. Plus one for them.

The MINI front pads are a painful design with these dumb bump-ets that engage with the caliper pistons. The caliper has to be pulled to change the pads. How stupid is that.



Stock brake pad

Well, feeling proud of myself, it was time for a test drive..

That didn’t last long. I made it about half a short block before turning around, with more bumping, banging, rattling than an old horse drawn buck board with 4 bad wheels...

What did I mess up? Again? A slow drive back up the driveway. 1st check the wheel bolts... Check; good. Phew.... Jack up the front. HF jacks are cheap and I have 4; used only 2 for this. Pull the front wheels that I just checked. Push, pulled on the struts. Yup, solid... Checked that the front caliper pad pins were still in... Yup... Checked that the caliper bolts where in place... Yup.

But do you remember me saying about something being a stupid design, requiring the calipers to be pulled to change pads? Well, you guessed it. Bolts where in place, but were they properly tightened? ... NOPE!

Well, like I said, you get what you pay for and I work for myself for nothing... Not even that beer I promised myself for at the end of the day...

Not sure if it was a good thing that only one side had loose bolts...

I am going to blame the phase of the moon we are currently in...

It is amazing how nice and quiet these cars are when all of the loose bolts are tight... Now if there was a wrench big enough to tighten that loose nut behind the wheel... Oh, don’t think too hard on that one... Something to do with steering...

One good thing did come out of this. I made a tool to fit the end of the brake pad pin. This way it doesn’t slip off when hitting it with a hammer. This keeps me from trying to hit the pin directly with the hammer in an area where there is little room to not hit the caliper and chip off some of that nice red coating; not that I have ever done that...

I took a short piece of rod, mounted it end up in the drill press vice, eyeballed the center and center drilled it. I started with 3/32” drill and worked my way up to 1/4”. Perfect-ish. But it did work perfectly for driving in the pin.


Centered tool for driving in the front brake pad pin

If this were a diner, this would be a stack of pancakes... In my driveway it is a short stack of tires with race pads on top.


New wheels and Falken 660s.. Yup I am 5 wheelin’ it..

Nothing like a fresh set of tires to chew on..

The wheels are 7.5”x17, with ET 48mm. In the front, even though these clear the calipers, it is not by much, so I have added a set of 3mm spacers which gives the wheel 4 - 5 mm of clearance to the calipers. These are in place of the ET40 wheels I had used before that had tire rub in the rear. I am hopeful these fix that rub problem.

I took the car for a spin. The tires do have a “soft” sidewall compared to others. And they ride quiet for what they are. Interesting that they sound like Velcro being pulled apart on some road surfaces.

The brakes are good. Maybe not as solid as they should be, though, but still good. I took Albert to my favorite brake bedding hill (~ a 4 mi downhill run) and set the front bumper done on the pavement a few times. No drama. The iSweep pads feel really good. Linker up front and no drama from the rear. It will be be interesting to find out how the iSweep pads work in the rears when out on the track, but if this ride was any indication, they should be good.

Good to go. Drive what you have and don’t wish for it to be different, especially when there is nothing to be done about it.

I’ll report back when the tires have less tread then they do now...

Motor on and have fun...

 

I did one other thing for Albert. The wheels I got are Sparcos and they have their own center caps, which, are a bit weird looking, with a bit of a Star Wars alien alphabet look. And, Albert is a proper MINI JCW, he can’t have that. I would have gotten the MINI caps for it, but the opening on the wheels is about 3/32” larger than MINI’s, just enough for the MINI caps to just not fit. Ugh!

So, the next best option - convert the Sparco cap...

The first step was to match the red at the edge of the MINI cap. Rustollum Royal Red is pretty close. If I looked harder maybe someone makes a closer match, but when in HD, you have the choice of what they sell.

Prepping the Sparco caps for painting:

Sparco wheel cap (center) prepping vs the MINI JCW cap (left


I found some stick-on JCW logo disc on Ebay. Surprisingly well made. Stamped aluminum discs with a sticky back done with a really good (hopefully) adhesive. Because the JCW discs have a slight convex shape I left the Sparco logo in place. The Sparco logo is somewhat soft and pliable, and it could be pressed into the JCW disc from the back side.

One has to look closely to see the difference.

Converted cap vs MINI JCW cap (center)

Of course, they sell the JCW logo in packs of 4 (or did I just buy 4?). None the less, I need a 5th but these will do for now...

 

I made a general purpose pressure bleeder that works off of tire pressure... (link)...
This is coming with me, given all the “bubble” issues I have had.

Almost ready. Albert is clean enough for the drive to WGI. Just need to finish packing him up. Not sure if I will be able to get a garage space, it is supposed to be in the 90s and there is a chance of thunderstorms. So I have a pop up sun shade that will help a little... and maybe stay in one piece through any storms... At least he has new tires that might do will in the wet.


Albert reasonably clean with his new wheels and JCW wheel hub caps...

The wheel color is what I would call “Brake Dust Gray”.

 

Have fun; be safe! Hope the T-storms hold off til after you're done for the day