I bought my teenage daughter a 2011 Cooper S Hatchback. 2 months after the purchase, she was rear-ended at a stop-light (she was fully stopped, the other driver wasn't paying attention.) and her mini was crushed. She was fine, but the chassis was bent so the car was totalled.

We upgraded her to a 2012 Cooper S Hatchback. 1 month after purchase, coolant got into the cylinders (long story, mistakes were made), which resulted in some ruined valves. So now I'm halfway through an engine rebuild. It's actually been pretty fun, and a good chance for me to show my kid around an engine and get her learning about tools and fixing things to save some money.

The resources and details about this car online are pretty slim. My previous project car was a 1983 Porsche 944 that I passed down to my son, and there are giant communities with vast resources and detailed guides on all kinds of procedures for those. Trying to find something simple like torque specs for a rebuild on the N18 has been tough.

I'm grateful for this community as I'll inevitably need a help and guidance getting this Cooper back up and running. Hopefully I can document some of my learnings to save the next guy in my shoes some time.

 

Welcome ! There is a wealth of knowledge on this board, and most of it is not published until someone asks !

 

To search this site, I use Google. For example, the following "site:northamericanmotoring.com N18 torque specs engine" returns what appear to be relevant posts.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Yes - google is the best way to search !

 

Don't see how your daughter was guilty of destroying 2 MINIs. The accident was not her fault. (I lost a brand new (4 week old) Porsche Cayman S when stopped to make a right hand turn and another driver lost control of her car and smashed into the side of my Cayman. With my Boxster I was hit from behind twice. Once when the driver of teh vehicle behind me on her phone noticed vehicles moving in the lane to her left -- turn lane -- and started up only to run into the back of my car still stopped at the red light. Second time stopped at a light and the light changed and I took off only to have the driver of the car behind me run into the back of my car. He was on his phone. Begged me not to turn this in to his insurance as he had already wrecked his pick up truck -- was in his mother in law's car.)

And the coolant in the cylinders I don't understand how that can be your daughter's fault.

At any rate hope you manage to get the engine fixed and get the car back on the road.

 

Google with the site name, or images and the part or question + site name will find stuff.