engine and tranny, subframe stays in the car. Use a cherry picker with a load balancer and it will come right out once you jack it up over the front unibody frame rails. These pics are from when I first pulled the engine and tranny 3 years ago.

 

I like the photos. I cant wait to get another big mini job. I'm mostly doing Toyota / Honda work recently. Just did a mini oil change last week and recommended a clutch job but the customer decided to wait a bit longer. Seemed like the rear main was leaking too. The customer complained of poor clutch engagement. It was an older non s. I am guessing the flywheel is wet or the dual mass system is letting go. When i test drove It had a smooth engagement in all gears for a few blocks then it seemed to start to get a shudder in first and second engagement. The fly wheel probably has hot spots. Car had about 30k miles.

 

Does the supercharger, intake manifold, etc have to come off?

 

No you dont need to remove any of that, I went straight turbo, so I removed it and sold it all. You can use any point you can mount to, but those points gave me the best level and length for my chain. You will defintely want a contact point out as far as you can on the transmission. If you need more pix, just click my photobucket link, there are a ton in there.

 

Just so everyone knows, you don't need to pull the engine to do a clutch. That is a lot more work than necessary. You can just pull the subframe and pull the trans.

 

Quote for a agreement. You have to mess around with quite few more coolant lines (have fun with all those hose clamps), disconnect the exhaust manifold (nightmare on most northeast cars), and you have to deal with the wiring more.

 

Like I said earlier, both methods can be used.

 

Oh, well any excuse to use a new tool I like to say. Be sure to take the required "standing in my engine bay" photo.

 

I got the opportunity to go into a MINI dealer recently. They were using the subframe method. They said they can get the subframe removed in 45 minutes.
The car was on a lift and the engine was held in place by what looked like a very long transmission jack.

I'm curious if a lift is absolutely required - what minimum clearance is needed between the bottom of the car and the floor to do a subframe removal?

It looks to me like subframe could be done by one person but engine+transmission would be better done by two, unless you can figure out where to attach a cherry picker.

 

1 person job

 

I'm about to do my first clutch job on my R53. I would also like to know how much clearance is needed to drop the front subframe.

Also what special tools, if any, are required to do the job right?

 

I definitely recommend an impact wrench. Lots of socket extension and a universal joint. You will need a ball joint separator like this, it works great: http://www.amazon.com/OTC-6297-BALL-.../dp/B0015PN010


Find some big jack stands and get it as high as you can. When I did it I think there was like 18in+ from concrete to subframe. I beleive the jack stands were at least 16in.