Thanks, being able to control my own boost map really makes it drivable. Normally I don’t go over 20 psi. But it looks like I have a scramble boost map now lol

 

Cleaned up and installed the winter wheels and tires today. Two new Petlas Snow Master tires. (Made in Turkey.) Curious to see how they compare to the Nexen asymmetrical snows on the other two wheels that we've been running for a few years. The Snow Masters look a touch more aggressive.



First gen Nexen Winguard Sport on the left, Petlas Snow Master on the right. We don't get too much snow, so the driving characteristics of the asymmetrical tires in the dry has been wonderful vs the minor difference in snow traction, but they're still far better than any all season.

 

When you do get snow, let us know how they do. That is a new brand to me. Hope it works well for you.

 

Removed my seat an gave my R50 a real good cleaning. Also changed fuel filter while the starts were out. Very easy job to do.

 

New brand to me, too. Nice that they aren't Chinese. I'll be sure to report once we try them out.

 

At 169,679, she just got one hell of an oil change and tire rotation. LiquiMoly engine flush added to old oil and ran for 15 minutes, rotated tires while she was idling, let her cool down for 15 minutes and swapped out oil with LiquiMoly 5w-40 and fresh oem filter. Buttoned her up and ran her back out and got everything back up to temp, brought her back home and let her sit for another 15 minutes. Dropped that oil and filter and put LiquiMoly 5w-40 and LiquiMoly motor oil saver back in with another oem filter. She is purring like a kitten and ready for one last dragon run this year.

 

Wash and quick spray wax for the '09 R56 MCS and Uniroyal Tiger Paw snow tires.

Might be heading to Colorado for work. I'm a little apprehensive if I should take the Mini. I live in NW Pennsylvania and it's a long way from home if she starts acting up...(Very new owner of the car and don't trust it yet).

The car had a clutch job and a timing chain about 40K miles ago. (109K on car, clutch and last chain done at 68K).

I can handle a timing chain if needs done while I am in CO. Clutch...no way.

 

This looks like your second post...
Welcome to NAM!

The MINI with snow tires is a beast in the snow. My R56 saw many trips in the snow to the ski slopes. It did really well.

As for piece of mind for a long trip, get AAA Platinum. At least that way you will have someone to call if you did have an issue. Also, get the metal Harbor Freight 12v tire air pump. I have one of those in each of my cars.

I know the timing chain was an issue on those cars, but I think you will find that once they are fixed they last a long time. As for clutches, there are post of them lasting 100K or more miles. Then again, I have seen posts of them only lasting 30k. They are all the same clutch, so I would suspect that a lot of that difference is likely how they are being driven. Just take care to minimize how much you slip the clutch and heel-and-toe and rev match when you downshift. One of the major things you can do for the health of a MINI is oil changes at 5k miles, and use a high quality oil. This is especially important on the S MINI. With the turbo, it does pretty well at cooking the oil. The post above yours is a good example of what to use for good oil. I like Motul. On your engine, 5-40 is a good weight.

Most of all, enjoy your MINI. They responded really well to that. And motor on.

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ed-gen-ii.html - not a bad read at all. i would go out and get in her and drive anywhere right now, might not be to anywhere that has snow because im not a fan of cold weather. I carry tools, fluids, extra spark plugs, spare DV, have a spare, and viair 88p air pump, yes it might be overkill but has covered me and wife's friend. tell you what, i will never go another 300 miles with no boost due to a bad DV, not this guy.

 

This works great. The kit is from bushing fix. Just have to clean the area of all remaining rubber. Which is a little bit of a pain. I purchased the NA1kit at first. The smaller orange bushing is to small. Will not work on my pre facelift Mini. The FM1kit works perfect.

 

Almost there. Airbags installed. Time to clean it up and mock up the final touches.

 

Gonna start winterizing my mini, I just got a new toy so I don't know how much I'm going to be driving the mini come spring but once the snow is out I'll stick to the mini to avoid the salt and grime on the new bby.

 

Mine has 85k miles on it and thought I should change the stock plugs.
I installed NGK Laser Iridiums.The old plugs did not look too bad.

Was also going to change the serpentine belt based on the 60k recommendation but decided that was a job for someone else!
Called one shop and they wanted 99 dollars for the belt and 500 labor.Just about shat my pants.
Called another shop and the guy asked me how many miles the car had and he said
that they can go 100k .He told me to check for cracks which there are none.

Also changed the air filter and cabin filters.

 

Tried to put my garage door opener into the control panel (on rear view mirror). Seems that is an option that I don't have, darn

 

I did my part in learning to work curves and dips with vinyl. My plan is to vinyl the whole car color shift purple to blue or purple to green.

Racing stripes aren't too rough. There are some hard curves in the bumper and license plate area. But theres definitely more to learn before i go for the gusto

 

I didn’t like the stock shift ****. Took a chance on this no name one I found online. Perfect fit and feel. It also gives a factory look with the original shift boot.

 

Looks great! I'm curious about what you have plugged in behind it - I've had my R56 for 6 months now and still don't have a way to listen to Bluetooth/phone music, is that what you have going on there?

 

Thanks. It's just a USB charger in the cigarette port. Nothing special =)

 

Oil and filter and this:

 

R53 owner here and use the mediahawk 5.0 12$ on Amazon . Low profile, syncs up quick- I’m pleased with this solution. From the stock head unit there’s a simple plug and play connector on one end and the other an aux input (female). I’m sure there’s a similar solution for your r56. There are loads of writeups detailing the process. This can be done with minimal tools in you driveway and takes about 1hr tops.

 

Thanks for this! Our R53 needs this.

 

Today, I replaced top motor mount, hood struts, installed m7 strut tower braced plates and had 5 dents removed from hood and rear side panels by paintless dent remover guy. it was a great day

 

About how much did they charge to remove the dent’s?

 

Installed new pads and rotors, front and rear, by Cquence.

 

Yesterday I did the rear trailing arm conversion on my R50. I ended up having to use my old speed sensors. Tried to use the R56 ones. Keep giving me errors causing the abs , stop and tire light to come one. I order some adapters from orannje I’m the UK.