ECU Tune by Adrian - the entire process was flawless from having the necessary hardware to the final tune. The driving experience, so many ways to describe it, has extremely transformed. The driveability is well balanced throughout the power range. The moat significant change is the low RPM range (2000 - 3500); NO LAGS!!!! Definitely will use Adrian again for future mods.

 

Ricky got his plate on Friday and was inspected today. I had not worn the brakes out yet and the lights all still worked after 1,905 miles. I ordered personalized plates today so another 10 week wait. Also the graphics shop is still waiting on the red vinyl to do the stripes on the back numbers. Everything is 10 weeks 😊

 

Had a great day. Washed Roxanne(F55). Went for a nice little sunny drive and made it home before the storm started. I'm sitting in the building reading away on Nam and I look up at her.
Through the pouring rain notice something not right. I must have sat on the key fob and all the windows and sunroof are wide open. Pouring inside the car.
I throw my cigar down and rush out there because the comfort lock is not working now. I scramble in the monsoon at this point. To find something to cover the roof. A rain coat in yard bags was it.
Jesus man. So I finally get the window up after rushing to get the other key fob because my usual wouldn't work.. The sunroof finally closed in short 1 touch increments. What a nightmare. Everything works fine for now.
The headliner above the windshield is wet and the rear floor soaked. Shop vacced as much as I could and have fans in pace blowing it dry I hope. I have rain guards on the windows. 🤣🥸 So at least I can leave them cracked for fresh air. 🤦.
What damage am I possibly facing if the water doesn't dry out? Short of taking door panels off to check.

 

I've seen problems with the infotainment controller getting water damaged when the sunroof in a BMW has been left open. Anything electrical can really be affected by it depending on how wet it got. Consider using some type of desiccant, as well. Even some bowls of rice can help absorb the moisture out of the carpet and such. Good luck! I hope you caught it soon enough.

 

Oh, that sucks. But a lot of us have been there. Done that. You are not alone.

Have the fan(s) blow directly on whatever is wet the best you can, especially the center console. This way the circulating air is pushed into areas that might have gotten wet. Can you add a little heat to the inside of the car? This will help too. Keep the heat away from things though.

Hope it goes well with getting it all dried out.

 

Today I had planned on pulling my S-Lites for a through cleaning and complete Iron deposit removal.
Of course, If not by coincidence...It rained.
Undeterred by the inclement conditions; Armed with 2)cans of de-greaser, 1-1/2)bottles of Adams Iron Remover, 1)angled scrub brush, 1) AA battery powered toothbrush, a couple of Scotchbrite Green "polishing" pads
and a whole lot of rheumatoidal elbow grease, I persevered for 5 hours scrubbing and cleaning 8 months of nasty brake dust and iron deposits from the inside and outside of my wheels.



A few minutes into de-greasing...I almost forgot to take a before picture. ..Not that it really mattered.
(And, NO - I did not clean the wheels with chemicals laying in the grass. I laid them atop of my oil drain pan and re-bottled the waste for proper disposal.)
Upon further inspection, I noticed a couple of wheel weights had gone MIA on 2wo of the wheels.....



Well worth the effort despite the weather.
*A side note: (no picture); I managed to remove the rust from the center mounting surfaces with Ospho and a round nylon scrubbing brush attached to a 18V drill.

Before putting the wheels back on - I made it a point to inspect and re-torque front and rear suspension components. All was good



I have my tires on order and should arrive in a week. I've decided to have the new tires mounted first. Before I re-paint the wheels/rims.
On at least 2wo occasions in the past, the tire shops managed to scratch the powder coat on the rims...when the car was new.

 

1) AA battery powered toothbrush - If you borrowed that one from Jerry, he won't want it back.....

 

@Eurothrasher - Glad to see not only a kindred Mini owner here but a Seinfeld fan as well!

 

BTW: It's not like it fell in the toilet!

 

I've been sitting on a G-plus front mounted intercooler and M7 Speed Intercooler pipe kit for over a year now, but things in my life that are out of my control had me finally installing the two, let me get this clear, I'm a car enthusiast, not a gearhead so I don't have much history on working on my own cars, but my neighbor had offered to help me do the work so I had help from him. As always there's always problems you run into, first, I couldn't remove my two front wheels, I have a 550lb foot torque impact wrench and it wouldn't budge the bolts, my neighbor had to get his 750lb foot torque impact wrench which did the trick, a few years ago I had new wheels put on and they, for some reason torqued them down like that.
I finally get the front off the car and it took me a bit to remember that you have to take the front crash bar off the car to install the IC, now the part I hated the most was removing the cooling pipe that has the muffler in it, for the love of god I just couldn't get that little screw out, so, I just cut the MF out, new pipe installed.
Unfortunately I couldn't finish the job and the cooling pipe that runs after the IC still needs to be done, the reason is I just ran out of time and was unfortunate to do this during the heat wave, I live in Las Vegas and it hit 112 at my house, i couldn't drink water fast enough to keep up with the dehydration my body was experiencing, I was extremely dizzy and I just couldn't go on with the project even if I had more time to finish the job

 

Earlier this week Grumpy got a standard service. Oil change, checked and topped up all fluids, tire pressures, etc.

 

Did a little painting over the last couple days to the F55. Just bored and fueled up on mountain lightning. Ha ha. I'm in no way a paint specialist. So it is what it is.

I also replaced and registered a new battery for my R60 as well. And just in time as I believe my wife's kia will be going down for new engine replacement from a factory default. And I've read it's taking months for some folks.

 

The intercooler was a fun one for me as well. Blistering heat, was by myself for the install but had never taken the front of any car off. Got the install done in a weekend. Whew.

A year later my knee still swells up from that weekend. To make it more entertaining the corner lights and the air intake temp sensor have the same exact plug. So after shorting out the sensor and not realizing it until the next day. I got to replace that which is inside the air duct to the brakes. 😉Good times.

 

I replaced the exhaust on my daughter's R52S this weekend. I knew the one on there had a leak, but I couldn't see just how bad it was until I had it off the car. The left muffler had split at the seam, and the right muffler had one of the upper corners corrode away. These OE mufflers had a datecode of WK37/05, so they are original to the car and made it amost 162k miles.

Left OE muffler, split at the seam.

Right OE muffler, corner corroded/rusted away.

I had found a full S take-off exhaust for a good price a few months ago, so I installed that. It has a WK27/03 date code, but it came from a rust-free car (out of Kentucky) and should last a while.

Replacement exhaust is hung in place...just waiting on a coupler to finish the job (final alignment and tightening of all the exhaust bolts). I added the cut&coupler because I couldn't get the exhaust installed in 1 piece without removing the underbody bracing that's specific to the convertible (I got 2 bolts loose on the right side, but the 2 on the left were being really stubborn, and I didn't want to risk stripping out the T50 Torx head of the bolt or snapping them off, so I left them in place).

One modification I made was to how the battery box heat shield is secured. Two of the studs for the heat shield retainers snapped off during removal. To reinstall the heat shield, I cut flush all 4 studs, then drilled for and installed stainless M6 rivetnuts and used stainless bolts and washers to fasten the shield.




One last thing, I had to add some heat shield at the back of the center tunnel to replace a section that corroded away. Fortunately, I had salvaged some large sections of heat shield from a Volvo XC90 last Fall, and I cut a section to fit.

 

I plan on doing the same battery box mod on our 03 R53. It didn't even have the plate when we got it, but I scavenged the one off the parts car we had.

 

RE:
Pic #1 - Good gawd!!!!
Pic #2 - Job well done!

 

Finally nailed down the paint match to Mini interior "Anthracite".
Refinished and painted both my door inserts today/this weekend.


Driver side door: Prepping and Beginning stages of sanding.


4) coats - Painted before final clear coat applied...


4) Coats clear applied, let cure for 10hrs and re- installed in Mini....

Both refinished door inserts turned out flawless and paint matched exactly to factory Mini anthracite. I'll give the paint/finish a chance to cure before polishing next weekend.

Shamelessly very happy with myself/the results

 

But nice work, anyway...

 

I found a 2.25" ID exhaust coupler and installed it tonight, then took the Mini for a quick test drive. It is definitely quieter, now Also, there was a slight ringing/vibration we used to get during acceleration, and I think that was a factor of the broken center pipe hanger (the metail tie from the center pipe to the rubber isolators had broken off/corroded off/broke the weld), so it could have been the exhaust moving and ringing against the broken pieces during acceleration.

All in all, it turned out well. The center pipe is touching the cross brace at the back of the center tunnel, though. I didn't hear it vibrating on the test drive, but I may have to take some time to re-adjust everything when I put it on the lift again.

At least it should be a more pleasant drive to/from school for my daughter, now

 

Wheels wrapped in new rubber and a thorough wash today!


New Continentals and a complete wash = body, wheels & liners, engine bay, and under-body!

After months of searching (within my budget), reading great reviews on tirerack.com and a resounding "thumbs up" from the folks here on NAM - I had my rims wrapped in Continental Extreme Contacts today.

New Continentals Extreme Contacts DWS. Although I never really cared for the gloss treatment on tires...I'll probably go with a little "polish" this time around...

I ordered my Continentals from tirerack.com
Although there was some confusion, as to the location where my tires would be shipped to from Tire Rack; somehow shipping and installation defaulted to my home address. Tire Rack / ASAP Mobile Tire Installation Services showed up promptly @ 10am!.
To be quite honest; I've never had much good experiences with a majority of the "service" providers in this city/state and was pretty much trying to prepare/compose myself expecting the same disappointment.

If you've never had Tire Rack's Mobile Installation service - R&R/install your tires. I highly recommend them!
The TRMIS/ASAP installation tech, Jarvis, was top notch on his game. A very rare professional, delightful, congenial young man who treated; not only my Mini, but myself with kindness and respect and did an amazing job without damaging my rims. Amazing!!!


After the installation and a quick 80mph loop down the interstate (test drive), the only thing I had to do to
quell my OCD was to readjust the center caps parallel to my valve stems. This is so very important!

Now that I've got new rubberbands checked off my list - I can resume with the curb rash repair/repaint on my 18.5y/o S-Lites.

EDIT: Oh, and btw with regards to TR/ASAP mobile installation service - I did not loom over Jarvis as he R&R my tires. Later on, as he was finishing up mounting the last wheel to the car - to my pleasant surprise; I watched him buzz down the lugs w/an 18v impact and subsequently final wrenching using a MANUAL torque wrench. I just checked the torque...freaking amazing = 87 ft lbs! Thank goodness It won't require the use of a jackhammer to get these wheels off when I go to replace my outer ball joints in a couple of weeks!

 

 

Well actually I put this in few weeks ago in my R61. Besides adding a nice little growl, my intake temps are much improved. About +4 degrees at highway speeds, and +11° in stop and go traffic.

This is a very well made copy of the K&N Apollo system.

 

Nicely done! @FatherG
I also like your catch can setup - but I've heard rumor that they are illegal = for passing emissions in CA...
Is that true?

 

I haven't found that to be the case yet with regards to catch cans being illegal in California. If the next time I go in for smog they give me grief about it, I can simply pop it off and pop a piece of hose on. Same thing goes for the air filter housing.

 

Thanks for replying!
I remember way back in '87 moving to L.A. (from NM), with a 110hp Porsche motor stuffed in the *** end of my '67 Beetle. Although due to the age of my car; I was "grandfathered in", the state only required me to add a crank case breather / catch can in order to meet CA emissions standards (at that time). I know times and standards have changed over the past few decades. I just found it odd when I recently read that installing a catch can could disqualify a car passing emissions in CA.
I agree with your plan of action if that becomes the case.

Thanks!