So Im new here to NAM, and I have some questions. I recently Bought an 06' Mini Cooper S. The first thing is, the first time i drove it on the highway (I was not going that much over the speed limit) the hood scoop cover flew off(dealership is covering it). Is this normal? Second I noticed yesterday that the lower front bumper has a lot of give. Is this normal? And third, I was driving on the highway again and opened the sunroof. It was 40* out but I wanted to test it. I tried closing it but it wouldn't close. Once i got home I tried to close it again and it was very, very slow to close. What do I need to make it work better(faster)?Other than those three problems the car is incredibly fun to drive and the acceleration is beyond my expectations.

 

Looks like you've got the aero kit. Maybe whoever installed it messed up some bracketing and thats why the front has some give? Or maybe it doesn't have an abnormal amount of give and you're just being paranoid given you spout with bad luck the front "bumper" truely is just a plastic cover over the real crash structure. I believe there is a known issue regarding the sunroofs acting up, but I don't know what causes it off hand. I haven't heard of a hood scoop falling off of an R53. I have heard about it on R56s. Any mods done to it?

PS: jealous of those wheels....

 

1) Scoop: Yes I have seen these fly off. They have small plastic slots that the bolts go into. People have been known to tighten them a bit too much and the slots break out.

2) Front bumper: Make sure all the bolts are in the front lower part of the lip. Also make sure the lower air dam is on the car. I have seen people take them off so they don't rub when they lower the car. This helps tie the lower section of the front bumper to to the rest of the car.

3) Sun roof: Open the roof and apply white lithium grease to ALL of the tracks and rollers. cycle it a few times and re apply as needed. Do NOT use WD-40. You can use dry graphite but grease is the best.

 

wrt #3

good possibility your tracks were over greased or had a thick (wrong) grease applied and that things are gummed up. So inspect as best you can before you just apply more. If there is thickened crud in there you need to get that out. If things are sticky they need to be cleaned.

WD-40 comment is good. WD-40 is not a lubricant. It is a grease remover! WD actually stands for "water displacement" and its original purpose was for removing water in electrical circuits. One story says the stuff is dry cleaning fluid. That said if you DO have sticky goop in your tracks, WD-40 can be a good solvent to get it out. It will melt hardened grease. But be CAREFUL cuz it will also run everyplace it can possibly run and COULD find its way to the head liner which would be bad. Put it on a rag or q-tip and go to town.

If the s/r was very sluggish outside in the cold I'd try this first: Bring the car into a garage and warm it up. Then try to open and close and see what happens. If still sluggish I might go a step farther and warm the tracks up with a hair drier. If this helps, then gummy grease is what I'd suspect.

DO NOT APPLY GRAPHITE if there is already grease in there .... bad combination. Get the grease out and everything dry - then use graphite if you want to go this route.

the problem could be very simple: the prior owner(s) never opened the darn thing. I've been a MINI owner since 2002 and both mine have had the sun roof and I can count the times I've driven with the s/r open, on one hand. I like the glass letting the light in tho! And I'll crack it to let hot air out after parked in the sun in the summer, then close it right back. I try to remember to open and close, full cycle, once a month just to move the lubricant around.

just some thoughts .... I hope they help. some other roofs have simply given up the goast and have had to be replaced. The entire unit comes out in one piece which means it ain't cheap.

 

I recently replaced my stock front bumper with an Areo Kit bumper.

The bumper cover appears to be made of a different material
that's more flexible and thinner in comparison to the stock bumper.

So the answer is yes it's normal.

Hope this helps...