Like most MINI owners last night I too watched the Wheeler Dealer Episode with the MC40. I want to start by saying I use to like the show more with Ed China on it, but still better show and most car shows. But watching it last night just made my head slightly want to explode as there was soooo much wrong with all they did. So I wanted to share my opinions of what I saw as a new owner could easily watch that and be misguided.

1. They made too big of a deal about the "100k" service. It should be oil change, trans oil change, fuel filter, belt (unless you have a pulley do more often), air filter, and cabin filter.
Yes MINI says replace the 02 sensor, but wait till you actually need one they cost too much and the light will come on when they go bad. And if they do it's not life and death.

2. Changing the water pump. There is NO way the water pump comes out like they showed. You can get it out without removing the supercharger, but you have to go in with an 8mm and remove the bolts for the water pump flange and remove both parts together. Also if doing that replace the little water pump hose as your right there.
But really if you're going to pull the supercharger off with the water pump an hour later why would you do it by itself? WTF.

3 Fuel Filter replacement. Ok that was good except the one part at the end when he put the tank seal on the top half of the filter housing. You CAN NOT do it that way. The seal goes on the tank then you slide the housing back down in the tank.

4 changing the coil and wires. They didn't mention how bad the MSD coil they used fit and that it needed new bolts because the stock ones won't work. Nor did they show the terminals on the old one as they should have shown them corroded.

5 Thermostat Replacement? the one they removed was already aftermarket as it had the black gasket (factory would be white or clear color). There was no need to replace that unless it was actually leaking. Save your money.

6 Supercharger oil change. Good info there except the oil doesn't get "Used" you loose it through the seals as the supercharger is sealed. So the old rule of you don't use it you loose it applies.

7 Didn't point out the car had the 15% supercharger pulley on it and that it needed a proper belt.

8 Didn't point out the car had a Milltek exhaust, hence why it sounded so good.

9 Nothing wrong with aftermarket intakes, but they seemed to hate it.

10 Headliner how to was great. They should have pointed out that the pillar covers are made to break so you have to be very careful in removing them.

11 Shock/Strut info. Was very good info there. Wish they would have used higher quality parts than what they did though. We see that brand of mounts break all the time. But my guess is they are provided by their sponsors.

12 How were those seats so perfect? They looked perfect for 95k.

13 The VIN tag was missing on the door so I guess that car was wrecked on that side.

14 The MC40 stickers appeared to be wrong shade of red. FYI we offer them for those looking
https://www.waymotorworks.com/mc40-decal-set.html

15 Headlights. Those aftermarket don't work very well like the seller told him, but at the end of the episode they had put new stock 05-06 lights in which were wrong. Then they also said the new pair was only $500. That would only buy one of them.

I really feel they should have pointed out the real normal failures such as crank pulleys, front control arm bushings, oil pan gaskets, and power steering lines. Those are the real things they should have showed wrong with that car as we all know those are common.

Their cost break down at the end is hard to judge as I feel they didn't show what kind of parts they actually used, but know they were on the cheapo ones. And clearly NO profit if you really put 23hrs into it.

If you can get over $8000+ for that I'll build them all day as that is crazy money

Again I'm not trying to rag on the show, more just trying share more accurate info since I actually work on these cars daily and know the TV editing missed a lot.

 

You are probably correct on most of what you said. However it isn't a technical tutorial show on how to fix and rebuild each model car ever produced. That is for someone like you who specializes in MINIs. It is just a entertaining show to get the creative juices flowing for car enthusiasts or future mechanics and car owners.

I don't think they ever made a profit on a fix, not when you factor in labor. That really isn't the point.

Hold out your hand!

 

I agree, just could have been better had it focused more on "normal" MINI problems rather than taking off the water pump or replacing a thermostat that wasn't leaking.

 

It would have been nice if they'd replaced the expansion tank tho they may not be familiar with its habit of seam splitting and I guess they wanted to keep it looking stock as much as possible. Another nice add on would have been strut tower plates.
Judging by their reaction after all was said and done, all those stickers may very well have made it go faster.

 

Hey, thx for the review. I also watched the show last night. I agree, liked it better with Ed, Ant kinda comes off a bit of a suck up. I actually met Ed a couple of years ago when he and Mike were at the Barrettt/Jackson auto auction in Scottsdale. Nice guy, and he is indeed WAY tall.

One more thought, when I watch these car reality shows, I always cringe when I see these guys working under a car without safety glasses. My brother in-law lost an eye that way. He is an aircraft mechanic and his comment to me was, damn and I knew better.

 

I watched it too .... I thought it was really cool that they featured a MINI. That alone gets a lot of attention.

 

Just realized that the car from the show was listed here on NAM for sale
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...61-1000-a.html

 

I haven't watched Wheeler Dealers in a while. Too much Mike and too little Ed. I didn't know Ed was gone until my wife asked me if there was an Ant on the show that was dating some HGTV star.

I really appreciate your comments. They complete the show and gives me a much better understanding of my MINI.

The show always reports a profit on their flip, however, they never factor in the value of repair time, shipping costs and so on.

I am surprised by your comment that you would build them all day for the $8,000+ they got in the end. How would you have made it work with the purchase price, cost of parts and labor? I would bet that the price would be even higher from a quality shop with extensive MINI experience and would include either accurately bringing it back to stock or appropriately modified.

 

I saw the show and agree with the opinions presented here. It was cool to watch though.

I also thought the parts cost was real low and they never seem to add in labor costs, which I think would put them in the hole each time.

Learning from you guys, my 100k originally consisted of front end bushings, ball joints (while I'm in there doing bushings), fuel filter, Alta intake cleaning, cabin air filter, crank damper, front main seal, serpentine belt, coil, plugs and plug wires (red ones add more hp - )

Items added during the 100k service - oil pan gasket, oil filter housing gasket and left axle (rubber boot was split).

 

Yup, questioned that move as well. If there are no O2 related codes, leave it be. If you're going to randomly swap out working electrical parts just because you're at 100k miles, there's a very long, expensive list of candidates. And what about the upstream sensor that wasn't even mentioned?

Also didn't get why one would fiddle with wrestling the pump off and bolting a new one on, if the s/c was completely pulled at another time. I'm guessing this might not have been the plan to begin with...

 

I questioned the whole O2 thing as well - considering it's not a hot topic on here.

 

I don't know the real answer, but according to http://www.obdii.com/articles/Replac...intenance.html replacing before failure is not a bad thing.

 

I was thrilled to see an MC40 featured on the show. Thanks for putting a keen eye on the episode, very informative.

Wheeler Dealers, as a few have mentioned, will never stand up to a professional's scrutiny...but for a guy like me, with an MC40 just hanging out in the driveway unloved and rarely driven, this episode brought back great memories of replacing the water pump while servicing the SC, swapping out the dampeners w/o a spring compressor , the first time finding that jack point that gets both wheels in the air, etc., etc.

The old MC40 is getting a wash this weekend.

Maybe I'll actually register it in my new home state next week if work is slow. Maybe I'll replace the leaky AC evaporator ...or maybe I'll just spring for those WMW decals if I can figure out a way to get the baked on originals off of there...it could use the extra HP

 

I admit watching them do the headliner caused me to have PTSD form when I did mine ...

what a mess cleaning off the old adhesive.

Motor On!

 

I've renewed watching the show with Ant- I had pretty much stopped watching WD in the last season with Edd- it sure seemed to me he was tired of the whole routine, wasn't happy in California and was definitely on the outs with Discovery/Velocity Channel- not that I blame him, but he was ready to escape and the quality of the show suffered as a result. Ant's no Edd China, but he does seem a competent tech. I actually preferred him with Philip Glenister on For the Love of Cars, but WD seems a bit revitalized with him onboard. I couldn't care less if he's dating that girl from HGTV, that's his deal.
Anyway, thanks for the info correction.

 

I like Ant. Brewer is the only part of the show I don't like.


As for Edd..... He has his own new show on YOUTUBE you should check out.

 

Doing mine this weekend.