My 2005 MCSc was parked outside through the winter for a period of time, and when I looked under the bonnet, it became apparent that some local critters/rodents had decided to make my engine bay their home.

Fortunately, I had installed some plastic wire loom over most of the wires. Many of these had been chewed in spots, but the wire underneath was safe. However, the covering of one of my ignition wires was a victim
I secured it with black electrician's tape for a temporary fix:




But, you needn't have rodents gnawing on wires to do this. Some feel that an upgrade in ignition wires will improve the performance of the car, and some others even claim to feel a small, but noticeable difference in their car's "zip". I can logically make a case for the first claim, but cannot vote for the second, based upon my experience!


WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1) A set of new ignition wires, appropriate for your car. There are many
postings about which brand to replace the stock wires with. I had read
online about Kingsborne ignition wires, and went to their website
http://www.kingsbornewires.com/. Item #12-7000 were the ones
suggested for the Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper S from 2002 - on. I
chose the 8 mm sized wires in red. The 7 mm cost $35, and upgrading
to the 8 mm size was only 5 dollars more. They arrived very quickly!




2) Some dielectric grease. The Kingsborne wires came with a small
packet of this in the bag (at the top of the photo below), but in
anticipation of this project, I had already bought a little packet at the
autoparts store for about $1.50.




3) Something to smear the grease around the inside of the spark plug
boot - I used the tip of a screwdriver - carefully!





STEP ONE:

Locate the ignition wires. Pretty easy to do, there are four of them (one for each engine cylinder - and run from the ignition coil to the spark plugs:





The directions on the Kingsborne wires say to replace the wires in order of longest to shortest. So, looking at the wires going to the ignition coil in the photo above, that would mean in this order: "4 - 3 - 1 - 2".
You want to be sure that you replace the wires one-by-one, so that the wrong wire is not attached to the ignition coil - this could cause the engine to misfire Kingsborne labels the wires with their number, which helps to minimize the likelihood of this occurring




To remove the wire and boot, simply pull up on the round rubber piece. It may take some doing, but just work the rubber loose and pull up. Pull the other end of the wire off of its attachment to the ignition coil - again, it just pulls off, don't be afraid or frightened off by the "high voltage" sticker. When you pull up on the rubber, you will see that it is part of a long rubber boot:




If you looked down into the hole to the cylinder, you would see the top part of the spark plug. There is an electrical connection inside the bottom of the rubber boot, which connects to the top of the spark plug. This allows the ignition coil to send electrical energy to the spark plug, to ignite the combustion process inside the engine cylinder.


STEP TWO:

Take the replacement wire in hand and using an implement of your choice, spread a thin film of the dielectric grease around the inside of the bottom of the rubber boot:





STEP THREE:

Insert the new tube into the hole, and twist it a bit back and forth to spread the grease evenly around. Simply push down firmly until the rubber top clicks into place. Push the other end of the wire on to the corresponding connector on the ignition coil - press is on hard, until you feel a definitive click.


Afterwards, it will look something like this:





So, total cost was less than $50, and it took about 15 minutes to do!

 

Is that mesh on your intercooler?