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JCW GarageInterested in John Cooper Works (JCW) parts for your 1st Generation MINI? This is where JCW upgrades and accessories for the Cooper (R50), Cabrio (R52), and Cooper S (R53) MINIs are discussed.
Hi Bryan,
I hope you were able to get out with it, for some seriously fun testing!
Let us know how it is doing!
Wayne.....actually, I have had the R52 "Mini from Hell" out the last couple days.......forum member Husky44 came over yesterday with his pretty blue '06 R53 for a visit. I had told him that my '04 R53 has the "one ball" exhaust mod along with the 15% Cravenspeed pulley on the car and he wanted to see the driving difference between his R53 and my R53.......I think he's convinced to get a 15% pulley for his car now after I let him drive mine
After we got back home from driving the hardtop, I took him for a ride in the R52 JCW car.......I think both my cars pull about equal......but more to the point is that the little convertible ran great....no hiccups, pulled good in all the RPM range.
So this morning I got up and pulled the car out of the garage, gave it a quick bath and wipe-down to stop the water spots on a black car......and the wife & I took about a 60 mile drive around the area.....top down, windbreaker installed and in the up position......combination freeway and around town driving......car ran great, no running issues at all......I'm pretty sure that my "runnability issue" is fixed by replacing that bad T-MAP sensor
It would be nice to possibly meet up with other MINI's in the area for a drive or meet up......but for now, we'll just enjoy the car while the weather is co-operating with us here in Seattle-Tacoma land
I'll concentrate on getting the other little things fixed on the car now.....one thing I did do the other day was install a clear back-up light and housing just above the exhaust and wire it up as another "third brake light" with a red bulb inside.....I also installed a "brake light pulser" module for the third light assembly so it flashes a bit when stepping on the brake......I'll try and get a video of the brake lights in action soon
I need to go back to the tire shop and have them balance the front tires again....still have a steering wheel shake at 50MPH
Bryan (It's been one year in getting this far.....feels good to get it back on the road again)
Wayne.....actually, I have had the R52 "Mini from Hell" out the last couple days.......forum member Husky44 came over yesterday with his pretty blue '06 R53 for a visit. I had told him that my '04 R53 has the "one ball" exhaust mod along with the 15% Cravenspeed pulley on the car and he wanted to see the driving difference between his R53 and my R53.......I think he's convinced to get a 15% pulley for his car now after I let him drive mine
After we got back home from driving the hardtop, I took him for a ride in the R52 JCW car.......I think both my cars pull about equal......but more to the point is that the little convertible ran great....no hiccups, pulled good in all the RPM range.
It would be nice to possibly meet up with other MINI's in the area for a drive or meet up......but for now, we'll just enjoy the car while the weather is co-operating with us here in Seattle-Tacoma land
Bryan (It's been one year in getting this far.....feels good to get it back on the road again)
It was a good day yesterday, and great to ride in the R52 running strong! I didn't think of it until I was half way home, but we should have taken a picture of our mini MINI meet up.
hope someone who knows the area better than me can put together a PNW Motoring day this summer to get us all out on some twisties.
Pulley and exhaust work are still on the list, but the MINI is taking a back seat to the Mustang for now. Although I keep thinking about driving to Gresham to see what kind of deal I could pull on that GP. 😮
It was a good day yesterday, and great to ride in the R52 running strong! I didn't think of it until I was half way home, but we should have taken a picture of our mini MINI meet up.
I also would have liked to get pics of all three together, and have both R52's side by side to compare the headlights....mine are what look like to be smoked headlights.....
I also remembered that pic's were not taken shortly after you had left my place..... we'll have to get together again, and remember the cameras this next time. I'm sure there's going to be more sunny weekends here for picture day
WELL CRAP!!!! Looks like I'm going to be in the market for another passenger side motor mount.......I've been just enjoying the car over the last few weeks up here since the weather has been decent. Not sure when this happened to the mount, I have not noticed anything different in the way it drives, rides, or handles.......but I'm pretty sure that fluid is not supposed to be on the outside of the mount and the frame......
Hmmmm.....sprung a leak....
On another note, remember the engine I took out of this car that had the excessive valve lash noise and the metal shavings in the pools of oil in the top of the head? I was looking at this engine today sitting on the garage floor, looks to me like this JCW head has been rebuilt. The intake valves are perfectly clean, all of them.....there is no sludge or dirt in the top of this head, and it looks like a brand new head gasket is on the engine as well.......the reason I got another engine for the car was all the metal shavings in this engine assembly.....I'm just not sure why all the valves has so much excessive lash on them.....looks like the rocker shafts are on correctly.....and the lash caps are on the lifters as well......wrong valves?? All of them?? I'm not tossing the engine or the head....I would just like to know why this head made so much noise while running....it was noisy, but it ran very smooth.....
Hi Bryan,
Yes, it is a common issue with that mount! I change them all the time! The solid rubber ones will last, but I don't like the vibrations that they transmit! I am not racing, so I want smooth!
Don't know why the valves have so much lash, on the old head. Maybe the rockers are all collapsed, or for a higher lift cam???
I have a mount coming from ECS....should be here late this week.....figure about an hour to swap it out.....
As far as the head issue goes....I think the lifters may all be collapsed....but I had this engine running after I got the EWS module fixed last year.....it had about an hour or more of running time on it before I pulled the valve cover and saw all the metal shavings in the oil pools up there. I would figure with that amount of running, the hydraulic lifters should have pumped up to take care of the valve lash issue.
Are there oil passages in the head blocked? Are the rocker shafts on backwards? I don't know.....but I kinda want to find out the answer to this issue I had with all the valve noise.....I do have the Bentley manual here now, maybe there will be a clue in there when I tear the cylinder head down for inspection. The good thing is when I do tear it down, I won't get all greasy and slimy from working on a dirty cylinder head....this thing is really clean....
My new engine mount arrived yesterday from ECS.......I'll try and get it installed next week sometime.....we are heading out of state Saturday morning.....taking the silver R53.....
Not much to report on the R52 JCW car......have had other things to do over the last few weeks......
One thing we did last Saturday was to take the silver R53 to central Oregon and pick up this female Corgi who was being re-homed from the only people and home she has ever known because she didn't get along with the new puppy that they got......people like that don't deserve pets.....
Anyway, she is 6-1/2 years old, her name is Duchess.....she's settling in fairly well.....she had a big spa day last Wednesday.....going to the Vet tomorrow for a quick once over......
Not a lot to report here, been enjoying the car when the weather has been nice.....I did finally score a set of stock rear taillights and bulb sockets for the car to replace these LED ones that came with the car. I need to order another set of LED bulbs like the ones I have in my R53 before installing these stock lenses. I'm only gonna do this once. Next on the list is to find a stock red third brake light for an R52 that is in good shape.
I don't like this white one on the car now....or maybe paint it red with some tint paint. or cover it with red plastic.....just kicking around some ideas
The only other thing is to take the inside mirror apart and see if there's an obvious reason why the remote system does not work, along with the garage door opener......
Bryan (and yes, I put a clear lens and socket just above the exhaust....I will explain about that some other time)
Hi Bryan,
I am glad to see you are getting to enjoy your vert!
It is looking pretty good, but I don't like the tail lights either!
Kinda like the stock ones!
Got the stock tail lights installed, I also installed LED bulbs, they didn't work out like the same bulbs in my R53...... so I went with just stock bulbs. I did put LED bulbs in the backup sockets.... I will try to get a better picture of the backup bulb
I was curious about this cars past.....so I did a little checking.....car was originally sold in Colorado back in late 2006...car was made 9-13-2006....it made it's way to Oregon, and was totaled back in 2010.....after that it wound up here in Washington State and the salvaged title didn't get transferred over when it arrived in Washington.....so basically the "salvage" part of the title got washed.....it doesn't say anything on my title to the car about salvage.....
I have been all over this car the past year....I sure don't see any accident damage anywhere.....and if I decide to sell the car, I will have to be upfront with the buyer about the washed title....
Wayne, the little LED reverse lights are pretty bright at night.....I'll try to get a picture soon for ya
Been enjoying the car when the weather permits....took the car out the other day to take the new dog out for her walk....just as we got to the park...the rain came down.....after her walk, we got back into the car and headed home.....I turned on the heater to defog the front windshield....also turned on the rear window defogger grid as well.
So, after a little bit of driving, I noticed that the rear window was still kinda foggy.....yet my little light was on in the heater controls.....I got home and checked the fuse, it was good....I then looked at the defroster grid in the rear glass....looks like something or someone has damaged all but one of the grid lines in the glass....right in the center they are broken....
I am not going to replace the glass....I have not checked on the price of one, but I'm sure it's more than I want to pay, and then I have to have it installed.
I turned on the rear defogger again and had my infrared temp gun....I checked all the little grid lines and only one gets hot....all the others are dead.....
Thinking of trying that rear window grid line repair product....problem is that this car is a convertible....getting to the broken lines back there is not going to be easy.....I might just pull the rear roll bar assembly out to do this repair....if it doesn't work, no biggie...it's not like we are going to be driving the car in the winter time anyway....I just like everything to work on my cars as intended.....
I still have not pulled the interior rear view mirror to inspect the circuit board yet either....
Glad to hear it's running well, and you are getting to enjoy it!
I thought about you last week. I took Wednesday off as a therapy day-which means I went for a drive. Went north through Issaquah up to Monroe, then took 2 through Stevens Pass to Ellensburg, then took Canyon Road through Yakima Canyon, came back over 12 to 410 and home. I was a little disappointed in Highway 2. Lots of folks talked it up, but it didn't get really fun until east of the Pass (it was fun, but less twisty, so "fun" was made at much higher speeds). Coming out of Leavenworth was good twisty fun. Canyon road was the best! Scenery is probably awesome, but I was focused on the driving part. Highly recommend radar detection. 😉
Anyway, I hit Auburn at rush hour, and wound up going right by your house.
It was a great day, and I highly recommend the route if you are looking for an exhilarating driving day. 😁😇
The little R52 JCW is back in the large garage for the winter. Momma wanted her house garage parking spot back for her car.
I took the inside rear view mirror apart to see if I could find any corrosion or broken items inside it for my key fob and garage door opener not working... everything looked good, doesn't mean that there's a faulty electrical component inside thats bad. The auto dimming feature works on the mirror, nothing else does.
Now for maybe a bit of good news.... I found a BMW-MINI computer program that has everything I need to do my Chrono PAC swap into my car to replace the factory NAV system in it now. The CD program is coming from Germany, and I had to get the proper connection cable from overseas as well. The nice thing about the CD program is the guy I bought it from has family here close to where I live. He's going to be visiting his family in November... I'm going to try and see if he can come help me with the "Operation Chrono PAC" swapover....
Not much else to report, car still running great... I did find out that if the convertible top and windows are down, I can close up the car by just using the key in the door lock without the engine running. I just can't open the windows and top with just the key.
My Daytona trip to Alabama got cancelled... car is still in pieces all over the garage, plus a couple financial setbacks we had earlier this year took some of that money as well.
That's all for now, except I have to find a set of wheel to hub ring spacers for the R52.... using just the 4 lug bolts by themselves doesn't center the wheel to the hub...
The little R52 JCW is back in the large garage for the winter. Momma wanted her house garage parking spot back for her car.
I took the inside rear view mirror apart to see if I could find any corrosion or broken items inside it for my key fob and garage door opener not working... everything looked good, doesn't mean that there's a faulty electrical component inside thats bad. The auto dimming feature works on the mirror, nothing else does.
Now for maybe a bit of good news.... I found a BMW-MINI computer program that has everything I need to do my Chrono PAC swap into my car to replace the factory NAV system in it now. The CD program is coming from Germany, and I had to get the proper connection cable from overseas as well. The nice thing about the CD program is the guy I bought it from has family here close to where I live. He's going to be visiting his family in November... I'm going to try and see if he can come help me with the "Operation Chrono PAC" swapover....
Not much else to report, car still running great... I did find out that if the convertible top and windows are down, I can close up the car by just using the key in the door lock without the engine running. I just can't open the windows and top with just the key.
My Daytona trip to Alabama got cancelled... car is still in pieces all over the garage, plus a couple financial setbacks we had earlier this year took some of that money as well.
That's all for now, except I have to find a set of wheel to hub ring spacers for the R52.... using just the 4 lug bolts by themselves doesn't center the wheel to the hub...
Bryan
I hate that it's that time of year, but it looks like summer driving is coming to an end.
I'm hoping the chrono swap works, although I'm possibly going a different route to make use of my Nav space.
I'm thinking I will try the Bluetooth OBDII scanner connected to an Android phone to display some virtual gauges.
But if you get the chrono swap working, I will definitely be interested in a backup plan!
I got the CD BMW-MINI program in the mail yesterday to get into the coding of the car and modules.....I'm waiting on the cable set from overseas to arrive. Then I will play with the Chrono Pack and see if I can get it all to work in place of the NAV system that's in the car now
Hi Bryan,
Keep us posted on your mod on the nav system! I hope it is happy and if you are putting it away for the winter, it will give you plenty of time to get it ready for next vert season!
Is the hatch ready for the winter, or is it going to winter inside?
06-30-2019, 02:18 PM
