I have been out of town for the last five months and I had someone setup to start my Cooper S every month or so but that fell through so consequently it has been sitting in my garage for the last five months . When I return home I will flush the radiator, oil and brake fluid. Is there any other matenance I should performe and/or any other concerns I should have?

 

It'll be OK. Check the tire pressure (unless you had it on jacks, which is not necessarily a normal practice for Minis) and, of course, make sure the battery works. Might want to check the power steering fluids too.

My then-SO-now-husband was supposed to crank mine while I was gone for a year, and neglected to do so...the battery was SO utterly dead, even the auto service couldn't save it. And, to make it worse, the hatch door wouldn't open...which was where the battery was located. So I had to crawl (did I mention it was PITCH BLACK OUTSIDE at the time??! ) through the seats and wrestle the battery out of the vehicle. Paid 94 Euro for a new BMW battery (nothing but the best for the baby) and made the SO pay for it.

 

be mindfull of slightly flat spotted tires and brake noise from surface rust on the rotors. my other car gets both if I let it sit for more than a month.

 

^^^ I did the same thing when I was installing my CAI. The boot door was shut without the battery connected!

 

haha same here!

i was thinking "there has got to a way around this!"
but I ended up crawling through front/rear seats

 

I haven't bothered to check on my current MINI, but the battery was also DEEP in the back...they had screws in it that were almost a foot long! AND it was heavy = harder to lift out of the well when you're contorted through the seats AND can't see anything... I was cussing my SO out (he wasn't there, which is why he's alive today) SO much and SO loud, my poor German landlady came out to see if I was oK.

 

May or may not help but many recommend a few drops of oil in each cylinder to lube up the piston rings after sitting for so long.

Pulling out the plugs and turning it over a few times before trying to start to build up some oil pressure can also be beneficial, and is what engine builders do before starting a newly built engine for the first time.

 

I suppose none of you knew about the emergency release cable under the back seat.

 

Ah yes, I found that when I removed the back seats all together from my baby. Needed room for the new audio system.

 

Nope...didn't know about it until I got back to the US and found this website. Under "things you didn't know about your Mini" thread....

 

After sitting for 5 months, you might want to check the air-box/filter for critters....

 

So, as far as anyone has stated or not stated there is no need to be concerned about seals or anything else going bad or causing future damage?

 

There may be a little temporary oil loss (drips and dribbles) on the front and/or real crankshaft seals where the crank pressed down against them. 5 months is fairly long, but the material used in the seals should recover after a little driving warms and lubes them up.
Check the serp belt for drying and cracking -it may have taken a "set" over the pulleys and cause some noise at first. The battery will definetely be toast. Lead-acid hates to sit unused.
A teaspoon of oil per cylinder -Marvel Mystery oil works well- in each cylinder (let it sit for a few minutes to help free up possible stuck rings), then crank the engine without the sparkplugs installed for 4 or 5 seconds to get some upper end lube in the cylinders and allow the oil pump to pressurize the system for the bearings (the engine will spin faster without the plugs, and there won't be as much load on the dry bearings). The best possible scenario would be to run the oil pump before starting the car, but I'm not certain how it can be done on the Mini. Maybe a real Mini technician could jump in on this.
Then get that thang on the road and let it free!

 

My '02 MCS sat at a dealer on their showroom floor for 6 months and needed to have 4 engine seals ( valve cover, oil pan gasket, timing cover and crank seal) replaced after I bought it. Not the greatest initial impression.

 

With the exception of the timing cover gasket all of those like to fail by themselves anyway. My 05 needs a new valve cover gasket and already had the oil pan gasket replaced.

 

For future reference, the MINI hatch can be manually opened by lifting up the back seat bench and pulling the wire cord.

 

Why would you flush the coolant after 5 months? Just change the oil, go get a fresh tank of gas and drive it. It probably sat on the dealer lot for longer than that before anyone bought it.

 

Yup. Agree with that. The coolant shouldn't be a problem (pretty much a sealed system), but gas and oil break down, and moisture collects in tank and block.

 

FIVE months...
I'd be writing longing love letters to my MINI every other day. Five months!

 

My Mini sits in a garage all winter long. Generally for 4 or 5 months. I disconnect the battery, put some stabilizer in the gaz tank, don't put the handbrake, put the transmission in first gear, put blocks in front and behind the tires.

When I go take it that the spring, put some octane booster in the gaz tank, change the engine oil, check the fluids level, plug the battery. It cranks and starts like a charm every years since sprint 2005.