Hi guys, I see a wrecked 04 cooper S(back end damage) for sale less than it would take me to trade in my justa for a base Cooper S. Buuuut my justa has almost every option.. I don't mind DiY and taking my time, but is an engine and tranny swap feasible?

particularly:
What is direct swap and what wouldn't be?
for instance, just in case the ECU is damaged in the wrecked one, would my stock one work? etc?

just looking for things people know of top.

Thanks

 

While i was breifly looking into this i think i read that you have to use the ECU out of the S and lots of other things, even the door handles becuase you have to change the ignition out and have to use the cooper S key (unless you are ok carrying two keys around). I didn't find a whole lot on the subject, but I stopped looked becuase it wasn't affordable at the moment.

It would be quite a project. Lots of folks are doing 6 speed swaps already, so I can't imagine this would be impossible, especially if you have a good doner car with good parts.

Let us know how the swap goes if you do it. I'd love to have more power in my cooper but I don't want to trade it because I've already done so much to it. I was thinking if the Midlands goes out on me that a 6 speed goes in and the motor either gets built or a S motor is swaped in with the gear box out of a doner wrecked S.

 

You definitely need the ECU. It seems like if you had a full doner S car, it would be possible. And maybe not too difficult. If you want to keep the R50 hood you would need a front mount intercooler though. I'm no mechanic though.

If you can afford the wrecked S, I think you should do it so we can all finally see this done. And it would be bad a$$.

 

If you changed the computer(s), you could probably just swap out the internals of the key and leave the actual metal "key" part alone so you wouldn't have to change the door locks. I'm sure it would be easier.

Also, if you changed the computer, you'd have to get it reprogrammed with all your options if the S didn't come with them. That may or may not be possible, I don't know. For example, holding the unlock opens the sunroof - did the S come with a sunroof? What about DSC? etc.