How long after yall bought your mini did yall start putting engine mods into it.. i dont even have my car yet and im wondering if i should start ordering a 17% pulley and alta cai..

 

You might want to do some more research before you order parts. The pulley mod went out with the 2006 MY and your 2011 will have a turbo ('07+). Maybe get through the break-in period and then begin to mod. I vote Accessport.

 

As mentioned above, you have a turbo and not a supercharger. If you want to increase your boost, the safest way to go is with a tune like accessport. The program itself will manage your boost levels. As far as when you should start modifying, I would break your car in first since it's brand new and let any issues surface and warrantied first. Remember that modifications can void your warranty. Good luck! I've been bitten by the mod bug too.

 

As other said, pulleys are for superchargers... but I wanted to add that you should drive your car first. Then, see what you want to change about it. Don't get ahead of yourself and go crazy with mods before you see what it can do at stock level. You should modify your car to meet a purpose.

I know many people that have done several things at once and then wished they had taken it one step at a time and gotten to know how the car felt before and with each change.

And make sure to research these changes fully. Know what it will do to your warranty, what problems it can cause, how things work and fit together, etc. For instance a sway bar could cause the stock end links to be stressed and break after a while. Changing certain things can void warranties. Some things will eventually have to be replaced anyway (brakes, rotors, tires, etc) so consider lowering their priority based on your budget and desires. Some times a CAI could cause MAF issues. There is a lot to consider when choosing your modifications.

 

This is great advise. Awesome to see people encouraging responsibility in modding. Another thing to keep in mind is the tuner rule #1 fast, cheap, reliable....pick two. I can't count the number of times we'd get some kid out at an autox event that brought out some car he'd thrown parts at in an effort to make it faster (some looked better than others) only to be beaten down by someone in the same class with fewer mods. The two most effective mods you can give a car are the better driver mod and stickier tires, in that order.

 

x2

Pick a goal first, then mod to achieve it.

 

learn to drive the car first then spend money

 

Achilles honor, your never gonna make it. How many more weeks/months left??

And when you do finally get your car, take pictures! also where in Virginia to u live. i go to Arlington every month or so..


And like mentioned above, 2002-2006(R53) S models have a Supecharger, supercharger is driven by a Supercharger pulley, which many of us R53 owners do a pulley reduction to make the supercharger spin fast=more boost

2007- have turbochargers, completely different mods that you do to them... I would recommend that you drive the car, trust me you will love it. Then decide if you even want to do anything, the stock car is one little beast. Also you will have warranty so be careful what you do to it, might void it. I would say do some suspension mods, rear sway bar, etc.

 

All of them are right, Drive it first. I did order an intake before the car got to me, but an intake is something so small it wont matter that much till you get a tune. I slowly added parts to mine, Start one part at a time if you don't like something, you need to be able to drive a slow car fast before you can drive a fast car fast safely!!!

 

Sry everyone i ment accesport. i was just talking to everyone in the gen1 thread and had pulleys on my mind.. but damn fml i suck at waiting already have my gominigo no holes kit.. ive literally rented forza motorsports 3 just to mod up a mini and race it lol fml

 

i live in Fairfax, VA i go to arlington all the time too

 

Grats on the Mini! The attached pic would be my first engine mod. I had to do something about the stock lower engine mount right away. I also did not like the feel of the stock brakes and replaced the front pads within 5k miles.

-my 0.02

 

wut did you not like bout them? and i decided my first mod is deff going to be accessport.. that is a magical device its like jailbreaking a iphone, it opens your car up to endless possibilities

 

nvm it doesnt work for 2011's

 

Epic fail! haha, its ok I am sure they will figure out the 11 soon enough.

 

lol but u gotta admit.. wut i said should be an advertisement for alta i should get paid

 

Well my dealer doesn't know anything so I'll ask here. As long as I have the dealership put on mini parts or upgrade parts to JCW parts, it will factor that into the value of my car and not void warrinties, right? I have the extended warranty and I want to add the JCW cai with a k&n filter in there. And an aero kit eventually. But I never thought of it a's how Romille put it. That makes alot of sense. Thanks bud. Also, anyone out there have a 2011 with xenons with black housing that wants to trade for normal housing ones?

 

My MCS came almost with every JCW upgrade available and has no warranty issues. As long as the parts are installed at the port or by your MINI dealer then your warranty will still be valid.