Well, I have no idea how to start this out, so here goes...
First bought my Coopah in late April. 2003, Indi Blue, St. Andrews Roof Flag, 62k miles (currently), Sport Package, cloth seats, no luxuries at all, not even cruise control... except for the odd option of Auto Climate Control... Drove it from Raliegh, NC to my hometown of Morganton, and have made its new home. Not as glamorous as the previous home, but it is with a family that will maintain it more than the previous, and not take it to the local Jippy Lube (Yes I know I spelled it wrong, it's intentional...). I could not drive a manual at first, and it being a 6-speed, I needed to learn. Got the hang of it within an hour in our church parking lot, and even drove to wal-mart and back with only one stall.

I work at a car wash, and a week after I had got the MINI, the guy who normally does the interiors, was sick, so my dad (who also works there) and I pulled the Coopah in the interior bay, and just started checking it out, and looking it over in more detail. Well, dad popped the air filter open, and lo and behold... it was the original filter... or at least an OEM one that hadn't been replaced in a long long time... It was so bad, some of the crevices looked like someone had put some dark chocolate fudge in them... Went up to Advance Auto Parts, since they are literally next door, and ordered a new one, luckily it got there by 4:30 that afternoon. You know she's breathing better now ! Now, it didn't take long for me to start finding other stuff, the cabin filter for instance, looked like a clothes dryer filter after you've done 2 or 3 loads... got that replaced the next day. Did some searching and question asking on here, and soon enough (about two weeks after the air filter incident) I had the whole front end off doing maintenance work. After a week and a half of cleaning the intercooler, the IC ducts, the throttle body and bypass valve, changing the oil, the oil filter, the supercharger oil and serpentine belt, draining, partially flushing, and replacing the coolant, replacing the coolant expansion tank, installing the power steering fan duct kit, and modding the dipstick; the Coopah is back on its feet and running great! Even took it on its first long-ish interstate ride in a while the other day, and it performed wonderfully! Just yesterday, I found out I needed a new battery, the drivers side door unlocked... but that's all the juice the battery had left... not even enough power to unlock the gas lid (thankfully). In fact, the battery was so bad, I could charge it for a few hours, get it up to a full charge, and then not even half an hour later, it's completely dead! So I am happy to say, that I got it back on its feet today! I still have to replace the fuel filter, but that's for another time.

My problems have been minimal, the occasional annoyance, or fear that something bad has happened. One instance being that I was driving from work in the rain, and it was a pretty hot and humid day. As I made my way home, I was burning up in the MINI, but with it raining, I couldn't lower the windows, so I switched on the AC, it wasn't until 15 or 20 minutes later, while waiting to turn onto my home's adjoining road, that I had a very noticeable drop in power. Normally, with the way I drive a manual for now, the rpms would drop from right around 1500 to around 1000 when I started letting out the clutch to go, but this time was different. It was like it didn't want to move at all, no matter how much throttle I gave it, it dropped to around 600-700 and started to bog down. I'm surprised that I didn't kill it that time... Normally, I would figure some things out quickly, but this still confuses me. If it didn't do this while I had the AC on for the previous 15 minutes while I'm going through traffic, why would it do it now, when its at optimal operating temperature? I haven't had the AC on since, so I will have to test for it again sometime...

The second thing is that I had let it sit in my grandparents basement for around 25 hours, because of the weather channel issuing possible hail for that night. Well, the next day, when it was going to be clear, for a few days at least, I started up their road to go home, when I got a strange noise right around 3k rpm... It sounded like some sort of rattling, but happened only around 2.9k and 3k. So I creeped my way home (which isn't far, and not enough to make the engine heat up a lot, maybe by 30 or 40 degrees (yeah, that close)), staying under 2500... When I got home, I parked and revved it up a bit, but no sound at all. Raised the hood, opened all the doors, still no sound... The next day, which was my planned interstate trip/burn in for the maintenance, it had no sound at all, even at load in gear... Still makes me wonder what it could have been...

I may have had some problems, mainly spending money on stuff I thought would be fine for at least a while, but I am glad that it is now taken care of, and that I don't have to worry about it for a long time. I believe I made a good purchase for my 3rd car, one that will surely last me a while and be an absolute joy to drive every day.

Current mods:
-Dipstick mod
-Rear seat delete, minus the cover over the seat wells

Mods to come:
-CAI
-Very Special Custom Exhaust
-Wheel size downgrade (Currently on 17's, 16's for better acceleration)
-Custom W2AIC (Water to Air InterCooler) - heck, if it works well, and can be made for less than the current ones available, I might see about getting some more made for you guys who want them without the steep $1600 and up price tag!

Thanks for reading, I will post up pics of it soon

By the way, if you guys know of any good names I should name it, be it a guy or girl, lemme know.

 

What's the dipstick mod?

 

Keep us updated if you have the same problem again in the RPMs, I am curious as to what others may think it is.

Also, CHANGE THE FUEL FILTER! There is a great DIY on here, just search for "fuel filter change", you will have to order one online. Our filters are under the rear seat (you are one step again) within the gas tank. When I took mine out when the car had 81,000 (when I bought it) it was black.

And in regards for the name, it will come to you, just give it time. Gizmo is my R53

 

The Dipstick mod, is basically what it says, a modified dipstick. On the regular Cooper's, the dipstick is like any other car's, a small metal blade. But, on the R53's, because of the added supercharger, the dipstick tube needed to make a lot of turns, which is why the dipstick for the r53's is made of (what looks like to me anyways) fiberglass, with a string center. This makes it much easier to get around the bends, however it produces a problem. Over time, the dipstick will age and degrade, which will eventually lead to it breaking in the dipstick tube. The "mod" is basically replacing the fiberglass stick with a metal blade. Instructions are here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...n-mcs-jcw.html

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I can say it works good. Takes a bit more effort to get it in the tube all the way, but if I don't have to worry about it breaking... I can live with that.

I'll take a pic of it today, as well as some of the MINI.

John, don't worry, I'm going to change it soon, not like I'm going to wait another month or more to do it, just haven't got around to ordering the new filter yet.