Hi all,

I don't come on much unless i am having issues with the car which is far too often but many of the local long island mini guys are familiar with the obnoxiously loud laser blue mcs from the MTTP and minis hunt the hamptons meets. Anyway the car is my girlfriends, so is the screen name even though i usually use it, she has had the car from 17k miles and it now has 75,000 and counting.

It has been through various incarnations, at 25k the modding began with UNIchip (worst idea ever, will elaborate later) HKS SSQV (actually a 50 dollar chinese knock off) and OBX DP.JCW Exhaust, H&R Springs and BBS RS wheels followed shortly after.

After a year or two of annoying CEL's and electrical gremlins ALTA released Accessport and all was well or so we thought. Had a couple lingering codes which turned out to be the DME, the unichip plugs had a crack that allowed water in and rotted out two pins. Sent the dme out and had the pins replaced but unfortunately it shorted the CY220? chip and still threw codes. Drove it this way for a year until inspection time came and it just sat.

Ordered a matching DMW, CAS unit and key from a scrap yard and installed it. As it turned out if was for an automatic and the car wouldn't start. Waste of time. Dealer was only option at that point. 1800 dollars later it ran but things were dying, turbo was going etc

Bought a 135i, started to only use the mini for bad weather and driving my bike to the trail. It wasn't a happy life.

Then in april i decided to fix things up a bit. Ordered new wheels, sent out the turbo to get rebuilt and have a larger housing and larger compressor wheel installed. Ordered a riss dp and CNT exhaust to get rid of the old loud one (OBX catless dp w 2nd cat delete and jcw rear section)



Also the factory stereo had to go. Having quite a few dozen stereo installs under my belt and being a cheapo i chose to forgo the plug and play or "system in a box" type setup that a lot of forum members. I used the following:

Soundstream PN4.520d Amplifier (4x100 @ 4ohms)
MB Quart PVI 216 Component Set
CDT CL-69SUB 6x9 "subwoofers" (more like midbass)
Cheapo LOC
Knukonceptz wire
Stinger Roadkill sound deadening

Total cost was under 550 with the sound deadning. Did a decent amount in the rear hatch to reduce drone

Also quite a bit behind the rear speakers

Floorpans

and as much as i could get in the fronts, the doors are a bit of a PITA to apply the dynamat to. The mids required dremeling out the factory holes a little bit but came together nicely. The tweeter needed a bracket made to fit in the oem location. After careful consideration i gutted the factory 4" mids, threw them in a vice with the plate behind the magnet against the edges and used a 1/2" socket to knock the magnets out. The tweeters mounted in here perfectly with the included hardware. It's a really easy DIY tweeter mount for a stealth install, although not the most ideal placement


More to follow when i upload the pics to an external host

 

Sounds and looks like a very nice MINI. I love the color.