Hey all -

I just registered as I hope to soon be a proud Mini Cooper R53 owner... Ok, my wife will be but I get to work on it!! I've owned many German cars and have the tools and skills to do most jobs without taking it to the shop.

I wanted to get some advice and things to kind of watch out for. I've read a lot of the other threads that talk about power steering pumps, water pump, coolant reservoir but I was wondering if there was anything else I should look out for?

Right now I have my sight set on a 2004 Cooper S, 6spd manual, 125k, one owner. It's in really exceptional shape for the year, no accidents and appears to have been very well maintained. The interior smelled new, all the buttons were there, all windows/sunroof worked perfectly. Under the hood looked like you'd expect a 10 year old cars to look. I inspected under the car and saw no leaks. The car drove very well - no clunks or thuds, the alignment was spot on and steering was tight. It didn't have any dash lights illuminated, clutch engaged at a normal (middleish) point, gearbox had very little play and felt very solid, started right up from cold and idled/ran perfectly.

The only minor concern I had was that the car seemed noticeably slower than an 05 I'd previously driven - not like a ridiculous difference but just noticeable. I know the 05's have a shorter gearbox and a few horses more - and that's supposed to really make a difference - but I just wanted to make sure and get any opinions/advice anyone has to offer.

Thanks to all!

 

Any chance you can get the maintenance records? That's what I'd want to see on a 10 yr old mini with 125k on the clock. With the VIN, stop by a mini dealer and you can get the service and repair history for anything that was done by a dealer..

 

Great advice. I'll do that, thanks!

 

Is there any chance the 05 had a pulley and/or additional performance upgrades? That could account for anywhere between +5 to +25hp and you may not even be able to see the changes by eye (pulleys are hard to see, injectors and tunes are even more difficult to distinguish)

 

The reason it would "feel" faster than the 04 is because of the different gearing in the facelift transmission. Shorter gears means faster feels. And you really can feel a difference

 

Judging by the way the 05 I drove was maintained, I highly doubt it was modded at all. It just didn't appear to have been well taken care of and, in my experience, those owners don't put money into modding and have a tenuous grasp of vehicle ownership in general.

That's exactly what I was looking for. The 04 I drove wasn't 'slow' by any means, but it just lacked a bit of that pep that the 05 had. I just wanted some peace of mind in knowing that the slightly less pickup wasn't anything wrong but, rather, just a model difference. That said, I've got my eye on one of the 19% SC Pulleys which should make a huge difference. Figure I may as well take the front end off, change the SC oil, water pump, thermostat housing and do the pulley while I'm there. For $160 (pulley and belt) I can't imagine a better use of money to increase overall power.

I'm going to pull records from the dealership today and, if all goes well, should have it in my possession by this evening. Thanks, all!

 

I just got off the phone with the dealership and, while it doesn't look like they took the car in for every little thing, it does look like the PO took for some things. @ 56k the power steering pump was replaced, oil changes pretty regularly (although the owner could have done them themselves), the usual brakes and rotors, battery was replaced in 11/13.

I'd say that gives me a green light… I think I'm going to do it

 

i would opt for 17% max. at that mileage, even if you do change the s/c oil, anyyhing more is going to put quite a bit of strain on it. theres also a very fine line between extra boost/heat soak at that level.

the fact that you can service this yourself is going to make life much easier and you will save a LOT of money. that is one of the only reasons i picked up my 03 S.

what i learned the hard way is, just make sure you set goals on what you want the car to be, since everything is connected. you want a pulley, well more boost will require a little more air/fuel and possibly lower heat range spark, so then youre looking at intakes, fuel injectors, and spark plugs. so, just be sure ahead of time what youre getting into.

for a nice mild-medium setup, as far as power goes, i would suggest:

15%-17% pulley,
1 range colder spark plugs,
your choice of air intake (stock is decent, but not the best. it can be modified through a few "how to" threads on here to be much better while cheaper than buying the over priced aftermarkets.)
jcw380cc fuel injectors

if you dont have backseat passengers, you can remove the backs of the rear seats. (you can remove the bottom too but its not really worth it) thatl drop some weight. free and easy.

if you dont mind a little louder, you can do whats called the 1 ball mod on the exhaust. cheap and easy. makes a nicer tone.

also check lead #3 on your coil pack. they are known to blemish.

unfortunately since these cars have an electronic throttle, a custom tune will be your best bet as feeling a daily driven difference. i had mine tuned by Jan from RMW and it was night and day what he did. i would not get a tune til you are positively done with upgrades though.

anyway, sorry for the lengthy reply. in the past 2 years, ive obtained a wealth of knowledge and spent a little over $7k on upgrades, all which were done myself. if you ever have any questions, everyone here is very helpful. feel free to ask.

and before i forget! get those RFT's off your wheels if theyre not already. the average weight of a regular tire in thats size is 22lbs. if i remember correctly, the rft's are almost double that. losing 80lbs of rock solid rotational mass is guna make you a much happier driver. go with your choice of tire, in size 215/45r17 rather the the 205/45.

ok i promise im done now. good luck.

 

No apologies necessary - that's just the type of reply I was hoping for, thank you!

Fantastic advice! I'll probably stick with a smaller pulley as you suggested and I think I'm going to also drop in one of those PiperCross filters. I put one on my Audi S4 (V8) and while I didn't notice a ton of throttle improvement/increased power on that car (stock airbox is actually quite sufficient) I did notice a bit more grunt and growl. Would dropping in an aftermarket filter in the stock airbox be OK? I'm not a huge fan of CAI's…

I'll probably replace the coil pack and plug wires - just typical maintenance stuff. I think I can pick those two up on ECS for a pretty decent price. So I currently have the Audi S4 and a '01 330i - do Mini owners suggest buying OEM or do the aftermarket products work OK? I do a mix on my other cars and haven't run into any issues but an curious to see what other owners do. For example, ECS has the OEM Mini coil pack for $108 but the BERU coil is $54. Plug wires are similar - Bosh is about half the price of OEM.

Thanks again for the reply!

 

the open air box will give you the most sound, but its perfectly fine to use an aftermarket panel filter if thats what you prefer.

as far as oem vs aftermarket, it depends on the part. most maintainence items like p/s pump, water pump, fuel filter, oil filter, belt tensioner assembly, things like that... oem is usually the way to go. anything suspension related like struts, rear lower control arms, bushings, wheels, tires... or performance related, i would suggest aftermarket.

so its kind of a toss up. just make sure you do a little research before ordering and you wil be fine.

i think most people would agree, but i dont want to claim to be an expert and be incorrect haha. again that kinda depends on your personal preference. my car is only driven in the summer, so it only sees about 8k miles a year at most. in this aspect, im ok with buying parts that will give me more power and handling, at the expensive life expectancy and ride quality.

 

Cool, thanks for the info! That's about what I've been following on my other cars and haven't run into too many issues.

I just got another call back from the Mini Dealership at which it was maintained and this car has had everything done:

54k New Power Steering Pump
55k New Transmission (1st gear synchro went bad)
63k Right Front Strut Mount
78k Oil Pan Gasket
78k New Pads/Rotors on all 4
95k Motor Mounts Replaced
108k Front Pads, Valve Cover Gasket, Headlight Bulbs
118k Replaced Broken Exhaust Mount
124k Rear Pads/Rotors

I'm very pleased and can't wait to take possession of it

 

sounds like a good find! with a few updates, keep an eye on the belt tensioner

17% pulley will make a night and day difference for you. colder plugs definently to go with that.

the one ball doesnt just make more noise, it also drops about 20-30 lbs. i put the magnaflow cat back exhaust on, and it was considerbly lighter than the stock catback, throttle response improved with my pants dyno.

as for the CAI, they dont help much performace wise, they are basically an accoustic mod. the stock air box with stock exhuast gives you a tid bit of SC noise, personally i love the sound of SC's. the CAI does not muffle this noise at all, and makes the SC scream right into the fire wall! the sound is intoxicating. i did it for that reason, and to have a washable filter.

also keep an eye on the motor mounts if it is OEM, they dont last very long, and youll notice that oil will drip all over the subframe

 

So here she is! Decided to pull the trigger, picked her up at lunch. I'm very pleased. The 40 mile trip back home went without a hitch. Car drives very well but does need a few things. On my way back I noticed the right front headlight isn't lighting up (Xenon HID) so I need to look into that. Hopefully it's just a bulb. That's really the only thing I can see that's wrong.. and I'm pretty happy :-)

Thanks again to everyone for the help and advice!

 

woohoo! most places have a 30 day warranty on used cars, should be able to have that headlight fixed no prob

 

Yeah, I'm not sure how I'll survive (sarcasm). Decided to do some troubleshooting and the bulb was blown. Swapped in the working one on the passenger side and it worked fine. Found a pair of bulbs on Amazon for $16 and I'll have them Thursday. I'd say that's not too shabby :-)

 

check the heat, a/c, all the other lights. check if the speakers are blown. and really beat on it a bit if its under 30 day warranty.

during my 30 day, i also had a headlight out, a parking light, and discovered while at high rpm on the highway, that the bypass valve needed to be replaced. (the car turned off on me at 70 mph lol)

so, just make sure you do a good inspction, get it at high rpm on the highway a few times. listen for noises etc.

looks nice though. same exact color as mine. white mirrors and roof too. have fun with it.

 

Unfortunately, no 30 day warranty for me, but that's OK. I had her up to 90 on the highway - no rattles or shakes at all. Steering stayed straight and true. The only thing I may have heard was either a cupped rear left tire or a wheel bearing possibly going bad. Had just a slight hum at speed - I'll throw it up on jack stands and spin the tire and see if it hums. If not, I'll just get new tires (which I wanted anyway). Aside from a few parking lot dings, I really can't find anything else wrong - oh, and the metal part of the driver's side seat belt buckle was spun around (so the seat belt was twisted when buckled up).. yeah, I really am stretching... The car is excellent.

I spent about an hour cleaning the engine bay. I started with heavy spray degreasing gel, hosed it off a bit to get rid of the grime, then finished it off with a few cans of carburetor cleaner - it sparkles now. When they did the valve cover gasket they didn't clean anything, so it was still grimy and nasty. The machined areas shine like new. Took her out for a spin to burn off the excess and everything is tip top.

 

nice. good to hear. yea get those tires off of there if theyre the runflats. im sure the wheels are someone bent too. i used to work in a tire/wheel shop for 5 years. every mini had slightly bent wheels from the constant abuse of 17" runflat tires.

 

I don't think the PO stuck with the runflats. The fronts are Continental ContiPro Contacts and the rears are Eagle RSA something or others. I'll keep my eyes peeled for something to pop up on Craigslist.

 

Congrats on snaggin' a Gen1! Hope you know what you got yourself into. R53s are the most 'moddable', DIYable, & addictive of MINIs.

 

It not only sounds like but looks like you got a really sweet deal on your new MINI. Congrats, Combsatl. Happy motoring and please don't forget to promote the MINI wave.

 

Thanks, Mr. T! I'm very pleased with the deal I got. I'll update the thread as I am able to work on it.

 

Like you I also recently picked up an R53. Mine is an 03 and it runs well (so far), but had (and continues to have) a variety of the common issues you listed. I've tackled most of them successfully (heater core changed out for new (old one plugged up), H/K Radio changed out to new (old one had a bad tuner), passenger door speaker blown and now I'm dealing with a bad headlight which by the looks of it will require an entire new assembly ($375+).

One thing you should check is the metal joint on the door sill of both sides. Just pull the rubber seal trim off and check for rust. I read about that here and sure enough when I checked it was already quite rusted. I cleaned mine up and resealed everything with rust primer.

Hope you don't have too many other items failing. They are fun cars, but high maintenance compared to anything I've ever owned before.

Best of luck!

 

Looking forward to it.

 

@ PSA1

Thanks for the good anti-rust advice. This is my seventh German car (I'm only 30.. can you tell I really like cars? haha), third BMW, so I'm used to the 'regular' maintenance that's required by these types of cars. Man, if everything was as problem-free as my Lincoln Navigator, life would be so much easier. The truth is that, despite having quirks and 'issues', German cars are simply more fun to drive. I'm willing to put up with the repairs in return for the enjoyment.

Truth be told, aside from the 'normal' maintenance (more like 'known issues'), the two BMW's were some of the best cars I've ever owned! I have a 2001 330i (just turned 180k) and had a 2000 328ci (sold it with 179k). I just keep an eye on coolant levels, check for leaks and keep the oil changed and they run forever.