Hey peeps, I'm new to the forum and to working on minis, but mechanically inclined. Picked up a 2004 R53 S, which supposedly has a tune. Car is in overall great shape, but has a couple issues you can perhaps help me with, and could use some mini-newbie tips. Couple things I'd like to ask those who are more familiar with these cars. Already replaced the brakes and parking brake cables and a bit of body work.


Next on the list is dealing with the the low tire pressure and ABS lights. From what I understand the problems are related and most likely caused by a bad wheel sensor. Problem is, how do I go about trouble shooting where my problem lies? Get an obdII reader?


Also, in the past couple of days, my xenon lights no longer self-adjust which many claim could be the leveling sensor hanging from the rear axle. Any way I can test this out or troubleshoot to make sure that's where the problem is coming from before I spend money on a new one? Any common loose connections or bad wires anywhere?


And do these cars have a bit of natural camber or is my suspension worn/out of tune?


Love this little go kart, plan on doing some fun stuff with it.

 

Welcome to NAM. There is an immense amount of information here on you model of car between the over 70,000 threads, the NAM members and the vendors here.

If you have not already done so, may I suggest you check out the Stock Problems/Issues folder in the Gen1 Section?

 

I just saw all that the sub-sections. Coming directly off the browser, didn't see those sections. Awesome, I'll read on through.

 

Camber in the front or rear? In the rear I am wondering whether the car has a lowered suspension.

 

Both front and back, evenly. And yes it may have been lowered. It's a slight but noticeable camber when you look from the back. Whether this even benefits the car during cornering is another question.

 

Double check your struts/ strut towers. I thought my car had a bit of lowering done when I got it.... turns out it was just 14 year old struts. BTW, when the struts bottom out they like to mushroom the towers. Go to 1st gen > mods> suspension to read about my adventures last weekend.

Enjoy hooning about!!

 

You'll need an obd scanner such as the schawben from ecs to zero in on which wheel speed sensor is bad.

 

camber helps corner, and greatly helps tire wear if you do anything that pushes the car, like trackdays or autocross, -2.5 front and about the same for me in the rear

it basically doubles my tire life, without camber hte outside edges get destroyed and I'll have 4/32nd tread left int he center, I flip the tires over on the wheels and wear down the other edge, I was tossing tires with half the tread left in the center.

now that I have a lot more negative camber I can wear them out all the way, they last a LOT longer

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Helps. I read up on the 2 better brands for mini's obd scanners, including Schawben. I'll read up on each one to see which I want to go for. Any specific suppliers you guys use to buy Schawben stuff from?


Thanks for the link Stealthpsycho, I read through the stuff you sent and I'll have to study my suspension on whether it's ****ed or purposely cambered. I'll check my strut towers and mounts. My tires have a bit of uneven wear, but not by much at all. Could be as Mega72 described, cambered purposely for a car being pushed. Car definitely has a bunch of mods, but also worn parts.

 

There are xenon headlight leveling sensors on the front and back of the car. Also, sometimes the projector ball and socket pops loose inside the headlight from slamming the hood too hard, or hitting a big bump or pothole.

If your wheel speed sensor isn't causing your light issue, check the crank pulley to see if it's coming apart. The rubber fails and the pulley will slip or break into two pieces causing some bad and expensive things to happen.