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I bought a used r-titled mini with knowing nothing about them. I have been a VW guy for years but decided to see what the mini life is like on a whim. The car in question is a 2003 Mini Cooper S 6 spd with 115K miles. I bought the car from Copart for $450. I know the car is a pre-facelift vehicle, but can I use front end parts (bumper,hood,core support,rad,rad fan) from a post-facelift car? When do the timing chains usually need replaced? Besides the plug wires, clutchs, and coil packs, what are some of the other problems one usually sees?
Many of the body parts from the 05/06 cars will not work on the 02-04 cars. Below is a link to a FAQ section where there are two threads that will answer many of your questions and also contain a link to RealOEM where you will be able to compare part numbers from different model years.
Hi and welcome to NAM.
It looks in pretty good shape overall. Have you started it yet, to see how it runs?
There are many dead automatics out there and have most in good shape with a dead auto transmission. You can pick them up pretty cheaply and get most of the parts you need to put on this one.
Best of luck!
Thanks for information. From I have read I should be okay front end parts from a 2002-2004 cooper s. I will also look into the maintenance items mentioned in FAQ.
Was about to say...i cant think of any facelift body parts that wont fit. Matter of fact ive got a GP bumper (only made in 06) on my 02 S. There are minor interior differences.
As Way stated, just make sure the parts are all from an S model, shouldnt matter from 02-06. Headlights are even plug and play, halogen to halogen, and xenon to xenon.
Halogen can be swapped to xenon with some tinkering as the headlights will not have the self leveling of you didnt have xenon to begin with
