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Hi everyone. I found this 03 S JCW with 83k. Interior is pretty clean. Paint looks good. Slick top, which I feel like I never see and I prefer. But the car isn’t exactly stock.

The previous owner took off the two mufflers and it’s just straight pipe there, so it’s pretty loud and drones.
I found the factory jcw exhaust with no tips for about $500. Or thinking about having a muffler shop add two mufflers to the existing piping.

It was 16x8 wheels with I think a 20et on 195/45/16. So it’s got a bit of the stretched look but it looks pretty good. I was thinking of going 205/45/16 at some point. But I may do different wheels all together.

They put Tein height and dampening adjustable coil overs with the top camber plate, but it’s not set super low. There looks like there is a lot more room on the collar. I’m pretty sure they didn’t align it when they lowered it though but can’t be too sure.

There was a vibration in the steering wheel over 60mph so I took the car to get the wheels balanced and it solved the problem.

The shop did notice that oil is leaking from the valve cover gasket and possibly somewhere else but with the valve cover leak, it made it hard to pinpoint others I suppose. Didn’t have time to do it but was quoted $150 I believe.

The driver door doesn’t unlock with the keyless button and the drivers window doesn’t roll up or down. I’m guessing regulator could be cause of window issue, or maybe a fuse, but didn’t have the shop diagnose that today.

Here is a pic. More pics to come and I’ll post here with any new issues, repairs, or modifications. It’s the summer in FL and the A/C seems to be working great, (knock on wood) so that’s extremely important.






oh yeah, and the factory shift **** is in the glovebox.

 

Looks good already, like the white/blue theme on these cars. Rocker cover gasket is a known problem, there are some other areas where it might leak (sump gasket, o-ring crankshaft sensor etc).

Also we need videos of that exhaust sound haha

 

Well yesterday it started sounding a little strange.

sounds like the supercharger isn’t really building any boost and there is more of a whirring type of whine that one car hear easily as you accelerate slow on 1st gear.

I’m thinking I shouldn’t drive it in case it is a timing chain or water pump issue. But I will get good video of the exhaust once I get her back from the shop. Just going to have it towed there today.

 

Driver's side window not operating -- hold the window switch down and punch the door (hammer fist) just above the speaker. That sometimes frees up the mechanism.

 

Thanks for the tip on the window. I’ll have to try that, but I’ll also see what the shop has to say about it.

I’m taking it to Redline Bimmer Mini. They have great reviews as a mini shop. I think I was quoted $150 to replace the valve cover gasket, because I know that needs to be done, but we’ll see what else comes up. Kinda hoping the bill won’t get too crazy.

Anyone know labor/parts estimates for the following?

- valve cover gasket
- timing chain and guide replacement
- water pump
- belt tensioner

I’m thinking these are likely issues that might need attention. Just hoping they can replace the oil in the supercharger and it doesn’t need a rebuild.

 

There she goes. Wish me luck.

 

Fingers crossed here overseas for you

 

Ugh. I’ll have to wait until Monday to find out the extent of everything. Anybody else have experience with this shop, Redline Performance in Pompano beach, FL?

 

So the shop is replacing the idler pulley valve cover gasket and plugs. As well as doing a brake flush.

$630 for everything. Their labor rate is kinda high. We’ll see how it goes.

I asked about changing the supercharger oil and replacing the gaskets. Quoted me $800 and they don’t think the supercharger is definitely bad. But if the idler pulley doesn’t fix the “whirring” noise I might have to do something with the supercharger.

below is not my video but shows the noise it was making very clearly.

 

Would not be a bad idea to change the blower oil at this point. Not hard and plenty of threads on how, R/R covered in Uncle Bentley, and of course Mod MINI's famous YooToob videos. The oil is (relatively) cheap insurance and like everything else, you may consider doing a crank pulley swap (get rid of the OEM before it strands you), S/C pulley swap, alternator, cooling system refresh (pump, thermostat, housing, hoses, expansion tank) along with seals and gaskets in reach "while you're in there." Potentially most or all for a lot less than $800 if you DIY.

Edit: Meant to say nice ride, and dig the yellow headlights - curious how they're working for you and if you like them.

 

I definitely want to change the supercharger oil and replace the gaskets. As well as do a new water pump and other various things while I’m in there.

I’m picking the car up tomorrow morning. We’ll see how many trouble free days I can get.

 

Got the car back today. He showed me the old idler pulley. Really bad shape.

The noise is gone now. Now that I think about it. I feel like the supercharger felt louder before because the idler pulley was adding to the noise.

The shop still thinks my blower could be on the way out. But considering that they only changed the idler pulley because I told them that was most likely the problem, I think I’ll take their opinion with a grain of salt.

If I didn’t know any better, they would have done the supercharger service for $800 and I still would have had a bad idler pulley. They probably would have just kept throwing parts at it and skyrocketing the bill.

And THANK YOU to the person that suggested smacking the door panel with the window switch pressed. Window works again. The shop had quoted me $400 to fix it, and I told them to hold off on it. Glad I did. I’m sure it needs to be replaced but I might even try that one on my own.

I’ll try and get some sound clips soon, inside and out of the car, to show you how loud the exhaust is. The part I can’t live with is the drone when trying to just get up to speed slowly. The loudness is ok compared to the drone. But it snap crackles and pops and sounds great when you are really on it high rpm.

I ordered some stuff from griots garage to clean the interior better. And a jar of stuff they sell that you add water to and leave in the car overnight. Should really help to get rid of that “old” car smell. The car doesn’t really smell bad or like BO or anything. Just an older car.

 

thanks. I have had very little time in the car at night so far. So I’m not sure about the look from inside or out of the car at night. There are some weird vinyl stickers on the headlight surrounds. Basically a collage of cartoonish type drawings. Kinda neat, but I’ll probably peel those off. I was thinking of doing some black out projector style headlights with black surrounds in the future.

 

Good to hear that progress has been made with minimal effort!

I wanna hear that car now :P

 

It’s raining today, but if it stops then I can make some video.

 

Here you go. Just uploaded an in car video to youtube. The phone is just in the holder so you don't really see anything, but the sound is what counts. Started it up and revved a little at a gas station, then pulled out onto the road and drove kinda normal. Then made a u-turn and got on it not quite full throttle through 1st gear and revved out 2nd and a little bit of 3rd.


Don't mind the clunking. It's most likely my rear sway bar end link making noise. Need to replace all of those.

 

Awesome, I can almost "feel" that it's loud haha. Compare that to my small clip I made, much less bass than yours (stock JCW exhaust, stock header)

 

So much bass and drone in the exhaust. Yours is almost too quiet. I’m definitely looking for that in between. I was referred to a muffler shop that is said to do good work at fair prices. Hopefully it’s only $200 or so to have a couple mufflers welded up where the jcw exhaust mufflers used to be. Once it starts becoming much more expensive than that, I start to just want to order a new cat back, but some are a little pricey.

 

Thanks for the tip. It worked right away. LOL

 

It is too quiet indeed, thats why I need another exhaust haha. Something in between would be perfect. Even though the supercharger whine is addictive, the exhaust note should be there. This car demands it from me!

 

I cranked the front tein shocks to full stiff instead of halfway and could feel it right away at first bump I hit. But it feels good and the turn in is even better.

 

Took some closeup pics of the very interesting vinyl wrap on the headlight surrounds. Haven’t gotten around to seeing the best way to peel it off

 

Well that's...different.

 

Also known as "sticker bomb", the idea behind it is a lot of small sticker overlapping, but you can buy it as one piece nowadays.

 

kinda looks like flowers around my headlights from 10 ft away. But I’m sure the headlights are in rough shape underneath the stickers and yellow. Do I really need specific headlight restorer product or can I take abrasive polish to them with my random orbital and then follow up with some sealant wax to keep the restored look?