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Well after a long hiatus, I (on a whim) found a gem and ended up back in an R53.
Sold my first one in 2018 and missed it so much. Ended up driving out of state (Nevada - Carson City) to pick up my new to me 2005 MCS. It was a local trade in, original owner with every maintenance record since it was bought. I’ll have to add pictures but you can tell it was taken care of.
The drive home brought back so many smiles and driving through some twisty mountain roads through Tahoe brought back all the feels.
Pepper White with the black/tan and a 6 speed. Only 70k miles and not a single scratch, dent, tear etc. and everything works.
Post some pics when you get a chance. I'm on the lookout for a Roadster or Coupe at the moment. I regret selling my JCW and miss the fun I used to have with it.
Got the first wash in and next is getting a thorough cleaning of the inside. Although it’s a pretty immaculate car, started to notice all the little things in the exterior paint and body of a ~20 year old car.
Side note: boot/hatch keeps randomly “opening” (as if I clicked the handle) on its own. Is this an electrical issue or moisture? Funny enough, I went to the store the week before and it was raining out - came back from grabbing a few things and I couldn’t get the boot to open
Very nice! I recently found this '06 (Sept build date) R53 sitting in a yard (all dirty) with grass growing up around it. She'd been sitting for 2 years; owner parked it because the check engine light was on. It took me 6 hours to get all of the tree sap off the paint, and I had to wet sand/polish the roof. It took another 16 hours to clean the door jams, and interior. She's going to the body shop on 6 May to get the hood repainted (lots of rock chips and rust). My paintless dent guy pulled 5 dents out, and I got to work with some Chemical Guys cut and polish compounds, and some back to black gel for the black trim. Surprisingly, the headlights polished out rather well.
Perhaps one of the most surprising things that happened was the battery (Sears Diehard Gold); it was totally dead. I connected my Foxwell battery tester and the battery showed 5 volts and about the same CCA. I figured a new battery would be needed. I connected my NOCO Genius charger and amazingly the battery took a full charge; after the full charge, I used NOCO's repair mode. I disconnected and let the battery sit for 24 hours so the surface charge would dissipate and retested. I still can't believe it, but when I retested the battery, it was within 10 CCA of its rated capacity. I'm still driving the car with that battery! Amazing!
Mileage 125K, According to CarFax, no accidents, 2 owners, but the first owner only put 6K mile on the car in 4 years (suspect a lease). 2d owner had all maintenance performed by the local MINI dealership, and I have all the invoices; I even have the original window sticker; Yep! It has the LSD option. New clutch and flywheel was installed by the dealer at 88K miles.
Both front seats were fully reclined and would not move up, but I found the "reset" procedure on YouTube! The local upholstery shop replaced the headliner fabric and perfectly matched the OEM upholstery to repair the left bolster on the driver's seat!
When I found her, the check engine light was on for insufficient airflow. I found the harmonic balancer had come apart. So, the first task was to install a new balancer, tensioner assembly (also shot) idler pulley, and serpentine belt. While I was there, she got new spark plugs, ignition wires, and a valve cover gasket.
The front rotors were shot ... well beyond the min thickness; so she got new rotors and pads; While I was in there, I noticed she had the original struts and they were shot! So I installed all new Bilstein B4 struts, dust boots, strut mounts, and rebound bumpers. Craven speed STD installed.
The right side strut mount was in bad shape.
Next was to replace all the OEM speakers; the fronts were blown; thanks to Crutchfied for hooking me up. JBL component speakers up front with some Kicker 6x9s in the rear. I also installed the Aux input cable, so I can enjoy my Pandora subscription.
The latest work was to pull the supercharger for an oil service and installation of the 15% reduction pulley (Thanks WayMotor Works). Great kit by the way! The compressor side of the supercharger still had 3 oz of oil in it; the water pump dive side had just under 1 oz remaining. Since the supercharger drives the water pump, and the age of the pump was unknown, she got new water pump, thermostat, aluminum thermostat housing, upper and lower radiator hoses, and coolant recovery tank. The AC works too!
Future plans:
1. Miltek Cat-back exhuast.
2. DDM intake
3. Boost and oil pressure gauges.
4. Michelin Pilot Sport tires
5. New MINI Badges will go on when she's at the body shop.
Very nice! I recently found this '06 (Sept build date) R53 sitting in a yard (all dirty) with grass growing up around it. She'd been sitting for 2 years; owner parked it because the check engine light was on. It took me 6 hours to get all of the tree sap off the paint, and I had to wet sand/polish the roof. It took another 16 hours to clean the door jams, and interior. She's going to the body shop on 6 May to get the hood repainted (lots of rock chips and rust). My paintless dent guy pulled 5 dents out, and I got to work with some Chemical Guys cut and polish compounds, and some back to black gel for the black trim. Surprisingly, the headlights polished out rather well.
Perhaps one of the most surprising things that happened was the battery (Sears Diehard Gold); it was totally dead. I connected my Foxwell battery tester and the battery showed 5 volts and about the same CCA. I figured a new battery would be needed. I connected my NOCO Genius charger and amazingly the battery took a full charge; after the full charge, I used NOCO's repair mode. I disconnected and let the battery sit for 24 hours so the surface charge would dissipate and retested. I still can't believe it, but when I retested the battery, it was within 10 CCA of its rated capacity. I'm still driving the car with that battery! Amazing!
Mileage 125K, According to CarFax, no accidents, 2 owners, but the first owner only put 6K mile on the car in 4 years (suspect a lease). 2d owner had all maintenance performed by the local MINI dealership, and I have all the invoices; I even have the original window sticker; Yep! It has the LSD option. New clutch and flywheel was installed by the dealer at 88K miles.
Both front seats were fully reclined and would not move up, but I found the "reset" procedure on YouTube! The local upholstery shop replaced the headliner fabric and perfectly matched the OEM upholstery to repair the left bolster on the driver's seat!
When I found her, the check engine light was on for insufficient airflow. I found the harmonic balancer had come apart. So, the first task was to install a new balancer, tensioner assembly (also shot) idler pulley, and serpentine belt. While I was there, she got new spark plugs, ignition wires, and a valve cover gasket.
The front rotors were shot ... well beyond the min thickness; so she got new rotors and pads; While I was in there, I noticed she had the original struts and they were shot! So I installed all new Bilstein B4 struts, dust boots, strut mounts, and rebound bumpers. Craven speed STD installed.
The right side strut mount was in bad shape.
Next was to replace all the OEM speakers; the fronts were blown; thanks to Crutchfied for hooking me up. JBL component speakers up front with some Kicker 6x9s in the rear. I also installed the Aux input cable, so I can enjoy my Pandora subscription.
The latest work was to pull the supercharger for an oil service and installation of the 15% reduction pulley (Thanks WayMotor Works). Great kit by the way! The compressor side of the supercharger still had 3 oz of oil in it; the water pump dive side had just under 1 oz remaining. Since the supercharger drives the water pump, and the age of the pump was unknown, she got new water pump, thermostat, aluminum thermostat housing, upper and lower radiator hoses, and coolant recovery tank. The AC works too!
Future plans:
1. Miltek Cat-back exhuast.
2. DDM intake
3. Boost and oil pressure gauges.
4. Michelin Pilot Sport tires
5. New MINI Badges will go on when she's at the body shop.
ahh, a true barn find haha
that was my original plan when I was cross shopping to find something to restore/build slowly but mine was too good of an offer to pass on.
yours looks great now, can’t imagine what the before looked like.
Thank you just feels good to be back in one and one that is sorted so well at that. Even down to the date of purchase they logged everything from gas and how much to oil changes - I cried though when I saw gas at $2ish/gallon in ‘05 lol
Looks like a gem! If you want to save yourself a lot of front-end suspension repair (ie. motor mounts, strut bearings, control arm bushings) get a set of 15" wheels, the taller tire profile is the only way to effectively safeguard against massive potholes and rough roads. The handling will feel noticeably buoyant when making quick lane changes, but under normal driving it runs over rough terrain like a tank (compared to running on low-profile run flats). The streets are very unforgiving in my location and I was in need of new strut bearings every other year; that's after upgrading struts, bushings and mounting reinforcement plates. I hope this message finds you before you make that TireRack purchase
Looks like a gem! If you want to save yourself a lot of front-end suspension repair (ie. motor mounts, strut bearings, control arm bushings) get a set of 15" wheels, the taller tire profile is the only way to effectively safeguard against massive potholes and rough roads. The handling will feel noticeably buoyant when making quick lane changes, but under normal driving it runs over rough terrain like a tank (compared to running on low-profile run flats). The streets are very unforgiving in my location and I was in need of new strut bearings every other year; that's after upgrading struts, bushings and mounting reinforcement plates. I hope this message finds you before you make that TireRack purchase
thankfully the tires and all are brand new. It was going to get a suspension refresh this coming up year so I’ll have to just deal with it until then. Living in a newer area/development also means much more forgiving roads
but smaller wheels and tires are definitely on the list. 15’s might be too small for my liking. I remember not liking them too much on my last one and ended up with 16’s but it’s been a while so we’ll see.
Stripes were looking beat, spotted everywhere and peeling in spots so I decided to take them off. Luckily the stripes didn’t leave much of a difference on the hood where a buff and wax didn’t take them out.
Also changed out to the black grill courtesy of ECS. Is it just me or is the PW paint just more noticeable than other colors peeking through the top part of the grill? I don’t remember my DS being as noticeable but again that’s a darker paint color than PW.
Stripes were looking beat, spotted everywhere and peeling in spots so I decided to take them off. Luckily the stripes didn’t leave much of a difference on the hood where a buff and wax didn’t take them out.
Also changed out to the black grill courtesy of ECS. Is it just me or is the PW paint just more noticeable than other colors peeking through the top part of the grill? I don’t remember my DS being as noticeable but again that’s a darker paint color than PW.
My blue was very noticeable through the grille. A few minutes with a rattle can of flat black solved that.
Congrats on the find, that's my favorite color on the R53! That drive is great, too! I did it when I bought my 981 Boxster S in Seattle and cut over from the bay area to Carson Valley and had a blast. I'm sure it was fun in the mini too!
I bought some cheap gloss black vinyl wrap and put that over the painted surfaces behind the mesh grill. And if you really want to cry, I paid $2.69 for gas last week hahaha.
just feels good to be back in one and one that is sorted so well at that. Even down to the date of purchase they logged everything from gas and how much to oil changes - I cried though when I saw gas at $2ish/gallon in ‘05 lol 
hahaha.
