Got the animal impact damage repaired. New radiator (again), plastic welded the core support, replaced the lower grill, screwed the bumper back together, then modified the exhaust for like the 8th time.




The ac condenser was bent pretty badly but it wasn't leaking. I thought about how to straighten it back out without damaging it worse for a bit and decided the best way was clamping it between a couple boards. It worked great. I had to use a pic to straighten a bunch of fins back out too.

 

Made a trip to The Back of the Dragon. Since the last trip out there I have replaced the springs, upgraded the rear sway bar, and mounted up a set of much much better tires. My brakes are the new weak link lol. I could lock up the China tires. Can't do that anymore. And with the combination of upgrades I can safely go fast enough to destroy the brakes. It handles amazing. But I way overheated the brakes. Pedal started going to the floor under heavy braking and I had to go easy for awhile and let them cool back off. I pulled over to let some slower cars get ahead of me a bit and snapped a couple picks. Rotors were purple. My stupid phone didn't save the picture of the front for whatever reason but I have a pic of the rear.

 

What type of brake fluid are you using? Is it possible you're boiling the fluid? Lol, those rims need a bath.

 

Oh yeah I'm definitely boiling the fluid.
I'm using that blackish fluid....you know, the stuff from 2003....that Mini put in it at the factory 😂😂😂
I already have a couple bottles of Motul 600 in the cart. It was on my list to replace but haven't gotten around to it yet. And the whole car needs a bath lol.

 

Haha nice :D

 

 

Cool shot and beautiful location!

 

Thanks man! The car is at a rather strange angle because we went bombing around that corner and I decided after I was already straightened out that I wanted to snap a pic there. My mirrors were fogged over because it was still early and cool out so I couldn't really see where I was backing very well lol. That picture doesn't really show it but a lot of the pull offs have a big drop off the pavement and I bottom out going over them...which is the reason the car is still in the road.

 

Also a cool idea to set up a cam on the exact spot and shoot a movieclip

 

Yeah my wife and I keep talking about getting a GoPro with a dash mount for these trips. Having a camera or someone on the corner filming would also be sweet. I'm trying to talk my brother into meeting us there next trip but he lives something like 700 miles north so that might be a challenge. If he did come I'm sure there would be some good footage as a result!

 

I figured I'd pop in here because I haven't posted anything in awhile. We got a new toy that's been eating up a lot of time so not much has been done to the Mini.
I need to replace the rear brake pads pretty soon. I think I'm going with EBC reds on the rear and when the fronts are due I'll pair them with EBC yellow. It definitely needs more braking power with the stickier tires.
I also developed a oil pan gasket leak. I have a new gasket on the bench waiting for the next oil change to swap it. The motor seems to be showing its age lately too. It has gotten a lot colder and it was already running lean so it could just be the dense air, but it feels weak. I'm up to 151k miles on it now (bought it with 82k). I was hoping I could make it to 200k before a refresh so we'll see how it holds up.

 

I read once that one of the first two rules of owning a mini is you always have to park next to another mini. I never seem to go anywhere where there are other minis. Ended up next to two in one week.

 

I did some maintenance on the Mini today. I replaced the oil pan gasket, and oil/filter obviously. The gasket replacement is pretty straightforward on these cars. I did have to pull the front bumper and move the ac condenser to access the ac compressor bolts. The compressor is mounted below part of the pan and has to be dropped to get the pan off. Otherwise its a very simple job. The lower rear motor mount also has to be removed but that takes all of a minute.

Once all that was done I dropped my exhaust, again. The rear o2 refuses to stay tight. Its mounted in a brass elbow for clearance reasons. I was going to swap the brass elbow for a steal one and weld it on but I forgot to order one prior to starting this project so I just tightened the hell out of it. My muffler has been a little crooked since I put it on so I cut that off and re welded it. I also added a tip on the muffler to get it out past the bumper. Its been turning the bottom of my bumper brown because the exhaust came out slightly in front of the bumper (under the car). Probably didn't help with drone at all either.

I rotated the tires while it was up on the jack stands, and for God knows what reason that reminded me I've been having a misfire on cold starts. Pulled the plug wires off the coil and found that the #2 cylinder had been arcing pretty bad. I cleaned up all the connections and tightened the wire end as best I could with some pliers. I've never changed the wires or coil on this car and I think its time.
So my next project will be coil and wires and I also need new rear brake pads. I hope to have all that ready to go on by next oil change. I average 40k miles a year so that will be sooner rather than later.

 

BRAILLE BATTERY UPDATE:

I believe I've found the limit of this tiny 11-pound Braille battery. Cold temperatures are its nemesis. A week or two ago we had overnight lows in the mid 30's and I noticed slower than usual cranking on startup. This morning was 25 degrees at my house, and I had parked it outside overnight, instead of in the somewhat climate controlled attached garage. All I got when I turned the key was 2 clicks. She wouldn't actually turn over. A set of jumper cables hooked to the Expedition and she fired right up and ran great the entire 80-mile commute. The Mini had not ran since the previous Thursday though and I usually drive it every day. So basically, it sat unused for 5 days was then exposed to sub-freezing temperatures before it would no longer start the car. I have no idea how old this battery actually is or how much it was used prior to me buying it, I got it second hand from someone that simply stated "it wasn't big enough for their needs". I'm now debating whether I should put the original battery back in for the winter months (along with my home brew intake) or wing it and see if it’s the combination of sitting and cold or just the cold. I'm not a fan of jump-starting cars at 3:30 in the morning or being stranded with a weak battery so I'll probably just swap it until springtime. I also don't want to risk damaging this Braille pushing it too far past its capability.

 

I have a mess of updates. Hopefully I'll remember them all. I haven't been on NAM much because I've been busy lately. First I'll touch on my last post a little. My alternator died. No warning. Just driving home from work and the battery light came on. By the time I got home the idle speed was extremely erratic and it was struggling to accelerate. Fortunately it wasn't dark yet and I made it home without needing headlights. I doubt I'd have made it if it was dark out. All that to say it made me wonder if the Braille was struggling because the alternator was on its way out and it wasn't being charged properly. No way to tell at this point, I did end up reinstalling the original battery for the winter months.

I had to put the car into front end service mode in order to get the alternator out and it was difficult even doing that. I had to roll and twist it to clear the radiator support..





Ever since I did the timing service awhile back I've had intermittent belt squeak issues. I thought maybe the pulleys weren't aligned or something. Well once it got really cold the belt noise was so bad I was embarrassed to drive anywhere near other humans. It was awful! While I was replacing the alternator I was inspecting the belt and pulleys etc and happened to notice the belt number because it happened to be visible. Turns out the local parts store I got the belt from gave me a 2.0 turbo belt off a vw! I bought the correct belt from NAPA and no more squeak.
I found out while installing the CORRECT belt that I couldn't get it on with my HF belt tool. I've read that before but since the only belt I've ever replaced was too long it went on fine with the HF tool. No way that was happening with the correct belt. I don't have the fancy mini belt tool so I had to improvise.


I used some scrap 1" flat stock to whip up a belt tool.

I still had the old belt tensioner in the scrap bin so i used it to get the angles right on the tool. Of course my auto darkening welding mask died while I was trying to fab this up. I got it done though. Didnt have to wait on tools to be shipped either.


Next up is I finally replaced the coil and wires. Staying with the budget build theme I decided to give the red coil and wire set off eBay a try. I don't expect a performance gain but I am hoping it'll last awhile.


Stock parts.

Fancy bits.


The plug wires are massively thick. Like 10.2mm or something like that. There so thick there actually difficult to work with.
The other problem I ran into is oem bolts didn't fit in the aftermarket coil holes. The oem bolts are sleeved with rubber grommets and the end of the sleeve is 3/8 inch thick. I didn't measure the holes in the new coil but they were smaller than 3/8. I drilled them out on my press. The sleeves in the new coil are aluminum so it was really easy. Might be a pita for someone that doesn't have a lot of tools at their disposal so I figured I'd mention it.

 

I posted in the beginning of December that the Mini has felt weak lately. After replacing the tired and constantly rusting coil pack it feels about the same as when I first bought it, i.e. much better. Plugs look better too although it is definitely running lean. The misfires and smell of raw fuel is gone now so that's a good thing.

Brakes are the next project. I've mentioned brakes several times but it needs more than just pads. Since I don't track the car the only time I find the braking performance inadequate is when I'm pushing hard in the mountains. And the biggest issue is the overheating. If I can ever get my other project out of the shop long enough to get this car on jack stands I might actually make some progress. I thought it needed rear pads but upon closer inspection there may be other problems, the pads are still pretty thick. I've also noticed the rear brakes hang up. IDK if its a hose issue or a slider or...? I also hear an intermittent grinding noise from the right rear when coming to a complete stop. I never hear it except extremely low speed.
I am currently researching the caliper stiffeners Way Motor Works sells (simply because I've never heard of them before) and a set of stainless brake hoses, in addition to better pads when the Brembo's are shot. I have the Motul 600 ready to go next chance I get to work on it but if it is due for hoses, doing it all at once makes a lot more sense. My goal is to have a solid street brake setup with minimal financial outlay.

I still have bigger injectors to go on but I've been procrastinating because I picked up an R53 head with the better exhaust valves that I'm porting and I was thinking I'd wait to tune it until the head is done. If I can get another year out of this motor it'd make more sense to swap the injectors and tune it now and adjust for the head swap whenever I actually get to it. Its probably not doing the motor any favors running around lean.

 

The brake stiffening bushings are a great and cost effective upgrade as they take the slop out of the calipers.
But if your wheels will fit look at getting the R56 S, or even R56 non S calipers and brackets. This is a cheap and bolt on upgrade that will be bigger than the brakes you have and give you far more braking power. With larger solid mount calipers and larger rotors both upgrades will be big improvements. You will need our stainless brake conversion lines though
https://www.waymotorworks.com/stainl...rsion-kit.html

Then you can still use the stiffening bushings in the rear.

 

Thanks for the sound advice! I've put a lot of thought into it and I'm confident I can get the performance I need out of good pads and fluid. At street speeds these brakes are not half bad. Heat build up has been my only issue so far and thats only with aggressive driving on mountain roads. With cheap tires i can easily lock the wheels. I can still activate the abs even with decent tires so better pads and higher temp fluid should work. I also just ordered your stainless brake hose kit this morning. I was able to verify my rear brake issue is due to a bad hose so I'm replacing them all.

 

I ordered the stainless Goodrich brake hose kit from Way on Tuesday (2/1/22). I got an email the same day stating they were out of stock and offered their house brand as an alternative. Of course I never check my email so I didn't see the message until Friday afternoon (2/4/22). I responded and said the other lines would be fine. They were in my mailbox when I got home from work today (2/7/22). I did NOT expect them to ship out that fast! So good job WMW!

 

The stainless braided brake hoses are mounted. I had a question about the caliper end of the front hose being different than oem so I emailed Way to make sure I ordered the correct version (my Mini has a 09/02 build date). The man actually emailed me back within 2 minutes ON SUPERBOWL SUNDAY to answer my question!!! Its very hard to find good customer service these days and that level of service is why I'll be a customer as long as I own a Mini!

The install went ok. Nothing was rusted or damaged but I had a hell of a time aligning the rear hoses. Nothing wrong with the part, I just didn't jack the car up high enough so I was standing on my head trying to see what I was doing.


Difference in front hoses.

Drivers rear line.

These are the only two pictures I took because I was getting brake fluid everywhere and didn't want it on my phone.


While I had the car in the shop I put my carbon ebay intake back in. I had removed it to put the original battery back in when the temperatures dropped out this winter because it didn't fit in the R53 location with an R50 battery setup. I had to order a different elbow to make it work.




The rear pads were shot due to the brake hoses failing internally (mainly the right rear) and not having time to fix it soon enough. Right rear was hanging up for longer than I'd like to admit. The sliders (again mainly the right rear) were also pretty bad so I ordered new pads and the calipers bushings/pins. My original plan was to run a combination of EBC red and yellow pads but after way to much reading of other mini owners opinions and reviews I got Akebono pads coming for the rear. I'm undecided again on the fronts lol. I'm thinking EBC yellow, Hawk HP+, or......? I'll figure it out eventually

 

I forgot to mention in the above post that I also flushed my brake fluid with some fresh Motul 600 when I installed the stainless braided brake hoses. The fluid that came out of the calipers looked like dirty ATF!!! It was a very red color, then turned to brown, then dark yellow but looked like oil and water that had separated. Not sure if that was just old fluid vs the new stuff or....? I cleaned the reservoir as best I could and sucked it out with a turkey baster prior to flushing the lines. I used a full 2 bottles and it still was slightly contaminated but I ran out of fluid. I ordered another bottle with the new pads so hopefully all the parts will be delivered this week and I can finish it this coming weekend.

 

Caliper stiffeners and rear brake pads are in. It is a super easy job. You do need blue Loctite and high temp anti-seize for the stiffeners per the instructions. I didn't know that ahead of time and thought I'd have to make a trip out for Loctite because I thought I only had the red stuff. Enough digging in my disaster of a shop turned up a small bottle of the blue, so I got lucky there. I think I mentioned it above but I ended up ordering Akebono EURO pads for the rear. I haven't driven on them yet so no comment on how they compare to the Brembo pads. I will update after I put some miles on them...

 

Well after a few hundred miles I'd say the Akebono Euro pads have more bite then the Brembo's I had on there last. I only replaced the rear pads and they are noticeably stronger on initial cold braking. I'd say they are the same to slightly stronger when hot as compared to the Brembo (hot as in normal street temps). Impressive IMHO to notice such a significant difference with just the rear pads. I'm curious to see how they do with the brake fluid boiling punishment of mountain curves like the BOTD. It'll most likely be Autumn before we make it out there again though so I wont be commenting on that anytime soon. In all fairness I have also replaced all the old rubber brake hoses with stainless braided hoses, installed the caliper stiffeners on the rear, replaced the rear pads, and flushed what I can only assume is the original brake fluid from 2003 with Motul 600 so it probably isn't only a brake pad difference I'm feeling.

 

Some time ago the passenger window on my Mini quit working for no apparent reason. I looked on YouTube to refresh my memory on how to pull the door card to figure out why. My generic search brought up another video on how to repair the window with the exact same symptoms my car has. THAT video had a link to repair the motor without removing the entire motor and regulator assembly. I will link all 3 videos below. Its a very easy repair with a little patience and some basic tools. Getting the armature back together is tricky and getting the one blind screw back in the motor is quite the PITA. But it is doable and actually pretty easy if your the hands on type. Window works great again and it cost me exactly $0.00 to do!

Removing the door cards:

The symptoms and the repair with the entire motor/regulator assembly removed:

Repairing the motor without removing the regulator:

 

When I took the door apart to fix my inoperative window I decided to take a look at my door speaker because it has buzzed and rattled the entire time I've owned the car. It was shot. The cone looked like it was made of paper and it was torn completely off the surround entire way around!

Well what better time to replace the speaker than while it is completely accessible?! A buddy of mine talked me into upgrading the factory 5.25" speakers to a 6.5" replacement. After inspecting how the factory speaker is installed I decided there was no true bolt in replacement without cutting up the old speaker to use it as a mount for the new one so I took his advise and we put a 6.5" in.

Same buddy told me to write it up as we couldn't find much about putting a 6.5 in the front of an R50. So the following is a simple write up of what we did. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and looks good too IMHO. I bought cheapy Dual brand speakers from advance because I don't really care about fancy stereos and I had a coupon lol. Both front speakers for $26.40! They honestly sound better than I thought they would so I'm happy.


On to the install!!!
First thing is to get the door card off. The video I posted above is a good reference on how to that.

Door card off. The speaker is already removed in this pic also.



Original speaker....Nasty


Once you get the door card off, flip it over and drill out the rivets that hold the speaker grill on, and pop the grill off.



It will look like this when your done.





Next clip off the tabs that the rivets went through to make room for the new speaker basket.




You will end up with this.



Now flip your door card back over and line up your new speaker. I used a cordless and put the screws in with just the speaker lined up how I wanted it. Next I removed the screws, put the grill on, and reinstalled the screws. I did it this way because it was easier to hold just the speaker while I put the screws in rather then fumbling with the speaker and grill and keep it all lined up.





And here is the finished product next to the original.


I mounted the speaker to the door card instead of the door itself because I wanted to be able to see it and it let me run a bigger speaker. The problem you will run into if you try to mount a bigger speaker in the original location is the depth. You have less than 2" of clearance behind the speaker and the magnet on most decent speakers will hit the window regulator that is directly behind the speaker. Mounting it on the surface of the door card gives you a ton more room.



EDIT: The front door speaker wire colors are Yellow w/Red stripe for positive, and Yellow w/Brown stripe for negative. I ran into conflicting info online about this so I decided to post it here.
I also used the wires that came with the speakers and added standard male spade connectors and plugged them directly into the original speaker harness, I did not cut the factory harness.