alright, alright, alright!

i originally posted an intro thread here
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...new-owner.html

because i was not sure if i was going to keep this car or not. but over the past month or so i have decided that i think i will keep it. with that in mind, and with this forum seeming to be a great resource of info, i have decided to go ahead and start a build thread.

this is going to be the mildest and budget-est build but i like to have them to track my progress. and, it also helps to have for a reference later when i forget what the hell i did or why.

all that said, here it is. my 2002 mini cooper s. i bought this on a whim from my brother with a handful of issues. i've started familiarizing myself with them and even addressed a couple. i am also starting to stockpile parts and tools.








some of the issues are/were:
parasitic electric drain - fixed. i found a GPS tracker hardwired into the backside of the OBD2 port.
key clicker broken - not fixed. i bought new keys to self program but apparently have to get them from the dealer.
sagging headliner - fixed enough. the PO self installed some darth vader printed sewing cloth. it started to sag, predictably. i used some (~125 or so) upholstery tacks to get it back in place. pictures below
crappy factory radio with no bluetooth - fixed. installed an entry level JVC unit with microphone. picture below
creaky and squeaky steering / suspension - will be addressed in the coming months with new bushings and ball joints
odometer doesn't work - not addressed yet.

list of positives:
new tires
rack and pinion was just replaced
straight body
clean interior
completely stock
good paint

 

as i said, i have replaced the radio. that makes such a difference. and at some point, i'll move over a small sub/amp from my fusion to the mini. then the radio setup will be good to go.




you guys are just going to have to take my word for it that this is an improvement with the headliner.



these are what i used, if you're not familiar.



and then...here is the odometer not working. admittedly, this seems kind of like a big deal, but to me it's not. the downside is i can't calculate my mileage or track service intervals. but i'll just have to go based on time instead of actual miles. i've done some searching for info but have come up empty so far.





and that's about where I am right now. i did pick up a used s/c pulley puller and serpentine belt tool. i plan to do a 17% pulley, belt, and 1-step colder plugs. and then, as mentioned, rebuild the front suspension. and add the amplifer/sub.
from there, i will really just plan to drive it. i do need to get the key clicker working and the odometer to display. the steering doesn't always want to return to center after a sharp turn, either. i'll do the front end work first. after that we'll see how it behaves. otherwise, i'm going to enjoy it as a fun little compliment to driving my old 96 bronco. between the two, i've got a couple really enjoyable vehicles.

 

Well... Rack and pinion was recently replaced. However, even more recently, it started leaking from the passenger side seal.

I've done a rack and pinion before on a different vehicle, and it was a pretty serious beating. Combined with my initial research showing that I had to drop the subframe to replace it, I was not looking forward to the job. Also, I have some upgrades for my bronco waiting to go on. So this repair is really cramping my schedule.
I tried to find info on replacing the seal only but got nowhere. So, I but the bullet and bought the only lifetime warranty rack and pinion I could find locally.
I thought I was going to take more pictures, but it was too damn hot today. (100*+ in Dallas)

Getting ready





​​​​​​Here's the leaky bastard


And, I don't know why it took so long, but I finally figured out a way to get my son in the garage with me lol.


In the end, it wasn't nearly as bad a job as I was expecting. Obviously it helped that all the nuts and bolts has recently been removed. However, I didn't have to do the subframe. It was really straight forward, actually. And, I'll happily say that I was surprised at how much room I had to work.

Then I double checked (thankfully) on what type of power steering fluid to use. I almost used regular power steering fluid. But, I saw that I needed whatever kind of fancy imported crap it requires. Ran to a local import auto parts store. Sadly I forgot my Vaseline when I paid $30/liter. but, i will admit that i did get a chuckle to myself for buying a liter of power steering fluid instead of a quart.

anyway, i came back and finished the installation. checked for leaks. no leaks. drove it around the block and back home. check again and no leaks. then i changed clothes and took it on a couple hour test drive. mostly i was being glad to be able to drive it again instead of my bronco. i love the bronco, but i don't like putting so many miles on it. but, having the mini instead of the fusion to drive daily...holy cow. i can't explain how pleasantly surprised i've been with this thing - even with the surprise rack and pinion job.

While I was under the hood, I created a more detailed list of things to do.
Valve cover gasket
Passenger side motor mount has a zip tie around the middle. Not sure about that
The driver side inner cv boot is punctured and leaking

today, fedex dropped off my first order from way motor works. i got the 17% pulley kit with belt and plugs and then the ddmworks CAI with dry afe filter. i'm gonna grab a serpentine belt tensioner from napa tomorrow. i want to install these tomorrow but, i'm going to save this for next weekend.

tomorrow, i plan to install the amp/sub that i removed from my fusion. and come monday, i'll be so glad to drive the mini to work instead of my bronco.

 

a couple days ago (saturday) i got out there and did some more upgrades.
my trusty amp/sub that will be installed in the 3rd vehicle of mine.
an oil change
DDMworks cold air intake
way motorworks 17% reduction pulley
1-step colder plugs
k060532 belt (didn't fit - had to use k060535)
napa belt tensioner
alta tensioner stop (if i had realized i needed one, i'd have ordered the one from wmw when i ordered the other parts)
bosch cabin filter
and a dash camera



​​​​​​

 

the first thing i did was install the cabin filter. this thing was gross.



then i did the amp. i found the beginnings of rust under the door seal. that's kind of a bummer. i'll deal with that later, though. i bundled the rca cable and the remote wire together when i ran them from the radio to the trunk.




i didn't take pics of everything, but i pulled the glovebox and ran the wires from the radio, over the glovebox, and down the kick panel. then i ran it down the rocker panel to the back seat.




then i pulled the bottom of the back seat and ran the wires into the trunk.



under the trunk carpet, i did not have a battery tie down. however, i went to the junk yard and found one.




the ground wire in the kit was surprisingly short. so, i ended up using the excess power wire as my ground wire, too. i just had to be careful not to get confused on which is which.
i sanded off the paint for where i did the ground wire.
i zip tied the amp power wire to the positive battery cable.



and installed. i have a small bracket i'm going to use later to secure the box to the carpet. but here it is for now. also, i left enough slack so i can sit the box on top of the rear seat and access the battery.

 

from there i went to the intake. that's when the trouble started...



air filter wasn't bad.



you can see in the first picture that it's missing, but i don't have that little hose running from the bottom of the air box to the front of the grill. i was incredibly confused when the instructions told me to remove the s-tube. once i removed the air tube, i saw that something was missing.



but then, i went to install the intake air box. and i found the finish was not sticking to the box. i picked at it and ended up here.






that was disappointing. now, i could stop there, wait until monday to talk to wmw and figure out a return / exchange situation. but, i had the car apart and didn't want to wait. so...i grabbed a can of spray-on bedliner from my paint bin and painted it.

while that dried, i moved on to the pulley....

 

step one was do the tensioner stop. that was a piece of cake and i'll take it.



so, i was able to remove the old tensioner, no prob. then when pulling the pulley...my used pulley puller stripped out.




thankfully, i had a heli-coil on hand. it was a different sized thread but i had a bolt that fit. now, this is better than new b/c instead of aluminum threads it had hardened steel threads.




NOTE: when pulling the pulley, i followed the advice of a youtube video i saw and bought a chain wrench like this. wrap it around the pulley and puller to keep the puller from flexing off.


skipping ahead, when i went to install the belt that came with my kit, it was too short. it came with k060532. i had to buy k060535. unfortunately, they didn't have the gates belt they showed to have online, so i had to go with store brand.



with that pain in the butt completed, i went back to the air box.

 

one thing i was really pleasantly surprised about was the dry air filter upgrade from way motorworks. i did the "dry filter" for $25 extra instead of the k&n filter for $50 extra. i received an AFE filter p/n 24-90082. when i can, i'm going to order the pre-filter sleeve. that'll keep the bugs and big pieces of gunk from ever making it to the filter element.




but the happiness was short lived. i found out my air tube was torn in two spots. a new silicone tube is on the way.



the intake kit was missing the piece to hold the positive battery terminal, so i had to zip tie it in place for now.





in the end, i overcame adversity and finished the job.

 

the spark plugs went smoothly. they definitely needed replacing, but didn't suggest any horrible issues. i checked and they were factory heat BKR6EQUP





and my one step colder plugs BKR7EQUP

 

i didn't get to the dash cam because i ran out of time, but i did try to do the oil. unfortunately, the oil drain plug was installed so tightly, when i used my impact on it the bolt head rounded off instead of coming loose. no pictures of that. i haven't done anything else with it. i'm considering my options for now, but i'll get it dealt with pretty soon.


i also found the passenger side cv boot is broken. so both sides have busted boots. that sucks. and i gotta do something with that missing s-tube. i may just cap it off. the air box will be able to get enough air from the firewall side. and that would keep out the hot air from the engine compartment from entering the air box.

all that said...when i went to drive it...i was pretty happy with it. it's not suddenly a race car but i definitely can tell a difference. and i really enjoy being able to hear the supercharger whine. that sounds badass. so, overall, a mostly positive experience...i just have some stuff to deal with.

 

Finally got to do a little more work on this thing. I bought another set of bolt extractors.

Here's the stripped little bastard.




And here it is, extracted. So, I got to change the oil. Then, I wrote... The date with no mileage because my odometer is broken. Lol...

 

Alright, well... Small update. I swapped out the busted CAI box with as new one.

A couple notes:. I bought and installed the ddm works intake tube. Boy, that thing didn't want to fit very well. But, it's in. Hopefully I don't spend a lot of time removing/reinstalling it.

Then I set out to the junk yard to grab a few things. I found the s tube but not the accordion tube to the grill.




Now you can see I was missing the cap for the positive battery terminal and my fuse box. I was able to find them.



And this looks a bit nicer, now.



Also, on a disappointing note...I snagged a power steering pump. On the website, they lost the price for a power steering pump at $35 + $5 core, or something there about.
when I went to pay, they said it wasn't a power steering pump. Instead, it was an electric steering assist and was $110 + core. I argued a bit and tried to make them understand that despite being electric, it still pumped power steering fluid. The lady behind the counter insisted that because it was electric it was electric steering assist.

Unfortunately, I just left it there. On the bright side, I didn't spend a lot of work removing it because someone already cut it loose and dropped the subframe. Literally, one nut and I had it free. Oh well

 

Man, this car...I've been mostly enjoying driving it the last however long. We've run into some issues but before I get to that, I thought I should bring some positive vibes first.

I'm gonna leave this first part a bit vague for obvious reasons...
I "played" a newer 5.0 mustang recently. I was cruising along the highway about however fast and this mustang came up from a good distance behind me. He, at a decent rate, caught up to and passed me. But, when he got just beside me, he slowed down to pace me a little bit. So, naturally I did what anyone like me would do - I dropped gears, punched it, and the little mini did it's best.

Now, I know I need to wind up the gears to get into the upper rpm band, but I went too low. The engine screamed and went no faster. I immediately went to the next gear, but it was already too late. He burned off and that was that.

I had no illusions of what could have been, but I would like to have been able to see an honest comparison. Either way, my workday commutes have been way more enjoyable when I drive the mini instead of the bronco or that other old heap of crap (the fusion) that I replaced with this heap of crap.

 

Speaking of commutes, I tried to commute to work on Monday. Well, the mini had other plans. It was dead. Not enough juice to start then pretty immediately no juice to even try. Thankfully, I do have another vehicle and it's ready to rock and roll, as per the usual (at least now that I've had it a while). So, I drove the bronco to work.

I've been thinking of buying a volt meter that goes in your lighter to monitor voltage when your car is acting up. This was the push I needed to buy it. I ordered that up for same day delivery.

Then, that evening, I pulled the battery and stuck it on the charger. it charged over night and Tuesday evening wasn't quite 100% done.

today, I installed the battery checked the vintage with the cig lighter gauge. It was fine when the RPMs were up but at idle it would drop as low as in the 12s.

​​​

 

wow, what a hassle! i searched alternators available near me as i did not want to buy online and deal with shipping cores and warranty exchanges.

good thing, too! i settled on the ACDelco reman from advance auto parts. i was surprised when i opened it to find a reman from bbb industries instead. ok, well, no biggie. looked at the test sheet and it showed to be remanufactured in 2/2021.

removed the whole front bumper to do the job. i didn't know i was going to have to do that. the first time through was very frustrating and time consuming b/c i had to do some repairs on the bumper skin. got it installed and buttoned up. everything looked good on the voltmeter.

head to return the core, and then my voltage started to drop. it dropped more, and more, and more.... finally, it stopped fluctuating at all. the alternator completely died and my car had to run on the battery.

sooo...i had to go and remove / warranty the alternator.

go to another store to pick up the alternator (i only found 3 advance auto stores with one within 30 - 40 minutes of me). they come back with an older (dated 2015 on the test sheet) alternator from ACDelco.

did the install again. this time, everything seems to be good so far. voltage still fluctuates a bit but not too bad. we'll cross our fingers and see how it goes.

and the "while i'm at it" kind of tasks were very unexciting:
* replace missing screws, bolts, and fasteners
* add washers to some screws and bolts because the heads no longer held whatever in place b/c the "whatever" was broken, damaged, or otherwise missing.
* ziptie the lower grill in place b/c of the broken / mangled retainer tabs

 

so...you're supposed to pull back the core support to access the alternator. but, mine is busted in multiple places. so i was able to just remove the bolt that holds the upper radiator hose against the engine and pull out the radiator.




you can also see some front end damage on the ac condenser.






following up on my CAI installation, i found the plastic S-tube at a junk yard for a nice $8 find. way better than the $50 i saw on ebay. unfortunately, the little accordion inlet that attaches to the grill was MIA. still, wanting to close the hole in the bottom of my airbox, i went ahead and installed it. and then i just capped it with a 2" rubber cap from the plumbing section at home depot.

unfortunately, the red ddworks air tube fitment is still **** poor. but, i am not motivated enough to spend the money on a replacement from another brand. for now i'll just ***** about it while avoiding removing it any time in the near future.





and, i mean, c'mon...it wouldn't be a shitbox if something didn't break while fixing the alternator. this piece of trim was barely held on. i tried to fix it, but obviously it didn't hold. i'm just gonna claim that i drove so fast the trim flew off!





and because this made me chuckle...

 

come on! will things please stop falling off my car?!

 

My regular local junk yards were fresh out of scoops. The selection of online part outs and junk yards were slim pickins. They were all roughly the price of new OEM, which is in the $70-$90 range.


​​​​​​Amazon used bin comes in clutch again for $25
​​​​​​ for aftermarket. I'll get it painted up and installed this weekend. The fender trim will have to wait, but that's not nearly as big a deal as the scoop.

 

Well, a quick trip to the paint booth and it was ready to install.




The previous owner sprayed black plasti-dip on the entire car. There's a little bit still on the hood around the scoop, but I didn't bother to remove it as I was in a hurry to install and run an errand. Maybe another time

 

in addition to all the other headaches, this car has a problem with losing fuel pressure when it sits. the problem manifests itself by requiring two attempts to start it to get it going, or at least turning on the ignition, letting the pump run, and then cycling the ignition again.

since i don't have any idea how old the fuel filter is - actually, i do have an idea...20 years - i decided to go ahead and replace it. i didn't hold out much hope that it would actually solve the issue, but one could dream.

a couple notes to add to the write-up on the forum and my shop manual....

i started off by removing the fuel pump relay and trying to start the car for a few seconds. that depressurized the fuel system.

i don't know why the write-up on this forum says to remove the entire back seat. that would have been a waste of time. all you need is to remove the bottom.

my filter was disgusting.

there was no need to lubricate any of the o-rings. that was just remove/replace. no prob. i broke out my transfer pump to empty out that canister.

the filter came with all the o-rings and gaskets needed. no prob there. it was all fun and games until it was time to put the canister back in place. the ring just would not catch no matter how hard i pushed down on it. i tried looking online and didn't see any indication of some trick or special consideration needed. after disassembling and reassembling a few times, i figured out the issue. i had the big gasket on the canister and was pushing down on it. that was wrong. i needed to put the gasket in the opening where part of it goes into the tank, instead. once i got that squared away it went right back together. fired it up, and checked for leaks. no leaks.

and...you know it still won't start properly. but at least the fuel will be clean.

 

what a freaking hassle....the second alternator is failing at low RPM. i need yet ANOTHER alternator.

the interactions i've had with advance auto on this have been nothing short of ridiculous. the hang-up at this point is getting an alternator tested before installing it. the first store that had one in stock tested the alternator off the shelf and it failed. but, they said they didn't have some connector needed to properly test it. then i talked to another store who tested their alternator off the shelf. they didn't have a bracket to keep tension on the belt and the alternator failed. but they were "confident" that it was good. i am not installing an alternator that they can't test.

then my local store ordered an alternator for me from houston. it was supposed to be here monday. it's wednesday and still no alternator. they said it would be here today. we'll see.

they cannot test the alternator, either. they don' t have the necessary connectors. but, they did commit to finding a store that can test it before handing it over to me. we'll see about that, too. so in the meantime, i'm just cruising around with an under performing alternator.

 

Would you ever consider a different brand of remanufactured alternator? I had an old beater that I went through 3 alternators over the course of 3 years because they kept failing. They were free replacements, but my labor wasn't! With my R53 I ended up getting a Bosch remanufactured one as it seemed to have a better track record.

 

i'm not installing another one until it passes testing. i have already asked for a refund (obviously, they declined). i bought it from advance anticipating that it'd fail at some point and need to be replaced. i'm hopeful that once i can get one that works, it'll last long enough that i won't be bitter about changing it again.

the decision to buy one in the store, though, was a combination of price, warranty, and ease of exchange. if i can't get it worked out with advance i'm going to find a local rebuilder and see what they'd charge.

 

Post for future reference..

Well, today the odometer came on for a few minutes at the end of my drive. I've got 141,000 and change on it.

 

The alternator oddly started charging at low speed, but only intermittently. I gave up trying to get advanced to order a replacement after they drug their feet for several weeks.

I ended up finding a NOS Bosch reman made in USA off of eBay with a no DOA guarantee. I'm gonna exchange the advance alternator at some point down the road to keep as a backup.

Also, the brakes on my mini aren't up to par for the way I drive it. So...I got some trusty hawk hps pads and then found some rotors to go along with them.