This build report is fantastic. I love seeing the progress. I just picked up a very clean Cooper and while it works well, I am seeing little things that I can do to improve it. At 100k miles I feel motor mounts and suspension upgrades are coming soon.

 

At the recommendation of @MikesJCW I found a local mechanic to take a look at my mini for me and let me bounce some thoughts off him. He said he was nervous when I told him about working on it myself, but he was surprised and complimentary of my work... Which always feels good.

He did a lot of testing in my electrical issues. He also found a couple mechanical issues in that my motor mount was collapsed and the tensioner damper bushings were bad. The tensioner itself is visibly recently replaced by the PO. he recommended fixing those 2 things and seeing how it responds.

So, I ordered up an anchor upper motor mount and uro tensioner damper as well as powerflex bushings for both.

While I was in there I relaxed the camshaft position sensor o-ring. Hopefully that'll further reduce my oil leaks.






I didn't know what they're supposed to look like. Apparently this is bad. Haha






Punching out the bushings on the new damper.

 

The difference in my shifting is day and night. The motor mount made a huge difference. No change in my electrical, but that's ok.

I've got some kind of vibration coming from the tires. I've isolated it to the two new tires on the car. When they're in the back, minimum vibration in the car. I'm the front the car vibrates. What's odd is I've taken them to be balanced and the guys say they're good. I dunno. I decided against two replacements for the ones going bald and ordered 4 Continental extreme contact daw06 plus tires 215/45R17. I've heard good things about them both in the Mazdaspeed community as well as the mini cooper folks.

I also found a small bend in a wheel. I'm going to talk to the tire shop about repairing it.

 

Not pictured, I got new tires and a replacement for my missing center cap. I also pulled codes. It looks like my abs,dsc,tpms trio might be related to the passenger front abs speed sensor. So, I ordered a replacement. Scheduled to take a week for delivery because I choose free shipping, but here's to hoping it's here by the weekend.

I did get pictures, too, of touching up some faded paint under the hood. When I got the car, I bought a can of spray paint to match the paint code and one with gloss clear coat. I also got blue and silver paint pens. Well, today I finally got around to painting these faded spots.



It's worst here in the center under the hood



And on the driver side fender



And then here it is all touched up.

 

Ordered Sunday with free shipping, estimated delivery on Monday and the parts came today. That's as fast as i could have possibly hoped.

​​​​​​Amusingly, since I inspected the parts over the weekend, the abs, tpms, and abs lights haven't shown up. Maybe they just needed to be jiggled. Lol nah, I knew the sensor connector needed to be replaced. I just changed both the sensor and connector.

​​​​​​

 

I was able to use a pick to remove the pins from the original connector. Then I just pushed them into the new connector. I didn't cut the ends and spice the leads that were sent with the connector.
I was ready to drive so I didn't snap any pictures. I'll get some next time I wash it, though.

Anyway, to it for a test drive and don't let me jinx myself, but the results are very positive. Between the tires and addressing the sensor, the motor mount, and alternator, this thing is really rolling right now.

​​​​​​The test drive was so fun. I am going on a short 1 1/2 trip out to East Texas this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it.

 

Dear diary,
The last week has been incredible. This car is such a joy to drive. I didn't think it'd take this long to get here, but here we are.
Saturday was a1 1/2 drive to East Texas for disc golf, then a quick hour drive that only took about 45 minutes to get kolaches from West, Texas on Sunday.
A couple 20 minute highway runs Monday and Tuesday plus another 1 hour trip today.
It's not perfect, but it's in so much better shape and seems to have turned a corner, knock on wood.

 

If this can continue, then hopefully I can get to install the front end refresh sitting in the attic. And maybe address the last bit of oil leaks at the same time. I'll just drive the bronco while the mini is down.

 

over the past year or so of ownership, i've been able to address a pretty good number of things with this car. however, i have also identified myriad things to do still. to address these situations, i prefer to accumulate parts here and there and stockpile them. that way, when i dig into whatever major refresh i'm doing, i'm not footing the bill all at once. it also is nice when i can catch things at a good price along the way.

i set out to do my front suspension - ball joints, bushings, end links, etc. but after getting the subframe out of the way, i realized how much more room i had to work on the engine. so, i decided to just do all the jobs at once.

the to-do list:
ball joints
tie rods
sway bar bushings & end links
control arm bushings
rack and pinion bellow replacement (mine have holes in them)
replace the axle seals that started leaking after i replaced the cv shafts

but now that the subframe is out of the way, i decided to go ahead and do some additional engine work:
timing chain, tensioner, and gears
i'm pretty sure i have a good oil leak on the timing cover
oil pump
oil pan gasket - i already replaced once, but apparently did something wrong as it's still leaking
radiator fan resistor

transmission mount with powerflex bushing inserts

and while i'm doing all that, it's a great time to go ahead and do the supercharger service, too.
however, upon tearing into that and inspecting the parts, i've decided to go ahead and do a new water pump and thermostat & housing.
i really intended to leave those, but after getting eyes on it all, i have a little less faith in how much life they have left.

in doing all this, i have realized i needed more parts, so i have a full list of incoming shipments to complete the job. for now, i will document what i've done so far...





we're ready to get to work





it was really pretty uneventful disconnect a few things here and there, and the subframe it out. i ended up taping a handle to the PS hoses to keep it from falling over and leaking.




and when i looked, i couldn't believe it. i have so much room for activities!

 

upon inspection, the harmonic balancer looks good. hopefully i can remove it without damage.



so now i can get to tearing into the front of the car...





and get my eyes on the block. a surprising bit of surface rust...



water outlet o-ring has begun to fail

 

now, this is quick and dirty, so don't get all uptight about not doing a better job. this is definitely an improvement and should help slow any rusting in the future. then, if i ever rebuild the engine, i'll paint it properly.

here i have hit it with a wire brush and some brake cleaner to start. and taped off the bolt holes and such.




then painted it with rustoleum rust reformer. apparently i didn't get any pics of the first coat



and then the coat of silver engine paint. i got lucky to have some silver engine paint in my toolbox. otherwise, the only other engine paint i had was some ford blue.


and then, to wrap up my weekend, i installed the trans mount. i searched high and low to find a deal on a transmission mount. this is a brand i've seen across a number of sites and they seem to be a least half a step up from buying straight off alibaba.




and installed with the powerflex bushings




At the end of the day...

 

Nice Job

 

chipping away over new years...

i started breaking down the subframe. original ball joints were ready to be replaced. some more so than others, but it was time.




some of the bolts were trying to start rusting, but nothing too bad.





then i cleaned up the subframe with combination of using brake cleaner, degreaser, and a wire wheel. then i hit it with a thick coat of rusty metal primer. i've done this dance with other vehicles and this works for quite a long time.





it took me just over an hour to put the first layer of paint on the subframe. today i'll do a quick second coat and that will be ready to go.

 

i used a combination of tools to break down the control arm. first, i put it in a vice and just twisted. the control arm separated in the bushing easy-peasy. it was ready to be replaced.





i started with my press and a sleeve from a ball joint kit.





the ball joint cup wasn't deep enough for the bushing to drop out completely, though. so i finished it in the vice with the BFH.




to get the remnants of the bushing off the control arm, i used a bearing separator to press it off. i put a small bolt in the arm for the puller to push against instead of the control arm.

 

and in-between the bigger jobs, i tried to be a little productive by replacing the cooling fan resistor. my car wouldn't overheat, but if i sat still long enough, it would start to get warmer than it should.

the resistor in there definitely has had it!




i had read some bad reviews on the dorman resistor, but they were focused mainly on the soldering coming loose. they must have heard the feedback, because the soldering is now reinforced with an epoxy (or something) to hold it all together. i find it interesting the "resistor" is a coil of wire. that should hopefully last a while.

 

and the list of ordering parts never ends. i was trying to 1) save a few bucks and 2) replace only what needs to be replaced. so i was going to replace the water outlet gasket, but reuse the water outlet itself. but, upon cleaning, i found that the outlet itself was in worse shape than i thought. there is a fair bit of pitting on here, so i have a new one on the way.






and i don't know what i'm going to do about this corrosion i'm finding on various parts under the hood. i am inclined to brush and then spray paint them, but i'm not sure if there's a better way. if someone has a suggestion, i'm open to input.

 

continuing to chip away, but seemingly every thing i touch needs attention. i was looking over the car yesterday and kinda concluded that the only sign of maintenance or repairs on the car so far has been a new timing chain tensioner. otherwise, everything coming off the car is original. that's what i wanted - an unmolested car. but, at the same time, dang! this car needed attention.

over the weekend, i was able to get the timing chain installed. there weren't a lot of guides on this that really spelled out the steps, but between what i found online and my haynes service manual, i was able to git 'er done.

some engine pics for my future reference...





don't do this. this is wrong. i had to stick a long bolt in the center hole of the crankshaft for the puller. the bolt i used at first was pressing against the harmonic balancer and not the crank. oops.




eventually i removed the balancer, though. no real challenge here.








harmonic balancer looks good to go.



pulling the crankshaft gear, i used a combination of a heavy puller along with part of my ball joint kit.





and a long 3/8 extension to hold everything in place.

 

with that out of the way, i installed the new gear with a combination of tools, again.



that worked great until it was bottomed out and i didn't notice. i held the center stud in place with a big pair of pliers to make sure it was on all the way, and it was.



no paint marks, but the timing chain does have different colored links for the timing marks.




finally done. the gears gave me a little trouble trying to get the right links on the right teeth, but we did it.





i read various posts here and there the camshaft bolt should be replaced, but i don't know why. it's not TTY. but, the manual does say to replace the crank bolt, so...new one on the way.

 

I'll tell you, junk yard shopping is always an entertaining adventure. Today I was on the prowl for seats, but I came across a surprise.

This car had been modified. It has a reduction pulley on the supercharger. There were adjustable rear camber links.



I also noticed some exhaust outlets that weren't factory.





​​​​​​On my way out, I asked for a price on the exhaust. They quoted me $65. I thanked them and left.

Then I went home and looked up the exhaust and discovered it was a magnaflow. I went back and got it. But, they hit me for $75 instead. I didn't argue over blatant upcharge. I just wanted the exhaust in one piece. It mostly worked out.

​​​






I don't know if it was broken on the car because I couldn't see the bottom on the car. However, it's broken. I'm gonna see if I can weld it up myself or if I have to take it to a muffler shop.

 

I've continued to do a number of smaller jobs as I go. I need to replace the air bag module according to the dealership. I also had to disassemble the dash to install some gauges. So, that was as great time to bang out both of them at the same time. And while I'm running wires under the dash, I might as well hardwire my dash camera.


The air bag module is under the center console and the cup holders. But with everything apart already, the easiest thing to do was cut a small slice in the carpet and boom... Easy access.




I'm going to do a separate thread for a write-up, but I installed autometer mechanical temp and oil pressure gauges into a replica JCW gauge pod.



I used a dash camera hardwire kit/adapter to power my dash camera instead of using the cigarette lighter.

The dash camera with the wiring tucked into the headliner on the other side of the mirror.





To keep this all simple and avoid pulling the a pillar trim, I just tucked the wire under the headliner, then down the a pillar trim.





Then I zip tied the slack. There's an add a fuse in the fuse with the radio.





And due to a lack of options, the ground is tied to a bolt that holds the dash in place. Easy peasy.

 

Nice Job

 

For my reference, this is the direction of the bushings as the relate to the control arm.




I've used Delphi parts before and was satisfied. I'm hopeful these last a while.
​​
These parts were all nicely packaged. Delphi branding on the bags.



And they're stamped, too.


Tie rods looked good, too



I mentioned earlier the bellows were damaged on both sides. On the passenger side, the grease was washed out and there were the beginnings of surface rust. So, I dissolved the rust and gave it a generous slathering of grease.



New bellows installed



And baby, it's looking like a subframe. Although, admittedly, it took several attempts and combinations of steps to get it all installed and buttoned up. But, we persevered.

 

Seven weeks later...

 

i was cruising facebook one day when a whiteline strut mount brace popped up for sale. it was incredibly inexpensive so i pulled the trigger. seller was great, i have no complaints, although they didn't mention how much the coating was coming off the mounts. but, for the price, whatever...





so i took it apart and hit it with the 'ole wire wheel.




i couldn't believe how well this cleaned up on the bench grinder wire wheel. i clear coated this part.




everything else was painted silver and then clear coated. and i polished the bar pretty good with some polishing compound. it's not perfect, but it's good enough for the price.

 

I have given up on the seat situation for now. And the only thing left is painting the red s on the side markers.