R50/53 1 year review of my 2002 MCS

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10-22-2003, 07:07 AM

orbhot

6th Gear

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Join Date: Oct 2002

Location: Dunedin, FL, USA

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I have a 2002 dark silver/white MCS with lapis blue interior, alarm, and of course the metallic paint, but no other options. I purchased it on Oct 21st 2002 from the dealer stock at Ferman MINI of Tampa Bay. With just under 13,000 miles driven during my first year of ownership, I am probably not the best candidate to produce a 1 year review for the MINI. But don’t get me wrong, I‘ve been telecommuting almost every day with only an occasional visit to the office for the past 7 or 8 months, so, unlike the mileage on most cars, the majority of my 13,000 miles are not related to getting to work. My MCS has been to and around Deal’s Gap, NC, all over the state of FL for weekend road trips and MINI meets, and most recently to New Orleans. I also autocross the car on occasion, which, as any autocrossers know, can be very hard on the car in a very short number of miles. But who cares, I love it. I kept the 16” v-spoke wheels for their low weight and decent strength and am still running on the stock Dunlop SP5000 runflats.
On to the review…
Problems:
No majorly annoying problems to report of.
I have had 2 minor water leaks. One was from the seal at the shaft of the water pump. According to the MINI technician at Ferman MINI of Tampa Bay, this was an assembly problem, not a part failure. If the seal is not installed perfectly it will start to leak down the road. Once installed correctly it should last a long time. It has not leaked again (yet). The other leak was from the very common problem with the early model water reservoir tank. They replaced it with the tan colored water tank and it has not leaked since.
I do have a slight yo-yo problem (search MCO for yo yo if you don’t know what I’m talking about), but from reading some of the posts on MCO I am not complaining since mine is pretty minor. I will add that installing the intake and pulley did not improve this yo-yo problem. I am running the same software that came with the car and do not want to upgrade the software for fear of making things worse.

Performance addition reviews:
Alta 15% reduction pulley: This is by far the best mod for the money (unless you get an exhaust for an extreme discount like I did). The pulley makes the car much more fun to drive around town because it give substantial added low to mid-range torque that makes it great for accelerating off of lights, but without reaming up to the upper RPM range. We will just have to wait and see how this mod takes it’s toll on the supercharger.
Stebro exhaust: As I mentioned I got this exhaust for an extreme discount (almost a trade of sorts, I won’t go into detail). If I had to pay full price I’d most likely choose the NRP because of it’s light weight and simpler 1 pipe design. The Stebro is a very nice stainless system that sounds great, especially when hard on the gas. Similar to the Magnaflow in design, it also has a highway drone. The Stebro’s drone peak is between 81 and 84 MPH, which is fine for most highway driving, but when you have a long 70 MPH interstate drive, it can get slightly annoying when you want to go as fast as possible without breaking the ticket generating 15 MPH over the speed limit barrier. I have been in cars with the Magnaflow and will say that the Stebro’s drone is not as bad as the Magnaflow, but it is worse than the Borla which is a very quite system.
Pipercross intake: The Pipercross intakes use a dual density foam filter. Oiled foam has been show to have higher flow rates AND better filtering than oiled cotton or other material meshes, and of course is also much better than paper. My only complaint about the Pipercross for the S is that the “heat shield” and filter assembly are both aluminum. Although this looks nice, aluminum absorbs heat like mad and I suspect this increases the temperature of air coming into the engine, though probably not enough to make a difference. Nevertheless, I have insulated the heat shield with some home A/C style fiberglass, aluminum backed insulation. I have noticed that the filter assembly does not get quite as hot with this insulation in place.
Progress adjustable rear anti-sway bar: Although the MCS handled incredibly before, this addition takes it to the next level, allowing me to slide all 4 tires through a hard corner versus plowing just the front tires. I DO NOT recommend this mod for some who does not know how, or is not going to learn how to drive in a high performance manner. The car can be pushed to a higher limit with this mod, but it does make the car harder to control while at that limit.

Final comments:
The car rides more harsh than almost any other car I’ve been in (thank God I got the 16” wheels since the 17s are even more harsh), but it also handles better than any car I’ve driven, so the ride is acceptable. I genuinely have a blast driving it, more so than any other car I’ve ever owned, and I’ve owned some fun and fast cars. I smile widely at least once each time I take the car for a drive. The car has it’s quirks, like not being able to get my tall friends in the back seat, but at least it has one, plus it is surprisingly utilitarian... Being the owner of a home built in 1947, I have made many a trip to Home Depot in the MCS when my wife’s Passat wagon was not readily available, and because of it’s squarish hatchback area, it’ll also fit both of my greyhounds (try that in a Miata, Z3/Z4, S2000, WRX sedan, Ford Focus SVT, Honda Civic Si, Acura RSX, and the list goes on). The MCS is incredibly fun and also something you can actually use for more than just driving and, in what I've found to be a pretty reliable car for a decent price.

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I’ve owned cars that blow – this one blows the bloody doors off. [img]albums/album25/ama.gif[/img]
Alta pulley, Stebro exhaust, Pipercross intake, Progress rear anti-sway bar.

VinceAndJessica.com

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