Hey guys!

I recently bought a 2005 MCS with a six speed manual trans from a little dealership last month. I looked at the carfax but it doesn't really say what was done (maintenance wise). Even though i bought it last month, I'm kind if iffy on what if anything was done with the mini. Wanting to do some work on it since I have a few days off this coming week. My question to you guys is what should I do other then an oil change? Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jchen

 

Oil change, brake fluid.

Check compression.

Ideally, if you have the money, tools and the time, I'd look into changing the water pump, refilling the supercharger oil (it has two refilling spots, one for front, one for back), check timing chain, fuel filter change, and transmission oil change.

I'd check all suspensions, bearings and what's not as well.

A walnut blasting wouldn't go remiss either. Do a search on this forum about a dyi engine cleaning that includes a guide on how to do walnut blasting on the cheap.

 

Oh, and change the low speed fan resister. I'll bet the low speed fan resistor on your car is busted too.

And check if your power steering needs replacement. If it does, drop it at the mini dealership...they extended the warranty on power steering.

 

2005 doesn't need walnut. Does it?

 

Mine did. It had lots of carbon buildup on the exhaust ports, even though it's not a turbo. I don't know what the previous owner did to the car.

My car is a 2005 MCS JCW convert.

 

The '05 does not have the Prince engine which came with all the wonderful add-ons like cold start rattle, lousy fuel injection/carbon buildup, timing chain rattle and etc. The best cure for carbon buildup in the 'lump' engine is a good old fashioned 'Italian tune up'. Take it out and wind it up. In other words, blow the cobs out of it.

Somebody in here once said: "Without pictures, it didn't happen".

I would take a hard look at the SC/alternator belt and see does it need replaced. 85K is a good time to do that anyway. Rotate you tires every 5,000 miles and a lot of guys, regardless of factory 'wisdom', change the oil every 5K as well.

Here's a few web sites you might find handy.
http://www.motoringfile.com/
http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?
http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html
http://www.lightinsight.com/
http://www.motorcycleroads.us/index.html
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/select.do
http://soopercooperinfo.com/

 

thank you guys for the response!

i will surely add these to my "to do" list.

 

Or timing chain....
The list goes on....
2005...gen1....
Supercharged....
Most overlooked items...
Coolant flush....
Brake flush...
A inspection #1 should be due about 90k....
First inspection 1 should have been at 30k...the insp 2 at 60k....the 30 later (about) you redo inspection 1....
If you want to rebuild a car....that is one thing.... Lol...
But do the preventive MX, and fix broken stuff...and you will find items like suspension bushehings on the inspections... Why folks do crap haphazardly and waste money being ocdbon their cars, I'll never understand....

 

And only 2005 cars built in 2004 got the PS pump warrenty.....
Check your drivers side door sticker.... It will list a production date..very useful with a mini.

 

Hi,

I've had a 2005 MCS with 126k km(78k miles), it had a basic service at 74k miles but for peace of mind I bought castrol 5-30, air, oil, cabin filters, timing chain tensioner and had them fitted, ironically it has developed an oil leak since this service so having the rocker cover gasket changed next week and gonna change the power steering return pipe with new power steering fluid to try to fix small leak there.

The car drives superbly(I bought it as a temp car with a view to selling it but want to keep it now)

Gearbox, suspension and ride are great(four new Kumho non runflats on it)

Only issue with the engine is that if I spend enough time in start stop traffic in occasionally tends to drop rpm at idle, a quick rev and it's fine.

I've tried fuel treatment cleaners but not sure how effective they can be.

One friend suggested either cleaning throttle body or a problem with temperature sensor.

Any thoughts from members here would be great.

The car is jet black, full black leather, chrono pack, chill pack, mfsw, pan roof.

Only missing bluetooth and heated seats and I've been looking at various retrofit options

cheers

 

do what I did, after looking at the car fax report I noticed that the car came from CA to the NY area and it was serviced at a local MINI Dealer shown on Car Fax, I went to the dealer and had the 69.99 Oil service done and asked the SA very nicely if he could provide me with a print out of the service history for my car and he gladly did, the are not obligated to do this.
I found out that the car had a bunch of work done by the dealership LCA, Rad Fan etc.. the thing is that the 2 years warranty from the dealer transfer to the new owner and i'm taking advantage of that, is worth it if your car was serviced in your area.

all of the above are good things to check I would do some of them as needed otherwise it will become pricey fast.
if you are doing some work to the car that requires service mode change your crank positioning sensor O ring they tend to leak and is very cheap, you can also do this pulling the engine back a bit but I don't know how easy it is, also check your dipstick for cracks, if it breaks inside the tube that's a problem. do the basics first and you will pick up on other stuff. good luck and show us pics of the car please

 

Common problem. Mine has intermittently done it since new. Lots have complained, but I've never heard of a fix. If the engine doesn't die and a quick stab of the throttle restores idle, I'd live with it.

Some odd advice in this thread that doesn't sound like it has much bearing on a Gen1. For example, there's no timing chain maintenance required nor really any reason to fool with it. Good thing, cause it is a hell of a lot of work to access the timing chain. The supercharger belt is something that should be changed out every 60K (not a huge job) and it is not a bad idea to take the front end of the car off and service the supercharger, water pump, etc., periodically. But it's not required and a lot of work, so letting it go is certainly a viable strategy; there are numerous reports of cars going 150K+ without supercharger maintenance. A lot would depend on whether you've put a pulley on the engine and how hard you drive. I think the best strategy is to wait as long as possible and then try and do a bunch of common maintenance (supercharger service, CPS seal, water pump, oil pan gasket, etc.)in one fell swoop when you have the front end of the car off. Somewhere between 75K and 100K sounds like a good compromise for this stuff to me.

- Mark

 

This issue is more than likely a common thing with supercharged motors. It is called 'Heat Soak' and is the nature of the beast. The design of the SC is to supply COLD compressed air to the intake. Compressing air actually heats it adding to the ambient engine bay heat hence the need of the intercooler. The effect is even more noticeable on hot days and is identified by a sluggish start after sitting for a few moments followed by a sudden surge when the cold air makes the trip.

 

90% chance this is what is happening.....
Just make sure the basics are done...air filter, plugs (every 30,000 miles on a JCW or pulled car), and wire/coils plugs are clean/corrosion free.
If it still does it, call it personality.....

 

P.S
Look under your seat for a unused (brown-i think) plug....many late 2004-2005 cars had the heated seats, but not wiring and switch due to supply issues....so it might be a simple wire and switch retrofit.......

 

By all means check your crank damper, big issues with them coming apart 05-06 especially. Do a search and read up on it. ATI damper would be your best preventive maintenance choice.

 

thanks for the tip, I ahd heard of unused fourth block connector which means elements in the seats and simply switch to be wired but alas only two block connectors when I checked!

 

That's good to know thanks

 

Hi guy,.. Welcome, and hope you're enjoying your new MINI. I got mine this past April. I've replaced the belt, upper right motor mount, spark plugs, coolant, brake fluid, and engine oil & filter. I'm not a pro mechanic by any means, but have always taken care of my own cars for the last 25 years. Fortunately, with patience, research, correct tools etc... I haven't broken anything in trying to work on (maintain) the MINI. It seemed a little intimidating at first...everything crammed in there so tight. Ive been pleasantly surprised how easy and straight-forward it's been for me so far.

I should probably change transmission fluid too, but its a manual trans -so not feeling so urgent.

My gut tells me it would be wise to change the SC oil, but I haven't been too ambitious about that yet. With 85k now -I half wonder if I'll just need to replace the SC within the next 25-50k regardless of what I do now...???

I'm saving my pennies now for power flex lower control arm bushings, cravenspeed strut tower defenders, inner and outer front ball joints, and power flex motor and trans mounts.

Brakes and tires probably next year. I've been lucky with my PS Pump working fine (I'm a 08/05 manf. date, so extended warranty does not apply to me)

I'd really like to get an ATI crank pulley, a reduced sc pulley, a scan gauge II, and a rear sway bar,.... My wife however seems convinced that taking the family to Disney Land next year has priority. I can't figure out how she arrived at that conclusion, and I think there may be something wrong with her head, but getting her head examined would be cost prohibitive. She asserts that I've become a MINIac -but... I guess it's okay -she (and family) are the only things I love as much as the MINI, which fortunately has been well received as the newest member of the family (but somehow MINI was not invited to Disney Land!)

 

I'm going to change the rocker cover gasket next weekend in the hope that it will cure it's oil leak.

Every morning there is about a quarter coins sized oil drop on the driveway, definetly castrol and not PS fluid.

Ironically the leak came after I had the oil changed 1000km ago and had done a oil flush.

It drips off the front edge on the power steering bracket.

Could it be a dreaded crank seal? rather than rocker cover?

 

^I was under the impression that you don't really have to replace the sc oil at all.. or is it just me?

 

I think you're right. Not even MINI carries the sc oil for it. They call it a no maintenance item, never change the oil, just run it till it fails, then replace it.

From what I've read, it's usually the PTO Gears on the back side of the supercharger that fail first, -then they can't drive the water pump anymore.

Some guys are changing the SC oil as preventative maintenance i guess. There may be some stuff in the stickies on NAM. I found this on Billswebspace a while back. http://www.billswebspace.com/SuperchargerDoc_v4.pdf

 

It's common, and easy to pinch the rubber Oring on the oil filter housing when putting in a new filter. You might reach down there when its cold, see if you can feel fresh oil, or watch it with with a flashlight when it runs, see if it drips.

The ps pump is a ways from there... Just never know if oil could be trailing over on a heater or oil cooler line back there.