I own a 20th Anniversary GTI and always wanted a MCS now I am about to pull the trigger on getting one. I am going to ask a bunch of questions and I was told the mini community is very generous with info so here it goes. I cannot leave a car stock, but how hard is it to change out pulleys, and the ECU? What are the best belts to go with the pulley? I use to own a G60 Corrado so I know a little about the pulleys. I like to be able to swap back to stock just incase of a pretty expensive part goin to hell. I am hearing of a plug and play for the ECU, how is it? Do mini's have serial programming yet, like they offer for the 1.8t's? Serial helps a bunch for those dealer visits. I can do most of the bolt on work to the car myself with some good destructions, just not the internals. Sounds like a pulley/chip/exhaust/suspension might keep me happy for a long time, so what are your suggestions? I am coming from the VW world and to top it off the crazy aftermarket world of the 1.8t. Tell me about your cars convince me to go MINI. Thanks a bunch in advance!

 

welcome to NAM. :smile: I owned a mk4 myself before getting a MINI.

Doing the pulley could be relatively easy if there is a pulley party coming to your area. Randy Webb at Webb Motorsports tours the country doing pulley installs. I believe the running cost is right around $400 ($200 for the pulley and $200 for the install). Another resouce is Eric @ helix13 if you're anywhere near the Philadelphia area.

Once the stock pulley is removed, you can not go back. If you wanted to go back to the stock size later (say because you realized that the pulley puts you into Street Mod in SCCA and you're more of an STX type), you can always get a stock pulley size from either Randy or Helix, but it won't be stock in appearance. So no tricking your dealer after the fact.

 

Spydor, sounds like you're in for a boatload of fun. Got my 04 MCS in April and right off the bat; CAI, Exhaust, Pulley, Springs, Rear sway bar, greenstuff brake pad(mostly for dust reduction). Did all the work myself, and like you, internals would be stretching my abilities. Am having an absolute blast with my little screamer . Haven't done the ECU yet as I'm not convinced the upgrades are really on the mark yet and I'm waiting for perfection . Get your MINI and get after it! Have fun!:smile:

 

Spydor, I am not the best reference for you, having gone for the JCW upgrade, however ...
You might check eBay for a removed supercharger; they appear now and then and I expect that might be the easiest way for you to go back to stock pulley if you needed it.
However, establish a sensible relationship with your MINI dealership and the only warranty issue with aftermarket pulley should be if the supercharger itself fails, or the water pump (driven through the supercharger), or the head gasket (over pressure due to faster supercharger). Also, I have not yet heard of any issue with warranty / aftermarket pulleys and I suspect we *WOULD* have heard since the online community has a tendency to focus on the downside (eg: windshields).

Also, check out the AMD one-click which I think is the type of on/off ECU upgrade you are looking for ...
http://www.amdtechnikusa.com/minicoopers.asp

 

Now, I may be reading too much into what you've stated there, but if you're thinking of swapping back to stock in case of something going wrong, you may wanna rethink what you say and do with that. Not saying that you would be thinking that, but rather *IF* you are.
For example, there was this young punk kid with a lot of attitude on a Subaru forum/site. Got his parents to buy him the car and the mods. Modified the crap outta the car. Was pushing through something like 3 times the boost through the engine. Course the engine blew bigtime. He goes to get the car back to stock condition and brings it to the dealer. They suspect aftermarket parts caused the problem, and deny any warranty work to be done. He takes it to another dealer and manages to swindle them into work and parts under warranty. Being the idiot he was, he starts bragging about how much he duped the dealer and Subaru-USA into doing the work for free on the forum/site. There were dealerships and other members on the site which contacted the right people in the head office at Subaru which followed up on this all, and the idiot in question got what was coming to him by way of legal action.
Moral of the story is: Modify at your own risk. If you can't risk shelling out for costly repairs or take responsibilty for breakage of your car due to aftermarket parts, then leave it stock.
Off the soapbox.
Offhand think everyone here will say to stop thinking about making the switch to the MINI and just do it. There's a few other VDubbers here that have converted.
Cheers,

 

spydor-

I was not impressed with the 20th even though it is a great looking hatch.
I think it's got potential, but unless you mod that car it will not do well
against other modded cars for sure. I also think the motor is a little weak
considering its size. VR6 has a lot of torque, why didn't they put that
motor in the 20th?


I think VW should've made the Golf wagon with that 20th trim to go
against the Mazda3, Matrix, Vibe, and the other sportywagons.

but this is just my opinion. :smile:

 

Thanks for all the replys!! About not being able to switch the pulley back is fine, but you need to understand, I am comming from an area where European cars are not as plentiful and the VW dealers out here are like wow your chipped? Great your whole warranty is @#$*#@! I was having problems with my old 1.8t and I think it was the coil packs but anyway they were giving me **** about it being chipped, but the dipshits through my timing belt and I pretty much got a rebuilt engine out of the deal. IT is good to know that most BMW dealers arent so **** on aftermarket stuff and only void the part that was replaced or is directly affected by the replaced part.

Mini-Madmen thank god I was blessed with common sense unlike the kid in the scooby doo which was probably a WRX I take it. Kind of reminds me of a kid I know with a butt load of cash from his Wifes family, got his 1.8t staged out by these tuners who have no clue how VW ECU's work well few weeks later and one thrown rod he is up ***** creek without a paddle.

kenchan I agree with you, VW completely down tunes their care terribly anymore. MY 20th is pretty damn modded with chip, 3" TB exhaust, intake, FMIC, etc. and I can barely keep up with a SRT-4 out of the box. That 1.8t is capable of so much, so as soon as you buy it you have to chip it. They didn't put a VR6 in it because they wanted to stick to the roots of having a 4 cylinder under the hood. For the MkV's they are supposed to bring out the 2.0T, but I will wait a few years after production to even consider one. I bought my 01 then the next year it went up 30+ HP =\

iancull thanks for the input! I was all for doing the works myself, but I dont want to pay all the money for a warranty that I am destined to void. It would be perfect for me, but I am always changing exhausts and then after that it would be a domino affect of after market parts lol

Tomslick I think me and you are riding in the same boat. Good idea about the chip they are always changing. My REVO serial programming is awesome for my 1.8t, but it didn't come out till the last year or so and the 1.8t has been around for awile. How was the install of your pulley? I hear people talking about shredding belts, what belt did you use with your new pulley?

DiD A new found buddy I met recently also suggested the pulley party to me, sounds like a good way to go. If for some freak reason I blow the charger or something, I will just have to deal and cough up the cash. I just got out of the military so that GI bill for school could help me there =]

 

I traded my 2001 GTI 1.8 for my MCS. I loved my GTI, but even after spending many thousands on mods, it still did not have the handling that I craved. Nothing I could do could make up for the fact that it's solid beam rear axle had me on 3 wheels when cornering on the track.

The R32 was truly the beast I wanted, but VW was too late for me in releasing it to the US and the MINI was the right car at the right time for me.

My GTI was MUCH faster than my MCS is, but for pure motoring enjoyment, the MINI wins hands down. . .

 

Keep it comming guys! Love it

 

Is this dave? Well as I said to you, it doesn't take long for the MINIacs like myself to offer up some convincing arguements to get a MINI. The 20th GTI has more power than the MCS but it makes up in handling and the most important thing, STYLE.

Hope to see you in your MINI on the track soon

B

 

I got the color picked out, just waiting for the cards to come into play.

 

The pulley install wasn't bad at all. I used some directions on Randy Webbs site written by Caddman. I used a 19% pulley so I had to use a smaller belt. NAPA 060535. 4000 miles at this point and the belt is fine so far. Edges look good. Lot of dissention on the 19% pulley. Pros and con thing you know. I would without a doubt do the 19% again but who knows, I may grenade tomorrow!

Putting a lot of faith in Eric/Helix on the ECU thing. Seems they're putting a lot of time and effort into this and are being honest about the current state of ECU upgrades. My thinking is at this point if you're lucky they address some drivabilty issues, but even that is not a given, and performance increase is minimal. Anyone out there with more input?

 

They need to put the 2.7T that's in the Audis into a GTI, now THAT would move :D

I looked at the GTI when I was buying my MCS. I didn't like it. The throw on the shifter was way too long. The clutch had to be pushed in way too far and even then it had a release point that was way far away from the floor. And you can't get a 6 speed with the 1.8T (maybe you can on the 20th's). I wanted a 20th edition but they were all sold out by the time I started looking for a car.

 

I will probably throw the pulley in myself. Did you use just a jack and some stands or some lifts?

Wow yea, I like my 20th, but its like my 3rd GTI in a row and I need something different. I don't feel like paying that much for an R32, I think they are slightly over priced. If they offered that setup in a Jetta with the new GLI look, well I would probably get another dub. YEA! That 2.7 would kick in a GTI, but it will never happen which is sad.

 

Just did it with a couple of jacks and jackstands. An average floor jack and a real small floor jack. The second jack isn't a necessity but it made lining up the bottom motor mount bolt easier for me.