Seth's '03 R53 - Maintenance/Mod Log
 

I've owned my R53 for about 6 months. Most of that time was spent fixing minor cosmetic and mechanical issues, and working on the interior. Now that most of that is finished, real modding can begin and I figured it deserved its own thread in the R5x forum to log it all. You can read about the boring stuff I did to the car in the first 6 months in its 1st gear thread, here, if you so desire.

Here's some shots of the MINIs together after a wash today.

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You have a couple of great looking Minis. And not much snow there on the ground. Good progress.

Looking great. Keep up the good work.

Looks really great all cleaned up , looks like Gen 1 MINI marketing ad form back in the 2002-2006 days. Well done.

:thumbsup: Excellent observation... the pictures are great.

Thanks

Yep, like a how to buy guide for Gen 1 MINIs :)

, silk green and liquid yellow are very rare to see anymore.

Thanks for your thoughts guys :)

Yeah, I've only seen one other liquid yellow S since I bought the car in August. As for the silk green, I've only ever seen 2-3 others since 2002!

Must say, both colors look great on the first gen Mini... maybe they should stick them back on the options list if BMW ever decides to offer a small Mini again?

Those two colors go very well together. Especially with the matching painted white wheels, roof, and mirror caps. :thumbsup:

Yeah, both my dad and I think of MINIs as happy cars that simply must have a sunroof and white secondary/wheel color :)

Turned my front rotors on Wednesday. They didn't really need it, but my front left had about .007" of runout, so it caused a little vibration in the pedal under braking. Now they're nice and smooth. Also checked my rear rotors and they're about .015" under spec, so they'll need to be replaced soon.

Crappy iPhone 4 pic:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...115f9b421b.jpg

New ECS GEOMET slotted rear rotors arrived today. I'm going to wait to install them until it's time for new pads. The texture is very rough, won't this have a damaging effect on the pads until they're worn smooth again? Figured they would be smoother than they are. Otherwise, they look and feel great!

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Looks nice, that's just the Geomet coating, its pretty robust. After you do your pads bed in start and stop the coating on that face where the pad touches will come off. Mine did it in my R52 a short drive. First time you brake it will feel it little less bite , then it will improve right after that couple times after until you finish the pad in procedure like any pads/ new brakes. The EBC pads with there pad in coating do they same thing almost.

The very nice thing is after the first rain, your rotor hat and rim will look like new still and will not rust like crazy like other brands. helps with getting the wheels off also in the spring as they will not be rusted to the mat/ hub.

So once the coating rubs off the pad contact surface, won't that allow it to rust?

Did you get drilled/slotted for the front and just slotted for the rear? I can't seem to find just slotted for the front on our cars.

I only bought the rear set because my rear rotors are under spec and ECS was only having a sale on the rear. The ones I purchased are manufactured by ECS and they sell separate axle kits for both drilled or drilled/slotted. If the fronts ever go on sale, I'll get slotted again. I don't care for the drilled look.

Just the surface where the pad makes contact with the rotor, which has to be bare. The slots will hold the coating, and everywhere else. You have to have bare metal on the pad surface for the fiction and the brakes to work. :)

Yes, the contact surface will rust when the car sits for a couple of days in high moisture (rain, snow, dew, etc.). But this is normal with all brake rotors. The rust is (obviously) a light surface rust and comes off easily, as with all rotors... The nice thing about the geomet caoting is that ALL other areas that are not worn away, like the contact surfaces, remain geomet coated, nice and silver. So, the hats, inside the hats, and the edge should remain intact. On vented fronts the interior, including the hats, will remain coated and therefore will not corrode. Geomet is cool.

Gotcha. Looking forward to getting a front set. :)

I usually end up sanding off the hat, then spray rusty metal undercoat plus a thin silver or black heat resistant top coat. Keeps those hats from turning rusty ratty. I've seen the rust stain nice alloys, and that stuff is sometimes impossible to remove if it's been left on the wheel a long enough.

Coated hats rule! Should all be that way.

Went ahead and installed the ECS rear rotors yesterday. Also greased up the caliper slide pins and made sure the rest of my rear suspension looked good.

Another crappy iPhone 4 pic:

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Looks good , I would wire brush on the outside of the caliper to clean it up a bit. The Rotors look so new against it. ;) Good you greased the pins. Helps the rear caliper slide.

Good job.

Went to a Tar Heel MINI meet today at Flow MINI after a wash. Got a little bauble for the antenna:

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Didn't manage to get any good pics at the meet and there were no other R53's, but we had a good lunch and I talked to a gentleman who has had 10 MINIs in his time. He now has a 2013 JCW.

I love my car. :popcorn:

Here's some more pics from my driveway today. I like wheel pics ;)

Cars looking good man.

Where was the meet at?

Flow MINI in Winston-Salem.