Guys, I did it.

CooperSAZ stopped by today on his lunch break to help me diagnose the unplugged throttle body, and snap some photos (damn, his MINI is fast )

So there it is! Took me 6 weekends of minimal sleep and food in 120 degree weather, about a carton of cigarettes, and half of my hair, but my Sunflower is reflecting her rare Liquid Yellow into the Arizona sunsets again!

The heat exchanger, cv boots, control arm bushings, ball joints, motor mounts, front crankshaft position sensor, oil pan gasket, BPV, and radiator fan resistor were all blown. Threw in some Redline tranny fluid for good measure, too. All without anyone to really teach me or help me on learning how to work on my first car. Don't listen to ANYONE telling you that you can't do something (*cough* Zippy, I'm looking at you *cough*), because the sheer reward you get from finishing a crazy project is priceless.

I don't remember where I read it, so sue me if I misquoted you, but:


These cars are NOT hard to work on. Complicated, sure. But if anyone has any questions, wants to borrow tools (if you live in AZ), or need another set of hands to wrench, I'm your man--I want to pay back the community that saved my poor Sunflower.

I guess I can have a cool signature line now!!!

***************************************

Sunflower, the '03 MCS LY/B
Engine: '06 BPV: VGS mod, TSW Upper Mount, BSH Lower Mount, PowerFlex Transmission Mount
Suspension: PowerFlex LCA Bushings

***************************************

Thank you everyone who helped me get this poor little mistreated MINI back on the road! Special thanks to CooperSAZ and xsmini for the inspiration, gpwpat for the correct diagnosis of my idle issue, mjcari for the CV boot pointers, PelicanParts' customer service department for the INSANE comp'd next-day shipping on the CV boots, MINI North Scottsdale's parts department for the procedural pointers and comp'd body clips (when my card declined)and WayMotorWorks for the sicknasty parts! I love you guys, expect to see many posts in the future.

Here's a few bonus photos of CooperSAZ and I side by side.

Oh, and Liquid Yellow Masterrace for the win (we see you, Mellow Yellow).

 

Yes, I will say I have found a lot of information here on
NAM on how to fix, reset or replace items on my MCS !

When owners share information it all works out for the best. Instead of
taking the Mini to the dealership or local shop just to find out whats wrong or
to find out I could do this myself.

 

That's awesome, glad you got it running sarom. Definitely worth putting the money into it. Great feeling knowing you fixed it yourself too.

Some people think you shouldn't even try to fix it yourself because they think you'll make it worse. Or spend too much on it. But if you have to pay someone to do it, it's definitely not worth it. How else would you learn how to work on it if you never try?

Or worse yet some think you should just junk them or part it out.

These cars are easy to work on, I don't think they're very complicated either. Not with all the resources we have. Just need to make sure you plug everything back in lol.

Congratulations, have fun!

 

Glad you got everything working. Nice to hear I inspired someone, very awesome!

You're right, these cars are pretty easy to work on. Be patient, pay attention and you'll be fine. Be careful, you'll end up with a lot of modifications before you know it.

Good to see another LY out there.

Enjoy!

Nik

 

Great news! Please feel free to ask any questions at any time Great color, BTW.

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

Im psyched for you. It can be so frustrating when things aren't going as planned, and it is nice to have a place to ask for help and have people that have been where you are are be willing to share their experience to get you through. Good luck with it!

 

Is this vehicle new to you, or just in need of a refresh? If new to you, curious how much you paid for it, with all of the broken items.

I'm asking because I love my mini, but it's my DD. I want a second one to mod the ever loving **** out of. lol

 

Yup, I just bought it in April to replace my P.O.S. Focus that ate its gearbox. Didn't even get 2000 miles on the MINI before it blew the heat exchanger.

I paid $2100, clean title, 2 previous owners.

107,000mi, was leaking a disgusting amount of oil, but running fine (albeit with the wrong coolant, I soon learned).

Oil pan gasket, front CPS, timing chain tensioner, LCA Bushings, Ball Joints, and CV boots were all worthless.
Glove box was broken open, driver side window regulator not functioning.

After having overheating issues (wrong coolant/blown resistor), I blew the heat exchanger in the AZ heat.

Dropped around $1k in parts, and $800 in tools to get me started, (I love my cordless impact holy cow) and now she's good to go!

 

Also, I got a speeding ticket last night at 1am...whooooops (what a better way to start my time with my new and improved MINI, right?)

 

Congrats!! good to hear you got it done...it is good to hear a MINI got a new lease on life. Sometimes the most effective way to make sure a person is ready to do a job is is make them question themselves...evaluate, then proceed having taken into account their skills, tools, and situation. As a pilot i would say you not only rose to occasion, but you excelled, and avoid crashing and burning as many have before you.Congrats, and good to hear you found a local with some info to help ya! Sounds like his/her help pushed you over the top on completing your task.

 

Thanks Zippy!

I had to make it work on my own, I just replaced my previous car and I didn't have mechanic-shop-money to spend, so I sort of just had to do it.

And forsure, CooperSAZ's OBDII scanner brought a lot of peace of mind.

 

good to hear a good story like this, now you are a resident mini expert! I am surprised in the cordless impacts as well. and also surprised in how well these cars are designed and built. I did basically all my suspension a week ago and with all the winters, only 1 bolt didn't want to come out..... made a potentially stupid hard process much easier

 

Cordless impacts are great!

No need to drag out the air hose, and no noisy compressor. Takes seconds to take a tire off

My next tool purchase is going to be the new Milwaukee one key cordless impact. It's bluetooth and has the abilty to select what torque you want. My current one just has 2 settings, kind of tight and I hope I don't break the bolt.

 

I'm so googling this right now . . .

 

I was on a budget, so I had to go with the special-edition white Makita 18V one, worked wonderfully. Just have a breaker bar handy for some of the really stuck nuts/bolts!

 

sarom058, you are most welcome! Glad I could add some value and help locate the final issue. It’s great to meet another local MINI owner and a Liquid Yellow one to boot!

I think you did a great job with your first stab into the MINI work. That is quite impressive. It is a great feeling knowing you did the work. As future issues come up, you will have the confidence to troubleshoot it and get it repaired.

Oh boy… speeding ticket, eh? Nothing tells you that your MINI is running well than some of our city’s finest giving you an award for it! hehe

Cordless impact. Here is another one if people are interested:

Ingersoll Rand W7150 1/2" Cordless Impact Wrench
http://www.ingersollrandproducts.com...rque-impactool

780 ft-lbs of maximum forward/reverse torque & 1100 ft-lb of nut-busting torque - from cordless impact wrench that weighs only 6.8 lbs.

If anyone here works on Hondas, they know that the crankshaft pulley bolt can be a PITA to remove. The w7150 removed that bolt in 2-3 seconds so I can attest to its strength. And its cordless!

 

Thanks, guys!

Throwing in some new tie rod ends, strut mounts, passenger wheel speed sensor, and window regulator this weekend! More MINI-related mishaps are on their way, I'm sure, haha!

 

Don't know if it was said, kinda skipped around lol, but if you are replacing strut mounts, I highly recommend strut plates, even if you don't have any mushrooming this is a good preventative measure.

 

That's on the list!

Remaining repairs:

• Crank Pulley
• Strut Mounts
• Tie Rod Ends
• Window Regulator
• A/C system (full R&R, evap and compressor are shot)

Remaining preventative measures:

• Supercharger Service
• Strut Tower Defenders
• Induction Overhaul
• WMW Ignition Package

Remaining mods:

• Alta 15% S/C Pulley
• DIY Intake Mod
• Boost Gauge
• Legitimate Oil Temp Gauge
• Suspension (undecided still, on track for Winter 2016)

 

I'd skip the ignition package, unless your coil is dying don't change it, go with some new wires, I think I got NGK for like 20 shipped from amazon, and some fresh plugs in an appropriate heat range. Will save a bit of money this way on uneccesary bits.

As far as suspension goes, is this a street car or will it ever see track time?

 

Also, get the 17% reduction pulley (and colder plugs). My 15% didn't exactly warm my cockles.

 

Yeah I went with a 16%, and while there is a noticeable bump in performance I wish I had just gone to 17. But I think the amount I'd spend to go from 16 to 17 now would not justify the 1% decrease.

 

ayyye! thanks for the advice, I guess I just assumed the coil needed to be replaced as well.

As far as track use: It's my daily driver! The car will be driven hard in the canyons, but no track use planned for the near future. I'm going to want to lower it a lot eventually. Thinking I should just deal with my blown struts for 6 months or so before I spring for coilovers.

I'm in Arizona! It gets to be 110 degrees pretty often in the summer here, and I recently replaced the heat exchanger but I couldn't afford new hoses, radiator, etc so there's still some oil residue in the cooling system despite my best efforts to clean it out. I already have a 15% alta v2 I'm waiting to install until I can afford to service the supercharger and change the water pump, thermostat, and associated seals and hoses!

 

6 months is a long time to drive on blown suspension. When one suspension part is broke it puts that much more stress on everything else in the suspension. That needs to be listed in the repairs section of your mods.

If you are going to slam it eventually go ahead and spring for coil overs now. Get a decent set. Don't cheap oUT, your but will thano you. And so will your wallet in the long run, cheap ones will blowout fast when slammed and have you spending money all over again.

 

*sigh* My budget for MINI spending is like $100/mo homie, I can't just spring for an ATI pulley and coilovers! My R53 has to be worked on by me in the cheapest way possible until next summer when I can work full time again! I'll only be able to afford the ATI in early September, I got a used crank pulley to tide me over.