I figured it was time to make a central build thread. I've been on here for a year and a half or so, and in that time, thanks to the collective intelligence present here, I've gone from being a clueless kid with absolutely no clue as to how to work on cars, to a clueless kid with some mechanical competence, but a considerable amount of theoretical knowledge.

My first R53, Sunflower, was a LY/B 2003. I bought her in February of 2016, and fought every issue imaginable, short of engine/transmission issues.

After fixing that stuff, I went on a 3,000 mile road trip up the PCH.

Shortly after returning, a ram-bar-equipped-Jeep driver careened into the back of Sunflower, sending us flying into the car in front. It was deemed a total loss. After fighting with the insurance company for 2 months (I gained almost $2k over the original estimated value by asking for them to itemize everything and arguing each point with receipts), it was time to buy another.

But none of the R53's in Arizona were quite the same as Sunflower. Then came a PM from a certain member, sawdustman. He said:



In my youthful stupidity, I hopped onto a Greyhound to California, and bought the car sight unseen. In actuality, the car was more like:

• New oem crank pulley
• [Broken radiator fan]
• [Crashed into a/c condenser]
• New [scored?] oem cam
• New axels
• [Cheap yellow ebay] poly bushings in a arms
• [ruined transmission mount]
• [brillo padded] block and [cracked] head, new head gasket, new rod bearings
• New shifter cable (right)
• New coolant overflow tank
• I think that is all, maybe a few more small things.
• Right now it has 107,000 miles.
• I have not had time to investigate the [transmission] noise I'm getting.
• Broken window regulator, window help up inside door with a PVC pipe.
• Body damage in rear, with cut/tear in quarter panel that he called a "scratch".
• Body damage on right side, broken mirror has been epoxied on over the bolts to remove it. (Will post picture later)

Here's what it looked like the day I bought it.



I spent a night at O'Reilly's in California that night replacing the water pump. Upon returning to Arizona and checking the oil, I found that the oil & coolant were mixing, and spent the next six months walking to school and work, and planning.

Now that it's summer, I've been tweaking and modifying little stuff. Redid the headliner, for example, in suede. Please excuse the few minor mistakes, it was my first time ever doing upholstery.



Also fully Peel and Seal'ed (cheap Dynamat) the boot, doors, rear seats, and rear quarter panels. The cardboard is there because I was also tackling door sill rust. I have plans to fully replace the skirts and remove all rust eventually, but for now, I'm just doing the visible parts. Will post more pics of sound deadening later (I did a fairly shoddy job on the rear seat area).



Finally, last week, I bought a used cylinder head from another forum member, PhoR53, that came in wonderful shape. I replaced it on Saturday, but reused my existing rocker arm assemblies.



This was the sunset I got to experience immediately after the cylinder head replacement.





Of course, there's still a plethora of issues to tackle. But I'm heading back up the coast at the end of July, so plenty of updates are coming! Current plans include:

• Figure out engine management issues: horrible rev hang and high (1500rpm) idle
• Radiator Fan Resistor bypass
• Brakes (OEM rotors, Hawk HPS pads)
• Suspension refresh (OEM struts, Lemfoerder strut mounts)
• False floor/Rear Seat Delete
• Operation VGS+Boost Gauge
• Find a transmission bearing rebuild kit and get a spare transmission ready for when this one ultimately grenades.
• Register the damn thing

Looking forward to finally finishing this mess of an R53 up. Not sure if I'm going to be keeping it after the headaches it's caused, but I'll take it on the road trip and see where life takes me afterwards! Happy Motoring!

 

Your cylinders look great. How did you clean them?

Not sure what you are doing about the rust, but remember it's a 10+ year old niche compact car so don't put TOO much into the repairs if you're not going to get it back. Being right by CA, I'd imagine there's a lot of rust-free options.

 

Thanks!! Just used some Red Brakleen and some shop towels, then used a compressed air nozzle to spray all the crud out of the oil galleys, and then reapplied a little drop of oil in each cylinder and wiped it around to fully coat everything.

I'll post more photos of the rust cleanup and sound deadening process tomorrow. Basically just masking everything, using a wire brush on a drill, and then respraying with Rustoleum! Won't be doing any cutting or welding, haha. That's a bit out of my comfort zone.

But yeah, I'm basically trying to make lemonade out of lemons here. Hopefully by the end, I'll build a car that's clean enough to sell for $5k or so. The road trip will just be icing on the cake

 

Also - I assume you read sawdustman's posts?

 

I only need to read a few threads that he started.

 

Yeah....I did about a week after I discovered the engine was a milkshake. I can still remember that sinking feeling when I read some of his questions....all good though, this particular R53 is in better hands now

Edit: My phone broke last night right as I started working on the door sills. I started a different project so when I get a new phone (hopefully today after work), I'll still be able to take some nice progress photos.

 

That's a bummer.

 

Well, my phone decided to randomly start working again. Here's a quick update:

Passenger side sound deadening is complete. Still waiting on a window regulator/to learn how to use a regulator repair kit, to button everything up.



Doorsill rust is eliminated on the passenger side. Driver side to follow this weekend. Used a 4" metal brush attached to a cordless drill and/or impact to get the rust off, depending on which was charged at the time. Some rust has fully penetrated the outside layer of door sill, I'm leaving it until winter, might do something about it when it's cooler outside.



I then thoroughly cleaned the area with Acetone, and sprayed 3 light coats of gloss dark grey Rustoleum from a rattle can. Didn't end up looking too shabby (ignore the far side, it was left to show progress)!



Finally, got started with my suspension/brake refresh. New OEM rotors, Hawk HPS pads, 5k mi OEM struts, and Lemfoerder strut mounts, H-Sport 19mm solid RSB. Total price: $200. Had the strut mounts left over from my last R53, and picked up the other parts new/lightly used from Craigslist for an incredible price. (Thanks Robert, you da man)



Got the brakes and struts off the car last night, and put together the refreshed strut assemblies. Everything goes back in tonight.

Seriously thinking about a set of stainless lines to go with my brake refresh. Any recommendations?

 

Ours, I have them on both of my MINIs. In 4/2003 there was a switch over. So there are pre 4/2003 lines and post 4/2003 lines. I like the colors because they match almost to a T my JCW calipers

https://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2003-Cooper-R53-S-Coupe-L4_1.6L_W11B16A/Braking/Lines/

 

Finished up the replacement of the struts and rotors today. Noticed that my RF wheel bearing is shot while attaching the rotor, so I didn't install the Hawk HPS pads yet, since I'll have to pull the calipers again to replace the wheel bearing. Add that to the list of stuff I have to replace before I leave on my trip.



Replaced the alternator that I deep-fried the other day. Managed to snag it for $30 on OfferUp!





Then I got to sorting out my cooling fan issues. However, in my usual lack of experience (electrical is one of my weakest automotive skillsets), I misunderstood what the reading of the yellow wire meant. I tested it with a multimeter when the car was on, and saw 12v in that pin and in none of the others. So I understood it as the "constant" low speed fan and connected it to the blue. So now my fan runs constantly.

Here's how I connected the wires (early pre-facelift 2 plug):



How am I supposed to go about the bypass, short of adding a manual external switch? Which would actually be pretty cool, and while I'm already used to just watching actual coolant temp in the onboard system, it's certainly not someone-else-driving-proof. I can now see that all I did was connect the constant 12v wire to the power wire on the radiator fan. Does this mean that I should be bypassing the resistor at the resistor (connecting one terminal on the resistor to the other)?

Anyways, we had our first real monsoon of the summer today as I was soldering my way towards an infinifan. There is no joy greater than having rain for the first time in months after working on a car in 110 degree heat for 8 hours

 

Rain falling onto sun baked AZ concrete pavement = steam sauna

 

What is it they say about Karma....and while you're in here would be good idea to leave him appropriate itrader feedback....hopefully he's moved onto some other brand, like FIAT....

Actually terrific job on that headliner.....I've been looking into the same project for mine. Also thinking maybe leather / stitching the dash.

When doing door sills, check the rear boot gasket area near boot latch....I did this the other day:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4315340

Keep up the good work, that MINI found an excellent home

 

Hey man, it's better than 110 degrees and 40% humidity like it usually is all day before it monsoons. It actually cooled down nicely after the rain. I guess it's all relative. I've been here for 19 years now, so it's just what you deal with if you want to work on your car. There's good sides and bad sides to it though, for example, the roads here are so oily that when it rains, it's quite easy to get oversteer and it makes for great fun.

Bahahaha, done and done. I was considering making my license plate "FIATLOL" for a while. Maybe I should make it SAWDUST instead.

Speaking of which--here's the "dent/scratch" that he told me was in the back of the car (the goofy yellow sticker is my attempt at drawing the eye away from the body damage).



Gross.



Wowza, thank you so much. I don't know if I'm much smarter of an owner than the previous one, but I certainly care about the car more. But anyways, I'm there with you, I really want to learn more upholstery. I started at the back of the headliner, and by the time that I got to the front, I noticed a substantial difference in the quality of my work. It was really gratifying.

And as far as the boot rust, though....my electric boot release broke when I fried the alternator, and my friend (unknowingly) broke the manual mechanism a few weeks ago while trying to help me sound deaden the rear quarter panels. So I can't exactly open the boot to check...

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

But enough complaining! On to updates! I did a lot on the car today. When I woke up, I realized that the way that I wired the radiator fan yesterday entirely bypassed the resistor and the relay...that's why it was running all the time. Doh. Resoldered the relay in, and that was good to go!

While plumbing up my boost gauge, I found the cause of my rough idle--the vacuum tubing on the FPR got squished. Unsquished it, and the rough idle went away!

Once I got the car started, I noticed that it was heating up far faster than it should have been. Thought my thermostat was stuck, so I disassembled it and was going to test it...nope. It was in backwards. I'm a blithering idiot.

But then, to my dismay, I GOT THE CAR RUNNING! Had to take some celebratory sunset photos.





Once I verified everything was running stable, I had a few cold ones and relaxed for a bit. This one isn't too great, but the "Session IPA" in that Costco 24 pack is phenomenal. Second best IPA I've tried, second to New Belgium Citradelic.



Then I decided to try out that Back to Black stuff out on my car. I thought it worked well on the Volvo I helped sell a few months ago...never mind. I will swear by this stuff--just look at the results! And the best part is that it only takes like 15 seconds. Way better than disassembling and Plasti-dipping every trim piece, like I did on my last R53...









Anyways, after all that, I cleaned the garage up a little and then put the car through its paces up North in the undeveloped/recently developed areas of Phoenix. Boy, does that 15% pulley really wake the car up. Not as fast as CooperSAZ's, but still, it's pretty zippy. Anyways, here's one last celebratory front-clip-less sunset pic for you guys. I think I might drive around for a while without the front bumper, I think it looks kinda mean.

 

Good progress! Wish I was able to put my car down and do some of the stuff I have backed up. Looking forward to more updates.

 

Thank you, and same to you! I'm having a lot of fun documenting everything!

 

I got started on rear brakes and RSB install last night. However, I didn't do a very good job photographing, nor did I get as far as I would have liked, because I realized I didn't have enough extension to access the inboard subframe bolts.



Disassembly was fairly easy. Took roughly 30 minutes per side. Compared to the front suspension design on these cars, the back is a breeze!! I was seriously impressed by how elegant the design is.



The struts I picked up used for $40 were on a R52 for like 10k miles. Fairly awesome condition, especially for the price.



However, while disassembling everything, I discovered the source of the funky smell I got while driving the other night. It appears my RR caliper is stuck. And I've already exhausted my project budget with all the additional unforeseen expenses.

What part of the caliper fails? Can I just disassemble everything, remove the caliper and guide pins, fully clean, and regrease everything? Especially now that I have to buy an O2 sensor, I really don't want to replace the caliper.

Also, my rotors have grooves so deep that even with the caliper unbolted, I can't get it off over the rotor lip!! Any tips/tricks that don't involve opening the bleeder? Fluid won't get here for another week.

 

It is really simple to remove the caliper with rotor that worn a outer ridge. Just study the caliper and get a wood working clamp and squeeze the metal plate of one brake pad against the caliper body to push the piston in. You need to be gentle and give it time to retract. There is no need to break the hydraulic. Often time a vice grip or Channelock piers with wide enough jaw also works well.

The causes of dragging brake pads can be many so properly diagnose is key:
- since your problem is the rear brake, it is possible the parking brake mechanism become lazy: 1) weaken spring 2) improperly adjust hand brake cable 3) mechanism froze from corrosion
- floating caliper sliders become lazy: particle built up or dried grease; rusted slider pins; worn sliding bushing
- frozen piston due to corrosion. this can be hard to detect but basically the steel piston's contact surface with the rubber seal in the bore become rusted and this prevents the piston to slide freely WRT the rubber seal

Caliper problem is very easy to diagnose. Just study how it work and inspect everything carefully. Typically you can buy the rebuilding kit (which consists of the rubber gasket, seal ring etc) but our disposable culture may make this not economically viable.

 

In my experience with BMW's, it's typically not worth it to do a rebuild. Buy a refurb'd caliper and be done with it. If you're not upgrading, you should be able to find them for super cheap. I picked up calipers for the e34 and e46 for about $50 each. I see a few sets on ebay for ~60, but those are just used, not refurb. Looking at autozone they're about $110. Not sure what that's about.

I should've had my mechanic save my old steel lines. They had some rust starting to form on them, but I'd imagine they're perfectly fine. They were replaced with Detroit Tuned lines that I got for $110. From what I read, there's very minimal difference in all the stainless brake lines, so just grab whatever is your preferred color or on sale.

 

Thanks for the thought! Unfortunately, after the discovery of the shot wheel bearing and sticky caliper, stainless lines are now out of the question before the trip. As are nice sticky tires for the PCH :(

I think I'm gonna try this process first, thanks! Then if it's still sticking, I'll replace it with either a used one from another R53 in Phoenix or a Rockauto reman'd one. How reliable are the rebuild kits? If I have to replace it entirely, I'd love to rebuild the caliper in a few months, for science.

 

It's been a few years since I worked on the Mini brakes. I just remember for the rear brake you do have to fuss with a parking brake self adjusting mechanism in order to retract the piston. It is a mechanical thing in the caliper, but I don't remember the detail. Please just look up the Bentley manual.

 

I just looked up the Bentley, and I even wrote a note in the page. The mechanism that I referred to is a part of parking brake self-adjusting design to take up the slack as the pads wears. There is a screw-thread of sort behind the piston. Before you can put in new pad you have to turn the piston to retract the piston into the bore to make room for the thicker pads.

The Bentley tell you to use a BMW special tool. As always I managed without. I compress the piston with a wood working clamp and turn the inside of the piston with a pair of needle nose pliers. All I remember was it was a *****.

 

I bought this tool from Harbor Freight.

https://www.harborfreight.com/disc-b...-pc-63264.html

It turns the piston as it pushes it back into the caliper, just like the BMW tool and it works on a lot of different cars.

 

I had no idea HF has this. Good to know there is another $49.99 set of tool to get.

Without the tool, you have to fight the hydraulic pressure as well as the turning friction, making it a ***** of a job.

 

I purchased a similar set on Amazon for about $25. Also, make sure there's enough room in the resevoir for the brake fluid to rise when pushing the pistons back in or it will overflow.

 

Yep--rented a caliper compressor tool from Autozone a few days ago! I'll keep an eye out for the parking brake mechanism tonight when I'm buttoning everything up. Thank you so much guys!!

P.S. I'm finally emissions testing and registering the car tomorrow! Keep Galina in your thoughts tomorrow, one of the O2 sensors is faulty and I'm just going to clear the codes and cross my fingers.