Hi!
I drive a 2002 Cooper, sadly at 120 k miles for the second time the Midland gearbox is failing.
Honestly I do not trust anymore the rebuilders, so the options are:

-Buy a used midland, take it apart personally and fill it with uber-good SKF bearings. I mean, the good ones. Pretty postive it would work. I just don`t really have an idea of the skills required to do the job (not the swapping, that part is for the shop)

-Pull the plug, R53 GEtrag gearbox.

-Make it electric. has anybody already gone this route?

 

You talking transmission or motor?

 

Transmission is on its way out... motor is in great shape!!! A cooper S motor is not on the table, homologation of one-offs in italy is basically impossibile.

Really thinking about the EV thing tho...

 

Not sure what you would need to do to make it an EV. Lots of batteries that is for sure and that would still give you very limited range. Not sure if an automaker/dealer would sell you a battery out of a hybrid or any other EV for that matter. Not to mention if they did, I can't imagine how you would fit it in the car. Most EV's are engineered/designed around the battery pack - or at least that is what it seems to me.

MINI did toy with a EV a while back and from what I have seen on the Web they are currently in development of an MINI EV, but that is several years out. The 6-speed swap is done semi regularly. If you are willing to crack open the Midlands yourself, doing the full 6-speed swap shouldn't be that much of a problem.

Good luck and keep us updated on what you do.

 

thanks,

I am now in contact with a few ev-self builder, being in 3 engineers in the family that should be a doable task, neverthless I`m not expecting less that 10-12k of expense.

It is not that sound logically, but for a series of personal reasons I am very attached to this piece of english steel and want to keep her on the road...

 

On a long enough timeline, everything gets an LSx.

 

Make sure you mount it in the middle. Bring some earplugs though...

 

I like where this is going. Rear wheel drive swapped, LSx powered R50.

 

waaa I didnt even know what an LSX is... holy ****!!!

I concluded I will install the 6 speed getrag, one is on its way here from UK - too much expenses and time for an EV conversion


What I may do is to hydridize it: my commute is 50 km (~30 miles), a smallish battery pack could do it. Has anyone ever attempted a RWD mini? I`d love to put two smallish electric motors back there.

 

I guess they don't have the type of following on the continent that they have in the states. Some people love it, some people hate it. I love it because I love V8s.


Honestly, probably your best route.

 

An LS is the designation for the small block Chevy V8. LSx where the X is the, I believe to be, the generation number. LS1 first gen, LS2 second... Someone please correct me if I am wrong here. Anyway, a RWD V8 MINI would be very cool for those with more money than good sense and a bit of a death wish. I have thought about is swap but just with the MINI Tritech and Getrag 6 speed. Though I have more good sense than money so it will remain just a thought...

 

The V8s! They are known as the icon of American cars also here in the continent, I drove one from Oregon to Arizona (Mustang) a few years ago and loved every bit of it. There is no replacement for displacement!
Still Gas here is ~7$/gallon and streets narrow, muscle cars are pretty impratical. Beside the classical sacred monsters as Ferrari-Lamborghini-Porsche and the like here serious cars lovers, the bunch down to tear it apart themselves to fix it, are into old school germanwagons (BMW e28, e39) or british lightweight cars / japanese fun things

Getrag on its way, I hope to manage to resell my old midland and all its paraphernalia.

Has anybody ever routed axles to the rear wheels? I`ll gladly put two 10kw motors back there with a 3kwh battery pack, that would totally do for my walking pace commute!

 

There was a twin engine MINI featured on Jay Leno's Garage a while back. Don't remember much about it though...
It shouldn't be all that hard I guess but you would think that you would have to stiffen up the back end of the car as you would probably need to cut out a lot of the floor of the car.

 

I would consider such an undertaking very complex.

Watch the MCM Mira build progress to get an idea of what it's like to cut a car chassis apart without intent to destroy. Not something I'd be capable of doing right now...

 

Hi!

-BKE-series 6 speed GETrag Gerabox should arrive by end of week/beginning of next week from UK. That should fix the 'box problem. I also got a good deal from my shop, paying 10 man-hours, discounted to tax-free, for the job. Given the "discovery" of the great price of the kit from UK (less that a third of the Italian price for the thing) and the incidence of problems with the Midlands, the hope for the shop is to do this job again many times. I`ll keep you updated and sure enough come up with various questions.



- Electric side: I`m running a logging experiment and seems that the very most of my trips falls in two groups:

.1 Less than 30 miles for the round-trip (going to work, to the flying club, to rowing place, to nearby friends, to the bar...) with a top speed no more that 50 mph and with engine never used over 2.5k rpm and "low throttle" (I need to figure out how many "peak horsepower" this is)

.2 more than 100 miles for the round trip, lots of highway at high speed (~80 mph)

The first kind if trip is around 80% of my miles. Having a ~30kW (peak) power pack acting on the rear wheel should provide enough performance for a quiet and futuristic commute.
Taking in account the real- life consumption figure of the Tesla model S (bigger, heavier, figure calculated with highway also, but with state of the art drives) of 250 Wh/km I`d need a ~12 kwh battery for my round trips or a mere 6 kwh if I get to charge at work & at friends` house, both very realistic.

A 6kw/h battery is totally affordable, at around 1200 USD.

I now need to find out three things:

.1 The motors options (and associated cost) for a twin-motors (no differential), sealed, setup to fit where the spare wheel now is. That would be very cool since it would allow to work without keeping the vehicle off the road for months.

.2 The feasibility of adapting a spare set of front axles to plug into the rear wheels hubs and then end up where the spare wheel was: if it is a "Human" job to to, great thing, if not project aborted. I`ll dig into this one when the car will be lifted for the 6-speed fitting.

.3 Cost to get the thing road legal: the 6 speed is already borderline with Italian laws (I`d better not to comment on this one...), an Electric drive would need a trip to Germany`s TUV to get approval and then back to Italy (Italy has basically no option to make customized vehicles road-legal)



-Weird noise! Ughhhhhh! :-( When revveing the engine (holding the clutch depressed) a weird vibration comes is. This is very very worring. I have no idea what it might be.... Am I ruining my engine by keep running it associated with a ruined 'box?????

 

Hello!

 

I like where this is going.

 

Hi!
Swap completed, the gearing and the LSD are a blast

​​​​​The thing is not without issue (got to flush again clutch line with the vacuum machine due to persistent air in the circuit, backup switch seems failed, bowden cables/shifting mechanism probably needing oil) but whatever, I hope to have everything sorted out this week.

One problem is bugging me: a noise, very similar to tire noise, that gradually appears at speed.

​​​​​​At least part of it was there before the 'box swap and was attributed to shot differential bearings, but I'm not positive that was the whole issue.
Part of the noise is still there and I'd be very surprise if even the new 'box had the same problem!

It seems to me that the noise is indipendent from engine load, does the same noise under full throttle or if left to coast in neutral.

Makes me think is a wheen bearing gone, make sense? I will try to see if it changes when turning.

Another thing that I wonder if is combined with the noise: the trio of lights (abs, tire press, asc) lights up and diagnosis reads an error about front left wheel speed sensor.

Being the magnets picked up by the speed sensor basically in the bearing ring, is a shot bearing the very most plausible explanation for noise & sensor issues?

 

The Trifecta of brake lights - ABS, tire pressure ASC - is customary for the wheel sensor being bad. The noise you mention sounds to me like a wheel bearing being out but I really don't know for sure. Wheel bearings are not that expensive and after the transmission swap should be an easy job of for you. If you used your old wheel bearings in the swap, this would explain that. not sure they would fit though as the Getrag 6 axles, to my understanding, are a bit different than that both the Midland and the Getrag 5 speeds.

 

The axles are pretty different, I had to swap them too from the donor R53, but no difference in wheel bearing is present....

My only concern is to rule out gearbox defects before the 3 months warranty from the scrapyard is over.
I tried to swerve left `n` right and seems to me that the noise is slightly different.


Yes yes the diagnosis says bad reading from front left abs sensor, it is also intermittent. If I`m not going wrong the magnets that the sensor picks up are integrated in the wheel bearing, a failure of if would explain it all.. I`d like to hear someone that has first hand experience on this issue.


The thing that still surprises me is the LSD. I cannot figure out why they did sell Cooper Esses without it, even with the mere 120bhp of the Justa the difference is crazy, it probably is no.1 performance upgrade for the hardly-tunable Cooper.

 

So, my 2005 S has the factory LSD. At slow speeds from new you can hear it working. It sounds like a slight "rubbing" sound and only does it when the wheels are turned.

 

I heard that sound too while parking and did wonder wtf was that. Good to know it's normal.

I am becoming pretty positive it is a wheel bearing, keeps getting louder and louder and has a marked difference between turning left and right. It gets stronger when turning left and lighter when turning right, may a bearing chatter more and be noisier when it's un-loaded?
I'd be really happy to sort it out with just a bearing, this car is being a hell of a money pit lately...

 

The biggest and probably the most expensive part, the 6speed swap, is done. Wheel bearings are, relatively, inexpensive.


https://www.ecstuning.com/b-assemble...1226756889kt2/


Not super cheep but not all that expensive either considering.

 

Considering the amount of time and €€€ already spent in the thing yes they are not expensive.... the noise is getting stronger and stronger, at high speed veering right quiets it, veering left makes it stronger. It is independent from engine load so fingers crossed it really should be a shot wheel bearing. Just in case, since VDO ones are 14€ on ebay also a nice new ABS sensor is going in.


Seems that the job is almost finished... great results but not for the faint of heart!

 

...what type of LSD the OEM one was? I am totally blown away by the difference it makes and would like to learn more about it. Does anyone knows something about it?