So I acquired above car with 168,000 on it... and it was washed up and pretty. Learned that it was a lot of lipstick. But she has good bones. The pic with black wheels is when my previous owner bought her.

I bought the car to work on with my son, Cooper, who is autistic. He loves cars; however, neither of us are immediately mechanically inclined. We did change the oil!!!!
Renn90 helped us find a set of wheels, as our wheels left something to be desired. We also needed brand new rubber on four corners (Cooper Zeon RS3-G1 215/45/17)

As we start this build, I am looking for input on MUST have, NEED to have, and WOULD BE NICE based on the list below. I hope the photos work out the first time.

Air Intake Boot -Torn, (I bought replacement waiting to see if I find a CAI)
Power Steering Hoses to Reservoir - Leaking
Power Steering Pressure hose to rack - Leaking
Serpentine Belt - Dry & Cracking - Replace
Brakes - Replace all four sides, including calipers
Shocks & Struts - Replace all four sides - (I found a set of M7 Coil Overs with less than 30,000 miles, how hard of a job is this?)
Front Control Arm Bushings - Worn Out (I don't know what these do or where they are)
Engine Torque Mount - Worn Out - Rubber oil saturated and breaking down (How hard is this to replace?)
Left and Right Inner CV Boots Torn and thumping under acceleration - recommend replacing axles with oem (I don't know what this means)
A/C - doesn't work
Tranny fluid replace
Brake Fluid replace

So...here we go.

 

I did a cool job of hanging my car from the floor...hahaha

 

If you don't need car to drive right away, I would take the front bumper off & replace as many rubber parts as you can afford. They are all near the end of their service life. Also consider replacing clutch if that is germaine.

U tube will be a good source of how-to.

 

Dogger,

Sorry to be a newb...what things would I look for regarding "as many rubber parts as you can afford"?

 

You identified it correctly - it is a money pit. But if you spend wisely and do the work yourself it can be affordable.

Do you know much about the service history of the car?

I bought a 2006 MCS convertible with 200K miles on it last year. It was a one owner car and he had almost all of the service records so I knew its history. Still it needed quite a bit of maintenance including struts and various bushings, ball joints, engine mounts, clutch, seals, etc.

Its fun to work on if you're not depending on it for a daily driver and if you like that kind of thing.

There are a ton of videos on Youtube for repairs of this model. Look up Mod Mini's videos. He's a legend in these parts. There are others that have made good videos also. Plenty of help here also.

For parts I wouldn't spend all the money on genuine Mini parts. Look on FCPEuro.com, ESC Tuning, Pelikan Parts, RockAuto, and other advertisers here for suppliers to MINI for much cheaper parts.

The CV/drive axles- the OEM are extremely expensive. Research others. I think O'Reilly's sells off brand for substantially less. I'm not sure how good they are.

If they weren't already replaced you likely have some oil seals that need replacing- valve cover and oil pan gaskets, crank and cam position sensors o-rings. Easy to see, just follow the oil trails. They all needed replacing on my car.

Where are you located? If the rust belt your job will be much more difficult. My son's 02 R50 is a northern car so lots of rusted bolts etc. My '06 is a southern car and has virtually no rusted bits. Much easier to work on.

My son and I have spent many hours together working on these cars. Its been great working together and learning how to fix stuff. He's gotten so confident he diagnosed and replaced a front wheel bearing by himself last fall.

Good luck and keep posting.

 

Why do you think you have to replace the calipers?

 

Did you run the vin through the recall website? Might have a recall on the PS pump you can get for free.

 

Hey Joe,

Regarding Calipers...Rear left is non functional and mechanic suggested going all four sides. He isn't trying to make money on parts, I think he is trying to protect me.

 

Cab - Rude Joe kinda detailed the types of parts that I was referring to.

Rubber gets hard & cracks with age, heat, ozone.

If you have the front end desassembled, might as well refresh seals, hoses, gaskets, belts, bushings.

 

ModMini has lots of DIY videos on youtube. Several of the NAM vendors also have DIY videos and or articles. If you have not already done so, the FAQ threads below may also help you.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...questions.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...nd-oldies.html

 

What is non functional? The parking brake? The piston seized? We're in the northeast so we have salt in the winter. My son's '02 brakes get a build up of corrosion behind the rubber boots that suspends the caliper on the guide pins. This prevents the caliper from sliding and therefore one brake pad from releasing. Clean it out and put some caliper grease on it and its good to go for another year.

He also had a problem with a parking brake mech on one rear caliper being corroded/stuck. We sprayed some PB Blaster on it and got it rotating with a a pair of pliers. He's keeping an eye on it so see how long it continues to work.

I don't think you want to change things out if you don't need to. If the rest are working okay then why change them out? Doing work that isn't needed is a quick way to spend a lot of money.

My 2 cents

 

Thanks Joe...

Comments are noted. Picking up the M7 Coilovers tomorrow. CV boots shipping my way on Monday. Progress....

 

Sorry to say but replacing the cv boots is pointless because the joints have failed if making noise. You need new axles. It is a big job to replace the boots, and totally a waste when the joints are already noisy.
replace the serpentine belt before it breaks.
replace the rear calipers, they are expensive, maybe be possible to rebuild them, Change fluid
replace PS hoses, change fluid,
replace motor mount
inspect crank pulley, replace if cracked.

this car sounds like previous owner neglected and dumped.😖
the rest can be done as time and money allow.

I would not do coil overs until the above is done, probably wouldn't even then as the may be pretty harsh. If you do them then change the control arm bushings and front swaybar bushings, big job but parts cheap and you save on aligning it twice. Also the strut mounts are likely shot, do the m7s come with mounts?

 

M7's did not come with mounts.

Mechanic suggested new axles, they are not noisy now but they do thump a little bit under acceleration.

Serpentine belt is needed, calipers are on the way from another mini owner here on the site. I will put up another post about the M7's...

Thanks for the suggestions aspen. I am trying to pick up pieces as time/money and availability allow.

 

I Have a 2003 Mini Cooper S. I have worked on with my son who is also autistic. It is a money pit but for some strange reason I find it very rewarding working on it and my son has really impressed me with his problem solving abilities. The car wasn’t purchased for this reason it just happened. It has torn CV boots both sides. Struts are original and brakes need to be replaced. Our first project was the electric cooling fan because it wouldn’t shut off. I found it easy putting the Mini in service mode and used Mod Mini videos on You Tube. We put the new cooling fan and radiator in. I did not think it was hard and did the work outside in temps that were in the 30’s. There is a bunch of great info on this site that has given us the confidence to tackle these projects. We are in the process of putting a plan together for attacking the suspension. Good Luck I look forward to hearing about your progress.

 

Looking over your list I didn't see anything out of the ordinary...

Air Intake Boot -Torn, (I would fix this first, the CAI can wait)
Power Steering Hoses to Reservoir - Leaking (Yes, no surprise here, replace it)
Power Steering Pressure hose to rack - Leaking (Yes, no surprise here, replace it)
Serpentine Belt - Dry & Cracking - (Yes, no surprise here, replace it)
Brakes - I would replace the rotors and pads and sensors but why the Calipers?
Shocks & Struts - (If not bad why replace at this stage, but double check the front strut brace/mount, chances are they may need to be replaced)
Front Control Arm Bushings - Worn Out (Yes, no surprise here, replace all of them front and rear)
Engine Torque Mount - Worn Out - Rubber oil saturated and breaking down (Yes, no surprise here, replace it, and fairly easy to do)
Left and Right Inner CV Boots Torn and thumping under acceleration - recommend replacing axles with OEM (Yes, no surprise here, replace them, the boot protects the grease for the joint, torn boot allows the grease to fly out of the joint and wears the joint, it would be a false economy to remove the axle to replace the boot then find out the joint is gone)
A/C - doesn't work , (This could be a number of things and is interconnected with the cooling system fan operation, need to read the service book to get a handle on this one, but you may want to have a independent service shop tackle this for you)
Tranny fluid replace (Yes, no surprise here, replace it)
Brake Fluid replace (Yes, no surprise here, replace it)

You can do most of the work yourself, and is cost effective IF you have the tools... but a good Task- Cost analysis is a good way to start each one.

Knowedge is your best guide, get a good Service Book and read up on all the things you want to do, refer to the parts diagrams from places like:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/select
to better understand where the parts are and how many are related to the task.

Loads of information here and lots of help available. Many Instructional Videos are available on You Tube.

Best of luck and ...

Motor On!

 

So we go out for a drive last night to grab a couple of parts, and the drivers side window decides it doesn't go up or down. No noise at all. All other switches seem to be working fine... Electric is well outside of my wheelhouse. Where do I start to look? Passenger side is fine.

 

The one nice thing about many of your problems is that you can do many of them at the same time. The front bushings require you to drop the front subframe which requires you to remove the brake calipers and disconnect the drive shafts making them easy to replace. It also gets the power steering assembly out in the open where changing the hoses is a breeze. I know dropping the subframe sounds daunting but it takes some jack stands and like 2 sockets and a couple of hours to get the thing out in the open. While your under there change your transmission fluid too. And get you a belt tensioner tool. I did without one for my first two belt changes but a bad belt tensioner killed two belts this spring so I finally bought the correct tool and it made things so much easier. And my new belt tensioner should make my new belt last much longer than the last two. Enjoy your car! There are things about it that will infuriate you. They can be difficult to work on because so much of the car was designed with no thought toward servicing so parts don't easily fit in or out of tight spaces. But it also can be fun and rewarding doing the work yourself.

 

while you have the subframe off, test the AC compressor clutch coil, it is a common fail point on the ac system and you can get them very cheap

 

The O'Reilly's brand are called Import Direct. They have several different versions with slightly different lengths. They offer a lifetime warrentee on the shafts with the restriction that you don't bring it back in peices. They do not have the carrier bearing so you will have to move that over from the passanger CV shaft. Hardest part on moving the carrier bearing is getting the giant sized c clip off.

I have one of these on my passanger side that I installed. It cost me $78.00 and didn't require a core. I was lucky in that I could pick it up locally and that they had it in stock.

 

Hit the door card just above the front speaker as hard as you can with a closed fist a couple times. This usually remedies things in the short term. If its not making any noise then I'd put my money on the motor going, shocking on a 14 year old car with 170k .



If thats the issue and you decide to replace the motor, you'll probably want to do the regulator while youre at it. Do it yourself. The mini dealer quoted me a grand a window to replace the regulator and motor. Do it yourself. It's super easy to do yourself and the only pain is getting the dead window rolled down to get the geared glass retention pieces out of the door. Just remember youll break the old regulator well before you break the glass, and thats just fine since youre replacing it. It probably took me an hour to replace both my window regulators and motors and maybe $250 in parts.