tej98's 2005 Hyper Blue R53 Journal
 

Hi everyone, we just recently picked up a very clean 2005 MCS in Hyper Blue. This will be a thread for me write about the car and the maintenace/modifications I will do over the years. A little about me - I have loved working on cars with my family for as long as I can remember. My old car is a 2000 BMW E46 323Ci with 253,000 miles that I currently daily drive (now for sale). I was looking for a change after driving the E46 for 5 years throughout highschool and now college. I've always been interested in the R53 Minis because of the supercharger and saw that prices seemed to be coming down on well-kept examples. When a local deal came up on one we just could not pass it up. A few details about the car:

Its a 2005 MCS with ~134k miles. It is Hyper Blue with what I believe is Lapis Blue/Black leather interior. It also has the Chrono/Gauge Pack, and Premium/Sport package. We bought it from an older couple that did not really know about all the upgrades the previous owners had installed on the car. Also the car came with the MINI roof bars (shows priced on the original invoice from 2004). Just thumbing through the records revealed that the car has had quite a bit of maintenance/modifications done already:

- New supercharger - 15% WMW Pulley
- M7 Cold air intake
- JCW Exhaust
- Valeo SMF Clutch Kit
- Koni Street struts/shocks with H&R sport springs
- Powerflex LCABs and RTABs
- Front and rear upgraded swaybars (rear is an alta I believe)
- WMW TSW X-Brace
- Rear camber arms
- A while ago WMW rebuilt the head (not sure why, hopefully nothing too serious)
- Cooling system replaced
- Power steering hoses
- A host of other o-rings/seals over the years (The car came with much documentation from previous owners)

A few issues we've found are so far limited to the sagging headliner, slow driver's side window, and both keys have dead batteries so the remote unlock/lock does not currently work. Apart from those few issues I really enjoy the car so far and hope to have many miles ahead of me! I'm still learning the ropes of the R53 platform but I've been reading up on them for about a year now and seem to have a decent understanding of the major issues (I'm sure I have plenty to learn from the community over the years!).

A couple things I did notice on the car: under acceleration in 2nd/3rd gear between about 2-3k rpm there appears to be a vibration in the general floor board area. Could this be because of the Valeo SMF clutch kit? I've read that converting from the dual mass will cause a bit more harshness in the feel of the car. I considered that it could be motor mounts / drive shafts but I have records of the motor mounts being changed already and before I bought the car I had it on my ramps and saw that the driveshafts have little stickers that read "rebuilt".
The second observation was after a drive, turning the car on again (warm start) there seems to be a slight ticking noise immediately as the car settles into idle, but goes away as soon as any throttle is applied and does not come back again. Could this be because of older oil or maybe an older oil filter causing some sort of restriction? There is no valve train noise at all during driving and the oil pressure gauge seems to indicate normal pressure. I would really appreciate any input on this, but in any case I plan to change the oil soon for peace of mind.

On to the pictures! These were taken just a few minutes after purchasing the car:
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...e4a0e267ea.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...0d077cbd04.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...38f0b41b64.jpg

Thanks for reading! I would appreciate any feedback about the car or any advice to keeping it on the road! So far the plan is to locate some front strut tower reinforcements (no mushrooming currently) and give the car a thorough cleaning. I plan to daily drive the car as soon as my E46 sells and would love to hear tips on keeping the R53 reliable!

Good looking car! Of course, I might be biased towards hyper blue.

I bought my 06 in December. You're ahead of me on the mod list, but one suggestion would be to consider going with a camber plate instead of just tower reinforcements. I put in a set of fixed camber plates that will definitely prevent mushrooming, but also really improved the handling as well.

Thanks I love it so far! I'm probably going to hold off on driving more until I can dig into the light ticking noise on warm start. Don't want to cause any damage! The funny thing is how it goes away after light throttle application and never comes back..

I would change the oil/filter and see if the ticking goes away, sure you're not hearing the Fuel Injectors ticking. FYI: The Keys charge while in the ignition. Nice looking car :)

Thanks! I plan to order the FCPEuro Liqui Moly 5w40 oil change kit and put in a can of Liqui Moly MoS2 additive. Any recommendations on preferred oil? (Don't want to open the typical oil thread debate :D)

Great looking Mini with a bunch of cool mods! Ticking noise could be the timing chain due to an old/malfunctioning hydraulic tensioner. The noise tends to go away as you accelerate and centrifugal forces engage the guides. I recently installed a Valeo single-mass clutch kit in my MC40 and have no issues whatsoever with vibration.

Thanks for the info! I'll do some reading on the tensioner, from first glance it doesn't seem that bad to replace and I see ModMini on YouTube has a video on it.

By the way, I've always loved the MC40 graphics and interior! Awesome car!

Thanks for the compliment. If you don't already have a set, I HIGHLY recommend you pick up a set of wobble socket extensions: https://www.harborfreight.com/9-pc-w...set-67971.html Because of the limited space, they make working on a Mini much easier. You'll notice that ModMini uses one in his video.

Thanks! We actually have that exact set in our tool collection!

Nice MINI, in the best color combination ever offered on any MINI or Mini in any year! ( Not that I'm partial...)

Haha thanks! I love the color combo!

So a quick update on the ticking - It appears that both times the engine made the noise was when it was on a slight incline on restart. Checking the oil today on flat ground revealed it was halfway between minimum and maximum. From all the driving done today there was no ticking at all (knocks on wood). I believe an oil change with some proper synthetic Liqui-Moly 5w40 is in order. Luckily I think we already have a 36mm socket to pull the filter as well.

That's good news... Just so you know, a regular 36mm socket will not work, you need the shallow socket that several members have posted.

Yep +1 right here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-wrenches.html

Thanks! Checked it out this morning before work and we noticed ours was too big. FCPEuro order placed with Liqui-Moly 5w40 and a can of MoS2. Also added the slim oil filter socket.

Hopefully after work we'll have some time to clean it up a bit. It's pretty dirty, any tips on cleaning the fins on the outside of the supercharger intercooler? Is it alright to spray water on the intercooler?

Thanks for the link. I was reading and saw that your Mini has 300k miles? Is that true? If so, that's awesome!

After work today we washed the engine and car. Then followed up with Meguiars clay bar and sealed with Collinite 845 insulator wax. I also organized all the records and found out that the car has a few mods that were purchased off of NAM forum members in the past. Also a nice little surprise was finding that the crank pulley has been changed with an ATI Super Damper at Way Motor Works here in Atlanta. Since they are local I think I will have to visit them and see if they remember anything about the car (much work was done there in the past). Another surprise was that the power steering pump was changed around 40,000 miles which probably doesn't make much difference now but is nice to know. Here are a few pics:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...54c7100357.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...cc61ed260e.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...db644b494e.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...40c4db05bd.jpg

The stack of records that I organized:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...3b1df8af7e.jpg

Hello,

Yep, its getting up there. Very close to 300K now. I just did the A/C compressor and starter.

Post #16 from a few years back. All 3 of My MINIs.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-boy-blue.html

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...4495c62f7e.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...2e536288f2.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...a30a4000ec.jpg

This evening we buffed the vinyl stripes with rubbing compound. They were faded and very dirty from sitting in the sun. Here are some 50/50 pics of the process:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...958ffc9bf0.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...15adbf9c4e.jpg

Some engine bay pics from the cleaning, still have much to clean:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...b7a7c94078.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...15eeb54aed.jpg

Also, my intake filter is pretty dirty. Thinking about replacing it with a K&N RU-1480 cone, thoughts?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...3bd1a15913.jpg

For future reference here are pictures of my strut towers. They seem pretty flat to me but I guess I will see for sure when I install defenders.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...7a75babade.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...c8649292f7.jpg

Today after work we changed the oil out with the Liqui-Moly 5w40 and a can of MoS2 additive. The oil filter canister was on extremely tight, much tighter than the specified 25 NM. It took three of us to put enough force on a breaker bar to get it loosen, so its good we didn't end up breaking the oil filter housing. Right before I drained the old oil the car had just been driven home from work and had sat for about 45 minutes. On a warm start still on the old oil the rattle came back and went away with a little throttle input then never came back. I believe the timing chain tensioner is sticking since after a warm start the oil has leaked out of the tensioner and takes a little revving to get oil pressure back into it. So that is next on the list of things to do fairly soon, but first I will drive the car for a few days to see if it gets any better with new oil.

Here are a few pics of the process (I'm sure well known to everyone here :) )

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...4a36b14cd6.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...e44179e8fc.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...29b2109ce7.jpg

Update: There still seems to be a rattle on warm start when the car has sat for a little while. I've decided to park the car until the new tensioner comes in (ordering tonight). Don't want to cause damage to the chain guides.

Hopefully, that will fix your clatter, however, be prepared that your timing chain may be so stretched that the tensioner is not forcing the chain against the guide and the chain/guides need to be replaced. It's not a difficult job but you will need a special tool to keep the camshaft from turning and getting your engine out of time while replacing the chain.

I see, thanks for the info! If the chain/guides were worn wouldn't the rattling noise occur all the time? Right now it happens on a warm start and goes away when revving and never comes back on that drive cycle (even at idle)

I would just do the whole timing set and be done with it.

The clatter happens when you start the car but doesn't occur when revving because at that time the centrifugal force of the rotation presses the chain against the guides. I'm sure you'll find that the sound disappears above 1,000 rpms. As I mentioned earlier, it COULD be the hydraulic tensioner not fully extending and putting pressure against the guide (only affects the rear guide). If the tensioner is working properly, then it's most likely a stretched timing chain and it will need to be replaced, including both guides.