Erm... high beams plus fogs and driving lamps. Now this one weirds me out a bit. I had always assumed that when the high beams go on that the low beams go off... is this not the case for the R53? My low beams are very definitely on with my high beams on - and since that power is not switched off, my fogs are still active on high beams as well. Can someone please confirm that when the high beams are on the low beams turn off on an R53? If that is the way it is, then that is the way it is and I will have to remember to turn them off manually.
On our 2004 Cooper (R50), with halogen headlights, the low beams are on when the high beams are on. For sure on that one.
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Originally Posted by jcolletteiii
BTW, the 'xenon white' Hella bulbs are not quite there. They're close, but not quite the same color temperature as the stock xenon bulbs. WAY better than regular old halogen bulbs though!
This week, the plan is to gradually start on the rear suspension. Have new rotors, rear shocks, and red stuff pads somewhere... gonna pull the entire rear suspension and axle, clean up and repaint the axle, decide on whether to do the aluminum trailing arm conversion, maybe new rear sway bar, bushings, etc.
If you do the Aluminum trailing arms, you will need a special conical washer to allow your shocks to fit the control arm. Also, be really careful installing the shocks. MINI uses a self tapping bolt to cut the threads in the aluminum. Those threads are crap and can get cross threaded and/or stripped out easily if that bolt is reused. Consider using a standard metric bolt, grade 10.8 (I think that is what it is for high strength) and install it with some never seize as the steel and aluminum will corrode together otherwise. Hand, only, assembly of the bolt; no power/air tools. Then use only about 90 ft-lbs to tighten it.
I am not a fan of big RSBs; too easy for it to cause the car to swap ends. It should have correspondingly stiffer shocks, springs and/or swaybar up front to help control the tendency for oversteer. Stiffer shocks are ones that are stiffer (adjustable?) than the rears, not just a matching stiffer set all the way around.
THANKS SOOO much for that confirmation Eddie07S! That's great to know. Now I am on the fence if I should disconnect my tap on the low beams and tap in instead on the fog light circuit - assuming of course that the stock fogs go off when the high beams go on - this is good information to know.
I had heard about the conical washers, but I did not know that the shock mounts were self-tapping. I do know the rear axle is on with self-tapping screws - will probably remount that when I am done repainting it with regular bolts as well. Thanks - good to know. Still not sure I want to go through all of that extra expense for 12 lbs of weight savings. Yeah - they look good, but that is a lot of work (and cost) and that may be hard to justify when I have other things to take care of. Thanks for the tips!
On another note, I had to take the weather strip off of the door sill area when I was running wire (and it allowed me to clean up under there - more old mouse debris). I discovered that I only have two very small rust spots under the rubber weatherstripping. I wonder about under the plastic trim and sill plate though....
The stock fogs should turn on with the parking lights alone or with the low beams, and turm off with the high beams. I don’t remember if they’ll come back on when the high beams are turned off, or if the circuit is reset to the off setting.
Some rust under the door seal is probably on every 1st gen MINI. Water creeps behind them even in low pressure situations like rinsing the car during washing. It doesn’t help that there are 2 or 3 panels sandwiched together forming a seam for the water to wick into.
The stock fogs should turn on with the parking lights alone or with the low beams, and turm off with the high beams. I don’t remember if they’ll come back on when the high beams are turned off, or if the circuit is reset to the off setting.
Some rust under the door seal is probably on every 1st gen MINI. Water creeps behind them even in low pressure situations like rinsing the car during washing. It doesn’t help that there are 2 or 3 panels sandwiched together forming a seam for the water to wick into.
On my R56 the fog lights would go off when the High beams were turned on and then would come back on when the low beams were turned back on, without you having to do anything. Not sure if it is the same with the R53, but I know that MINI carried over some stuff from the R53 to the R56 and it would be my guess that this didn’t change.
I know that the aluminum trailing arms are neat to look at and save a little weight, but I would consider it to be not worth the effort. MINI went back to steel trailing arms on the F56. Hmmmm, I wonder why? Problems, maybe? A lot of weight can be saved by going to lighter wheels. I know your 17” wheels look really nice, but you can save between 5 and 15 lbs a wheel by going to a light 15” wheel. Or if your wheels are stock and you want to keep the 17” wheels, you can save up to about 10 lbs a wheel by going to something like Enkei Racing wheels. This is also a rotational weight savings which has a great affect on the car’s performance than just a change in static weight.
Thanks for the reply. Yeah - I think I had heard a couple folks had experienced failures with the aluminum arms somehow, can't recall exactly what they were, but I always think about possible installation issues with conversions like that and wonder if that might have had something to do with it. Had you heard of failures on the 2nd gen Minis with the aluminum trailing arms?
You know, my wheels are heavy - not as heavy as my original s-lites, but I love those wheels - they just look 'right'. And on some of the crappy roads up here, I would be worried about denting my wheels all the time if I didn't have some fairly robust ones.
I need to get out there and check the high beams/fog lights and see how they operate. I am not sure how much of an issue it would be to keep the wiring how it is now. My fogs will be aimed pretty low and significantly toward the sides, and the driving lights will only come on with the highs, but that would be a lot of lights on with the highs I suppose. I waffle back and forth on this. I do need to tidy up the relays in the cowl area anyhow, and I suppose as long as I can find and tap the wires fairly easily - it's not that much additional work.
Thanks for the reply. Yeah - I think I had heard a couple folks had experienced failures with the aluminum arms somehow, can't recall exactly what they were, but I always think about possible installation issues with conversions like that and wonder if that might have had something to do with it. Had you heard of failures on the 2nd gen Minis with the aluminum trailing arms?
You know, my wheels are heavy - not as heavy as my original s-lites, but I love those wheels - they just look 'right'. And on some of the crappy roads up here, I would be worried about denting my wheels all the time if I didn't have some fairly robust ones.
I need to get out there and check the high beams/fog lights and see how they operate. I am not sure how much of an issue it would be to keep the wiring how it is now. My fogs will be aimed pretty low and significantly toward the sides, and the driving lights will only come on with the highs, but that would be a lot of lights on with the highs I suppose. I waffle back and forth on this. I do need to tidy up the relays in the cowl area anyhow, and I suppose as long as I can find and tap the wires fairly easily - it's not that much additional work.
Yes, it happened to a friend. Going 80ish and the lower bolt for the shock pulled out. Dropped the car on to the road. Gave new meaning to “three wheeling a MINI”. He was lucky. Straight road out in Arizona. And not too much damage, but a bunch of $$$ to fix. Then I started to check around on NAM and found that a number of people stripped out the bolt when replacing shocks. I had a shop put in steel inserts to bolt into, but they screwed that up (no pun intended) and one pulled out in my hand when I was replacing shocks... I had done about 10 track days at that point. I was really lucky. I did what some people did. Drilled it out. Put a through bolt in and put a nut on the other end. I won’t get into the grinding and custom washer that was needed to do that... Ok... Too much ranting... Sorry.
As for the wheels, they do look “Right”. If they saved you a bit of weight than that is all a win! And there is something to be said for strength.
I wish that we had gotten the MINI fog lights on our R50. But it turns out, in their day, the MINI low/high beam combination is the best lighting. Then MINI dropped that combination for the R56 and the high beams on those really suck. I reprogrammed the fog lights on my R56 to stay on with the high beams to fill in the unlit area in front of the car. I am sure you will figure out something that will work for you and the drivers coming at you...
I have never read anything about a. perceivable benefit with swapping out the control arm. I know people have done it, but never saw a real reason other than “weight”. I think the idea is that a pound here and a pound there that is removed, it all adds up, which is probably part of the theory. For something like a race car, that could make a difference in getting down to minimum weight. On the other hand, weight loss just in the rear probably doesn’t help handling in a front wheel drive car as it shifts a percentage of the remaining total to the front. With the R56, MINI made the front something like 2” longer. Maybe they were looking for something to offset that weight gain to help meet requirements such as fuel economy. My best guess...
Think I have all of the parts I need for the rear suspensions work, so going to start on that probably tomorrow.
But, I did rough aim my lights after replacing the fog lamp body that had cracked. Will probably leave them that way until I can get the car onto flat ground and aim them properly (my garage isn't big enough, and my driveway has a pitch to it). But, I think I have figured out the license plate mount. I ordered a couple of rubber-coated bar magnet license plate holders from Amazon, and they use cheap, crappy ceramic bar magnets in an aluminum c channel that has been encased in silicone. Good idea, but the magnetic poles are wrong for what I was going to do (mount one on the back of the plate, one on the bumper using the existing plate holes). If they had used neodymium magnets instead of ceramic, they would have been strong enough to work either way, but they are not.
So, I ordered some one inch ring magnets off ebay. I will encase each one in epoxy using a round mould that I'll make from silicone. Once the epoxy has set up, I'll countersink one side (keeping the correct, opposite polarity), mount two to the front bumper and two to the plate. The plate will stick up further than it used to, but I can take it off when I feel bold. The neodymium magnets will be more than strong enough to keep the plate on there even at speed. Problem solved.
Glad that I am taking apart the rear suspension... took the caliper off of the driver's side, hung it up out of the way for now, started to work on all of those 18 year old corroded-on bolts, and looked at the lower control arm and it's got a pretty good kink in it. I musta run something over at some point, but no other damage that I could see. Weird. My axle carrier is good and rusty - glad that I am taking it out to repaint it, but the driver's brake line goes right through the middle of the damn thing. Ah well, I suppose I was going to repaint the rear calipers anyhow.
Anyone know of a good rebuild kit for the stock rear calipers? They are pretty corroded and in not very pretty shape. Figure I will clean them up to the bare metal, new o-rings or gaskets - whatever all comes with a rebuild kit, and then do a refinish on both. Just in silver so as to look new, no silly colors on stock calipers for me. I want a good, solid, long-term finish on them - any suggestions for the caliper paint?
Did you try Way Motors or ECS for a rebuild kit? However, I have seen a number of posts where people have bought rebuilt calipers and saved themselves the effort. I guess it is a bit of PIA to rebuild those. My shop put rebuilt calipers on our R50 not too long ago and they have been fine. They are all nice and silver looking. I think he deals mostly with NAPA. I think he also put on NAPA brake pads and I am liking them better than the MINI pads, but it took a while for them to bed in and feel good.
I did, but the ones I've seen are just dust boots mostly. Been looking at the kits on ebay that include a new piston as well, but don't know what the quality of those is like.
Yep, I have seen all of the rebuilt calipers out there, and I am beginning to wonder if it is worth the time to do if I can get rebuilt ones for around a hundred bucks a piece.
I have a critical enough mass of the rear suspension parts that I have launched into the disassembly phase. The plan is to completely remove all steel painted parts that are quite rusted on my car - before it lived in sunny CA for 5 years, it did a stint of 4 or 5 years in salty MA winters and got a fairly well-seasoned bottom. So, the trailing arms are coming off, all of the connecting bits, the antiroll bar, and the rear axle carrier. When it all goes back together, it will have either rebuilt or remanufactured calpers, new rotors, new rear shocks, and at least one new control arm (lower one on driver's side is bent pretty good, but the car goes perfectly straight). Will strip, rough up really well and paint the trailing arms and axle with semi-gloss black POR-15. Then the whole ting goes back together with probably a new sway bar. While all of that suspension is out, will inspect the brake lines, give the undercarriage a good cleaning, and replace a couple exhaust hangers (have some intermittent exhaust noise).
I was trying to figure out if I had ever had a big bump from running over, and there are lots of speed humps in CA, but I have always been careful. Only thing I can figure is there was a low curb that I did not see in the fog one time, but I don't recall any impact other than the tires hitting. Those S-lites - those suckers never bent! Anyhow, new control arms aren't all that bad, and it's only the lower one that has a kink, upper one looks just fine.
So, started on the removal this past weekend. upper shock mount bolts were easy to loosen, the control arm bolts were cake. The bolts holding the trailing arm bolts loosened up just fine. But after swearing at the rubber shock bolt cover a bit, the expletives really started flying when I tried loosening that lower shock mount bolt. Holy crap is that bolt a royal P-I-T-A! I stubbornly kept trying to get that bolt from under the car until I just decided to take the whole trailing arm assembly off. Once I did that, I got one of my pipe clamps and used the 5 foot galvanized pipe as a breaker bar. Needed all five feet of it to get that %$#@%@r to let go with a loud crack! Then it gradually came out. WOW. Anyhow, three days battling one bolt before I took the trailing arm off and had the damn thing out in 15 minutes. Small victories.
The bearing still feels like butter. I replaced the other side fairly early on - think it was just out of warranty. This one still feels fine, so will just clean it up a bit, probably put new bolts on, and that's that. Sprayed down all of the bolts and threaded mounting points on the passenger side and letting those soak. Need to remove the back part of the exhaust and the heat shields as well before I can see the entire axle carrier. I think on the other side I will just drop the trailing arm as a unit and take off that lower shock bolt once it's off the car. Trying to get leverage while prone is never fun on really stuck bolts.
Wish I had a torch. Well, maybe not really - dunno what all I would do with it other than heat up nuts and bolts. I do try heating and cooling them sometimes and that so far has not been effective. I do clean the threads before attempting removal with a brass brush, and that is only partially effective. For example, I broke the front bolt off on each of my outer exhaust hangers when removing those. Now, I have to drill those out from inside and replace them. Ugh - always something. I was able to get the back part of the exhaust off last night, remove the hangers, and drop the rear heat shield so that I could see better. A bit of rust on the underbody, but not too bad. The axle is worse than I thought it was though, so will take my time cleaning that. I may not drop the rear axle carrier - don't think I actually need to - I can loosen the bolts and that should get me the clearance I need to clean it up with a wire brush on my drill and coat it in place. Dunno, I will be able to tell better once I get the right side suspension out of the way. For areas of the underbody that I have to dig into to remove rust, I will prime and recoat with the POR-15 rubberized undercoat product - which is paintable when cured. The underbody color is NOT Indi blue though - it's some pale blue that I'll try to match somewhat after I get everything all cleaned up.
The heat shield is in rough shape - the aluminum-steel reaction along the edges by the exhaust hangers was pretty bad - helped along by all of the MA road salt no doubt. So I found a pretty good deal on a brand new heat shield from the Atlanta BMW/Mini dealer - $75 bucks or so, couldn't pass it up. Also got a right side exhaust bracket for pretty cheap, but the left side one they want $75 bucks for! Yikes! Mine are both nearly rusted through in the middle. Hopefully I can find the other for a decent price. Hope to have the right side suspension out of the car tonight, and the control arms unbolted. Then I can start on cleaning it up under there, drop the axle on the bolts and clean that up. Fun stuff!
MAPP gas torch. The tank and torch look a lot like a propane tank and torch, but it burns a lot hotter. It is almost as hot as an oxy-acetylene torch. It is hot enough to braze with. This is similar to one that I have. https://www.bernzomatic.com/Products...n-Off/BZ8250HT
Your big box hardware stores and local hardware stores carry them.
MAPP gas torch. The tank and torch look a lot like a propane tank and torch, but it burns a lot hotter. It is almost as hot as an oxy-acetylene torch. It is hot enough to braze with. This is similar to one that I have. https://www.bernzomatic.com/Products...n-Off/BZ8250HT
Your big box hardware stores and local hardware stores carry them.
Was getting ready to say the same thing - - Mapp gas torch is a must have.
That said, adding heat to your work introduces new hazards, from melting or igniting soft goods to burning the crap out of yourself. 😲
Keep in mind that one of, the, other great bolt-breaking tools, PB Blaster, may become a fuel source once you apply flame.
Pay attention to what's beyond the flame tip. MAPP torch puts significant heat out several inches past to blue burny part.
Well, got the rest of the suspension parts off today - COLD in the garage (-12F today), but managed to pull the rear control arms off and the passenger side trailing arm and strut. Wouldn't you know it, the passenger side lower control arm is bent too. A very slightly different place. Hmmm.... anyhow, ordered a second used one from Allmag - I really should have looked a bit closer - could have saved myself $14 bucks in shipping. Ah well. I can see a few more places that will need some rust management, but not too bad for an 18 year old car that lived in salty MA for the first part of it's life. Going to start cleaning up the parts tomorrow to get them ready for paint. Still have to take off the e-brake cables so I can get the axle carrier down - it is pretty rusted. I don't think it's in bad shape, just pretty grungy. Will look at the welds to make sure they are still all intact when I take it down.
Ordered new calipers (had to get them from separate places due to price and one being out of stock at the cheapest place), but found the right one had a bit of a leak, and by the time I strip and rebuild them, the aggravation saved will totally be worth it. I hear they can be a bit troublesome to retract as well. Anyhow, bought a pair of those, a pair of new bushings for the trailing arms, some new pads, and looking at a new sway bar as well. Anyone ever run one of the 22mm progress bars? I know there won't me much of a difference from one bar to the next in a given diameter, but I am more interested in how well the finish has held up on these if anyone has on that's been in for some time it would be nice to know. I like the metallic grey powder coat color that they use.
Another Q for all y'all with more suspension experience... these suspension bolts are all in pretty good shape - do any of them have to be replaced or can they be reused?
Well, got the rest of the suspension parts off today - COLD in the garage (-12F today), but managed ...
Seriously? -12F and you are out pulling a suspension apart? Hope you have a good heater in the garage... I have done a few “cold” car projects in the years past, but never that cold and no more. My blood is to old for that... Go you!
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Originally Posted by jcolletteiii
to pull the rear control arms off and the passenger side trailing arm and strut. Wouldn't you know it, the passenger side lower control arm is bent too. A very slightly different place. Hmmm.... anyhow, ordered a second used one from Allmag - I really should have looked a bit closer - could have saved myself $14 bucks in shipping. Ah well. I can see a few more places that will need some rust management, but not too bad for an 18 year old car that lived in salty MA for the first part of it's life. Going to start cleaning up the parts tomorrow to get them ready for paint. Still have to take off the e-brake cables so I can get the axle carrier down - it is pretty rusted. I don't think it's in bad shape, just pretty grungy. Will look at the welds to make sure they are still all intact when I take it down.
Ordered new calipers (had to get them from separate places due to price and one being out of stock at the cheapest place), but found the right one had a bit of a leak, and by the time I strip and rebuild them, the aggravation saved will totally be worth it. I hear they can be a bit troublesome to retract as well. Anyhow, bought a pair of those, a pair of new bushings for the trailing arms, some new pads, and looking at a new sway bar as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcolletteiii
Anyone ever run one of the 22mm progress bars? I know there won't me much of a difference from one bar to the next in a given diameter, but I am more interested in how well the finish has held up on these if anyone has on that's been in for some time it would be nice to know. I like the metallic grey powder coat color that they use.
Just a little tidbit... The stiffness of a sway bar is a function of its radius raised to the 4 power. So even a 1.0 mm change is big. Going from 17mm to 18mm bar is a little more than 25% stiffer. Going to a 19mm bar is a little more than 55% stiffer. A 22 mm bar is about 3.5 times stiffer. These are all major changes.
I am not a fan of big RSBs, without other front end suspension stiffening. It can make the car too prone to wanting to swap ends, especially in wet and snowy conditions. Without any other changes I would go to a 19mm bar in the rear and not have to worry about other issues. Also, with a larger bar, get some heavy duty sway bar links. The MINI ones have been know to clunk/fail with the added load.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcolletteiii
Another Q for all y'all with more suspension experience... these suspension bolts are all in pretty good shape - do any of them have to be replaced or can they be reused?
In general I reuse them. An exception might be the lower rear shock bolt. Having had to use a breaker bar on it might have caused damage that could show up later. I’d replace those.
Have not done the front bar yet, but will be doing an upgrade to the front one when I drop the front subframe for bushings and repainting next winter. Did swap in koni red's last winter up front.
Anyhow - it's -20 or so for the next few days, so all work on the car is pretty much on hold for a bit. I can get some scraping and wire brushing done on the trailing arms in the basement to prep them for recoating, and got to find a suspension place that will press my old trailing arm bushings out - I tried with a diy ghetto threaded rod press, but no dice - that sleeved bushing is really in there. New poly ones should be pretty straightforward to get in once the old ones are out and the part has been painted. My end links look pretty good, and I was thinking about reusing them, glad you said something. Any suggestions there? Don't think I will have much use for adjustable ones, but you're tight beefier one would probably be a good idea.
Of course, you can't get heavy duty and non-adjustable. Anyone know if the godspeed ones are any good? I don't like blingy crap, and those look good and aren't red, blue, or yellow. What are the stock rear end link length?
I just can't help myself. Turned on the heater in the garage, and did one coat on one side of the first trailing arm. Will probably do a light sanding between coats. Got the semigloss for all of the suspension bits. I got the heater blowing right at the part, and it feels like the bench is right around 70 degrees, so should be okay. Man, these were grungy. Had to say, I was contemplating going back to my original plan with the aluminum trailing arms when I first started taking these things off - they are pretty grungy. They cleaned up okay though. I scraped all of the big chunks of rust off with an old screwdriver, sanded with 80 where it needed it, then wire brushed the whole thing and then degreased it. One more to clean up.
Will do the control arms, the mounting brackets, and the axle carrier with this stuff. Well, still have not decided if I am going to order a new axle. The rust on the 'before' picture of the trailing arm below is pretty tame compared to how the axle carrier looks... it's rough.
Just off the car.
Cleaned up - wire brushed, most of the rust brushed/sanded off. POR-15 'loves rust', so some rust shouldn't be a problem.
Go you! 
