R56 Rear Arms

Picked These Up Locally

Before

After

Powerflex Uppers

Cleaned and Painted. I plan on starting the rear soon. This was all supposed to be a winter project but we ended up moving and I needed the car to remain mobile.

 

Wow I love what you have done with your car. Nice work trouble shooting the root cause of the engine issues as well. How easy was it to get the R56 seats in? I wasn't even aware they could be made compatible with an R53.

 

Thanks! After doing this, I cannot see why anyone would want to change these bushings with the subframe in the car. The seats were not hard to install and it is a pretty common mod. There are several threads on that in here. Hardest part was the wiring, specifically the airbag, and enlarging the pivot holes in the rear.

 

 

Not 100% sure, but these may be original. BMW is showing on there. If they are, not bad for 1/4 of a million miles.

 

I also wanted to point out the towers as it relates to mushrooming. I read several posts on this subject and there seem to be varying levels of severity with this issue. The images above are from before and in my case, there was a slight deformation of stud closest to the engine on both sides. Very hard to see but of you look at the tops of each stud, you can see the inward tilt.

I found out as I was installing the one on the passenger side. as I was tightening that nut. Keep in mind that if you intend to use the Indurators, you lose quite a bit of stud length and it is very easy to overtighten/strip the nut. Especially when it is trying to reform the tower on the way down. For the other side, I used a small block of wood and gave it a few taps first.

 

Got a sunroof delete panel from LRB Speed to delete the inoperative Webasto unit. These were essentially installed by the dealer as an option. It would even be shown on the window sticker. However, since these were available with sunroofs anyways, I am not sure why they would decide to do that.

Delete panel was relatively straight forward to install. Most of the time was spent to paint and mock. Luckily, I was able to source a new roof bow from Mini for about $35

Webasto unit

Missing roof bow

Delete panel and new bow

 

Added some sound deadening. Notice the difference right away, just by closing the door. Sounded much more solid than before.

 

Car is very dirty in this image due to winter storage but I will try getting a better image after cleaning it up. The panel is the same color as the scoop. Clear is still not completely cured yet so too early to cut/sand.

 

Also obtained a new headliner and re-covered it. Raised graphics are from 1/4 inch foam and material is a gray/gunmetal microfiber, meant to somewhat match the exterior details. Cost $24 for all from Michaels. I will grab another image once I finish installing it.

 

Here is the headliner after installation. This car didn't have front visors/grab handles before due to the AM sunroof, so I mistakenly cut the holes. I just have to figure out something to put there now.

 

Here is some additional audio related stuff. This is a hideaway 8 inch sub. The mount is a pine board from Lowes ($6) that I covered with the same fabric as the headliner. The board fit without modification, I just sanded all the edges.

I also wanted this to be plug and play/completely removable. Whole thing can come out in less than a minute with no tools. It can stow behind the front seats as well.

 

Some new updates. Installed a new set of Maxpeeding Rod coilovers to replace the Racelands the car came with. They were not leaking but they were pretty beat up. I also think the RF may have had an issue because the mount on that side only lasted about 1500 miles. Install was pretty straight forward but I will say that in my case I had 2 issues

1. The bottom of the coilover was loose in the knuckle when fully tightened
2. The brake line bracket required modification to not hit the wheel. This involved cutting and bending.

Overall, they seem to ride a bit better than the Racelands, although I have no idea how old those were.


Racelands

New Coilover

Close to the tire, but dose not touch


What I used as a spacer for the knuckle. Good thing I had a spare since I also just had the head off to replace a valve.

I have had to remove and tighten this nut several times due to a rattle (the marble sound) on the Racelands. My potential fix is here. The lower washer goes over the center bushing so the fit is tighter and it is also curved to keep the bushing from "spilling" out. Time will tell if this works.

 

Some additional new items for the Mini. I decided to replace the timing chain, which turned out to be slightly stretched. I also did some "while you're in there" items including:

• New tensioner
• Alta tensioner stop
• New belt
• Speedmaster damper
• Idler pulley
• DDM Intercooler boots

The tensioner was making noise due to looseness and that did resolve the noise. I added the pulley images since not a lot of people seemed to have used this one. It is thinner than the original but the weight is the same. Went on easily and I have had no issues so far. The Super Damper may be superior, I just couldn't justify an extra $240 for it.

I replaced the intercooler boots because one of the originals was starting to tear. Not bad life on the OEM ones at 260k. I originally got the Alta boots but I had issues getting them to seal and they were hell to put on. After researching, many said the DDM ones were the best and I would agree. Had no issues getting them on. They are softer and thinner than the Alta ones and being slightly thinner makes the clamps slide on much easier.

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  Pulley Comparison
  
  Pulley Comparison

 

Looking so good, feel the love.

Great work.