A good friend in Berkeley, CA gave me her 2004 Mini Cooper S with 80,000 miles. It was parked outdoors in a mild climate. No rust, but the paint has been beaten up by the sun. I live in Massachusetts, so I had her take it to a Mini specialist for an inspection. He said there were lots of things wrong with it, such as a slipping clutch, low power (probably because of the slipping clutch), bald tires, the serpentine belt was badly frayed, and lots of oil leakage.

We flew to California to drive it to Massachusetts, but the clutch went out completely before we could begin the drive, so I hired a truck to have it shipped, and we flew home. I've had it a week, and here's the progress so far:

• Replaced the tires
• Subframe and axles removed
• Radiator fan thermostat replaced
• Valve cover gasket and PCV valve replaced
• The spark plugs looked fine so I didn't replace
• Cabin and engine air filters replaced. Big whoop.
• Coolant reservoir is metal and already replaced

I'm ready to brace the engine and unbolt the transmission, but before I do, I will:

• Remove serpentine belt, tensioner and pulley
• Remove supercharger/water pump and replace water pump and service supercharger
• Remove oil filter housing assembly, clean it up (oil has leaked all over it), replace all its gaskets and replace the oil pressure sensor

One question so far: Any suggestions about what to bolt to engine so I can attach the engine brace hook? [Solved…]

After that:

• Replace clutch, throwout bearing, rear main seal
• Replace all four ball joints, sway bar bushings, and rear control arm bushings
• Replace a bunch of other gaskets, like throttle body, engine dipstick, supercharger, etc.
• Replace the brake pads and rotors
• Replace the shocks with Koni FSB's

So that's where I am so far. I can't quite figure out how the belt tensioner tool is supposed to fit but I guess I'll get it figured out.

 

Looks pretty darn clean!
Off to a nice start.

 

Honestly, I'd just pull the whole thing as one, (Engine and Transmission) it will make all of the jobs you have left, SOOO MUCH EASIER, and from where you are, it's really not that much more work. Plus will give you a chance to clean everything really well.
(pull the a/c compressor off the engine and leave it connected to the lines, just move it out of the way)

Then, when your ready to go back in, put the subframe back in first, you'll be surprised how much easier it will all be without the engine in the way.
(remember, zip lock bags and painter's tape for labeling and bolt organization, plugs plenty of pictures as you go, even wide shots)

But, if you don't want to do that, grab a support bar from Amazon or HF:

https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=engine%20support

 

Thank you very much!
I already have the HF support bar, but what I don’t have is something to bolt to the engine which the support bar’s hook can attach to. That’s the part I’m trying to figure out.

 

. Look at 24.40. He made a bracket to attach to the block. I know it's on a non-S but same concept.

 

Thanks. I saw that, and I’ve been following that video carefully. But I don’t know how to make something like that. I don’t have a drill press.

UPDATE: I figured something out.

 

Clearly, the oil filter housing and the crank position sensor have been leaking heavily. Fortunately, once you remove the subframe and the axles, it’s awfully easy to remove the oil filter housing. I’d hate to do it from up top.

The surprise for me was that the oil cooler portion of the oil filter housing was full of sludge, which is apparently very common. And… that’s also two more gaskets to replace, which isn’t often discussed. In my opinion, if you’re going to replace the oil filter housing gasket, you should pull the whole thing out, flush out the oil cooler, and replace the two oil cooler “o-rings” as well.

I removed the serpentine belt — I feel like I should get automatic membership to some sort of club for managing that. And I’ve managed to remove the two difficult transmission bolts up top and the starter motor bolts. I have the engine brace in place and I’m ready to pull the transmission, just waiting for my daughter to come home so she can record the event.

The car is in my garage and even if I do pull the engine, I won’t be able to get it to the driveway for cleaning. I’ve sprayed lots of Purple Power on the engine and scrubbed it, with puppy pee pads beneath to get most of the mess. But it’s not nearly as clean as I’d like and I’m open to cleaning suggestions.

 

Finally removed the last transmission bolt and… nuts! The flywheel seems to be coming off with the transmission.

The clutch fully failed, and the clutch lever seemed to be seized (I didn’t push on it very hard after disconnecting the clutch slave cylinder).

Any ideas? I’m hoping that moving the clutch lever or banging on it might loosen things up and allow the transmission to separate.

If that doesn’t work, I suppose I’ll have to pull the whole engine/transmission out together, which I’d rather not do at this point.

 

I pulled the engine and separated the transmission. It was stuck but finally they separated. The flywheel was ok, although it was scored and needs replacement. The clutch disk was completely, entirely gone, and its shredded remains were all over the bellhousing, along with a good bit of grease.

I scrubbed and brushed and steamed it pretty clean. The engine ran well before this, so I'm pretty confident that the engine and transmission are fine. Once the flywheel arrives, I'll put it all together and reattach the transmission to the engine. I feel as though I've reached the apex of this project: Everything is now re-assembly, except for the shocks and brakes. Here are some photos of the damage and cleanup. I will clean a bit more before installing all of the clutch components.



Car without its engine

Engine Out!

Damaged clutch and friction material everywhere.

Closeup of clutch disk. Yikes!

Transmission bellhousing before cleaning.

Bellhousing after cleaning.

Big mess after cleaning.

 

Nice! That's not a job I eventually look forward to. Not too many things on the Mini that I don't look forward to, but the clutch job is definitely one of them. I've had my car since new though, and I knew how to drive a stndard properly since I was like 16 - so, hopefully - that should still be quite a ways in front of me.

Making good progress!

 

I'm doing a lot more than the clutch -- all the ball joints and suspension bushings, new shocks, new brakes all around, all the engine gaskets (except head gasket), replacing some of the sensors, the thermostat, water pump, refreshing the supercharger oil, cleaning up the oil filter housing/oil cooler, new tensioner and belt. Hoping it will be good for another 100,000 after that. Depends on how my son treats it. I'm doing this for him.

 

Great progress!!
Doing a clutch in the car was a pain till I got the engine brace. I hope I don't have to do one in the Cabrio S anytime soon.

 

Chief, as far as I can tell, there wasn’t anything really wrong with the flywheel. Yes, it was heavily scored, so I’m replacing it, but it wasn’t shredded up or ripped out of the crankshaft or anything awful.

 

I would have replaced it because of the other carnage. I for sure thought you had bad damage when you said the flywheel was coming out with the transmission. The clean up looks really good.

 

I've been busy...
The transmission is cleaned up well now, and I've installed a new throw out bearing, guide tube, oil seal, and sleeves. I ordered some lubricant and other parts, like the flywheel, and then I should be able to bolt it back onto the engine.

On the engine, I replaced the rear main seal, the crank position sensor gasket (what an oily mess that was!), and I cleaned up the oil filter housing/oil cooler, new oil pressure sensor, and installed new gaskets... a much bigger oily mess! I replaced the belt tensioner and pulley. Lots and lots of steam cleaning.

I removed the supercharger, changed the oil and its large gasket, then replaced the water pump. Haven't put that back on yet. I'm getting close to the part where I get very confused about the order of operations for reassembly. :0

 

My flywheel came in, so last night I assembled the clutch and bolted the transmission back to the engine. The two mated almost immediately. It was very easy going. I guess it pays to spend a long time carefully aligning the clutch plate, and having the engine out helped as well.

I’d like to test the clutch somehow, but it will be a while until I can reinstall the engine and reattach the clutch cylinder.

Is there a way to tell that the transmission is in neutral?

 

PM sent

 

One more thing I learned:
If you buy a BMW clutch disk for your Mini, and you can’t figure out which side faces the engine because it has no springs, here’s what you need to know:

Getriebeseite is German for “Gearbox Side”.

 

When you get done putting it all back together: Ich hätte gern ein Weißbier, bitte.
May I have a beer please

 

Now that I’ve gotten this far, I agree with the earlier advice that it’s better to remove the engine and transmission together, especially if you are going to do other with like replace the belt tensioner, service the supercharger and oil filter housing gaskets, and so on. Those other tasks are much easier with the engine removed and bolting the transmission back onto the engine is much faster as well.

 

Well done. Am enjoying reading about your progress.

 

Thanks!
Another thing I learned: Clutch alignment tools are fairly useless, at least on these cars. My clutch/flywheel is 100% stock, and I was able to reach in with a finger and feel the clutch disc’s alignment against the clutch plate. You can very accurately center the disc this way, much more accurately than with the alignment tool. I had several false starts, in which the disc moved very slightly, and had to loosen bolts and start over. I followed the bolt pattern from Bentley carefully… first hand tight all around, then 25, 45, and finally 66 ft-pounds of torque, each time in sequence. Once I reached 25 ft-lb, the disc was aligned perfectly all around and I didn’t need to keep re-checking.

 

Finally putting the engine in!

I’m hung up right now: I disconnected the exhaust at the catalytic converter and then attached it to the exhaust manifold.

Then, I fitted the engine to the passenger side engine mount.

But, I can’t get the exhaust lined up at the catalytic converter, which is also stopping it from lining up with the other engine mount. I guess I’ll just keep working it until it lines up. It’s pretty tedious moving the jack, then crawling under the car, moving the jack, but sooner or later it should line up.

I’m not really using the brace across the engine any longer, except for a few things I’ve tied to it.

 

If it doesn't fit force it, if it breaks it needed to be replaced anyway!
Only kidding.I learned a long time ago that taking a MIni apart is easy, getting back togther and everything lined up is a bear. Hope you get it soon.

 

While I had the engine/transmission hoisted, I decided it would be a good time to replace the oil pan gasket. While waiting for my buddy to come by with the engine hoist, I installed one of the Koni FSD’s.

I thought a lot about removing some of these components and painting with engine paint, but that would just add a ton of time to the project, and that wasn’t my goal.