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I wanted to make a documentation of my R53 journey over the last few months, and hopefully some of you will enjoy it. Just beware: I'm long winded and there will be LOTS of photos.
My dad passed away last year and had an assortment of vehicles that I originally planned on selling. As it turns out, my brother and I decided to keep two: my 2002 R53 and a 1972 MCI bus that's been converted into an RV. The Mini was stored near Parker, AZ and the bus was stored in Carson City, NV. I live near New Orleans, so it's been quite the journey to get everything moved where it needs to be and titled, etc.
The mini journey starts in late February / early March with my second road trip out west after my father's death. My brother lives in Colorado Springs, so that was the first place I drove to with my mom and my dogs as passengers on Feb 26. On March 1, my brother and I drove to Carson City to clear out the RV and get an idea for the kind of work it would need to be road worthy since it had been stored for over 3 years. We returned back to Colorado Springs on March 4th, and then my mom, the dogs, and I headed out for Arizona on March 9. I had to sell a few of his vehicles while I was in Arizona and it took way longer than I thought it would, so unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take any photos of the mini when I first saw it. It was stored inside a pole barn that had gaps on the bottom in the middle of the desert, so there was about 1" of sand on top of the car cover, but other than being a little dusty, the car looked pretty good. I installed the battery and the mini fired right up with no issues.
One of the reasons I decided to keep the mini is because it's set up for flat towing. It has a blue ox tow bar installed and an extra bulb installed in the tail light housings with a plug in the front, so I don't need to run a wire every time I tow it. Right after getting it out of storage, I hooked it up to my truck and towed it to Lake Havasu City to have some new tires installed before the long road trip home. March 11, we drove with the mini in tow from Parker, AZ to Boerne, TX. I think I would have preferred driving straight home, but that's a tough trip to make with passengers, so we stopped. The photo below is at a truck stop in Las Cruces, NM showing the tow bar setup (and how tiny the mini looks behind my truck haha).
After making it home, I put together a list of parts that it would need for a nice refresh, and it was a long one... the mini had 168k miles on it, and I truly think most parts were original. All of the ones I could confirm, like the struts, radiator, etc had date codes dating back to 2001 or 2002. Over the next couple of months, I ordered a pretty massive amount of parts, most of which were OE or OEM. All new suspension and brakes, an engine out replacement of seals, all accessories, cooling system, steering components, and a/c components, and some cosmetic fixes here and there. After all was said and done, I spent about $5,500 in parts, including new tires and windshield. I had the next cross-country trip planned for mid-May, so I had to get it all done before that time. Getting parts turned out to take a lot longer than I imagined (over a month in some cases), so I definitely felt like I was on a time crunch for this restoration.
Below is a picture of the mini when I first got it home. Very dirty inside and out, hazy headlights, missing bumper trim, half missing windshield trim, broken window regulator, blown speakers, oil leaks, tired suspension, and worn brakes. Let's fix that, shall we?
The first parts that came in were the suspension and brakes, so I decided to start with that and get those out of my garage before everything else arrived. The rear brake pads didn't come in until later, so I just loosely installed the old ones until the new pads arrived. All new struts, strut mounts, bump stops, boots, swaybar bushings, rotors, pads, brake lines, and fluid.
Next I turned toward getting the engine pulled out of there. The CPS O-ring was leaking like crazy so I had a bunch of gunk all over the front of the engine, and of course there were other more minor leaks like the oil filter housing gasket and oil pan gasket. I did a quick rough clean with the engine in the car, and then pulled it out of there.
Before rough cleaning:
After rough cleaning:
I overhauled the steering and control arm bushings / ball joints while I had the subframe off, but I found that the part number steering pump qualifies for the warranty replacement so I left that alone for now (still works fine). I will schedule an appointment at mini some time in the future and flat tow it there (closest dealership is in Pensacola, FL).
After the engine work, I deleted the rear seats and replaced all those exterior trim pieces. Plus I added a gloss black front grill and painted the hood scoop. Looking and driving much better!
By this time we're up to May 6th and I was planning on leaving to drive about 4,500 miles and pick up the big MCI RV in Nevada the following Friday. Lo and behold, my shifter cables decided to break. "no problem" I thought, because I had already purchased a bushing kit to replace the OEM bushings if they ever gave out. I pulled the airbox and found that the base of the shifter cable where it clips in to the side of the transmission was cracked. So every time I pulled the shifter down (2nd, 4th, 6th gears) and the cable was pushed outward toward the transmission, the inner metal cable would push the plastic sheath outward and start bending, making it very hard to shift into any of those gears.
I looked how quickly I could get some shifter cables ordered, and every website said "ships in 3 days". Not enough time to get the cables to my house before the trip. I ordered some anyway and paid for 1-day shipping to my brother's house in Colorado, since again that would be my first stop. To get me to Colorado, I JB welded that plastic sheath together and hoped for the best. The JB weld held up while I drove it around town for a few days so I was feeling hopeful.
I left around 9pm to drive from Southeast Louisiana to Colorado Springs. I like to leave at night so I make it through Dallas at an off hour - the remainder of the trip is a piece of cake and very peaceful.
About 200 miles in at my first fuel up, I go to shift into 2nd gear.....floppy shifter. So that JB weld lasted a long time! I guess I'm limited to 1st, 3rd, and 5th the rest of the drive?? As it turns out, I was able to get it into 6th the rest of the way to Colorado, but I skipped 2nd and 4th. There were a few times when I thought I lost 6th for good, but I eventually got it. The bad part about traveling during the summer:
Obligatory stop at Buc-ee's:
Snapped this cool pic driving through west Texas around sunrise:
And then hit some pretty dense fog / clouds at 6000' + elevation in New Mexico:
170k miles!! Only complaint is the shifter, which was broken before the trip. Otherwise, she kept trucking along like a champ. Average gas mileage was 26 on this trip with the highest tank being 29.3 mpg. Not terrible, considering I was usually doing 80 mph (75 mph speed limit) and for whatever reason, I ALWAYS have a headwind on this drive, no matter if I'm driving away from home or toward it. lol. I arrived in Colorado Springs around 1pm and then got to work on re-fixing the shifter. My "one day shipping" for the new cables didn't end up arriving in time - it was supposed to arrive on the 19th so that I could fix them before continuing on to Nevada. So instead, I got creative with some zip ties. One around the top of the cable, one around the shifter cable bracket, and two tying those together, so that the plastic sheath wouldn't move when I shifted. Seems to work great at this point! So what's another 1,800 miles with a broken shifter cable??
So I drove 18 hours, arrived on Friday at 1pm, and then took off for another 18 hour drive on Saturday. Are you guys tired yet? I am.
That being said, this is definitely a pretty drive. And tons of mountain twisties to enjoy with the mini. My brother wants to buy one now LOL. We left around 8am and arrived at 1am on Sunday morning.
Another foggy morning leaving Colorado Springs:
But it cleared up pretty quickly! We took US 50 west toward Grand Junction, because I-70 had a lot of traffic on it (presumably from the fog). I'm so glad we did this route, because it's such a great drive and I rarely do it during the summer.
Driving along the Arkansas river:
Monarch pass - I now have photos of three of my cars on this same vista:
Blue Mesa Reservoir:
Hit some nice bumpy dirt road construction - the mini was not a fan.
We stayed near Carson City with my dad's good friends who are like family to us for a few days. We helped them out around the house, did some maintenance on one of their cars, and got the MCI bus road worthy. Busy couple of days but we accomplished everything we wanted to during that time.
The poor dirty mini after driving cross country:
Mini is all cleaned up and we got the bus pulled out of storage and parked at an RV park so we could test all the plumbing and electrical.
Awesome little pic I captured while we were taking the bus to get new tires installed:
Our big rig towing setup for the trip down to Kingman, AZ.
We originally set out to drive to Kingman, AZ and stay at a truck stop there, but we actually ended up parking in Las Vegas at a KOA campground instead. I think it was worth the extra cost to do that because the campground was very nice.
Aftermath of forest fires just on the other side of Carson Valley:
Driving through a canyon alongside the West Walker River:
We set out around 7am for Arizona, and this day was a bit strange. We drove down to Kingman and then separated. I took the mini further southwest down to Parker, AZ and my brother continued on in the RV to our campground in Flagstaff. I had to finalize a few vehicle sales down there at the Parker DMV. From there, I drove back up the route I came and then over to Flagstaff.
Lake Mead:
Crossing over the "new" highway above the Hoover Dam. Kinda glad this existed because that old route wouldn't be fun navigating this bus through.
Colorado River just south of Lake Havasu on my way to Parker:
Almost to Flagstaff! Right after this picture was taken, my shifter wouldn't go into any gear. I suspected that a zip tie had slipped and was keeping the shifter bound up. Unfortunately for meeee, I had unloaded all of the tools into the RV. So there was no way for me to access the shifter on the side of the road. I ended up calling a tow company in Williams, AZ, which was about 8 miles away. $250 for a tow to a hardware store. ughhhh. So I'm sitting there waiting on the tow truck when I decide to see if the shifter will go into reverse. I felt a little pop, and I had reverse. And after that, I'm back to being able to shift into all gears. HOORAY. Canceled the tow truck, and continued on my way, trying to avoid shifting as much as possible.
I did some grocery shopping around town in Flagstaff, only using 1st, 3rd, and 5th gears just in case, and finally made it safely to the campground where we spent Memorial Day and picked up my brother's kids who live with his ex-wife in Phoenix. I re-did the zip-tie repair just in case, but at this point, the new shifter cables were waiting for me at my brother's house, and all we had to do was tow the mini back there, so not too much driving with fix #3.
The drive back to Colorado! We have two extra passengers - a 13 year old boy and 10 year old girl. Both are ecstatic about the trip and love the RV, so that made it fun. And also....it's another beautiful drive!
Leaving Flagstaff. So crazy how green everything is when just an hour or two in any direction is desert.
Almost to New Mexico along I-40:
I-25 north of Albuquerque:
Raton Pass on the border of Colorado and New Mexico:
Sunset driving up I-25 just south of Pueblo, CO:
We made it back to Colorado Springs without any major mechanical issues on the old mini or the old MCI bus. SCORE! Now for a day of relaxation....because damn.
Unfortunately, my time with my niece and nephew was short lived and the real world was calling my name. I had some work in Duncan, OK, so back in the mini I go with some fresh new shifter cables installed.
View of Pikes Peak leaving Colorado Springs:
Well.....not much to see here. That's west Texas for you!
The Wichita Mountains were something I had never seen before, and honestly I was surprised by them!
Made it to Duncan, OK with no issues, and even got 34.5 mpg on one tank!
HOME STRETCH! At this point, I'm really happy to get home... I left around 11:30am and arrived home at 9:30pm. The mini performed great - plenty of passing power on the 2 lane roads form that little 1.6L, surprisingly comfortable for the long haul, tons of space with the rear seat delete, and even without cruise control I didn't have any issues. It's really easy to keep this car at a steady speed. I'm sure I'll do another trip with it, though probably not as crazy as this one. It was really great to have the mini as a toad behind the RV because it's like it isn't even attached, and it's a fun little canyon carver to have to run errands and stuff when arriving at the travel destination. I do have a new front lower grill that I'll install and remove the tow bar for a while, but it's super easy to remove the bumper and re-install any time I need it. In total, about 5,700 miles were driven across 2 weeks, 1,200 of which were towed behind the RV. Can I just stay home forever?
Driving through North Texas avoiding Dallas like the plague:
Beautiful, here's a few from my journey upto my cottage..
I rode the edge of that storm all the way up north as is blew in from the west and i traveled northeast.. when i stopped for gas ( lol my car gets 24mpg highway ONLY ) tge storm caught me and I was in rain for about 5min until I was able to hit the freeway again and get out in front of the storm again.. I was watching lightning bolts n seeing huge downpours in the distance but I escaped its wrath.. unfortunately the area I was traveling through at the time is known for heavy hail and big storms soooo yeaaaa. I wanted to get outta there.
Nothing i LOVE MORE than just getting in this mini and cruising..as much as I loooooove the car though it's been getting too much attention and I'm kinda the introvert type so I kinda have mixed feeling about it.. lol my dad sure lives it though , he's making me drive us EVERYWHERE around while I've been up here.. haha I've never seen him take interest in any cars befor but he actually really enjoys driving around in my car..
Sweet rv , thats my wife and my dream to retire and travel the country rv for 5yr and settledown where we loved the most. Post a few pics of the rv too plz !
Last edited by MiniManAdam; Jun 4, 2023 at 07:38 AM.
Beautiful, here's a few from my journey upto my cottage..
I rode the edge of that storm all the way up north as is blew in from the west and i traveled northeast.. when i stopped for gas ( lol my car gets 24mpg highway ONLY ) tge storm caught me and I was in rain for about 5min until I was able to hit the freeway again and get out in front of the storm again.. I was watching lightning bolts n seeing huge downpours in the distance but I escaped its wrath.. unfortunately the area I was traveling through at the time is known for heavy hail and big storms soooo yeaaaa. I wanted to get outta there.
Nothing i LOVE MORE than just getting in this mini and cruising..as much as I loooooove the car though it's been getting too much attention and I'm kinda the introvert type so I kinda have mixed feeling about it.. lol my dad sure lives it though , he's making me drive us EVERYWHERE around while I've been up here.. haha I've never seen him take interest in any cars befor but he actually really enjoys driving around in my car..
Sweet rv , thats my wife and my dream to retire and travel the country rv for 5yr and settledown where we loved the most. Post a few pics of the rv too plz !
That's an awesome cottage; it's kinda funny because I feel like that's my next goal - to own a vacation property somewhere (hopefully with a big garage for the RV).
Unfortunately I forgot to get interior pictures with it all cleaned and set up, but the whole thing is really impressive in person. My brother and I intend on doing some renovations and repairs, but really it doesn't need a whole lot considering how old it is. We have a huge list of maintenance and upgrade history and we basically did a minimal amount of maintenance, pulled the thing out of storage after 3+ years of sitting, and then drove it problem-free for 1,200 miles through really mountainous terrain. It's built like a tank and feels newer driving down the road than a lot of the new RVs out there with cheap construction.
Great write up and pics. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado provide the most amazing scenery. If you haven't done Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park don't miss it on one of your trips. That bus is definitely the way to travel. Next trip you need to rally at the Dragon with your Mini in tow.
Great write up and pics. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado provide the most amazing scenery. If you haven't done Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park don't miss it on one of your trips. That bus is definitely the way to travel. Next trip you need to rally at the Dragon with your Mini in tow.
Nevada and Utah are pretty amazing too. I've done both Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, but I'm sure I'll make it to both again - I go to Colorado 4-5 times a year. I'm thinking of heading back in a few weeks, mainly since I don't get to see my niece and nephew too often, and I'm looking for campgrounds to make a quick trip to while I'm there.
I'd love to get the mini up to the Dragon, but honestly.... I haaaate driving in the East. It's just so congested, it makes traveling way more stressful. The west is where it's at if you want to RV. lol. That being said, I think I may have had more fun in my 335i on the Dragon than I did in my Boxster S on the track. Such an amazing road.
Great car. My son just bought an M5 and OMG!, that thing is super quick. Twin turbos and 523hp gets you down the road comfortably, and a lot faster than you really need to be going. Acceleration is an addiction!
I did a trip like this last year, and one thing that made it way more fun was setting up a digital frame from https://www.nixplay.com/ before I left. I shared photos with friends and family in real time while I was on the road. Super easy to upload pics from my phone every night, and everyone back home felt like they were along for the ride.
Last edited by Haikojeem; Jul 30, 2025 at 05:01 AM.
