TLDR: Installing new suspension components on my 2003 R53 and the thoughts I had selecting the parts I purchased for job.

So my R53 turned 20 years old in April this year.

After a complete suspension refresh on my wife's Volvo - including lowering springs, Bilstein B8 dampers and a larger rear sway bar - I was envious of the transformation that work had on how her car handles. I decided the R53 was long overdue for the same treatment. Having owned it since new, I know I replaced the front struts and rear bushings on the front control arms circa 2015 but the rear dampers and everything else is original. Additionally, the ride in this R53 is borderline unbearable. It is brutally stiff from what I suspect is the rear dampers have failed with the valves in the dampers closed because the rear feels like there is no suspension at all as if there were a solid axle welded directly to the body. I have never heard of or experienced this sort of failure, so I am excited to play with the rear dampers when I disassembled them to see if I am correct.

I started gathering parts for the suspension refresh shortly after I got my car running again last year (chronicled here). I purchased a complete kit for the front control arms with PowerFlex bushings and then I ordered the Bilstein B14 PSS coilover kit. The vendor informed me it was on back order with an ETA in late October. In October, the vendor informed me the ETA had been pushed back another month or so. I kept my order active until the next message when they informed me of a spring 2023 ETA. I decided to cancel my order as I had been having second thoughts on a coilover set up versus lowering springs. All along, I been researching and considering how extensive this refresh would be. With a 20 year old car, IMO, it's not unreasonable to just do it all.

I know that lowering the car will add a lot of camber in the rear and since I don't want excessive tire wear, adjustable rear control arms got on the list. I also wanted a bigger rear sway bar. Since I was putting poly bushings on the front, I thought might as well put poly rear shock mounts. And poly bushings in the rear upper control arms and the rear trailing arms. It was that order that the job went to the next level.

The vendor emailed me to verify that I had ordered the correct bushings for the rear trailing arms. I guess early 2003 R53's are not very common anymore, so he just wanted to double check that the order was correct. I ended up calling the vendor and we had a nice talk where he mentioned that he had a complete set (arms, bushings, end links and hardware) of aluminum rear trailing arms from an R56 that are a direct replacement for the steel trailing arms on my R53. The previous weekend, I had just learned about this modification. It was interesting to me but I wasn't going to start cruising the junk yards for Mini parts but when this vendor - WMW, I believe - mentioned he had them, I decided to do it. Although my rear wheel bearings would bolt right on to these trailing arms, transferring over 20 year old, 170k mile wheel bearings just didn't make sense to me. So I ordered a set a rear wheel bearings.

Since I have use of my mother in law's car for perhaps another month or so and in spite of this miserable summer heat, today, I got to work. Since I do my work at the shop where I work, I have to have the lift clear of my personal car by the next workday (usually Monday). By my estimate, the complete job will take several days, so I must divide the work in sections.

Today was the rear of the car. The job is install Hotchkis adjustable sway bar, polyurethane bushings on the upper control arms, Hotchkis adjustable lower control arms, R56 trailing arms and rear dampers.

I dropped the rear subframe a few inches to make the swaybar and rear control arm work easier. I had the old parts off in pretty good time methinks.




I wasn't too thrilled to have to remove the rear section of my Milltek exhaust that I only installed a few weeks ago. The way I saw it, I had to move the heat shield out of my way to get to the rear control arm bolts.


You might notice that jack with a pipe supporting the front of my car. With the subframe hanging and all my rear suspension on the floor, the back of the car was very light on the lift pads. I felt more comfortable that I wasn't going to accidentally cause my car to nose dive off the front of the lift with that jack there.

I laid out my old lower control arms and sway bar on the table with the new parts. I was amused that the Hotchkis control arm instructions said they were already set to nearly stock length but to verify that before installation.


This is the Hotchkis adjustable rear sway bar. It's much fatter than stock, but hollow and though I did not weigh them, the Hotchkis bar is noticeably lighter than the stock bar. I wanted this bar for its adjustability and because it has zerk fittings for greasing the polyurethane bushings. That is the same reason I chose the Hotchkis adjustable control arms - for those zerk fittings.

Since I was going to need to extend those control arms a couple of inches, I wanted to see how much thread I had to play with.



There is about 70mm of thread on each end of the control arm. When I put it back together, I applied some anti-seize and put each side in about 35mm. I like using metric measurements because I hate dealing with fractions of an inch. Metric is more simple for me. With each side threaded in equally, I only had to adjust the control arm about and inch or so for the original control arm to bolt to the new one.



Now it's time to press out those original bushings from the upper control arms. When I bought this bushing press kit, I misread the description thinking the smallest adapter was 32mm outside diameter when it is actually 32mm inside diameter and 42mm outside diameter. Luckily, my 22mm impact socket fit that bushing perfectly. And, no, I do not like this press very much.


You might notice that small, aluminum spacer shoved between the 2 sections of the control arm. That is intended to prevent the 2 sections from deforming during the press. But no, that aluminum spacer is no match for steel control arms under a shop press and there is a little deformation at the end of that arm. I need to find some sort of steel spacer around the shop.

Luckily, my beat up air hammer chisel fits in that gap with some persuasion and the bushings press out with no problem.


These 20 year old bushings are not in awful condition. Nevertheless, SuperPro polyurethane bushings are on hand for these control arms.


Steel inserts are not installed yet in these bushings.

So now the rear upper control arms and the swaybar are installed.


I was hesitant to install the swaybar until after I get this car on the track and see how she feels at the limit once I have the car lowered. I know too stiff rear end can make it loose and the car can spin out when cornering at the limit. Seeing what a hassle it is to install, I decided to install it now and put it on the softest setting.

At about 4:30pm, I decided to stop working. Although I had the stamina and desire to press on, I had been in the shop since about 8 am and had to get home to family. I ended with all 4 control arms installed and the LH trailing arm bolted up but not torqued. The LH wheel bearing is torqued to the trailing arm. As a note to anyone converting to the R56 trailing arm: the R53 wheel bearing bolts are too short for the much thicker aluminum trailing arm, so you must use R56 bearing bolts. This picture shows the bag of brand new Mini wheel bearing bolts that I bought with the bearings compared to the R56 wheel bearing bolts that came with the arms. The R56 bolts are roughly twice as long.


Had I been aware of the difference, I would have bought R56 bolts. For now, these used bolts will have to do.

So this is how my car sits tonight.

For tomorrow, I have to build and install the rear shocks, torque the LH trailing arm bolts, install the RH trailing arm and then get the heat shields and exhaust back on. I estimate about half a day of work to complete this stage of the work, then I'll drive the car home and park it. With the rear subframe, control arms and trailing arms all off, I expect my alignment is completely shot now.

I'm thinking next weekend to finish the suspension refresh: front control arms with PowerFlex bushings, new struts, PowerFlex front swaybar and steering rack bushings and new power steering lines. Due to other considerations, I'm not sure I can do that work next weekend but it would be good timing to do it. I'll have to figure that out.

About a week or 2 after I installed the Milltek catback exhaust system, an exhaust leak from the stock exhaust manifold developed. The pipe at the small resonator thing before the cat cracked. Seems like a good excuse to put a Milltek header on. If I do that, I'm buying a catless header and welding flanges on my stock cat to attach to the header. Since my car is primarily street driven, I want to remain emissions compliant.

Check back for tomorrow's update.

 

Beautifully done. The way things go with alignments after stuff like this is either it’ll be so off it will crab sideways like Bigfoot, or so spot on you’ll wonder at the perfection and only be short two more miracles to achieve sainthood with the Vatican.

 

Just did the front rebuild here, used this method, best (and cheapest) alignment the car's ever had:

 

I made it into the shop this morning about 8:00am and wrenches turning about 20 minutes later.

I had read the PDF instructions for the Hotchkis adjustable control arms more closely when I got home last night and came across the part where they said to install the arms with the zerk fittings facing down. I had installed them up, so I wanted to change them. As I looked at the arms, it became apparent that if I face the zerk fittings down, the Hotchkis logo on the arms will be upside down.



Since it appears there are no interference issues between the zerk fittings and the upper arm, I left the arms as I installed them. It also does not appear that there will be any issues with using those zerk fittings as they are installed. Regarding lubricating polyurethane bushings, I learned that lesson when I installed the rear sway bar on my wife's car a couple of years ago. I used the small packet of grease to lubricate the bushings as I installed it but driving the car over bumps revealed a squeak. Not a very loud squeak but I wanted it gone. I bought a tube of Super Lube silicone grease for my grease gun and filled those bushings until grease came out from the sides. 2 years later and that swaybar is still silent. With that in mind, I liberally lubricated every bushing I installed, using several shop rags to clean the excess the squirted out.

On the subject of aesthetics, I remember seeing the Hotchkis logo on the rear sway bar when it was laying on the table. I wasn't even thinking about that when I installed it and even though the only way that logo is visible to anyone is if they use an inspection mirror and slip it up the small space between the sway bar and the body, I wanted to see if I installed it right side up. I would be sort of irritated if it was upside down but I vowed to leave it a secret only I would ever know. I was pleased that the logo is right side up.

I wanted to finish the LH side before going over the do the RH side, which meant it was time to disassemble the shocks so I could transfer the top plates to the new shocks. I like the setup of the R53 rear shocks in that using a spring compressor, I could use the spring "hat" to compress the spring from the top, which makes it easier than getting the compression arms on the coil spring. The shocks came apart easily and the shock mount bushings were dry and crumbling, which after 20 years - 17 of those in the desert - was no surprise. It was of no concern either since I have PowerFlex yellow polyurethane bushings for the shock mounts.

With the new shocks in hand, I first sprayed the height adjustment threads with a product I heard about watching YouTube videos on coilovers. The product is called T9 and apparently lubricates the threads and leaves a wax like coating behind when it dries. I thought I would use that so that it would hopefully work well and help make any future height adjustments easier.



I ran the adjustment collar all the way up, sprayed the threads and then ran the collar all the way back down. Unsure of where to set the spring perch collar, I decided to start at the bottom and go 10 turns up. That put the spring perch probably a little over an inch from the lowest setting. I hope that is not too low.


These shocks are unusual in how the height is adjusted. The black collar that is the lower spring perch is threaded and moves up and down on that threaded steel sleeve which rotates independent of the shock body. So to adjust ride height, the steel sleeve will have to be held while the black collar is rotated to make the adjustment. There were a couple of spanners in the box with these dampers but I did not look very closely at them. I think I saw that one of the wrenches has a nub to engage the holes in the black collar but I did not notice if the other wrench will fit the 2 flats on that steel collar. I would guess that would need to be at least 40mm which is much larger than any wrench I have aside from crescent wrenches.

With the shocks assembled I could now stay in the other bay and finish putting it back together.

I went to install the brake caliper on the new trailing arm and found the holes do not line up. I could get one hole lined up but the other hole is off by about 1/8 of an inch. Investigation found that the inner brake pad sits about 1/8" beyond the outer edge of the brake rotor and has a lip of friction material that is preventing the caliper from being able to line up properly on this trailing arm.



Odd but not the first time I've seen that but it is the first time I've seen that on my car. I installed these brake pads with new rotors about 4 years ago and I do not recall the pads I replaced at that time having unusual wear. Even more curious is that I installed these Hawk HPS pads to replace the Hawk HPS pads that were already on the car. Anyway, no big deal. It's nothing a few seconds on a grinder can't fix.



And just like that, the brake caliper fit.

One difference with the R56 trailing arms is the lower shock mount. Thankfully, WMW included the adapters I would need to make my shocks fit without any problems.


With the LH side now completed, it's time to finish this up and knock out the RH side.

I had noticed a couple of bolts on the parts table that I had not used. Not sure what they are for but I had noticed the lower shock bolt on the LH side didn't penetrate all the way through the bolt hole.



When I installed the RH shock, I tried one of the mystery bolts in the lower shock mount. That bolt went all the way through, so I then replaced the LH lower shock bolt as well.




Lessons learned on the LH side made the RH side quick and easy. Before I knew it, all I had left to do was install heat shield and mufflers.



But before I install the mufflers, I had come across some spacers I wanted to place between the the muffler brackets and the body to lower the exhaust tips slightly because they seem a little close to the trim above it. For the past several weeks driving the car as I had initially installed the mufflers, I don't see that the trim is melting above the tips but since I wanted to space it, now is the time.



The result is maybe a little better.


I went a brief road test to see if I could notice a difference. I should know better because major suspension work always results in a drastic improvement in the ride, in my experience. My skepticism of whether I would notice anything perhaps is in that this work is only half of the job. I am happy to say that my car is no longer trying to compress my spine at every bump in the road. The ride now is comparatively plush and I could feel the rear swaybar doing its thing just in the mile or so I spent driving the streets around my shop. Since the job is only half done now, I will reserve my observations on this set up until I get the front done and then a full alignment. I will say I wanted to keep driving because it felt good! I drove the car the mile or so it is to my house and parked in the garage where it will remain until it's all done.

I finished around 1:00pm so my estimate as to how long today would be was about right. In addition to the work I already mentioned that is left to do, I remembered I also bought left and right inner/outer tie rods to install during this refresh. Also I have an ATI crank damper pulley to install as well. And the gauges. Also in the near future, I'll have to make a warranty claim on my radiator that I installed last year during the engine replacement since it has a pinhole leak on the passenger side.

So after spending my weekend in the shop, I better get ready for bed so that I can spend the rest of the week there and maybe next weekend too. I think all this work will be well worth it though. The car will be better than it ever has been.

 

So this weekend the goal is to finish the suspension refresh I started last weekend when I got the rear work done. On the agenda today/this weekend is:

- replace power steering hoses (suction, return, pressure line) and reservoir
- replace the steering gear bushing with a PowerFlex polyurethane bushing
- replace both inner/outer tie rods
- replace RH CV axle
- replace front sway bar bushings with PowerFlex polyurethane bushings
- replace front control arms and ball joints, install PowerFlex polyurethane bushings
- install the new front struts
- install ATI crank pulley (depending on my progress)

I got a late start, so I didn't get into the shop until about 8:30am. Wrenches turning a little before 9. The plan is to drop the subframe to make this so much easier. I lifted the car and got started on the bottom when I remembered I need to lower the car to lock the steering wheel and get the power steering fluid reservoir loose and aligned to get pulled out from below. It all went smoothly and the subframe was on jackstands by 11:00am.


At my last oil change about a month ago, I noticed my RH CV axle boot was torn open, explaining the telltale clicking I thought I heard one day while turning sharply in the parking lot. Fortunately, I have my stock axle with new boots installed since about 2015 when the dealer gave me the wrong CV axle boots. The correct boots would have to be ordered and I needed my Mini to be driving by the end of the day, so I bought and installed an aftermarket axle. It is the aftermarket axle now that I will be removing. I love the access removing the subframe provides for doing this sort of work.


I had forgotten that the carrier bearing bracket on the axle must be transferred to the new axle. What an annoying, time waster that was to transfer that back over to my stock axle! I really dislike fighting with that bracket to install the RH axle.

While doing this, I had a clear view of the crack in my exhaust pipe.

I really, really hate exhaust leaks. I cannot take care of this right now, so sometime in the near future, I'll be back again with removing or more likely, dipping, the front subframe. Looking at a spot I might be able to install the wideband O2 sensor for my Air/Fuel ratio gauge looks like that might be a day long thing in itself.

Next up is to remove the power steering lines I am going to be replacing and clean the years of grime from those leaks. I didn't clean as well as I may have liked because it became tedious and I am on something of a time limit to finish all this work, so good enough is good enough for this. I got the steering gear bushing replaced and the tie rods installed since I was messing with the steering.


To be honest, the stock bushing that has been in place since the car was built in early 2003 seems to be in good condition. I have to say I was a little disappointed in the PowerFlex bushing I put in its place because it really does not seem very different from the bushing I pulled out in terms of stiffness of the new polyurethane bushing compared to the old, rubber bushing. I would definitely file this under "probably not needed".


Next up was one of the things I've been looking forward to doing: installing the PowerFlex bushings on the front control arms. First, I have to press the bushing out of the carrier.

I bought this bushing press kit specifically for this suspension refresh and I am very pleased with it. Everything is going so smoothly. The bushing was out of the carrier in seconds.

I had replaced these bushings in 2015 as well. They showed clear cracks in the rubber that I think had not gone all the way through yet but it is a good time to replace them.

The PowerFlex bushing all lubed up and ready to press in:

and the final product:

Except I also tapped the control arm and installed these bushing supports I found one day looking around on ECS' website. Tapping the control arm to accept that bolt was tedious as I was being careful to not break the tap off in the control arm. If you're wondering, it takes a 14mm x 2.00 tap to cut the threads. But after what seems like an hour, both control arms had their new bushings and supports installed.


And that is where I left off today.

So tomorrow is get the ball joints on and control arms back onto the subframe. I'm thinking of hanging the wheel knuckles so I can pull the struts out of them and then have the new struts installed before I put the subframe back on. And maybe that ATI damper pulley while the subframe is out of the way.

The part I'm not too happy about is I had ordered IE adjustable camber plates for this job only to find out they are on back order. I had been considering cancelling that order and getting Vorslag camber plates instead but their cost made me reluctant to place the order. So here I am about to transfer over stock style strut mounts onto my new Bilstein struts. Much to my dismay, I may be back in here in the coming months as well. Yay.

It's much too late for me to still be awake when I have lots to do tomorrow. I will update when I finish.

 

This part of the job is not to be underestimated; guessing a lot of people cut theirs out with a Sawzall, and then struggle to get the new ones in with whatever is laying around the shop press. This would be me as well this last (and hopefully final; I installed poly's too) go round. Could you share which kit you used and where you got it; maybe which pieces were used and how, to help those who haven't been down this rabbit hole (yet).

Car's looking good and coming together well. Good thread, enjoying reading it.

 

Outstanding write-up, photos, workmanship and commentary.
Informative, fun and Intriguing read.
Looking forward to your future progress.

BTW: I purchased (yet to be installed) Bilstein 14's as well. I think they are truly a work of art and predict they will perform as good as they look.
Can't wait to finally get to my 20y/o subframe refresh as well.

 

Thank you!

I saw ModMini's video with the Sawzall and it just seemed like too much work to remove a bushing. Unfortunately, I have experienced the "use whatever you find around the shop press" for pressing jobs and that is something I detest. I am a firm believer in using the right tool for the job which also conveniently feeds into my tool junky tendencies, but I have seen people get hurt and parts damaged when rigging something sketchy for the shop press.

I bought this kit from Amazon although there are several similar kits if you search "bushing press kit". Compared to press kits I've seen on the tool trucks - like Snap On - this is a very reasonable price.


It's designed to use those threaded rods with the cups in between the forcing nuts like this:

If you are going to be using the threaded rods, I recommend using oil to lubricate the threads before using them for each job. The oil helps prevent galling of the threads. I have only used the cups in the shop press so far. In that regard, the kit has been great. The only issue I have run into, in the case of this bushing (the rear bushing on the front control arms), is that the receiving cup is not deep enough for the bushing to be pressed into, so the bushing bottomed out in the cup while having about 1/2" still inside the carrier. I did not have that problem last week when I pressed the (much smaller) rear control arm bushings out. This picture shows the depth issue:

Notice the bushing sticking out of the top of the cup about 3/8" or so. What I did to get the bushing the rest of the way out of the carrier was mount the carrier to a bench vise and use my 3 lb. bronze hammer to whack it a couple of times or 3 and the bushing went flying out.

These are the 2 cups I used for that bushing. I like that they are stamped with their size in millimeters on the top. So the 66mm cup pressed on the bushing and the receiving cup I believe is 78mm.


Here they are side by side:


I hope this helps.

 

After working last weekend on this and then all week at work, then yesterday again on my car, I was less than enthusiastic about leaving home to go back to the shop again to finish this. Part of my dread is that the shop is not air conditioned. It has a swamp cooler in the roof which doesn't work and a portable swamp cooler in the shop that sort of works and then I supplement that with a fan or two. In this (end of) summer heat, I am an awful, sweaty mess at the end of the day. Here in Phoenix, you can't even take a cold shower in summer. If you start the shower and jump right in, we might get about a minute of cold water before the 90 degree water starts coming through. It's ironic that my water heater failed in early November last year. It would be too convenient for it to fail during the summer months.

So yeah. I walked into the shop shortly after 9am this morning and proceeded to get the control arms mounted to the subframe with the new ball joints and PowerFlex bushings for the stock front sway bar.

Although the bushing kits come with the small tubes of silicone grease, I just use the grease out of that tub behind the bracket. I apply it liberally to mitigate squeaks because 1) squeaks suck and 2) some of these bushings are too much of a hassle to get back to add more grease if you do end up having a squeak. I certainly do not want to deal with that, so globs of grease for me please. Of course, I wipe off the excess that squeezes out because nobody wants to see sloppy grease.

With the control arms bolted up and torqued, I put the remaining power steering lines on so that the subframe is ready to mate to the body. I had been (half assed) dealing with power steering fluid leaking through the years by replacing the feed hose from the reservoir to the pump, so when I found the complete set of hoses while browsing FCP Euro after receiving a credit there, I ordered them all and have been sitting on them for about a year now. I am pleased that the hoses/pipes that bolt on to the steering rack with banjo bolts came with new crush washers as I prefer not to reuse them.


There are a couple of things sharp eyed viewers might notice in this picture. The first is the black bolt on the driver side inner ball joint while all the other inner ball joint bolts are the light grey color. The reason is that about 8 years ago when I last did these rear control arm bushings, the stock bolt was stuck in there and I proceeded to shear it off when I used my 24" ratchet to "persuade" it out. That was a really bad time. As that bolt had never been removed, as far as I know, I can only assume that some rust developed in that hole somehow from the 3 years we drove that car in Cincinnati because for the rest of its life, this R53 has been in the Arizona desert. Anyway, I spent the next 45 minutes or so drilling out that sheared bolt. I think I might have tried to re-tap the hole but I was afraid of breaking the tap off in that hole because that would have been an entirely new level of misery. I guy in my shop had a bolt and nut that fit the hole perfectly and it was just long enough for the nut to take the bolt threads. As I looked into that hole with the much better perspective of the subframe being completely out of the car, it appears there some threads still in the hole and honestly, it felt like there were as well when I was screwing the bolt back in with the new ball joint. With the nut on the bottom, that bolt was able to take the full 74 lb/ft of torque to achieve full specification torque. It has been in place like this for the past 8 years, so I feel it should still be OK. If I had the luxury of time, I would have taken time to visit the hardware store to find a replacement bolt and nut but exhaustion and perceived deadlines...

The second thing in that picture is the level sensor on the LH control arm isn't mounted yet. I had it attached on the control arm but I could not remember where the sensor itself mounted until I had the subframe nearly in position and I concluded (and referenced pictures I had taken) that I would have to remove that bolt and nut again to mount the sensor but now with much less space to work.

With the subframe ready to be installed, it is time to build the struts. I said yesterday that I wanted to do the struts with the subframe out of my way if only I could find a way to support the wheel knuckle with the brake rotor and caliper. I thought about using the "S" hooks for hanging brake calipers but I the only point I could find on the body from which to hang it is where the brake hard line mates to the brake hose. Not ideal. Also with the CV axle still attached, the range of movement was limited. Then I remembered the jack that at one point served as a transmission jack for this shop. With that jack just below the wheel knuckle/brake caliper assembly, I was able to drop the wheel knuckle off the of the bottom of the strut and the CV axle in place served as support to keep that whole assembly stable on the jack platform.


And now just a simple OSHA violating procedure to reach the upper strut mounts on the strut tower to remove the strut from the car.

And just like that, the strut is out of the car and the subframe is still on the ground. I wish I had this jack when I worked at the Volvo dealership. The P3 chassis cars were a bear to get the front struts out of. This procedure would have made it so much easier.
Even though I had fabricated a spreading tool for removing struts like these - several manufacturers mount the front struts like the R53 - my tool was getting worn out and the tool truck had one on board one day, so I bought it for this part of the job. I did not even need to spread the wheel knuckle on the driver side once I pulled the bolt out. With a little jiggling, the wheel knuckle fell off the strut easy peazy and rested nicely on the jack while I built the new strut.

And then the new struts were in. Actually, not quite that easy. The strut rod nut on top that holds the strut together with the mount is 22mm. I have a pass-through ratchet/socket set for tightening those nuts but the 22mm in my kit is not quite large enough. I am not a fan of using impact wrenches to tighten that nut as I've heard it's not good for the shock internals, so I used a 3/8 drive 22mm socket with a long allen wrench to hold the strut rod through the hole in socket while I turned the socket with slip-joint pliers. Not an efficient way to apply torque to nut but it's the best I could come up with without impacting it. I'll keep my eye out for a different 22mm pass through socket.

Looking at the ride height at the rear of my car in the garage this past week, I thought I might prefer it about 1/4" or so lower, so with that in mind, I kept the front struts lower than I had set the rears. I hoped it would be just right..

Now that the struts are in, I can finally mate the subframe and car so I can finish this ordeal. With that power steering fluid reservoir sticking up, I would have to be careful to guide it through the heat shields and O2 sensor wires. That went better than I expected and before knew it, the control arms were bolted to the ball joints so I could then lift the subframe with it hanging by the ball joints and then use screw jacks once it's high enough to guide the subframe into place.

The subframe looks sort of like a bat flying when it's hanging like this.

Guiding the subframe up and into place with the screw jacks is usually a pretty mundane procedure. And then R53 came along. It is at this point when the subframe is inches from the body that you join the steering shaft coupler to the nub on the steering gear. On every other car I have ever had to do this, it's fairly simple - align the 2 shafts, join them and tighten the retaining bolt or nut. I don't know if there is something wrong with my coupler sleeve - like it's too closed - or if all R53's are this difficult to join the 2 parts of the steering system. When I was removing the subframe yesterday, I used a long, striking prybar with a hammer to punch that coupler off of the shaft but today to attach it, I have to do the reverse of that. Align the coupler slot as best I can with the flat sides of the shaft and use a ball peen hammer to hook and hammer the coupler onto the shaft. This part is always very difficult but today was extraordinarily so. It must have taken me 30 - 45 minutes just to get that coupler on the shaft. I was irate. I had pulled my slide hammer out of my toolbox to try to chain a loop around the coupler but I didn't have the right attachments to make that work. Add that to my shopping list: a hook attachment for my slide hammer to use on this (bleeping) coupler!

With the steering hooked up, it now just tying up the loose ends. Double check all the nuts and bolts are tightened, get the bumper and bumper cover on, get the wheels on, fill the power steering fluid, connect the battery and start the car.

With the car on the ground, I can now see I put the front too low. The front wheels are right on the fender liners. It's not helping that the fender liners are loose (oops) but I don't like the look. This is one of the reasons why I didn't want coilovers - because I don't want to have to make adjustments. But I was intrigued to try them out and I suppose once I get the height where I want it, I won't have to mess with it anymore (I hope). But I'm not dealing with that today though. I just need to get the car home and get me home.

Here's how it sits right now:

I like the rear height or maybe 1/4" or so lower. The front I think I want a 1/2" higher. Once I get ride height set, I send it for alignment. One of these days, however, I might have to try that string alignment thing.

When I get ride height set and alignment done, I'll give my review of this suspension refresh. I would like to clean the car and post a picture of the car when I'm happy with it.

For the record, I did not install the ATI damper yet. There are still a couple of other (not suspension) things to deal with, so I'll procrastinate the damper until I have the belt off for one of the things.

Happy Labor Day!

 

Here I thought I was the only one with a tool habit.
It does, and thank you for posting.

 

No pictures in this post. Just an quick update about this suspension refresh.

I went in yesterday morning to adjust the ride height since the installation of the Bilstein B14 coilovers. I had set the fronts near the bottom and the rears about 1/3 from the bottom which shows had that had my car sitting in my last picture.

I ended up having to adjust the front 3 times to raise it to where I was OK with the ride height up there, almost setting the struts at the highest adjustment. Even at that height, it is pretty low. Clearly, the B14's are not for anyone looking to be near stock ride height. Adjusting the front is pretty easy with the wheels off. Simply loosen the lock collar with the included spanners and then turn the adjustment collar where you want it, then lock it again.

At the rear, I made 2 adjustments to bring the ride height down to where I wanted it, which had the height adjustment collars only a few threads from the lowest setting. So the fronts are just about topped out and the rears can only come down a few more threads if I wanted. I find that range of adjustment odd - that I could set the rear at stock ride height or probably higher but the front will always be lower than stock. To adjust the rears, I could leave the wheels on and make the adjustment from beneath the car. The suspension components and parking brake cables made for a limited range of motion in turning the collars, so it took several small turns to get 1 full rotation of the collar. In just counting the turns of the collars, I have the front within 3mm of each other in height and the rear is within 5mm. I'm not sure how much of an issue that may be but I was tired of adjusting and I figure the suspension still has to settle some. I'll check again after a few hundred miles.

Since I am now waiting for an alignment, I am limiting the amount of driving I do in the R53 but I have done some experimenting on the industrial roads around the shop. It seems the front end will still push when cornering hard (2nd gear corners). I have 2 stiffer settings at the rear swaybar but I will not make any adjustments until I drive it once the alignment is done. It has been so long since the suspension in this car has been decent that I can't remember how it felt to drive. I do remember using the term "porpoise" when I drove this car on the freeways in SoCal when it was nearly new and that term comes to mind now as well. It must be a function of the short wheelbase and firm suspension. Regardless, the ride is improved from before the refresh in the sense that there is now at least some compliance in the rear and the front has tightened up a bit whereas before, the rear felt like riding in a steel wagon and front a tad soft. The car now seems very responsive to steering inputs and has minimal body roll.

I was concerned as to how all those polyurethane bushings would be for the ride. It may still be too early to say but so far, I am happy to say that I am not hearing any suspension noises or experiencing any NVH penalties for their installation.

I will post pictures once the alignment and car wash are done.

 

My, this R53 is trying my patience.

Last weekend I took my car to a dealership where a friend of mine works for him to do the alignment on my car because I didn't want to take it to some random shop. In the life of this car, outside of warranty repairs, I am the only person to have laid hands on this car and I do not want someone of unknown skills or attention to detail to align my car after I spent 2 weekends doing this suspension refresh. Unfortunately, my friend was not feeling too well Saturday, so I ended up doing the bulk of the alignment myself in shorts, t-shirt and sandals. I don't think management at the dealership would have been too happy to see that even though I did work there 5 years ago. For that reason, I did not "dial in" my alignment like I would normally do, I just did it good enough. The fact that I am still waiting for camber plates on the front, so another alignment will be needed in the not-too-distant future was also in my head.

After the alignment, my car felt so much better to drive because prior to the adjustments, I could tell it was off because the steering did not feel right and the car seemed "loose", which I have experienced in other cars with alignment issues. With my car now tight and responsive, I just drove around the valley enjoying my car again. That crack in my exhaust manifold, though irritating, felt like something I could "back burner" until I felt like spending the time and money to deal with it. That all changed on Monday evening when I left the grocery store.

When I started my car, it was apparent my exhaust had broken all the way through. I absolutely detest exhaust leaks and this was simply unbearable. After a rough day at work, other things in my life and now this, I parked the car in the garage and got drunk. Sometimes in life, we have setbacks, so we might spend an evening in frustration but then we must leave it there. After that, it's time to deal with it.

I found a couple of options on Offer Up. A manifold with the cat cut off and a complete manifold with the catalytic converter intact. The difference in price made my choice. I will cut off my catalytic converter and weld it to the manifold that already had it cut off. My car registration goes for 2 years so I must go through emissions when it's time to update my registration and because life is like this, my registration expires in November, so I must pass emissions in the next few weeks.

I got my car on a lift to remove the manifold and this is what I am working with.


So it turns out that "lump" after the flex pipe is a pre-catalytic converter.

I remove the 2 bolts holding the catalytic converter to the the back section of my exhaust and whoops! It was broken all the way through and wanted to fall out. It's probably not a good idea to let my catalytic converter hang by the oxygen sensor wires, so I strapped it with a bungee cord until I could disconnect the oxygen sensor.


With that disconnected and my cat on the ground now, it's time to go topside to disconnect the front O2 sensor and the manifold from the head. I am REALLY hoping I don't have to mess with the subframe to get this out. With the manifold now loose, I lifted the car again and began removing the manifold from the car. Once I removed the heat shield that covers the rear O2 wire harness, the manifold came out nice and easy!

I laid it on the floor next to its replacement.



This is the pre cat in all its glory.


I'm not sure but I imagine if I tried welding it, some of that substrate would melt. Being that it's "only" the pre-cat, I don't know if a partially melted pre-cat would cause a MIL to come on or not.

I wanted to see what a wire brush would do that thin layer of surface rust. A few minutes with a wire brush on my grinding tool and I think it looks better.


Since I was cleaning and this manifold looked like it was stored in a pasture, I blew the grass out and off it with an air gun. Next, I wanted to make sure the threads in the O2 bung are good, so I ran my O2 thread chaser through it. Finally, I used some wire brush attachments for my drill to wire brush the inside of the manifold to remove some of the rust and smooth the inside of the pipes. I will order some carbide deburring bits so I can gasket match this exhaust manifold, not that I expect much of a performance benefit but so I can experience doing it. If I gain 1 HP from it, that would be a bonus.

Now that I'm satisfied with the appearance, it's time to plan how everything will go together.


I am just trying to imagine the orientation of the 2 pieces because I will have to get it close for it to be able to bolt on to the back half of the exhaust.


If you look closely, I see a faint seam or mark of some sort I think I can use as a point of reference in aligning the 2 pieces when I go to join them. I have a guy who can weld pretty well and I am willing to give it a shot myself but I will also solicit advice from any welders here. I wonder if I can cut (on the catalytic converter inlet pipe) the weld below the pre-cat (where it steps down) and then weld it again to join it to the other pipe? If not, I think I will cut about 1/2" below that weld and join them in a new weld spot.

I am thinking that if I can get the alignment of my catalytic converter to the replacement manifold close, I will have a little play in the slip joint between the resonator pipe and the muffler pipe for fine tuning.


This is the other end of the resonator section.


But, yes. I did forget there are hangers on that section to contend with.

So that is where I stopped. The plan is to get the welding done this week and install on Saturday morning. I would appreciate any advice on how to have the best chance of getting the pipe alignment correct in joining these 2 pieces. For now, I am counting on that seam and good cuts in the right places to do this.

 

Not to put a damper on you efforts, but you could have (and probably should have) just pushed it back into place, tacked it in situ amd then welded around it. Doing it off the car you are likely to get an angle or rotation just slightly wrong and wind up cursing to all mightily heaven when you try to line it back up. On the car. Plus you will likely break it again if you don’t have it line up naturally, amd if you don’t fix your motor mount. And to address your concern, no, it won’t hurt you passing emissions.

known issue, they all fail the same way in the same place. It’s a poor design to have it only connected by that thin SS, and not bridge to the outer shell.

Matter of fact I drove Alexs JCW home 400 miles with it broken that way,see pic below as to how bloody filthy it was inside and it passed no problem.
BTW It’s a bad motor mount letting it rock back and forth that does it.


both my red ones have had it done that way in situ. Probably the white one too but I haven’t looked closely at it yet.


One you have it back in place on the car, and pressed back together, tack it and then fill in that remaining gap to the outer shell all around with weld to make it stronger than stock. If you really want then tack it, weld it, then drop it and grind the weld partially back to be pretty. But no one can see it.


don’t compound your existing mistake in buying another hacked manifold (someone cut that one to make a tomcat. For an xforce Supersprint obx header is what happened to it) by trying to merge two the two pipes together adding additional complexity and potential for screwup and still not resolving the design failure or root cause. Cause you will break it again quickly in that case.

 

Just wondering if the design weakness described above was ever addressed in post-facelift cars and/or in the bolt on aftermarket header / cat assemblies i.e. Milltek, Borla etc? . Seems like if BMW knew about this it should probably have been a safety recall due to uncontained fumes, but maybe by the time it started manifesting (20 years after production?) it's considered too late for that (?)

 

No, Same manifold used thru end of production.

 

Finally! I have been driving my car all week and it even passed emissions last weekend.

With regard to welding my cat to the other manifold, @Onizukachan was spot on with the process. I was about to buy a welder and welding equipment from Harbor Freight when someone I know let me know he had everything for welding even if his skills were lacking. It turns out, this guy is far too humble about his skills.

I went into the shop about an hour before he would show up to try my hand at gasket porting this Offer Up exhaust manifold I had. My thoughts were it would be good practice and low risk messing around with basically, a scrap exhaust manifold. I had burrs for reshaping aluminum so I had to buy a couple of bits for ferrous metals. Those bits actually did a very good job grinding away metal so I could shape the ports to the gasket. In all, I would estimate I took about 1/8" off of both sides, so almost 1/4" in total and maybe about another 1/8" from the curved end of the port. The lower, straight edge of the port was already almost perfectly lined up with the gasket, so I left it alone. I went into the primary tubes maybe 3/4" grinding the transitions a little more smooth for flow (in my mind) trying to be careful not to grind through the tubing. More on that later.


Clearly, I could have done better but I was sort of pressed for time and I just wanted the experience of doing this, to be honest. This process made one heck of a mess of metal shavings all over me and the floor. I used compressed air to blow up from the O2 sensor bung because I cannot imagine metal shavings stuck in the pre-cat is desirable. I think I got almost all of it out.

My buddy (I'll call him John) and I previously discussed the best way to do this. He suggested mounting the manifold to the cylinder head and then mounting the cat to line them up together, tack weld them, remove the whole assembly and then final weld it off the car. I had the manifold mounted on my car before he showed up. We had to do some minor grinding for the inlet pipe to the cat to be properly angled to the exhaust manifold pipe before he tacked it and I removed it again.



Then he spent about 10-15 minutes completing the weld. I'm not supposed to show his weld but I think it looks pretty good and I am using an alias for his name and the weld to not very visible in this picture.


As John was inspecting his work, something caught his eye up near the flange where it mounts to the head. He noticed a small hole that I must have created during my "porting" job. We might have left well enough alone but I let him take shot at fixing it. Bad decision. The material was so thin in that area that even with the welder settings turned low, the material was just evaporating. John was thoroughly frustrated at this point, since there now was a legitimate hole in one of the primary tubes. Truth be told, I was also pretty concerned. I had hoped to finally be driving my fresh suspension, sealed exhaust R53 home today to wash and drive after doing all this work to it.



We called someone (Alan) whose welding skills are far more advanced than ours. He offered advice to repair it but it turns out we did not have nor could we get material to finish the repair. Alan said he could do the repair but it would have to be in a few days. So I left my car on the lift in a shop where it technically does not belong but it would most likely be safe to leave it there until this repair could be completed.

Alan completed the repair a few days later and I, anxious to get my car back (and out of that shop) finished the installation that night after work. I did not get a picture of that repair since I was in a hurry but Alan welded a small plate of material to cover that hole. Alan also is very humble and made clear that this is a temporary repair that would most likely hold until I install the headers I told him I would be purchasing in the next few months. Honestly, his repair would probably last much longer than a few months. Nevertheless, a set of headers is in my future.

I happily drove my car the rest of the week and by accident, I found that the emissions testing center is open on Saturday's, so I ran my car through emissions and it passed! Huge relief!

So I washed my car Sunday and took the pictures I promised to post of how my car now sits after this birthday suspension refresh.









I like where the ride height is at right now and probably will not do any other adjustments to it. The car rides nice in the sense that it does not bottom out or rub anywhere but the ride is firm, responsive and all motions are very tightly controlled. My only disappointment is that I do have some polyurethane bushing squeak, particularly in the cooler mornings we have had lately. I will have to investigate but I think the majority of the squeak is from the rear upper shock mounts which I did lubricate but perhaps, not sufficiently. Also, I have some spring noise from the front that may require lubrication of the spring perches. Overall, I am very pleased with how this turned out and I am glad to have done it. My R53 is a pleasure to drive now as it no longer crushes my spine when I hit bumps in the road. Oh, I certainly still feel them but at least now there is some damping between the road and my spine.

Some guys I work with are into HPDE and are making fun of me for these modifications yet never had my car on the track. Now that my suspension is functional, I am interested in joining them on the track (in a slower group ) and seeing what adjustments I might need to make - I'm thinking of you, my precious, fat rear swaybar. I knew I probably should not have installed it but when my rear subframe was down and I realized what a hassle replacing that rear swaybar is to access, I couldn't NOT install it. So it's on the softest setting. And it feels so good on the streets except for when I lift a rear wheel entering parking lots with steep ramps at an angle.

Mods I am thinking about next?

- M7 front strut tower brace with built in strut tower reinforcement plates
- headers



Parts I already have but yet to install:

- Autometer boost gauge
- Autometer Air Fuel ratio gauge w/ wideband O2 sensor
- ATI crank damper pulley (stock diameter)



Pending repairs to complete:

- CSF aluminum radiator has a very small leak in it
- supercharger leak at the shaft seal behind the pulley

Both of these parts are under warranty so should not cost me anything besides my time and shipping. Also, I might be getting a replacement H/K amplifier soon. I've been driving without a stereo for many years


Thanks for letting me document this process and post my thoughts during it all. I appreciate your advice and experiences as well.

Happy Motoring!


P.S. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that I have ECS 15mm wheel spacers at all 4 corners. I wanted the ECS kit specifically because it came with a set of longer bolts to account for the extra thickness of the spacers. I wanted my wheels/tires pushed out to the edges of the fenders and read somewhere that 15mm with stock wheels is the way to do it. I like how it looks. My tires are stock sized (205/45/17).

 

Wow - By the sound and looks of it your Mini is coming along very well!
Having just installed my B14's as well; my ride height is nearly Identical to yours. 10 threads up on front and 13 threads up on the rears. Although I can "taste" the texture of the pavement a little more than with the previous B4's - I love the firmness without molar mashing when driving over potholes and speed bumps.
Btw: my Mini @98,780mi also turned 20 today!

Your Mini looks great. Keep us up to date

 

Looks great. Only mod I can think of that I would definitely do is to change the rims. I like the style, the color and the look. However, these wheels are boat anchors! They weigh a ton. Not sure if you had the R56 brakes or not. If not, look at the 15" Holeys (R81). SO much lighter, look decent and make the car feel much lighter and more nimble. Just my .02

Pic for reference.

 

Just one more note:
You have inspired my next mod = 15mm wheel spacers.
'Back in the day'; I've always had obscenely wide wheels on my cars. I just love the look where tires meet fender line +.
Since your recent post, I now know what and where to order.
I also intend to purchase 215's (45R 17's) as my next tire replacement. I think I'll still have enough adjustment height left with the B14's to clear the wheel arches if needed.
BTW: as heavy as they are - I still prefer my stock S-Lites - OR if I can afford them - there is a similar style wheel that I can't recall the name....
But @madcanvis is also sporting them on his Mini.

 

thanks for the bump.
I too like the refresh look of s-lites worth the retro flavor so went with the Rota RB 17x7.5 (MachV motorsports)

 

Yes, every time I take my wheels off I am reminded how unbelievably heavy the S-lites are! I will have to add "lighter wheels" to my list of future modifications. If I do get into HPDE events, I may well see if I can track down some 15" Holeys are some other smaller, lighter wheel that I can put sticky tires on for the track.

I really have a thing for these wheels

I just don't have the wallet for them!

Boy this place...
has me looking at LSD and wheels and...

 

I would look for something other than R81s for the track. Don’t get me wrong they’re cool wheels (I originally ordered my car with them), but at 5.5”, they’re really narrow. I currently have a set of 175/65R15 winter tires mounted on mine. My Advantis are basically the same weight but a 15x7.

 

^^ Concur. The holeys are a little narrow, but for the price you get such glorious light wheels. If I could have them a size bigger (just enough to clear the R56 brakes) and a little wider without adding too much more weight these would be even better. I picked up my set off of craigslist with some worn out tires for like $200.

I think sometimes people are more concerned with the look than the function and while I think a wheel choice and make or break the look of a car, finding the perfect light weight wheels makes a huge difference.

Those white wheels look really nice. I suppose having those would force me to keep them clean.

 

Glad to see you got it all buttoned up @ghostwrench looks sharp! I'm gonna echo @Boostmaster and strongly recommend some 15" diameter wheels, I've been running a set for about 2 months now (vs. 17" w/runflats) and the MINI is just shrugging off the potholes left and right. We have some road pirates around here that like to dig out vicious potholes with pick-axes, so there are always new ones cropping up, making them hard to dodge. Now I don't worry about it so much anymore. Trust me, if you come across anything deeper that 1/2 inch at highway speed, those low profile tires will send a large percentage of the impact force into everything you just replaced, imo it's probably the BEST way to add reliability to the car.

 

Thought I saw an issue... Disregard.