I live and work in the Washington DC suburbs and my R53 (I'm the sole original owner from day 1 in 2005) finally had an end of life engine problem, cylinder 4 had an issue the other day (P0304 code), super rough idle and engine almost dying on me on the way back home from work, it was still my daily. Took it to my mechanic the other day and he got back to me saying that there was some internal engine damage on cylinder 4, spark plug was soaked in gas, and there was no compression in cyl 4. I know this probably isnt the forum to bring this up but where do I put this car up for potential sale (would be super cheap) ? Im not in a place to part the car out as I dont have a garage and I basically live in an apartment building, honestly would love to give it to someone who wants a project/weekend car with the time/money to rebuild the engine and tinker around with it. I have pretty much a whole record of what i''ve done and replaced the 19 years I've owned the car.

 

You have PM

 

My R53 is on the 3rd engine. replace that sucker and use the car for another 150k miles.
You can buy a decent engine from a junkyard or eBay for less than a grand. I replaced mine in a weekend. If you are on a budget, you can do it with a transmission jack. An engine hoist will make the work easier

I thought the same way as you did, didn't sell it because it was worth nothing with a bad engine, bought a new EV, but I really missed the fun driving a 6MT R53, so I went back and fixed it!

 

Yeah, the issue is I don't have a garage and I'm only amaturely mechanically inclined, I've done bolt on easy parts and oil/sparks but getting into the engine or other stuff I've left to the pros. I'm also kind of on a budget. I wish I had my own place to store my car and tinker on it with the time and money to do so but I don't. I've def gotten a decent offer on a used engine though from an automatic car, just over a grand. I'd have my mechanic install it if I went that route but that's under 2gs for parts and labor

 

So, an engine from an Automatic r53 will work. If you are doing such a swap - there is a list of stuff you should do - oil filter housing gasket - that has to move from your manual block - the housing is different. Oil pan gasket, supercharger oil change. There could be a few more things.

 

Yeah, my mechanic said there'd be somethings that would needed to get done for the swap, supercharger is a rebuilt that i got two years ago so its oiled for sure. He did quote me under 2 grand for extra parts and labor. I've kept up with switching things out/replacing stuff throughout the years, so not everything on there is original.

 

2k for an engine and labor is actually a killer deal. However, if you are not handy, with the age of the MINi, there will be plenty of other failures in the future. So factor in that also also before you start spending money on it

 

yeah, hes been working on my car for the past 8 years at least, does it after hours at his shop so usually have to leave the car for a few days and gives me a cut rate deal for pretty good work. but, we've been working on replacing things throughout the years, ive had parts go. all the major stuff has been done, we replaced the supercharger, water pump, new brake lines, new shocks, new belts, new starter/altenator, new tire rods, trailing arms, etc... its not like i havent been on top of repairs... its just an almost 20yr old engine... but I know stuff will continue to break down... if anything if i do decide to keep, its the end of the car as a daily driver for sure, its been my daily driver until last week. another option is to get it back to running condition to its a little easier to find someone to take the car off my hands. I also, used to live at home when i got the car for the most of the years ive owned the car, so I was able to do more stuff to the car personally, still not high end mechanics, but moved to an apt the past 8 years so thats when i started storing the car outside and didnt have access to housing my car in a garage where i could tinker on it. I know a decent amount of stuff about my car, more than your average person, just because I've been involved in getting most of the stuff I've done to the car.

as far as cost per year, the metric for me was the cost of a new car payment per month/year. I was keeping under that average the past five years, sometimes itd get close to that average, sometimes like this year it be next to nothing(only really had one major repair this year at $500). I was never spending more in a year on repairs than the average cost of a yearly car payment, just have to keep up on it. However, this engine thing might tip the scale finally but we will see, its a tough decision for me.

 

You have a lot of time in that car. Let’s call it $3500 to do the work - that’s a $350 a month payment, with change back. Do this, and you should be set. It might be good to understand what failed.

My stuff is the same 05 Cooper S with Auto - needs a valve body in trans - $3k. But that will go a ways - this lasted 10 years since last service, I have an 01 BMW 330 convertible- 180K - came from south - clean car, just needs normal stuff - still worth it.

 

I have to wonder if it might not be practical or cost effective to fix/ rebuild #4 as well the bottom end?
Then you know what you've got after it's all said and done(?)...
Then again - my only rebuilding experience has been with classic 4 & 6 cylinder aircooled(s) - e.g: "lose a cylinder?" - slip on a new one...." (<the short version)...
​​​​​Either scenario - Your 1st gen Mini is $worth$ saving.
You know you'll regret not keeping it in the end.
Besides; What other car can you get for $2k these days that can compare to the fun and pride of owning a classic 1st gen/Mini???

 

It all depends - pull the head - it could be a valve problem - if the bore is ok, rebuild the head.

 

When I wound up in this neighborhood, I reset the odometer the hard way....

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Haha, that's how i've been thinking about it the past few years because a lot of people keep telling me "man how much have you spent on that car' ... "sometimes you just gotta give it up" etc .... but its not like i was breaking the bank. However, they don't see it that way, they just see it as "oh, he's got the car in the shop again?!" two years in a row, i had it out of commission for a few months due to stuff that wasn't really directly "old car" related, im assuming thats what really brought on the comments more. Cost/average, I don't think I was breaking 3500 a year in repairs, got close a couple of years, but some years not.

As far as what failed? Could be a multitude of things, as I said before, I was using it as my daily the whole time up until last week. I've been pristine on changing the simple stuff like oil changes/filter, sparks etc. Having my commute drop from 16-18 miles round trip from work, to 3-4 miles six years ago, could be potentially? I'm not sure. Never really had my guy do a full internal engine check just because I thought I was good with the regular maintenance(amatuer understanding of engines tho, so what do i know? I did get my original engine up to 19 years so that has to say something). Closest he got was changing the gaskets. I only bring that up because, my car wouldn't really even get up to full operating temperature on my drive to and from work. Id take it out for longer drives on my off days somtimes but we all know shorter stop and go driving is harder on the engine than highway easy cruising, which is what i went to from the latter.

Yeah I'm not sure if just reparing #4 would do it, but my mechanic felt like from what he saw initially it just wasnt worth a repair, and he's been working on my car at least the past 8 years, but then I got the offer on here from the warehouse guy for the used engine at a great price.

As far as it is worth saving, yeah there's no doubt that car is a part of me at this point, i honestly dont think i'll ever put in as much work into a car again. I never even had a "next car" in mind the whole time ive owned the car, all i know is that itd be something simpler. Its a tough cookie, I totally get the 1st gen ownership thing, its just harder for me I havent had a garage in years. I used to tinker with some stuff and keep it super clean when i lived at home and had a port in the garage. Part of me wants to keep it as a solo weekend car, which it would be at this point, but if someone was willing to put in the work to restore the damn thing and provide it a good home, I wouldnt mind giving it at the same time.

 

It’s not like an aircooled Porsche design, where you can replace the Cylinder - if the mechanic saw damage to the cylinder walls, his short block diagnosis is correct.

 

Clearly.

 

UPDATE: After a few people initially showed interest in taking the car off my hands and then flaking I decided to go with the offer from a NAM MINI parts vendor who had a used 97k engine from a 2006 Automatic R53 for 1200. Compression tested at 176 173 175 178. Had it shipped to my mechanic and it is currently getting installed. After installation I do plan to retire the car from daily driver use to a weekender while still open to someone eventually giving it a better home. Thanks all for your input!