I'm torn!

Buy a nice metal skid plate (with the power steering fan protector) to replace the "maybe it'll crack" plastic that comes standard on the MINI

or

not!

Any thoughts?

 

>>I'm torn!
>>
>>Buy a nice metal skid plate (with the power steering fan protector) to replace the "maybe it'll crack" plastic that comes standard on the MINI
>>
>>or
>>
>>not!
>>
>>Any thoughts?

Well, they're on sale now and I'm going to buy one.

Better safe than sorry. It's a decent investment and I've spent 109.00 more foolishly.

 

It's Creep Insurance! It's a nice piece of protection and the only one I've seen out there (and installed on my car has holes in just the right places without sacrificing protection.
It seems like one of those "the factory should've done that" sorta things!

 

I put on one this weekend on my MCS. In part this was motivated by the fact that we have a long rural gravel driveway. Depending on the ruts in same, it is not an infrequent happening to hear scraping noises thru the floorboard. I felt it was money well spent to invest in protection to MINImize the possibility of some critical bottom-end part being subjected to a rock enema.

The stock part is pretty cheap plastic. I can imagine it getting brittle on a cold day and breaking. But IMHO, that wouldn't be a big loss!

BTW -- Moss has an Xmas sale going on featuring skid pans at ~20% off: see http://www.mossmini.com/cgi-bin/db2w...t?PlateID=6619

Tom

 

>>Better safe than sorry. It's a decent investment and I've spent 109.00 more foolishly.

Moving through the car doing small, but what I think are important mods for my MCS this is my next investment. I can't go wrong with this.

 

Just my luck! I ordered my a week ago and got it Friday and paid full boat. Still a good investment.

 

I bought one today. I agree - cheap insurance.

You'll notice on the Moss web site that the skid plates are marked for the '02 MINIs. They fit the '03s as well (according to Moss). They're updating the web site "in a couple of days"!

 

I sent my son the email as a hint I wonder what will be under the tree?

Or hiding in the garage.

 

Can anyone post instructions for know-nothings like me about how to install this plate? Or is it best to have it professionally installed? Will the dealer do it?

 

>>Can anyone post instructions for know-nothings like me about how to install this plate? Or is it best to have it professionally installed? Will the dealer do it?

The hardest part is getting under the car to do it.
It is probaly the easiest 'mod' after that. I am sure the dealer
would do it for you....probably free with an oil change.

 

I'm fixen to get one too!! I hope it will help protect the power steering fan!

 

Instructions come with the plate. It's pretty simple.

Check out this thread I posted with pictures of the install

Daev

 

I plan on making one out of aluminum in the near future. It's goming to be based on the Moss plate. Originally I was just going to do it for my car, but if there's interest, I'll see how much labor is involved and may sell it to anyone that wants one.

Randy
randy@mini-motorsport.com

 

>>I plan on making one out of aluminum in the near future. It's goming to be based on the Moss plate. Originally I was just going to do it for my car, but if there's interest, I'll see how much labor is involved and may sell it to anyone that wants one.
>>
>>Randy
>>randy@mini-motorsport.com

i would be veryinterested in seeing it in AL instead of steele

 

Based on the threads here, I decided to go ahead and purchase the MOSS stainless skidplate this morning along with the glovebox organizer. Thanks for the input everyone.

 

out of curiousity, is the power steering fan protector necessary on an 2006, or has MINI installed one for this model year? any advice here?

 

Based only on what I have read here (I have not crawled under Maggie to check it out ), in the 2005 and later years a power steering fan shroud is now standard equipment as a result of all the fans that were grinding to a halt when picking up plastic bags and the like from the road. Back then, it was smart money to buy the shroud since it might have well protected you from a catestrophic failure - but I think that this design flaw has since been remedied.

Bill

 

I put a skid plate on my 2006. While under the car I spied a guard on the PS fan, so no need for another one. Guess MINI learned from that mistake.

 

currently chasing a problem with the power steering on my '02 MCS....

yesterday I noticed what I thought was power steering fan running about 30 minutes after a 3 minute drive. came back out several hours later and the battery is completely dead in the car. get it jump started and the power steering is out.

take the car to the dealership today and they say the auxilary fan for the engine had shorted out and had to be replaced, cost $729 with labor and taxes. on the way home the power steering again fails about 15 minutes into the drive.

jacked the car up and pulled the fan, cleaned it and checked it for visible damage, and reinstalled it. the steering motor could be heard running for quite a while but did not turn the fan at all.

bad motor, bad fan, or something else completely?

 

You should do a search on this. I think there was a dealer fix that included a new harness... on the '02s.

 

Normalizer,

Did you ever have the recall warranty work done on the fan and power steering? If not, and you have been to a dealer before warranty was done, they should have done it. Make them pay for their mistake, not you.

 

I put one on in place of the plastic one that was stock on my 2006 MCS. The tabs weren't quite right, but only required a couple minutes of dremel with cutting wheel to make it fit. Oh, I cut the plate a little; not the fan housing. All in all, it was a 15 minute job.

 

I don't remember ANY recall work on this ever being done, will definitely ask about that in the morning.

anybody know what the recall number was for it so I can back up my claim?

went out to check it a moment ago and the battery is dead again, put it on mhy charger/tester and it shows a faultcode for bad battery. I pulled the battery and am testing it alone outside of the car just to be sure before I run out and buy a new battery.

 

I found this while searching for "fan relay" and "recall"

RECALL WORK PACKAGE SIB 12 01 04

I am not sure if this is the right one, but I think it is. The recall was intended to separate the cooling fan and the power steering fan which were originally onthe same circuit. If one goes bad, it causes the other to go wonky.