Hi All --

Can anyone point me to resources for wrenching on my own Clubman S?

I do quite a bit (about 98%) of my own maintenance on my motorcycles, but I've never worked on a car before... never really had a car I wanted to work on, frankly.

For starters, is the service manual available for purchase or download?

What sorts of tasks to Mini owners -- particularly those without a lift(!!) -- perform on their own?

Thanks & warmest,

Jesse

 

There isn't a whole lot to do on this car, besides oil changes, for a good long time.

We're all waiting for Bentley to publish a manual for the 2nd gen cars, but so far there's nothing out there that I'm aware of.....when they do, that's the one to get.

At some point you'll need to change some brake pads I'm sure, there are how-to's for that as well as oil changes and such here on the forum if you search.

It's really not a hard car to work on....mostly. Some jobs require a bit more work to gain access, and a clutch or transmission job is a fairly major event.

Most of the wrenching that gets done on these cars is to mod them!

 

One thing I've been curious about, hopefully it's not too off topic for this thread, but I think it fits...

I see a lot of owners change their own oil, and I like to do the same. In the past, I've had problems with other car companies when I had to have repairs on engine components. I've had two different car companies basically say, "We don't believe you did the oil changes, sorry." when it came time to figure out warranty coverage and who pays for the repair.

How is MINI about this? I'm not sure many people will have had to deal with it. Everything I've read says MINIs engines are pretty solid... Any one know for sure?

 

Bob, just got the same car. Not sure of the 3blks but mine is black top, black interior, blk spoiler and black webs. Love the color, looks really tuff. I'm going with the checkered style and have the mirrors and sunroof done.
Just turned 1k and plan to change the oil soon. Got the filter, magnetic drain plug and mobil 1 ready. To your question just keep receipts, I have always changed my own oil and done all my own work. Nobody cares more about your car more than you do.
My $0.02 worth

 

I would go one step further and buy your oil and filter from the MINI dealer - it's not a requirement, but it eliminates all the finger pointing if you only use factory stuff - and do keep rec'ts.

I agree, change you oil. It's certainly easy enough to do, and it can't hurt. 5 qts and a filter costs about $35 at my dealer, and I change about once a year in addition to the dealer's "freebie". Once I'm past the maint period it'll be twice a year or every 7500 for me. $70 in parts a year to make sure I have clean oil and no sludge seems like a good return on my investment.

Where are you located? There are active MINI clubs just about everywhere, and someone's always ready to lend a hand for a beer and a slice or two of pizza.

 

You might want to try this site:

http://www.eautorepair.net/Marketing/Default.asp

I don't know how good the manual is for the Clubman, but it has a lot of good information for my 06 MCS.

 

Look on e-bay for MINI Cooper TIS Make sure you by the latest one by checking the dates it should be at least a 2010 disc. There are many people out there stating "this is the latest" yet the discs are actually in many cases from back in 2007 or 2008 which are certainly not the latest sets.

Here are the different designations.

ETK - Parts Catalog just like the dealer uses.

TIS - Technical Information System - Latest I see on e-bay right now is un-dated but from the description it sounds like it is the 09/2007 version

WDS - Wiring Diagram System - Latest I see on e-bay right now is 09/2007 but I know it has been updated just keep an eye out for the newer version.

ETM - Electronics Troubleshooting Manual (have not seen or been able to find one and MINI dealer says one does not exist, BMW version has not been updates since 1998 as far as i can find out.)

EBA - Accessories Installation and Retrofit Guide. (have not seen or been able to find one and MINI dealer says one does not exist BMW version has not been updates since 2003 as far as i can find out.)