I'm putting together the ultimate MINI garage toolbox. This is a list of tools that readers of NAM should have in their box. I'm not talking compression tools or timing lights but help me fill in what we all should have to make upgrades that are popularly made.

format:
size - tool - (common use)

the list:
#2phillips - screwdriver - (it's a screwdriver
10mm - wrench - (battery)
Torque wrench - (wheels / drivetrain)
17mm - socket (lug nuts)

 

Are you starting a thread of 'Whats in your Tool box?' This is all common stuff. What is so ultimate about it?

 

There are commonly used sizes on nuts / bolts / torx head used on the cooper.
No need to own the kitchen sink if you don't have to. Not all of us have a full snap-on tool chest with $4k of tools in it - so if there was a list of 'must have' hand tools I know I would find it convenient.

b.

 

My toolbox has everything

but I kinda need it.

 

hah - i bet it does Way - Most of us arn't installing LSDs or pulling the entire front end off the car

You would be a great source of info - can you think of any must have sizes in sockets and bits that we all should have?

b.

 

One and one sixteenth (1-1/16) SIX point socket for the oil filter. I think? the metric size is 27mm. Six point so you don't round off the plastic nut on the filter cover. Top Sider oil extractor. Sucks oil out through dip stick tube. Changed my oil in less than 20 min., didn't spill a drop, didn't have to go under the car for the drain plug, didn't even get my hands dirty. Well maybe a little, but didn't need Lava soap.

 

Nice big magnifying glass.

 

See Snake video system. Useful to find all the nuts and bolts you drop that end up on top of the transmission....

 

A warm 4-pack of Boddingtons....

 

And a magnetic dish to put them in when you find them...

 

Wasn't he the guy that built those cool hot rods with Chip Foose?


(I kid...)

 

My collection seems to grow every time I do a repair.

 

For the R53, a tensioner tool. Brake piston retractors. Torx drivers. Some form of fix-a-flat. Plyers (strong and pointy enough to remove a nail from a tire.) Tire pressure gauge. Micrometer to measure rotor thickness to determine whether they need to be replaced. Many more . . .

 

Rule #1 with regard to tools and fixing anything from a MINI to the stopped up John - the tool you need most is the one you don't have. Anyone who has ever fixed anything knows this.

Every tool in my tool chest, garage or shed was purchased to do a job or task that would have cost more to have someone else do than to purchase the correct tool and do it myself.

Seriously, buy quality tools beginning with 1/2" and 3/8" metric socket set, metric combination wrench set, Torx, Phillips and flat screwdriver set, hydrolic floor jack and a few of the commonly needed specialty items like the oil filter and lug nut sockets and you should be in good shape.

 

[QUOTE=highlander709;3350809]Rule #1 with regard to tools and fixing anything from a MINI to the stopped up John - the tool you need most is the one you don't have. Anyone who has ever fixed anything knows this.

Every tool in my tool chest, garage or shed was purchased to do a job or task that would have cost more to have someone else do than to purchase the correct tool and do it myself.

QUOTE]

So true but start off with a 100 peice tool box.

 

A Bentley Manual.