Hey guys,

I’m a relatively new MINI owner and have to say I absolutely love my 2009 R56 Cooper S so far. I come from another BMW platform as my name suggests and recently we’ve seen much improved offerings from the small brands and “knockoff” manufacturers competing against the big guys on the n54 (Vargas, Pure, Rob Beck, MMP etc.)

Guys have been picking up 18T and 19T ebay turbo’s and cranking out 600+ whp. I actually just finished replacing mine with a lesser known brand and have been blown away. I was wondering if you guys have seen the same sort of thing surround the N14 engine?

after doing the job on my bmw (easily 15+ hours of labour given you have to remove the subframe and everything surrounding the twins) I am looking at how simple it *seems* to access the turbo, manifold, and downpipe on my R56. Anyone swap their own turbo’s here on jack stands? How was the job? And lastly, is there a go-to cheap turbo solution that’s sweeping the N14 world?

 

What would you consider cheap? OEM S turbos are ~$1000, and OEM JCW turbos are ~$1300. You can get an Ebay turbo for ~$200 or so, but that's REALLY cheap. If there was an option for a reliable JCW-ish turbo in the $500 range, I would consider that to be the killer deal.

 

Just installed one of the sub-$200 turbos. Actually produces pretty good power. Not sure about the reliability since it is new but it looks identical to the original that I removed. I did not put the car on jack stands. Put front end in maintenance mode and it isn't bad at all.

 

Ebay? Do you have a link to the turbo you bought?

 

Here is the one I bought. https://www.ebay.com/itm/253096595045 Supposed to have a 2 year warranty. Works well so far.

Use at your own risk.

 

The thing that would concern me with a cheap turbo is the potential harm it could cause if it comes apart, sending shrapnel through your entire intake system and into your engine. This means new intercooler, clean all intake hoses/piping, clean intake manifold and possibly an engine rebuild including boring your block and replacing pistons if you get cylinder wall scoring. Definitely not worth the risk in my opinion

 

Well that is quite a doomsday scenario description. I would have to say that I am not concerned about that happening but if it does I will certainly let you know. I worry more about OEM timing chain tensioners, water pumps, vacuum pumps, and everything electronic in the Mini. And I certainly worry more about the $4k quoted to replace the turbo at the mechanic's shop.

 

Just the sort of info I was looking for thank you! How long have you been driving with these turbo's? What tune are you running with them? What supporting mods beyond an upgraded intercooler?

You don't need to put it on stands? Well that would be delightful! Is it a simple matter of removing the front bumper, rad support etc.?

 

Watch Mod Mini's video on how to put into front end service mode Makes accessing the turbo and all the other bolts MUCH easier. No mods for me, just an OEM turbo (and a lot of supporting stuff like cooling and oil tube) replacement. And no, I did not need to have the car on jack stands. Only about 200 miles on the installation so as I said before I cannot vouch for the reliability yet.

 

I just installed one of these maXpeedingrods based turbos also. To be honest it has smoother scroll up and produces more power than my original BorgWarner did. I should have swapped it out a long time ago.
At this price I can replace it 4x as frequently if I have to. Quality / fit and finish were as good or better than the original. No complaints here. I'm with mildensteve - I'm more worried about my vacuum pump seizing and taking my engine out more than a turbo exploding on me. I didn't even put it in service mode. Just took off the heat shields and used a swivel head combo wrench to get the top right turbo stud nut off. Some people buy a cheap one and heat it up and bend it instead. The other 3 nuts are easy to get to. I did put it up on stands though to get at things from underneath since I took out the downpipe.

 

I also didn’t bother pulling the front end when I replaced my turbo last year. What really made the job easier was using an electric 3/8 ratchet for the tight spots. The replacement turbo was a used OEM unit so recently bought a EBay turbo for $180 when this one goes.

 

I've swapped a turbo without doing service position. It's tight but possible.

As far as cheap turbos, I'd be less concerned about it catastrophically failing and more the bearings failing prematurely and sending metal shavings into the oil. Or it blowing a seal and sending all the oil into the intake charge. More of a mess to clean up than it's worth. It would be tempting for a cheap project but not my daily.

 

I installed a similar turbo from ebay 2 yr warranty. It worked ok for 3 months then started leaking oil. I tried to return it under the 2 yr warranty. The vendor on ebay was some guy from china who told me to get it fixed and they would reimburse me. When I told him it was 300 to have it rebuilt I never heard from him again. Currently in ebay resolution.. I ended up having my stock one rebuilt for 300$. Works great. Good luck maybe you'll have better luck

 

I purchased one of these rebuild kits from turbo lab of America and I’m very happy with the results. It was my first time rebuilding a turbo and it was as easy as can be. I’ve put about 10k miles on the car since with no issues.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Cooper...t/113755846124

 

Old thread I know but I have a question. It sounds like you left the exhaust manifold in place and just remove the 4 bolt flange. Is this correct ? Those bolts look tough to get to but I see the advantage of it can be done.

 

No need to remove the manifold. Although I still recommend putting it into service mode.

 

I've removed the turbo about 6 times on my R56 S, turbo oil lines, JCW turbo upgrade, upgraded JCW internals, etc... Always takes about 3 hours. Never placed in service mode. You will need a long thin, flat ratchet wrench and an old school wrench 11mm that you can bend in a half circle to get 1 of the manifold bolts off!!!! Patience and a few pints - you're good to go.

If anyone lives close (Florida) I'll help you with yours!

Rick