Hey all,

Just recently joined —a few weeks ago I bought a used 2013 R58 as a commuter car, from a used car dealer here in CT.

Ive been pretty well versed in the car scene since I was in high school, where my first car was an ‘08 WRX that I later, over the years, turned into a 360whp beast with a built motor. It was a fun car, but as you know, a heavily modified daily driver isn’t practical. Later in its life it had some issues, and I wanted something that I could do more with (avid outdoorsman) and eventually bought a ‘13 Ram 2500, when I was in the Army. Now that the truck is paid off, I was looking for something again that was fun to drive, and better for my roughly 36 mile daily commute to work in my new civilian job. My wife has always loved minis, and I wanted to teach her stick. I’ve always been impressed with their go kart handling, but was initially looking for something domestic with an NA V8.

Fast forward, and I test drive this used ‘13 MCS coupe PFC her wishes, and ended up buying it a few days later. I’m usually hesitant to buy modified cars, but I noticed the car was on KW coilovers, and I researched the rest of the mods when I got home.

Everything looked good, and it only had 50k miles, so for an asking price of $10,900 before taxes seemed right. Since the previous owner had KWs, i figured he/she must’ve been an adult since those and the rest of the mods were quality parts, and likely took care of the car. From my research, it seems to be stage 2 (I know the different stages vary between minis and Subarus, so bare with me.

From what I can tell:
- KW coilovers (not sure which model)
- stock turbo
- K&N intake
- stock diverted valve
- NM Eng intercooler piping
- NM full exhaust (except up-pipe to turbo)
- ATM front mount intercooler
- some kind of lower engine mount large yellow bushing (from what I can see without a lift)

The car must be tuned — pulls nice and hard for a mini, and with the suspension upgrades it’s a blast to drive. I fell in love with the car, and now I see why people buy them. (Now I don’t even want to teach my wife to drive stick on it! &#128514

note: not sure what type of engine management, or who tuned it. Keep in mind, the dealer didnt even know the car wasn’t stock — sales people there are idiots.

With that said, the only issues i’m having right now is that it keeps throwing a P0171 code for fuel system lean bank 1. I tried searching and didn’t see any areas where there would un-metered air getting in. All hose clamps were tight and secure in intake tract.

A guy i work with says sometimes it could be a seasonal thing at some gas stations. Since I got the car, I have run about 2 tanks of 93 thru it with one of them including fuel injector cleaner. At first I though maybe it was throwing the code because the dealer personnel are morons and i’m sure they were running 87 octane thru it.

With that said, any advice would be great. I’m not new to cars and performance modifications, and i’m relatively mechanically inclined, but i’m 100% new to owning a mini.

Also, another small but annoying issue i’m having, is that I get what seems to be a slight oil burning smell in the cabin when the windows are closed and the air is on (noticeable on rainy commutes). It drives me nuts. I haven’t really seen any oil leaks where it would be burning off on the engine, but I also haven’t had a chance to get it up on a lift. The exhaust also has a funny smell (and I know that performance exhaust usually do, but I think it’s slightly different than what should be normal). I’m wondering if that could also be because the car is trimming hard for fueling, as I got readings of short term fuel trim at 25% and long term fuel trim at 27%.

As I said, the car runs runs well and pulls hard. Idle is the tiniest bit rough, but nothing that a normal person would even really realize. but again, it’s not stock. My scanner also says the O2 sensors are working fine.

Overall, the car is great, but i’m going nuts trying to figure out these two little issues. Any help from some Mini Gurus would definitely be appreciated.

Attached are are pictures of the car, and a recent scan for some fields of data monitoring. For a scanner I use the BlueDriver Bluetooth scanner with the app. Great buy, for $99 on amazon, and it’s pretty in depth.

- Mike

Welcome, that’s a good looking Mini, and some good aftermarket parts on it too! The yellow bushing you see is probably a torque arm bushing insert. A lot of us have them. Nice!
The oil smell could be a lot of things, but check the oil filter housing, it’s a leaker, and will drip onto the exhaust and burn off, so you never see spots on the ground, and get the smell.
The exhaust may very well have a funky smell if either or both cats have been removed. Also a good way to check for a tune is that for stage 2 it should have either a Hi-Flo catted downpipe or a catless one. Also I see your boost or MAP is about 13psi. Is that peak numbers? Normal boost pressure on these is around 11-12psi and up to about 15psi overboost. With a tune the boost should be raised significantly, probably anywhere from 18-22psi. Mine runs at 22psi. With stage 2 the intercooler should be upgraded too. But a stage 1 tune will still make a huge difference over stock, and can be done to an otherwise stock car....so that’s always a possibility, but you should still be seeing higher boost levels if it is.
Either way, it’s sounds like you found yourself a pretty bad a$$ Mini! Drive the hell out of it with a smile on your face! I’m sure it handles like mad beast with the KW’s on there!
You can let the wife drive it, I guess... but you may just want to buy her something else and keep that baby yourself!

Did some testing this past weekend. Noticed that I have an exhaust leaks where the down pipe meets the mid pipe (if i’m using mini terms correctly). I’m now hoping that’s what’s causing the codes, and smell.

I appreciate all all of the replies thus far!