I decided to lease my Mini, for a number of reasons. Being obsessed about having something quicker, I am seriously inclined to mod the car. Particularly, I wanted the Alta intake, which I just ordered, and the pulley (which is a serious debate for me). I figure, since I am leasing and will most likely upgrade (hopefully to the Peagot engine by then), I'll be removing the parts before handing it over. For about $400, I could have a significantly faster car, and I could turn over these parts a few years later for almost half of that. Thats a pretty good deal in my opinon. Also, I'm a rather skillful person, so are many of my friends in my hometown (2 hrs away). I could install the pulley myself, although I would need the puller. My friends have tackled turbo ugrades, engine pulls, etc. I'm sure a pulley would be no sweat.

Although on the hand is leasing the car and warrenty. What if the car breaks down? Are they going to notice the additional whine when they drive it and check the SC pulley and blame it on that? Are they going to break my lease and make me buy the car? Do you forsee any bad situations that I might encounter that I might have wished I wouldn't have done the pulley?

I really want the pulley. I suppose I could always have it towed back to my house to return it to stock if there were any major problems....but that is still a hassle, especially if they never check (or don;t care about the puiley).

Whats your opinion?
Erik

 

You should be fine with the intake. Unless it's installed incorrectly, there shouldn't be any problems with that.
If they find an issue with the engine that comes up(a problem), you will be responsible for the repair costs for that session of labor. If it's a big issue and your dealership is run by a buncha uptight people, than you may be looking at losing your warranty. They wouldn't cancel the lease and make you buy the car. You'd just lose the warranty.
The pulley is a bigger upgrade. More risk of something going wrong. I think your tech will know it's there if you have to bring it in for some repair. This car is pretty highly advanced in the electronic/computer area. Your car will rat you out.
Mod at your own risk. I'm not really going to go that far with it, being that my dealer is 4 hours away, and only open during the week for service. Pain in the butt if I have to get my car there during the week at a moments notice. So I'm staying away from major mods, and any electrical/computer-ECU mods.
You can't really go that wrong with lightening up existing parts. Lessening rotating weight really helps increase hp. Get lighter wheels and tires. You'll notice more power right there. I lost about an est 70Lbs off my MCS with a lighter tire and wheel set up. There's also a lighter clutch and flywheel available now. Check the Performance Mods forum here for how people are doing with the pulley mods. See if there's any major issues that have come up. If it looks kinda ify, than go with a lighter wheel&tire package, itake and an exhaust. You'll get a better kick with all that for sure. Maybe an est. 25-30hp increase will those 3 areas of modding. And the risk factor with those are barely existant.
Also, if you have a choice of various MINI dealers in your area, check them all out. Some are mod friendly. Mine is. I straight out asked them what their policy is on mods/warranty. They said they would allow an intake wheels and exhaust, without warranty issue arising........unless something went wickedly wrong. If you have the bucks, go for the JCW kit.
Just my thoughts
Cheers,

 

Thanks, thats good advice. I'll have to talk to a couple dealers around here and see how mod friendly they are.

 

Yeah, I have to agree, regardless of whether or not you lease or purchase your Mini, you should always aks the dealer first.

I recently purchased the ProMini oil and boost gauge cluster, before installing I called the dealer to see if they would install it when they do my JCW upgrade and would it be covered under warranty.

The dealer, New Country Motors said it probably would be okay, but they would need to see the kit first before confirming it to be okay.

I also want to put OZ Superleggerio wheels on my Mini, this too causes a question. I have and want to keep the run flats on my S, but the run flats have that tire sensor, perhaps all the Mini tire valves have this sensor. In order to install the OZ wheels, the pressire sensor needs to be modified. While OZ has workled out a solution, I still need to get an approval from the dealer so it doesn't void the warrenty.