I have not read thru your entire thread. You have some great parts. On the suspension department, which to me is one most important aspect of our cars, do you still have the stock springs and dampers? If so you really owe it to yourself to get something decent, and yes, the rear sway bar. The difference is immense and very rewarding on the road.

 

Whoohoo!! That's a lot of miles, glad yours is treating you well.

Hope the wife is doing better! Also very happy to see that your Liquid Yellow is still alive and kicking

 

Thanks Stephan!

Yes, she is doing better now. Nerve pain is all but gone but the re-hab starts now which can be a long process. 9 weeks post op and looks to be another month or two. A slow and steady recovery for sure. She hoping to get back to driving herself in the next couple of weeks.

He is doing well at the moment. Can't really complain. I need to locate/secure a new cloth driver seat since the seat bolster is now torn and looks awful. Found a replacement seat on eBay for a decent price and then it disppeared.

Unable to locate one ever since. But I keep looking...

 

Agreed. I've been hesitant on which direction to move in... (indecisive/lazy?) I like the appeal of the TSW springs with the Koni yellows... But then the KW coilovers are only a few bucks more along with the benefits/adjustments that come with that. Once I figure that out, then the rear sway bar and end links should come so I can replace all of it while I am in there...

I have the suspension setup and dialed in on the CRX and agree, the rear sway bar is a great addition to a FWD car. Just need to get off my duff and decide which direction to go. But agreed, I am being weak in this department for sure.

 

Hmm, I'm not too sure I can justify coilovers on these cars...I'm currently running OEM suspension with a H-Sport RSB and Energy Suspensions zerk bushings, and I absolutely love it...I'd be happy to let you drive mine to see how you like it before purchasing! If you ask me, polyurethane bushings and a RSB is all we need, a little body roll is quite nice for predicting lift-off shenanigans. If/when you decide to pick one up, my local buddy midwestinsocal is selling his 22mm H&R! Used sway bars are the way to go...it's going to get scratched up anyway, and you're saving the environment by cutting down on shipping!

Great news about the missus, by the way! I hope her recovery is as speedy as a tastefully modified 53

As far as your cloth seats go, I have a buddy who just replaced his seats for some buckets. Not sure if they were cloth, but I'll ask him and get back to you! Are yours the nice half-black leather, half-grey cloth ones?

 

Hmmmm.

I have the cloth on cloth seats. I knew this might be a problem when I configured him back in 2004 and now it is an issue.

Example:
[url=https://flic.kr/p/YvhoE9][/url

 

Spent about three hours on him today cleaning out the interior, washing, polishing and waxing him. All cleaned up now...

 

The car looks great! Funny how even the small cars can take just as much time to clean and detail as the regular sized vehicles.

I don't think there is a wrong choice between your TSW/Koni or KW V1 coilover options. Either one, will be great. A rear sway sounds like a no brainer.

Even the budget Bilstein B4 + Lowering springs option can be pretty good too.

 

you are lucky to have cloth seats, I wish I had them in my jcw. The biggest benefit to coilovers is autocross/track. Most springs lower the rear too much, some even brag about it in their marketing. The rear needs to be higher than the front just look at how the challenge cars are setup.

I run jcw springs with koni yellows on one car and kw v3 double adjustable coilovers with swift springs on the track car. All of the single adjustable are pretty stiff as they only let you adjust the low speed rebound, and even the v3's only let you adjust low speed compression/rebound

biggest performance increases for me were replacing those god awful oem trailing arm bushings (superpro +2 caster in mine now) and camber plates. I have less tire wear with camber plates but my car only sees spirited driving

 

Taking it nice and easy these days... haha

 

Hit this yesterday on the way home.

 

Today is the day my Cooper S was dropped off and I drove him home for the first time 14 years ago.

I order him out of San Antonio, TX and had him trucked to Phoenix. On Nov 11th 2004, he was dropped off. Time flies.


Backstory... back in the day, it was a 12-14 month wait in Phoenix for a Cooper S. Most other dealerships were charging $5000 - $10000 over MSRP with no wait times... San Antonio did not charge over MSRP and guaranteed me 12-13 weeks after I placed the order.

 

Had some time to kill as I am sure a lot of us are experiencing.

Decided to give him a bath, clay bar, polish and wax. Cleans up well.

 

Its been a while since I got under the Cooper to check things out. Everything looks to be in order, suspension pieces/bushings are solid, brakes look good, brake pads are still 8 and 9mm. I completed his annual oil change. Transmission fluid change is slowly creeping up.

Took some pics…

A little dirty but livable...

 

Looks absolutely clean!

 

So I spent some time on the Cooper today. I have not drive him a lot in the past due to the pandemic but enough to keep things moving, rolling and circulating.

Emissions came up and he needed new shoes, the drive belt was coming due and the tensioner was starting to rattle a tad.

So… He has new shoes now, passed emissions and now its time for the belt and tensioner. I swap belts here in the desert every six years or so. Based on the spreadsheet, the last time the belt was changed was late in 2014. The tensioner, that was last swapped in 2013. So it was due.

There appear to be a lot of theories on how best to get to the tensioner, get it out and get the new one in and mounted.

I took the approach of jacking up the Mini (safety first) on jackstands.

Put a jack under the motor for support.

Removed the passenger wheel and plastic fenderwell.

From the top side, I remove the ground bolt, engine mount bolt (top), the breather tube slid off the mounting bracket to get it out of the way.

Then I went after the engine mount bracket. 2 bolts in back, 2 bolts in front. Remove the bracket.

At that time, you can lift the engine up a little and it starts to expose the tensioner and belt.

Using by belt tensioner tool, compressed the tensioner and locked it into place.

Removed and pitched the old belt.

Once cleared for takeoff, I removed the 16mm bolt sitting above the supercharger pully.

From up top, I removed the first/top 10mm bolt of the old tensioner.

From underneath, you can reach the second/bottom 10mm bolt on the tensioner.

From underneath, last by not least, remove the 16mm bolt on the old tensioner.

Now its time to swing the tensioner almost vertical and wiggle it out from up top between the side wall and engine. You do not have to remove the passenger side/front engine mount. Enough strategic wiggling, the tensioner slides right out.

Mid Point… time to reserve everything.

With how you got the old tensioner out, slide the new tensioner in. It fits again without removing the mount.

Line it up with the first hole you see from up top above the S/C pulley. It is the 16mm bolt. I turned this in by hand to start the threads and get close to meeting resistance.

From the top, start the top 10mm bolt into the tensioner. You may have to use a hand from underneath to help align the tensioner in place.

From the bottom, start the second/bottom 10mm bolt through the tensioner into the engine.

Finally, underneath, start threading the 16mm in back to the engine.

At this time, I hand tightened the back 16mm bolt, then the 2 middle 10mm bolts and finally the front 16mm above the S/C pulley.

Ratcheting wrenches will serve you well here.

From the bottom, tighten the back 16mm bolt. No way to get a torque wrench on this so get it snug.

From the bottom, snug up the bottom 10mm bolt.

From up top, snug up the top 10mm bolt.

Lastly, snug up the front 16mm bolt above the S/C pulley.

Tensioner is in.

Time to find a diagram of the belt diagram. It is fun running the belt around the various pulleys and crank pulley. I am using the Contitech belt for the JCW cars (smaller). So the fit is tight and when you line everything up just right, the belt slides into place letting you know.

Using your tensioner tool, compress the new tensioner and pull the pin out so tensioner is applied to the new belt.

Your’re done.

Now its time to secure the mount bracket to the engine by sliding that back into place.

I find that lifting the engine up a little allows you to manhandle the motor a little by moving it forward/back so the mount bracket holes line up with the threads on the engine block. Then you can start threading the 2 bolts in back and 2 bolts in front by hand.

Once started, use your ratchet to tighten the bolts/bracket to the engine.

For me, I rock the motor a little, lift it up and then slowly lower it back onto the passenger/front engine mount that I did not have to remove.

From there, just tidy up.

Tighten the top bolt on the mount securing the bracket.

Thread the bolt/nut with the ground wire.

Slide the breather tube back onto its mount and your done in the bay.

Only thing left is to re-secure the plastic fender well and wheel. Lower the Cooper back down and fire him up to make sure he is happy with the work you did.

My guy fired right up and sounded great, and more quiet. The initial rattle when you start the engine or sit at idle is gone. Nice, quiet and smooth. Last time I let the tensioner go so long, my Cooper sounded like a diesel motor. Not good. Since this tensioner was last swapped in 2013 and starting to make a slight rattle, time to replace it along with the belt.

Thought about replacing the passenger side/front mount as well since I was there… But it appears no one has any Lemforder mounts anymore? Not sure if there is a shortage now or maybe they moved on and no longer make them?

Last time I swapped the mount was on 11/24/2017. So I think I still have time with it.

All in all, in and out, war maybe 1h 10m. Not too bad of a job attacking the tensioner from above and below. All said, I think I paid US$130 for the Contitech 6PK 1374 belt and Gates 38404 tensioner.

I sucked with pics as I just wanted to get in and get out. Here are some.




Old tensioner/belt in place:




Done. New tensioner/belt in place:

 

2005 R53 Mini Cooper S (LY/B)

Sadly, it is time to let him go.

I am the original owner of this Mini, built him and watch him sail across the pond to South Carolina back in 2004. I bought him out of San Antonio and had him trucked to Phoenix, AZ. I had every intention of keeping him and putting him back together but life has thrown me a few curveballs and it is time to part ways. Anyone that has followed my Mini thread knows the car is in great shape. I would walk through what I did, what I replaced and cleaned up everything I came across along the way.

But a few months back, something bad happened that has left him idle in the garage.

NON-RUNNING

If I had to guess, it is a crank bearing in the block? The last time I drove him, I limped him home. At a stop light, I was getting a stutter at idle with the oil pressure light coming on the center dash. Driving would be ok at higher RPMs but in the end that started to suffer and there was stuttering through the gears.

So I parked him and thought about what I wanted to do with him. Replace the motor? Or sell him to someone who would replace the motor and take care of him.

It is time to put him up for sale sadly. I am not happy about this…

He has around 132,xxx miles on the chassis. It has the original clutch that is still functional. Flywheel was replaced back in April-2006 under warranty. But it pains me to say that the clutch lasted longer than the motor. Very frustrating.

THE BADs:

Motor is having issues with stumbling and oil pressure lights.

Air conditioning compressor does not work.

THE GOODs:

Chassis is in good shape I would say. Front end has little chips here and there. There may be 2-3 small indentations in the body where the paint is not affected.

Transmission (non-LSD) is in great shape. Clutch is getting weaker but will be swapped when motor is repaired/replaced.

Power steering pump works great. P/S lines were replace in my thread in Aug-2016 at 113.8k miles.

Radiator has been replaced in May of 2022.

All bulbs have been replaced except for the headlights. Those are original.

PERFORMANCE ITEMS:

Milltek header and the Milltek catback exhaust.

Rogue Engineering air intake

Alta 15% pulley on the original supercharger

TIRES:

All 4 tires are Yoko Advan Sport A/S+ 215/45-17

All 4 tires have been replaced in April-2021 and only have approximately 4,600 miles on them. Should be 10/32 of tread at all 4 corners.

Run-flats are gone and I carried a spare full size wheel in the trunk.

BRAKES:

Front brakes should be around 8mm left

Rear brakes should be around 7mm left

I upgraded the caliper bushings to steel so there is no flexing or mis-alignment with the brake pads.

Brake fluid test should yield 1% (maybe 2%) water in the brake fluid which is good.

Brake pad sensors are present but not connected. I very much disliked the design using the sensor, let alone replacing the sensor at brake pad change intervals. I checked/measured the brake pads every 6-12 months for when they got close to the limit and then just replaced the pads.

SUSPENSION:

Suspension is stock from 2005 at each corner. Front top mounts are intact.

Swaybars are stock from 2005.

I have the stock cat-back exhaust system at the house that will go with the car. I am sure I have a few spare parts here and there as well that will accompany the car.

That is all that comes to mind at the moment. Feel free to asking questions.

Current pics? He looks the same as he does in this thread.

MY MINI COOPER S FOR SALE THREAD

Price? I was hoping to get $1,250 out of him given the condition and parts on him. Lets see what kind of offers come in and then I will take the time to consider each.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

Hey Jeff, sad to hear you go, and the news about your MINI. Just logged on for the first time in years because I saw your post. Is everything okay? I hope you and the family are doing well. I still remember fondly when you came over and gave me old parts from your car to get me up and running, and showed me your awesome clean one-owner MINI. If I still lived in Arizona I would drive over right now and give you a hand, or buy it from you if you were really serious about moving on. But I live in Portland now with my mom in a one bedroom apartment (saving money, just got my first full time job), so I don't have any space for it. Anyways, hope you find a solution that works for you. What's next in the cards? Are you going to put more attention into your CRX? Getting a different smile-inducing project maybe?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...Pick this car up people! Give him more than what he's asking!! IMMACULATE chassis. Great owner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Old photo of that day he came to help me out. His is, uh, the one without the turn indicator falling out. *smiles*

 

Hi Stephan,

Thank you for the kind words.

Yeah, I am pretty upset about it. A little over 18 years of ownership. I am looking back at to what could have possibly happened or been done. Who knows. I have a spreadsheet listing all of the reoccurring maintenance items along with all of the items I did/replaced throughout his life. Just odd. I do not foresee having the time or space to pull the motor and swap in a new one.

Yeah, everything is ok. Kids are good. You remember! That was a fun day meeting you and working on your Cooper.

Oh, Portland? Living with mom. I hope your father is ok.

In the cards? We shall see what life brings. Still have the CRX. I will be buried in that car. Lol I have a clutch to do to get him back to running well. Other than that, he just enjoys he occasional drive and vitamin D from the sunlight.

Again, thank you for the kind words.

Hope you are doing well.

 

Good news that everything's okay. Just sad about the MINI. Dad is doing good. Retired last year and moved out to Olympia WA. Now looking after his tree farm and raising my 11-y-o little sister nearly full-time. Still go up there every once in a while to help out.

Good that the CRX is still trusty (and not skipping the suntan lotion, by the sounds of it )

One thing: did you replace the oil filter shortly before the oiling issues? Could be the little basket (oil drain back valve) in the oil filter housing breaking. I had that happen after using a non-OEM filter and it would cause oil pressure issues, especially at idle. Basically at idle, the oil would not go back into the block. Solution is to replace the filter housing entirely, which is a PAIN. But better than an engine replacement!

 

Glad to hear things are going well for the family. Hopefully, he enjoys retirement.

I did not. Oil was changed several months prior to things going down hill.

 

Mini has been sold.

Close to 18 years and 5 months...

Sad to see him go. But he is going to a good home.