Man, the engine compartment is a jigsaw puzzle. The procedure to replace a part is often so simple, but preceded by many (MANY!) steps to remove unrelated parts, just to get to the bolts you need to get to do the work you set out to do. God forbid any procedure should start with "put the radiator support in service mode." I just tried, and between Bentley and Youtube, I'm pretty sure I've undone everything I need to, but damn if the front end will actually slide. It feels hung-up on the crush tube holes, of all things (they move freely and will slide back just a little, but not forward past being lined up.) Frustrating.

Then, there are lots of little rusted bits after 6 years of ownership. I'm trying to replace the turbo oil line, and am down to the last bolt (I think) - the one under the turbo holding the bracket that leads down to the back heat shield. I can get an open-ended wrench on it, but not a breaker or socket. And it's frozen. We'll see what PB can do, but I'm not hopeful. I had to cut the downpipe gasket/clamp yesterday. What did MINI save not using stainless steel? $50? I'd have pay it if they asked next time (just kidding, MINI! There won't be a next time.)

Then there's the custom tools you need to do various things. And the lack of parts availability. And relatively scarce reference materials.

I gladly work on my kids 96 Subaru over the MINI any day of the week. It costs me less knuckle skin and cursing.

 

For a FWD car that's, in reality, pretty simple it is a frustrating turd to work on. Agreed and feel your pain.

 

Regarding the service position it seems my Bentley manual was missing a step on that. It never told me to remove the bolts in front on the crash beam. I looked 3 times just to make sure I didn't skip a step. After that I used a deadblow hammer to move it forward. Nothing else gave me an issue though. I even got the 02 sensors out with an open end wrench. Gotta love SoCal, nothing rusts on cars!

 

I think I had to encourage the front rails to slide out with a BFH the first I DIY-ed the car after 4 years of dealer service. Just make sure you have all the bolts removed on top of the fenders so that the entire nose of the car can slide forward without breaking any of the plastic connection points in the engine bay (2 13mm bolts on each side of the radiator rail, air ducts bolts and rivets, hood release cable, lights, AC fill line brackets, side/front bumper cover bolts, etc). Don't forget the 4 forward facing mounting nuts

You should be able to shake the top of the radiator support assembly and rock it back an forth to confirm that it's free.

Then bang the bottom rails FWD, one at a time, and secure them from falling off completely by threading 1 bolt into the front-most mounting hole.

That 13mm turbo bracket bolt can be stubborn, but easy to get to after you remove the downpipe. Downpipe/cat has to come out first.

If you raise the car high enough, you can put a breaker bar (with an extension) on it with the bar facing straight down.

Mine came out looking good to be reused after 5 years and 45K miles. It all depends on your climate and your roads.
I bought a new gasket+clamp set, just in case. Most exhaust system components do not age gracefully.

Hmmm, if your kids are old enough to drive, they are old enough to wrench on your car for you !!


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Ha! Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

For the service mode, I did notice that the Bentley manual skipped those critical nuts behind the front bumper trim. I can tilt the top of the support away from the car and buy an inch or two, but can't slide the square tubes. I think the big *** bolt put enough pressure on to create indents that are stopping them where the holes line up. They're otherwise movable. As it stands, I gave up on the idea and am just squeezing my arms in to get to stuff.

I was able to free the turbo support bracket after an overnight (and a day) of PB, then using a cheater from below. The inventor of PB Blaster should win a Nobel prize, IMO.

And don't even joke about the kids touching my car. It's called mine for a reason.

 

Don't give up on the radiator service mode - I've done oil line feed job both ways (don't ask): contortionist style and with radiator in service mode. You could not pay me enough to repeat option #1.

The really tricky part comes when you start bolting the heat shields back ON. That's when having those extra 2-3" in service mode are the only viable alternative to slave child labor.

Take a short piece of 2x4, and "encourage" the rectangular lower rails to slide forward. They will oblige.

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Oh, yeah. Crap. I have to put it back together, don't I.

 

Removing the old oil line then installing a new one (OEM, not Detroit Tuned) was like solving a bent-wire puzzle. But it's in. So now to reassemble this car....

 

+10000 Any transverse mounted engine is going to be a pain to work on, especially in a FWD application.

 

Yup, you got it exactly right. Attempting to get the heat shields back on motivated me to try to complete the service mode. All it took as a piece of a wood and a small sledge. Even then, they weren't especially fun to get back on (I'd bent one dropping my jack on it, and it was tough to re-align).

Thanks for the help!