Well, it all started when I decided to replace the shocks on the 03 S.
Figured it would be easy breezy, zip zip and I’d be done. How wrong I was…

Ok, shocks. What to get. Did some reading, finally decided on BC’s. Worked best for what I needed, and what I got with them, and the price was right. Since I wanted to lower the car, I figured that I would also get the Megan roll center adjusters, to keep the geometry closer to what it should be.
So now I have a box of shocks, and roll center adjusters. Good to go I think.

Jacked up the car, got the old OEM shocks out, right to the garbage with them.



Looking at the outer ball joints, remembering that I am just about in the 100k mile club, I figured they should be replaced too, along with the inner ball joints, and with looking at the tie rod ends, I figure it is time, since the alignment shop fights with them everytime I bring it in after I swap winter/summer tires/wheels.
Now I have them all on order. Now I wait.
While waiting, I figure I can put my powder coater to good use again.I pulled the front steering knuckles. Breaking one of the speed sensors in the process. I had to use a hammer and a punch to get the remnants out. Now I have one of those on order too.
Found that there is NO way that 7 years of Chicago winters will let the ball joints out of the subframe without a fight. So, out the sub frame came.



725 ftlb torque wrench is not helping. Out comes the PB Blaster. While spraying, I noticed that all of the welds on the sub frame are rusting. Nothing else, just where it is welded. And of course, the bottoms of the bolts that hold everything to the sub frame are totally rusted. After a while, my fight with the bolts was over, and I had won this battle.
I also, at this time, decided I was fed up with the stock brakes. I did not want to deal with any issues anymore, and I always wanted a BBK, so the TCE 13” BBK with DP6 six piston calipers had to be ordered, along with Hawk pads, and new rotors for the rear.

Now would probably be the best time to address the leaking oil pan gasket. Carquest had them in stock, thank God. After a bit of scrubbing and rinsing, I could not put that ugly pan back on the car, soo…what to do with a pan? You put it in the oven of course!

Oil pan after powder coating:







Unscrewed the tie rods from the steering rack, had to torch the tie rod ends to heat them, to get them to move, to get the boots off, to put them back on the new ones.
Pulling the mounts to the front sway bar to powder coat them, I see that the bar, underneath the mounts, is totally rusted, and even if cleaned up, would only eat through new bushings. OEM bar is only slightly cheaper than an aftermarket, and the Hotchkis bar comes with zerk fittings in the mounts so I will be able to keep them greased.
Now a new hotchkis bar is on order, along with a full set to Powergrid(TSW) adjustable end links. Also figured, since the steering rack mount is looking unhealthy, I’d get the powerflex bushing for that also.

Found that I am also in need of an inverted torx looking “star” socket set, to get the steering rack out…off to the store I guess.
Sandblasted and powder coated the steering knuckles, and got the control arms sandblasted and rust free, then those also got powder coated.








Now that all of that is taken off, I need to clean up the all those bolts and get them powder coated to prevent more rust.






Wire wheeled all of the rust on the subframe, and then used a chemical rust converter to treat anything I might not have gotten with the wire wheel. Then I sprayed 2 coats of rustoleum on the subframe.
Got all the balljoints, tierods, tierod ends, front sway bar, and steering bushing from the UPS guy.
Put it all in. Now it is ready to go back on the car












For the rear, I started the rear brakes first.



Got the rear brakes done, and then proceeded to rip the entire back out to get access to cut the holes for the rear shock adjusters.



Found that no one has 1.5” grommets for the holes I cut, but the PCV valve grommet for a ford, is perfect. So in they went.



Got the rear shocks in, powergrid endlinks, and the brakes done.



At this point, I figured I was so involved anyway, that I could not let the car roll out of the garage on the old wheels. New ones were in order to go with the BBK.



Looking at the serpentine belt, and the tensioner, I saw that belt was frayed, and I no longer had any holes showing on the tensioner. Went to pull the belt, and found the tensioner was broken. Fantastic. Back to the interweb to order one , and as long as im here, a DT tensioner stop and powerflex bushings.
After some issue with the old one coming out, and questions on the new one, I could not just install it plain. It also got the red treatment







Power steering fan shroud, and lower engine mount got the same treatment. Installed the new BSH mount







My Forge strut tower brace would need some work, to make room for the adjustable camber plate on the BC shocks. Took them to a friend’s house to have them milled out bigger. I used a carbide burr to take a 1/2” more off the diameter of the strut tower itself. Got the shocks in and mounted







Now it was time for the BBK. All of the mounting hardware got powdercoated. Put it all together, got it shimmed perfectly, got the new lines in, and got them bleed. Took a step back. Much better than stock











The Roll center spacer put the ball joint bolt pretty close to the wheel, but I do have about 1/4" clearance





Now to get the fog light replacements installed(55watt bulbs melt plastic housings, FYI) and the palo uber light bar mounted, wiring run and connected, and ill be able to get the front end back on, and have the car aligned, and it will be done.... for now...

This all was done over the course of 6 weeks, some nights and most weekends, and Dad was nice enough to loan me his ’10 MCS in the meantime... unless his was being worked on too

 

Very nice.

 

WOW you did some WORK!!

It looks great, how do you like the setup?

 

Have not driven it yet! :( still have to get the front end on, and then get it aligned. still waiting for fog lights to get delivered. Hopefully in the next few days.

 

WOW, very nice work! Let us know how it drive!

 

Great work man, honestly though, you need to loose those RIMZ and get some light weight rims. I don't mean to be an @ss but those look like junk/rice and you are doing some solid suspension modifications.

 

VERY VERY NICE

 

Ready to install rear sway bar, are there any pitfalls or special instructions for this installation? Thanks!

 

That was a fun read and fun looking at the pictures. When I was finished reading I went back to see how the whole thing started "Well, it all started when I decided to replace the shocks on the 03 S." Ha ha ha ... well it all looks great and looks like you have a great place (and talent) to do that kind of work. Good job!

 

Thank you! Yea, it seemed like it took forever, and stuff just kept winding up needing to be replaced or refinished, it seemed like it would never end. Once I got to the point of the subframe out, I figured I best do it all now. No sense in leaving it like that, if I am this far.

 

Being able to powder coat your own stuff must be awesome. Looks like your family has a nice shop there.

About your oil pan leaking... If you are using a solid or poly mount down there, it will leak again. I've done mine a few times and just sort of gave up caring about the leak. If I ever pull the pan again, first I'll add a bung for oil temp, then I'll use some liquid gasket stuff ala sportbikes in addition to the gasket.

 

But you forgot to power coat the entire chassis... now only the red parts catch my attention!

Great Job !!!

 

Well, the ride... is Fantastic. I thought it cornered like it was on rails before... wow. Huge difference! Of course my rear camber is out of line, but the rear toe is pretty far out too. No clue how that happened, and the alignment shop said that they adjusted what they could. No matter. Hotchkis upper and lower bars are on their way, and should be in this weekend. Then the car will get a proper thrashing.

 

Well, not so much on the proper thrashing... I got the camber bars in, but now I have a rattle. I had to take the magnaflow muffler section out to get the bolts for the camber bars out, and once they were back in, and the car on the ground, I heard a rattle, and I thought it was the heat shields somewhere. Checked them all, they are tight, opened the hood, and found that the powerflex bushings on the brand new tensioner assembly, are completly destroyed. Well, one is kinda half there, but not doing much, and the damper is bouncing around. The car was driven for a week. So now I have to get in there to put back the stock damper bushings I took out, and see if they hold up, or if there is an underlying problem that caused them to fall apart.

 

I hope it is all OK! I like the work you did with the powder coating and all that. How do you like the Megan Racing Roll Center Adjusters? Are they worth the $100 investment?

 

I honestly cannot say. I put everything on at once, so it is such a huge change, I cannot tell what is doing what. Since I lowered it, I wanted to keep the stock geometery, so I added the spacers. I have now also seen that I may need to make spacers for the steering rack, to push the tie rods up also. I have not gotten to really push the car. Once I get the stock tensioner bushings in tomorrow night, I will see how it is with bumpsteer, to see if I need to shim up the rack or not.

From what I have experienced so far, the car loves to turn, and body roll is a thing of the past. Not like there was a lot before, but what was there, is just a memory now.

 

I really wish someone would make steering rack spacers for the Mini too, What size are your wheels?

Are you using the large or small Megan roll center adjuster?

 

17x7.5 with 42 offset. tires are 205 40 17.

I am using only the larger spacer, not using the extra little one.

 

Are you talking about the little PF bushings used on each end of the shock part of the damper? Never heard of them failing. I'd call the manufacturer and ask for advice/replacements.

 

Yep, I got them from Way Motor works, and they talked to Powerflex. Powerflex has admitted that they had an issue with a batch of them, and they are working on fixing it. Way promptly issued me a full refund. I now have the OEM ones back on. I do not know if I will get them again, even if Powerflex says they fixed the issue.

 

to Way Motor Works. I'm sure they were not aware of this problem.
I hope they discontinue selling them until PF can document the problem and solution.

 

well... I finally got it aligned correctly. Shop could not get it done first because of the lowering, and the lack of adjustable camber arms. Fixed that, but let me say this... the bolts that hold the camber arms in the center of the car, are an absolute pain to get out. Heat shields in the way, gas tank in the way, if its in the area, it is in the way. The bolts are blind, and nice and stuck. Oh, and you will need a 1.5 inch short extension on the ratchet... not a 2 inch, not an inch, not a 1.75 inch... 1.5 is the only one that would reach, and not be blocked by the gas tank. Bolts were all well rusted, but after some cleanup and a trip to the oven, they should be good for another 7 years. But in the end, they work well.





Then they could not get the front dialed in due to the front hubs going. Fine, almost 100k on the car, I drive it like I stole it, sure I guess they should be replaced. Finally found a deal on them here in the marketplace, and got them in:



Now they were able to get it fully aligned.

I also found that I had a leaking o-ring on one of my injectors, fixed that, but decided it was a good time to install the meth system, but that another story.

Suspension is great, BSH mout has about 1000 miles on it, and it is breaking in nicely. Now it is time for that thrashing it was supposed to get before

 

Wow. Is is okay if I just live vicariously through you? I wish I could spend time and money like you do on my MINI, but alas, I cannot.

Thanks for sharing. I look forward to tuning into this thread often, to see what you're doing to your MINI.

 

Well, it seems all the suspension pieces have finally broken in. Just in time to raise it back up for snow tires. There really is a fine line between harsh ride, and bouncing, but once the settings are found, it seems ok.

Seems now the rear hubs are making noise, so sometime before the dragon, ill be replacing those.

I have found that the powerflex upper engine bushing inserts seem to squish out. Anyone else see this? I might be removing them to see if it helps with the slight vibrations left by the BSH lower, even though it is a lot less now.

Had the cat on my Alta header go south, the center honeycomb section inside is no longer attached, and just rattles around, will have to have the replacement welded in sometime soon.

Of course the SC is making bad noises too, 110k, Way motor works will be getting a call from me for one of the ported rebuilt SC's in the near future...before it dies and takes other things with it.


Oh, and a side note, the Mini LOVES this 20 degree weather! 20 degree Meth being injected, and the 20 degree air temp... wow!

 

When you change out the SC, you should PC the intake horns red also. Saw it on another MINI on here, looked awesome.