Volcanic F56 Mini Cooper S
Discussion
I've had my Mini for just over a year now, and I figured that I should start a thread so I've got an ongoing record of what I've done as much as anything else.
Early 2025, my partner bought an R56 Cooper S, I drove it and realised how much I missed having a decently nippy car. So I decided I'd look at getting one for myself. I spent some time researching and deciding whether to get an R56 or an F56, and what options I wanted.
In the end it came down to an F56 Cooper S, and I wanted heated seats and the media XL option (for the satnav). I also narrowed it down on colour as after spending nearly 7 years driving a white car, I felt the need to not blend in with general monochromaticness of todays roads.
In May I went to have a look at a 53k mile one in volcanic orange:
The advert was very comprehensive, and had a lot of photos, but the most intriguing was this one.
That little remote in the cup holder is for a JCW Pro exhaust. This, if you don't know, is a valved exhaust with a Bluetooth switch. It was a dealer installed option, from new in this case, and cost about £2.5k. It's described as a tuning pack, so as well as the exhaust, it's mapped to the BHP from 189 to about 210.
So we embarked on the six and a half hour round trip to go and have a look, and two weeks later we were making the trip again to collect her.
As well as the exhaust, she's had a few cosmetic embellishments: genuine Mini carbon mirror caps and bonnet scoop, carbon effect grille surround, door handles filler cap, black boot handle, and carbon tape on the chrome line. How long some of this stays is yet to be determined.
In the first few months, I made a few minor and cheap cosmetic tweaks to feel like I'd made her a bit different to how I bought her.
The first job was to fit a stubby aerial instead of the standard whip. £4.00 from Amazon, so if it didn't work that it wasn't any great loss.
A couple of minor cosmetic parts needed replacing: the rear fog light lenses were discoloured and cracked, and full of water, and the NS mirror cap was also cracked. I have spent many years just not using ebay, but it really is the best place to find second hand parts. As the mirror cap was a genuine Mini carbon fibre part, it was either find a matching single replacement, or a pair of some other colour. I managed to find a cheap carbon one on ebay, and even better as it had very minor scratch in the lacquer, it was listed for £43 instead of the usual £150+.
I few cosmetic tweeks were carried out: the s
te carbon wrap on the grille strip was removed, and rewrapped in plain black. that's held up fine for a year now, so it can stay as it is for the foreseeable rather than being replaced. The same ste wrap is on the belt line, but as it was an absolute bh to remove on the grille strip, a genuine gloss black beltline is on the cards at some point. Mini JCW indicator surrounds, and I sprayed the chrome indicators black.
The spot lights are suffering from the usual degradation of the glass which results in milky lines with the glass itself. I looked for replacements, but all the ones I've found so far of the same style have the same defect. I don't want to fit the newer design LED spotlights, as the headlights are halogen on not LED. Instead to disguise it, I bought a pair of yellow tinted covers instead. I also covered the front and rear badges with black covers.
All pretty cheap, and just change the general look in the short term. As whilst I don't have anything against chrome, I just don't think it goes with the orange. If I'd bought literally any other colour, I wouldn't have bothered. In the long term, I do intend to replacing the various covers for genuine gloss black equivalents, but I'm not in a rush.
September saw us at the Stanford Hall for Mini Fest. I'm now slightly embarrassed by my choice of screen shade, but it was amusing at the time. My first car show in 7 years, and the first for my OH. I'm getting him used to it slowly.
The final change for the year was another 6 hour round trip, this time to collect a set of genuine 17" Track Spoke alloys, with good tyres ready for winter.
It was only on fitting the 17's that I discovered that the 18" alloys are not genuine Mini Cross Spokes. There's no a single mark on the insides of the spokes to indicate what make they are, but they're straight and look ok, so they'll stay for the time being. If I come across a good used set of the genuine ones being offered locally, I may be tempted.
That sums up 2025, I'll add a further post for 2026 to date shortly.
Early 2025, my partner bought an R56 Cooper S, I drove it and realised how much I missed having a decently nippy car. So I decided I'd look at getting one for myself. I spent some time researching and deciding whether to get an R56 or an F56, and what options I wanted.
In the end it came down to an F56 Cooper S, and I wanted heated seats and the media XL option (for the satnav). I also narrowed it down on colour as after spending nearly 7 years driving a white car, I felt the need to not blend in with general monochromaticness of todays roads.
In May I went to have a look at a 53k mile one in volcanic orange:
The advert was very comprehensive, and had a lot of photos, but the most intriguing was this one.
That little remote in the cup holder is for a JCW Pro exhaust. This, if you don't know, is a valved exhaust with a Bluetooth switch. It was a dealer installed option, from new in this case, and cost about £2.5k. It's described as a tuning pack, so as well as the exhaust, it's mapped to the BHP from 189 to about 210.
So we embarked on the six and a half hour round trip to go and have a look, and two weeks later we were making the trip again to collect her.
As well as the exhaust, she's had a few cosmetic embellishments: genuine Mini carbon mirror caps and bonnet scoop, carbon effect grille surround, door handles filler cap, black boot handle, and carbon tape on the chrome line. How long some of this stays is yet to be determined.
In the first few months, I made a few minor and cheap cosmetic tweaks to feel like I'd made her a bit different to how I bought her.
The first job was to fit a stubby aerial instead of the standard whip. £4.00 from Amazon, so if it didn't work that it wasn't any great loss.
A couple of minor cosmetic parts needed replacing: the rear fog light lenses were discoloured and cracked, and full of water, and the NS mirror cap was also cracked. I have spent many years just not using ebay, but it really is the best place to find second hand parts. As the mirror cap was a genuine Mini carbon fibre part, it was either find a matching single replacement, or a pair of some other colour. I managed to find a cheap carbon one on ebay, and even better as it had very minor scratch in the lacquer, it was listed for £43 instead of the usual £150+.
I few cosmetic tweeks were carried out: the s
te carbon wrap on the grille strip was removed, and rewrapped in plain black. that's held up fine for a year now, so it can stay as it is for the foreseeable rather than being replaced. The same ste wrap is on the belt line, but as it was an absolute bh to remove on the grille strip, a genuine gloss black beltline is on the cards at some point. Mini JCW indicator surrounds, and I sprayed the chrome indicators black. The spot lights are suffering from the usual degradation of the glass which results in milky lines with the glass itself. I looked for replacements, but all the ones I've found so far of the same style have the same defect. I don't want to fit the newer design LED spotlights, as the headlights are halogen on not LED. Instead to disguise it, I bought a pair of yellow tinted covers instead. I also covered the front and rear badges with black covers.
All pretty cheap, and just change the general look in the short term. As whilst I don't have anything against chrome, I just don't think it goes with the orange. If I'd bought literally any other colour, I wouldn't have bothered. In the long term, I do intend to replacing the various covers for genuine gloss black equivalents, but I'm not in a rush.
September saw us at the Stanford Hall for Mini Fest. I'm now slightly embarrassed by my choice of screen shade, but it was amusing at the time. My first car show in 7 years, and the first for my OH. I'm getting him used to it slowly.
The final change for the year was another 6 hour round trip, this time to collect a set of genuine 17" Track Spoke alloys, with good tyres ready for winter.
It was only on fitting the 17's that I discovered that the 18" alloys are not genuine Mini Cross Spokes. There's no a single mark on the insides of the spokes to indicate what make they are, but they're straight and look ok, so they'll stay for the time being. If I come across a good used set of the genuine ones being offered locally, I may be tempted.
That sums up 2025, I'll add a further post for 2026 to date shortly.
2026
A couple of cosmetic changes so far this year: OEM mudflaps, a 'secret' compartment glove box as Mini stopped fitting it as part of the storage pack mid-2015, just before this was built, and a JCW Aero spoiler.
From:
To:
Prior to owning my Mini, my attempts at spannering have been minimal. That has now changed. Whilst I objectively understand why garages have to charge the hourly rates that they do, I can't justify the cost when I know damn well I can do it myself. With assistance from someone who's always serviced his own cars. As there was quite a few things I wanted to do as part of a service, I risked the catchphrase "how hard can it be?"
First quickest to be ticked off the list was the rear brake discs and pads, and bump stops. They would probably have lasted a while longer, but there was also a decent lip on the discs, so I erred on the side of caution, and for a grand total of £121 and a few hours of our time, I deemed it worthwhile
A few weeks later, we had a free weekend to do the rest of the service: oil and filter, air filter, coolant, cabin filter and brake fluid. I only took two photos. The first looks incredibly dodgy, but it's actually how some of the sludgy crap we had to flush from the coolant bottle dried out. After draining the coolant, we were left with a semi-clear slimy sludge at the bottom of the expansion tank. I had to risk the wrath of Anglian Water, and connect up the hose pipe to flush it out as it need some pressure to get it all out fully. Thankfully it seemed to be confined to the bottom of the bottle, and there were zero signs of overheating but I may do another flush with the next oil change, just to be on the safe side.
The second is how the cabin filter came out, and does reinforce my reluctance to take any car to a garage except in circumstances where we really cannot do the work ourselves.
One of the other items that was on the list was spark plugs and coils. I had noticed the odd jump or surge both at idle, and during driving, but not enough that I registered with me as a misfire, as sometimes it's hard to tell if it's the engine, or just the state of the roads. However, an OBD reader and bimmerlink proved it's there. It's random, and over all 4 cylinders, but not enough to trigger an error code. The spark plugs were changed in 2023, but the coils were original, so to rule them out if nothing else, I changed them all. It didn't make a difference. So that is something I want to try and track down before I move forward with any other cosmetic plans.
As it's not isolated to one cylinder, or consistent, I don't believe that it's a problem with the pistons themselves, but more likely to be fuel or air related. We'll try a smoke test to look for a vacuum leak, and test the fuel breather valve and see what happens.
A couple of cosmetic changes so far this year: OEM mudflaps, a 'secret' compartment glove box as Mini stopped fitting it as part of the storage pack mid-2015, just before this was built, and a JCW Aero spoiler.
From:
To:
Prior to owning my Mini, my attempts at spannering have been minimal. That has now changed. Whilst I objectively understand why garages have to charge the hourly rates that they do, I can't justify the cost when I know damn well I can do it myself. With assistance from someone who's always serviced his own cars. As there was quite a few things I wanted to do as part of a service, I risked the catchphrase "how hard can it be?"
First quickest to be ticked off the list was the rear brake discs and pads, and bump stops. They would probably have lasted a while longer, but there was also a decent lip on the discs, so I erred on the side of caution, and for a grand total of £121 and a few hours of our time, I deemed it worthwhile
A few weeks later, we had a free weekend to do the rest of the service: oil and filter, air filter, coolant, cabin filter and brake fluid. I only took two photos. The first looks incredibly dodgy, but it's actually how some of the sludgy crap we had to flush from the coolant bottle dried out. After draining the coolant, we were left with a semi-clear slimy sludge at the bottom of the expansion tank. I had to risk the wrath of Anglian Water, and connect up the hose pipe to flush it out as it need some pressure to get it all out fully. Thankfully it seemed to be confined to the bottom of the bottle, and there were zero signs of overheating but I may do another flush with the next oil change, just to be on the safe side.
The second is how the cabin filter came out, and does reinforce my reluctance to take any car to a garage except in circumstances where we really cannot do the work ourselves.
One of the other items that was on the list was spark plugs and coils. I had noticed the odd jump or surge both at idle, and during driving, but not enough that I registered with me as a misfire, as sometimes it's hard to tell if it's the engine, or just the state of the roads. However, an OBD reader and bimmerlink proved it's there. It's random, and over all 4 cylinders, but not enough to trigger an error code. The spark plugs were changed in 2023, but the coils were original, so to rule them out if nothing else, I changed them all. It didn't make a difference. So that is something I want to try and track down before I move forward with any other cosmetic plans.
As it's not isolated to one cylinder, or consistent, I don't believe that it's a problem with the pistons themselves, but more likely to be fuel or air related. We'll try a smoke test to look for a vacuum leak, and test the fuel breather valve and see what happens.
I do love a Volcanic Orange Mini especially with a black roof and alloys, although normally not a lover of black alloys.
It does look very smart and I'd be vey pleased with that spec myself, the only thing I'd change would be the spotlights, although I appreciate why you have the lens cover on them.
I'd also possibly go for a pair of black bonnet stripes.
Any other plans for it?
It does look very smart and I'd be vey pleased with that spec myself, the only thing I'd change would be the spotlights, although I appreciate why you have the lens cover on them.
I'd also possibly go for a pair of black bonnet stripes.
Any other plans for it?
66HFM said:
I do love a Volcanic Orange Mini especially with a black roof and alloys, although normally not a lover of black alloys.
I've always said that I don't like black alloys, but I don't think silver suits the orange when there's other black accents. I may go black chrome, or anthracite when I refurbish the replicas, but I'm undecided.[quote]It does look very smart and I'd be vey pleased with that spec myself, the only thing I'd change would be the spotlights, although I appreciate why you have the lens cover on them.
I'd also possibly go for a pair of black bonnet stripes.
[quote]Any other plans for it?
cherie171 said:
2026
A couple of cosmetic changes so far this year: OEM mudflaps, a 'secret' compartment glove box as Mini stopped fitting it as part of the storage pack mid-2015, just before this was built, and a JCW Aero spoiler.
From:
To:
Prior to owning my Mini, my attempts at spannering have been minimal. That has now changed. Whilst I objectively understand why garages have to charge the hourly rates that they do, I can't justify the cost when I know damn well I can do it myself. With assistance from someone who's always serviced his own cars. As there was quite a few things I wanted to do as part of a service, I risked the catchphrase "how hard can it be?"
First quickest to be ticked off the list was the rear brake discs and pads, and bump stops. They would probably have lasted a while longer, but there was also a decent lip on the discs, so I erred on the side of caution, and for a grand total of £121 and a few hours of our time, I deemed it worthwhile
A few weeks later, we had a free weekend to do the rest of the service: oil and filter, air filter, coolant, cabin filter and brake fluid. I only took two photos. The first looks incredibly dodgy, but it's actually how some of the sludgy crap we had to flush from the coolant bottle dried out. After draining the coolant, we were left with a semi-clear slimy sludge at the bottom of the expansion tank. I had to risk the wrath of Anglian Water, and connect up the hose pipe to flush it out as it need some pressure to get it all out fully. Thankfully it seemed to be confined to the bottom of the bottle, and there were zero signs of overheating but I may do another flush with the next oil change, just to be on the safe side.
The second is how the cabin filter came out, and does reinforce my reluctance to take any car to a garage except in circumstances where we really cannot do the work ourselves.
One of the other items that was on the list was spark plugs and coils. I had noticed the odd jump or surge both at idle, and during driving, but not enough that I registered with me as a misfire, as sometimes it's hard to tell if it's the engine, or just the state of the roads. However, an OBD reader and bimmerlink proved it's there. It's random, and over all 4 cylinders, but not enough to trigger an error code. The spark plugs were changed in 2023, but the coils were original, so to rule them out if nothing else, I changed them all. It didn't make a difference. So that is something I want to try and track down before I move forward with any other cosmetic plans.
As it's not isolated to one cylinder, or consistent, I don't believe that it's a problem with the pistons themselves, but more likely to be fuel or air related. We'll try a smoke test to look for a vacuum leak, and test the fuel breather valve and see what happens.
Interesting update. I have been tackling very similar things on my own F56. A couple of cosmetic changes so far this year: OEM mudflaps, a 'secret' compartment glove box as Mini stopped fitting it as part of the storage pack mid-2015, just before this was built, and a JCW Aero spoiler.
From:
To:
Prior to owning my Mini, my attempts at spannering have been minimal. That has now changed. Whilst I objectively understand why garages have to charge the hourly rates that they do, I can't justify the cost when I know damn well I can do it myself. With assistance from someone who's always serviced his own cars. As there was quite a few things I wanted to do as part of a service, I risked the catchphrase "how hard can it be?"
First quickest to be ticked off the list was the rear brake discs and pads, and bump stops. They would probably have lasted a while longer, but there was also a decent lip on the discs, so I erred on the side of caution, and for a grand total of £121 and a few hours of our time, I deemed it worthwhile
A few weeks later, we had a free weekend to do the rest of the service: oil and filter, air filter, coolant, cabin filter and brake fluid. I only took two photos. The first looks incredibly dodgy, but it's actually how some of the sludgy crap we had to flush from the coolant bottle dried out. After draining the coolant, we were left with a semi-clear slimy sludge at the bottom of the expansion tank. I had to risk the wrath of Anglian Water, and connect up the hose pipe to flush it out as it need some pressure to get it all out fully. Thankfully it seemed to be confined to the bottom of the bottle, and there were zero signs of overheating but I may do another flush with the next oil change, just to be on the safe side.
The second is how the cabin filter came out, and does reinforce my reluctance to take any car to a garage except in circumstances where we really cannot do the work ourselves.
One of the other items that was on the list was spark plugs and coils. I had noticed the odd jump or surge both at idle, and during driving, but not enough that I registered with me as a misfire, as sometimes it's hard to tell if it's the engine, or just the state of the roads. However, an OBD reader and bimmerlink proved it's there. It's random, and over all 4 cylinders, but not enough to trigger an error code. The spark plugs were changed in 2023, but the coils were original, so to rule them out if nothing else, I changed them all. It didn't make a difference. So that is something I want to try and track down before I move forward with any other cosmetic plans.
As it's not isolated to one cylinder, or consistent, I don't believe that it's a problem with the pistons themselves, but more likely to be fuel or air related. We'll try a smoke test to look for a vacuum leak, and test the fuel breather valve and see what happens.
Car looks great
Dal3D said:
Looks great! 
Well done for going for a colour (not metallic beige) and good detective work with that exhaust. What's it sound like?
It's a little ray of sunshine on the road!Well done for going for a colour (not metallic beige) and good detective work with that exhaust. What's it sound like?
The exhaust is a single pipe with no resonator that splits in two before the back box, one goes in to that, and the valve is on the other, so when it's open, it's essentially just a straight through pipe. With it closed, you'd never know really. It sounds a bit louder and deeper than standard, but not massively so. With it open in normal, it is a bit louder, but in sport mode it is a bit more of a hooligan, and can pop and bang on overrun.
Nice, I really like the colour. My wife was going to look at an F56 Cooper S in this colour last year but the seller decided they couldn't sell the car, so we ended up going to look at a more expensive Challenge 210 instead, which has been adorning the driveway ever since.
Hers has all the JCW parts (sans brakes) as standard, including the exhaust. Legally you're not allowed to use it with the valve open on the road lol. The JCW bluetooth remote can stop working, and you can replace it with a plug in item from 11mode which comes with its own remote control. Does the same job.
I'd definitely consider converting to LED lighting, it's night and day difference from the halogen.
All in all, really nice cars, I enjoy the gearchange action, (I did on the R56 Cooper S we had as well), and the B48 is a pretty good unit, though cooling system issues are a thing (typical BMW).
Keep enjoying it!
Hers has all the JCW parts (sans brakes) as standard, including the exhaust. Legally you're not allowed to use it with the valve open on the road lol. The JCW bluetooth remote can stop working, and you can replace it with a plug in item from 11mode which comes with its own remote control. Does the same job.
I'd definitely consider converting to LED lighting, it's night and day difference from the halogen.
All in all, really nice cars, I enjoy the gearchange action, (I did on the R56 Cooper S we had as well), and the B48 is a pretty good unit, though cooling system issues are a thing (typical BMW).
Keep enjoying it!
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