Accidental eBay purchase - 2004 Mini Cooper
Discussion
I may have got carried away on eBay and ended up the winning bidder on an 85k 2004 Mini Cooper in metallic green.
The pictures on the auction are terrible. Ended at £1,180.
Picking it up on Wednesday night at which point I think I'll be hiding it in my council garage until I can work how to explain it to the wife.
The pictures on the auction are terrible. Ended at £1,180.
Picking it up on Wednesday night at which point I think I'll be hiding it in my council garage until I can work how to explain it to the wife.
Mr Tidy said:
Looks like a bargain to me OP!
My sister wanted one last year and ended up paying 3 times that for an 06 plate in red, admittedly with less than 60K miles!
And Racing Green was her first colour choice - oh well, I won't tell her.
Does she want to swap? Green was way down my colour choices when browsing, but drunken ebayers can't be choosers! Lol.My sister wanted one last year and ended up paying 3 times that for an 06 plate in red, admittedly with less than 60K miles!
And Racing Green was her first colour choice - oh well, I won't tell her.
Seems that maybe their should be a Poverty Mini thread like the Poverty Pork thread.
My mate Marc helped me collect it so we went up in my R55 Cooper D.
The good. Apart from the pictured damage to the front bumper, the body and interior are excellent. The drivers seat has no wear on the bolsters and with a good clean and polish it should look a cracker. It's got loads of history and seems well cared for.
The bad. While the temp gauge reads normal the car smells very hot and of coolant. Coolant leak was on the MOT advisories on Feb. Worst case is head gasket so something to investigate. Tyre pressure warning light is on, brake pad warning light is on.
For now it's stuffed in my council garage and I Have a couple of busy weeks were I wont be able to look at it.
As for the wife. She went a bit nuts and were now embroiled in a conversation about me paying more than 50% of the bills as she's skint but clearly I can fritter my money on silly things.
The good. Apart from the pictured damage to the front bumper, the body and interior are excellent. The drivers seat has no wear on the bolsters and with a good clean and polish it should look a cracker. It's got loads of history and seems well cared for.
The bad. While the temp gauge reads normal the car smells very hot and of coolant. Coolant leak was on the MOT advisories on Feb. Worst case is head gasket so something to investigate. Tyre pressure warning light is on, brake pad warning light is on.
For now it's stuffed in my council garage and I Have a couple of busy weeks were I wont be able to look at it.
As for the wife. She went a bit nuts and were now embroiled in a conversation about me paying more than 50% of the bills as she's skint but clearly I can fritter my money on silly things.
Edited by HorneyMX5 on Wednesday 14th June 23:39
Some googling and the symptoms suggests it's the 1st stage fan not working due to a failed resistor. Front end apart to replace with genuine resistor, but plenty of people seem to do a fix with an eBay resistor and not dismantle the car. Need to read a bit more before I order some bits.
Update time. Went to the garage and dug it out to have a proper look.
It had no coolant in the header and low oil. It had both coolant leak and oil leak on the MOT advisories, I also tested and the low speed fan resitior is dead as the fan only runs at max or nothing. The cheap fix is to splice in a new resistor between the low speed feed and the high speed feed.
The front pads are pretty much done as well. The passenger door handle is missing the chrome cover.
Some googling reveals that coolant loss is down to either the rad cap or the thermostat assembly. I'm going to replace the cap first (cheapest part) and see how that goes. The oil leak looks to be the cam cover. I'll degrease the engine bay and monitor before tackling that.
Also a couple of tyres are near the legal limit.
So I've ordered/purchased:
Passenger door handle - £12
Resistors x2 - £7.50
Front pads (mintex) - £26
Front pad wear sensor - £8
Radiator cap - £12
Cooper S 17" S Spoke wheels with tyres - £175
Scorpion stainless centre section and fitting kit - £78
Used scorpion backbox - £50
I'll need to buy some oil.
Current total £1,448.50 including the car.
Work will begin next Saturday.
It had no coolant in the header and low oil. It had both coolant leak and oil leak on the MOT advisories, I also tested and the low speed fan resitior is dead as the fan only runs at max or nothing. The cheap fix is to splice in a new resistor between the low speed feed and the high speed feed.
The front pads are pretty much done as well. The passenger door handle is missing the chrome cover.
Some googling reveals that coolant loss is down to either the rad cap or the thermostat assembly. I'm going to replace the cap first (cheapest part) and see how that goes. The oil leak looks to be the cam cover. I'll degrease the engine bay and monitor before tackling that.
Also a couple of tyres are near the legal limit.
So I've ordered/purchased:
Passenger door handle - £12
Resistors x2 - £7.50
Front pads (mintex) - £26
Front pad wear sensor - £8
Radiator cap - £12
Cooper S 17" S Spoke wheels with tyres - £175
Scorpion stainless centre section and fitting kit - £78
Used scorpion backbox - £50
I'll need to buy some oil.
Current total £1,448.50 including the car.
Work will begin next Saturday.
Here's a quick snap of the drivers seat which gives you an idea of the general condition of the car. It's used but very good. Normally these seats have ruined bolsters on the door side from people getting in and out.
I'll get some proper pics of the car next weekend when I start the work on it.
Been a busy weekend on the Cooper.
Cat back Scorpion system fitted:
Expansion bottle and Thermostat cap replaced which seems to have cured the coolant leak:
Low speed fan resitor mod installed so that the fan now actually works at the slow speed it should:
Also changed the front pads and pad wear sensor, didn't get any photos of that.
Cat back Scorpion system fitted:
Expansion bottle and Thermostat cap replaced which seems to have cured the coolant leak:
Low speed fan resitor mod installed so that the fan now actually works at the slow speed it should:
Also changed the front pads and pad wear sensor, didn't get any photos of that.
5harp3y said:
Nick whats the low speed resistor mod?
Loads of them suffer from the resistor in the radiator failing. This resistor is to run the fan at half speed when the temp reaches a certain point, if the water temp goes higher the main feed is triggered and the fan runs at full (noisy) speed.When the resistor fails the car runs up to the higher temperature before kicking in the full speed fan. While the half speed fan is triggered earlier, the failed resistor stops it from actually working.
This mod introduces a new resistor further upstream in the loom that fixes the problem but is also easily accessible if it fails again.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff