R55 Cooper S

[CoolHands]

I bought mine from lohen mini (although their website seems to be down right now!). The oil pipe (good ridge style) is exactly the right length etc. I bought the actual oil return pipe, oil filter gaskets gaskets and other parts directly from mini (Bmw dealer) as they are good quality and you don’t want to do this job twice.

Lohen Goodridge Braided Turbo Oil Feed Pipe For MINI N14 & N18 Cooper S JCW
SKU: ZZNM-LOHEN1

Edited by CoolHands on Wednesday 1st March 22:39

[scrw.]

this kit

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274677542735

[tommobot]

scrw. said:

old.....
2020-01-16_09-03-44 by Old_Chad, on Flickr

Ebay special intercooler and new air con and water rads. Brackets on the intercooler are a touch out, my OCD may survive once it is hidden behind the bumper.

2020-01-16_09-04-42 by Old_Chad, on Flickr

All stop until the downpipe arrives now.

I'm wanting to take the rad and IC off to get access to the oiler cooler and hoses, see as it seems like only a tiny bit more work than just pulling the front forward into service position?

I havne't looked in great detail, but presume there is a rad / consender or something for the AC in the front, does / can this get disconnected or is there nothing to worry about with this?

[scrw.]

needs emptying/disconnecting if you take the rad pack out, if you don't need to to work on the rad I do the service mode thing, alot less faff, but less room to work.

[tommobot]

Been watching a few videos this morning... don't mind draining coolant, as will have to when take out oil cooler I believe?

It looks like theres enough flex on the AC lines to just move the AC rad aside[url]

From what I envisage theres probably not that much difference in time / faff in taking the whole front end of as opposed to service mode?

Anyway, the car stinks of hot oil when running and I think its fairly heavily leaking around / onto the downpipe so think it needs a good degrease / clean in this area...

|https://thumbsnap.com/NZ5J2KJD[/url]

[scrw.]

I would be worried about breaking an AC pipe, they are a bit flimsy. Service mode is a stage of taking the front off anyway, try that for access before taking the front end off. You need to remove the IC rad to get the AC rad out, which could be a bit of a faff.

[tommobot]

Sorry for the many questions!... Do i need to install longer bolts to slide the front end off the subframe? - apologies, I still havent quite got my head around exactly what / which bit is going to pull foward..

[scrw.]

I used some bar stock I had somewhere, needs to slot into the frame end and the bumper bar sits on them. It can be done with axle stands to be fair. this is the space you end up with

IMG_20200607_182623 by Old_Chad, on Flickr

[scrw.]

Doing it with axle stands
IMG_20200224_171013 by Old_Chad, on Flickr

[tommobot]

Many thanks for the heads up!

Was actually far easier than I anticiapted, probably the hardest part was unclipping the front bumper from the arches!



Some lovely yucky oil, havne't had a good look at this yet but I'm assuming this is from the filter housing as I can't really see anything else in the vacinity.

I guess potentially vaccum pump? - But atleast thats easily accessable without removing the front end!

[scrw.]

While you are in there I would do the vacuum pump seal and the thermostat and cross pipe, plus the turbo lines, oil filter housing, and oil cooler seals. You will end up doing them again if you don't believe me, I did.

[tommobot]

Do you recall having different sized bolts for the turbo oil feed?



Can't see the logic, wondering if it was miss-packed? - Anyway, put the larger one in the block, as it looked similar to the OEM bolt

[scrw.]

Yes, large bore on block, smaller on turbo

[CoolHands]

according to their ad:

[tommobot]

Thank goodness for that!

Final question, priming the turbo...

I thought when you changed the turbo feed it needed priming to get oil feed full...

Is this only when turbo changed as opposed to feed, as couldn't seem to find much reference to priming / 15sec crank on these engines . ..

[CoolHands]

I didn't. Seems alright!

[scrw.]

I cranked for 30 odd seconds with the coils un plugged, doubtfull it makes much difference either way really

[tommobot]

All back up and running... Thanks for the help gents!

Next problems. Heaters not giving out much heat at all. Looks from reading could be clogged heater matrix in dash?

More concerning, smell of oil in car.

Presumed it was from all the oil leaks, but now the smell in the car seems stronger than under bonnet. Does anyone know where the intake feed for the heater is? Assuming that there is one?

[CoolHands]

I think it’s passenger side underneath the wiper mechanism? You can take the black plastic surround off under the windscreen but have to take wipers off first, if I’ve understood you correctly

Or do u mean where are the pipes to the heater matrix. Can you smell any oil when under the bonnet?

[tommobot]

I'm aiming to take the front subframe off mine next week to sort the bushes on the anti roll bar and I believe front wishbone bushes.... Any tips

I took it to a garage to give it a good look over, spotted a small misfire that I thought was a flat spot in engine, suggested that fuel pump could be failing.

Regarding noisy / whiny chain, supposedly could be too tight.. tbh I thought they were self tensioning but I'll give it another 1000miles and then see how it goes.

Regarding dropping the front subframe, any 'while I'm there' type bits? Car has just over 100k..