Thinking of buying JCW

[over steer]

I'm thinking of buying a late 2002 JCW with 65K on the clock; are there any issues that I should be aware of? I read somewhere that the JCW kit was upgraded at some point, when did this happen? Is there a buyers guide I can download somewhere? where can I check service intervals etc as I guess that a cam belt change should be imminent or have happened already. Apologies for the cranial overload but I really don’t know a thing about these cars being more of a Lotus man.

Cheers

[Raify]

The JCW kit was originally 200bhp, I had mine upgraded to the new 210bhp in Nov 2004. I'm presuming that means the JCW kits from about Summer '04 were the new 210 flavour.

Loads of information available here: www.mini2.com

[Loui]

Id be 99% that the one that you are looking at is a 200bhp rather than a 210, easiest way to tell is does it have a airbox with a a metal johncooper works logo embosed in to it? There are 200 cars as the guy above has mentioned that have had the upgrade this was circa £400.

The difference between the 200 an 210 are

210 had
1) Airbox with rev operated opening flap at the back
2) NGK spark plugs
3) 380cc injectors
4) Further remap

Things to look for

Clicking steering column
Coroded powersteering pumps
Clutches (there a bit like cholcoate after a few hard launches)
Uneven tyre wear
Rattling JCW exhaust (have a tendancy for the baffles to seperate from the box)
Drivers door not unlocking itself on remote (quite common on earlier cars)
Window regulators packing up
Sticking calipers


Trust me buy one an you will be hooked such a fun, quick little car

[JCW_Matt]

Hey Hey,

I brought a 2002 JCW about 2 months ago now and I actually love it!

Mines got 55k on it, has all the extras plus a years warranty and extended TLC as I brought it from a dealer.

The car is awesome. Coming from a golf VR6, I relaised what I have been missing out on, the car has so much character, handling is impecable with virtually no understeer and razor sharp response. Get the revs up to abour 3.5 floor it and hear the charger whine and the exhaust kick off! Its an amazing sound.

Things to look out for, well, erm, everything! Seriously: Clutch, gearbox, window electrics, tyre wear, wheel bearings.. the lot.

I knew about the problems with the gearbox's and clutchs in Mini's so got my mate to take a look at mine before i brought it... All is fine even if the gearbox is a little harsh at time and a bit stiff, but I am assured this is normal! LOL
If I was you, defo get one with warranty, I had a xenon fail 2 weeks ago and it would of been £400 if it was not covered! Ouch!

Good luck, pm if you need any more info!

Matt

[Loui]

JCW_Matt said:

Hey Hey,

I brought a 2002 JCW about 2 months ago now and I actually love it!

Mines got 55k on it, has all the extras plus a years warranty and extended TLC as I brought it from a dealer.

The car is awesome. Coming from a golf VR6, I relaised what I have been missing out on, the car has so much character, handling is impecable with virtually no understeer and razor sharp response. Get the revs up to abour 3.5 floor it and hear the charger whine and the exhaust kick off! Its an amazing sound.

Things to look out for, well, erm, everything! Seriously: Clutch, gearbox, window electrics, tyre wear, wheel bearings.. the lot.

I knew about the problems with the gearbox's and clutchs in Mini's so got my mate to take a look at mine before i brought it... All is fine even if the gearbox is a little harsh at time and a bit stiff, but I am assured this is normal! LOL
If I was you, defo get one with warranty, I had a xenon fail 2 weeks ago and it would of been £400 if it was not covered! Ouch!

Good luck, pm if you need any more info!

Matt

The 6 speed gertrag box is pretty bomb proof, guys in the states are running 500hp through them with no probs!!!

[baSkey]

Loui said:

The 6 speed gertrag box is pretty bomb proof, guys in the states are running 500hp through them with no probs!!!

..i have heard this... but what i don't get is why ford used it for the st170..but for the RS they used the 5 spd (mt75??)...

[Loui]

baSkey said:

Loui said:

The 6 speed gertrag box is pretty bomb proof, guys in the states are running 500hp through them with no probs!!!

..i have heard this... but what i don't get is why ford used it for the st170..but for the RS they used the 5 spd (mt75??)...

This is a video of Hubie from fireball racings, daily driver MCS has had the 400whp twincharge kit on for around 40,000 miles no with no gearbox probs, obviously running uprated clutches

http://www.tubearoo.com/articles/32609/Mini_Cooper...

This is brians car from, fireball racing to this has just broke 500whp, but with single turbo, but its getting to the stage where clutches cant cope, will have to turn to race clutches from what ive heard

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=70442718...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-672415669...

[mrpods]

Awesome stuff, I have a works S and apart from the gearbox being a little stiff it seems pretty bulletproof top me unlike the clutch which has been replaced with less than 40k on the clock

[tvrbob]

You may also need to change your name to 'under steer'

[s33gav]

tvrbob said:

You may also need to change your name to 'under steer'

they're not that bad. get a decent strut brace (GTT is awesome) and it'll be sorted

edit: only just noticed his name

Edited by s33gav on Monday 6th August 12:54

[ben]

I'm glad that this subject has come up again, I think it's going to have to be a Works for my Cooper S replacement in a couple of months.
I'm spending hours on Autotrader, PH and MINI2 classifieds.
Anybody know of any other places to look? There will be mine to sell too!

[Hobzy]

The understeer is easy to dial out with a few mods if you want more neutral handling. With decent coilovers and adjustable rear arms/camber plates you can get it doing whatever you like

[mrpods]

GTT Strutbrace is awesome, so good you dont need coilovers according to the manufactuirers in his thread on mini2

Best coilovers are supposed to be PSS99 Bilsteins although very expensive. If you can't find a decent works, then go for a good S and look at aftermarket conversion by someone like GTT - they are hot at the moment