A MINI (R53 Cooper S) Adventure
Discussion
Not much to update, the car has been in use over the holiday weekend. Even squeezed all 4 of the family in for a cinema trip!
Next up are:
- remove arch liners and skirts and give the crevices a good clean and rot inspection
- get supercharger serviced
- fit new shocks, springs, drop links and rear ARB bushes
The impending suspension overhaul was all the excuse I needed to bolster my armoury; New ugga dugga duly purchased:
Next up are:
- remove arch liners and skirts and give the crevices a good clean and rot inspection
- get supercharger serviced
- fit new shocks, springs, drop links and rear ARB bushes
The impending suspension overhaul was all the excuse I needed to bolster my armoury; New ugga dugga duly purchased:
Decided to tackle half the undertrim this morning (I actually intended to do both sides, but the drivers side took twice as long as I'd hoped!).
Drivers side up in the air, wheels, arch liners and sideskirts off!
Arches were grubby but not too horrific:
Attack with APC, brush and then a good scrub and rinse. Not perfect, but a bit cleaner!
Took the opportunity to replace any broken/corroded fasteners and have a good poke around for rot. Pleased to say nothing major was lurking behind the arches or skirt. There is reasonable surface corrosion above the exhaust heatshields and around the battery box. I suspect similar (but hopefully not worse) above the fuel tanks. Given the car is now basically dry stored and won't be driven on salted or filthy roads again in my tenure, I don't expect the situation to deteriorate any time soon but it really would benefit from having the whole underside of the body treated.
Drivers side up in the air, wheels, arch liners and sideskirts off!
Arches were grubby but not too horrific:
Attack with APC, brush and then a good scrub and rinse. Not perfect, but a bit cleaner!
Took the opportunity to replace any broken/corroded fasteners and have a good poke around for rot. Pleased to say nothing major was lurking behind the arches or skirt. There is reasonable surface corrosion above the exhaust heatshields and around the battery box. I suspect similar (but hopefully not worse) above the fuel tanks. Given the car is now basically dry stored and won't be driven on salted or filthy roads again in my tenure, I don't expect the situation to deteriorate any time soon but it really would benefit from having the whole underside of the body treated.
Buy a cheap hot hatch, he thought… it’ll be fun to relive a bit of your youth and a project will satisfy the urge to tinker, he thought… 
This is all well and good but when I set out to buy an R53 no bodywork issues was pretty high up the list of requirements. Problem is, so was getting a red one and by now the terms ‘chilli red’ and ‘ropey bodywork’ are synonymous. Ho hum.
All that being said the bodywork issue that is subject of todays misery is not exclusively a ‘red’ problem - I’m referring to rust beneath the door seals. This little nugget falls in to the category of ‘they all do that, sir’.
So, out came the dremel and much grinding later there was significantly less paint in my door shuts than when it left the factory. Fortunately also gone was the surface rust. Cue liberal application of rust converter then the worst paint job you’ve ever seen. Still, it’ll all be hidden by the door seal and sill trim so who cares!
1) bare metal. 2) rust treatment. 3) slapdash paint job:
This is all well and good but when I set out to buy an R53 no bodywork issues was pretty high up the list of requirements. Problem is, so was getting a red one and by now the terms ‘chilli red’ and ‘ropey bodywork’ are synonymous. Ho hum.
All that being said the bodywork issue that is subject of todays misery is not exclusively a ‘red’ problem - I’m referring to rust beneath the door seals. This little nugget falls in to the category of ‘they all do that, sir’.
So, out came the dremel and much grinding later there was significantly less paint in my door shuts than when it left the factory. Fortunately also gone was the surface rust. Cue liberal application of rust converter then the worst paint job you’ve ever seen. Still, it’ll all be hidden by the door seal and sill trim so who cares!
1) bare metal. 2) rust treatment. 3) slapdash paint job:
Chedders said:
Yep! 
Looking very nice, good choice in the suspension department - wish I went for the same springs instead of Eibach.
Springs are a bit of a minefield it seems. Sachs OEM spec are quite expensive and the rears are on back order. -30mm is a bit too low, I already have to crawl over speed bumps! Of all the other OE spec springs KYB we’re about the only brand with a clear catalogue and a reasonable price (about £95 for all 4 from Autodoc). Looking very nice, good choice in the suspension department - wish I went for the same springs instead of Eibach.
All that being said I’m still half tempted by the Tein -15mm springs as a bit of a compromise of looks/practicality…
Righto, car's collected from 1320. It went in for an inspection and leak down test, supercharger service and new v-belt. The headline news is that there's no additional work required at this time. In more detail there's good, bad and ugly; I guess this is the cold reality of buying a 17 year old mass production vehicle...
The good:
- Supercharger healthy and serviced
- No major oil leaks (slight weep from the oil cooler gasket)
- No issues identified with any other ancillary components
The bad:
- Leak down test results:
Cylinder 1 = 10%
Cylinder 2 = 25%
Cylinder 3 = 18%
Cylinder 4 = 14%
Now, 1320 know their MINI's. Their opinion was that you need to be above 25% to be concerned. Also, apparently it's always cylinder 2 that's the worst so, although borderline, the results don't merit any further work. I just need to keep an eye on oil consumption. Not ideal but it could be worse!
The ugly:
- Whilst up on the ramp I could have a real poke around behind the tanks. The surface corrosion is as expected, so a winter project to strip, treat and coat from the tanks back is definitely on the cards
It's good to know the car is fundamentally ok and can basically just be driven as is. Everything I do in the near-term is really just tinkering for the sake of it and to tidy up age related wear and tear.
The good:
- Supercharger healthy and serviced
- No major oil leaks (slight weep from the oil cooler gasket)
- No issues identified with any other ancillary components
The bad:
- Leak down test results:
Cylinder 1 = 10%
Cylinder 2 = 25%
Cylinder 3 = 18%
Cylinder 4 = 14%
Now, 1320 know their MINI's. Their opinion was that you need to be above 25% to be concerned. Also, apparently it's always cylinder 2 that's the worst so, although borderline, the results don't merit any further work. I just need to keep an eye on oil consumption. Not ideal but it could be worse!
The ugly:
- Whilst up on the ramp I could have a real poke around behind the tanks. The surface corrosion is as expected, so a winter project to strip, treat and coat from the tanks back is definitely on the cards
It's good to know the car is fundamentally ok and can basically just be driven as is. Everything I do in the near-term is really just tinkering for the sake of it and to tidy up age related wear and tear.
and31 said:
How much did the supercharger service cost if you don’t mind me asking?
They quote £322 on their website including a few parts/gaskets. Mine was a bit less as I'd recently changed some of those extra bits myself.https://www.1320.co.uk/mini-cooper-s-supercharger-...
Glad to hear yours is in reasonable health, I'd imagine much better than mine. Is there a reason why the 2nd cylinder is always the worst?
Quite surprised they are only 70 miles away from me, would love to give them a visit once I've obtained an MOT. For some reason I thought they were based in the Kent area.
Quite surprised they are only 70 miles away from me, would love to give them a visit once I've obtained an MOT. For some reason I thought they were based in the Kent area.
Chedders said:
Glad to hear yours is in reasonable health, I'd imagine much better than mine. Is there a reason why the 2nd cylinder is always the worst?
Quite surprised they are only 70 miles away from me, would love to give them a visit once I've obtained an MOT. For some reason I thought they were based in the Kent area.
I'm glad to! Quite surprised they are only 70 miles away from me, would love to give them a visit once I've obtained an MOT. For some reason I thought they were based in the Kent area.
The work they did on mine could have been while I waited but I just left it with them. They have courtesy cars too (all Gen 1 MINI's!). I'd definitely recommend the trip, it was well worth paying for their time for the (relative) peace of mind.
tallpaul26 said:
They quote £322 on their website including a few parts/gaskets. Mine was a bit less as I'd recently changed some of those extra bits myself.
https://www.1320.co.uk/mini-cooper-s-supercharger-...
Cheershttps://www.1320.co.uk/mini-cooper-s-supercharger-...
President Merkin said:
I'm curious about that too. I can't think of any logical reason why 2 should be more prone to wear, maybe some design flaw in the coolant galleries leading to localised hot spots maybe?
I asked that. Their guess was exhaust valve but who know unless you open it up? It seems to be received wisdom that cylinder 2 is the problem child of the 4, not read a specific reason and in fact there appears to be a host of related symptoms. Ultimately it must be an inherent feature/flaw either oil or coolant related I guess. I’ve not seen anything preventative proposed. Ultimately any sort of engine failure pretty much writes these off now, as evidenced by Facebook full of breakers with undiagnosed misfires, HG failure etc etc
cannedheat said:
IIRC the bullets are the lightest of the 17” wheels too.
That’s good to know as I’ve pretty much settled on refurbing them. Since ruling out the split-rim options there aren’t really any other OEM styles I like so may as well stick. At least they’re the original wheels. Hoping to get the front shocks replaced this weekend. The backs are on hold pending a go/no-go decision on some more drastic work in that area!
The MINI continues to work suspiciously reliably. So much so that I’m really questioning the merit of actually doing any more work to it. That isn’t stopping me, of course!
So, what is on the horizon now?
Tomorrow, I’ll tackle the front struts, springs, top mounts and drop links. I’m going to pop some strut defenders in too. I don’t have any mushrooming of my strut towers so these seem like a sensible precaution:
As for the rear suspension, it’s got complicated
As mentioned, the underside of the car is a bit rough from the fuel tanks back. I’d like to sort this but it involves stripping out loads of stuff. Most of this stuff is pretty grotty itself so the following has happened:
1) I’ve purchased an as-new rear subframe and ARB/trailing arms which need a light touch up. I’ve also got all 4 control arms which look in very decent nick. I may or may not polybush this lot.
2) I’ve priced up all new bolts, exhaust mounts and heat shields from BMW.
3) I’m on the hunt for a decent SS exhaust. I’ll probably settle for a Gravity/Malian.
4) I’ve found a place about an hour away who specialise in the treatment and prevention of underbody rust.
So, strip off and replace all the rotten bolt on bits from the underside alongside replacing the shocks, springs and links then send to have the bodywork corrosion sorted.
So, what is on the horizon now?
Tomorrow, I’ll tackle the front struts, springs, top mounts and drop links. I’m going to pop some strut defenders in too. I don’t have any mushrooming of my strut towers so these seem like a sensible precaution:
As for the rear suspension, it’s got complicated
As mentioned, the underside of the car is a bit rough from the fuel tanks back. I’d like to sort this but it involves stripping out loads of stuff. Most of this stuff is pretty grotty itself so the following has happened:
1) I’ve purchased an as-new rear subframe and ARB/trailing arms which need a light touch up. I’ve also got all 4 control arms which look in very decent nick. I may or may not polybush this lot.
2) I’ve priced up all new bolts, exhaust mounts and heat shields from BMW.
3) I’m on the hunt for a decent SS exhaust. I’ll probably settle for a Gravity/Malian.
4) I’ve found a place about an hour away who specialise in the treatment and prevention of underbody rust.
So, strip off and replace all the rotten bolt on bits from the underside alongside replacing the shocks, springs and links then send to have the bodywork corrosion sorted.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff