A MINI (R53 Cooper S) Adventure
Discussion
MDifficult said:
Red MINI. What’s not to like?
Brilliant fun to drive, relatively easy to work on, lots of cheap parts or expensive (but proven) upgrades, and won’t ever lose you a penny. Perfect - hope you enjoy it!
Add into that the fact that most faults are well documented and there aren't really any deal-breakers (albeit quite a few niggles), they make a compelling case for a bit of old-fashioned hot hatch fun.Brilliant fun to drive, relatively easy to work on, lots of cheap parts or expensive (but proven) upgrades, and won’t ever lose you a penny. Perfect - hope you enjoy it!
I paid c.£2k for a very good late car (rare 56 plate) with plenty of options in 2019, and it looks like I'd now need almost double that to get into one today!
C70R said:
Add into that the fact that most faults are well documented and there aren't really any deal-breakers (albeit quite a few niggles), they make a compelling case for a bit of old-fashioned hot hatch fun.
I paid c.£2k for a very good late car (rare 56 plate) with plenty of options in 2019, and it looks like I'd now need almost double that to get into one today!
They're entering that weird place where sI paid c.£2k for a very good late car (rare 56 plate) with plenty of options in 2019, and it looks like I'd now need almost double that to get into one today!
t ones are no longer dirt cheap and really good ones either want way too much money or more likely just get broken again because they're worth so much more as good condition parts. This one looks to be nicely in the middle which is probably the zone to target and then just rolling-fix/upgrade.
MDifficult said:
C70R said:
Add into that the fact that most faults are well documented and there aren't really any deal-breakers (albeit quite a few niggles), they make a compelling case for a bit of old-fashioned hot hatch fun.
I paid c.£2k for a very good late car (rare 56 plate) with plenty of options in 2019, and it looks like I'd now need almost double that to get into one today!
They're entering that weird place where sI paid c.£2k for a very good late car (rare 56 plate) with plenty of options in 2019, and it looks like I'd now need almost double that to get into one today!
t ones are no longer dirt cheap and really good ones either want way too much money or more likely just get broken again because they're worth so much more as good condition parts. This one looks to be nicely in the middle which is probably the zone to target and then just rolling-fix/upgrade.
Sweet spot for me would be to find one at £2-3k, spend a little bit of time/money doing preventative on the common niggles, and lob a slightly smaller pulley and exhaust on it.
That's exactly what I did with my current one. I wanted an exact spec. R53, manual, chromeline, HK & aero kit. That narrowed the choice a bit & I ended up with a neglected 54 plate on 85k for £3k. I've since replaced or repaired the clutch, flywheel, big end bearings, piston rings, valve stem oil seals, u[graded to R56 front calipers, suspension all round, Miltek, 15% pulley, camshaft, new interior. The list goes on.
It was a doer upper project & not everyone will be up fo that amount of tinkering but it's taught me they are fundamentally strong engines, a bit over engineered even. Iron block, timing chain & single overhead cam is a decent formula. They don't really rust much so the challenge is worn mechanicals as the youngest ones are 16 years old by now, likely to have been through a few hands, a lot of whom are lads with a penchant for lowering, tints & enormous sound systems. You definitely have to sift out the barried up ones.
It was a doer upper project & not everyone will be up fo that amount of tinkering but it's taught me they are fundamentally strong engines, a bit over engineered even. Iron block, timing chain & single overhead cam is a decent formula. They don't really rust much so the challenge is worn mechanicals as the youngest ones are 16 years old by now, likely to have been through a few hands, a lot of whom are lads with a penchant for lowering, tints & enormous sound systems. You definitely have to sift out the barried up ones.
C70R said:
Sweet spot for me would be to find one at £2-3k, spend a little bit of time/money doing preventative on the common niggles
That's where I landed with this one. Pretty much anything <£2K is not much better than scrap but over £4K is madness for what these are. Loads of dreamers who think theirs are minters but in reality will need just as much spent as a car half the price. All that excludes the heavily modified cohort who think £2K of mods add the same to the value!Anyways, here's this one's new habitat for a couple of weeks:
As mentioned previously, there's a bit of a snag-list falling in to 3 categories of: urgent, preventative and nice to have. So far this is:
Urgent:
- Change expansion tank, flush coolant system and refill with G48
- Replace low-speed fan resistor
- Replace PAS pump. Also going to do the reservoir as apparently it has a built in filter and the CHF is murky (my initial fear that the wrong fluid was in there proved wrong once I got a proper look in better light; it's just dirty not red!)
- Replace rear wiper motor and wiper arm. It's pissing fluid in to the boot and the arm disintegrated when I tried to remove it!
- New wiper blades. 4 hours of squealing wipers was a bit tiresome yesterday
Preventative:
- Dipstick. Metal one ordered
- Rear window trim. Rubber has perished and don't want water to sit in an area prone to rot
- check behind rear lights and tidy/rust proof as required
- Fuel filter
- Supercharger service (this will get relatively expensive as there's a bunch of other stuff you 'might as well' do whilst it's off). Will be going to 1320mini for this and to get suspected idler pulley investigated plus whatever other horrors unfold
Nice to have:
- 4 better tyres
- nicer wheels
- suspension refresh and the crusty underside sorting
- aero side skirts
- driving lamps
- bonnet stripes
- new side repeaters
Overall, I do think this car has spent the majority of its life being loved. It's a very straight car and the interior is in fantastic condition. There's just a few things that come naturally with age that recent owners have avoided but I'm hoping to have gone in with eyes wide open and not to get stung with anything too nasty. Fingers crossed!
Edited by tallpaul26 on Thursday 23 February 16:09
Andy_5 said:
That drivers door does a look a different shade of red to the rest of the car though......
I think that's a bit of an artificial thing due the angles of the panels. I don't see it by eye and I'm pretty critical of these things. One of the sellers photos made the passenger door look a different colour too but I don't see it by eye. Chilli red is a notoriously unstable colour, so different panels may have faded at different rates too.I'm going to push it out of the garage tomorrow to scrub off the salt from yesterday's drive so will make a better assessment then.
tallpaul26 said:
Urgent:
- Change expansion tank, flush coolant system and refill with G48
- Replace low-speed fan resistor
- Replace PAS pump. Also going to do the reservoir as apparently it has a built in filter and the CHF is murky (my initial fear that the wrong fluid was in there proved wrong once I got a proper look in better light; it's just dirty not red!)
- Replace rear wiper motor and wiper arm. It's pissing fluid in to the boot and the arm disintegrated when I tried to remove it!
- New wiper blades. 4 hours of squealing wipers was a bit tiresome yesterday
Preventative:
- Dipstick. Metal one ordered
- Rear window trim. Rubber has perished and don't want water to sit in an area prone to rot
- check behind rear lights and tidy/rust proof as required
- Fuel filter
- Supercharger service (this will get relatively expensive as there's a bunch of other stuff you 'might as well' do whilst it's off). Will be going to 1320mini for this and to get suspected idler pulley investigated plus whatever other horrors unfold
Nice to have:
- 4 better tyres
- nicer wheels
- suspension refresh and the crusty underside sorting
- aero side skirts
- driving lamps
- bonnet stripes
- new side repeaters
Looks like the right list, although I think you missed out 'switch to a slightly smaller pulley during supercharger service' - Change expansion tank, flush coolant system and refill with G48
- Replace low-speed fan resistor
- Replace PAS pump. Also going to do the reservoir as apparently it has a built in filter and the CHF is murky (my initial fear that the wrong fluid was in there proved wrong once I got a proper look in better light; it's just dirty not red!)
- Replace rear wiper motor and wiper arm. It's pissing fluid in to the boot and the arm disintegrated when I tried to remove it!
- New wiper blades. 4 hours of squealing wipers was a bit tiresome yesterday
Preventative:
- Dipstick. Metal one ordered
- Rear window trim. Rubber has perished and don't want water to sit in an area prone to rot
- check behind rear lights and tidy/rust proof as required
- Fuel filter
- Supercharger service (this will get relatively expensive as there's a bunch of other stuff you 'might as well' do whilst it's off). Will be going to 1320mini for this and to get suspected idler pulley investigated plus whatever other horrors unfold
Nice to have:
- 4 better tyres
- nicer wheels
- suspension refresh and the crusty underside sorting
- aero side skirts
- driving lamps
- bonnet stripes
- new side repeaters
tallpaul26 said:
MDifficult said:
Looks like the right list, although I think you missed out 'switch to a slightly smaller pulley during supercharger service'
OEM only for this one!C70R said:
tallpaul26 said:
MDifficult said:
Looks like the right list, although I think you missed out 'switch to a slightly smaller pulley during supercharger service'
OEM only for this one!good to see another R53 on here
Court_S said:
Looks good. Sounds like you’ve got a few bits to work your way through.
I was never all that keen on the facelift wheels on the S.
All of the photos in this thread show R53 wheels, but the split rims were also available on the R56.I was never all that keen on the facelift wheels on the S.
I love the way the chunky 5-spokes look, but would strongly recommend trying a car on smaller wheels. They transform the way it rides, and make bumpy b-roads much more tolerable.
I think they're known as bullet alloys?
Not personally a fan of 16" wheels on these, they look too small in the arches to me but never met anyone who said they didn't improve the ride. The middle way is to keep the 17's & ditch run flat tyres. That alone makes a huge difference to the car.
Not personally a fan of 16" wheels on these, they look too small in the arches to me but never met anyone who said they didn't improve the ride. The middle way is to keep the 17's & ditch run flat tyres. That alone makes a huge difference to the car.
I have pilot sport 4 on mine-so much better than the run flats.
Mines a bit lower than standard but I like the offset of the standard wheels-I don’t ever get any rubbing even with two passengers crammed in the back.
It isn’t actually as low as it looks in that picture!
Mines a bit lower than standard but I like the offset of the standard wheels-I don’t ever get any rubbing even with two passengers crammed in the back.
It isn’t actually as low as it looks in that picture!
Edited by and31 on Friday 24th February 09:27
PS4 are quite pricey, looking at Kumho Ecsta PS71 as a compromise. The tyres on it now are non-rft and have plenty of tread, sadly they’re not much better than ditch finders!
Alloys are a subjective thing. They need to have been an OEM option for the R53 in 2006. R98 web spokes would probably be first choice a la my original MINI. R90 cross-spokes also in the mix. Neither are cheap options and could be tricky to find someone to do a good job refurbing.
Alloys are a subjective thing. They need to have been an OEM option for the R53 in 2006. R98 web spokes would probably be first choice a la my original MINI. R90 cross-spokes also in the mix. Neither are cheap options and could be tricky to find someone to do a good job refurbing.
The pulley upgrade really is a worthwhile thing but horses for courses. The other upgrade I would suggest is R56 front calipers. Arguably, they are oem, just different timescales! R53 front brakes are underpowered, the later ones bolt straight on & highly improve the driving experience.
President Merkin said:
The pulley upgrade really is a worthwhile thing but horses for courses. The other upgrade I would suggest is R56 front calipers. Arguably, they are oem, just different timescales! R53 front brakes are underpowered, the later ones bolt straight on & highly improve the driving experience.
The R56 front calipers/carriers are identical to the R53 JCW setup, but easier to get hold of. I didn't find the standard R53 brakes terrible on the road with decent pads, but the upgrade was noticeable.Edited by C70R on Friday 24th February 10:28
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