Much of this was ported over from another forum, hoping to get some more enthusiastic replies over here: Just thought I'd start up a little project thread for my '05 R53. I bought the car in June of this year with a little over 98k miles on it. Knowing the age and the mileage of the car, there was some preventative maintenance that I wanted to take care of while improving the performance of the car. Here is the car as it was purchased: My first concern was the supercharger and the fact that the oil had probably never been changed. After a full strip down of the front end, the car looked like this: Surprisingly there was a lot of oil left in the supercharger, and the gears all looked to be in top shape. I changed out the oil anyways and used all new gaskets when putting things back together. While the supercharger was off, I installed a WMW 15% pulley and a new belt. The tensioner assembly was in generally good condition, but the shock and bushings were a little tired. I changed out the bushing to WMW delrin bushings for now, and will replace the whole tensioner with the next belt. I also flushed all of the coolant from the system while I had the radiator off and replaced it with OEM Mini coolant. New NGK plugs went in as well. Having the supercharger off gave me the opportunity to fish a broken dipstick end out of the oil pan as well, which had been preventing me from driving the car for a few days after it broke off. I replaced it with a craven dipstick. While the car was up on jacks, I addressed the warped front rotors as well, as they were making a horrible sound while driving. I put on new drilled/slotted rotors to match the rear and ceramic pads. Also took the time to change the oil with Mobil-1 OW-40 Euro spec oil and an OEM filter. Trans fluid was changed to Redline MTL 75W-80 which helped the shift feel and smoothness. Once those major mechanical bits of maintenance were dealt with, I turned to the exterior of the car which while in very good shape, was not perfect. Did a few things like de-badge the car, replace the side scuttles with non S units, and replace a fogged taillight housing. I was also forced to replace my hood scoop since the stock one flew off while driving on the highway. The new scoop prompted me to try out some new trim colorations which can be seen here: I drove the car in that form for a while but ultimately decided it didn't look tough enough, so I went ahead and ordered an Outmotoring grill set and painted the scoop black. With all of that installed the front end looks like this: Finally got around to installing my exhaust which turned out to be quite the struggle. After getting the factory exhaust off very easily, I couldn't get the new one to fit properly. After an hour of fiddling to no avail, I took it off and bolted it together on the floor. Here is what I discovered: The system had clearly been welded together wrong. I then reinstalled the system and the passenger side muffler, and everything fit perfectly as pictured here, so it was definitely just the drivers side muffler that was welded wrong: I went to the exhaust shop to have it fixed and everything ended up working out. The piping was cut in two places and were opened up to make slip fit connections which were then welded together once everything was lined up. A new outer hanger was welded on as well to make the muffler sit level, as the old hanger wasn't going to work. The bracket between the tips was also welded together to make sure everything was snug. Luckily now everything is fitting right without any rub. Here are some of the modifications made: And finally, a sound clip: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1une_zFa5Uc"]2005 Mini Cooper S Exhaust Sound - YouTube[/ame]
Nice! Welcome to MA! your Mini looks good. I know you probably know this but if that is the original belt tensioner it really needs to be replaced. When I did mine I also put on a new idler pulley and ATI crank pulley. If you haven't done it already check your crank pulley and make sure the rubber is not cracking. What kind of exhaust it that? it does have a nice sound. I bought a Chinese exhaust that worked well for about two years now I am going with a Miltek. You will like it here lots of good people.
Welcome to Motoring Alliance. Looks and sounds good! I'm interested in who the manufacturer of the exhaust is too.
Yeah the belt tensioner shock barely had any resistance left when I was messing with it, so it is probably due to be changed out. I can feel some slippage on hard accelerations when the tires are hooked up. I checked the crank pulley and it looked alright for now, but I will continue to keep an eye on it. The exhaust was an ebay unit I bought for about $230 shipped, can't find the listing anymore but here is a picture of it before it was installed:
Welcome, thanks for joining Motoring Alliance, the FUN and Friendly MINI Community. Looking forward to seeing more. Purple Haze is one of my favorite colors.
Fitment was certainly an issue :lol: I Installed my boost gauge a little while ago, but I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the install. Did snag a picture of the lighting at night though: Some new rubber came in today! Will be fitting it up sometime soon. Also recently picked up an OEM sport antenna and a TSW motor mount. Pics to come soon.
I got the mechanical one as it was cheaper haha, and for my needs it works really well. Smooth operation and the lighting looks great. Plus it shows me 16.5psi when I get on it :cornut: Thanks so much!
I have really grown to really appreciate it as well. The depth of the color and the variance that it displays is astonishing. Sometimes it appears completely blue while others it appears to be completely purple. Personally I think it would pair better with black wheels/mirror caps/roof but the white is nice in its own way.
Welcome to Motoring Alliance the bestest MINI Forum on the interweb !! ....and by the way, great looking R53.
That is the same exhaust I have. About a year ago it started spitting fiberglass out of the mufflers every time I got on it. The metal is very thin at the resonator that is where mine finally failed. I have blown most of the fiberglass out of ,t so it has gotten very loud. It worked well for a few years. Start saving for a Miltek that is what I am going to replace it with. Nothin funner then Moding a Mini!
Yeah I don't expect it to last very long, seeing as it was about $200 though that isn't a huge deal. Speaking of Modding a Mini, here are some of the parts I just got in and the antenna installed:
So his happened overnight, and its snowing again now: Its definitley time to get off my extremely warn summers, so it was off to the tire shop. If I had tires any larger than 17x7 they would not have fit very well: And look what I spotted while there!