1st Gen R53 Cooper S My 2005 R53 Daily Driver build thread

Discussion in '1st Generation: 2002–06 R50, R53 & 2004–08 R52' started by fishmonger, Sep 24, 2017.

  1. fishmonger

    fishmonger Well-Known Member

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    Please beat me to it, and keep that camera close to the job. I doubt I'll order parts for this job before it's time to drop the subframe. It's a lot easier to get that tensioner out when the entire assembly below the engine is out of the way.
     
  2. Sully

    Sully Administrator
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    Great pics! I maybe able to work them into the new site pics.. love this thread/build project.
     
  3. fishmonger

    fishmonger Well-Known Member

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    not really a job improving the Electric Blue, but it is what I had to do to make room for it in the garage over the winter. Turned a 2 car garage into a 3 Mini garage with a set of ball-bearing dollies from Amazon (stay away from anything else...). These actually roll, but it's still tough to get going unless you pre-orient the wheels where you want to move it. My garage is a slope, so going uphill and maneuvering into position takes some tactical planning :)

    No son around to help, only his red car in the way. I used wood blocks to stop it from rolling into the wrong direction, a rubber hammer and 2x4 piece to "steer" the wheels, and the rest was all muscle.

    Dark silver is now hibernating, trickle charger plugged in. All I will be doing on it this winter is remove the DDM intake to take some measurements for the DIY box I am building.

    [​IMG]
    ball bearing dollies

    [​IMG]
    Ready to roll

    [​IMG]
    winter parking spot

    [​IMG]
    parallel parked

    There's actually enough room to work on a car in front of it, just a little less than I'm used to.
     
  4. fishmonger

    fishmonger Well-Known Member

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    drove electric blue to the store today, 18 degrees F. I've never driven a Mini in that temperature, so here's what was odd: The power steering felt like there were "gaps" with lower resistance. Only in the parking lot at more than 90 degrees lock, and repeatable. Never felt that before. The car was parked inside before that and after. Also, that Megan Racing exhaust was ticking like crazy after I got back. 5 minutes and it was still ticking. Never heard a tick from it before. Maybe it was a heat shield that was ice cold from the drive and in the garage it rapidly soaked up the heat from the cat and resonator, expanding/ticking? And to top it off, it sounded like I will need to do the timing chain tensioner on this car as well.
     
  5. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    All of that sounds normal for driving a MINI when the temp is 17 degrees .
     
  6. fishmonger

    fishmonger Well-Known Member

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  7. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    I will say yes because mine does. The easiest way to check is pop off your mirror off. If you see two wires connected to the back of the glass it means they are heated.

    To pop off the mirror without removing the mirror cap.

    Stand outside the car and push the glass towards the car.
    Yo will see a gap at the outer edge where you can get a couple of finger tips behind the glass.
    Next firmly grip and pull mirror hard.

    Yes it will feel like you are breaking it but you won't, you have to pull hard to release the 4 clips.

    After it pops out you will see the wires. :Thumbsup:

    To put the mirror back on line up the 4 clips and push it back on.

    It sounds harder than it is and once you do it you will see what I am talking about.
     
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  8. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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  9. ScottinBend

    ScottinBend Space Cowboy
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    The clips on those are real weak. Got a set last year and the drivers side fell off closing the door Seems like the glue on the clips on the set I got was bad.
     
  10. Grizld700

    Grizld700 Well-Known Member

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    yup, I found a R56 set. gonna have to get 'em
     
  11. fishmonger

    fishmonger Well-Known Member

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    My son got the Milltek non-resonated installed and when he started it up I was rather surprised - expected a major racket, but that thing is significantly quieter than the Megan Racing on the Electric Blue car.

    I am starting to think that the resonated Milltek I ordered may be too quiet for the "fun car" I bought it for. I may just swap the systems between the cars. For now, I still enjoy every pop and buble the blue car does. I mean, it pops on upshifts, never heard that on the other car which runs a one ball mod.
     
  12. agranger

    agranger MINI of the Month June 2009
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    I'll be interested in hearing the end analysis. I've still got the stock JCW exhaust on Rufus and it's running 'just about right' in terms of sound for me, but it's a 12 year old exhaust that served 6 years or so in Canada, so it's gotta have some issues that might not be evident right now, but could be popping up soon.

    I mean really... how many people have the advantage of 3 different R53s in the same household, running 3 different exhausts?
     
  13. fishmonger

    fishmonger Well-Known Member

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    I see a set of typical Youtube exhaust comparison videos coming up :D


    What I have are actually 5 exhaust and 3 Minis, although one of them, the bone stock no-rust Florida OEM is off the car and I won't put it back on. Plus, it is the baseline everyone knows anyway. Then there are the following exhausts I can "demo" in a semi-controlled setup:

    OEM one-ball modded currently on Dark Silver
    Megan Racing with non-Megan resonator on Electric Blue
    Milltek non-resonated on Chili Red
    and soon
    Milltek Resonated on either Dark Silver or Electric Blue, depending on what I decide to do with the noise.

    The best part: I do have a real decibel meter that is quite accurate.

    The Milltek is new and they say that over the first few weeks of use, it will get louder. The Megan is old and I found steel wool material blown into the tail pipe bends, so the batting, if any is left in the mufflers, has been blown out quite a bit. I assume the exhaust is at least 50k miles old.

    The Megan is not only louder than the Milltek, it also barks, pops and burbles like crazy. I cannot believe that is just due to the exhaust. There has to be something about this blue car that makes it spit out those sounds. For example, the Dark Silver with one-ball mod pops far more frequently than Chili Red with OEM muffler setup did, and there's really not much of a difference between those setups other than the amount of attenuation of the pops. One just pops more than the other and the blue car with Megan is completely off the pop and burble scale. Maybe the blue car runs too lean, or it's too rich (https://youtu.be/bgS3PA5r0vY). Thing is - I want all our cars to do this :D

    I don't believe the resonator actually can totally suppress those sounds, although perhaps there's just a lot less oxygen available where these explosions happen. They certainly don't originate in the rear of the exhaust system where those two cars were different, but maybe the availability of air to burn is more limited in OEM setups. Watch video above and scratch your head...

    We didn't drive the Milltek more than two blocks due to a white crust of salt on the roads here, so too early to tell if that made a difference. It clearly had a much lower noise level compared to the Megan.

    This video comparison thing won't happen until April when the dark silver car returns from hibernation.
     
  14. Canusrufis

    Canusrufis RMW Powered R53
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    I ordered a set of these. Found a few of the tabs didn't completely remove the plastic from the mold preventing them from complete snapping to the mirror frame. I used an exacto knife and dremel tool to complete the job. Snapped on without issues. I like the blue anti-glare but their not as clear as OEM without.
     
  15. fishmonger

    fishmonger Well-Known Member

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    I haven't bought the mirrors yet. That tint is/polarization is actually why I am hesitant. Now I am probably going to have an even harder time to get them.

    Took me 10 minutes to find this thread. This forum layout will take me a while to get used to.

    Nothing new to report other than the car running fine in freaking sub zero weather. Heated cloth seats FTW! My washer fluid froze up front and back - even though I had -20F stuff in there.

    So there's a slight rubbing sound from the RR wheel I've been hearing since I got the thing on the road. Nothing visible, but I am guessing it could be the wear sensor. Anyone ever "hear" the wear sensor rubbing? The noise goes away with application of the brakes, increases in frequency and gets louder with increased speed. Not very loud, but without radio on and no back seat it's clearly audible. Possibly a side effect of drilled/slotted rotors? But why just one wheel?

    I would rip the wheel off and look, but it appears to be no major thread tor safety and it's just too damn cold in the garage this weekend, plus I have a new badass fat bike to play with. That thing is bigger than the car, or at least it feels that way :) It has to serve as my foul weather commuter ride, so the Mini can stay in the garage when the snow starts piling up.
     
  16. MCS02

    MCS02 Moderator
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    I doubt its the rotors. I had drilled and slotted rotors now just slotted, I have never heard what you ask talking about. The rotors do sound different under hard braking. I could be the metal dust cover behind the rotor. I have had them get hit by something on the road and will be touching ever so slightly and make the time of noise you are describing.

    What kind of Bike?
     
  17. fishmonger

    fishmonger Well-Known Member

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    good call on the backing plates, but are there any in back? I know the stock front setup has them. Also - when braking the sound goes away and the brakes sound just fine like any other Mini, even the Wilwoods on my dark silver sound the same.

    What makes me think the sound originates from the pad/rotor area is that just lightly tapping the brakes makes it disappear. I may pull it tomorrow just because it's a balmy 20F outside in the forecast and besides shoveling snow I won't have much else to do.

    Bike - I am still dialing in the seating position and am learning about tire pressures. I come from skinny tire 16 pound road bikes. Now it's a 34 pound truck. Going to convert it to tubless tires next week to shave a few pounds off, but it's just a different animal. I bought it direct, as I don't need a bike shop for anything.

    http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/fat-bikes/fat-bikes-nighttrain-bluto-fatbike.htm

    just a tad too big to fit inside the hatch without disassembly
     
  18. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    It may be the calibers not realeasing / sliding back quickly because it so effing cold. You could add some anti seize to the pins. Or just wait until it warms up and see if the noise still happens.
     
  19. Sully

    Sully Administrator
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    Let me know if there is anything I can do to make that easier... I'm tackling UI (layout) issues as fast as I can.
     
  20. Sully

    Sully Administrator
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