1st Gen R53 Cooper S Happy new owner with a few questions

OK so y'all made me feel better about the grime and the wiring block is in the area of the motor mount so that's why it appears as it does.

Now...

I drove the car for the first time in a couple of weeks and now this fan is on most of the time and the fan sounds like it's shaft bearings are going bad. This has got to be the power steering fan. I can hear the radiator fans kick in and they sound smooth and only stay on a few seconds in slow traffic. One question from this is... how "power" is your power steering. It, to me, is possible that this car has no power steering at this time. I can't turn the wheel with one finger like on my truck. How easy should the steering be? It's such a small car I'm wondering if I never realized it wasn't working. Huuummm?

How could I check this? I thought about going to Carmax and test driving another Mini and poking around. Sounds crazy doesn't it.

Thanks for all the help.

 

My truck is a '04mTacoma 4 door, hey, someone has got to drive the "family" car while Lisa gets the Mini, no fair but such is life.

I went ahead and made an appointment at Roadshow in Memphis so they can give the car the once over. We bought it used from a local individual so getting it checked out will make me feel better. They can get me in til the 9th of Oct. The service rep said the horn fuse thing is odd to him also and that he'd have to dig in on that one.

Yeah I'm sure your right. I hope this is only the fan. If we keep driving the car, are we pushing the chances of losing the power steering unit? I would think so. Risky.

I'm thinking about getting the TSW motor mount and have them install it. What should the labor be on that? Hell... I may do that.

Thanks again, I'll get these few small bugs worked out and We'll see some of you on the dragon soon. hee hee!:cornut:

 

Ok... so the wife and I were going out to dinner last night, dressed up and all, almost downtown and the Mini slung a belt and in that process ruptured something in the cooling system and we lost all the radiator fluid.

I understand it has already had one new belt. Any ideas on what to check as to why I lost a second belt?

The loud fan wasn't heard before the belt broke. Could the fan have went out, heating the power steering unit, locking it up and causing the belt to sling?

I did run into a friend of mine (once we towed home and got my truck, we did make dinner) and he's really into Minis and has offered to help me work on ours. Excellent! Thanks Pat! His first task is to try and figure out why we lost this belt...

I hope to get ahead of this game soon.

 

You guys are good. Dead on again...

Reduction pulley is out of alignment with other pulleys. I appears to be a 15% of unknown brand and it looks to be backing off the shaft. No damage to radiator or associated hoses only overheated and blew out the overflow. Wish I would have glanced at the gauges during the event but I was to busy pulling out of traffic. I didn't travel more than several yards once the belt went so hopefully no head damage.

To eliminate an unknown I think I will order a belt and a new 17% WMW pulley. The pulley on there has no side lip to encourage the belt to stay put and it is obviously not staying on the shaft so it's outta here.

Also ordering TSW motor mount. My buddy just installed this motor mount and pulley on his '06 so he has recent experience with these tasks.

Let the fun begin!

 

Anyone ever had their gas door plunger stop working? Mine has... fuse? Used the emergency rip cord in the truck.

 

That is crossing my mind. If your could see the cars overall condition, it would be hard to believe and no records of any Katrina. Supposedly the car has lived in Jackson, MS it's whole life, 3 hours from the Gulf.

 

Yes DixonL2, I ordered the WMW cable tensioner stop. As far as I can tell the stock tensioner stop worked this time but adding the failsafe to the failsafe is the WAY to go.

I just spoke to Brian Harris BMW/MINI in Baton Rogue, LA where the car was bought originally. The service manager remembered the car and the owner (it's a one owner car) and he assures me this car did not see any Katrina water. His best guess on the horn fuse and gas door is that these items are on the same circuit with the loud and struggling power steering fan, or they are related in some way. Sound possible to you guys?

Ordered WMW 17% pulley package, TSW motor mount (and got the discount for M/A users, Thanks Nathan) and a service manual. I am going to check the PS fan to see if I need to order that. Will I be able to tell if it's bad other than sound? Wobbly shaft? Grocery bag?

 

We had a great time last night digging into the pulley/belt replacement and removing the motor mount. We've got everything ready for the delivery of the parts. This delay will give me tonight to clean up the old motor mount residue. New motor mount has shown up. Fast delivery from TSW.

I checked the PS fan and it's rotating fine. I'll take another look once I have power back. I did find out that my skid plate is missing. Why? Who knows...

 

I had a free night last night to clean up a bit. I used some Zep citrus degreaser on that black motor mount grime... The citrus cleaner removed the cool blue paint in the area round the motor mount. My luck...

Looks like some nice smooth silver paint under the blue.

 

Bought my paint... 500 deg. engine paint. Going with gloss black. Tape it off and spray it.

 

Alright... I'm back on the road. We got finished up yesterday. Everything buttoned up fine. Paint looks good, motor mount installed, 17% WMW pulley, new belt, new cooler plugs, Detroit Tuned tensioner stop, refilled radiator, cleaned K&N filter.

Noticed a bit more vibration at idle as some people have commented on.

I unplugged one horn to try and localize the reason for the blowing horn fuses.

I ordered a Moss skid plate to replace the missing OEM plate. Should be here today.

 

Well, I might as well keep this current...

I did get the Skid Plate and for the past few days I have been researching and trying to get the correct mounting hardware. Due to the fact my car had no underbody panel, I had no original mounting hardware to use for mounting. I think I've got what I need now and I'm going to give mounting it up a try real soon.

The horn fuse is hanging in there after unplugging one horn. Is the lack of two horns what is keeping the fuse from blowing or was I lucky enough to have unplugged the "bad" horn? To prove this I may plug the one I unplugged back in and unplug the other and see what happens.

Wife is complaining about vibration at idle from new motor mount. No way of knowing if my vibration is more excessive than others have experienced. Oh well...

I hear a bit of a squeak in the area of the new 17% WMW pulley. I hope nothing was damaged during the change out.

The latest is now I have a SES light on and found it to be a P0442 Evaporative Emission System Leak Detected (small leak). This is a touch aggravating as I thought I was about to get her to settle down for me. Any one have any insight on this code?

 

Just thought I'd drop back in with an update. Wind is running great and no problems. I think I'm getting her settled down now. Lovin' it.

Squeak in the pulley area still comes around once and a while but dies off once the car gets warmed up.