Most liked posts in thread: Just bought an 03 Mini S for cheap!

Okay ladies and gentlemen it has been over a year since an update and it is long overdue. What better place than to do it here?! I have fallen more in love with minis every day, and even sold my other car to be able to focus on the mini that much more! There is so much to catch up on so and I don't even know where to begin so I will just try and put things in order based on dates. This is going to be long so put on your reading glasses, prepare some popcorn or your morning coffee and donuts. opcorn: :donut1:

I think my last update was trying to get her started which turned out to be an immobilizer computer. I replaced that and everything was great. 400$ to the dealership solved my problem. Many things were wrong, not too mention the missing interior and exterior bits. But none of this let me down. I had a second car at the time so I just made a project of it. If you look at the first photos you can see she was a mess and lacked some distinctive personality. These minis aren't supposed to look like each other, they need their own custom looks. I wanted something sporty and when I first had the car I felt that was going to be extremely tough as it was a German car and I was used to Japanese imports. After adjusting to the car and understanding it and what features I liked I began to make changes to how I felt suit.
I replaced the majority of the brake system; rear calipers, installed ss brake lines, ATE slotted rotors, EBC green pads(Which I am starting to hate!).




Those are front sway bar bushings there.
I knew from the day I saw it that she would rock some Assetto Garas which I still have to this day.




They have incurred some rash unfortunately but not too terrible!

I had some serious bumps in the road within the first quarter of 2013. First my power steering system wasn't working and the pump wasn't even installed. So I spent a bit of money about 700$ buying a new fan, pump, fluid, and lines. Next, my alternator voltage regulator went out and I had to replace the entire alternator which set me back about 175$. I also had a lot of wheel play in the front control arm bushings so I picked up the powerflex bushings.




I also needed new springs and struts but that was on hold. My top bushings were cracked and the struts were stiff as rocks. The ride was horrible but it was sporty feeling so I enjoyed the "glued and stiff" feeling while I could.
One of the shifter linkages also snapped so I had to replace those and wow what a difference that made with the feeling of the shift! I also installed the Helix short throw and again the difference was night and day. I installed new azteca style tail lights and some projector headlights with black housings, ordered that honey comb(jcw style) grille inserts and was already loving my cars looks. It was perfect! I still had that nasty exhaust though. It was rusted and sounded horrible. I ended up installing the Nvidia N1 Catback exhaust, those titanium blue tips look sick. Plus you can see my stainless steel mufflers symmetrically mounted under the car, super cool! Could not have been happier.






Now I have always wanted to race and I figured auto crossing was a great place to start. It's safe, relatively easy on the car and quite affordable if you want it to be(I didn't care :biggrin5. I raced in ozark mountain region scca throughout 2013. Found out quick this was the best fwd handling car i've ever driven but it still had quite a bit of under steer. I then decided it was time to something about it. I was in need of new suspension as mine was stock and I was still running around with run flats but I didn't want to shell out that kind of cash. So I picked up the Hotchkis Sport rear sway bar (25mm effective as a 22mm).


This helped a bunch and it was adjustable so I set it on the stiffest setting. I wanted to do more, seeing as I had the 15% sc pulley my car was in smf which is some serious business especially for newbies as myself. I picked up a red K brace to stiffen up the front.


I also installed a Dinan front strut bar which I got from another member on one of the mini forums.


I was tearing up the track out there!!



New tires were in order and this was towards the end of summer so I grabbed something to get me through the winter but ditched the run flats as I am a AAA member and have never traveled more than 2-3 hours from home unless I was moving. There was no need and the performance wasn't there. I grabbed some cheapies, Dunlop Direzzas which I find gripped well in the warmer dryer weather, duh? My yokohama run flats did better in rain and snow though. They were both all season tires.

I probably autocrossed 8 or 9 times this last year and that really did it for my worn out struts and springs as they were already over twice their indicated lifespan. I wanted something I could adjust and tweak. I have a problem and I like tinkering, having something I could do that with and not have to break was perfect. So I picked up some Ksport coilovers.

All greased up and ready for install.



And WOW what a difference old vs new
These set me back around 1050$ but were well worth it. Not quite as stiff but very predictable and no sprungy feeling or being slopped around when changing direction while the body is rolling. Basically the weight shifting is under control now. I have front adjustable camber and 32 levels of strut dampening as well as several inches of height adjustment. These were ideal for my needs and wants. I never got to autocross this year with them on though.

I think this part falls out of order but what the hell, it was cool! And I enjoyed this mod the most I would say! My headliner was coming down in several areas and I wanted something, how to say.... NOT NOR MAL! :crazy:
My first time doing headliner and I was happy with the results. I still get some awesome comments from complete strangers on it.
Here is my old headliner, you can see where it was bubbling and even some areas you can't.

So I stripped that off, along with all the foam and glue then spent about 60$ on new fabric of my choosing along with some 3M spray adhesive headliner glue. And this was the result.


Much Swag, yes?

I may have forgot to mention but since I had the car my axles were shot, and I mean DONE. Falling out of their cv joints while installing the coilovers, boot seals shot, grease gone... ect. I finally got around to replacing them and I was happy to do so as I found my driveshaft bearing on the block housing mount making horrible noises as well as spinning far too freely as if there was no oil left in it. I could also feel the sounds of the bearings grinding around inside. YUCK!
I replaced both sides but somehow only ended up with a picture of the passenger side. Sorry!


I actually only did this because I was in the middle of replacing some radiator coolant hoses and of course nothing goes as planned. I ordered an r53 HPS silicone hose kit.

And when I went to install it I come to find out that what I thought was my stock radiator was actually from an r50 and swapped into my car... When the new hoses weren't routing into my radiator correctly I then someone had just rigged extra couplers to make the hoses fit right. Man what some people do.... :eek6: There were so many extra clamps in there. So needless to say, a new radiator was on its way. I went with mishimoto originally then wmw called and notified me of a shipping delay but again as always they were very informative and suggested a csf radiator to not only save me money but time as well. The csf is great and I couldn't be happier.







My car was quite sad and looked like it had just recently had a stroke and everything on the right side was drooping downward... It was quite depressing seeing my baby like this for over a week!



I picked up a couple thermostats, 195 stock and then a 175 for summer autocrossing. I installed the stock since its winter now and I wanted a functional car and heater. As well as a samco intake hose in blue, I originally wanted white but I didn't want to wait for special order.



At this point the radiator was on order and my car was just sitting there in my shop apart. I took this to my advantage and touched up some problematic points in need. Side markers were going out, some had incurred corrosion from bad markers that leaked, some were burned up entirely and melted. So I got new wiring, socket housings, and markers for all 4 points. I am also beginning to get fed up with all these crap hid kits I keep buying so I ordered some h7 fog lights to rule out some issues later on. And many more goodies, including new rear hatch struts which had just blown out in intense freezing cold weather (-30 degrees), picked up some tow hooks(ordered two of these both in red), a nice tow strap rated at 10,000lbs, tensioner bushings, cabin air filter, and a aluminum coolant tank.




So now I was waiting on more parts to come in and bored.. and what does that amount too? Ordering more car parts... :lol:
So I placed a nice 600$ order to outmotoring.com and grabbed a DDM Works CAI intake in stainless steel, a stock DDM Works intercooler air diverter shroud also in stainless steel, a msd ignition coil along with a black/carbon fiber oil cap and some new door panel, fender, and side skirt mounting hardware.




The msd ignition turned out pretty nice looking in my engine bay, it was like that final touch of color needed to wrap it all together.


The csf radiator fit like a glove, mounted perfectly and very tight. Much better than the one I had before which was knocking back and forth!


I had everything back together and was just down to waiting on the new driver side axle seal to come in the stl dealership a few hundred miles away.. So close, yet so far away. It took 2 days to get here! When it felt like a whole week!








I was sad to hear that I wouldn't be receiving my DDM Works products until two weeks from now. As they are awaiting new shipment and temporarily out of stock. But they will soon be here and I will waste no time installing them.

And of course guys I saved the best for last, I am a youngster as I believe my bio indicates. But I am best of all a new father, introducing the new mini in my life, my beautiful son, Kylar.


He was born in the nick of time for christmas, on December 23rd, 2013 at 9:12pm at 9lbs 1oz he was a big boy mini. He will soon be driving a pedal mini cooper out in the yard along side me while I am working on mine :wink:
And of course Tummi Gummi had the pleasure of taking him home on Christmas day at 1pm. She was great with him and he slept the whole way home!

I will be keeping the mini, it is not the best family car being so small but it makes due and I will be in the market towards the end of this year for a second car which I will call a "family" car, a 2008-2009 Chevy Trailblazer SS.
One of these bad boys,


who will tow my mini to track events and provide room for tools, stroller, baby things as well as plenty of comfort room for the new family. My fiance also drives my mini so it will be nice to have a second car to split amongst us. Plus our winters are pretty crazy around here getting over 2 feet of snow at times I will need the awd, heavy and safe vehicle to get around in. I wouldn't want anything happening to either of my minis.
I have many things in store for my cooper but most of which will hold of until next year, for now the only thing in my 2014 calender is leather seat swap and valeo smf and clutch kit.

Thanks for reading everyone!

-Michael

 

New goodies!!
Next is new oil filter housing, oil cooler and new belt tensioner along with tensioner stop and bushing kit!

 

Mini got rally lights!

 

Another update! I got the gates tensioner from oriellys and swapped in polyurethane bushings on the strut. I also replaced the belt while I was at it. I am starting to get sick of doing that without the damn belt tool lol. It is such a pain in the butt. I also replaced the heat exchanger/oil cooler and kept the filter housing but pulled it to change the gasket in there too. Last week I removed the supercharger to change my water pump and replaced all the gaskets in the process. Also found my pto gear side was dry so filled it up with ac Delco and changed my front oil as well. Got her all reassembled and then spent 5 hours Friday night installing my ns1 cam, new cam bolt and chain tensioner. Everything was oem that I put in. She sure is running great now!!!

 

Look what my wife got as her replacement from the volvo. Got her last month.
Sticking to that German engineering!


Also minis getting ready for race season. 2 more weeks!

 

Got my race magnets.

And here's some more pics of her. I tried taking some cool ones but the s4 doesn't take good quality photos at night.