Most liked posts in thread: McFly's MINI Adventure

Welcome to M/A, cool looking R53.

I am not sure how close you are to Orlando but you may want to give Ian from Maitland Imports a call if you help with anything.

Orlando FL. Volvo and Mini Cooper Repair and Service by Maitland Importers

 

Don't worry about the clutch slave, it'll be fine. Just unbolt it from the transmission and leave it hang from it's hose, then reverse it on reassembly.

Good luck with your project, it's a lot of work, but I think if you use the Valeo clutch you'll find it will be worth it.

 

Yeah, it's funny how on some cars they just drop out and on others they can be stuck good. Be careful getting them crooked, they will bind up, if you use the cold chisel do a little on each side till it comes out.

I don't know what to tell you on trans fluid, but if you look in your owner's manual it will give you a number of choices and the spec on the fluid.

 

Without knowing your specific situation, I'm always surprised by the level of difficulty of projects people are willing to attempt with very little in the way of tools, knowledge or experience on our cars.

I see guys ready to pull their supercharger, with only a screwdriver, a hammer and a DIY they copied from the net....then they get angry and upset because they have to pay someone to fix what they messed up.

This is NOT meant as an indictment of McFly here or anyone else, but as ol squinty said "A man's got to know his limitations"

Sometimes it's better to call in the pro's and get a chance to enjoy your car rather than fight with it.

I have a good friend in Dallas who has one of the very first '02 Cooper
S that came to the US, it has 100K on it and he loves the car so we spent a week working on it, replacing all those known and typical things that fail or wear out on a MINI in the hopes that he can keep it another 10 years and another 100K at least. He is certainly a competent mechanic, tho it's not how he makes his living. One of the things we did was replace the clutch, and while not physically hard (we rented a lift at the local DIY place, which was a huge asset!) it was a complex procedure, and in conjunction with all the other things we did, it took us almost a whole week of 8-5 labor on a lift in a shop with the correct tools. Now imagine trying to do that on the floor of a garage with a minimal tool set. It can be done, but sometimes it can be overwhelming, and it's good to know when to say "when"!

Hope this turns out well.

BTW, when we finished assembling my friends '02, he turned the key, it started immediately (surprise #1) and we drove it straight to the alignment shop. After that, he immediately left KC for Dallas, and arrived 9 hours later with absolutely no issues and has been loving his car again every day since. That's the way it's supposed to be....

This was taken 30 sec after we closed the hood and started it for the first time as he drove it out of the DIY shop....

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H3N2EElBPE&list=TLike2K4JEHEs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H3N2EElBPE&list=TLike2K4JEHEs[/ame]

We did the following to it:
New clutch
new lower control arm bushings and sway bar bushings
new ball joints
new power steering pump and hoses
R&R supercharger to change the oil
new water pump and thermostat
new 16% pulley
new crank damper
new tensioner
new shift cables
replaced all 4 axle boots
replaced intermediate shaft bearing
replaced the crank sensor o-ring

and this is how far we had the car stripped down to get all of this done....

 

Now get a dampened crank pulley such as the ATI.

Replace that seal too.

 

:cornut: Welcome to MA and good luck refurbishing/upgrading your R53. Her external appearance is great.

Jason

 

Welcome to m/a

 

Welcome to the coolest MINI forum on the net....

We want to see updates...

 

Welcome, McFly!

Yes, updates please.....

 

If it's good enough for Mercedes........

You only need to lock the flywheel to torque it back on again, stick a bolt back into one of the holes where the bellhousing bolts up and use a prybar/big ass screwdriver or the like into the teeth of the flywheel to hold it.

It will be a 2 man job unless you can figure out a way to clamp it down so it won't move or pop out of the teeth.

A good impact wrench will help things along considerably.

SMF?

Oh, you guys and your abbreviations......

It only goes on one way, so unless you're going to tear the engine down and have everything balanced together, don't worry about it...... bolt it on and go.

Pelican is a good site, but it started out and still is primarily a Porsche site, they're fairly new at this MINI stuff.

 

Beat them from the side with a heavy hammer a.k.a. BFH and they will pop apart.

 

Why should you have not bought this car? Because it needed work? Very few 100K + cars out there that don't need work....

About the only way to avoid that is to buy a new one.

It's not always about the tools, but having a deep toolbox is always an asset. I've got three, each full of stuff and I still find I need the odd this or that on a project.

Every car has it's quirks and foibles, it's always a learning process. For me the MINI's largest learning curve is how much stuff you have to remove to get to the thing you're trying to work on!

Don't be discouraged, once you get it back and start driving again all the hard work and $$$ spent will be worth it. The MINI is the most rewarding and involving car to drive that you'll ever own.