1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: My 2005 R53 Daily Driver build thread

well, ATI clearly puts these stickers on for Way, they don't tape over the unit. This is factory stickered, or they have a master of sticker application on staff. Why do they do that, I don't know, nor do I care, but I am not going pay $25 more for a crank seal elsewhere only to get a different sticker on the pulley.

Meanwhile this fresh update to the Electric Blue - easy swap of OEM summer floor mats to these big water basin WeatherTech custom fit mats. Don't be fooled by their "laser fit" - the passenger side is about 1 inch too short to really fit where it should be, and both sides do not have their anchor holes where (at least in this car) the oem mats where connected via the velcro auger pads. Not sure if I am supposed to punch fresh holes into the carpet. Driver side pad seems rock solid in pace without it and no interference with the pedals as it is. Unless things start moving around on me, I don't think I need to worry about the floor anchors.


Driver side floor mat


Passenger side Weathertech

Ordered a resonated Milltek for the dark silver today at ECS. Great price and free shipping.

 

Hurt my back hauling junk to the recycling center, so no work on the car this weekend. Went for a drive this evening instead. Took the camera along.


Farm sunset with a Mini


Pipsqueak bulldog


The right day for a drive in the country


The road home


Backup sensors with a sky


Shiny nose

 

... and I first washed it. That water shedding property of the Gyeon MOHS is just incredible. Never seen anything like that before. Almost too nice to call it the "daily driver"

 

another one


Soft and fluffy grass at f/1.2

not sure how used floor mat deals at some Dragon event affect my purchase of a brand new part I can buy at various locations for more dollars.

He did however once sell me an on-sale Milltek cat-back, only to call me later to tell me he doesn't have any and there are "none in the country anywhere" and I can stay on the waiting list to get one as soon as he gets the next container from the UK. That same day I could have bought the muffler (at higher price) from ECS or ebay, but I didn't buy anything instead. Waited until Black Friday for ECS to have the best price. So you do have a point about that honesty part, or at least you can't trust their website to reflect anything they actually do have in stock or not.

Still, damper/bolt and seal combo are priced right at Way, shipped same day, no hassles for the second one I bought there. I do always check Detroit Tuned first, but they want a lot more for the same stuff. Ultimately, they are all out of state strangers to me. My only local Mini presence is a stealership that never sold R53s and is completely incompetent at working on these cars. They do have fine coffee in the sales lounge and great color coordinated furniture where the glossy brochures can be studied. Parts are never in stock.

 

It's close to "done" for this phase, but there's still a lot on the still growing "do next spring" list when the dark silver Mini comes back from hibernation. I will be calling my insurance tomorrow to take two of the three Minis offline for 4 months, so this car is all I have for the coming third of a year and any major surgery will have to wait.

I'll do the damper because it's here and I have all the stuff to do the job this weekend. After that it's hands off except maybe winter tires should the rubber I just bought turn out to be crap in the white stuff.

I may also put in a DIY cold air intake if I get it built this winter. Actually pretty likely that I will do that.


Spring to do list:

• drop subframe and replace lower control arm bushings, inner/outer ball joints, wheel bearings. Clean and paint any paint damage on subframe and A arms (or replace)
  
• Install roof rack (Mini OEM), because it can be removed. Also acquire some bicycle rails and a wind deflector for it. Maybe even a nice basket.
  
• Install tint and black out the beltline chrome
  
• finally figure out how to remove the passenger seat completely without getting air bag or seat belt pre-tensioner codes. I want that extra space for cross country travel so I can sleep in the car and fit larger items like ski and bicycles inside.
  
• replace the heater blower fan - it's kinda noisy compared to the other cars. Most likely worn out over 88k miles of constant fight with the clogged cabin air filter.
  
• On the "maybe" list if I get bored or have too much change itching in my pocket is a brake upgrade to either Wilwood or R56 spec. Not sure I need it. The brakes are near new on the car and work well for what I bought it for. I'll probably save the money and buy some nice Sparco Evo seats for dark silver instead.

And after that there's all the fun stuff we'll be doing to the two other cars. My son has been shopping for all sorts of parts. He also ordered a Milltek for his car, so we'll be installing one (resonated) in my dark silver, and one (non-resonated) in his chili red. Depending on where we can tolerate the extra noise more we may swap the resonator pipe segments between the cars.

He also just got a box with an analog boost gauge and hookup kit and mount. Heard he's also saving for coilovers, rear ARB and lower control arms, plus a big brake kit to install some time next year. He's away in college and only sees the car when he visits at home, so I may be doing some these installs.

 

I guess then I should call my DIY product the "arctic vortex" intake :biggrin5:

heard on a weather site that the east coast is gonna get real cold mid December when the big chill jetstream hits them hard again. Usually we don't get that cold when that pattern happens.

 

more pix. I am really starting to like that color. Went to Costco tonight getting some prints made for my annual home-made calendar,. and people asked me if the shiny blue Mini I just parked next to them was new


Calendar shot


Orange lights

 

add timing chain tensioner on to-do list. Heard that chain rattle after restarting the engine at the store. Guess I'll be getting practice with two of these jobs next year.

got a can of thread cutting fluid from Amazon today. 12.9 grade 80mm M5 bolts got here a few days ago, got good M5 taps as well, so I hope I get enough time this weekend to tackle the damper job and use those bolts to pull the junk yard part off. Must say, for not being a Mini part, the thing actually works quite well. I only feel some odd vibrations around 3200 rpm.

 

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.