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

The silent movie about what I did on Sunday, I wanted to show the flicker of the bulbs prior to coding the checks out, but the little go pro like camera had a blue LED flashing, so it looks like the blue LED pulse is the flicker I was talking about. Skipped that and will do a better job next time around. Got more cars to do this on

 

Not afraid at all about opening them. My son has taken apart some large Toyota Camry lights in my kitchen oven and I am an expert ski boot liner baker myself We bake a lot of low temp cakes with plastics, I am saying.

We also have spare sealant glue strips from the Retrofit Source to glue lights back together should the OEM stuff somehow not do the job. This year, we'll be opening a lot of Mini lights. I plan on gutting my dark silver car's lights for a custom HID projector install some time later in fall, and this car will get opened up at least to clean the haze off the OEM projectors. 13+ years of crud buildup is making the projectors look like they are frosted.

Now, I don't expect to need to sand/buff/polish anything on the inside of those covers. All I know is that they UV damage is usually the outside hardened layer, not the core plastic, and really never on the inside. There may be some dirt on the inside surface, though.

The thing is, I don't want to sand down the outside surface of the lights only to find out the problem is not on the surface, but inside the core of the material. At that point I'd be removing UV protection and harder plastic that protects the lights only to find out that my lenses don't improve. So if what I am seeing (better visible in the video when full screen than that screen shot) is something somebody else also saw and successfully removed with the classic sand and polish tools, I am going to do this next week.

I've been looking for just the clear lens plastic of the headlights, but can't find that for R50/53 lights, only for R56 and later, plus everything like that seems to be wholesale - container from China type of stuff.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FI0S936/

(from the description: " Made by latest PURPLE COPPER ( NOT normal copper)" - LOL - could not find anything on the google what the heck they are talking about). Description is completely hoaky, but as far as I can tell these are 100% identical with the SuperNova V3 sold for $139, although quality control may be down to putting a sticker on the unit, rather than actual testing. Got another set on the way and will test before install this time. Having a spare bulb isn't a bad thing.

So far, the coding of the car to not bulb check the high beams still was the most complicated part of the project. I figure throw another $50 at it after all that time with the damn ECU coding

 

yeah, that second one would do the job. Also costs as much as a third DDMworks intake and with that all my cars are set I need to improvise. The first brake is ok for the long edges but so is a half price harbor freight brake, or some DIY setup made out of a few angles and C clamps. I current lean to using that last approach. The inside bends is where you need the fingers, well, that is where I need to use some creativity. Not buying that tool unless I start fabricating my own line of cold air intakes, for which I'd have to first improve on that DDMworks design.

 

noisy only when uloaded? Now, there is that constant sound like something is rubbing every wheel revolution when I am on the highway. However, that noise goes away the moment I apply brakes. Had the brakes completely apart. Near new, nothing rubbing, wear sensors are removed and zip tied out of the way. Still a chance it is a bearing, as loading changes when you use brakes. I've had them on the shopping list, but no high priority. Maybe I should just do it. Doesn't take much work, just have to make sure I source a bag of replacement bolts, as they are one-time use and must be replaced with the bearings. They are expensive from Mini, but I already bookmarked an alternate source.

It could be multiple things that make noise back there, though. ARB is the one thing I haven't checked in detail. Maybe the downlink or the bushing.

 

The daily driver got some love again yesterday. Thursday the driver side window just stopped working. Meh. So before I started even looking at fuses, or tore into the door, I figured "hey, it's a Mini, so this likely has happened to others" and did a search. Well... known issue for sure.

So following the advise to use "percussive maintenance" on the door, I first listened to the door and it dd make a relay clicking sound on switch activation. So I knew it's likely not a fuse or switch issue. So I began to do the smacking of the door panel below the tweeter while activating the switch. Nothing at first. Tapping the top of the window didn't work either. After a while, I decided to increase the intensity of the door smacks. Still nothing. So I gave it one more good hard whack, and bingo. The window was back in business.

Being anal about all this, I now need to find out what exactly I can do to more permanently address this. I take it is isn't the motor, but a relay failure, but the relay is inside the motor? Next time I tear into the door or the window gets stuck again, I think I'll pull the door card and get in there a little deeper than a hard hit.

So with one success for one project, I decided it was time to tackle the next job - headlight restore. I wasn't going to do it as they were still quite good, but I recently restored the lights on my daughter's Outback. It worked so well, I figured it's time to do the Mini.

 

I want to take things apart... wash out relays with alcohol, lube them with synthetic elbow grease, etc...

guess I have to focus on the brake calipers now - got that red paint waiting to make the car look faster

 

well, that double pull is the first thing I got rid off when I reprogrammed the doors locks. May be related, but mine will never lock themselves, so one pull opens the door.

I'll check for slack, but that Subaru is still in the garage, now in even more pieces.

 

On the Mini, replacing the front bearings was a piece of cake. My Minis have never really seen much and when they did, they got washed immediately.

The Subaru I am working on could be mistaken for a southern car - there's virtually no rust short of some on the cast iron knuckes and some chipped off paint on some bolts on the subframe. However, the stuff that seeps into the contact surface between bearing and knuckle, with no anti-seize being in there (why would Subaru do that? they want you to buy new cars when the repairs begin), was something totally out of whack with the rest of that car. Just look at the image - that cast iron knuckle has no rust on it except on the mating surface where the bearing was seized, the one place you cannot wash the salt out of (easily)

On my dark silver R53, I bought a new front control arm only because there was some internal surface rust, flaky stuff falling out of those round holes. $40 or so, no big deal. I figured it's cheap insurance. Next time I drop the subframe, I'll likely replace them again, preventive maintenance.