Most liked posts in thread: Sidewalk S - refresh & update a pre-loved convertible

Small update tonite with the arrival of 3 FedEx packages from the vendor. Everything arrived just fine despite a box that appeared as if fallen out of a third story window. Just filters and boxes of brake pads inside - all the goodies were A-okay.

Here's the stuff, and since I didn't win the PowerBall $1.5B lottery it looks like I'll be the guy putting these items in their proper places.

 

Thanks fellas! Appreciate the hello and warm wishes here. I DEFINITELY like the advice on what to do so she may have many uneventful miles ahead of her with fewer possibilities for self-destructing transmission, supercharger, cooling system, or whatever else you recommend I look at while it's in for minor surgery.

Walshe – What is this intercooler flush you speak of? Wait – I will do a search here and the other site to see what I can uncover. I’m guessing you may be referring to the air-to-air getting blocked up with gunk, goo, and small debris… Definitely will be taking this MCS to “work mode†or whatever the term is for disassembled MINI in the next few weeks for just such fun and games. And the plan all along (a week, LOL) has been to service the supercharger and related components after reading how some have little to no oil inside...

Fuquay Varina -- Wake County -- just south of Raleigh. Hope to meet you sometime soon, Mr Jim. Wife and I are looking at booking a room near Robbinsville for upcoming MOTD. Maybe we will see you there???

And.., Sunday evening is upon us and the day never happened as planned. Imagine that! What did happen was helping my 81 yr-old dad load up a non-compliant JD riding mower on his trailer using our brawn and my wife’s brain. After that, I got a tip on a friend of a friend to call regarding the out-going Mazda… Called the out-of-towner, sent photos, brief specs, and then he set up a time and place to meet him… -- today. So, this MX-5 had been sitting since September and needed a quick detail before setting out for my hour drive for the rendezvous. And a 1/3 of the way into my trip, he calls to say he’s having other car issues – alternator problems on his Dodge truck and was turning around himself. He promises to call and set something up tomorrow. That’s fine. Hope he made it home okay. Regardless, I got the motivation to do more detail, take pics and post it up on CL.net.

Here she is – in her 110K glory. My first Mazda NC (3rd gen) but number 15 since Oct 1990. (….Yeah, I got a problem, but they’re fun to work on and revive – especially the 200K ones with ripped tops and “abandoned†by others!)




So, here’s what DID get accomplished today on the R52: I ordered a LOT of MINI maintenance stuff! I anticipate a big box to arrive late this week with the following:
• Ft & Rr brake pads (will double check rotors based on above thread comments!)
• Brake pad sensors (have re-used these in the past on E46’s with success – going new on this one)
• Air filter, charcoal cabin filter, oil filter, drain plug
• Transmission filter, gasket, drain plug
• MINI coolant
• Brass bleed screw (will inspect all hoses and water pipes – little ones are expensive!)
• Water pump and 2 o-rings
• Thermostat housing and a thermostat with gasket
• Supercharger oil
• S/charger gaskets (front & rear because I don’t know proper terminology as of yet!)
• A $1.86 intake man gasket – manifold to intercooler (because it’s a dollar and some change)
• Throttle housing gasket & crank angle sensor o-ring
• Drive belt kit with Conti belt, pulley, and sophisticated looking tensioner
• 4 NGK plugs
• 7MM wire set
• 4 spark plug hole gaskets
• Valve cover gasket
• Oil Filter Housing Gasket (because the E46 ones become brittle as rock candy when the age)

Things that I know I need to purchase later:
• Tires (2 or 4 – not sure) (leaning towards 4 non Run Flats)
• Black Astro touch up paint for a few chips
• Synthetic oil for engine, Royal Purple for tranny, p/s fluid…
• O-ring for P/S cap on reservoir. (same as troublesome E46) (maybe a new reservoir or hoses too??)

I think that covers it for today. I’ll be dropping a lot of fluids out of this little chariot and cleaning her pieces and parts as I go along. Thanks again for the hello and I look forward to learning either as I go along or (hopefully!) just moments before I do something – thanks to YouTube and these forums for the instant knowledge and little to no retention. The retention thing is my issue – not yours!

 

Paul, Nathan, and Ian -- Excellent links and good advice that I'll use to guide me along here. Appreciate it very much. And, I'll gladly buy your RP- ATF off of you. No reason to let that stuff sit around and collect dust if you're not going need it.

 

Thanks. Pulley is under consideration... Cannot believe that due to previous ice storm, work commitments, and travel schedule (24 Hr of Daytona, for one) have kept me away from the car for weeks. Oh, and realizing I needed the special eBay tool to release tensioner on the serpentine belt on the Sunday I wanted to begin the teardown...

I'll get back in action soon, or she-who-must-be-obeyed is gonna get real mad with me if she can't drive this Mini soon...

 

Finally had some free time to spend in the shop and get some forward progress on this Sidewalk maintenance project – my first MINI job…

Having the car in “service mode†for the past month, the first hour in the shop on last Saturday was spent scratching my head and figuring out what the heck to do after about 3 weeks of not touching the car. (Had this been a NA Miata, I could stop and start anywhere, anytime and pick up where I left off. The Mini is somewhat foreign and the components and service work are not burned in the back of my brain like the Mazda Roadster is.. at least not yet! 



So, I pulled the alternator off, intake piping at supercharger, various hoses, brackets, dipstick tube, and whatever else required to get the s/charger and water pump off the engine.



I then separated the supercharger and water pump to drain the oil (which there was plenty of in both sides), shake & rinse fresh oil in both supercharger reservoirs, and eventually poured in appropriate amounts of AC Delco supercharger oil in the unit. Installed new seals and gaskets on supercharger, new water pump, and bolted this sub-assembly back together and on the side of the engine.



Time to tackle the thermostat – just because… I had somewhat easy access with parts removed under the hood at this point so why not..? Yanked out ECM and air filter housing, unplugged stuff and removed thermostat housing to be replaced by new Mini items.



New thermostat for side-by-side comparison. All looks fine. But went forward with installing new items for peace-of-mind with the wifey driving this car 90% of the time going forward…



Have a new serpentine belt tensioner from Continental but decided to just throw on the new belt and idler pulley for now. Probably have to raise the motor up some to change out belt tensioner, but will save this job for later, I guess.



Motor and related items are going back in the same day



ALL IS BUTTONED UP and “everything†under the hood has been serviced – such as:
Mobil Oil and Mann filter, various gaskets, plugs, new wires, etc…



… So that’s where I am at for right now. Traveling this week, but plan to be back on task this Saturday!!!

 

So, to fill in a few blanks on other work completed and "issues" up to this point in time..., here's the rest of the story:

New NGK plugs and wires installed.
New Valve cover gasket installed.
Valve cover bolts were wire-wheeled and painted silver as corrosion looked pretty bad on the hex heads... (Ha! just noticed that NOBODY can see those valve cover bolts with the intercooler and stuff installed back on the engine!)

That was done about 3 weeks ago.

The work in the photos above was this past weekend.

So, in a rush to get to a SuperBowl party, I quickly installed the radiator, fans, core support, and aluminum inner-bumper assembly back on the car. Then installed front bumper and hooked up all the lights and horns.

Sounds good, right? It sure looked good on Sunday evening - and I was smoking through this. I felt so good about what I had accomplished, I decided to pour in some Mini coolant and distilled water just so I could fire up the car and pat myself on the back for being so good with the maintenance job!!!!

Well.., coolant began to gush out on the shop floor and on my shoes in a matter of seconds. :blush2: I immediately stopped and poked around under the hood. And found the problem! I had left the radiator hose that runs from water pump to lower radiator connection OFF the car! It was sitting by itself on the shelf near the scene of the crime. So..., I will either find a creative way to install said hose or pull the radiator and bumper back OFF the car this coming weekend. I had to laugh! Oh well, no harm - no foul. I'll get it back on this weekend and burp the coolant system.

Here's the issue!