Red

[MiniDave]

This one followed me home yesterday.....

2006 Cooper S, 6 speed auto with flappy paddles, sunroof, leather interior, all the bells and whistles, 87K

Taking it for VIN inspection today (Missouri title and I'm in Kansas) and tomorrow (hopefully) to get it titled and plated. Our DMV works on an appointment only basis, and to get in the queue you have to start calling when they open - at 7:30am. I've done it before and even calling at that time my time in line was 4:30 (they close at 4:00!) then they update you via text during the day, when you get within 30 min of your appointment you'd better be on your way to the office - it's a 20 min drive for me. Sometimes depending on staffing you get bumped to another day - the car bidness in Johnson county must be good! There are only two places you can get your plates/title work done in the whole damn county too.....

I'm having to relearn how all the controls work, last time I had an R53 was 20 years ago!

[94touring]

Looks really nice.  Keeping all the other cars or downsizing?

[MiniDave]

One will have to go, probably the green one after the trip to Asheville this summer. She's decided she wants her car back in the garage, and both classics have to be garaged for insurance reasons - so if one goes, she gets her parking spot back!

I'll still have the classic hot rod and we'll both keep our respective Audi wagons. As much as I like my MINIs, driving one sure makes me appreciate the Audi!

[MiniDave]

Got a small surprise when I went to make an appointment at the DMV "Current wait time - 10 min"! So I hustled down there and the place was empty, maybe 5 people in the whole place. Usually it's absolutely packed! I asked the lady if it's been like this long and she said the last three months or so......how to tell we're in a recession - or about to be.

10 min and I was in and out and legal to drive.

The car drives really nicely, everything seems to work, but I'm still relearning the controls. There are a few things about the R55 I liked better, it was quieter and smoother on the road and I liked that you could program a LOT of the features using the turn signal switch button - can't do that on the earlier cars.

I'll do basic maintenance on it, oil and filter, air filter, cabin filter, hood struts, front shock mounts and then my plan is just to drive it.

[cstudep]

Nice, always liked the earlier ones but the roads are so terrible around here any sort of "performance" style car/suspension just ends up beating the car and you to death so never pulled the trigger on one.

[BruceK]

Congratulations! Looks like a great car. This past Sunday I realized I had been neglecting my R53 so I took it out and buzzed it around country roads for about three hours. After not driving it for probably a month I did come to some of the same conclusions that you did. The ride is rough and unsophisticated. There is road noise and wind noise.But who cares? It handles so good and it is so much fun to drive. I absolutely love the supercharger whine, and there is nothing like dropping it down into fourth or third for a quick overtake as the supercharger screams.

[BruceK]

Dave, since it's probably been a while since you've worked on a first gen MINI I want to give you a heads up regarding a potential problem during an oil change. The plastic pressure relief valve in your oil filter housing is probably original to the car and quite old (relatively speaking) and brittle now. I had one break on me during an oil change a couple of years ago. Of course, the only way to get new OEM one is to buy a completely new oil filter housing assembly which includes that part for many hundreds of dollars. But OutMotoring has a 3D printed one for under $50 that seems to be working pretty good. Here's a video that shows where the parts sits.

[MiniDave]

Thanks, I AM familiar with that issue, Don wound up buying a $300 filter assy a while back because of this issue - thanks for the refresher.

Today I ordered $150 worth of filters and misc stuff to get this project started.

[MiniDave]

I also found the right rear muffler is toast, so I'm on the lookout for someone who may have removed a factory exhaust in favor of an aftermarket (as was common when these were new) and is tired of tripping over it in the garage that I can score for cheap.

I found a well recommended local Dr. De-Dento who said he'd come by and see what he could do about a couple of dings....this one in particular.....

I even visited an old website I hadn't been on in well decades (my sign in and password still worked!) called North American Motoring. It used to be THE place to go for MINI insight.....

[MiniDave]

I got a pile o parts for Red today, but tomorrow it goes to a shop to have the trans service done and maybe an exhaust repair done.

So in this pile  are air filter, oil filter (I already have a cabin filter) a set of plugs and the socket (I only ordered one but got two), some bearing plates for the struts, a pair of struts for the bonnet (already installed) a serpentine belt kit with the tensioner and idler included and some brake calipers for the hot rod. I bought all this stuff thru Ebay sellers, I haven't been a big Ebay buyer in the past but their prices were better than anything I found on amazon and of course shipping was "free"....

I went over to the local Chevy dealer and bought a bottle of supercharger oil as I'm planning to do that as well - that stuff has tripled in price - used to be $6 a bottle, now it's $18! I probably should have gone ahead and ordered a water pump, but we'll see what it looks like once it's torn down. Planning to get into it early next week....

[MiniDave]

Picked Red up from the Shop today, it got mostly good marks, def some deferred maint. Today I lucked into a deal, a guy was selling a complete front end kit for MINI, it has pretty much everything, control arms, ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends and a new pair of coilover struts. His car was totaled the day after he bought all this stuff for it....

Red also needs all the motor mounts in addition to the stuff I already have. I bought the right one, but will need to get the others. So I have a whole passle of work to do next week.

It also needs an exhaust, so I'll noodle around and see what I can find. Too bad I can't find a new car take off, those were around up till a few years ago.

I've known the young man in the beard since 2006 when he got his first Mini at age 15, he's come a long way!

Not seen in this pic is an 80's Testarossa in for some work. The shop does a fairly large variety of work, including an M5 V-10 engine in for an overhaul. The Jag is a one year 1968 Series 1.5, a very rare car as they only made them for a few months to use up the stocks of Series 1 bodies and engines before starting production on Series 2 cars which had completely different bodies, carbs, engine detail like lower compression and other emissions equipment.

They also do alignments on all the local classic Minis now....the orange one is a Canadian Mini in for some front end work - it has a D series Vtec in it too.

[MiniDave]

I did a 100 mile run with the MINI club today and the car ran sweet - no issues. Sure is nice to have a quiet car on the highway at 75 mph!

The drive today helped highlight the work I need to do still in the suspension and motor mounts, but I'll get those sorted in the coming weeks. For now I'm pretty happy with it, and once I do get all the worn out parts replaced it should drive even better!

We had a nice turnout on the run today, 10 cars, several were JCW's eager to run. The road was smooth and fun, but being Saturday there was traffic, so we didn't get to hoon like they wanted to. I was happy to just cruise.....

Oh, and I paid $4.59/gal for gas this morning......<sighs>  I've seen $5 plus around town already. My average for the trip today was 31.3, so not too bad. I don't think my 03 JCW ever did over 30, even on a long run.

[MiniDave]

I decided not to keep these very blingy front coil overs, I'll put them up on FB marketplace and spend the money on a stock set.

Lot of parts arriving soon, including a center console! I have a set of new struts on the way and I think I've decided to just find a new stock exhaust system rather than one of the cool looking SS aftermarkets setups. I found a video that had sound clips or pretty much every aftermarket exhaust available and I didn't like any of them! So.......stock it is. I probably would have been fine with one of them 20 years ago.....

You kids get off my lawn!!!

[MiniDave]

I decided to just get regular old stock struts for Red, and put the blingy ones up on Craigslist and FBM to see if I can get a nibble.

The front end kit is pretty complete......control arms, all ball joints, new bushings, inner and outer tie rod ends (I'll probably leave the inners alone) and even the sway bar links. Odd that there are no sway bar bushings but I happen to have a set languishing on my shelves!

Does anyone know if the front wheel bearings are the same between the R53 and the R56 cars? I have as set I bought for my 09 Blue Clubby that I no longer have - if they fit this car I'll keep them, if not I'll put them up on FBM or Craigs too.

I ordered a complete set of motor mounts today, I think I'll do those first as the trans end one is torn and hanging a bit low, once those are in then I can drop the subframe and do all the suspension bits. It's been a long time since I've dropped the front sub on one of these, might need to go to the YouTube Mechanics Academy for a refresher course!

[MiniDave]

OK, I got the answer on the wheel bearings - the bearing itself may be the same, but it comes as an assembly with the wheel flange, and the wheel bolts used on an R56 are larger than those on the R53, so I'll bet it will fit but I would need R56 wheel bolts.

[MiniDave]

Ordered some more parts for Red today, cam chain tensioner, struts all around, water pump, oring for the crank sensor, oil pan gasket set and a new drain plug. Most of this is either because it's time or just in case sort of stuff....

I already had all the filters and fluids, new complete front end parts (all the ball joints, control arm bushings etc) a complete new SS exhaust system from the cat back, and supercharger service kit, tensioner, idler and belt. I'll change the engine oil and I've already serviced the transmission.

I think that should do it for deferred maintenance stuff. With all this installed I should have a fully correct functioning MINI for a good long time.

That's a whole bunch of parts to change out on this car, more than a few days worth of work, but I think that should get me ready for the 2K mile trip to West Carolina in June.

Edit: Dang it, still need the left side transmission mount - the ones for Automatics are WAY more expensive....
Edit 2: Found one! Thank you Google.....