Who here owns a Mini?

Rcently I've changed the gearbox oil, coolant and power steering fluid in the Mini. Also got 4 Goodyear Eagle F1A2's fitted to replace the runflats

All the fluids came to around £20 and took about 3 hours to do. I feel better knowing it's done as a lot of people (particularly girls!) will stick anything in their car, like the wrong type of coolant and power steering fluid/ATF fluid instead of the correct CHF11S/CHF202.

The coolant came out without any real colour to it, and nothing in the service history to say when it was last changed, so i'm glad that was done. Took me ages to find what kind of antifreeze it needed!

The LSD was also making a slight groaning noise when it was cold and on full lock, and the fluid came out quite dirty. Happily, the fresh MTF94 gearbox oil has fixed it.

The F1A2 tyres have replaced the Dunlop runflats - and what a difference! When I changed my old 335i to runflats it was a nice improvement, but the Mini onto runflats has made it *much* nicer. The turn in and handling is still great, but the constant, bone crunching, jarring over bumps has disappeared, the pulling to the right on acceleration has disappeared, the tramlining and general "nervousness" has disappeared and hopefully the grip levels will have increased also. These first generation runflats are *awful*. I wonder how much they've improved in the 10 years since they were introduced.

I also changed the cam cover gasket as it was weeping slightly. It was quite a nice job to do and I followed the instructions off Modmini on Youtube who makes excellent DIY videos for the R53 MCS. Took about 2 hours and has fixed the leaking oil for now although I fully expect it to return at some point!

Next up for the MCS - new brakes and an introduction to the track! Also, when doing the fluids, I discovered that the front of the engine had quite a lot of oil down it, mixed with road grime. This appears to be classic camshaft position sensor o-ring. The good news is that the part costs about 30p and Modmini has done a great video detailing it. The bad news is that it requires me to take the front of the car apart to get to it. Oh well, it's all good fun!
 
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So today, my task was to fit the new brake discs/pads/calipers at the front. And what a miserable failure it was.

Firstly the T50 torx bolt holding the disc to the hub had been overtightened to hell by some monkey with an airgun AND the discs haven't been replaced or even touched for the last 5-7 years. The impact wrench wasn't doing anything, which made me worry, so I used my breaker bar. Naturally the bolt sheared and so I set about drilling it out. This went really well initially, until I used the easyout extractor to get the bolt out. Unfortunately the extractor sheared in the hole i'd made through the bolt, and as it is made of hardened steel it was game over from there as there was no drilling through that.

So I was already annoyed but meh, I could get the disc off so I attempted to carry on. When it came to getting the brake hose nut off I used my flare nut spanner, but again, it was seized solid and caked in rust, so I was just rounding the head. I'd had enough.

So what did I do? Like every DIY home mechanic, I swore a lot, vowed never work on a rusty car and I called the garage :p

TLDR - If you take your wheel off and see that *everything* is heavily rusted and it looks as though nothing has been released in years - put the wheel back on, go back inside and call the garage.
 
TBH, if you were just doing the discs and pads - it's not so bad. Most people's disc retaining screw comes off fine, if not needs a bit of gentle persuasion and if that's off, the rest is a doddle. Even if you do shear the head of the retaining screw off, it's not a big deal because you don't even really need it. It was game over for me when the brake hose nut wouldn't release, because I don't have the equipment/knowledge to start messing with copper brake pipes, but you wouldn't need to do any of that if you were just doing discs/pads.

Give it a go, you get a great sense of achievement when it all goes well. I've done lots of work on suspension/brakes on >10 year old vehicles, but this is the only time I've had an issue with anything like this. I think half of the issue is that nobody appears to have undone the nuts/bolts which just meant that they were seized solid. Normally an impact wrench saves the day, but every now and then you meet a bolt/nut which has been there for too long and corroded too much to have a hope of getting it off.
 
Has anyone gone from a clio 182 to a R53?

I'm on my second clio 182 now, and i've only had this one for about 3 months, but I kind of want something a little more powerful without spending a lot more money.

Tuning the Clio past what it's now running is going to cost over £3k, that buys either a low boost turbo kit, or ITB with max power output 230bhp at the crank. I'll probably then end up sinking more money into other bits and pieces. But i'll ignore that for now, as i'd probably do that with the mini too.

I'm thinking R53 with reduced pulley and supporting mods is possible to do for around £3.5k. This would then give me similar power levels maybe???

What kind of running cost can i expect? I assume servicing will be pretty similar, tyres, brakes, etc, etc. I'm currently getting though about a tank full of fuel a week, which is roughly 280 miles, think it's 40 litres and cost about £46-48 using Tesco super. What is a modified R53 like on fuel?
 
I have had 3 x Clio 172's and 1 R53.

Mine had smaller pulley, exhaust, R56 brakes, LSD, some other stuff I've long forgotten as I sold it a year ago. Was about 210bhp.

I loved it, sounded better than the Clios, nicer inside and out but probably not that much faster really.

Averaged about 31 mpg.

Think I got £2700 for it a year ago, on 108,000 miles ish.
 
If it wasn't that much faster then i guess there isn't really much point in switching over, at least no point rushing into a decision. I'd love to own one, but when i was looking for a car recently I couldn't find a mini I wanted within budget which is why i ended up with a 182 again.

My clio has the JMS RS2, so sounds decent enough, but it's difficult to get anything more out of it whithout spending over £3k, think with Group N timing or 197 cams and a remap, i can probably push 195bhp with better drivability, but that allow will cost £1k.

Was hoping a Mini might have got me a bit more perforcemance for less money.

Shame I missed out on my bosses R53, as he sold that for £1800 a few months before i started looking for a car.

I'll have to see if i can test drive a few and go from there.
 
You can take the R53 far in excess of 210bhp with nice simple bolt on mods. You'll easily be getting 230-40bhp at the crank with a larger intercooler, 17% pulley, JCW injectors and a good remap.

From there you can get upgraded cams which takes you further
 
Yeah, cam and tune and you'll be up to 230-250bhp ish. That's a couple of grand though.

Mine was quicker than some friends 172 Cups but it's not like you'd lose them. Deffo test drive a few, especially with the smaller pulley because it makes a big difference.
 
Gaygle said:
You can take the R53 far in excess of 210bhp with nice simple bolt on mods. You'll easily be getting 230-40bhp at the crank with a larger intercooler, 17% pulley, JCW injectors and a good remap.

From there you can get upgraded cams which takes you further
Click to expand...

Really?

I have 15% pulley, cai, cat back, 380cc injectors, Newman fast road cam and a remap and expecting about 230... you reckon I should be getting more than that?
 
Reduced pulley is a must :D

But in saying that I remember kinda wondering whether it detracted from the car somehow... Before it was foolproof, I felt the power it had matched the chassis perfectly and by fitting a reduced pulley I had more power, more torque steer and could no longer go flat out around a big roundabout near me... Polybushes changed that though :D
 
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NoNameNoNumber said:
Really?

I have 15% pulley, cai, cat back, 380cc injectors, Newman fast road cam and a remap and expecting about 230... you reckon I should be getting more than that?
Click to expand...

Is yours a pre facelift? If you've got a facelift, with all of the mods you've listed, I can't help but think 230bhp at the crank is a touch low, but nothing crazy. Also, if you're running all of that without an upgraded intercooler, that will be severely limiting you.
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
Reduced pulley is a must :D

But in saying that I remember kinda wondering whether it detracted from the car somehow... Before it was foolproof, I felt the power it had matched the chassis perfectly and by fitting a reduced pulley I had more power, more torque steer and could no longer go flat out around a big roundabout near me... Polybushes changed that though :D
Click to expand...
I'm looking forward to a pulley upgrade :D

Realistically, if you stiffen up the chassis with some strut braces, fit the best tyres and moderate the throttle it should be fine, especially in an LSD model.

Also, just saw your post on MT about R56 discs and pads. You doing the upgrade?
 
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