Who here owns a Mini?

[Gaygle]

At the yearly cost of £550 for one unscheduled repair, it makes far more sense to just put that money away. Two years of no breakdowns would mean you'd have nearly £1000 in the pot which would pretty much pay for anything to be repaired on a Mini unless the engine and gearbox catastrophically failed at the same time.

 

[Sparky]

Few tweaks to the Mini

 

[thewanted]

It's well worth it at half that for the peace of mind and zero hassle ownership.

At the yearly cost of £550 for one unscheduled repair, it makes far more sense to just put that money away. Two years of no breakdowns would mean you'd have nearly £1000 in the pot which would pretty much pay for anything to be repaired on a Mini unless the engine and gearbox catastrophically failed at the same time.

I'd pay £1000 to not have to worry about anything breaking for 2 years. My Audi S1's rear diff died when the car was less than a year old at a cost of ~£3600. I'd rather not have to worry about those kinds of "unscheduled repairs", although I object to paying £950/year for the warranty when my 2016 Audi A4's extended warranty is the same price and that car has far more things that could go wrong; S-Tronic, diesel engine, quattro, automated tailgate, virtual cockpit etc.

In other news, we've been waiting 7 weeks for Blue Bell Mini Crewe to get the 6 month old Cooper S that we put a deposit down on. We've had one of their Cooper S loan cars for the last 4 weeks, but I'm wondering at what point do I give up with this since now I'm starting to worry that the car has been damaged and they're trying to repair it

 

[toasteh]

In two and a half years of owning my Cooper S I've spent north of £2500 keeping it on the road. One of hte many reasons I've chopped it in for something new with a warranty!

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

Me too



They're second hand - £395 isn't too bad and they are in pretty good condition. A bit of rust on the front springs but nothing too bad at all. The rest of the body looks perfect and the threads are rust free.

Have you fitted yours yet? I really want to get mine done, but seeing that the temperature is barely rising above freezing over the next couple of days - i'm not in any hurry! And it's going to be a ball ache getting the ride height sorted, which will probably require the wheels to come on/off several times to get it sorted so would ideally like it to be warm! I don't want them chavvy and low, I just want a small drop over standard, so will probably have to mess around with them a bit.

I bought mine used too, 300 but definitely lost a bit more paint than yours... I've been assured that everything is fine with them so we'll see... I have some M10x80 12.9 bolts to replace my front pinch bolts instead of sticking with the crappy std ones. Ordered silver projects RCAs and a front lower strut brace to go on at the same time

This is awkward... The parcel my mum found was an oversized Amazon delivery that Prime failed to deliver... Came 3 weeks later than it should have done which on the plus side means than My Micrometer set has arrived... Downside is the coilovers parcel has vanished...

God this couldn't have gone much worse...

Ah now this edit makes no sense! NVM....

TLDR Bought some coilies... Were late being posted thus late getting delivered... I have been away... Bit of miscommunication thinking the parcel had been found but it wasn't... Ultimately Hermes left them on the drive un signed for, and have gone missing!

 

[Gaygle]

I bought mine used too, 300 but definitely lost a bit more paint than yours... I've been assured that everything is fine with them so we'll see... I have some M10x80 12.9 bolts to replace my front pinch bolts instead of sticking with the crappy std ones. Ordered silver projects RCAs and a front lower strut brace to go on at the same time

This is awkward... The parcel my mum found was an oversized Amazon delivery that Prime failed to deliver... Came 3 weeks later than it should have done which on the plus side means than My Micrometer set has arrived... Downside is the coilovers parcel has vanished...

God this couldn't have gone much worse...

Ah now this edit makes no sense! NVM....

TLDR Bought some coilies... Were late being posted thus late getting delivered... I have been away... Bit of miscommunication thinking the parcel had been found but it wasn't... Ultimately Hermes left them on the drive un signed for, and have gone missing!

Just read your edit - oh dear!! It *really* doesn't take a lot of brain power to deliver parcels without being a moron. Last week, Amazon sent me a new xenon bulb and I got a notification on my phone that it had been delivered to my "Safe place" which is the shed in the rear garden. It wasn't there. I checked everywhere, finally checking the dustbin which was at the roadside having just been collected that morning. Yep, that's right, the cretin had put it in the bin at the roadside and I had to half climb into the bin to get it out. What a bell.

Anyway, what are you doing about your MeisterR's? Did you have insurance cover added for the delivery?

Mine seem to be in very good nick, but the only thing that I'm not sure about is how easily the ball joint in the the top adjustable mounts move. Three of the coilovers require quite a lot of effort for the top mount to be moved on it's ball joint to be moved, whereas one requires hardly any. There is no play in any of the joints, but the top ball joint feels loose?

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

Good news is the coilies have appeared... Luckily, my neighbour saw the driver turn up, and went out to take the parcel but the guy had already gone... He'd left them on the drive the the neighbour took them in... So long story short everything in now OK

My friend used to work for LEDA suspension so is going to strip these down and give them a once over, Edwin at Meister seems helpful as I have already bought some new dust boots for the rears. So fingers crossed if I do need anything then spares seem to be available.

All of my top mounts are stiff, they move smoothly but it takes some force, I assumed this was a good sign.
Should having a delivery from orranje early this week with RCAs and the strut brace... The car will be totally different...

What are you doing about the damping? I don't have the extensions to be able to adjust the rears in situ. Guy I bought them off said 8 clicks is a good setting for fast road though and not horrible over broken tarmac so I guess I'll just have to try it out...

 

[Meatball]

R56 Cooper S owners: what's your oil usage like? Mine seems to need a top-up every 800 miles or so just under a litre.

 

[--Mike--]

Mine's probably something like that. I check it more regularly and it seems to want a small amount each time. They are greedy engines!

 

[Gaygle]

Good news is the coilies have appeared... Luckily, my neighbour saw the driver turn up, and went out to take the parcel but the guy had already gone... He'd left them on the drive the the neighbour took them in... So long story short everything in now OK

Great success!

My friend used to work for LEDA suspension so is going to strip these down and give them a once over, Edwin at Meister seems helpful as I have already bought some new dust boots for the rears. So fingers crossed if I do need anything then spares seem to be available.

Ah that's reassuring to know. Mine are about 3 years old with about 25k road miles on them, so hopefully they won't be too battered. They certainly seem pretty rust free on the threads, and the springs have a bit of corrosion on them.

All of my top mounts are stiff, they move smoothly but it takes some force, I assumed this was a good sign.

I initially thought this too? In the video below, the first one is the one which moves very freely (and the ball joint looks completely shiny and clean). The second one was really quite stiff to begin with, and had some light rust/dirt but then I sprayed the ball joint with some silicon grease and it has loosened up a *lot*. Are they meant to move around nice and freely and do they only become stiff when they sit in the same position for years on the car?

Neither has any up or down play at all.

Should having a delivery from orranje early this week with RCAs and the strut brace... The car will be totally different...

Yeah I was going to fit mine and decide whether or not I wanted RCA (as mine is a facelift I can already get about 30' adjustment out of them.

What are you doing about the damping? I don't have the extensions to be able to adjust the rears in situ. Guy I bought them off said 8 clicks is a good setting for fast road though and not horrible over broken tarmac so I guess I'll just have to try it out...

Having looked around, I think 6-8 clicks is probably sensible. I think i'll do the fronts on about 10-12 and play with them a bit more.

 

[Gaygle]

R56 Cooper S owners: what's your oil usage like? Mine seems to need a top-up every 800 miles or so just under a litre.

Many people say that their R56 uses a lot of oil. Personally - I wouldn't be able to live with having to put a litre of oil in every 800 miles.

I would get the car serviced, get it checked for any oil leaks, and then use a 5w40 LL01 approved oil, rather than the 0w30/5w30.

 

[Meatball]

Many people say that their R56 uses a lot of oil. Personally - I wouldn't be able to live with having to put a litre of oil in every 800 miles.

I would get the car serviced, get it checked for any oil leaks, and then use a 5w40 LL01 approved oil, rather than the 0w30/5w30.

It's a real pain having to keep a constant check on it especially as the dipstick is not the easiest to interpret.

I top up with 5w30 Castro Edge so I'll give 5w40 a go. With how often I top up the oil I doubt the oil filter will be due but maybe a good service will help. It had an oil leak around the tensioner chain in 2014 which damaged the clutch housing. It needed a new flywheel, clutch and tensioner chain all under warranty (luckily) . The spark plugs were changed last week!

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

Mine are the older ones (pre CRD, just Zeta) so aren't anodised fancy red... But yeah it would seem they should move nice and freely like your first one... I'll try and get a little lube into mine then and see if they free off.
I was going to try and get away without using the adjustable RCA but I think in reality I know it's going to need it, really not a fan of these morons running -4º or something just to get their wheels to fit! Function over form.

Good advice on the 5w/40, mine was burning a bit of oil but since going to a slightly thicker oil it's reduced it's consumption massively. Although maybe I should've gone back to 30wt for the winter. Hey hoo

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

It's a real pain having to keep a constant check on it especially as the dipstick is not the easiest to interpret.

I top up with 5w30 Castro Edge so I'll give 5w40 a go. With how often I top up theoil I doubt the oil filter will be dirty but I feel like it's due a good service. The spark plugs were changed last week!

Your filter will be filthy.

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

Stripped the Meisters down this afternoon Gaygle, too impatient to wait for my friend to pop over. All the dampers are good and I managed to free all of the aluminium nuts off. Gave all of the threads a damn good brushing and lubing up, coated everything with Loctite synthetic grease and started reassembling. The rears are very straight forward. 14mm spanner to undo the damping adjuster knob then a 5mm allen key and 14mm ratchet spanner to undo the top nut and release the spring/top mount. Gave the rod a good wiggle and cleaned and greased then fitted the new boots.

The fronts are slightly more involved, same procedure though but the top mount houses a 6304 ZZ bearing, both of which were toast. I'll replace with 6304 2RS though as I reckon the rs will be better suited than the z... other than that all plain sailing.

I got the top mount/rose joints all cleaned out... Repeated squirting with WD followed by fingering in a load of grease... They're more like the first one in your video now... Maybe a bit stiffer but I've left them soaking in WD. So I guess they should move nice and smoothly, 1 of mine is pitted though so I ought to look at replacements in the future.

Now I want to get my springs at least sand blasted... maybe powder coated, any ideas what sort of price that'd be? SB then Hammerite might be a better option... I ought to ring around

 

[dale1uk]

With the arrival on little man number 2 next month I'm reluctantly going to be selling my modified mk2 jap import mx5 due to the need of extra seats. A fun, small, chuckable car is top of my list so I'm obviously drawn to a Mini. My budget will be around 4k so will be looking at R53 MCS/JCW. The new car, as my mx5 is, will only a weekend toy that I plan on doing a few trackdays in as well as a Nurburgring trip or 2. What should I be looking for within my budget? Cheap Cooper S and spend the rest on modifications? JCW so I'm already at the power point I'd be happy with and have the better bigger brakes? Still trying to work out if my budget is enough to get one to where I'd want it - ~200hp, coilovers, decent brakes, good rubber and light wheels?

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

£4k would get you a quick r53.
Don't waste your money on a JCW unless you're leaving it standard... A modded cooper s will be much better value

 

[hurfdurf]

It's absolutely pathetic when you have somebody in another thread on here who has been quoted less per year on a Porsche warranty. It's a Mini for goodness sake - 950 quid a year boils my **** for the 5 Series warranty let alone pricing a MINI at the same level.

Makes you think they don't have much faith in their own cars reliability. My GF's 2010 Cooper S hasn't gone wrong but I doubt ill be buying the brand again, a good little car but not as premium as the costs associated.

 

[dale1uk]

£4k would get you a quick r53.
Don't waste your money on a JCW unless you're leaving it standard... A modded cooper s will be much better value

Thanks. Are the facelift models worth the extra over an earlier pre-facelift one? Is milage an issue with these?

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

I would rather mine was a facelift. Panoramic roof would be nice too.
Slightly more power as standard. Teflon coated charger vanes, better ecu that handles mods better and a few extra tweeks with no real downsides.
Charger pulley
Exhaust
Airbox mod
Remap
Coilovers
R56 front brakes and you're onto a fast little car. Plenty of change from 4k too if you find a good base.
Mine is on 99kmiles now and although I have done a decent amount of work to it I don't think its been a bad little car. (Clutch, timing chain, wheel bearings, bushes etc)