Who here owns a Mini?
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Soldato
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I went to bed instead... I didn't have an 18mm impact socket, only a 12point std one so I ordered one on amazon, should be here today. I have some map gas too which should get more heat into it for me... Oh and drill bits
Soldato
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How many miles do you do?
Soldato
I got the Sealey impact socket set about 3 years ago. Think it was like £15 and I've used it lots - it's fantastic.
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Yeah I have an impact set but it didn't include 18mm. Until now 
Soldato
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Cracked it, Here's a before. Sat on stock suspension
Map gas and the right socket made light work of the pinch bolt
Here's how it sits now
Overall it wasn't a bad job, yeah the fabled pinch bolt took some consideration but a bit of heat and it came out fine. Went back together ok too.
Rear wants to come up a touch I think, although I'll not touch that until the front has settled.
Haven't taken it for a drive yet though as it's started blowing on the tomcat I made the other week. I'm going to blame the gasless mig welder I have rather than my apparent lack of welding skills
Gotta get that to my brother place and weld it up properly.
Oh I picked up some Shell oil, gave it a service too
Map gas and the right socket made light work of the pinch bolt
Here's how it sits now
Overall it wasn't a bad job, yeah the fabled pinch bolt took some consideration but a bit of heat and it came out fine. Went back together ok too.
Rear wants to come up a touch I think, although I'll not touch that until the front has settled.
Haven't taken it for a drive yet though as it's started blowing on the tomcat I made the other week. I'm going to blame the gasless mig welder I have rather than my apparent lack of welding skills
Gotta get that to my brother place and weld it up properly.
Oh I picked up some Shell oil, gave it a service too
Soldato
I've never really thought it looked that bad until I lowered mine a tad - then you really notice just how ridiculous it looks at standard ride height! I'm not a fan of lowered cars at all, but they do ride very high.
Yep - the majority of people that have sheared the bolts have just tried to take a breaker bar to it. A bit of heat and an impact gun will make light work of nearly all seized bolts. I didn't even have to use heat on my fronts - they took a couple of seconds of shocking, and they started moving. My rear ones weren't quite as easy, but even then they eventually came free using my butane/propane blow torch and the impact gun.
So much better!!
Yeh same with mine. Are you going to get it properly set up? I'm not sure what settings would be best for the fast road/track?
Oh I picked up some Shell oil, gave it a service too
The oil is such good value, and is fully approved by VW, MB and BMW among others. I usually use Mahle oil filters too as these are who make them for BMW. A fully OEM/Genuine Mini service (plus kicking the tyres and "checking the horn for correct operation" etc
) for less than £25 in parts and an hour of time!
Soldato
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Yeah like you say, only when its dropped 2" do you realise it was a bit silly before lol. I'm going to raise the back though as opposed to dropping the front, I do have some camber on the rears now but how much idk. Once I have fitted the RCAs and settled on a height I will get it all set up. Until then its kinda pointless I reckon.
Oddly, the front isn't that low, and I have the camber plates maxxed out and yet there isn't a huge amount of camber on them. So these probably wouldn't work for the scene rats that want it on the floor.
Looks like I missed the photo of how close the front strut is to the tyres... Maybe 2mm clearance! I have some 5 mm spacers and a stud conversion coming though tomorrow which will put me at ease a little more, driven maybe 5miles with it as is and there are no signs of rubbing but its too close for comfort IMO.
Currently set at 8 clicks on the rear and 12 on the front, 5mm preload all round. Fronts feel nice, slightly harsher than stock but not particularly crashy, rears however feel too harsh. What do you think? Take a few clicks off the rebound or take the preload off?
Yep I bought a couple of bottles of Shell for future services. Downside of it all is it hasn't had a service stamp for 35000miles although I have been making notes in the service book. I have no real intention of selling it so I guess it doesn't matter about the stamps
Oddly, the front isn't that low, and I have the camber plates maxxed out and yet there isn't a huge amount of camber on them. So these probably wouldn't work for the scene rats that want it on the floor.
Looks like I missed the photo of how close the front strut is to the tyres... Maybe 2mm clearance! I have some 5 mm spacers and a stud conversion coming though tomorrow which will put me at ease a little more, driven maybe 5miles with it as is and there are no signs of rubbing but its too close for comfort IMO.
Currently set at 8 clicks on the rear and 12 on the front, 5mm preload all round. Fronts feel nice, slightly harsher than stock but not particularly crashy, rears however feel too harsh. What do you think? Take a few clicks off the rebound or take the preload off?
Yep I bought a couple of bottles of Shell for future services. Downside of it all is it hasn't had a service stamp for 35000miles although I have been making notes in the service book. I have no real intention of selling it so I guess it doesn't matter about the stamps
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Soldato
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Been hooning for ~30miles or so and took some measurments from arch to top of mini centre cap. Used a phone app for angles, god knows how.accurate it is but it seemed repeatable.
Front: 295mm and -1.9° camber
Rear: 285mm and -2.5° camber
I'll bring the rears up another 10mm in the next few days, then give it a week or two and get it aligned. I reckon -2.5° on the front and -2° on the rear would be about bang on but I will do a bit more research, same for tracking specs... Not sure what they should be but it'd be nice to have some numbers written down just in case the tyre shop aren't too sure.
Front: 295mm and -1.9° camber
Rear: 285mm and -2.5° camber
I'll bring the rears up another 10mm in the next few days, then give it a week or two and get it aligned. I reckon -2.5° on the front and -2° on the rear would be about bang on but I will do a bit more research, same for tracking specs... Not sure what they should be but it'd be nice to have some numbers written down just in case the tyre shop aren't too sure.
Soldato
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5mm sapcers for the front and finally a stud conversion fitted.
Went for a good drive last night, the inside front wheel has gained so much more traction out of corners, still needs a diff but it has certainly become a quicker car... **** knows where the limit is with it now though, far beyond where my levels of skill and bravery will ever take it
We shaved the inside lip of the tyre a fraction though, good call on the spacers.
Rear camber]
Went for a good drive last night, the inside front wheel has gained so much more traction out of corners, still needs a diff but it has certainly become a quicker car... **** knows where the limit is with it now though, far beyond where my levels of skill and bravery will ever take it
We shaved the inside lip of the tyre a fraction though, good call on the spacers.
Rear camber]
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Hobo-tec intercooler bought
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Rear control arms to set up the camber properly, front lower strut brace, larger intercooler and some aluminium sheet for the ducting.
IC turned up slightly damaged, (see the bent mounting tabs) so they gave me £15 refund. £62
IC turned up slightly damaged, (see the bent mounting tabs) so they gave me £15 refund. £62
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Intercooler on, started to modify the stock cowling to duct the air over the now bigger core evenly... More coming on that once I have come up with an idea
strut brace on, took less that 10 minutes to fit and doesn't sit as low as I expected. Doesn't feel as sturdy as I was expecting.
Lifted the back end up maybe another 10mm too. We'll see how that settles.
Abandoned fitting the RCAs, can't for the life of me get the inboard bolts out by the fuel tank :/
strut brace on, took less that 10 minutes to fit and doesn't sit as low as I expected. Doesn't feel as sturdy as I was expecting.
Lifted the back end up maybe another 10mm too. We'll see how that settles.
Abandoned fitting the RCAs, can't for the life of me get the inboard bolts out by the fuel tank :/
Soldato
You've made some good progress!
I haven't really done a lot to mine recently. The weather has been so miserable that it's been difficult to. I did clean it a couple of days ago though and it came up beautifully! So shiny. I also bought a second hand top strut brace for £35 delivered! It's a Fletcher one and normally ~£60. I don't expect it to do a whole bunch, but it looks good
RCA's on a lot of cars can be a PITA. Often they require other parts to be loosened/rocked out of the way to get them out. Have you had yours aligned yet?
How's the intercooler? I looked at the hobo ones on eBay and although I was satisfied that it would cool more efficiently than the standard one, I couldn't be bothered with trying to make diverters or getting it to fit/boost leaks etc. I bought my Airtec second hand so hopefully I should just be able to sell it for the same amount I bought it!
I haven't really done a lot to mine recently. The weather has been so miserable that it's been difficult to. I did clean it a couple of days ago though and it came up beautifully! So shiny. I also bought a second hand top strut brace for £35 delivered! It's a Fletcher one and normally ~£60. I don't expect it to do a whole bunch, but it looks good
RCA's on a lot of cars can be a PITA. Often they require other parts to be loosened/rocked out of the way to get them out. Have you had yours aligned yet?
How's the intercooler? I looked at the hobo ones on eBay and although I was satisfied that it would cool more efficiently than the standard one, I couldn't be bothered with trying to make diverters or getting it to fit/boost leaks etc. I bought my Airtec second hand so hopefully I should just be able to sell it for the same amount I bought it!
Soldato
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Weather has been really good up here until yesterday so I've spent a lot of time in the garden.
Looks like it'll be easier to drop the sub frame to get the RCA's on, ordering some new bolts from Cotswold to replace them as the heads are toast. Not had an alignment done yet, I've got a knock I'm trying to track down... Got rear ARB bushes to go on... Have you got any knocking? Not sure if my drop links are the problem or the coilovers. Been over everything checked its all tight. Removed the rears to fit the damping adjuster extenders and still got the knocking so... Not sure.
Once I'm done fiddling and happy I will get alignment done.
I haven't had the obd reader out yet to check IAT and boost pressures yet but initial thoughts are OK. For 62 quid its money well spent... Assuming temps have dropped
Took some fiddling on the hot side clamp to get it sealed up but no too bad.
Looks like it'll be easier to drop the sub frame to get the RCA's on, ordering some new bolts from Cotswold to replace them as the heads are toast. Not had an alignment done yet, I've got a knock I'm trying to track down... Got rear ARB bushes to go on... Have you got any knocking? Not sure if my drop links are the problem or the coilovers. Been over everything checked its all tight. Removed the rears to fit the damping adjuster extenders and still got the knocking so... Not sure.
Once I'm done fiddling and happy I will get alignment done.
I haven't had the obd reader out yet to check IAT and boost pressures yet but initial thoughts are OK. For 62 quid its money well spent... Assuming temps have dropped
Took some fiddling on the hot side clamp to get it sealed up but no too bad.
Soldato
Nope no knocking whatsoever from mine, now that I tightened that ARB links. Where are you getting the knocking from? I'm currently thinking about getting mine aligned but not sure what the best settings for track would be. I don't have anyone near me who knows about properly setting up suspension, so it'll be over to me to get the specs that I want and then give it to the guy doing it.
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Yeah I gotta go over my ARBs, do you know anything about longer/shorter ones now we're lower? Necessary or not?
TBH I'll likely just go to F1 Autocentre near me and have it aligned to factory specs... Like you I don't know enough on the subject to make an informed decision so I'll go with std for now.
TBH I'll likely just go to F1 Autocentre near me and have it aligned to factory specs... Like you I don't know enough on the subject to make an informed decision so I'll go with std for now.
Soldato
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Flat tyre, abs and traction control lights all came on earlier as I turned right into the work carpark... Looks like a wheel speed sensor has taken a **** now :/
Soldato
I'm not really sure tbh. The standard ones are 300mm and they seem to be ok with the level of lowering I have. I discovered that I've also got some 270mm ones that I never fitted to my old 330ci so may fit them to see if they work better.
Oh rubbish. It appears as though it's the season for ABS sensors! My girlfriend's had one go a couple of months ago, then one of mine went last week, then one on my mum's car this week! Do you have software to be able to plug into the car? If so it's a nice easy job and a used genuine ABS sensor is only a tenner so nothing too bad.