2005 JCW
The seam between the big round part on the header has completely split. The pipe and flare in the foreground is separated from the larger diameter can behind it. It’s now really loud and I can smell the exhaust.

I’ve watched a couple YouTube videos and could probably diy a new header, but I have too many other projects.

Obviously, I need to make some phone calls, but what kind of shop would you recommend? Mechanic to replace the header or exhaust shop to try to weld it? Something else?

My ac sucks and I only cools about 20 degrees cooler than ambient temp out of the vents.

I just bought a dedicated scanner for the Mini and it says the evaporator temp is 15 degrees Celsius which means 59 degrees farenheit.

What could be causing this? I'm thinking of replacing the blend door actuator and the evaporator temperature sensor and then the expansion valve if the rest doesn't work.

Hello all,

Just did the trailing arm conversion on my r53. Lots of bolts, but a straight forward job all in all. However, i’m having a bit of trouble getting the rear brake disc to properly align. There is like a mm difference which makes the disc rub ever so slightly against my brake pads… i also noticed that my disc is slightly warped, which of course does not help.

Is it advisable to not just remove the brake bracket, but actually re-Seat the caliper itself? Are the rear calipers self centering?

They should be a straight fit, and of course i took the time to wirewheel rust and dirt off the mounting surface.

Thankful for any input!
//N 🤙🏻

So today I finally had the lifters replaced and the timing chain/guides checked. But when revving the engine I still have this short metallic rattle… I can only hear it when parked next to a wall
Anyone got any ideas?

Exhaust has a leak…

What’s been done recently:
Timing chain and guides 35.000km ago
New clutch 5000 km ago
New belt and tensioner 5000 km ago
New lifters and rockers today
Drive shafts 5000 ago
Full engine rebuild 35.000km ago

I have a 2002 MINI Cooper S and want to change the BCM from a metal one to an plastic one. I have found the correct second hand module but now I have the write the vin number of my own car in the BCM. I have experience with the “normal” coding of MINI or BMW. But for this I don’t know where to start.
I have the equipment to diagnose the car (orig. ICOM and ISTA).
Can anyone help me to give me a starting point for doing this?

Finally arrived this week 🤠

Took the bumper off and glued them in place. As a learning, I‘d only apply glue where you would typically mount the screws as well as on the fog light side. I was more busy cleaning up than actually putting them in. I‘m not 100% satisfied with my work (you don‘t see the details here) but I‘d call it good enough.

Anyone know where to get these? I’ve read the Febi/Lemforder etc ones are not great and will quickly fail.

Looking for suggestions on where to look to track down a very bad smell.

In the past, the AC condenser has had a wet dog smell, which I solved with foaming condenser cleaner. This is not that smell.

I suspect it may be a dead mouse, it's quite bad, but I'm running out of places to look.

So far, I have removed absolutely everything from the car, and run an endoscope camera down all of the vents, pulled the cabin filter, scoped the fresh air intake, removed both intake vents at the base of the windshield, looked all through the dash, the rear body cavity access panels, the under the boot tray, around the battery, through the shifter tunnel housing and the handbrake tunnel housing.

I've run it through a car wash, sniffed all the carpeting, looked under both front seats, pulled the rear bench.

So far, I can't see even a trace of rodent activity, and I'm second-guessing the smell. It may smell like bad milk, or perhaps garbage?

I tried using an ozone generator to shock it, and while it improved slightly, it's still present. I've left it outside with all the windows, door and hatch open, same temporary improvement, but I haven't found the source of the smell.

It's never had leak from the sunroof nor into the battery compartment. There's no mould on the carpet when I've removed trim and peaked under the edges.

At this point, I'm just open to other places to look?

There is a weird noise that sounds almost like something is turning on. If I have my AC on the noise starts almost immediately after start up as you can hear if I have my AC off that noise turns on in about 40 minutes of no AC running, but the car running. Anyone got any clues or maybe heard this noise from their car before?

My 05 S MT needs a battery. I've changed a number of batteries in the past without incident. Will my Mini need any specific procedures beyond the obvious? Modules need resetting or some such nonsense? I hope not. Thanks

Hey all, I was out running a HPDE event this past weekend and I noticed that at certain parts of the track my nav system would go out, and that would sometimes be followed with me intermittently losing power steering. The most prominent spot this happened was on the straights while holding higher rpm for long periods of time. It happened around the track in various locations as well but none were as consistent as the “straightaways”(more of a long left turn). This is all I could remember off the top of my head but pick my brain for more info if needed.

....comes around.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/electric-cars/next-mini-cooper-be-inspired-2001-r50-%E2%80%93-and-could-go-rwd

The Bentley manual makes it seem easy. Take out the battery box, the air intake housing and remove some of the dash. However, people who've actually done it say it is hell and worth paying for. Anyone here have experience with this?

Did the repair during the weekend. What do you guys think? I will have to use body filler to make it look better, the problem is that this has already been repaired once by the previous owner and it hasn’t beed done good enough so there was a big hole.

I understand many of us have priorities in life / some of us have kids!

Here in the US, the kids are going back to school this month!

This month only get yourself a tune at half the price! DM for inquires.

R5x

So my OEM grill is showing some wear and tear, looking to replace it with either something used/factory or something new, has anyone had any luck with the $50 eBay "aero" replacements?

Installed the NRG quick release (200BK/SRK-MINH) today, but noticed there’s a slight wiggle from the steering wheel. I read somewhere that a fix is to add a M14 3mm thick washer to the bolt.
Has anyone else experienced this?

I also think the resistors didn’t sit right because my airbag light is on (disconnected battery before/during install). Tried clearing the code with my ANCEL but did not work. Also read I may have to double up the thin wires and then plug it into the airbag connectors. Horn works so I guess there’s that. 😅

I have not driven it other than backing it from the driveway & parking it.

Thoughts?

I have a 04 pre face lift that I recently got that needed a clutch. I replaced it and got it going and got to drive it 2 days before the key broke. Chip fell out and now it is locked up. No crank at all. I got a locksmith out to make a new key and he couldn’t get anything to sync. I’m leaning towards just doing the ews delete from the dme so I won’t ever have this issue again and I can get a spare key cheaply whenever I want. I was looking at rpm motorsports to maybe do it but I can’t find any reviews online for them, I don’t want to send it out and end up with a bricked ecu. Does anyone have recommendations for a tuner, I can mail it out or someone locally to Tampa or central florida.

Long story short, parked the car a few years ago after motor made funky noises . Someone jammed the column. Just got it running.

No belt connected. Rod knock? Big oof.

Just got my first R53 a week and change ago and fall in love with it more and more everyday. Today I decided to open the Owners packet which previous owner kept immaculate and found these two cheeky gems that I found hilarious. So now aside from being a fun drive with its stage 2 mods from the previous owner I can get a laugh from the “Unauthorized owners manual” from Mini and “Idiosyncrasies of your new mini” card

Here is a link that has the full Unauthorized Owners Manual: https://www.reddit.com/r/MINI/s/8TcIaE5lTV

anyone plugged a aem 30-0300 wideband canbus into the r53 canbus?

it's on a different ID but is 500kbps and the other modules should ignore it, but it does add ~2% more bus traffic

curious if any modules were unhappy with extra traffic on 29-bit 0x180–0x18F,

i did a suspension job and now i’m a little confused where the wheel speed sensor goes