Y'all wrench on your R53 Mini?

"wbizarre - OEM fetishist" (wbizarre)
02/03/2015 at 20:03 • Filed to: MINI

From what I've read the first-gen Cooper S doesn't top the reliability charts, and that's fine with me. But is it easy to work on yourself? Coming from BMW ownership I'm not expecting years(or even months) of completely worry-free operation. But I do hope to be able to fix things that go wrong with relative ease - things like alternators, cooling system bits, maintenance/wear items like shocks/belts, etc. Does the entire front end of the R53 need to come off to get access to anything? That super-dupercharger too...is that a capricious item? Do you wrench on your own, or do you take it to a dealer/shop?

p.s. found this great picture too:

DISCUSSION (18)

HammerheadFistpunch > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/03/2015 at 20:07

Common items include:

lunched super pricey fuel pump

mushroomed strut towers

cv joints

roflcopter > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/03/2015 at 20:11

My buddy has one. And I'd say that he has had more issues with it than I have had with my RX8, which is saying something.

That being said, I've helped him work on it a decent bit, always with performance mods, never maintenance though... I helped install a FMIC in it(never doing that again), intake(quite easy), exhaust(on par with other cars), and a few other little things. I would say my biggest takeaway from those adventures was that there really isn't much room(I'm used to FR setups, not FF) but I doubt it's worse than most other FWD cars out there. Just be prepared to be a contortionist occasionally.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/03/2015 at 20:12

Things that do go wrong - mushrooming strut towers, fuel pump and for ours, the window winders.

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > roflcopter
02/03/2015 at 20:14

Thanks! Yes, that's exactly what I was getting at. All I have experience with is FR cars with inline sixes, which is pretty much as accessible as it gets.

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > HammerheadFistpunch
02/03/2015 at 20:17

Mushroomed strut towers seem like a pretty permanent deal - they can't exactly be hammered back into place, can they? So probably just worth it to get some reinforcement plates as preventative maintenance?

roflcopter > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/03/2015 at 20:18

The car definitely seems less reliable on the surface than other 'performance' cars I've dealt with, but the guy I know also isn't the best person to judge off of. Between him and his dad they have a 306 stroker powered Foxbody that's battle-boxed on drag radials and skinny's up front, a 2014 GT500, and a 351 powered '94 Cobra with a 78mm turbo and more spray than you can imagine that's tubbed and runs in the 6 second range, so the Cooper(the son's daily) is obviously not treated very well as far as beating on it goes, and he's not the most mechanically savvy person around. But it stands up to the abuse, just costs a bit along the way it would seem.

Desu-San-Desu > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/03/2015 at 21:06

I dunno, honestly. I've only had mine for about a month and so far everything has been hunky-dory. I have, noticed, however, that the community for them is MASSIVE and very supportive.

Due to their reputation, I made sure I got a 2006 S, instead of an earlier one.

Desu-San-Desu > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/03/2015 at 21:08

Go with the Cravenspeed's- I'll be getting a set myself later this month. I'm lucky that mine show no mushrooming so far. Luckily, mushroomed towers CAN be fixed, but it's recommended to install defender plates as soon as you do.

Anon > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/03/2015 at 21:24

Yes, it is a pain in the ass. I owned an R50 and my god doing anything was a pain in the ass. If you wanted to change the oil filter, you have to get shoulder deep into the cramped engine bay with a specialty wrench. It uses star nuts that are a pain in the ass to find in the right size. Also good luck finding the air filter for the manual transmission model, yes that's right the manual transmission and the auto have different shaped air filters. 0/10 would not work on again.

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > Anon
02/03/2015 at 21:47

Well shit, that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Thanks for the info! Back to scouring the globe for an e46 wagon ...

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > Desu-San-Desu
02/03/2015 at 21:49

Best of luck with yours! After all the reading of the forums and the responses here so far, I think I'll steer away from it for now. But yea, it seems the later model years are better.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/04/2015 at 02:55

I see you've already reconsidered but here's some more in case the idea pops into your head again...

I've seen more than my fair share of head gaskets and cracked heads.

The gears on the back of the supercharger that drive the water pump like to disintegrate. Last I checked this required replacement of the supercharger and water pump.

The electric power steering pumps fail often.

Window regulators might as well be made of popsicle sticks and rubber bands.

They have a tendency to spin bearings if driven hard on a track sure to oil starvation.

The #3 post on the ignition coil is always corroded.

The power steering fan and AC fan both like to fail.

They're not terribly pleasant to work on, I don't mind them so much but the average person would probably throw most of his tools through a wall before finishing most anything on one of these.

On the other hand, they're fun to drive, easy to mod, and the 6 speed trans is pretty tough (unlike the 5 speed in non-S models).

Tripper > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/04/2015 at 08:32

My fiance has got one. I don't work on it, but it has not been much trouble in 70k miles. For whatever reason it's really easy to knock out of alignment though. Also the tires need to be rotated often.

The only bad thing I remember happening is the battery compartment began taking on water! We had it looked at twice, the guys at the shop went crazy with the hose and driving it back and forth through a puddle and they could not make it leak. I have seen moisture in there since then, but never a puddle the way we did the first time that we noticed. The water fried the passenger air back sensor, finally getting an estimate to fix that today after 3 years.

Such a fun car to drive.

DarrenMR > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/04/2015 at 11:06

Actually you do hammer them back into place, but you are definitely going to want to add reinforcement plates if they are bad enough to be hammered.

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > DarrenMR
02/04/2015 at 13:16

Interesting. I thought once bent, the structural rigidity would be compromised forever.

DarrenMR > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/04/2015 at 15:56

My passenger side was just a tiny bit mushroomed. Put a 2x4 on it and gave it a couple of whacks and it was straight. Put some Ireland Engineering fixed camber plates on. Done.

3/16ths thick plate.

http://www.waymotorworks.com/ireland-engine…

Levitas > wbizarre - OEM fetishist
02/05/2015 at 00:16

Might be a bit late but I own a 2003 R50, and personally I think it's lovely to wrench on. Yes it's small and cramped, but that means everything is smaller and almost always within reach.

I'll start by saying that the 05-06 model year R53 (Cooper S) models are the best in terms of performance, modability, and reliability. The Getrag transmission is fantastic, some people run almost 300hp through it. There are dozens of aftermarket vendors with replacement parts for almost everything (personally recommend Way from WayMotorWorks, absolutely fantastic to work with!).

In my own experience, the best thing you can do is look at many different cars, and wait for the one in the right condition. I bought the second one I looked at, and I sorely regret it. I have put on about 30k miles since I bought it, and I've done a transmission, engine mounts, strut mounts, exhaust bracket, rear lights, a battery, a starter, ball joints, control arm bushings, and brakes. This is ignoring almost all of the stuff that is rusted to bits that I don't want to look at should it disintegrate.

And for maintenance: I've done everything all on my own in either parking garages or on the street (except for the tranny: borrowed the parents garage for that). And I've done it all with a simple Craftsman socket/wrench set and a few extras like a jack/stands and some other tools. Hell, I just got done doing the starter in the parking lot, on ice, in single digit temperatures, and it actually only took me 3 hours to get out and put back in. Even for the transmission, if I had to do it again, I could easily do it in less than 8 hours. The small size of almost everything makes it simple to work on (even compared to my brothers e36 M3).

I hope this post wasn't toooooo long winded, but will give you some insight into ownership. If you're interested in more reading, take a look at NorthAmericanMotoring, where there are tons of MINI owners/advice.

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > Levitas
02/05/2015 at 21:35

I'm glad you had a good experience! That's a pretty early year too, I've read those are usually more problematic. But I gotta say, the preponderance of evidence is in the other direction. If it were to be my weekend car I might have considered it further, but as I'm looking for a daily driver, I'll have to let the Mini pass.