Northern's R56 Mini Cooper S

[Northern]

Something went wonky with tracking/delay on my FCPEuro order, so after asking for tracking, they refunded my shipping.
Annoying that it happened, but happy with their customer service.
In the meantime, I duct taped over the battery access hole.

I learned that the "Visibility Pack" means it came with a heated windscreen. Sadly, some dickhead swapped it out for the cheapest replacement at some point during the car's life.

I started chasing the high load/high RPM misfire I had.
New Bosch coils (OE were Denso) and NGK 1422 (ILKR8E6) plugs from Rockauto, plus a 16pt spark plug socket to remove the original plugs.
The OE plugs are apparently NGK 95770 ILZBR7B8DG.
New plugs are commonly suggested by the forums, differences being .024" gap instead of .031", Heat range 8 instead of 7, and Projected tip instead of Extended Projection.



Honestly I don't know anything about iridium plugs and how they should/shouldn't look, but one did have a crack in the porcelain at the tip.








Chased some rattles in the engine bay - Airbox had two mounts missing, coil beauty cover had one rubber missing.



The driver side door is starting to drive me insane. It doesn't latch when you swing the door closed, and needs an extra pull/push.
Basically every thread on this says it's the window regulator not winding the frameless window down when the door opens, but mine works fine.
Door has zero play/sag in the hinge.
If I oil the latch, it works fine for 2 days, then it's back on it's bullshit.

Exhaust is getting old. Pure drone from off idle up to like 2200RPM. I really need to do something about it.

Confirmed FWD/Open diff cars are awful in the snow despite winter tires:


Basically zero progress otherwise. Spent a week and a bit in Quebec for work, then lost a few days with a snow storm, and now I have family visiting until the new year.



Pretty significant snowfall overnight after the first snow pic, but was all gone 48 hours later.

[2mAn]

Exhaust is getting old. Pure drone from off idle up to like 2200RPM. I really need to do something about it.

Simple solution, drive at WOT everywhere keeping RPMs over 3000 all day, err day

[Northern]

I mean that is an option I suppose.
Also the stupid cold start/catalyst heating function makes the car loud as hell at idle for the first minute or so.
I'd love to turn that off even if I add a resonator.

[Northern]

Exhaust is getting old. Pure drone from off idle up to like 2200RPM. I really need to do something about it.

Same shit, different month. Resonator still not installed.

I started getting a suspension clunk, wasn't sure why (Obviously I CBF to jack the car up and look) until I found a late Christmas present in the driveway:



I was planning to do something with the suspension anyway, but that forced my hand.




Bilstein B12 Pro Kit from FCPeuro. I think the box they put the bilstein box in was definitely large enough (And FedEx decided it would be worth a fine ransom fee)

Around this time, the car decided air should not be in the tire one random morning.
The mini is one of those runflat cars, and the winter tires aren't runflats, so I got to use the new tire pump.
No idea why this happened, but it's been fine since.




Some shitbox BM Outback content:
This has been making sad bearing noises for a while, and finally decided to send the serp belt to space.
I thought it was the alternator, but it turns out it was the idler, so new belt/idler/tensioner and it is happy.
Fairly impressive bearing failure




Back to the Mini. Front suspension one afternoon, rears over the weekend. Easy stuff, just regret not buying new mounts/spring perches, because now I have to do this again at some point.





Old Strut Video Here



On the other side:


And the rears, drowned in fluidfilm:




It drives like a different car. I'm sure more from fixing the blown shock on one side and broken spring on the other, but even when new, people complained about the front end skipping over expansion joints and bumps and there's none of that anymore. Ride height also still seems reasonable.




Basically I just want this to hold together until spring. Then I can install some items from the original FCP order, a resonator, some basic performance mods I've been sitting on, and get a few things checked over (Accessories, carbon buildup, timing chain/tensioner).

Had a few expensive bills in Jan/Feb, so I'm hoping to get all that paid off before I do much else.

[2mAn]

Same shit, different month. Resonator still not installed.

Dont lie, you know you love the racecar noises

And the rears, drowned in fluidfilm:

Is that maple syrup? You guys really love that stuff eh

[Panici]

My ex had an R53 (1st gen supercharged).
Although it was fun to drive, it was a PAIN to work on. I had to blow the whole front end apart just to change an alternator.
Also had awful drone after I pulled the muffler off and straight piped the rear section. I wonder if she ever decided to put a muffler back on?

Hopefully the 2nd gen will be easier on you!

[Northern]

Dont lie, you know you love the racecar noises

Is that maple syrup? You guys really love that stuff eh

I don't think it sounds bad, but whatever cold start catalyst heating stuff it does is really loud.
There's only ~12' between my house and my neighbor (who is a friend), and while he doesn't complain about shitbox shenanigans, I'd like to be as civil as possible.
Also highway driving leaves your head ringing after an hour without earplugs, so it's not ideal.

Also I can't tell if that's purely a joke or if you're too warm and unsalted to be cursed with rusty cars and undercoating hahaha

[Northern]

My ex had an R53 (1st gen supercharged).
Although it was fun to drive, it was a PAIN to work on. I had to blow the whole front end apart just to change an alternator.
Also had awful drone after I pulled the muffler off and straight piped the rear section. I wonder if she ever decided to put a muffler back on?

Hopefully the 2nd gen will be easier on you!

I would've loved an R53 but they seem to be much more rare, and any R50/R53 here seems to be a complete rust bucket.
Probably would enjoy the go-kartiness of the R5x, but the R56 still has some of it.
Seems so far that the R56 is just as difficult to work on, has fewer chassis issues, but more engine issues lol.

I have a backup plan for the exhaust - there's a full stock setup on FB marketplace if the resonator doesn't make enough of a difference.

[Northern]

"Quick" ~2 month update.

I installed a bunch of 50mil Kilmat on the trunk floor, hoping to deal with the exhaust noise a bit before getting the resonator in, but it really didn't do much.

Speaking of the resonator, it went in. The Vband nut at the bottom of the downpipe looks like it's off the Titanic, so I didn't remove and TIG everything, instead MIG'd the whole thing in-situ and it still took me ~5 hours.
That led to some regrets about not just taking it to some muffler shop and having them blast it on. Could've saved a day of my life basically, but really thought I was going to make this already butchered exhaust nicer for no reason haha.

Not perfect, but did way more for the sound than it had any right to. Cold starts are tolerable, and I can talk to my wife at highway speeds.



Spent a lot of money in Feb/March...





It looks like it clears, but with tires it needed a 3mm spacer



General G-Max RS 225/45R17 installed (a bit O/S - Stock is 205/45. I'm tired of this BMW weird tire diameter shit, I chose to save $50/tire and have 3x the selection.):





Feels really good with the tires. Much less road noise than the winters on the now bent R108s.

I installed this cowl trim, went the winter with the battery access panel made of ducttape. Works fine, but wasn't right.




Tricked by the Mini community again about TPMS and wasted two days googling/searching for it in NCS Expert.
The moment I turned the key after swapping wheels, it threw a low tire warning. Reset it and it came back next start.

Despite what the internet says, this car doesn't have TPMS, it has Flat Tire Monitoring, which compares ABS wheel speed to find low tires.
ONLY the US market comes with TPMS.

I have no idea why the low tire pressure light came on when it did, but it threw me for a loop.
I must've screwed up the reset the low tire warning, so it didn't really "come back"
At the end of the day, there's no low tire warning and I saved the $200 for sensors, so I guess that's a win.


Car continues to sip fuel (something like 29MPG combined) and doesn't seem to burn oil.

[Northern]

Took it to ISI Automotive to have a cold start rattle looked at.
Car has 160k km (~100k mi) so thinking chain is due and maybe a walnut blast.

Basically they want to change the chain tensioner (updated part) and check back at 200k (km).
Recommended an oil flush because of how much buildup they've found in other cars with 15k+ mile oil change intervals.
With how little oil was in this when I bought it, I'm not surprised.
Also mentioned shifter bushings could be better and the FL wheel bearing is new but already making noise.


Signed up for the High Performance Driving School in May - I've wanted to do this for 10 years.
Would love to do it in the E30, but basically it needs a hell of a lot of work to be ready in a month...

[Panici]

New wheels look good. Doggo seems to like them anyways!

[Northern]

New wheels look good. Doggo seems to like them anyways!

Thank you! She definitely was a little suspicious at the very least. haha

I forgot to say: They're Konig Dekagrams, 17x8 ET45. 16.83 lb.
(Stock R108 are 17x7 and 22.9lb, so 6lb unsprung/rotating mass reduction before you consider the larger tires)

I originally was eyeing the Sparco FF-1 in the same size/offset, but I couldn't find them North of the border for anywhere close to what TireRack has them listed for.

[Northern]

Not much to report. Fulfilling daily duties pretty well, even if the exhaust needs some more muffling lol.

Hauling E30 tires


PNG'd from the driveway along with the other cars to make room for the roofing dumpster:

[Northern]

Finally made it to an Autoslalom with this nugget.
I had a blast. First Autox in a FWD car, and 5 years since I did an autox in gerneral (and it shows.)




Another guy was a class down with a pre-LCI R56 Cooper S and absolutely slaughtered me.
He did change tires to something else, but no idea what they were, or what mods it had. To add insult to injury, he also had a passenger lol.

Car felt really good, but I have no point of reference.
The "Low Brake Torque" brakes are still on the car and felt fine. I was called out for using too much brake as well.
Car feels like it wants more power (I'm sure the O/S tires don't help), bigger rear bar is a really popular mod, probably because the front end pushes really bad.

I wanted gopro footage but realized I lent all my mounts and adapters to someone.

[Northern]

2-for-1 deal on posts today:




Not sure who's touring, reminds me of a facelift version of 2mAn 's old E46
Red E36 coupe is the FTD car by Steve from ISI Automotive.





Colin's CRX Si, and Scott's M3. Both typically in the running for FTD.



No idea who's car this is, but I like E36 sedans more and more.




Other mini: