Northern's R56 Mini Cooper S

[Northern]

$300 later, No leak found, but AC charged and working. Dye in system if it leaks again.

Brought this car to my Wife's family reunion for her cousin to drive his family around while we were up there. Car performed as close to flawlessly as can be expected.
Exhaust smacks the bumper cutout on bumps, one of the license plate lights died again, and my aux/bluetooth/power setup no longer works unless positioned perfectly, but that's it.










Still fighting the boost oscillation issue, but there are a few things left to check before I push the car off a cliff (for legal reasons - this is a joke)

[Northern]

PCV heater code hasn't come back.

I bought a new vacuum gauge, vac pump now reads 26.5inHg using the janky vacuum line tee/tap setup above, which probably likely leaks a bit.
Press the brake pedal - Gauge drops 5inHg
Recovery back to 26.5inHg takes approximately 15 seconds.
Based on the Pelican article above, the pump is good.

Trying to find time to drive the car a bit, and diagnose the AC issue before I do a 7 hour drive in this car on Wed. Hoping it's something to do with the wiring for the compressor clutch, as that's the only thing I touched (other than the evaporator when I was installing the FMIC, but I don't know how I could've done anything to that...)


...
No power to the compressor connector (X1936-1) when AC is on. Suspected I messed up a wire trying to get the FMIC coupler installed.

Guess I'll figure out where that wire goes before I cut all the insulation off:


A4010 is the junction box behind the access panel in the passenger footwell.

No power at X11007-9 (Front edge, middle connector, white wire)
Fuse 24 in this panel has power.

So something is wrong with one of:
K19 Relay
IHKA
Or some input to the IHKA (bad sensor, low refrigerant, some other error)

Not super pumped.

...

Just checked and there's no line pressure, so definitely a leak somewhere.

[Northern]

Continuation of the above...

New cheapo LED turn signals, but at least they're not yellow/brown. I grabbed bulb holders from a junkyard to hook them up. Wish they had an OE clear cover to match the other one I have, but oh well.


New downstream O2 to fix the code, it was really in there but it managed not to destroy the threads in the DP.


New RL stuff. Shock mount metal bits and the subframe all look really rough. One downside of the garage is that I'm hesitant to spray things like Corrosion Inhibiting Compounds because there's no ventilation. Not sure how to get around that atm. I need to grab a blower fan and some tube or something.


This side sucked even more than the left. The dust boot wasn't even installed on the caliper piston, just hanging loosely. Piston wouldn't budge, so I ended up replacing the caliper. Prefilled the new caliper and it was easy to bleed.


Moving onto the boost gauge. It's really a pain to get at the firewall in this car unless you want to pass through the passenger side. I ended up popping the driver side cowling up enough to wedge my arm in and pass the hard boost line thru the hood release grommet, because that was the most accessible spot. I have a lot of adapters between the MAF boost tap and the hard line, but I'm hoping it holds.

Used an Autometer gauge since it kind of matches the gauges - probably would look better if I painted the trim ring black, but later.
Basically started with one of the Thingiverse boost gauges and redid it from the ground up to sit flush with the rest of the cluster, have a way to bolt the gauge in place with adjustment, and a little lip so I can eventually print a backshell.




On the ground, ready to come out of hibernation.



Quickjack fits almost perfectly in the corner. Would be nice to have another inch or two to the outlet, but it'll be fine as long as I hang the left and right frame in the correct spots.



Trying to test the vacuum pump. 23 inHg looks bad, but I think it's the gauge setup... going to verify soon with a better gauge, following the PelicanParts article, since the TIS is extremely vague.






Car just passed inspection this morning.
Had a P053A and I found the PCV heater connectors not seated 100%. I've also heard people say they can be seated too far and not make connection. If it comes back, I'll mess with it more.

AC seems to have died since I last drove it. Not sure what to make of that, but it would be nice if that worked lol.

Scorpion Exhaust sounds a lot deeper. Quiet at idle but not under throttle.

Gas is old, so I'm going to try to burn a tank running errands before I give it the beans, but under moderate throttle, I'm still getting a boost oscillation around 10psi.

Basically plan of attack will be:
Burn existing tank of gas.
Check vac pump function, and replace if at all sketchy.
Replace Throttle pedal because there was some thread about it, and I have a brand new one in a box somewhere.
Get Testo or RomraiderLogger working with this car to take some actual logs and see if it shows anything.
See what actual boost this hits since the Torque logs are too slow to be useful and I think it's actually displaying absolute pressure instead of boost.

[Northern]

20-some days later, still zero response from scorpion. I'll probably send the email again.
I feel another exhaust in my future...

Over the past month I've made a bit of progress. Was hoping to be done by August but that clearly didn't happen.

I don't know what it is, but bumpers on newer cars are always a complete twat to remove. A lot of the plastic pins were so seized, I just cut them off.




The intake muffler on the hotside piping is held on by a T25 screw that's absolutely buried halfway up the backside of the rad support. I spent a long time trying to remove it before choosing the nuclear option of destroying the mounting boss from the front of the car:



I kept up that theme when removing the diverter valve. The screw was corroded into the BOV spacer and completely stripped with no clearance for a damaged bolt remover or anything. I already ordered the updated DV at this point, so I just snapped the old DV off. Should've done this months ago.



Hotside piping out for delete





A lot of cracked plastics at the bottom of the front of the car. PO must've crushed the bumper against a curb or something.

Brake ducts, new & old :


Lower bumper mounts ziptied and epoxied back together:



New fogs are pretty cheap vs the time to polish



Fogs and new duct installed:



Snapped off / spare / Updated DV:



Installed, sans BOV spacer.



Everything here is basically roasted. No-name pads feel like crap according to the shop that did my post-purchase once-over.


Calipers seem to work fine, so I'm going to run them for another cycle. New Pagids and some cheap coated rotors:


New FMIC in. I should've notched the rad support like some guides suggest, because it is offset to one side by like an inch.



Bumper back on with new ducts, new fogs,



Old smoked ebay LED turn signals. I'll take pics of the new ones at some point.


Rear brakes are equally pooched.



Honestly this car has the most hateful parking brake setup I've ever seen. I've had normal BMW/Subaru drum parking brakes, Manual twist-back calipers on my old Mazda, and have EPB motor calipers on my Volvo, but these ones absolutely suck. I just don't understand how you can twist either way and the piston comes out. You basically need C-clamp force to push it back, WHILE spinning it.

My tried-and-true needlenose plier method did nothing other than extend the piston. Ended up watching some videos where they used a C-clamp and channel-loks to do it. It works but it's sketchy enough that I finally caved and bought the thirty dollarest caliper tool on amazon.



Back to the front of the car. Wastegate actuator has been a trip.
I tried to adjust this one a year or more ago to try to mess with my boost oscillation issue.
One adjuster nut was seized so bad, I sheared the shaft off. I welded it back on, but there was no adjustment and my issue was still happening.
I swapped an N14 actuator, but it's different and didn't solve my issue either.
So I managed to find a long M6 stainless bolt and graft it onto the actuator. Hell, I even made a jig to weld it.



Turned out quite well honestly



N14 left, N18 right. I imagine the diaphragm size impacts how much force the air can exert on the shaft.
Travel vs vacuum is similar, so the spring might be stronger too?




Front end just needs a boost tap, then the engine bay stuff is done.
One more rear brake now that I have the tool, then the wheels can go back on.
Then it's just replacing the rear fog/reverse bulb housing, and finding some trim rivets for the front bumper and the car can come back down.

[Northern]

yeah I watched an embarrassing amount of exhaust videos, and read basically every review out there before I settled on the scorpion one. Genuinely disappointed, but serves me right for not building my own, really.

Sent them an email, but no idea what the hell they're going to be able to do about it. One of the more knowledgeable R56 guys pointed this problem out before so I think it's just the way these are. I'll probably live with it, maybe throw a vibrant on it at some point but they're way pricier than they used to be.

[Panici]

Wow, that's kind of embarrassing for Scorpion.
Thought they were a reputable brand, but perhaps quality has gone downhill.

[Northern]

Car has been sitting for 1.5 years after it failed MVI May 2023 for the front flex pipe.
I hated the butchered exhaust that was on the car, and went nuclear and bought a Scorpion catback with resonated center section.
Lots of other options out there, but most are very loud, no larger diameter than stock, or both.

I guess they were backordered, because it took 4 months, and I got distracted with progressing my in-progress garage, and to get my kitchen a sink and dishwasher before my daughter arrived in October, among other things.

Since then, Garage and kitchen are ~90% finished, I replaced the Outback with a Volvo (since this thread is a catch-all for my non-e30s), I bought some other Mini parts, and a Quickjack (as I posted in the Canada regional subforum).

Anyway, this car needs to run by August. I have 90% of parts I think.

How the 2 e30s and the mini spent the winter, as I wired and insulated:



Quickjack finally setup:



Exhaust stuff:





And here's the problem with the Scoripion setup... at the resonator it necks down to probably 2.25" and at the muffler it was even worse:



A bit of flipflop grinding later and it wasn't much better.



Side-to-side:



Up/down:



Not ideal... I'm going to finish installing, but I'll also message Scorpion and see what they say.
How can you market an exhaust as 2.75" if it necks down to <2"

[Northern]

Man, that's a huge bummer! Glad to see you are recovering well but yeah, probably why I don't ride as well.

Yeah I was always on the fence about the risk. Could've worked out better, but could've worked out worse so I'll probably take this as an opportunity to quit while I'm ahead and find new hobbies

Hope for a speedy recovery!

I’ve always been sketched out on motorcycles. In a car or motorcycle it’s just a matter of time untill something happens.

E30 expenses keep me working harder.

Minis are a good market for shops, I’m glad thought I stopped working on them. Just didn't’’t get the enjoyment.

Yeah, I've always heard that everyone eventually has a crash.
I always resisted that opinion and thought I would be fine if I don't speed, pay attention, wear the gear, respect the machine, and keep trying to educate myself on riding.

Unfortunately riding skill is a huge factor, and you can't develop that without riding, so it is what it is.

Geez sorry to hear about the knee. At least you are healing quicker then expected.

So the bike fell over on your leg or ???.

Wondering if gear could have helped at all with that injury? I think my leathers have some sort of built-in knee protection but I don't know to what extent it would help with a crush from the side.

I think my leg caught under the bike and twisted sideways as I went over the top.
The mechanism of injury is the same as an ACL tear, hyperextending or bending out to the side.

[Panici]

Geez sorry to hear about the knee. At least you are healing quicker then expected.

So the bike fell over on your leg or ???.

Wondering if gear could have helped at all with that injury? I think my leathers have some sort of built-in knee protection but I don't know to what extent it would help with a crush from the side.

[moatilliatta]

Hope for a speedy recovery!

I’ve always been sketched out on motorcycles. In a car or motorcycle it’s just a matter of time untill something happens.

E30 expenses keep me working harder.

Minis are a good market for shops, I’m glad thought I stopped working on them. Just didn't’’t get the enjoyment.

[Holland]

Man, that's a huge bummer! Glad to see you are recovering well but yeah, probably why I don't ride as well.

[Northern]

September thru November:

I started to get some clunking/popping in the front end when transitioning to/from a stop.
I picked up some new strut mounts from Rockauto to hopefully fix that.
Additionally, when I installed the B12/Pro-Kit, the upper perches were super rusty, so I ordered some on ebay from Latvia.

Threw the combo in:



The fun part was that one of the Bilstein specific strut nuts vanished after I removed them. I spent hours of my life looking for it before I caved and ordered a 25 pack from Fastenal, which took a few days to arrive. And of course the phone company chose this window to remove some old lines that stretched across my driveway, so I had to drive the car out onto the street sans strut nut.

R108's were bent all to hell from the last winter, and the mobile wheel repair guy that services the dealerships vanished a few months back, so I went to down with a deadblow/hammer/etc to straighten the inner lips and for the first time bought some X-Ice Snows in 5% O/S.



I dragged the wife to the local Kenny U-Pull where they had a pre-LCI MCS I wanted to steal some trim from.
I assumed the turbo would be long gone, but the car was fairly intact when I found it.

I snagged:
complete Turbo + Manifold
one Scuttle light/trim
Some chrome beltline trim (mine has been sanded/plastidipped/peeled and most pieces are missing the end caps)
Misc hardware

Wastegate actuator adjustment for future reference. This one is different (smaller, has a weight on the shaft?) than what was on my car, but I installed it anyway. No change in the boost oscillation.



Scuttle trim without the plastidip residue and scratches:



Valve cover was leaking for a while so I finally went for it.
The way the bolts have a captive steel hat that holds the gasket is truly a pain in the ass to work with, forcing the gasket into the slot in the VC while forcing it over the bottom lip of the thing is fucking awful, especially when you already dabbed some Ultra Grey in the corners/seams and are trying to get everything installed before it kicks off...



One of the new coils is already discoloured for some reason, not sure if this is a sign of heat/failure.



While I was in Quebec for work, I killed a morning walking around Princess Auto and found a vacuum tester to mess with the WG.
R56 Wastegates are backwards from any aftermarket setup. Basically, they're normally open, and the ECU controls a solenoid to allow vacuum from a vacuum pump to close the valve to increase boost.



I find 3 things about the wastegate adjustment on the forums, none of which appear in any official document.
Shaft length from Compressor Housing to WG arm: 151.5mm +- 2mm
WG Closed Vacuum: 7inHg - also see this as 15inHg on Pelican now so I need to look into this more...
WG rod travel: IIRC this was 35mm but can't find the reference now.
I think the 15inHg is the most logical, but I tried all of them with no success, suspect the wastegate is just worn out.



Annnd that brings us to November 9.

I commute mainly on my Motorcycle because I need more seniority for parking at work. When I was in school it was free to park a bike so it's been about 4 years commuting up basically until December/January.

Early November this year was uncharacteristically warm, 20degC (~68 F for most of you) every day until the 9th, when it dropped to freezing.

That morning, I rolled my bike out of my backyard and down the driveway and start it out in the street, then give it 10 seconds or so to get fluids circulating, then head up to the corner, 50' up the street.
As I slow to stop at the corner, I see the light at the intersection around the corner turn green, and there are no cars coming from the other direction, so I do a slow rolling stop to turn right.

As I turned, I remember thinking "wow i'm really leaned over, I should straighten up" just as the rear end of the bike came around and I land on the ground.
I don't remember 100% how I landed, but I hear the scraping/crunch sound of the bike hitting the ground, feel my knee crunch, and remember going over the top of the bike.

I laid there for probably 30 seconds (which felt like 5 minutes) doing a mental damage report. I managed to get on two feet and found my right knee felt like hell to move, and refused to hold my weight. Two guys in a Budget truck stopped to make sure I was OK, and rolled my bike back to my driveway. No idea who they were - I wish I could send them something. I texted my wife and she helped me limp to the car and we drove to Emerg.

A few hours, an Xray, CT scan, and some ortho exams later, I find out my Tibia is in at least 3 distinct pieces, but not displaced. Basically I would've torn my ACL but my ACL ripped the bone apart instead. Still not sure if any other ligaments are strained/damaged etc.



I was supposed to be in this splint for 6 weeks (Bone wasn't displaced, so just need it immobilized) but at Week 3 they were happy with the Xrays and stuck me in a knee brace to start physio.

Healing well but it fucking sucks to not be able to do anything. The week after I transitioned to the brace, I started going to work again just because I was stir crazy.

So today is the 7 week mark and I dropped to a single crutch almost two weeks ago and can sort of hobble around short distances with none. I think I'm done with bikes. They're a blast and I love them, but if something this minor can screw me over for 2+ months, it's a wakeup call to stop. At the end of the day I'll just take that money & energy and invest it in something else (my E30s?) so I'm thinking it could be a positive change.


Oh yeah, I still haven't even looked at the bike to see what's wrong. some plastics scratched for sure, rear paddock stand bobbin is bent, broke a mirror, bar end scuffed, maybe an engine cover if I'm super unlucky.

[Northern]

so what you're saying your most reliable shitbox is a subaru? wow

No EJ, No problems lol

Now that is not an easy shot for a 12" drill bit. I'm impressed!

Thanks, I still have some of those aircraft tech skills I guess haha

[2mAn]

so what you're saying your most reliable shitbox is a subaru? wow

[Northern]

We interrupt our scheduled Mini broadcast to show you some shitbox subaru content:


My Outback received a lot of love this year to fix some minor long term issues, and some more immediate ones, like a wheel bearing noise and a vibration that seemed vague in direction. Kind of figured "well it's a subaru so of course it's either wheel bearings or a driveshaft"

Wheel bearings made some improvement. Weren't nearly as bad as the internet makes them out to be, probably took me 8-9 hours to do all 4. Considering the car has 250K (km) and sees Atlantic Canadian winters, I'm calling that not bad.
The rears were done by the PO at some point, but you'd never know by looking at them. Basically the method that worked was to knock the hub downward a mini sledge to create a gap between hub and spindle, shim that gap with a pallet knife, smack it upward to make the gap on the bottom, shim that gap, rinse/repeat.
Front bolts stick through the spindle like 1/2" and were solid rust, so I ended up basically cutting the hubs off and drilling/beating the rest of the bolts out and buying new hardware from Subaru.

Driveshaft came from RockAuto:



There were two lengths listed, but I made an educated guess based on a measuring tape and guessing how far it stuck into the trans.
Swapping was easy - 1 heat shield, 2 CSB bolts, 4 bolts at the back, slide it toward the rear of the car.

The car always had some faint bearing noise, I always assumed it was an axle or front diff bearing or something, but the CSB was thrashed. Both U-Joints were notchy as well.
The car has never been quieter now.

I pad slapped the front end at one point after I bought it. Rear end was kind of a pain - has needed 3 calipers over 4 years but the front was fine until now.


Left caliper was seized. Got a new "coated" front caliper locally, some random Bosch pads, rotors from Canadian Tire of all places were the cheapest coated ones I could find.
Unfortunately the reason they were so cheap was that they weren't for a 3.6R. Luckily it was easy to exchange.



Car has always had a weird misfire on cold starts, but only in the winter. Decided to snag some coils last time I was at the junkyard in case any were visibly bad, and change plugs.
Some coils were cracked where they were potted on the sides. Didn't have enough spares to replace them all, but did the worst ones.





It would normally have done it's weird cold start misfire by now, so fingers crossed it's good enough. I think I put the worst coils on the front Cyls so they'd be easier to change if I need to do more.

Other than that, and a new cheap double din head unit (Wireless Android Auto and Carplay is well worth it) that's all this thing has needed in a long time.