2003 BMW mini now bought

[HH-R]

Does a whining Midlands gearbox have a Brummie accent?

[Ghosty]

Ah, it's BRG! Odd as it might sound it's always a good sign for these, always seem to be well cared for - old people's colour perhaps?

[320touring]

Fyi they are the same stud pattern (4x 100) as bmw e30s/mk 1/2 golfs etc-so pretty much anything 14" or over would do

 

Centre bore is 57.1mm too

[Vince70]

That's great as I have a Z3 which has a spare which is E36 based and if I can't get the spare undone on that car my father only lives across the road and he has an E36 so I could use that one if need be...

 

Ive just been looking online though and it seems you can mix run flats and normal tyres (but not on the same axle) so I might get her to get some new conventional tyres on the front and leave the newish run flats on the back and change the backs at a later date..

 

A set of decent midrange 195/55/16 tyres seem to cost around £60 to £70 on black circles with fitting and I have a can of tyre weld that I can stick in the boot of her car..

[320touring]

That's great as I have a Z3 which has a spare which is E36 based and if I can't get the spare undone on that car my father only lives across the road and he has an E36 so I could use that one if need be...

 

Ive just been looking online though and it seems you can mix run flats and normal tyres (but not on the same axle) so I might get her to get some new conventional tyres on the front and leave the newish run flats on the back and change the backs at a later date..

 

A set of decent midrange 195/55/16 tyres seem to cost around £60 to £70 on black circles with fitting and I have a can of tyre weld that I can stick in the boot of her car..

E36 is 5x 120 so will not fit..

[Noel Tidybeard]

word on the street is  kettle wheels fit

[willswitchengage]

Saw the title of this thread and laughed

[Vince70]

I wouldn't mind but she bought the car because she wanted something a bit different and she gets rid of a car that you never see on the road and replaced it with a car that are parked and driven everywhere..

 

That's very individual lol.

 

I tried talking her into getting an old E36 compact as for a lot less money you can get a nice one with a good history which will drive nicer than a car that runs on hard rubber oversized clown wheels.

[Parky]

Looks fine that!

 

I had one for a couple of years - gear oil is MTF 94 which some places think is unobtanium or charge a fortune for, but its £10 a litre at Land Rover outlets and you need two litres. The forums rate Redline MTL as a replacement but I used the standard stuff and it was fine. Lubricating the linkages makes a decent improvement.

 

The filler and drainer plugs will look like metal hedgehogs when removed!

 

Any clicking or creaking on the steering will be the plastic bearings on the column. Get a ton of spray grease over them and it smoothens up nicely.

 

Fuel gauges misbehave but you can do a reset on the computer (mini forum will explain how) which resolves that. Mine used to play up three or four times a year and the reset process takes 30 seconds. Dealers will claim its a sender fault but learn the reset process and job jobbed.

 

Tyres - run flats do ruin the ride but I replaced mine with Bridgestone Turanzas and they were brilliant. Dunlop SP1's were quieter and gave lighter steering and better ride, but didn't have the "bite" the Bridgestones had.

 

Power steering pumps are noisy, replacement is the only answer but places are out there that can do the job for a few hundred. Apparently it's not too bad a job if you have ramps.

 

Overall they are brilliant fun - servicing not too bad. Oil changes pretty easy and decent BMW LL04 spec oil doesn't have to be stupidly expensive. You will need a special socket for the oil filter but they are a fiver or so

[Vince70]

Cheers Parky to be honest I'm quite envious really as it is a nice car and a lovely car to drive apart from the run flats but I wouldn't tell Leslie that lol.

 

And I've got to be honest I wouldn't mind owning one myself really and the car has a fantastic spec and even has cruise control so was well worth the money and she's more than made up and very protective of her mini..

 

I just got a text asking if I could pop round her house while she's away and just fold the mirrors in as she's so worried that a car driving past might knock them off and she only lives in a small side street lol..

 

So the money she's got from her old car is going to pay for the new tyres up front and the gearbox oil change plus some new mats etc and I might even let her use my Paaaund land cleaning products lol

 

She only had 2 grand max to spend on one so I think we did well to find a good nick very low mileage 2004 model cooper for the price and looking around the car I can't find any structural damage and I think it must of got its cat C status from damage to the one piece bonnet but whoever did the repaint did a very good job and the shut lines look spot on and it only sustained the damage last August so it wouldn't of taken much to put a marker on it.

 

I'm going to replace the plastic (door brake) door strap on the drivers door on Tuesday for her then the car will be back to A1 condition and it seemed just as cheap to buy a new genuine part direct from BMW as it did to buy second hand from eBay but I've found that myself with my Z3.

 

I keep looking on eBay and scum tree at minis now but the problem is that if I sold my car and raked together a bit of cash I would only be looking at about the £1500 ones and to be honest for that money it's either a non runner with gearbox problems or something high mileage and a bit knackered.

[Parky]

The gearbox issues seem to result from reliance on "sealed for life" oil. Much the same box was used in other Rover models (it was originally a Peugeot design I believe) and the Rover 200 forums aren't full of broken gearbox stories. Maybe Rover changed the oil every couple of years so the boxes would get at least one change in their lifetime? Either that or the torque characteristics of the (Chrysler) engine used push the boxes to their limit. The box has a filler and a drainer plug for a reason!

 

Fact is it is a 12 year old car. Drive it like a maniac and something expensive will break at some point. A gear oil change will shift the odds in your favour and I tell you there will be an unholy amount of swarf on the filler and drain plug. Far better to get that out of harms way as that stuff is what gets into synchros and bearings and generally wreaks havoc. It's a simple enough job and not expensive.

 

I chucked a tube of Molyslip in mine as well. Probably snake oil and totally unnecessary but when your grandfather and father swear by it, it's hard not to continue the tradition! Especially if the box broke at a later date, Parky Senior would have been well on my back if I hadn't Moly'd the box like he told me to!

 

One tip - don't break the mirror casings! They are mentally expensive to replace, and even second hand ones cost a packet. I was quoted over a ton by BMW for a new one "if we can get one". A local breaker had one, some cosmetic damage and scratches but wanted 40 quid for that. I ended up gluing mine back together, worked fine after I had rubbed it down and wazzed a coat of paint on it.

[mat_the_cat]

Power steering pumps are noisy, replacement is the only answer but places are out there that can do the job for a few hundred. Apparently it's not too bad a job if you have ramps.

 

It's really not a bad job at all...did ours a few weeks back. Not sure how long it took as I did it at the same time I changed the wishbone bushes (which needed the subframe dropping) but would guess less than an hour on the pump.

[Vince70]

Cheers for all the advice it's really helpful.. I've just been online and will get Leslie to order some Molyslip for £10 it's worth a go and can't hurt none.

I won't be changing the oil myself but the garage I use are fantastic and it's a proper family garage with old school mechanics rather than technicians..

 

I've just looked up the cost of a good recon pump as well (BBR Reman) and it's only £150 with the delivery if that went pear shaped but I won't dare tell Leslie as if I tell her anymore things to look out for on a R50 she will be too scared to drive it lol

[twosmoke300]

Won't moly slip stop the synchro from doing it's job?

[Vince70]

Cheers Two smoke I think I will let Leslie decide if she wants the Molyslip in the gearbox now..

[stripped fred]

Instead of molyslip I would suggest this:

 

http://www.team-zx1.com/What-Is-Extralube-ZX1

 

I used it in my Alfa gearbox and it seemed to help. It won't affect the synchros either. Gets good reviews.

[New POD]

I bet you can't find one that hadn't been driven by a blonde bird who's either an estate agent or is more interested in her iPod than doing something ridiculous like concentrating on driving.

 

 

Just trying to sort out insurance for the summer, as Blonde Daughter (who is a MPham, Pharmacy student) has been promised occasional use of Blonde Wife's 51 Reg cooper when she returns from University next week. So far, I'm getting £180 quote without her and £870 with.

 

*According to daughter's friends when I last paid for insurance, her driving was "adventurous" -

She has no iPod, but the 6 disc changer in the boot, still has some shite in it.

[Parky]

TwoStroke makes a good point Re the Moly - I put mine in more out of superstition rather than any scientific reason. But I only used one of the small tubes, a one shot syringe of the stuff and had no shifting issues after. Can't say I felt any obvious benefit though but I just felt better knowing it was in there.

 

As I mentioned, taking the linkage apart and re-greasing everything made a big difference to the shift. Even spraying grease over the mechanism at the box end helped a bit although that involved removing a fair bit of stuff (including the ECU)in order to get to it and the clips holding the ECU in had gone rather brittle, which is my excuse for breaking one of them.

 

They get lot of criticism but I would have one back tomorrow. A nice quiet country road and some decent boots and they are proper fun. Many do seem to be looked after - I often look at them in Car parks and often find they are kept clean and tidy and mostly wear decent rubber so they do seem to attract more enthusiastic owners. They also seem to age well too, at least on the outside. My only major criticism is the interior plastics (especially the column stalks) do seem to be one flick away from snapping but that's relatively minor.

[RMAC190e]

As a big fan of the Mini i say good purchase,

 

My Old dear has had a couple, her current one is a 2002 JCW Cooper S, after 2 years, all its needed is 2 tyres and a new boot relesae. Fantastic little car. So much so that after 1 drive my girlfriend had toi have one, so she now has a 2004 Cooper, low owners and low miles, I am changing a rear wheel bearing  this weekend, but as they come as a complete bolt on unit, so no presses or faffing about required its no big deal.

 

I would reccomed a Mini, especally an S to anyone, sure there are good ones and bad ones, as with anything, and may be more of an accessory than a tool, but who the F cares?

[Squire_Dawson]

Am I imagining it or is the rear number-plate recess remarkably similar in shape to that of the Rover 75?

[Vince70]

Today I spent an hour or so playing with the mini.. I renewed the door check strap ( door brake ) for her and put a bit of dark grey dye on the corner of the drivers seat and gave the leather of the seat bolster a good soaking in some Giptone leather restorer and the results are amazing as the seat now looks as good as new..

 

She's already had the front bumper hit while it was parked up outside her house and a bit of paint has got chipped off but I had some VW Audi Classic green knocking about and the colour is nigh identical and I managed to make an invisible repair once I built the paint up with a tiny brush.

 

She was told by someone today that she has to put run flats back on when the car has a couple of tyres but I'm trying to persuade her otherwise as she hates the harsh ride.

[New POD]

 

She was told by someone today that she has to put run flats back on when the car has a couple of tyres but I'm trying to persuade her otherwise as she hates the harsh ride.

 

When we got ours it had 2 worn runflats at the front and 2 new not-runflats at the back. The truth of the matter is that you can't go that far on the run flats, and you shouldn't exceed 50 kph (IIRC) once the warning light comes on. 

 

We replaced the run flats with decent none-runflats, but I keep the pressures at 2.4 bar which is the "loaded" pressure, so it's still fairly harsh.

 

The confusion would be that you should never put run flats on a car with out a pressure warning system, as it's apparently impossible to tell when you have a slow puncture, and at high speed, the tyre will eventually fail in a bad way if you don't slow down. Unlike normal tyres, when the handling gets progressively weird as the pressure slowly drops. .

[Station]

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these (an early second hand one) for my main car - are these rapid enough to keep interest as I get bored of cars really quickly and don't want to splodge money on something I want to sell in a couple of days. Is the JCW overkill/overpriced?

[Honey Badger]

Brother had 2 of these, a launch cooper which was good as gold for the 3years he had it and a cooper works S convert able which was a complete fucking nightmare. In 18 months he had 2 heater matrix, new injectors, new alternator, gearbox, PAS pump and most of the instruments replaced and they still couldn't find the fault at caused a reeking burning smell at medium revs.

 

Later mini also felt cheaper inside with tinny plastics, it went like stink though though not as fast as the S2000 which we tested on a private road obviously....

 

Standard car really, some are good, some are bad and some are made on Friday afternoon

[Largactil]

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these (an early second hand one) for my main car - are these rapid enough to keep interest as I get bored of cars really quickly and don't want to splodge money on something I want to sell in a couple of days. Is the JCW overkill/overpriced?

 

< pistonheads > 

 

As mentioned above I owned a JCW for 18 months, and did enjoy it - 208 bhp / 200+ lb/ft of torque. 0-60 in around 6.5 secs / 150 mph-ish flat out feels pretty rapid in a wee car weighing 1200kg (sounds lardy, but most modern cars weigh more). 316mm Brembo's up front are great - The fake LSD (e-diff) was amusing on track. No real reliability issues during my ownership.

 

 

Feel pretty rapid on road, and good fun on track - Ultimate balance is understeer, but will lift-off oversteer if you're aggressive enough. Plenty of secondhand go faster bits out there on the Mini forums.

 

I swapped my S2000 for the Mini - In the wet, the S2000 wouldn't see which way the Mini went down a twisty road.

 

</ pistonheads >

[Ghosty]

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these (an early second hand one) for my main car - are these rapid enough to keep interest as I get bored of cars really quickly and don't want to splodge money on something I want to sell in a couple of days. Is the JCW overkill/overpriced?

My late uncle had an early MCS, and he seemed to like it, sadly I don't have any real experience of it. I think Old Man had a ride in it, unfortunately he's not really someone who can comment aside from 'it's fast' and a load of Old Man-nerisms.

When it was new, the normal Cooper was usually compared to the Fabia VRS for some reason, both handled well but the Fabia always came out on top, but that was probably something to do with the fact they were comparing a ~115bhp 1.6 petrol to a 1.9TDI 130.

[Station]

I'm going to have a look at one tomorrow! FSH with all options. If it breaks I'll fix it, I don't really care. If it annoys me I'll sell it, they don't seem to hang around.

I just want a standard Cooper or even a One.

[New POD]

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these (an early second hand one) for my main car - are these rapid enough to keep interest as I get bored itof cars really quickly and don't want to splodge money on something I want to sell in a couple of days. Is the JCW overkill/overpriced?

 

The Sept 2001 Cooper of my wife, if fantastic once you get it in the powerband (ie above 4500 RPM) and get it on a twisty road and it's brilliant.

Her friend has an abused 2006 S - the one with a supercharger and I think about 170 Bhp. The husband says it is "fucking Mental" - so the 200 plus of the JCW seems a bit pointless, unless it's free.

[skattrd]

Station - you really want my Storia, much more fun than a Bini, it has 2x (clutch type) lsds. The Storia will easily out perform a Bini on twisty roads (4wd, 820kg) 0-60 is around 6.5 sec and if you drive like a nun they can do 50+ mpg ... Thrashed on track maybe 12mpg.

[Station]

How much are you looking for?

 

I'm just wanting a regular car without any quirks or rust that I can do rust prevention (instead of repair) and put in for a service every year.