Sold one (SLK) bought one (Mini Cooper) (+Cam chain Action!)

[Hawkeyethenoo]

One out one in....

Having sold my 1998 R170 SLK230 at 1pm on Saturday, paid £1400 two years ago, fixed it, new brakes, shocks, air pump, sold it for £1950. I was done with the car really, I'd bought it to do a European tour and having done that last year, 5000 miles in a month. It was time to move it on.

So by 1:25pm I was on the NET looking for something interesting and cheap. Up popped this Mini Cooper. Face lift Dec 2006, few girly owners, in Astro Black. £950. I phoned the seller and the next thing I know I'm in Kirkcaldy shaking hands on £900 for 'Enry (Cooper). Money transfer done, I'm heading for the nearest supermarket to blow up the soft NSF tyre and get some temp' insurance. MOT'd till Feb 2020 with advisories on worn front tyres, yes were fooked, replaced yesterday.

Insurance done we set off the 50 miles home (Mini Adventure?) and that goes without a hitch and it's returning 40+ mpgsss as we bomb home via some nice B and A roads with me thinking, what am I going to tell the wife???

[Hawkeyethenoo]

So what else was wrong with it? Good question.

It needed a full 122k service, so got a new oil filter and 4L Castrols very finest 0w 30 oil (£42) via Halfrauds on the, trade card, and a new set of front Bosch aerothingy wipers (£12 each) as the orginal standard Bosch wipers although in seemingly very good nick, screeched on the screen in use, so they had to GTF! Every car I buy has fooked wipers and that shit won't stand man.... Motor runs a LOT sweeter and quieter on the new Castrol oil. It's deffo worth the money as the car even seems to pull better and rev much more sweetly after it was added. Amazeballs. New tyres were fitted the next day at Kwick-Shit. They were the only ones that would accept an urgent, next day, Sunday, booking and x2 Continental 5s were slapped on at a deffo not cheap, £180. I don't scrimp on shit like tyres and brakes and make no apologies for that., dudes.

Other stuff. The leccy mirrors don't work? There was another newer looking more positive switch in the glovebox, so I fitted that and they still don't work. Been an on going issue... Fuses are suspect but they're not easy to get at, located right next to the throttle pedal. Failing that easy fix, doubt it, it's a wiring fault? More on this story later....

Rear wiper doesn't park right? Worn out plastic shite wiper arm required.

Rear spoiler is a bit loose on its mountings. Checked the securing bolts x 5. One nut was missing, replaced it & with loctite on the nut. Two hold well, the other two are just turning, more broken plastic inside the spoiler itself. I'll ignore that and move on...

Annoying bulb failure warning on dash relates to NSR side side light bulb which is fine, but the bulb holder track is dodgy and only working sometimes. Same side reversing light bulb was blown but that's working fine now. Access to the bulb holders is stupidly tight via the boot only. Help ma Boab....

[Hawkeyethenoo]

Stuff I'm going to do..... I've ordered x4 CHAMPION Spark Plug Platinum BiHex OE204 RERX6PMCB4 from Mike at https://www.sparkplugs.co.uk/ ? £30.16.  I'm told that Minis eat plugs for breakfast and it's a cheap N easy job so.... And because I want to try one of these oot, Jetex replacement air filter JTX-F494084  as the OE filter/choke device, needs changing and more induction performance/noise, is always good. £51.44. https://www.fastcar.co.uk/tuning/performance-car-air-filter-test/

Things I like. The steering, the inside is quite a nice place to be. It's quite well specced for 2006 with DAB radio, Aux In, push button start/stop and part leather seats. The handling goes without saying and it really does handle like a gokart, a bouncy gokart, but that goes without saying. 

I'll probably not keep it long, but we'll see? As for the wife? She doesn't like it. The doors are too heavy apparently.... They're fooking heavy actually, that is true. My son likes it, although he was trying to get me to buy an MR2. But that's for another day. 

 

[mrbenn]

Nice. I think the later versions of the modern Mini have made the earlier offerings like this and the R50/53 in particular look rather good.

[paulplom]

Bollocks. Reading this has made me want one and I've been trawling ebay, gumtree and fb. I usually can't get it out of my system till I succeed. Cheers mate!

[loserone]

Can I recommend a cooper S? May as well get one that's also licence losing quick!

I think if I'd had the money I'd have bought Jim Bell/ Aldo's one whilst I had it.

[Hawkeyethenoo]

Plugs changed. Had to borrow bi-hex socket from the local friendly garage, will return tomorrow. Old plugs look pretty normal and have been in there, a while? That done I thought. Where's the brake master res' on this car? Oh yeah it's hidden under a flap. Opened the flap and the bloody res' cap is missing! Not there! FFS! Never had that before.... On Evilbay now sourcing one and a full brake fluid change is now the very next job. 

[Hawkeyethenoo]

Back at yon the now. Decided the syphon out the skank brake fulid from the open-to-air for period unknown, the brake master reserviour, using an errrr, syphon, and refill to the correct level with fresh DOT 4. The res' being hidden under a flap is good and bad thing. Bad that it's hidden from immediate view/inspection everytime the bonnet is opened, nothing more important than working hydrhaulic disc brakes! Good that the flap prevented even more dirt, water, small mamals from entering than would have otherwise.

It still shocks me that it is missing & that it took me 3 days of ownership to spot it.

Photos.....

 

Can you see me now?

 

 

Overfilled and very dark looking like overbrewed tea = skank.

 

 

More sook than a Bangcock LB. There's more where that came from too....

 

 

This much horrible looking shyte came out of the res'. That Pyrex jug, no messing about in this garage is sitting nicely on top of the running at smooth idle, Made in Britain, engine. #Quality.

 

 

Fresh DOT4 going in nicely, just a little more, the remainder of the bottle and it was bang on where it should be, just below MAX. #Nice

 

 

Adhoc, air N dust N water N small Mamal tight cover. Replacement cap sourced on Eckybay for £4.99 FREEPOST!  Can't fecking wait for IT to arrive as the car's 'ticket to ride' has been 'revoked' until it does. #Unroadworthy

 

Don't have nightmares, but do check your brake fluid regularly and refit anything you loosen in the process, OKAY!?

 

Help ma Boab.... Hawkeye.

[Hawkeyethenoo]

Noticed a bit of a rattle from the LHS of the motor from the dun, dun, dun, timing chain. Not the death rattle, just a bit of a rattle as the engine revs drop back to tickover. Suspect the timing chain spring tensioner, so decide to set about removing that to see what gives. Notice the now replaced res' cap and the 'cleaned' engine bay... ?️‍♂️

 

First thing is to remove cover/filter/airbox. And throw away  store safely in the boot/trunk.

 

 

Which gives access to the whatyahmacallit thingy / throttle body

 

 

Which clears access to the route of the problem? The camshaft chain tensioner shown here with gaint red arrow. Releasing that requires a 27mm socket after the throttle body is removed.

 

 

Now we're getting somewhere. Access with the TB removed is good to excellent.

 

 

Two mins later the bastid thing is removed for testing using the short, fat, stubby fingers which I'm equipped with.... Which shows that -

 

 

The tensioner is goosed as I can actually squash it just using by thumb and pinky finger, not shown..... Good call and I think I've caught this before it starts to wear the plastic cam chain guides and becomes a proper "death rattle" that these engines are somewhat prone too. Replacing the entire timing chain and guides is not actually a massive job, but it does require, speshul tools and the replacement kit isn't cheap.... £££

[Hawkeyethenoo]

This the replacement part https://www.minigenuineparts.co.uk/info-bm11-31-7-607-551.html

I've ordered one from Douglas Park Mini = £51.40, collect it Tuesday.

[Hawkeyethenoo]

While I was there, decided to have the cam cover off, briefly, to check the condition of the timing chain and top follower/retainer, which was all a-okay!

 

 

Will replace cam cover gasket too.

[gadgetgricey]

Excellent work. A Bini is still on my want list.

Yours looks grand.

[Hawkeyethenoo]

Let's talk about Bini R56 vacuum pumps. It seems as they age these can fail/seize and cause the exhaust cam which they're attached to, to seize which obviously causes lots of damage.

See here - http://tiny.cc/5eic7y

With this in my now paranoid mind.... I've ordered a new yin oh these Pierburg 7.01490.09.0 vacuum pump at a cost of £68. I wonder how many Minis with "snapped cam chains" is actually the result of this pump failing?  ?️‍♂️

[Vince70]

I think they should make a special Autoshite edition Mini in Beige with the amount of us on here that have them.

It should have the later R53 Peugeot lump with a timing chain death rattle and an early R50 midlands gearbox  with knackered bearings and no reverse gear.

And it won’t have many optional extras as the BC1 won’t work as it’s got soggy carpets and the windows can only be opened with a punch above the speaker grill before operating the switch plus it will have 18 inch run flats for that smooth ride over potholes.

But joking aside that looks a seriously nice car especially for the money and what your doing to your car would have to be done on any Mini even if you paid 3 grand for one So once done you know you will have a well sorted car.

 

[Tartan58]

Good work, in a few days you've made considerably more progress than I have in 6 weeks, I'll be watching this one with interest. These face lift models are about as far as I'll go in styling terms before they started getting bloated. The interior certainly seems a big step up from the R50s.

At this rate we will need a new forum section especially for Minis.

 

[Hawkeyethenoo]

Cheers for the kinds words, folks. It's an easy enough motor to work on and hats off to Mini for making the camchain tensioner so easy to get at and replace. That was done yesterday evening after collecting the new part from the Mini dealer. I donated the old one to the workshop so they have a reference for one that's well passed its best. Spring resistance on the new part is far superiour and it's smooth in action too.

 

Wee bit of effort required pushing the tensioner home enough to catch the thread but with that done it was nipped up to 50Nm.

 

 

Shiny! For now at least....

 

Then moved onto fitting the new vacuum pump which again is pretty straightforward. Perhaps a bit OTT on my part, but peace of mind. That all done and the throttle body refitted and everything double checked it was time for the test start....

First touch of the button it fired up and was running very sweetly. Once warmed up a bit it was pleasing that the horrible rattle had gone and it's running bloody well even without the airbox fitted for now.

 

 

Jobs still to do. Get leccy mirrors working, replace worn rear discs N pads and also fit the set of Wipac 5" driving lamps I appear to have just bought, opps. Don't tell the wife....

[Hawkeyethenoo]

Couple of other jobs completed. Yon Jetex cotton air filter arrived and it stopped raining long enough to get the airbox back on.

 

 

With that rebuilt it was time for a wee test-drive. Just a few miles covered and was stuck behind a bus and traffic behind it so went for an economy run and achieved!

 

Which is pleasing on the wallet. Turned around and came back at a much higher average speed and it still returned 42mpg, so is running at optimum. Performance is not amazing as it only had 120bhp from new, but it gets up to speed well and is fun to drive.

I was bored yesterday so set about the rear brakes and had a couple of issues. I'd ordered the wrong pads and despite me being careful, the pad wear sensor snapped on removal. So this stopped play and replacement correct pads and wear sensor will be collected from Erroneous Car Parts tomorrow. Went with Mintex coated dics and they look the part and shouldn't go rusty at the first drop of rain. 

Also had a bit of a struggle getting the caliper wound back in, but after a bit of a fight! It decided to begin turning and was soon wound back ready for the new pads. Yah! The sliders were in good nick and were not covered in copaslip, thankfully, just lightly greased, as they should be. I cleaned them and reagreased them pad ready for the new pads. 

[Ghosty]

My dad's been doing a fair bit of similar stuff like chain tensioner lately on my mum's R56 Cooper S.

If the tailgate starts rattling while you're driving: open it, and unscrew the rubber bungs on the lower corners a small amount, that should solve the problem.

Assuming they haven't fallen out, it seems they go missing easily.

[Hawkeyethenoo]

Well, that's the Mini away. I got bored with it quite quickly. I enjoyed my time with it and it's running really well now and away to pastures new. Fife. Not the easiest to sell, had to reduce it down to £1200 to get a sale. The hunt is already on for the next shiter and a trip is planned for Saturday coming. ?️‍♂️

[Parky]

On 5/29/2019 at 7:41 AM, Vince70 said:

I think they should make a special Autoshite edition Mini in Beige with the amount of us on here that have them.

It should have the later R53 Peugeot lump with a timing chain death rattle and an early R50 midlands gearbox  with knackered bearings and no reverse gear.

And it won’t have many optional extras as the BC1 won’t work as it’s got soggy carpets and the windows can only be opened with a punch above the speaker grill before operating the switch plus it will have 18 inch run flats for that smooth ride over potholes.

But joking aside that looks a seriously nice car especially for the money and what your doing to your car would have to be done on any Mini even if you paid 3 grand for one So once done you know you will have a well sorted car.

 

Yes!  I’ll have one of those, but only if available with one of the ever so reliable CVT boxes and a really whiny power steering pump.  Because we all know the noisier they are, the betterer they are

[paulplom]

That's exactly the same dash as my current partners 2013 countryman sd. So much for progress.

[Hawkeyethenoo]

11 hours ago, paulplom said:

That's exactly the same dash as my current partners 2013 countryman sd. So much for progress.

I was looking at a 2017 model One D yesterday and it was 95% the same as the 2006. Main difference was 5 doors rather than 3.