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Rainagain’s MINI adventure


rainagain

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Yeah I’ve heard the resistor nearly always fails on the first speed. A guy a work is into his BMWs so I’m going to ask him to bring his diag kit in and give it a once over. I did notice when plugged my meter in to get the temp it was showing open circuit in one of the lambda probe heaters. But this isn’t  bringing on the eml. 

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53 minutes ago, rainagain said:

Yeah I’ve heard the resistor nearly always fails on the first speed. A guy a work is into his BMWs so I’m going to ask him to bring his diag kit in and give it a once over. I did notice when plugged my meter in to get the temp it was showing open circuit in one of the lambda probe heaters. But this isn’t  bringing on the eml. 

It wont show on general check, you will have to tell the car to put on first stage fan to check if it works. I fitted a cheapo resistor from ebay and now the car only has high speed fan even on stage one, but this isnt a big enough problem to warrant me doing it again, its just noisy from the outside when the A/C is used as fan is always running fast.

I bought this one for reference: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Radiator-Fan-Motor-Switch-Resistor-17117541092R-For-MINI-Cooper-R50-R52-R53-UK/382989762889?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649 , so it might be worth spending a few quid more for one that works.

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I think the porous head problems were on the early examples (I have a very early one but it doesn’t use a drop).

The expansion tank is normally the first call as they are known to leak on the seam and the design was changed on a yearly basis but never cured on the R50.

But your Mini looks an absolute bargain as I’ve never seen a late one with that lowish mileage that cheap and the added bonus yours has the getrag gearbox and I think the gearbox alone is worth the money.

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7 hours ago, Vince70 said:

I think the porous head problems were on the early examples (I have a very early one but it doesn’t use a drop).

The expansion tank is normally the first call as they are known to leak on the seam and the design was changed on a yearly basis but never cured on the R50.

But your Mini looks an absolute bargain as I’ve never seen a late one with that lowish mileage that cheap and the added bonus yours has the getrag gearbox and I think the gearbox alone is worth the money.

Please don’t say this ???

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I’m not out of the woods just yet. I still don’t know why it went from max to min the day I took it to work. Today it was treated to a full flush and new actual coolant rather than just water. 

I also found out the horrific rattling noise is due to the rear heat shield being detached and lying on the exhaust. I’ve got this to look at as well as the lack of hand brake function on the near side wheel. 

F005E0A8-3802-4F53-AAFF-B9112503918D.jpeg

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I finally worked out where the coolant was leaking from. I noticed some white deposits round the seam in the coolant bottle, then one day I was waiting in a queue before I returned home. As I soon as I got home I lifted the bonnet and saw that coolant was leaking out of the coolant bottle seam. 
EF649ACD-9BF4-4476-9BCB-0314F4176A39.thumb.jpeg.2ede191133fcec22226e4f6ad56dd94e.jpeg

mods can you please move this into the general section. 

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I noticed the handling was a bit ‘interesting’ going round right hand bends. It would corner ok then it felt like it suddenly lost grip. I had a look at the tyres. There two run flats on one side which were over eight years old and two random tyres on the other. They all had an alright amount of tread on them. 
 

I decided to splash out on a set of decent tyres and ordered four Yokohamas. I was amazed at the state of the old tyres when there were removed. 
 

cracked sidewall

E51E31CB-ADB9-4609-A9BE-ACEEF1504D06.thumb.jpeg.3fc584fe9abf72919f927fc149cf775d.jpeg

another cracked sidewall

C0C2DF06-8C5B-4306-B7FE-786AA83456DF.thumb.jpeg.0c1d6d942a2f9af074f40ca3dac5addb.jpeg

this one has been run whilst low on pressure you can see the amount of rubber that fell out and how soft the sidewall was 7A579CB3-67EC-4F6C-AF6A-D296B76B3C0E.thumb.jpeg.1439c3966cd46d1e3dda8aba54158d91.jpeg

D29ED948-4D65-420F-8289-A949482AA505.thumb.jpeg.9840bba63231f062af48d79a62080120.jpeg

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This was a total **** of a job as the cable had well in truly become part of the aluminum caliper thanks to dissimilar metal corrosion. I first cut the cable flush with the caliper IMG_0030.thumb.JPG.083f95e431e06e1bd9e619a1b469de03.JPG

I then tried to use a cold chisel to knock it out

IMG_0031.thumb.JPG.40bfb1ffe85270e447ebebee3e0a487f.JPG

I then tried my Aldi air saw to try and cut a slot in it, but the saw blades just rounded off. I thought the outer must have been made from some really hard steel until I tried a jigsaw on it, turns out the Aldi air saw blades are really really soft. the jigsaw made some nice cuts.

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Which let me tap out the remains

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Looking at the times on the photos removing this stupid cable end took me over an hour and a half.

 

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To replace the cable you're supposed to drop the exhaust system and remove the heat shields, I managed to remove the bolts holding them on and then bend them out of the way enough to slide in the new cable. Removing the old one involves removing the console round the hand brake and punching out a small metal clip the holds the end of the cable. The HBOL says to slide a certain sized tube over it to disengage the clips I couldn't find a suitable tube but I managed to pop them off with a long screw driver.  IMG_0034.thumb.JPG.e3f387dcae2fbc3a1f20170e5a971b78.JPG

IMG_0036.thumb.JPG.39dfb35659e4d51df6ed48c20b7a2607.JPG

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The rear discs had some strange bumps on then, like they'd gone rusty. These bumps were causing the car to jerk as it slowed down. I ordered a new set of discs and pads from ebay. Both rear disc screws had been sheared off by someone in the past so I chucked wheel bolts in to make sure they were sitting square.IMG_0037.thumb.JPG.06abef150a63b04897ed6b30cc3942d4.JPG

The holes in the piston were too small for my wind back tool, luckily I managed to get them back in using a c clamp and some needle nose pliers to push. 

IMG_0045.thumb.JPG.38e05f271c53839396ad2f678bf627d2.JPG

 

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On 2/2/2020 at 8:49 AM, rainagain said:

I finally worked out where the coolant was leaking from. I noticed some white deposits round the seam in the coolant bottle, then one day I was waiting in a queue before I returned home. As I soon as I got home I lifted the bonnet and saw that coolant was leaking out of the coolant bottle seam. 
EF649ACD-9BF4-4476-9BCB-0314F4176A39.thumb.jpeg.2ede191133fcec22226e4f6ad56dd94e.jpeg

mods can you please move this into the general section. 

The thermostat housing will eventually warp a little and leak too. 

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