My wife's Mini R57 convertible. Sold!

[mk2_craig]

Folks.  I don't care that the subject matter of this thread is, relatively-speaking, basically a new car.  R57, registered mid 2010, Cooper S with the 1.6 turbo engine.

WCPGW??

[djoptix]

That is shit.

[Floatylight]

Jeez thats rough!

[Tickman]

Well done, seems quite an achievement with all the battle scars and neglect!

 

[wesacosa]

Yikes !!

I am sure you read up all about the engine in those but what ever you do keep an eye on the oil level. Like every other week.  Seriously.  Small sump and large appetite.  Coolant level too due to lots of plastic coolant parts and a super hot engine bay

[Crackers]

There's shite,

Then there's shit

[Sigmund Fraud]

28 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

R57, registered mid 2010, Cooper S with the 1.6 turbo engine.

What can I say, you're a much, much braver man than I am !

My reaction would have been along these lines :

[cort16]

These are more trouble than any needy old car could manage. Something  like a Jenson Interceptor would be  easier to look after even it was on fire.

How do the rubbers even get like that on a 10 year old car? 

[SRi05]

The Astra looked nice as well

[mk2_craig]

On 4/13/2021 at 10:01 PM, wesacosa said:

I am sure you read up all about the engine in those

🤭 Yeah....

The car did come with service history. Which amounted to an invoice from 2016 and another from 2018, one of which was a £400 fix for a coolant leak.

 

[wesacosa]

1 minute ago, mk2_craig said:

🤭 Yeah....

The car did come with service history. Which amounted to an invoice from 2016 and another from 2018, one of which was a £400 fix for a coolant leak. 

 

If it had a BMW thermostat in 2018 should be ok for a bit. If it had a Euro car parts stat expect it to blow up any time soon (ask me how I know!)

I have had the misfortune of maintaining the Mrs' Cooper S for 6 years so if you need any advice on the other things to keep an eye on let me know

[Split_Pin]

Those faults highlighted will unfortunately  the least of your concerns with an R56/7.

I hope you are lucky, ours has been a right old war, although it has behaved OK in the last few months.

[Ghosty]

My mum has an R56 on 35k. 

It's had a timing chain, melted its rear lights, a couple of ATF changes.... 

[SiC]

1 hour ago, cort16 said:

How do the rubbers even get like that on a 10 year old car? 

Presumably Jersey sun degrades rubber like Scottish winter weather does to car underbodies. 

[MarvinsMom]

sorry, but you were robbed......

if that thing was any rougher you would be scraping barnacles off boat bottoms with it.

i'm glad i'm not the only one to make questionable purchases!

[inconsistant]

That blue is lovely though. No wonder you bought it.

[Parky]

It’s going to need a bit of TLC.  Quick clean up of those wheels, some new tyres (Falkens suit these) and a few rubbers and you’ll feel much better.  Break out the polish and most of those scratches will disappear.  Color Magic is your friend.......Whack on some new wipers (can recommend Bosch Aerotwins) and you will have a nice wee car.  

Better solution would be ditch those wheels, and get some 15” Rocket Or Teledial wheels instead as (a) they are nicer and (b) they will improve the ride biggly.  Plus tyres are cheaper.  

I bought a similar coloured R56 in 2008. Similar condition to yours, I just worked through it bit by bit and gradually turned it into a better vehicle.  Just say to yourself that you need to spend £750 to get it to a good standard and plan to keep it a couple of years. 

Oh and definitely change all the fluids!  Decent synthetic oil, good filters, clean the vanos solenoids, and even change the gearbox fluid (Redline MTL).  Don’t stress it, there’s a good car under all that.

edit - those brakes look awful so add one some discs and pads.  Everything will be seized so have fun!

[beko1987]

Nice*! 

Watch those a pillar trims, a colleague had her early bini back to the dealer loads of times for a leak, and came to me when they quoted her stripping the entire interior out and £££ to try and find it. 

Used my spidey senses and followed the tidemark across the headlining and it was that whole front corner area I pumped full of tigerseal one lunchtime, and it never leaked again! 

What was confusing bimmer was it leaking from the rear vanity light in the headlining. Didn't think to them it was running across there and falling out of the first hole it could find, or Yvonne's head if she turned a corner or braked. 

Got a sausage roll from the van regularly for months after that! 

 

[wesacosa]

check its had the recall done for the little heat shield above the turbo oil feed  (unless they had realised by ,2010 how shit the design was and done something about it) if not the O ring dries out in the heat, leaks and sprays oil over top of turbo (again, ask me how I know !!).  You have to take half the front of the car apart to change the pipe

Listen for chain rattle as the tensioner is crap and fails quickly with low or dirty oil. first sign is a light rattle at around 1200rpm cold.  bring the revs up slowly from idle to 2000 and listen for it coming in somewhere between 1200 and 1800 and disappearing past 2000. catch it now and its a cheap and easy tensioner change.  Next stage is cold knocking at idle and chance of chain skipping or plastic guides breaking so you don't wanna be there.   The vac pump drives can knock at idle which can make people think chain, but you can briefly disconnect the vac pipe to prove its the pump

I

 

 

[big_al_granvia]

if its questionable rip engine out an change the chain, tensioner, guides and all the usual. that bini is rough but they are good motors and the bini scene is massive so loass of tuning and styling options

[wesacosa]

3 minutes ago, big_al_granvia said:

if its questionable rip engine out an change the chain, tensioner, guides and all the usual. that bini is rough but they are good motors and the bini scene is massive so loass of tuning and styling options

In theory the chain can be done in situ , its a cassette type chain and tensioner so it all drops in from the top , so only the crank pulley and sprocket needs attention at the bottom..That said access isn't great even when the front end is put in service mode so will be tight

[RichardK]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

Got a sausage roll from the van regularly for months after that! 

Interesting new euphemism noted.

[Liggle]

Christ, that is rough. 

On a serious note, what made you buy it? You must see something in it to be worth the chance/cost?

[SiC]

26 minutes ago, Liggle said:

On a serious note, what made you buy it? You must see something in it to be worth the chance/cost?

This! When I see these rough cars for sale, I do wonder who on earth would buy them. 

[mk2_craig]

I should point out that this thread is something of a retrospective.   So there'll be some rapid fire updates over the next few days bringing the story up to date. 

I decided to have a closer look at those brakes:

To the motor factors!

 

 

Cracked right on:

 

 

 

Better

 

Alright!! Went a LOT more quickly and smoothly than I feared, nothing seized or rounded off.  I made a start on the back end:

But without a suitable tool to wind that piston back in I decided that was a job my favourite independent garage could do instead.  

[Split_Pin]

G clamps are buttons from ebay, mine has been invaluable for brake piston plunging.

Glad you are getting on with things on it. Thermostat is an ugly job, keep your local garage sweet as nowhere round my area will touch Minis.

[Supernaut]

3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

G clamps are buttons from ebay, mine has been invaluable for brake piston plunging.

Glad you are getting on with things on it. Thermostat is an ugly job, keep your local garage sweet as nowhere round my area will touch Minis.

Same. I have a couple of g-clamps that only get used for brake calipers.

I also have a universal brake caliper wind-back kit with normal and reverse-threaded tools plus lots of adapters for different cars. Was something like £20 or so from ebay.

[Aston Martin]

You people have no idea how badly this goes. 😂

 

When the car was in one piece it was nice.

[Parky]

11 hours ago, SiC said:

This! When I see these rough cars for sale, I do wonder who on earth would buy them. 

Us obviously.  We tend to look at them like mistreated pets and can’t resist giving them a forever home.  I felt sorry for mine, only reason I bought it.  Like Pokemon we sadly can’t catch them all 

[mk2_craig]

I set about sorting out the number plates.  The rear plate wasnt too bad, but the front one had definitely seen better days

 

All faded and non-reflective thanks no doubt to the double sided sticky foam. 

Trial fit of the new front plate:

 

 

That'll do.  Protective film removed...

 

All done.  

 

Much smarter!

 

 

Did the back one too, I feel happier for having done it, I could have attended to less unimportant matters.