This weekend I dove into the new to me Mini Cooper S.
Nice little pile of parts to install.
First off was the hood shocks. Can’t work under in the bay if I have to support the hood with one hand the whole time. The process involved using a flathead to pry the spring retainer off the ball ends and putting in the new ones. Really really easy and highly effective.
Next was the dipstick. They used fiberglass for the stick which is new to me. Apparently they can fray and eventually fall into the oil pan requiring you to try and fish it out or drop the pan. You can see the discoloration on this one either where it is starting to fail or where someone glued it back together.
For a little more than double the price of a replacement you can get this nice aftermarket one that is all metal construction.
Next comes the strut top defenders.
The lack of a spare tire means the MCS came equipped with run flat tires. That combined with a very short stiff spring means the shock pounds out the shock tower, mushrooming it. This can cause problems down the road so best address it now. This kit is more expensive, but easier to install so I took the easy way out.
Hard to make out, but the bolts are definitely bowing out slightly already.
Hopefully problem solved.
Next point to address was the excess vibration in the car.
This was what the mount looked like. Compressed and some clear signs of hydraulic fluid leaking. Kind of a bummer it was not taken care of, but really I don’t mind getting my hands dirty.
New mount was ordered from amazon, then quickly ordered from ECS as they were substantially cheaper.
Mod Mini has excellent tutorials so I just followed along. Jacking up the mini was interesting as it involves side jacking as it seems there aren’t really any front and rear points? I’ll have to take a look underneath sometime.
With everything removed here is the mount, the mount is definitely sunk into the reservoir and freely moves. Definitely would explain the vibration as the mount has a thin layer of rubber sandwiched between metal when it fails.
And now the room with the new mount. I thought I was going to have to go around and squish and jam foam to keep panels from vibrating, but all of that is gone now.
Still have a few more basic things/faults to address, supercharger remote fill kit is being shipped and I may spring for an aluminum overflow tank. I have a rear sway bar and bushings on order, and a new shift knob and hand brake handle will be looked at. I think I’ll have to add something like an intake as I have grown accustomed to driving on sound and the Mini does not hold a candle to the Z. A pulley is definitely on the list as well.