iNomis

Decided not to sell the MINI Cooper S. Fiat 500 was too small for my right knee and MINI Cooper Ss are too cheap to sell and too good to give away.

admin MINI Cooper

I’m selling my 2007 MINI Cooper S.

I had some recent warranty work done to fix my malfunctioning steering wheel lock and sometime rough idle on cold mornings. Steering wheel locks are a known problem with MINI and BMW. In fact the locks have been removed from production in recent model year MINIs. The cold weather issue was addressed by changing out the high pressure fuel pump. Also a know problem. I notice an oil leak under the car everyday since I got my car back. It seems to becoming from the passenger side on the back of the engine above the oil pan level. Some report a common problem of the timing chain tensioner seeming in this area. The common timing chain tension problem was addressed last year about this time. While I’m getting the oil leak fixed I’m going to ask for my warped hood scoop to be fixed. While cleaning the car to sell I noticed part of my radio antenna is crumbling, so that gets fixed also. Lot’s of issues some major, some minor.

All of them coupled with the common carbon buildup on the backside of valves of these turbo engines make me worry. What will happen next? The 4 year warranty is ending this month. Sometimes you can see that even the best things can end bad. Better to enjoy the memories and suffer the possible regret than suffer the major pain of a major problem out of warranty.

These are great cars if you want to be involved in the turbo charged scene. I don’t think the engine is going to self-destruct. I do think you need to add a oil catch can and keep on top of the condition of the engine. Too much work for me, for this car. I have my Factory Five Cobra for that. I wanted this car to be simple, small, reliable and fun. I suppose no car I would want to drive everyday is simple anymore. I hope my next car is more reliable and just as fun.

admin MINI Cooper

I just ordered a full set of 205/50ZR16 Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 tires for my MINI Cooper S from Tirerack. The stock size is 195/55/16 but many use this size. I’m happy enough with the current wheels and these tires were on sale for $50 each with a $50 rebate on a set of 4. Can’t beat that for performance tires. Just need to wear the last rubber from my current tires now.

admin Economizing, MINI Cooper MINI

Update: Just found better pictures here! I wish I had seen them first! He also had a good idea to remove the seatbacks first, as that would make it easier to get the bottom free and fiddle with the rear bar on the seat bottom. He explains it all very well. Go there.

I’ve seen a couple of very helpful posts about R56 MINI rear seat removal and I thought I’d like to add 3 pictures that make things just a bit clearer. It turned out to be really easy but these few tips may save you a few minutes of fiddling. The other post was removing his whole rear interior. The steps to remove the seats are much simpler. You don’t need to remove any trim etc.

As the other sites say, the front seat bottom just pulls up. Pull out the plastic child anchor boxes. I needed more effort on the middle two. I think these anchors hold the seat but a bit of careful effort should get the bottom out. It’s all soft foam so don’t jerk too hard.

It’s hard to see what’s going on with the seatbacks so I thought these pictures may help someone. You basically just need to free the center facing pin on each seatback from the center mount and then align and pull out each outer pin from the side sockets. Once you do it, it will take 10 seconds the second time.

This first image shows the center mount between the two seatbacks. Just insert a screwdriver and twist or pivot to pry the clips off the center facing pins on the seatbacks while swinging the seatback free of the clip. I have removed the seatbacks at this point to show the mount clearly.

This next picture shows the side sockets that the outer side of each seatback fits in to. Notice that the socket has a horizontal keyway. This shows the passenger side.

This last picture shows the pin on the outer side of each seatback. I have the seat at an angle to show the angle needed to lift the seat from flat to free itself of the keyway. Seems close to 45 degrees. This is the driver side seatback. Once you reach that angle you can twist the seatback toward the rear to get it out. There is a small plastic cover around the pin that I found easier to pull out and away from the socket prior to getting the seatback out. You can see that in the picture also Notice the small pin on this plastic part and the hole it fits in to on the socket in the other picture.

Hope this helps!

admin MINI Cooper MINI

Didn’t we see this somewhere before?

Yes we did! I wonder if this was the first or there is some other undiscovered originator of this practise? I wonder if MINI will mind some graffiti? It looks like the cars used won’t ever see the road anyway.

admin MINI Cooper MINI