I recently spent some time contemplating the Electric MINI concept car at the LA auto show. In many ways it was very old-school: The future was supposed to look different than it’s turned out. This reminds me of those concepts from the 60’s where you didn’t really believe that’s what the future would hold, but …
The stock Wilwood rotors have held up well, but really aren’t intended for extended track use. Earlier this year I upgraded to calipers with steel pistons and no dust boots, so when it came time to replace the rotors, I thought I’d upgrade that as well. The Spec-37 rotor is Wilwood’s Premium Grade, Heavy Wall …
Last weekend brought the final track event for NCC BMW CCA this year at Summit Point. Although I had a great time as usual, the weekend wasn’t completely worry free. If you run wheel studs instead of bolts, you may not be aware that you need to replace them every couple of years. I know …
The oil MINI uses in the Getrag 6 speed manual transmission is supposed to be a lifetime fill. I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean: If you kill the transmission because of bad fluid, that’s the end of its lifetime. A safer bet is to change it yourself every 30-50,000 miles. It’s cheap and …
Read more “MINI R53 Manual Transmission and Differential Fluid Change”
Getting the brake ducts right on the MINI is slowly becoming my white whale project (call me Ishmael). In Part Deux of this adventure, we found a good cooling solution using brackets from Chris Sneed, but the location on the passenger side ducting was less than ideal. First we got the hose caught in the crank …
I installed a new Alta IC Diverter when I changed the IC couplers the other day. One of the steps in the Alta installation instructions is to remove the plastic diverter mounted to the hood. This helps to create a larger pocket of air for the intercooler, but also leaves a gap between the scoop and …
We seem to go through a lot of rubber intercooler boots. Not sure if it’s a function of higher temperatures from heavy track use, or just normal for a boosted car with a top mounted intercooler. So this time we decided to try to replace them with Silicone boots from Alta which are about a …
If you’ve spent any time in a first generation mirror, you probably have several complaints about the interior rear view mirror because it: a). Is too small; b). Sits too low relative to the windshield and blocks part of your field of view to the right; c). Has that honking large knob on the bottom …
With the R53 MINI, it’s not a question of if, but when the belt tensioner will fail. If you are lucky, it just doesn’t provide enough tension on the belt; the belt slips, and you get a code telling you something is wrong. If you aren’t lucky, the damper machines into the crank pulley (see …
A couple of weeks ago we installed the Wilwood Rear Combination Parking Brake (CPB) calipers and rotors on the MINI, but didn’t have the required cables to finish the job. We finally got the special order cables and thought we’d post a few photos for anyone considering this project. First some background. We upgraded the …