Know Anything About BMW Minis?

[Ashley Burton]

I have a new problem, one of the fog lamps is loose. It appears that the mounting lugs are broken & it was held in place with cable ties & silicone.
From the guides I've seen they show a small panel in the arch liner to access this but on this car it looks like the liner is all one piece!

I've another question regarding gearbox oil - what have any of you used? The recommended oil is MTF 94 which is hard to source & expensive. I'm thinking that any good quality 75w80 oil should be ok.

Put the Reg into the Comma Oil look up

 

[waldershelf]

I've worked on a few, I have to say I wouldn't buy one. I don't like the way they drive, they seem to be poorly put together from low quality parts and spares are a problem, every spare seems to have a dozen alternatives that might fit even when working from reg or vin number.

 

[onlymeagain]

Had to fit a complete regulator as the cable had rusted through. Complete pig of a job, main difficulty was removing the clamp bolts holding in the glass. They were extremely tight, I eventually got them loosened with water pump pliers. At one stage I thought I was going to have to make a tool to open them!

When I removed my window, I ended up making a tool from some s/s flat bar I had to loosen the nuts. Then after loosening the nuts, removing the complete regulator was a whole lot more fun.

 

[bert]

Some of the bolts are badly rusted, I had a hard time getting them slack enough to get the under tray off!

It appears that this one only has a single speed fan, I can't find any ballast resistors & there is only one fan relay fitted.

They all have 2 speed fans controlled by the ecu, it's very common for the slow speed resistor to fail which is buried in the radiator cowling stopping it from working. If it's a facelift model then each one has a separate feed. I used an Arco resistor and wired mine into the high speed side so I didn't need to remove the rad to fix it

 

[bert]

I've worked on a few, I have to say I wouldn't buy one. I don't like the way they drive, they seem to be poorly put together from low quality parts and spares are a problem, every spare seems to have a dozen alternatives that might fit even when working from reg or vin number.

Well it was designed by rover

 

[Turbo]

I've worked on a few, I have to say I wouldn't buy one. I don't like the way they drive, they seem to be poorly put together from low quality parts and spares are a problem, every spare seems to have a dozen alternatives that might fit even when working from reg or vin number.

Being used to mainly working on Peugeot's I find the mini a joy to work on in comparison. Being German engineered there is some thought put into the design, French design on the other hand...
One example was the door trim panel clips, Peugeot ones usually break when you remove them & do a poor job keeping the trim panel on, even new ones. All the 15 year old Mini ones came out in one piece & hold the panel on very solidly.

As for spares, have you ever tried to buy braking components for French cars? Total pot luck on what's fitted, have even found 2 different types of wheel cylinder on the same axle from new!

Definitely don't agree about driving it. I took this one for a drive to err - oh yes - to warm up the oil. Once I realised you have to rev it being a 16v it was quite rapid. A bit of torque steer but handles like a go kart. Naturally I had to test the handbrake so when I got to my favourite hairpin junction I gave it a good yank like I would in my 306 - I ended up facing back the way I came with a huge grin! The car very much reminded me of an original mini - a mate ran a rally prepped cooper s as his daily driver & I was his ballast when he went for a run!

 

[minimutly]

Well it was designed by rover

BMW......

 

[Turbo]

They all have 2 speed fans controlled by the ecu, it's very common for the slow speed resistor to fail which is buried in the radiator cowling stopping it from working. If it's a facelift model then each one has a separate feed. I used an Arco resistor and wired mine into the high speed side so I didn't need to remove the rad to fix it

No resistor to be seen on the fan housing, cable goes directly from the loom to the fan & looks original. This car has no ac, maybe they were fitted with a single speed fan.

 

[Wallace]

A friend had a Cooper S, think it was around 2007 in lovely condition and the engine chucked it while on holiday. A catalogue of errors cost her a fortune and the car ended up in a 'Mini Specialist' workshop for a replacement engine and they only took cash.... I was asked to have a look as they were having stalling issues and noticed the oil pressure switch was disconnected, connecting bought the oil light on. A new switch and pressure check showed 5psi on idle and 15psi at 3000. The company had it back and poked a piece of plastic in the switch then glued the plug on with Tiger Seal and told her it was sorted.

 

[ibrooks]

BMW......

Definitely Rover. I still regret not buying the prototype that popped up on ebay a few years ago - never did find out what happened to it but not seen it appear at any shows which I thought it would have.

https://jalopnik.com/unique-bmw-mini-prototype-found-on-ebay-proves-rover-or-1474761064

 

[Cobbler]

Being as we are talking about Mini’s, I was having a wander at the South Cerney show & came across a very scruffy odd looking old Mini with the bonnet open. I stopped to talk to the owner & it turned out this was Alec Issigonis’s own car that was fitted with all sorts of oddities, the main one being a alloy headed overhead cam version of the A series engine that never went into production. Apparently it was down on power, BL wouldn’t develop it, although the potential was good, they stuck with the A series as it was.

 

[ibrooks]

Being as we are talking about Mini’s, I was having a wander at the South Cerney show & came across a very scruffy odd looking old Mini with the bonnet open. I stopped to talk to the owner & it turned out this was Alec Issigonis’s own car that was fitted with all sorts of oddities, the main one being a alloy headed overhead cam version of the A series engine that never went into production. Apparently it was down on power, BL wouldn’t develop it, although the potential was good, they stuck with the A series as it was.

The original K-Series - the reason for the Clubman (more room in the engine bay to accomodate it).

Not to be confused with the K-Series that eventually came into being.

 

[Turbo]

This is what the cabin filter & engine air filter looked like alongside new ones.

Absolutely pigging, never saw so bad in many years fixing cars.

This was the oil filter, all twisted up & it was that brittle the paper fins broke if you moved them!

I've got all the parts to fix it except 1. I managed to wring the head of one of the plastic coolant bleed screws so last Sunday night I ordered 2 on ebay. Supposed to be sent 1st class, should've been here Wednesday at the latest but still no sign!
So I can't finish the cooling system & that is holding up everything else as the car is stuck on the ramps.

Now I remember why I stopped fixing other peoples cars!

There was some good fortune. I managed to get the Comma equivalent of the Mini gearbox oil locally for just £8 a litre! So thank you to @Ashley Burton .

 

[owas]

I saw a worse air filter on a Q7, surely spending that much on a car, you'd do the basics or have someone do the basics