First experience with Mini maintenance....ugh

[DocMurphy]

All,

 

I am relatively new to the Mini world (owned mine for a few months now) and learning firsthand the pains of dealing with the maintenance and cost. 

 

My 06 R53 started having a coolant leak so while I was replacing the horns (which both died at the same time...) I started looking into the leak source. I started removing the airbox and piping, only to find half of it is dry rotted and broken (JCW intake setup)...Yay! It looks like a few hoses leading into the airbox from the head and another one on the airbox assembly that goes to a sensor is also broken. 

I was thinking the coolant leak was from the thermostat housing but upon inspection I cannot see any signs of leaking....now I am thinking I have to go "front end service mode" to investigate the water pump to try to locate the leak. Although I am not sure if this will prove to be the source either...

 

I have an appointment with GT Peace for this coming week but I was hoping not to have to take that hit in the wallet and fix some of the issues myself. 

 

I now have to decide if I am going to replace the broken air intake pieces with stock parts and keep the intake setup stock or replace the whole system with an aftermarket setup. From what I have gathered it seems better to keep the stock setup. I would appreciate any thoughts, opinions or insight on this topic if you have any experience or knowledge. 

 

As far as replacing the water pump, do you have to remove the SC to achieve this or is it just remove and replace? I have not done too much research into this process yet...any advice would be welcome and appreciated. 

 

I am also finding I have a pretty good leak in my power steering hoses so there's another issue to deal with once I figure out these current problems. 

 

I am hoping to not have to pay GTP 1-2k+ to do all this work, at this point I am debating on my path forward. I am pretty dejected at this point and not too stoked on the Mini...hopefully things will be able to get turned around without breaking the bank and I will be hyped on the Mini again soon. 

 

Overall, looking for advice, comments, insight, experiences, pep talks, wrenching buddies....anything! Or if I should just pack it up and limp to the shop to get it handled by the pros...

 

Thanks for reading!

[scotty]

I truly do feel for you. I have a 09 R56 and I had to put a bunch of $ into her, $1700 to have the AC fixed that was a broken Actuator which requires the whole dash to be removed then I had a oil leak around the valve cover but did that one myself for a decent price also had a coolant leak which lead to replacing the radiator and hoses $1500 but other than that I do the oil changes myself I keep up with plugs coil packs and know she runs like a champ. I felt the same as you at first but mine only has 75,000 miles and I refused to give up on a car I absolutely love. So I do hope you hang in there, I would just take it to GT peace if I were you they are great there and you will not regret keeping your mini. And like me I knew purchasing a mini that I would have to put money into it and just accepted it, I hope you do the same. Good luck!!!!

[DocMurphy]

Thanks for the encouragement! 

 

I just got the word back on the damage...

 

Needs new water pump/flange/o-ring

New radiator

New PS hose from rack to reservoir

 

All in all it's gonna be over 2600. 

Now I'm considering having them do the PS hose and tackling the radiator and water pump myself but its cold outside haha

 

Im gonna look into the repairs and watch some videos and see how extensive the time and job is gonna be.

 

[scotty]

For sure if you are going to go that way check out on youtube project mini he really explains just about every repair in mini's and he also has a Facebook group called mini diy where you can chat with other mini owners about all this. Just a little something to think about. Good luck