Mini JCW

[gex23]

So after a brief stint in an Audi TT RS, I decided to reduce my car running costs and find a fun car once more - while the TT was quick, it was just too serious and devoid of feedback.

So this Mini turned up at the local Mini dealership, 1 owner, only 32k and well specced. After a quick test drive and taking a 7k hit on the TT (only depreciated by 1k a month :wall, I was sold. So much feedback, character, eagerness, great turn it, burbly exhaust, just a lot of fun coupled with great economy

A brief spec is as follows -

- Mini JCW in midnight black / black alloys.
- Leather interior
- Heated seats
- Heated windscreen
- Panoramic sunroof
- Interior light pack
- Xenons

Plus all the usual JCW bits and bobs

So the short term plans are :

- Replace interior bulbs with LEDs (ordered)
- Reg plate, driving lights, side indicators for LEDs. (ordered)
- Metal pressed plates
- Tint the spotlights / foglights (undecided whether to go black or yellow)
- Dechrome the headlight and rear lights using plastidip (ordered)
- Stubby aerial (ordered)

Medium - long term plans

- Bilstien Coilovers
- Replace runflats for Mich Supersport 4s
- Drilled front discs with EBC yellowstuff pads
- Breathing mods / meth cooling / stage 1 map
- Walnut blasting of the N18 lump as they're prone to excessive carbon buildup

20170330_180936 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

20170330_180916 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

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20170330_181128 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

20170330_180951 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

I'll start on the correction tomorrow, might even just use some PB blackhole on a finishing pad and seal this in with some DW Pro Edition.

 

[chris_p]

Nice!

I've been thinking about one of these for a little while. What's the build quality like?

 

[Poopensharten]

Was the TTRS heavy on running costs?

Thats lovely mate, won't lose much i any money either!

 

[Smiffyboy1990]

That's nice, love how characterful these sound [emoji1305]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Daz_RT_04]

MINI Fwend... 😅

I'd definitely stick the Michelin PS4's and a Walnut blast at the top of the list.

Lovely looking car though, jealous of your N18 and JCW'ness.

 

[Sir_Dave]

Now that, is very nice, lovely spec!!
Coupple of suggestions for you though:
Bilstein Coilovers - Dont bother, they rattle on the GP2's. If you want premium, buy Ohlins, for £800 buy Meister R/ST XTA/BC Racing
Mich Supersport 4s - yup, perfect choice
Drilled front discs with EBC yellowstuff pads - no point in drilled discs, EBC are turd. Buy Carbotech XP8's & headbut the windscreen whenever you feel like it.
Breathing mods / meth cooling / stage 1 map - its an N18, so just de-cat it, fit an Airtec I/C & go for Stage 2. 270 reliable bhp. No point in meth unless you are going to seriously track abuse it.
Walnut blasting of the N18 lump as they're prone to excessive carbon buildup - N18 is much better than the N14 for this as they changed the breather setup. I'd probably change the spark plugs & simply make sure its running 100% before the map instead.

 

[_Tom]

Lovely motor.

 

[JD]

7K hit?! How come?!

 

[Daz_RT_04]

I've got some bits for sale if your interested?

- Brand new genuine torque mount with new powerflex insert bush.
- Brand new Scorpion Decat Downpipe with BMW fitting kit.

Let me know :up:

 

[gex23]

Daz, cheers for the offer but I want it to stay 'relatively' standard for now - are you selling yours then?

It definitely needs a bit more power.....

 

[r0ss172]

These are really starting to grow on me, seen a few at work and having driven at GP2 when they first came out and loved it, could be a potential replacement for me!

Looks good!

 

[gex23]

These are really starting to grow on me, seen a few at work and having driven at GP2 when they first came out and loved it, could be a potential replacement for me!

Looks good!

Definitely worth a test drive of one, see how you get on with it

New plates and Osram diadems fitted (may change these for silver visions in the future, forgot just how blue they were!)

20170401_140206 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

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[gex23]

Very tempted to go ahead and order a Storm Moterwerks titanium plated gear knob....

 

[gex23]

Managed to finish paint correction :

20170405_191245 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

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20170405_191309 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

 

[gex23]

Spent the day on the wheels / arches today.

First car i've owned that has these nasty fabric arch liners :doublesho

Attacked the arches / calipers / suspension setup with a 10% solution of surfex.

Wheels were hit with Bilberry / Surfex / Iron X / Tardis and a final Bilberry rinse down. They were then dried and sealed with CarPro Dlux. As were the calipers.

20170406_150227 by DEAF N1NJA, on Flickr

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PlastiDip arrived today so i'm going to attempt de-chroming the headlights and rear lights.

Also the interior led kit and puddle lights should be here also. Again will attempt to install them too.

 

[Poopensharten]

Great work mate, that really is a lovely car.

I know what you mean about the fabric arch liners, what the f***s the story with them?? My Civic has them, you could comb them clean lol

 

[gex23]

Cheers mate. Such an epic car compared to the TT.

Yeah they're f**king s**t - they look s**t and are s**t to clean. Who the fvck thought it was a good idea to make the arches look like a fvcking living room floor?

Just about to attempt to plastidip the chrome around the headlights, as it's matt black i'm unsure how it'll look compared to the gloss of the paint.

 

[Poopensharten]

Haha! Did you not enjoy TT ownership? I'm dying for an RS3!

 

[gex23]

No I hated it. Bar the noise it was one of, if not the blandest car i've ever owned.

I'll never touch another Audi, unless it's an S1.

 

[Sir_Dave]

I know what you mean about the fabric arch liners, what the f***s the story with them?? My Civic has them, you could comb them clean lol

Yeah they're f**king s**t - they look s**t and are s**t to clean.

They're arch liners, under the f*cking car you bunch of weirdos. Let them get dirty 😂
If you want to clean/polish something until you can lick your dinner off it, take the head off & do the valves.

 

[gex23]

They're arch liners, under the f*cking car you bunch of weirdos. Let them get dirty 😂
If you want to clean/polish something until you can lick your dinner off it, take the head off & do the valves.

What can I say? It annoys me knowing they're dirty 😂

So tempted to order some BC coilovers, if only it wasn't in warranty!

Also thank fVck this plastidip peels off - overspray city:flushed:

 

[Poopensharten]

@Sir_Dave , it still doesn't make it okay:tearsofjoy:

 

[Sir_Dave]

What can I say? It annoys me knowing they're dirty 😂
So tempted to order some BC coilovers, if only it wasn't in warranty!
Also thank fVck this plastidip peels off - overspray city:flushed:

Ha ha!! Judging by how immaculate the rest of the car looks, i thought it might do 😂
I woudn't worry too much about the warranty, nowt will fail on it suspension wise and thats the only part of the warranty that'll be invalidated.

 

[gex23]

Ha ha!! Judging by how immaculate the rest of the car looks, i thought it might do 😂
I woudn't worry too much about the warranty, nowt will fail on it suspension wise and thats the only part of the warranty that'll be invalidated.

I wouldn't say immaculate mate 😂

I think in that case i'll get some BCs ordered this summer :grin:

 

[gex23]

What a sh*tty fvck up of a day that turned out to be.

Plastidip can suck my balls. Now have front lights black and rear lights fvcking chrome with fvcking overspray every fvcking where to sort out.

Also swapping out interior lights to leds has fvcked me right the fvck up. Managed to short something out prying the bulb outta the boot light. So now half the interior fvcking lights don't work and the airbag / tensioner light is on. Any thoughts @Sir_Dave ?

Fvck my life.

 

[gex23]

Sorted now. Interior light fuse had blown.

Airbag light now off.

Rear light chrome trim removed and sprayed. Plastidip is s**t.

Need some of the OE blacklight trim pieces.

 

[gex23]

Coated all the lower trim like arches / skirts / lower spoilers etc in CarPro Dlux yesterday, ran out so need more before I can finish the job (not looking forward to the grilles)

Also swapped all interior and exterior lights out for 6500k leds to give a slightly more up to date look.

 

[Sir_Dave]

@gex23 i was going to say it'll be the interior fuse that had blown.
Also, you can split off the light surrounds to plastidip, although Cotswold will do the front/rear blackline trim for £235 posted.
Here you go: http://www.minitorque.com/forum/f921/black-line-rear-lights-40%-off-149185/

 

[gex23]

Cheers mate, yeah was sorted easily.

Funny you should mention that, split the rear trim off and resprayed. Caught them once with the pressure washer and they're already bubbling, so going to go for the genuine blacklight kit.

Cheers for the link, but found both front and rear light trims, genuine Mini for £110 delivered, i'll pop on them soon

 

[gex23]

Replaced the upper grille (cutout for spots) and spotlights for an umolested grille so I could ditch the spots.

Much cleaner.

 

[Cookie]

Much prefer that

 

[Gaz_]

Lovely that!

 

[gex23]

So, still got this and had a problem develop over the past month or more. Tried posting on the Mini forums but they're like ghost towns, so hoping CS can point me in the right direction.

So recently the car's developed a pulsating feel when applying brake pedal, but can only be felt at low speeds and lightly pressing the brake pedal, hard braking and higher speeds it cannot be felt at all.

- Thought this might be tyres, but just had all the awful runflats replaced for some Uniroyal Rainsport 3s (non runflats) and the issue is still there.

- Cannot be felt through the steering wheel, just pedals (chassis and seat slightly too)

- Almost feels as though i'm driving over a road that's got a constantly rippled surface, and could almost be mistaken for engine hesitation / as if it's going to stall.

So my thoughts were :

Sticking caliper (How common is this on the JCWs front 4 pots?)
Broken wheel bearing
Buckled wheel (surely would have been noticed when tyres changed)
Or an outside bet of knackered coilpacks / plugs / clutch / flywheel? (don't ask how I reached these possibilities - I think this problems slowly driving me mad!

 

[CrippsCorner]

Derby's less than an hour away from one of the best MINI specialists going... get yourself over to https://facebook.com/millsysauto he's a top guy and bloody cheap too (or maybe I'm just used to Southern prices)

 

[Cookson]

Front arm bushes?

 

[_Tom]

Could be ABS related.

Derby's less than an hour away from one of the best MINI specialists going... get yourself over to https://facebook.com/millsysauto :smile: he's a top guy and bloody cheap too (or maybe I'm just used to Southern prices)

Guys a legend to be fair. He did they pulley on a MCS I had. His mini knowledge is outstanding. It was also like visiting a mate..lol