MINI Oil Change DIY
It’s time to start a new year of Autocross and Driver’s Schools. Time for a little Spring maintenance. So before heading back to the track next week I thought I’d switch back to the cold air intake, replace the spark plugs, change the brake fluid, and change the oil. Since I have to get an inspection at a qualified shop anyway, I’ll get the brake flush there. That left the CAI, plugs, and oil change for me to do. I did the CAI and plugs a couple of days ago. Today’s post is about changing oil. We recommend changing your oil every 5,000 miles.
Here’s how to change the oil in an R50/r53 MINI. You’ll need a 13mm wrench or socket; short 36mm socket; new drain plug; torque wrench; new filter with O ring; and 6 quarts of oil. You won’t have much room to maneuver the 36mm socket you really need a short one. Place your car on jackstands or in my case ramps and jackstands. You want the car to be level. Run your engine for a few minutes to get the oil warm, but not hot. This will help the oil flow more quickly.
Locate the oil drain plug at the back of the oil pan. Place your catch pan under close by and open the plug until you have only a couple of threads remaining engaged. Slide the pan into position to catch the oil then carefully remove the plug, keeping your hand up and out of the flow of the oil (remember it’s warm). Once flowing, slide your pan about 6 inches to the passenger side to catch the oil when you remove the filter.
Moving to the top of the engine, locate the filter housing. It’s on the back side of the block. There isn’t much room to work with. If you can break the seal by loosening the housing about a quarter of a turn while the oil is still draining, you’ll make less of a mess when you remove the filter. Once the filter housing is loose, you can spin it off by hand. Flip it over so the open end is up as quickly as you can so you don’t spill more oil than you have to in the process of getting it out. Note the orientation of the old filter in the housing and discard it.
Clean up the housing and remove the old O ring. Use a pocket knife or even a ball-point pen to remove the old O ring, taking care not to damage the housing. Put some fresh oil in the groove and replace the O ring with the new one that came with your filter. Put some more oil on the new O ring so it doesn’t twist when you put it back on the block. Press the new filter all of the way into the new housing. Spread some new oil on the gasket on the end of the filter. This will help make it easier to remove next time.
If the oil has finished draining, replace the drain plug and tighten. Move the drip pan out of the way. Torque the drain plug to 18 ft lbs. Now it’s time to put the filter and housing back on the engine. Before you start, carefully feel around where the housing spins on to the block. There is a spring mechanism that will be pushing against the filter and making it difficult to get the treads started correctly. Push the housing on to the block and pressing down toward the header begin to spin on the housing. Check that it isn’t cross-threated. If so, loosen and try it again. It may take a couple of attempts before threading properly. You will be able to spin it by hand until the O ring engages, then you will need a wrench. Tighten to 18 ft lbs as well.
With the drain plug back in and the net filter installed, it’s time to add the new oil. Remove the fill cap at the top of the valve cover and add 5.7 quarts of pure synthetic 5-30w oil. Start the car and the oil light should go out immediately. If it doesn’t, turn off the car and get out the Bentley manual. Let the car warm up and check for leaks at the drain plug and around the filter housing. Check the oil level again. Reset the Service Indicator light and you’re all done.
More Home Depot Racing Parts
I have always hated exterior bits that serve no real purpose. Faux brake vents; solid grilles — that sort of thing. The stock MCS rear bumper has two fake grilles that have always driven me nuts. With the way the bumper cover is designed, the rear valance hangs down in the airflow coming under the car. It always looked like you could just open up the grilles and let the air flow through the bumper. But things are never as easy as they seem.
The first thing you notice when looking at the rear of the car is that there is a lot of heat shielding. With the stock “2-ball” design, this made sense, but once you’ve converted to a single sided exhaust, you really do not need all of that shielding or the exhaust hanger on the unused side. Once I painted the new bumper, I thought I’d try to experiment with airflow through the bumper. I started by modifying the heat shielding on the exhaust side to flow better toward the outlet. On the driver’s side, I trimmed the heat shielding back and channeled the airflow directly toward the vent. I’ve been running without vents at all for a couple of months. From most angles, you really can’t tell anything is missing, but when you are directly behind the car, it just looks wrong.
I tried looking through the usual online catalogs for a low cost, free venting solution, but all seemed outrageously priced to me. Enter Home Depot. Since I had an extra set of vent grilles, I decided to break out the jig saw and dremmel and see what I could come up with. After a couple of experiments, here’s what I produced. It’s not going to win me any concourse competitions, but from 5 feet, they look pretty good. They are made from the same gutter-guard material as my front grille, so it provides a certain low-budget symmetry I should think.
Give in to the Dark Side
I mounted the new autocross wheels stepped back, and it struck me how much darker my car has become. Not that it’s a bad thing, just sort of a slow change over time. Tinted windows, blacked out grille, and now black racing wheels. Add mirror caps and a roof sticker and the change will be complete.
I wanted to see if the wheels would rub, so I carefully drove down the street, avoiding any water or ice since they are basically slicks. I was looking for a good place to check for rubbing. I found an empty church parking lot and did a couple of quick tight turns. (Am I going to hell for doing donuts in the church parking lot?)
JDM Super Tuner Lug Nuts
It turns out that my new Konig Feather wheels won’t work with the stock size lug nuts. They require “tuner” nuts. Who knew such a thing even existed? So now I have my first ever JDM parts.
At the widest point, the Muteki nuts are about 1/16 of an inch smaller in diameter than the stock lug nuts. This allows the nut to fit in the narrow hole of the Konig wheel. They have a narrow, barrel design that requires a special socket to be used. I figured it was a good idea to get an extra nut and spare socket since it’s non-standard. If you look carefully at the stock nut, you can see a line that is the limit of where it makes contact with the wheel. It looks like the amount of surface area in contact will actually be the same for both nuts which is good news.
Ooh That Smell
What is that goo that comes out of an electric motor that has seized? We took a brief trip to CA to escape winter and while we were gone, we had some friends watching our house. Because we had some snow and sub-freezing days, we had them run the BMW every couple of days. They must have hit the wiper switch while the wiper blades were frozen to the windshield and not noticed.
The motor burned out after melting its plastic cover. I didn’t notice until I was driving to work and tried to wipe the windshield. Then I noticed that smell. Being a former Alfa owner, it was a smell I knew all too well. At first I thought the heater blower had seized because it’s been on its last legs for a while, but the blower still worked.
Since it’s a real pain to get to the wiper and replace it, here’s how to first trouble shoot, then replace the wiper motor. Disclaimer: instruction provided for entertainment purposes only. Not responsible if it doesn’t work for you or you damage something in the process. No wagering.
1. Disconnect the battery. Check the 30 amp fuse in position #5 in the fusebox.
2. Remove the wiper relay from the fuse panel under the hood (B in the photo above).
3. To test if the problem is the wiring, wiper relay, or wiper motor, you’ll need to test the following in order. To test, you need a piece of 14 gauge (or heavier) wire with a 30 amp fuse and a volt meter.
4. Check for power: Reconnect the battery, with the ignition switch turned on, insert one end of your volt meter in slot 15 and touch the other to ground. If voltage is present, check for continuity by switching your volt-meter to continuity mode and check for continuity between #15 and #31. If no power or continuity, you have to fix you wiring before conducting more tests. Check the main ground connection behind the instrument panel if there is no continuity. If you get 12 volts and continuity, move on to the next test.
5. Again with the batter connected and ignition on, use your test wire with the fuse, cross #15 to #53. The wiper motor should run at low speed. Next cross #15 to #53b. The wiper motor should run on high speed. Cross #85 and ground. The washer motor should run. If the wiper motor ran for these two tests, but doesn’t when the relay is plugged in, your fault is with the relay. Congratulations, this is the easiest problem to fix. If both of these tests failed, you have to assume your problem is with the wiper motor. It’s not expensive if you shop around, but it’s a knuckle buster.
6. To get to the wiper motor, you have to remove the heater fan. I was lucky, since I had to replace the heater fan anyway…
7. If you have a strut bar installed, you’ll want to remove it to get to the firewall access panel (A). You will have to loosen the wires that run along the panel (mine were held on with zip-ties.) Then remove the panel by removing the four screws and two nuts.
Remove the blower cover by loosening the white straps, and then easing the cover out the gap in the firewall.
Remove the resistor by pulling up and out. Disconnect the two wires to the blower, and use a screwdriver to pry open the retaining clip. It takes some work, but the fan will come out the opening in the firewall. Now you can concentrate on the wiper motor again. (At this point, most repair manuals recommend removing the rest of the heater duct cover from the heater core, but I managed to remove the wiper motor without doing that or completely removing the wiper linkage.)
8. Next, remove the wiper arms (C) and the cowl vent (D) in the photo at the top. To remove the wiper arms, gently pry up on the cover to expose the linkage bolts. Remove both bolts, washers, and covers. Wrap a screwdriver with tape to protect your paint, and gently pry up on the cowl cover, exposing the wiper motor and cover. Reaching through the opening in the firewall, you can pry the cover off of the motor with your fingers and work it back into the opening in the cowl. You probably won’t be able to remove it until the motor is out.
9. Unbolt the wiper linkage from the car and unplug the wiper motor. At this point, the wiper motor is still attached to the linkage, but the combination is loose in the cowl. Since we are only replacing the motor, we won’t try to pull the linkage out, just separate the motor from the linkage. (If you have to replace the linkage, you have to remove the rest of the heater blower cover to get room to work it out.)
10. Now for the knuckle busting: You’ll have to use a 10mm open end wrench and work blindly. Reaching under the wiper motor, loosen the central nut to the motor. Then remove the 3 10mm bolts that hold the motor to the linkage. Now you can remove the wiper motor out the hole in the firewall and remove the plastic cover if needed (mine was melted.) Be sure to wipe up any remaining “goo” from your melt down, to reduce “that smell…” The photo shows the locations of the bolts you can’t see when installed.
11. Before you start reassembly, plug the relay back into the fuse panel, connect the new motor, and reconnect the battery. Turn the ignition key to position II, and turn on the wiper at the column switch. Turn the switch off and the motor will stop in the “park” position. Disconnect the battery and be sure to slide your new cover into the cowl opening before you try to reconnect everything.
12. Assembly is the reverse of removal.
