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 pulley (which was fixed by use of a sleeve before any real damage was done), but most recently, the hose got pinched under suspension compression and the wire from the hose shredded the (brand new) CV boot forcing yet another axle repair and massive grease clean-up.

This time we’re trying a smaller diameter hose — 2.5 inches vs 3.0 previously. The brackets at the wheel carriers were modified for a smaller diameter fitting, which we’ll weld over the winter break if this works out.

We got a Mishimoto reducer to fit the 3 inch brackets in the bumper and some aluminum tubing to form connectors and to protect the crank pulley.

The eventual solution turned out pretty well. Since the hose still matches the opening in the bumper there shouldn’t be any loss in cooling, and now with the reducer in place, it will be easier to remove the front bumper cover. There doesn’t appear to be any binding at steering lock. And when we jacked up the hub, there doesn’t appear to be any binding at full suspension compression either.  We’re running at Summit Point in a couple of weeks so we’ll know more after that event.

Leave a comment if you have a better way to route the hose on the passenger side.