r/R53

I was curious about converting an old R53 to electric. I know it doesnt make any sense. You'd pay $40k+ for a car that would be worth $10k at best. BUT I spent a few hours digging around and educating myself just for shits and giggles.

Key findings..

The easiest conversion (and costliest) is the VW kit from EVWest which has 5 tesla batteries and a NetGain HyPer 9 AC motor in a front and rear box. But it is a little slow.... around 8 sec 0-60. Although the batteries provide 75-100mi in range depending on which version you pick (6.4kwh vs 5.3)

For more speed you could upgrade to a Curtis/HPEVS Dual AC-34 motor which gets you closer to 6ish secs and the same range. The torque is an issue and you would have to get an R53 with a more rugged trans or map out the power so as not to overwhelm the transmission.

I also looked at some alternative for batteries and placement. You could mount the batteries under the seat, especially if you use the batteries from a Cadillac Lyriq, assuming the straps could hold the weight. A full gas tank is 60lbs vs 140 lbs from two batteries.

I even found the entire SE battery pack. It would be cool to swap that in, but im not sure what the dimensions are. Probably a few inches too big.

Anyway thought I would share. Talks amongst yourselves.

I sold my Mini Cooper pictured above back in 2008 with about 25k miles on it. A couple of days ago I found what looked like my old car for sale in an estate sale. After looking at the car further I noticed… IT WAS MY OLD CAR! I sold it to the deceased back in 2008. He told me if he was to ever sell it he would let me know. Life happens and he passed away. I find this for sale online and sure enough its my old car. It only has 54k miles on it. Drove it today and drives better than I remember! Looking forward to picking it up this week!

So i was changing the bulb in my taillights and i accidentally pinched these wires ( for the locking fuel cover) in where the screw goes and pinched them and ever since then I cannot unlock or lock my car doors using either the key fob or the toggle on the inside of the car. All electronic locks are currently disabled. Only the mechanical ways to unlock the car door still work what do I do

Very few success posts/teardown documentations on the web so I figured I’d share mine. Less than $20 and an angle grinder to modify this tie rod tool. Once I got the fit right and the bolt to hover over the center shaft, it came out quite easily. I did protect the shaft with a pointed bit from a harmonic balancer puller kit, but you could easily grab a throwaway bolt the put in there as it’s threaded.

All this to replace shitty oil seals that Eaton/bmw chose for the rotor to PTO small gear, as well as the PTO large gear to water pump drive.

I dunno. These things are becoming antiques so this is going to become a lot more common as these units go up in price.

I couldn’t bite the bullet on a REMAN nor could I bother buying a used unit on eBay as searching for one that already has this treatment was futile.

Duralast non-damage tie rod tool for the win.

Oil seals (as far as I can tell, these will all work)

471466v (most readily available, national brand)
CR6203
CR6213

I'm 97% sure it's donezo but just wanna triple check

Bought this wonderful r53 jcw mini last week but im not really sure of the color combo. The wheels, mirrors, handles and fuel filler cap are all dark gray which gives it a weird look up close. im considering de-de-chroming the fuel cap and handles and getting properly black rims or blacking out the rest and getting silver rims. I also generated some renders of what it would look like but it still doesn’t narrow it down. What do you guys think is nice on these ? Thanks

Ps: I would love to see photos of your car if you think it could inspire me 😁

Literally just pulled out the rest stop and full on limp mode. Had to coast down to an SOS (if you’ve ever been on the Italian Autostrada you know what I’m talking about). I did start to see why I smelled rubber…and then immediately shut down once I saw the problem.

How cooked am I?

The engine was totally seized up. Couldn't move the crankshaft until after removing the pistons and rods. I threw a connecting rod bearing, completely disintegrated. Found some of the bearing in the oil pan too. I'll need the crankshaft turned as well.

I ordered .

Local machine shop will bore and hone and clean the block as well as crankshaft. Ordered the ported head and new Mahle pistons from RMW, so there will be some! time for a few side quests.

The ball joints are completely shot, so I'll drop the front subframe and replace all the joints and bushings.

Probably will paint the transmission and some parts. Stay tuned......

Hello dudes…

Pulled out the boroscope and looked down the spark plug holes… three cylinders looked identical, but cylinder no 3 had a slightly different look.

Could this be cyl 3 ever so slightly nudging the head? First image is one of the other cylinders…

Thanks!

Engine seized, trying to resuscitate my 2006 R52 S.

my harmonic balencer is going bad and im not sure if i should go OEM or with one of these performance ones. i assume that this would make the car vibrate more but my r53 won't be my daily driver once I get my other car back from getting fixed so I want to turn it into a fun car so vibrations won't really matter too much. its looking like this alta one and an oem would be simaler prices so let me know which is better!

car has just passed mot and I found this flakey rust hole in one of the upright legs of the front subframe, only on the offside. the rest of the subframe – the rest of the car for that matter – is either fine or treatable.

how bad is it? is it fixable? or is this RIP?

Just got mu first R53 about a week ago and already got her new wheels and tores. Vors TR4 17x8 +35mm on some Nitto Neo Gen 215/40/17. Need some coilovers next…

My son and I are replacing the timing chain cover/oil pump in his R53 due to persistent low oil pressure. I’ve bought a cryo timing chain set since we’re in there, but I’m wondering if this chain has been replaced recently before we bought the car. I’m not sure what it looks like new so I wanted to get a more experienced opinion. Here’s an overall pic showing the guides and a closer pic of the tensioner:

So, the car has been great for a couple of weeks straight. However, on my way home from work i heard a faint knocking noise, mostly audiable around 2,7k rpm.

I will try to rule out any bottom end/rod stuff by running it with the belt off later tonight.

What do you guys make of it? Its mostly hearable when i shut the car off near the end of the video.

Thanks in advance!
//N

After a couple of years renovating the house it’s finally time to enjoy driving a Mini again, missed my old r52 so much since I sold it years ago. Happy to be back :) thinking about doing the first mods in the next weeks, what do you guys think is the best mod for the R53/52 models??