r/classicminis

Well, ladies and gentlemen. I managed to aquire the old car from my cousin yesterday. Earlier today I took the car out for a local drive because I was eager to drive it around my neighborhood. It worked perfectly fine, up slopes, down hills, round bends, even that pesky second gear I was worrying about decided to be perfectly normal. Less then a few kilometers later, as I was rolling down a hill, and braking to stop at a roundabout, the engine died.

At first I was confused. The clutch was in, and the engine was running at idle speed as it did during all the times I drove it beforehand. I tried to start the engine but the starter motor was dead silent. At that point I knew something was very wrong with the car and after turnung on the double indicator, I pushed the car into a nearby parking space and checked the battery and its terminals. They looked fine, but just to be safe I moved them around and made sure they were touching. Tried to start the motor again, but it didnt work, no sound at all from the engine bay. After a few attempts a friendly man came up and offered help. We tried to get the car started by having it in first gear and pushing it at speed before turning the key, but that didnt produce any result. The guy then told us that it is definitely an electrical issue and we would need an electrician to look at the wiring. I remembered the alternator repair done to the car a few months ago, and the fact that one time as the car sat unused for a long time the electrical system had a short. Though it was taken to be repaired and brought back operational at that time, it seems that something definitely either disconnected, or burnt out.

I am positive the engine did not seize, as I was on the edge of the slope and shifted into first gear the car still rolled a small amount, and while engaging the clutch as we pushed the car it did not grind to an immediate halt, the transmission did engage and the engne did seem to move. The engine also did not grind or sputter before it died, it simply turned off like when we kill the engine after parking. The battery still had a green indicator and is 100% still working. Though I did see that reconnecting the battery cables did not produce sparks and no zap sounds were heard either. The indicator lights and dashboard lights still work, so its not the main battery cables either.

Do any of you fine members of this sub have any ideas as to what the proboem might be? And if the problem is minor, can I do it myself at home, or is an auto-electrician necessary? I prefer an at-home job rather than going through the hassle of a commercial garage, as over here most garages havent worked on cars made before 2000 or even 2010 for a decent portion of them, and I have heard some concerning things about garages when dealing with much older cars.

For anyone who would find it useful, the car is a 1985-1990 model City (at least what I deduced from the VIN).

We have just finished an EV conversion on a 1970's Mini and tried to take a different approach. Instead of making it obviously "electric" or modernising everything, the goal was to keep it looking and feeling as close to original as possible. We took this as far as leaving the fuel gauge to read "FUEL" except now it tracks battery.

We kept:

• Original interior layout and styling
• Factory-style gauges (now running off a modern system)
• Original fuel cap with charge point hidden behind
• No screens or obvious "modern" add-ons/upgrades

Underneath:

• Tesla front wheel drive motor
• Around 300HP/400Nm (power can be controlled remotely via your phone)
• ~250km of range depending on usage
• Battery packaging split into three across the car to maintain boot and interior space

We know it is a strange combination, visually it is a classic Mini but it drives like something completely different and we are curious to know where people land on this. Do you think converting a classic car to an EV in this way, without additional mod-cons, makes sense?

Greetings yet again fellow ladies and gentlemen.
Since my last post on a mini that my cousin put up for sale, after driving it around a bit I have realised that is has a few problems and would like some clarification of how serious they are and how difficult would it be to resolve.

So, of the problems I have seen with this mini:

1. The speedometer doesn't work right. It does move but is very much random. Curiously, the needle does not stay at zero, it occasionally goes below zero and with the car in reverse it shoots beyond the max speed reading by going below the minimum and staying just beyond the max limit.
2. The fuel gauge is inaccurate, the needle pretty bouncy but usually stays more or less in an approximate place relative to the amount of fuel inside. Might be a buoy problem but im not sure.
3. The second gear is a bit wonky, sometimes if I don't hold the shifter in second gear with a bit more pressure than needed, it doesn't shift, leading to me having to clutch in again and downshift to first before trying again. This is the only problem that I think might become costly to fix. All the other gears work great, and I have no trouble shifting to third, fourth, first, and reverse.
4. Indicator lever seems to have been replaced with a light switch as a selector, I have no idea if this is original or just an improvised fix. It still works fine though.

Thanks for stopping by. Its almost midnight right now so pardon me if I don't reply.

Hi all,

I was wondering what people use to remove the sump plug? I have just bought my mini and want to do an oil charge asap, and can see the size is meant to be 15/16”. I cannot find this in stores anywhere and only online, which is a bit annoying as I wanted to do a service Saturday morning…

I saw others say a 24mm can work, has anyone done this? I don’t want to strip the plug unnecessarily.

Thanks all.