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Mini Cooper S Checkmate (2006)

77K views 130 replies 33 participants last post by  James_G 
#1 · (Edited)
After selling my last project car back in September (http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=385408) I planned to give myself the winter off and get back in to something new toward the end of March, to coincide with the clocks changing.

However a series of events meant that I brought that forward a bit and ended up buying this 2006 Mini Copper S Checkmate on Wednesday, which by lucky coincidence was also my birthday.



It was relatively close to home and unlike my previous project car I actually test drove this one before committing. In the end the very pleasant lady seller accepted my offer of ÂŁ2,000 and we did all the paperwork there and then. I'm the 7th owner and it's done 85k miles with full history, including the often missed brake fluid and coolant changes.

I've always liked the Checkmate models and once I discovered that they came fitted as standard with an LSD it became the only model that I searched for. As with the previous car, I'm planning to take this on the track where I think the LSD will offer some genuine benefit. On the road, perhaps not so much.

The Mini is in addition to my daily, which is still my 2011 Mercedes C350 CDi and continues to deliver worthy service, albeit in a very dull diesel kind of way. More to follow later.
 
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#35 ·
Great work.

I agree, not ideal with the tyre but in your predicament I would have chosen the same route.

Loving this thread as well, the better half has a 2005 MCS Convertible and we are about to embark on a suspension refresh so great to see.

Keep it up.

:thumb:
 
#36 · (Edited)
I had originally cleared the whole weekend to fit the new suspension, but for some reason I lost time on Saturday meaning I only had about 1 hour to do things. Rather than start the suspension work I thought I'd sort a few little niggles round the car, starting with these rusty numberplate screws:



Originally a Philips head, it had all but dissolved with rust so I needed to cut a slot in them to stand a chance of getting them out. So, I tried a multi-purpose tool:



But it didn't really work, probably as the blade I was using wasn't designed for (rusty) steel



So out came the Dremel, which is one of those tools I don't use much but when I do, it's invaluable.



Much better progress:



Perhaps inevitably both screws sheared off at the merest hint of some torque from the screw driver. Frustrating.



This left me looking at two of these, which despite my best efforts I couldn't pull out without the risk of damaging the panel.



I also tried drilling out the screw but the drill kept wandering so I abandoned that approach meaning there was only one thing for it, which was to attack it from behind:



Once off this gave me a chance to look at the rust on the rear hatch from within. It doesn't look too bad, but it won't last forever, and it's a shame because it's the only rust on the car currently.



Here's the back of the screw mounting:



In the end I tried a number of approaches and managed to remove enough material to extract everything, leaving me with this:



And of course a pile of mangled plastic parts:



So a 5 minute job to remove two screws and refit new ones ended up taking 1 hour and has left me without the ability to fit a numberplate. In hindsight this was a warning of more dire things to come, but more on that next.
 
#37 · (Edited)
Hi James, just a quick reply to say i'm following your thread with interest! i'm a member of Minitorque and if you need any advice on anything Gen 1 related then please feel free to give me a shout and i'll help you out if I can, if not someone on there will know the answer. Two points I would note is ditch the runflats asap and upgrade the shocking suspension bushes to polybushes as soon as you can, lower front wishbone rear bushes are paramount to get changed. If you need any parts our friend owns Millsy's Autos in Nuneaton, he has hundreds of parts available as he breaks them. As for suppliers, Oli at Orranje Performance and Tom at 1320 Mini are the go to guys, some people recommend Lohen but a bad experience with them won't see me using them ever again but each to their own choices. I'm saving for a Checkmate and you got yours for a bargain price!
 
#42 ·
Thanks Lolly for that kind offer. My wife uses the car so I've got to stick with runflats for now, but I have a second set of wheels (MG Hairpins) with better tyres that I'll put on for track days. The trailing arm bushes were replaced by the previous owner with PowerFlex items so all sorted in that respect.

Just a suggestion but if it were me I would buy a new plate, seal the holes with silicon and then attach the new plate with sticky pads.
Small rubber grommets might work on the holes? Then as above double tape on the plate. :)

Following with interest!
Update on that coming soon, but I've got the numberplate back on temporarily so I can at least drive it.

Wow, great read! What is crazy, is that everything you have listed is or has been wrong with my JCW! Fuel seal cap failed MOT and looked like yours, had to replace the top mount as it had gone through the rubber, rust on the tailgate etc.

Keeping up with this now and also Jbenekeorrs as! I really should start a thread as well.

Have you swapped out the top mounts yet? Passenger side for me was a doddle, drivers side, I sheared the hub bolt :( spent 2 hours drilling it out!

Looking forward to the updates.
Thanks, glad you are enjoying it and you should definitely start a thread. Top mounts are all done and update should follow very soon. Nightmare about the bolt, I hate it when that happens.

Good work,well done:thumb:
Cant fault your decision with the tyre...if a brand new tyre had been less than ÂŁ40,as with the brake lines...different story...:)
Thanks. I'm planning to fit HEL lines when I upgrade the front calipers because of that thread. Just need to find a decent pair to fit.
 
#40 ·
Wow, great read! What is crazy, is that everything you have listed is or has been wrong with my JCW! Fuel seal cap failed MOT and looked like yours, had to replace the top mount as it had gone through the rubber, rust on the tailgate etc.

Keeping up with this now and also Jbenekeorrs as! I really should start a thread as well.

Have you swapped out the top mounts yet? Passenger side for me was a doddle, drivers side, I sheared the hub bolt :( spent 2 hours drilling it out!

Looking forward to the updates.
 
#44 · (Edited)
After the numberplate issue I abandoned any further work and waited until the next day (Sunday) to start the suspension refresh. As I'd mentioned previously, I decided to fit Bilstein B4 dampers mainly because they are a good OEM option but are cheaper than buying from the dealer. Having done this type of job before I also decided to replaced all the spring pads and since I was taking the drop links off I'd replace them too. Finally, having heard of others having issues with the pinch bolts shearing, I bought some new ones just in case.

Bilstein B4s, a bargain at ÂŁ160 for all four:



Lots of parts from both BMW and Lemforder, including new rear top mounts and drop links:



Having loosened the strut to hub pinch bolt with a breaker bar, I pressed my new impact wrench in to service. Worked like a charm!



You can see why they might shear, since only the last part of the thread is used and the rest is free to rust away.



The main challenge with this job is that the bottom of the damper fits in to a machined hole in the hub. That then has a vertical slot in it and the pinch bolt clamps it together to create an interference fit, but after 12 years (in my case) there can be some reluctance for the parts to separate.



Luckily for me it dropped about 2/3rds away without any trouble, as you can see.



So far, so good. However I couldn't then see how to extract the last 1/3rd and so spent another hour trying a number of options to do it. Some guides suggest separating the lower ball joint, which I tried but the ball joint didn't want to play, erm, ball so I resorted to more primitive methods. In short, I had to turn the steering so the wheel pointed out and then hit the hub with a hammer. A few sharp taps and she's out:



Then it was just a case of removing the three top mount bolts in the engine bay and the whole strut comes away easily.



This then allows me to see in more detail the reason why I was doing this, those top mounts. These are in bad shape and are long overdue for replacement.



Work then starts on pulling apart the old strut and reassembling the new one, so it's out with the spring compressors:



And the impact wrench. If you've ever thought about getting one, this short video will hopefully convince you. Do note I will be buying some impact sockets in the very near future...



This was the state of things once I'd separated the top mount from the strut



Having pulled off the bump stops and seen their condition I do regret not changing them too, but they are ÂŁ17 each which feels a bit punchy for a piece of coloured foam, so they get re-used:



Building up the new strut is drama free and very soon it's all done and ready to go on. To this point I am about 2.5 hours in, including having a tea break.



I then spend the next 30 minutes getting things all back in line but for some reason the strut doesn't drop down in to the hole nicely. Taking advice from another guide I jack up from the bottom of the hub to encourage the damper to fit in. Sadly it just gets stuck, so now I have the damper half inserted but it won't go any further and nor can I get it out.



I spend the next hour wrestling it to try and get it apart. In the end family demands mean that I have to abandon the job and come back to it another day. Deeply frustrating and it was one of those times, and I'm sure we've all had them, where I really question this hobby of ours.
 
#45 · (Edited)
Having abandoned work on the car on Sunday evening, I left it on axle stands until I could get back to work on it, which was Wednesday evening. First job was to extract the strut and work out why it wouldn't fit in to the hub.

I tried this approach, which I don't recommend as having done it you can see it puts too much pressure on the spring plate:



In the end, coming up directly under the strut worked better (photo from when I did the other side)



And here you can see the issue, which is that I didn't apply any grease which caused the paint to chip on insertion and the debris from that stopped it moving down.



I then sanded the paint smooth, applied some grease and it all went together beautifully, ready for the remaining steps. Here's the new pinch bolt and drop link versus the old ones:





And using the torque wrench on the strut top bolts:



Finally there's the job that you have to do, but that always seemed a nightmare until I bought this special socket, which is tightening the strut top nut to the correct torque. If anybody knows how they do this at the factory, I'd love to hear it because I can't believe they use this (slow) method.



And once done, the dust cap goes back on.



I then go back under to sort out that ball joint that wouldn't separate. Strictly these are one use bolts so I've since bought new ones to fit



And here you can see the underneath of the strut with the copper grease that seemed essential for this job.



While under there I saw up close the oil leak that was mentioned on the last MOT, so something to investigate in the future.



By this point it's 10.40pm and I figure that the other side won't take too long so I get cracking. Before removal:



Strut top condition better on this side but still in need of replacement.



Old versus new showing slight differences in the bottom of the strut and the mountings for the brake pipe and ABS sensor wire.



Old spring pad versus new. I could have re-used these, but they aren't expensive and it's nice working with new stuff.



Regret over the bump stop again though:



New strut top ready to go on:



Once all assembled I then sanded the paint on the strut before insertion and used the grease again. It wasn't all plain sailing, and took a bit of tapping with the hammer to get it slide down.



But before long it was all back together



In the end, this side took just under two hours but did result in quite a late night though....



In the end, including the time to get it up on axle stands it took 5 hours for the driver's side and 2 hours for the passenger side. If I did it again I think 4 hours in total would be realistic. And for anybody thinking of doing the job here are the torque settings:

Strut Mount Nuts: 34Nm
Droplink Nuts: 56Nm
Strut Top Nut: 64Nm
Pinch Bolt: 81Nm

Rears next.
 
#47 · (Edited)
Third and final installment of the suspension refresh.

After my late night in the garage, normally I wouldn't go back out there the next night. But with the weather set to get very cold and Saturday due to be taken up with a day at the excellent Goodwood 76th Members' Meeting, I had to get the car finished. So it was that at 9.30pm on Thursday I was working on the Mini again, this time to sort the rear suspension.

Here's how it looks before, which I understand is a Z-axle arrangement.



First order of business is to remove the lower shock bolt which requires the removal of this odd rubber cover:



To expose this quite rusty 21mm lower shock bolt



Breaker bar used again and it frees off nicely and then back to the impact wrench. Two further bolts to undo at the top and the strut is free:



And once stripped down, here are all the parts:



New parts going on including the Lemforder white strut mount bushes, which were quite challenging to get hold of. One place I ordered from cancelled my order for them as they had no stock and the place I got them from eventually also didn't have any stock but arranged for them to come direct from the factory. The reason that they are out of stock I presume is that BMW won't sell you them individually, you have to buy all the metalwork that surrounds them despite being perfectly re-usable, so almost everyone goes after market. By the way I'm using Lemforder merely because I know they supply BMW and are therefore assumed to be good quality.



White bushing replaces these yellow ones, but the metalwork is retained.



As with the fronts, it's then a case of assembly and the only issue was that the new bump stops supplied with the dampers aren't compatible with the strut mounts, so when I came to tighten things up it didn't quite work out. Going back and re-using the old ones quickly solved things. Installation is then easy, since there had been no need to remove any other parts to get them out, and it's just a case of lining up the bolt holes.



An hour later and I've done the other side too.



And another late night:



I could have stopped there but I figured another 20 minutes to get the wheels on and off the axle stands was probably time well spent. I was past the point of tiredness anyway, leaving me with a tidy garage and the car back on the ground:





The next day, keen to head out for a drive I got all the parts together and thought I'd combine a test run with a run to the tip, which resulted in this photo:



That is the culmination of everything that has been changed out. I would have also done the rear droplinks but they are still on back order and ideally I'd like to do the front ARB bushes but that involves dropping the subframe, so something for the future.

Anyway, I loaded all that up in to the car, did a temporary attachment of the numberplate and headed off. I'm delighted to report that the difference is night and day and all the creaks and groans from the suspension are gone. Annoyingly though the tip was shut, all part of Surrey CC cost saving efforts, so another trip is required!

In summary then, not a bad job by any means and certainly one I could do quicker if I had to do it again. Overall it took 11 hours, 7 for the front, 4 for the rear including time to get it on axle stands and off again. I've no idea what a garage would charge for this sort of work, but total costs for all the parts was ÂŁ377.

Finally, for those of you doing this job, here are the key torque settings:

Upper strut mount bolts: 54Nm
Strut top nut: 30Nm
Lower damper bolt: 140Nm :eek:

Thanks for reading.
 
#52 ·
Thanks Danny. Any update from the Saxo fleet?

Great updates, I have learnt a lot and will no doubt be referring to those torque specs at some point in the future!

Looks like you've done a proper job of the suspension, very thorough. You must be quite patient and methodical to overcome the issues you came across too! Those spring compressors frighten me though :lol:
I think because it's not my daily I can take my time and if, as in this case, things don't go well I can't just shut the garage door on it and come back some time later. Spring compressors trouble me too, but I always wear eye protection and gloves when using them to hopefully prevent any significant damage should the worse happen.

Great work, don't see many checkmates about.

A tip for the front suspension though, I am not sure if there is bmw/mini tool but I know VWs that have the same front strut in hub arrangement there is a special hub spreader tool so you don't have the issues you did getting the strut in and out.

I never bought this tool for my VW though and hammered in a small cold chisel to spread it ever so slightly then the strut falls in and out. Worth knowing for the future :)
That's a great tip, thanks. I used a claw hammer to open up the slot but wedging something in there that you don't have to hold would definitely have helped.

Loving the write up. Got a r53 in brg and just had all the bushes and drop links replaced. Next is the suspension was toying with the b4 how are they to standard and is that on standard springs?
Yes, standard springs so no change in ride height. It's hard to say how the B4s compare because the previous units were so worn, and I've only done 15 miles since. Reports are that they are essentially the same as OEM, perhaps 10% stiffer.
 
#49 ·
Great updates, I have learnt a lot and will no doubt be referring to those torque specs at some point in the future!

Looks like you’ve done a proper job of the suspension, very thorough. You must be quite patient and methodical to overcome the issues you came across too! Those spring compressors frighten me though :lol:
 
#50 ·
Great work, don't see many checkmates about.

A tip for the front suspension though, I am not sure if there is bmw/mini tool but I know VWs that have the same front strut in hub arrangement there is a special hub spreader tool so you don't have the issues you did getting the strut in and out.

I never bought this tool for my VW though and hammered in a small cold chisel to spread it ever so slightly then the strut falls in and out. Worth knowing for the future :)
 
#56 ·
Great work mate, that brings it all flooding back wrestling the strut into the hub then wrestling to get it to slide down whilst trying to line up the top mount bolts.

The pinch bolts are an awful design, it incourages corrosion at the most stressed point, but yes they are one time use. The R56 went to a nut and bolt setup, which people convert too if they have to drill out the bolt and ruin the threads in the hub.

You are worrying me now though as I didn’t torque anything up, it just all went back on nice and tight...I was thinking of stripping it down again and refurbing everything properly...hmmm.
 
#58 · (Edited)
Despite owning the Mini since mid February I haven't yet had the chance to give it a clean, what with the other jobs that I've been attending to. With them now almost done, it was time to get out the bucket and sponge.

Here's how it looked before, having done about 300 miles since purchase and a bit of work in the snow.







Not so bad, given some of the conditions we've had recently. First step was to start on the wheels, which don't appear to ever had had a refurbish so aren't at their best:



As a result of the long term staining I needed something stronger than I normally use and so went a bit old school:



That got rid of the dust but there were plenty of contaminants left so I gave it a hit of Iron X and within seconds I had this:



In the end I did this twice on each wheel but there is still plenty more to come out, so currently I am left with this (new badge to be sorted)



I then skipped the normal snow foam stage and went straight in for a wash which when rinsed left it looking like this:



Once dried this gave me the first real chance to inspect the bodywork which is littered with lots of small areas of paintwork damage, the sort that people describe as "consistent with the age of the car" or something similar. The worst is this scuff on the rear bumper:



I decided to get the rotary out and attend to a few localised areas to see what could be achieved, so using a Sonus white spot pad and some DodoJuice Lime Prime I set to work.

To start, I focused on the areas where a previous owner had once applied some Union Jack stickers and where removal had left some marks. A before showing those marks:



And one hit later



Same story on the other side, a before:



And after:



Scratch on the bonnet, before:



And after:



Scuff on the rear by the light, before:



And gone but scratch still remains



Nasty mark on the rear bumper, before:



And after, again with just one hit:



Another scratch on the rear, before:



And after:



And finally, that large scuff on the rear bumper after a single pass:



Obviously not perfect, but I am really pleased with how things are responding to what is a very light pad and level of cut. This all bodes well for when I get the chance to do a full work up on it.

Cheers for all the comments, contributions and tips on the thread so far and as always, thanks for reading
 
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