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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 £2,000 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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#5 ·
Looks good James

Interested to see how things progress with this, looking forward to more pics.

We had a R56 Cooper for 2.5 years and it was great.
No trouble, had to keep your eye on the oil though.
Didnt use loads, but I'd put a bit in every month, it's just how they are unfortunately.

Yours looks a bargain !
It was up for £2,350 which was the cheapest at the time and I was trying to find the low point to negotiate up from when I offered £2,000. The fact that it was accepted straight away was a total surprise and caught me off my guard but I wasn't going to argue! So far, so good anyway.
 
#3 ·
Looks good James

Interested to see how things progress with this, looking forward to more pics.

We had a R56 Cooper for 2.5 years and it was great.
No trouble, had to keep your eye on the oil though.
Didnt use loads, but I'd put a bit in every month, it's just how they are unfortunately.

Yours looks a bargain !
 
#4 · (Edited)
So today I had the chance to take a good look at the car and get a few jobs sorted. In terms of overall condition, there are no major dramas and it just needs a really thorough clean. There's a few rust spots on the rear hatch, but not unexpected really, especially having seen a few other Mini threads on here where there have been similar issues. So, pictures:

General Overview











Regarding options, the Checkmate seems to combine most of the Chilli Pack that would have come on a normal Cooper S (Sports Suspension Plus, Xenons, OBC etc) with an LSD, these alloy wheels and the particular colour scheme. As far as I can tell, the only option my car has is the Chrome Line interior meaning that the dials, the cupholders and the gearstick surround are chrome rather than a satinised silver look. So no cruise, no multi function wheel, no sat nav or anything else. If it were a daily this might be an issue, but as it's the hobby car, I quite like the simplicity.

Anyway, a couple of things to highlight:

It's got three matching Pirelli P-Zeros



And one Gowind Super Sport Chaser (!), which I am planning to swap out ASAP



Still showing a tax disc:



Rust on the hatch:





Exhaust needs a good polish:



Scratches on the rear bumper:



Nasty sticker on the glass:



Dirt in the recesses:



And general grubbiness around the badges:



Talking of badges, at some point in its life somebody has added some additional badges and graphics which, while in keeping with the overall theme, aren't really for me. So, we have this bonnet stripe which is standard and listed against the VIN number:



Whereas this appears to be a later addition:



As are these Union Jack emblems doors just ahead of the mirrors:





Raising the bonnet shows a dusty but otherwise as expected engine bay:



The only issue being a very slight leak from the power steering reservoir. I had this very same issue on an Alpina B3 and it's a simple o-ring replacement



Definitely not a John Cooper Works model as this area would say something completely different. Shame.



Decent wipers have been fitted in the past but they are squeaking terribly now.



Also the screen isn't the original, but may not be long for this world given this:



So, other than a bit of rust on the tailgate, nothing that can't be easily sorted. Interior next.
 
#6 ·
In fairness I would be amazed if a near on 12 year old Mini had NOT had it's windscreen replaced yet. The angle of the windscreen is a lot steeper than most other cards and as a result they are very prone to chips etc.

I always thought the headlights stay in place when you lift the bonnet? They certainly do on the BMW built Mini's from 2007 and onwards
 
#9 ·
Subscribed in an instant!! Can't wait for more updates.

Looks like you got a good buy at that price for a late and tidy example with sensible mileage. It'll clean up well I reckon :D

Eagerly awaiting the interior pictures! I've always been a fan of the Checkmate spec, both inside and out.

That boot lid rust looks familiar :rolleyes: it's probably more ugly underneath the boot release trim. If your boot release still works - it would be worth getting the trim off and trying to make sure the components aren't getting wet/mucky. If/when the release fails, the emergency release cable is under the rear seat squab :lol:

Also, worth mentioning in case you're not aware - a quick check of the low speed radiator fan for functionality and a keen eye on the coolant level would be beneficial for your head gasket :p as there looks to be a few coolant marks on your expansion tank and exhaust heat shield - tanks can split and caps lose their ability to hold pressure. All relatively cheap preventative maintenance!

In fairness I would be amazed if a near on 12 year old Mini had NOT had it's windscreen replaced yet. The angle of the windscreen is a lot steeper than most other cards and as a result they are very prone to chips etc.
Agreed, they catch every stone.

My 144,000 mile Mini is on its original screen (I believe) and on a sunny morning it's like looking through a colander :lol:
 
#11 ·
Subscribed in an instant!! Can't wait for more updates.

Looks like you got a good buy at that price for a late and tidy example with sensible mileage. It'll clean up well I reckon :D

Eagerly awaiting the interior pictures! I've always been a fan of the Checkmate spec, both inside and out.

That boot lid rust looks familiar :rolleyes: it's probably more ugly underneath the boot release trim. If your boot release still works - it would be worth getting the trim off and trying to make sure the components aren't getting wet/mucky. If/when the release fails, the emergency release cable is under the rear seat squab :lol:

Also, worth mentioning in case you're not aware - a quick check of the low speed radiator fan for functionality and a keen eye on the coolant level would be beneficial for your head gasket :p as there looks to be a few coolant marks on your expansion tank and exhaust heat shield - tanks can split and caps lose their ability to hold pressure. All relatively cheap preventative maintenance!

Agreed, they catch every stone.

My 144,000 mile Mini is on its original screen (I believe) and on a sunny morning it's like looking through a colander :lol:
Thanks for the tips. I did a visual check of coolant level but haven't checked the fan yet so will make that a priority.

Regarding the rear seat squab, I assume that just lifts up with a bit of force?
 
#10 ·
The lady I bought it from had owned it since Jan 2014 so it had 5 owners in the first 8 years which is probably worse. I suspect it's because it's quite small and quite thirsty so people move them on. Still it's not as bad as my MG, where I was the 11th owner in 13 years!
 
#18 · (Edited)
One of the things I find fascinating about this hobby of ours is what people will tolerate in the name of saving a few £. For example, on my first drive in it after purchase it rained, a lot. And for the next 45 minutes with the wipers on I was subjected to constant squeaking. The same for the rear wiper. It must have been doing that for months.

The car also came without any mats and when I asked where they were it was explained that in the four years of ownership they'd never had any. Could be a lie of course, as they'd replaced this Mini with 3 year old one and might have swapped the mats over (although they won't fit very well).

Finally, they had replaced a tyre early in the their ownership with that budget one I showed. And then later on replaced the other 3 tyres with Pirellis. I get that the budget one would be barely worn but by the time you're buying 3 good brand tyres why not just buy four and keep the budget as a spare/sell on eBay? Still, if everyone kept on top of these things we wouldn't have anything to fix, right?

With all that in mind then, here's the interior:



Speedo, showing the chrome line trim.



No mats...



General grubbiness





And like all good project cars, it costs very slightly less than I paid....:)



The worst area for dirt seems to be the back seats. They had a dog and I think what has happened it that they have had a towel down in the back to "protect" the seats, it's got wet and not been removed, hence all these water marks. Hopefully they will come out. I have plenty of fabric cleaning products and a steam cleaner but not a wet vac for doing a full extract. Very happy for some tips on dealing with this.



As a result of the dog going in the back, the boot is in pretty good shape:



I am now also the owner of a Vauxhall first aid kit.



And this Mini badged mobility bag containing the wheel brace and a can of tyre weld. Can any Mk1 Mini owners confirm if this is original?



I was very pleased to find I still have the original battery:



And this original toolkit



Needs a good clean out down the gap though



So other than the state of the rear seats, all as expected really. Certainly there doesn't appear to be anything broken, which is always good but I think there should be an ashtray in one of the cupholders. Anybody know?
 
#19 ·
Keep your eye on the battery. At that age it probably won't last much longer and you don't want it letting you down. I've just replaced the battery on my new project - it was the original too at almost 11 years old.

Interior is as you say, grubby. But will clean up well. Something I used when I started doing the interior of mine was a couple of packs of those disinfectant wipes you can by from the likes of Wilkos. 50p a pack and great for cleaning and sanitising the interior before you use any protectant. it's amazing the amount of dirt they lift and you just bin them as you go.
 
#20 ·
Interior looks pretty good overall! Do like the pattern on the seats :D

The carpets don’t look too worn, so perhaps as you say - they pinched the mats out of it!

The toolkit setup you have seems different to what I’m used to.

My 54 plate facelift car had nothing with it, however my mum’s 04 plate Cooper S has a MINI branded small black pouch with red piping which holds the tow eye, locking nut etc, this is velcro’d in place behind the removable side trims. Then it has a black bag (possibly your tyre repair bag) which houses the jack. It has two elasticated hooks on it, and sits on the Boot floor.

Maybe the later cars such as yours have that tool kit tray, and the jack is supposed to be in the black bag? Then someone has just added a can of tyre seal.


Regarding the ash tray - I don’t know if they were standard fitment, but both mine and my mum’s came with the removable ash tray cup holder. However they’re not very durable, the lid has come loose on mine, so it lives in the garage. I also don’t like having one cup holder and one ash tray - lack of symmetry :lol:

So possibly yours has just been broken or lost.


Eagerly awaiting the ‘after’ pictures when you clean it up!!!
 
#21 ·
Interior looks pretty good overall! Do like the pattern on the seats :D

The carpets don't look too worn, so perhaps as you say - they pinched the mats out of it!

The toolkit setup you have seems different to what I'm used to.

My 54 plate facelift car had nothing with it, however my mum's 04 plate Cooper S has a MINI branded small black pouch with red piping which holds the tow eye, locking nut etc, this is velcro'd in place behind the removable side trims. Then it has a black bag (possibly your tyre repair bag) which houses the jack. It has two elasticated hooks on it, and sits on the Boot floor.

Maybe the later cars such as yours have that tool kit tray, and the jack is supposed to be in the black bag? Then someone has just added a can of tyre seal.

Regarding the ash tray - I don't know if they were standard fitment, but both mine and my mum's came with the removable ash tray cup holder. However they're not very durable, the lid has come loose on mine, so it lives in the garage. I also don't like having one cup holder and one ash tray - lack of symmetry :lol:

So possibly yours has just been broken or lost.

Eagerly awaiting the 'after' pictures when you clean it up!!!
Thanks for this extra info. Just be re-reading your thread actually now that I have one. I was interested to read that, like me, you also had an M135i. Great car but after a road trip to Munich and some extended autobahn runs I concluded that having that much power was wasted in the UK.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I had a bit of spare time leading in to the weekend so I started with a few jobs. I forgot to show this previously which is all the manuals, all the old MOTs (bar one), all the service invoices for the last 4 years and both keys. Good to have.



So the first thing I did was get out my OBD code reader and see what codes were stored, which turned out to be this one:



This seems to crop up a lot, albeit most examples I saw were in the USA, and apparently points toward a faulty sensor. I cleared it though and will check to see if it reappears.



I then headed off to my local BMW dealer to pick up some parts that I'd phone to check stock of earlier. Managed to secure a 10% discount as a previous Alpina owner, which was good of them.



Then it was time to get rid of the tax disc holder:



And also this sticker on the back. Roman Road Car Sales is where the previous owner had bought it from and via the website Cazana one can still see the photos they used to advertise it in Nov 2013 and the price, £5,995.





While still at the back it was time to replace the rear wiper. The old one, potentially original:



Before fitting the new one I cleaned the glass and then ran a clay bar over it. A surprising amount of pickup I thought:



And the new one installed:



I did the same on the front screen too, but there was much less.



And fitted up the new wipers, now with a spoiler for the driver's side:



I then decided that I wanted to remove the stick on flags that were on the doors, not least because this one was already half off anyway, and because they didn't seem to be OEM (although happy to be corrected)



Which had left a lovely dirt mark behind



Albeit one that cleaned up pretty well. It's not perfect but I'll be running the rotary over it soon which will eliminate the final marks.



The other side was a bit more firmly attached, but came away without a drama:



And also cleaned up fine



And here they are, ready for the bin!



While doing these jobs I noticed a few other issues:

Terrible numberplate screws, which will need some effort to extract.



Loads of crud on the inner of the rear hatch:



And this odd one, where it looks like a protective rubber boot on the door has come away and allowed the fixing to rust.



All to be addressed at a later date. Meanwhile, the final job was to give the footweels a bit of a clean before getting the mats in. As they were:



Product of choice:



Passenger side in, although plastics still need another scrub



And driver's side in. Makes such a difference when you open the door:



Gave these a little going over too, just to remove the dust really. Nice to have the original head unit, which sounds surprisingly good:



And one final shot of it currently looks. Not so different obviously. I'd like to start on the lower checker stripe but every square is individual, it's not one continuous strip so it's going to take ages. One for when the temps are higher I think.



Thanks for reading.
 
#28 ·
I use RealOEM all the time when I've owned BMWs in the past and it's always been a godsend. For this car though it seems to list all the different types of toolkit and accessories, whether for the UK market or not so I hadn't been able to decipher what was right or wrong. Except that Vauxhall first aid kit of course.

Looks great! I love the Checkmates.

The Union Jack badges are not original, good man on removing those. The side stripes would be removed at a hot jet wash possibly? Regarding the jack and and tyre weld bag, the jack should be in that bag - not that tin of tyre weld.

If you have a pair of vice grips, attach it to the number plate screws and see if it comes off like that. I would recommend getting a nice set of MINI dealer plates for that OE look. I can't stand non original plates. lol

Also check with your dealer on the rear hatch, we had an April 06 build one today sent off to the bodyshop under its anti corrosion warranty for rust on that exact same area. It had 51k
Thanks for confirming re the badges on the side and the jack. Amazing to think that this car is still covered by the 12 year anti-corrosion warranty but I'll need to get it in quick as it was registered on the 1st March 2006. Will report back when I've been to see them.
 
#27 ·
Looks great! I love the Checkmates.

The Union Jack badges are not original, good man on removing those. The side stripes would be removed at a hot jet wash possibly? Regarding the jack and and tyre weld bag, the jack should be in that bag - not that tin of tyre weld.

If you have a pair of vice grips, attach it to the number plate screws and see if it comes off like that. I would recommend getting a nice set of MINI dealer plates for that OE look. I can't stand non original plates. lol

Also check with your dealer on the rear hatch, we had an April 06 build one today sent off to the bodyshop under its anti corrosion warranty for rust on that exact same area. It had 51k
 
#29 · (Edited)
So following Mark's helpful comment about anti-corrosion warranty I took the car to my local Mini Bodyshop. The chap came out and did some checks with the paint depth gauge to ensure it hadn't previously been repaired, took a look at the service paperwork and took lots of photos. Conclusion, BMW are unlikely to uphold a warranty claim as it's been rusty for some time but he'd submit it anyway and we'd wait to hear what their response is. So it's with BMW and I'll hear in a week or so.

Meanwhile it's been pressed in to service for the weekly shop:



And taken up residence in the garage. Comedy amount of space around it really.



I had heard before purchase that these cars suffer with the strut tops mushrooming, and while I couldn't see anything before buying it I've now learnt what to look for. I went back out to investigate and it's fair to say that my strut tops are knackered. This would explain the creaking sound I am getting from the front.

Driver's side:



Passenger's side (less bad):



So yesterday I ordered some of these and they've arrived today, great service from GSF.



Oddly they didn't show on their main website but do show on their eBay page. Last of the stock perhaps. I'd heard that these are BMW parts with the product code removed and I've never really believed that but it turns out it's true:



Of course I could fit them to the existing dampers but that doesn't really make sense, so I've been investigating options and while I'd like to go for something fancy I'm likely to opt for Bilstein B4s which are essentially OEM spec(or +10% depending on what you read) unless anybody has had a terrible experience with them.

In addition, a few further checks showed a low oil level:



But I had some of this and while not quite the right grade, I figure some oil is better than no oil. Full service due in June, so it'll get swapped out soon:



I also topped up the washer reservoir for the headlights (empty) and for the windscreen, shown here in a nice easy to reach position. Car celebrating it's 12 birthday at some point this month too.



I've had no luck finding a Pirelli to match the other three on the car so far, but I thought I'd pull the one Pirelli from the rear off to check that it's all good. Despite being from late 2015 it's still got 6.5mm on it, so it does make sense to keep it if I can. Brake disc looks quite scored though and new pads required soon:



Exhaust rust was also noted on the last MOT and sadly, they aren't wrong.



Nothing more to report but it does seem like I am going to be doing a bit more of this in the coming weeks....

 
#30 · (Edited)
Since my last update I have been busy sourcing parts for the suspension refresh. Business idea for anybody so inclined, set up a decent website selling good quality OEM products, because trying to find a single company that can sell me everything that I need has been impossible. As a result the dampers have come from one place, the Lemforder drop links and rear strut mounts from somewhere else (and despite showing in stock are on back order) and the ARB bushes I've got direct from BMW. And the strut tops seen previously came from somewhere else again. Madness.

For those of you who know your Minis, you might be surprised to learn that BMW no longer list ARB bushes for an R53 as available. However, the parts guy at my dealer didn't accept no as an answer so did some digging and it turns out those listed for an R56 fit, so that's what I've got. £13 for two, part no 33556756151 should anybody find themselves in the same predicament.



And with the wheel off here's how easy they are to get to. Extraction of the fixings was aided with a smaller breaker bar, as shown here



Comparison of old and new





Reason for the change was that I had been getting a lot of noise from the rear, which is commonly attributed to these bushes. They don't look too bad as it goes, I've definitely seen worse.

All done on the driver's side



For some reason on the passenger side there was slightly less clearance and so I had to step down to a 1/4 drive ratchet. Inevitably I don't have a 13mm socket for 1/4" drive so I had to use an adaptor. In fact clearance was tight round the fixings too and there wasn't enough room for the ring on my ratcheting spanner.



But it was soon all back together again



While I had the wheel off I had a quick look at the condition of the brakes. The disk doesn't have any noticeable lip but the pads definitely don't look long for this world.



I also noticed this colour coding for my springs, grey/silver with yellow. I've also sprayed releasing fluid on all the bolts ready for when I swap the dampers over.



So, if you can remember, the car has three Pirelli tyres and one ditchfinder and I've been searching for that 4th Pirelli. Fortunately a part worn one turned up on eBay and it was just a few miles away at a very reasonably price to include fitting and so I headed off with the wheel in the boot of the daily to get it fitted. To that end I found myself here:



Service was great, although the surroundings were not what you'd call salubrious.



Now given some of the comments on another thread about using 2nd hand brake lines I'm hesitating to say the word part-worn here, lest it all descend into chaos about them being death traps. What I will say is that this new tyre is DOT marked Week 19 from 2017 so it's less than a year old. Plus if you'd seen the effort the reasonably big bloke had to make to get the old tyre off I hope you'll all agree that having four matching premium brand tyres all with 6mm tread, versus having a mismatched very stiff, unyielding ditchfinder can only be a positive.

So later that evening, I was back in the garage with the new tyre:



and it's time to say goodbye to the GoWind Super Sport Chaser:



Wheel returned to it's rightful position at this back corner:



And it's been said before, but the Mini seems to be very stiff which makes axle stand removal nice and easy:



Also when I got home that evening there were two things waiting for me:



I've always coped without an impact wrench, but particularly in previous suspension jobs I would have saved a lot of time with one, so I've got one. And the o-ring is for the petrol cap.

At the last MOT one of the advisories was that the petrol cap seal was cracked and they were not wrong:



As is often the case, BMW won't just sell the seal, you have to buy the whole petrol cap and it's about £45. Luckily there are plenty of enterprising folk about and so for £4.50 delivered, I get a new o-ring (still a significant profit I suspect). It isn't identical to the one that comes off:



But it fits perfectly and the job is done in just a few minutes.



A quick late night test drive shows that the noise from the rear is gone and also the ride is much better, presumably on account of not running with a tyre made from coal. So good news all round.

Next up, drop the old suspension and refit the new. Thanks for reading.
 
#32 ·
Great updates!

Normally I would be against part worn tyres but I think you’ve done the best thing possible, it’s now a matching set and as you say - it’s practically new. Besides, it’s a used car which technically came with 4 part worn tyres on it anyway!

The bushes you changed didn’t look like too much of a nightmare job. At least I won’t fear doing that in the future :p

Back to the M135i comment - totally agree, it felt like too much power in too small of a car. Especially having an open diff. I really came to resent that car!

Also - can I ask what the floor mats cost from the dealer? I wouldn’t mind a drivers side mat if they do them individually.
 
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