KwS

Sorry, the ones on the car. 364s?

How are the o2 sensors, do they read and test OK?

Too small for the car and kinda generic looking.

I want to hear one with a decent exhaust or straight pipe. Straight piped 3 cylinder ecoboost fiestas sound amazing.

Awd, turbo 3 cylinder manual hot hatch sounds perfect to me. I like the i30n but I'd take the yaris for its weirdness.

Better habit to get into is to always leave the drivers window down when working on the car. Standard practice for most mechanics for that reason.

Do the doors unlock if they're ajar and pushed closed? Is the key in the slot or on a seat or something, could you use a stick magnet or coat hanger to retrieve key or press button? Or is it stuck covered in the boot?

The early turbo ones have a well earned reputation for being a bit rubbish, but the later ones are more reliable. I found that the turbo ones are nicer "cars" to drive, but less urgent and "sporty". They have oodles of power low in the range, so dont need to driven hard to get them moving quickly, but you lose that sporty sense of fanging it everywhere. For a commuter the turbo one would be better, but as a weekend B road thrasher the R53 is more fun.

As mentioned, you get used to it. You learn to time shifts around using the indicator.

Didnt some 135i come with black exhaust tips?

In my quest to tidy up the loose ends and get the Mini ready for sale, the car received an oil service and a simple but impactful cosmetic change. Yes, the Mini is for sale. It should be no surprise really; by the time I got the car home from buying it, I had lost a lot of love for it already as it was a complete shitbox, but it was my shitbox and I had to work with what I had. Sure, its come a long way and is now a decent little car that can be driven and enjoyed, but the damage was done for me. Now its time to pass the car on to a new owner for them to enjoy my hard work. Part of the sale prep was, of course, a WOF. Thankfully this passed easily, with a clean check sheet and no advisories. I'd hope so after all the work I've done! This will give the new owner at least a year of worry-free motoring. A couple of other little loose ends to tidy up was an oil service. The sticker on the windscreen showed about 1500km to the next service, but who knows what the interval was, and the oil was looking quite black. I picked up a genuine oil filter and some Valvoline 5W40 synthetic oil and got stuck in. The filter is actually not that bad on the R53, its just tucked down the back a bit but there is plenty of access with a 36mm socket and ratchet (or breaker bar to crack it if the previous owner used many ugga duggas) The sump drain plug is on the back of the sump. I was a bit worried because I noticed early on that the plug isn't an original Mini one but a VW sump plug, which means it's been changed. The alloy sump is pretty soft so I suspect someone stripped the fine threads for the Mini plug and tapped the sump out to the course VW thread. It came out, and went back in, with no issue, so that's good. The old filter was filthy but wasn't housing any chunks or surprises The new filter went in (rubber seal on the filter facing OUTWARDS) and torqued to 25nm, same with the sump plug. The engine was filled with its new liquid gold and started to fill the filter. Everything looked good, so I reset the interval on the dash (went from 3100km overdue to 25000km until next service; yeah nah, 5k intervals please) and moved on to changing the transmission fluid. The trans shifts well enough but has been a bit on the notchy side. I figured with no records of having the fluid changed it probably hasn't been done, and it's an easy job, so let's just do it. The two plugs are pretty easy to get at with an 8mm hex socket and ratchet. Fill is removed, and drain is the black plug in the foreground. Always remove the fill first. The internet recommends Redline MTL as the correct oil (75W80 GL4), and who am I to argue with the internet? I grabbed a pair of quart bottles as it needs about 1.5qt. The old fluid that came out was dark black, thin and had a metallic sheen to it. Obviously it had been working hard; good thing I'm changing it. I used my little "tom thumb" transfer pump bottle thing, and pumped fluid in until it started to dribble out Put the fill plug back in, check both are tight, and jobs a goodun. The last job for the day was to slap some stripes back on the bonnet. There was previously a pair of stripes offset to one side that ran from nose to tail. White on the blue and blue on the white. The previous owner didn't like this so pulled it all off. Unfortunately, this revealed some fading from where the stripes were, so now we had dark blue stripes in the paint This bothered me, so the obvious solution was to slap some new stripes on and cover it up. I didn't want to go for the offset stripe, so after much internet research, I decided to go with a pair of solid white stripes. A big thanks to the guys at Doozi for hooking me up with some 3m vinyl stripes custom made to my weird specs (13cm wide stripes with 7cm gap between them). I was having issues finding anything else locally that would work and I'm happy to support a small NZ business. This vinyl was really easy to work with. The hardest part was getting the stripes straight and centered. LOTS of measuring and repositioning happened before I was happy with where they were. The biggest tip here is to use some soapy water, as recommended by Doozi, and keep the panel wet. This allows for repositioning, and then once you are happy just use a plastic blade to force the water out from under the vinyl. Because its cold here today I had to use some gentle heat from a heat gun to warm the panel and vinyl up, which made working with it a lot easier. I wouldn't recommend doing it all in a cold garage without heat. I carefully rolled the protective layer off and used a microfiber and heat to get any bubbles or liquid out. Compared to the stripes we did on the R50 Cooper, this was a much nicer finish. No bubbles, and only a couple of small blemishes. You can still see some fading next to the stripe, but without going with super wide or really spaced out stripes I couldn't cover it all. The fading also continues down from the scoop, through the grille and down the bumper, but it's not as obvious. The fading is more obvious under my new super bright LED lights than in natural light. I was originally planning on only doing the stripes to the scoop, and then I changed my mind and decided to go from in the scoop to the grille as well. Well, that didn't happen. I quite like the subtle little stripes from the scoop. Its like speed stripes from the go-fast scoop. Once done I had to take the car for a test drive, just to circulate the new oils around and see how it drives. The engine is quieter and the gearbox is shifting smoother, so its a win all around. I took some photos for the new listing, and hope it will get some interest. It's not the best example around, but its also far from the worst (and mechanically I think it will beat a lot of the "nicer" looking ones available). Hopefully it sells soon and I can move into another project. Some bonus shots of the underside from the WOF, just if anyone is curious what they look like under there

My key spun around and around in the barrel, is that not what you mean?

Mine did that, but only because the key wasnt the right one for the car (given two keys with car, one worked and spun sometimes, one spun in the barrel every time). I drilled a hole in the bottom and ran a screw up to lock the barrel. There is a slot in the barrel that the screw is engaging with, but you have to drill it in the right place. https://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2019/02/bmw-m328i-spinning-ignition-barrel-fix/

As shown on a recent $1 reserve auction someone won on another forum im on, and trademe is allowing the seller to bail on the sale as the reserve set was "a mistake" and "being sold too low", trademe is a complete waste of time and money. No care and no responsibility.

If im honest, not as fun as expected. Its lacking down low power, but once its in its power band its takes off. You really need to keep it on boil. Handling is good, but there is a lack of decent roads down here that can take advantage of the crazy sharp turn in. Its useless in traffic and I wouldnt bother as a daily unless your commute takes you down empty back roads. You can throw it into almost any corner at any speed and you kinda pivot on your own axis and just whip around it. Mods like a smaller pulley would probably help, and an exhaust would increase the fun/lol factor, but im done spending money on it and will be selling it off soon to move onto the next project. On that note, clean sheet WOF today.

I was watching a video on youtube last night where a high hp street racing audi caught fire, the brakes failed, and the electric e brake didn't work. Basically had to stay in a burning car until it lost enough momentum as the owner stupidly chose not to grind the wall to slow down. Back in my day, pull the handle and it works. Bam. Technology for the sake of making it easy for dumb people sucks.

AA arent even abiding by my policy documents when handling my claim, so dont expect too much from them. The ombudsman is there to help if you cant get the resolution you want.

Lh indicator is the correct way IMO.

Snow tyres still pass a wof if the tread depth is more than 4mm. They should be banned or "off-road only" as there is no reason for a road car to need them in NZ, yet I can walk passed the local 2shitcars dealer and spot a bunch with snow tyres.

Lol good flipping luck. I'm in the middle of a nightmare of a simple contents claim with AA atm and they are diabolical in how sh*t they're handling it. I'm at the point of laying a complaint with the ombudsman.

Or dickheads on cellphones in traffic ? Speeding is literally just the lowest hanging fruit. So easy to police.

Tbh the police will probably still use their own judgement anyway. They have always been able to ticket you for going over the limit, tolerance or not. If you're a couple of km over, driving normally and not in a sh*t box all over the road it's likely they will ignore you. If you fail the attitude test if they pull you over, no amount of tolerance was going to save you anyway. I'm not sure what it means for speed cameras though, as from what I've read it doesn't clarify if they still have a tolerance or not, just that officers don't.

Its an older model 60L unit from repco, filled with a mix of parts washer solvent from supercheap. It does the job, but tbh I dont use it as much as i should, I prefer to use brake cleaner for smaller jobs on the bench. The pump on the parts washer is too powerful and the jet of fluid ends up spraying everywhere when it hits the item youre trying to clean. Would be nice if i could adjust it down but there is no adjustment. A lot of people also recommend diesel or kero in parts washers, but I went for a biodegradable, non-flammable solution which may not work as well, but better than a big liquid bomb under my house.

Another thing that has bothered me since I got the Mini, was the horrible wind noise from the passengers window at speed. It needed fixing. At about 100kph, or lower if there was a decent crosswind, the passengers side door glass would emit a rather annoying sound. Obviously on a 700km or so trip home on the open road this started to get rather tiresome, but thankfully it wasn't there all the time, and you could drive around it to a degree by raising or lowering speed. The window was operating correctly, including the auto drop on the door opening, but still, there was a noise. A decent inspection, and comparison of the window to the drivers side one that didn't make a noise showed that the front of the door glass was sitting a couple of cm lower than it should be. Instead of seating up in the seal above the glass, it sat a good distance below it. That'd be a good place to start. Adjustment of the window glass sounds like a real pain, but in reality its a lot easier than expected. From what I had read, I thought that removing the door card to do the adjustment was the easiest way, but after failing to remove the door arm pad and access one of the door card screws (I swear someone has glued the pad to the door, it doesn't budge no matter how much I press the clip to release it) I tried another way. The official BMW way is to remove the waist moulding on the outside of the door and use a special tool to rotate the adjusters. Now, I don't have the tool (looks kinda like a C tool for adjusting platform adjustable suspension), but had heard you could use a screwdriver. Sure enough, I removed the trim with the window up and was greeted by the sight of the two adjuster wheels, right up in easy access. The adjuster is a large nut that secures the glass to the regulator, as seen in this photo Using a narrow flat blade and a hammer I tapped the adjuster around. Lefty loosey, righty tighty. With both adjusters slightly looser, but not loose enough that the glass moves around freely, I gave the front of the glass a yank upwards. This pulled the glass up slightly, whilst leaving the rear more or less where it was. After a few trials and tests, moving the glass up and down until it was just right, I used my hammer and screwdriver to tighten the adjuster wheels again. I got the glass so it sits firmly into the seal front to back, and still operates correctly. There is now no gap around the glass. There is a proper adjustment spec for this, which I think is measured with the glass at "open drop" but the door held closed against the latch, and should be 5mm from the lip of the window seal to the top edge of the glass. There are more details on other sites about this, but I chose to go with sight and feel instead, as it's an old car now and everything is getting a little more worn out that when it was new. You can see from the dirt mark that was previously behind the seal how far up the front of the glass has come The rear is about the same as it was You could previously see the top of the glass here, now it sits in the seal I gave the glass a thorough clean inside and out, and under the trim, and reassembled. A quick drive down the open road was promising, with no wind noise, but it was an intermittent issue so will need to do more testing, but I'm fairly sure that is what the issue was.

Finally, It looks like I might be coming to the end of fixing the previous owners neglect and bodges. When I first got the car and drove it home it shook like crazy under any acceleration. This turned out to mostly be the coil, leads and plugs that had done their dash. Once they were replaced the shaking got a lot better, except under a couple of conditions. The worst was when I'd pull out, foot flat, to pass another car around a bend. The whole car would vibrate, but this time there was no loss of power and the engine was pulling hard. It was something else, and I had my suspicions. One of the items on the PPI was the "RH Inner CV boot coming off". The previous owner took this as the need to replace the clamp on the boot, which he did before I collected the car. I noticed when I had the front subframe off that it was covered in grease, and the clamp the previous owner had fitted to the boot wasn't a CV boot clamp (a narrow thin metal strap) but instead a standard hose clamp. I guess it was working as the boot was still there, but everything in the vicinity was greasy. I decided to remove the hose clamp and fit a proper clamp, but thought I should check inside the CV joint and see how much grease was in it first. I slid the boot back, and nothing. A small smear of grease on the tripod, but otherwise it was running dry. The cup also appeared to show signs of discolouration from heat. Bollocks. Holding the inner CV cup in one hand, and twisting the axle or outer CV resulted in a defined click and visible movement in the inner CV. Double Bollocks. CVs do not like to run dry. It's the second quickest way to kill them. The first would be to replace the grease with grinding paste. Since I didn't have a spare joint or axle at hand I packed the joint with grease and refit the boot with a proper clamp, just in the hopes it might be a bit better and keep going. It wasn't better, but at least it didn't get worse. Since new inner CV joints aren't available a new RH axle was ordered from RockAuto. The axle arrived the other day and it was time to crack on and replace it. Car went up on Quickjacks, wheel was taken off and then the axle nut threw up the first battle. These are tight, and the staking on the nut needs to be straightened out to help spin it off. After some bashing and rattling, it gave way and we were on a roll. With the nut off I could already tell the splines were free in the hub, not rusted and seized like some. Winning. To get the outer CV out of the hub you will need to swing the hub outwards. To do this the lower ball joint and tie rod end need to be disconnected. This was easy to do since the ball joint was new, and the tie rod end recently disconnected. The PS fan and lower torque mount need to be removed to access the bolts that hold the hanger bearing in place Now the hanger bearing bolts can be attacked. Two are easy to get at (one partly loosened already in photo) with a ratcheting spanner, but the other (LH side of photo) is tucked up behind the axle with limited room. A ratcheting spanner is a must here, and it will eventually come out far enough to remove with your fingertips Next swing the hub outwards and slide the outer CV out of the hub and let it hang freely. Now it's just a case of pulling the shaft out of the gearbox. I gave the hanger bearing a couple of taps with a hammer and the axle slid right on out. No oil came out of the gearbox, but apparently, if the car isn't level it can leak once the shaft is removed. Wiggle the shaft out, spinning the hanger bearing to clear everything it tries to get stuck on Easy. Since the replacement shaft I got is aftermarket and not genuine, the hanger bearing housing will need to be transferred over. To the workbench we go. This housing is held in place with a large internal circlip Awesome, I thought, I can finally use the sweet circlip pliers I bought ages ago. They're rubbish. Too short and too floppy due to their design. Don't bother with interchangeable ones, just get a proper pair of single purpose pliers. Like these, which I had to run out and buy for this job And they worked a treat Before removing the housing I also needed to transfer over the little dust shield, so to stop that being damaged by the housing I used a hammer to carefully tap it off The hammer was once again employed to bash the housing off. It's a bit of a light press fit on the bearing, but will come off with some hitting in various places around the perimeter. Now it was time to build up the new shaft. Mmmmm, shiny. Refit the circlip first. Trust me, its a lot easier than doing it once you have hammered the housing onto the bearing. Then the housing goes on, as does the dust shield. Ensure the circlip is correctly seated in the groove. Its pretty decent quality considering it costs so little. The boots are all soft rubber, the splines are nicely cut, and the CV joints are all nice and tight. There is zero play when twisting the shift, unlike the old one. Refitting is simply a case of carefully slipping it back into place, making sure that the hanger bearing housing is rotated the correct way before slipping the shaft into the box. Ram it home, bolt the bearing into place, slip the outer CV into the hub, and reassemble everything else. The hub nut is about 180nm, so I got my favourite helper down into the garage to sit in the car and stomp on the brakes whilst I swung off the torque wrench. Stake the nut, and that part is done. Before fully reassembling I took the chance to fit a SuperPro insert into the lower torque mount. The mount was new, but it still felt a bit soft to me and there was some thumping when coming on and off the gas, or changing gears. SPF2426K These are just inserts that fill the voids in the standard mount. Easy to fit, just slip them into the mount and refit. The results of the work are all pretty immediate. The axle has completely removed the shuddering when accelerating, it is like a new car. I can push it as hard as I want around corners and nothing. The mount insert is also fairly obvious. The car feels a lot more direct and connected not. The gearshift is tighter, and the thumping has near enough gone. There is some vibration in the cabin at low RPM, but I think that was there beforehand. Well worth it for a simple upgrade. You could probably use it on an old, slightly torn, mount too. I'm very happy to finally be at the end of fixing the issues that the car should not have even had. Now I can enjoy the car without worrying it will shake its self to bits.