mini love - part 12

I am usually quite in tune with my vehicles. I can usually notice something change and get to the bottom of it before it develop into a crisis and leaving me stranded on the road.


In case you wonder that is not my car on the flatbed, nor did I planned for the introduction of this blog post. I usually select and process my photos in chronological order based on the time they were taken rather than writing my post and then go looking for suitable photos to tell the story.

I was on my way to Harbor Freight Tools and I spotted this flatbed truck pulled over on the highway with a car on top. From 1/2 mile away it is unmistakably a MINI brand Maxi (LOL). That's right, I call these Maxi as all the modern Minis after the R50 - R53 series begun to get bloated by the facelift generations.

the only thing I bought in this trip is this parts sorter as I want to get my freebie with-any-purchase gift - I have many of this

I want grocery shopping on the East side and there is this older base Cayman across the street of An Dong Market - a place you would not expect to see a Porsche

this is my prime parking spot as there is near zero chance of getting a door ding

these photos are from another Asian grocery shop that I visited en route

since installing the Irish Engineering fixed camber plates with the recent Mini suspension modification I have been wanting to get to addressing the factory front strut top dust caps, which no longer fit because of the rebound damping adjuster of the Koni damper protruding farther up over the factory struts at the top where these dust caps were designed to protect the top bearings

this is my solution - at least for short to medium term to protect grits and dust from getting into the ball bearings and ruin them prematurely

I am a DIY everything kind of person and because of it I have a hard time throwing anything away, including this packaging foam

the first disc that I cut was was too small so I cut two larger for the 2.5 inch holes to be filled

a 5-minute job and the bearings are protected now

I spotted the brown liquid on the box frame under the passenger side engine mount and I immediately looked into it. It turns out the fluid filled engine mount has developed a leak

I was very sure during my recent drivetrain modification project this brown liquid was not there so I went and look for a photo to prove it; this photo was taken when I was ready to pull the drivetrain

I immediately started shopping for a OE replacement part - but I knew I can find one cheaper than the "genuine BMW MINI" part which is in every respect no less the quality. The ones below are after market replacement parts. Some are true OEM but others are - well not official OE but requires a lot of informed reading between the line as well as risk assessment if you try to save a few bucks.

compared to the "genuine MINI" part at a very inflated price

I did a bit of research and I decided to buy the Lemfolder which with the search that I did is a OEM supplier for this part. I found a cheaper supplier than Amazon with free shipping if I just add enough purchases to reach $79.99.

While waiting for the engine mount to arrive the Mini is still serviceable. I can sense the extra roughness and vibration now when driving it.