R55 Mini Cooper S

[anomaly]

Let me introduce my new Mini Clubman. It's a 2012 Hampton Cooper S auto in Reef Blue. It was sold new in Japan and recently imported. It has 38,000 miles and is in lovely condition. It has the N18 engine.

A little background. I've had an M3 touring for over a year and am very pleased with it. One reason for choosing the touring was to transport our two Irish Terriers. It does this well however it's taking its toll on the car. The boot is full of hairs, their paws scratch the paint and it's starting to smell of dog. A great excuse for another car, hence the Clubman.

So far, I love it. I've never had a Mini before but always admired them, especially the R55. This was the perfect excuse to scratch the itch. In the past week I've been taking it on short journeys rather than the M3. It's such fun to drive, the go-kart thing is a bit of a cliche but sums it up perfectly. The auto makes sense as it will be mainly used in town and isn't bad at all, makes it even more like a go-kart

So far I've rust proofed it underneath as it is like new with not even a hint of surface rust and I'd like to keep it that way. I've ordered some new wheels as I hate black wheels and will be fitting these with all season tyres. I may get a CarPlay upgrade if I can psych myself up to removing half the dashboard to fit it.

Here's some photos:

Edited by anomaly on Tuesday 17th September 16:15

[BUG4LIFE]

Welcome to the rare R55 Hampton auto club! Bought mine a few months ago [a UK car]. Only one I saw for sale in the 6 months I was keeping my eye out for a new car! The bonnet stripes have been taken off mine at some point, though I prefer the look without. The stripes and alloys on yours don't look OEM Hampton, unless they were slightly different in Japan? I'm planning to change the alloys on mine too as I'm not a fan of the design...I'm thinking bronze for the colour! Loving mine at the mo too I'm jealous of your M3 touring, dream car.

Edited by BUG4LIFE on Tuesday 17th September 14:15

[anomaly]

Another Hampton, what are the chances? Yours looks lovely and looks like the front has been dechromed. Has it given you much trouble? I've heard the horror stories about these engines though I understand the N18 is better than the earlier version.

[TimmyMallett]

Irish terriers? They look happy!


Nice car too The Clubmans are a lovely looker, bit quirky and not as practical as I think they look, but more practical than a hatch by a long shot. I also think they look nicer.

[BUG4LIFE]

Yeah, mine has had some de-chroming [grill, headlight surrounds and belt-line]. I need to tidy it up a bit though as the belt-line tape is starting to peel. I do prefer the dark look to the chrome.

I've only had mine about 6 weeks so can't comment on reliability too much. I just had the water pump drive unit and pulley replaced as the original parts had worn. My Mini guy also said the oil filter housing gasket will need replacing in the near/mid future as it's leaking a touch of oil, so that's next on the list [not too bad cost wise though]. Hopefully that'll be it for a while!!!

Yes, n18's are meant to be a bit better than the n14's. Timing chain can still be an issue though. Previous service history looked pretty decent on mine [it's done just under 70k miles]...not sure you would have got much evidence of service history on your import? Frequent oil changes throughout its life is the key so I've read.

I've always been a fan of the R55, so glad to finally get one [my previous car was a Jaguar S-Type R so quite different]. Just big enough to get both my young boys in the back...not sure I could do that in an R56?!

Edited by BUG4LIFE on Tuesday 17th September 16:47

[danb79]

That's lovely...

I was considering Mini's before I settled on y 130i LE - tempted with an Challenge 210 that was for sale local to me but I wasn't keen on spending that much on what is to be a 2-3k miles/weekend car etc

That's definitely the opposite end of the spectrum to your M3 touring

[Arnold Cunningham]

BUG4LIFE said:

Frequent oil changes throughout its life is the key so I've read.

I have an R57 Cooper S - same motor. I find it absolutely bonkers that the car is set for up 20K intervals. Fortunately mine is quite low mileage and has never even done 10K between oil changes:



FWIW I don't like the Castrol that usually goes into these - it goes dark surprisingly quickly and it does burn a little of it. Doing a bit of reading on the forums, this is usual and I've read reports that liquid moly is good on these motors - multiple reports that the engine burns less of it and it maintains a clean appearance much longer.

anomaly said:

I may get a CarPlay upgrade if I can psych myself up to removing half the dashboard to fit it.

I couldn't find any decent carplay upgrades for my R57, not even any decent magsafe charger phone mounts so I'm interested in what you do here. Just in case it's useful, this is what I did:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ViseeO-Tune2Air-Bluetooth...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225636204192

I modified the mount slightly, cutting the raised bit off and including replacing the magnetic mount with this : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/375103337628
It puts the phone in a good position to be able to reach very conveniently for navigation & music, and also charges. The worst bit is the charging cable is visible and I didn't fancy dismantling the dash to route the cable through the cd player.

The other mount one I found that looked decent was : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334989402660
I have it, but haven't fitted it since while it puts the phone out of the way, it is inconveniently placed to do nav or change the music while driving - and also isn't a charger, nor magnetic, so will need modifying. I might revisit it at some point.

Edited by Arnold Cunningham on Wednesday 18th September 09:54

[Arnold Cunningham]

BUG4LIFE said:

...not sure you would have got much evidence of service history on your import?

IIRC Bimmerlink tells you how many times the car has had the service interval reset, which you can correlate with any paperwork.

[Mr Tidy]

Arnold Cunningham said:

BUG4LIFE said:

Frequent oil changes throughout its life is the key so I've read.

I have an R57 Cooper S - same motor. I find it absolutely bonkers that the car is set for up 20K intervals. Fortunately mine is quite low mileage and has never even done 10K between oil changes:

FWIW I don't like the Castrol that usually goes into these - it goes dark surprisingly quickly and it does burn a little of it. Doing a bit of reading on the forums, this is usual and I've read reports that liquid moly is good on these motors - multiple reports that the engine burns less of it and it maintains a clean appearance much longer.

TBF BMW have been using Shell Helix Ultra rather than Castrol for over 5 years now.

Anyway it's an interesting alternative to a BMW Touring.

[anomaly]

Thanks all for the info and tips, much appreciated.

I have some service history from Japan. It's only done 38,000 miles and in lovely condition so hopefully has been taken care of: time will tell.

I've seen this for upgrading the audio which gets good reviews so I may give it a try: https://www.carnaviplayer.com/mini-cooper-2006-201...

Today I had new wheels and tyres fitted. I've gone with Michelin Crossclimates so will hopefully be set for whatever winter throws at us. I picked up the wheels on eBay. I think they're Mini style R90, still 17". Pleased with them so far and much better than before: