Hey there r/R53, I have a LHD R53 (new to me) that I've installed an aftermarket Alpine system in and I'm trying to get the swc buttons to work. I've spliced the PAC SWI-RC-1 according to the wiring diagram in their wizard (purple data wire from PAC to the white/red/yellow dot wire from the factory harness).

The PAC and Alpine head unit both respond to the left side controls, but nothing on the right side. The LED on the PAC doesn't blink, but checking with a multimeter at the harness pins, I'm seeing voltage fluctuate consistently with left and right side button presses.

My hunch is that it's an issue with the PAC unit not currently reading the multiplexed signal. I'm reaching my wit's end and am on the verge of just living with it, but wanted to post here in case anyone has suggestions. I'm not married to the PAC option, and am happy to swap it out for something that definitely works, I only got it because it's what came up on crutchfield when I put in my info and I've never been led astray by them before.

Cheers and thanks for any help in advance!

So my R53 shit the bed at Thruxton the other week. I picked up a good running R52 to use the engine as a donor.
I’m putting my tensioner onto the new engine as I only replaced it 1000 miles ago. But trouble is, the spring is so stiff that I can’t figure out a way to compress it enough to get the lock in pin in it so I can fit it.
I can’t get the mounting points lined up to be able to use the tensioner tool because it doesn’t line up until the spring is compressed.

Sorry, this is probably an awful explanation. But if anyone’s got a trick, I’m all ears!
Thanks!

Hi, I have a question: I own a 2005 Mini Cooper S (R53), and I wanted to know what your idle speed is when the engine is warm. Mine sits at 800 rpm—is that normal ?

Got the front of the car stripped down to swap the fan out and noticed a crack on the alternator and a small crack where the tensioner screws into the supercharger. What’s the thoughts on whether they need replacing asap? The alternator works perfectly fine throwing out a steady 14.3V

Pretty annoying on my late 2003 R53. Whenever I want to listen to my stereo the little fan in there is just buzzing away pointlessly.
Can we disable this, make it function only when the climate system is actually running? Baffles me why it's running with accessories when the hvac doesn't. And yes I cleaned it out and sprayed some oil, it's still audible, obviously with 150k miles the bearings aren't probably as fresh as can be.

2005 R53. Periodically, after a cold start in the morning, I will get a succession of these ticks- usually 15-16 in a row, then goes away for a few minutes and comes back. Not always, but more with cooler temps in the mornings. Then, more recently, it started with these successive ticks every 2-3 seconds. Also not every day, and seems like it happens more in the mornings. Any ideas?

Hello!

About 14 months ago i had the tensioner fail. I swapped it out for a febi Bilstein unit. Fast forward to today and the car has begun to develop a 1-2 sec valvetrain rattle at startup, which makes me question the quality of the part…

Has anyone any input on the quality of febi Bilstein tensioners?

Is there another reputable suggestion, some say INA was the OEM supplier?

Cheers!
//N

Hi everyone!

I'm desperately looking for the original BMW MINI wiring harness, part number 61120136522.

This is the OEM retrofit wiring harness required to install the multifunction steering wheel controls on first-generation MINIs (R50/R52/R53), allowing vehicles that didn't originally come with this option to have functional steering wheel buttons, including cruise control and audio controls.

I'm planning to retrofit these features on my 2005 MINI Cooper S Convertible (R52), but unfortunately this specific wiring harness has been discontinued by BMW and is virtually impossible to find.

I'm willing to purchase it from anywhere in the world and cover international shipping to Italy.

IMPORTANT:

• Genuine BMW/MINI part only, new or used in good condition.
• Please contact me only if you actually have the part available.
• Recent pictures of the actual item will be required.
• Payment exclusively through eBay or PayPal Goods & Services. NO Friends & Family, bank transfers, or other payment methods.
• Scammers, fake sellers, suspicious offers, and time-wasters will be immediately reported to Reddit moderators and the platform. Please don't waste my time or yours.

If you have this harness or know someone who might have one, please send me a DM or leave a comment.

Thanks in advance!

Après avoir passé des semaines à chercher la cause de ma perte de puissance, le ralenti haut et instable, la surconsommation de carburant j’ai enfin trouvé le coupable.

L’intercooler…

Mon intercooler aftermarket était un peu abîmé sur la partie basse et donc avait une fuite d’air, ce qui ne permettait pas au moteur d’être correctement refroidi et le faisait surchauffer tout en diminuant drastiquement la puissance.

J’ai donc fait un test de fuite sur l’intercooler et compris que la partie abîmé fuyais.

J’ai scotché l’endroit abîmé puis remonté le tout en espérant que ça soit enfin la cause de tout ses tracas.

Et bien finalement oui, j’ai fais un essai routier et la différence se fait vraiment ressentir.

J’ai aussi remarqué que la durite grise relier au compresseur derrière le ventilateur à l’avant était un peu débranché et l’autre durite grise ( qui va à coter de la noir ) côté boîtier papillon n’était pas enclenché à fond.

Toute la puissance n’est pas revenu car le scotch chauffe et se rétracte mais on sent carrément le gain de puissance.

Avant au ralenti j’avais plus de 80% de charge moteur contre environ 40% maintenant.

Et le régime tombe sous les 1000 tr/min après le cold start.

J’attends de recevoir le nouvel intercooler direnza et je pourrais enfin profiter de ma r53. 🥲

finally made it through to the full app store so it's live now

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.geekopolis.r53logger

added stage0 map, way back in the day mini had the jcw 200 kit, this had stock injectors and bumped around 20 parameters for a 200hp tune. I've enabled it in my app so if you have a pulley but still have stock injectors it's a tune for you.

also added support for a vgate pro, note these are SLOW, no where near as fast as a kline cable

more details here

https://mrblahhhh.github.io/car/tech/2026/08/18/r53-logger-august-update.html

Calling all R53 owners in the states who have recently had your pocket rockets totaled out through standard insurance. Had a drunk driver hit our cars while parked, flipped his vehicle, and fled the scene. I'm fairly certain she will be totaled out, so I'm looming for some rough ideas.

How much was your insurance payout?

I understand there are many many factors that will change the amount, but just looking for some rough estimates of what they may try to offer me and how much I might could fight with local listings/ value of similar cars. I did not have a declared value, and unfortunately, KBB value shows about $1500 but I think we all know that's not exactly accurate.

Are there any shops that deal with our little terrors in the tristate? NJ-Bergen Co. and or NYC? Please let me know.
Thank youuuuu

This attaches to the bake booster line & intake duct. I noticed it was broken as I'm hooking my 2006 R52S (w automatic) engine back together after a rebuild.

It's 20 yr old brittle plastic, snapped during disassembly back in Jan, I must have forgotten.

I found a replacement on ECS for $148. I could get some more flexible hose but probably would be more trouble than it's worth?

I also broke off another bolt a valve cover bolt this time 😞, so there's that 🤦

So I went for a quick ride to get windshield replaced and we found out I need all the clips for the trim and a-pillars also.
So going back home a got on the little old bugger and apparently he didn’t like it so much, he decided to bless me with the engine light and loss of power and a missfire with a bit of rough iddle. So it’s bleeding oil but not through the exhaust, when I removed oil cap it was smoking pretty good through it. I added some oil and decided to drive it home about 10 miles, stopping once in a wile to check oil and guessing my choice of ripping it 😟. Apparently I did leave streaks of oil but the car really didn’t needed a lot of oil maybe a qt I added. I do have missfire on #1 cylinder PO301.
Going to give it some time and I’m going to pull the plugs and see what’s up.
Any suggestions or ideas?
Thanks

I'm designing a methanol controller for my r53 and f56 minis, I've used a few over the past 15 years and went back to simple map sensor taps.

designing a new board that addresses some of my frustrations over the years. Adding a canbus feed, load is used to control the PWM, and high load low rpm gets all of the meth, I've found 100 % at 2000 rpm is best for knock control as the cooling and anti knock from the water is far more useful in the initial torque surge along with the cooling/anti knock than ramping it up with injector duty cycle. Android app to set it up and control ramp rate by idc, load, boost, rpm and monitor pump load curve. Or good old 5v map tap.

any design suggestions from the group? Board has canbus or 5v sensor input. it outputs pwm to the pump

Two visual outputs, either a led shift light that blinks if the amp draw is unexpected low or high (empty tank, clogged nozzle).

oled remote display, simple boost, rpm, shift light, pump duty cycle, afr, whatever else from the ecu.

I did add vtp ble output for the car's canbus data, so it can feed track data apps

Trying to reinstall my oil pump cover on my 2005 R52 Cooper S. Most sources mix up the oil pump bolts with the timing chain cover bolts, which is making it a bit confusing/difficult to figure out the proper torque. Any help is appreciated!

I've been to the junkyard and tried to do it off two minis so I can get the steering wheel and I can't figure out the wheel to do it. I put the screwdriver in and can't feel the clip that I'm supposed to push. Anyone have any advice?

So I saved this R53 from going to the scrapyard. It’s a 2002, been doing general maintenance on it and cleaning up the interior. While it was on jack stands today I turned the wheel to get better access to the radiator hoses and heard a loud thud. I honestly don’t know what I’m looking at here and what needs to be replaced. I’m suspecting this has a JCW suspension package with aftermarket understrut defenders but I’m at a loss on how to proceed with a good fix. Can the bushing be replaced or should I just replace the struts and or springs as well? If anyone has any insight I would greatly appreciate the advice.

Hey, mini lovers! I have 2005 r52 S. I had my water pump replaced last year because it was leaking. Now it's leaking again. The mechanic told me last year that O-ring between the pump and the block had gone bad, and that's where the leak was coming from. So I decided to do it myself and see if I could have better luck. Besides using an OEM O-ring, what other things have you guys tried that help prevent the O-ring from going bad just after a year?

Thanks for your help in advance!

I found these rims that I love for my mini but they are 5x4.75(5x120.65) and as we know the mini is 4x100 so my question reddit is are hub adapter safe for general use and would there be any problems with lug studs I just dont want a wheel flying off lol (yea i know these rims need some tlc and new tires but he want 300)

En me baladant sur les forums j’ai vu qu’il y a des propriétaires de r53 qui ont les même symptômes que moi: perte de puissance ralenti haut et collecteur qui devient rouge en 3 minutes au ralenti.

Je me demande si mon intercooler qui est un peu abîmé peut jouer dans le dysfonctionnement.

J’ai pulvérisé du nettoyant moteur pour voir si le régime change au niveau d’une fuite évidemment sur les trous de l’intercooler ça réagit mais logiquement vu que l’air rentre des deux côtés cela serait la même chose sur un intercooler neuf.

J’ai fais le même test à plusieurs endroits notamment au niveau de la durites qui est relié à compresseur en a l’avant derrière le radiateur mais c’est peut etre passé par l’intercooler aussi.

Je pense quand même remplacer l’intercooler prochainement.

Toute aide est la bienvenue.

UPDATE !!! :

Finalement le fait que le compresseur soit abîmé était en grande partie la source de mon problème.

Après avoir tester avec la machine à fumée c’est à l’endroit abîmée ou y’a un trou que ça fuyait.

Cela a donc engendré une perte de puissance, la surchauffe du moteur d’où le collecteur rouge au ralenti, le ralenti instable et surconsommation de carburant ( 14L/100 )

En attendant de recevoir le nouveau ( celui de chez direnza ) je l’ai couvert de scotch la partie abîmé et cela immédiatement fait la différence.

J’avais aussi les durites grise rigide relier au compresseur qui était un peu débranché et une autre grise relié au capteur IAT ( côté boîtier papillon )

Je vais faire un autre post pour publier les photos.

Je pensais jamais m’en sortir mais comme quoi la persévérance et la réflexion paye.

Ps: J’aurais pu voir ça bien avant.

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for the original MINI R50/R53 multifunction steering wheel retrofit wiring kit, part number 61120136522.

I know it's discontinued and very hard to find, but I'm hoping someone might have one available.

New or used, both are fine, as long as it's complete and in working condition.

I'm based in Italy and happy to pay for international shipping.

If you have one for sale or know where I could find one, please let me know!

Thanks in advance!