My first time working on a BMW

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]We recently bought two very different Euro cars, a Mercedes E43 AMG wagon from Japan with a twin turbo six cylinder engine and it went head-to-head with a Mini. No, not a mad old Mini like this, one of these made by BMW [music] with a 2-liter turbo engine found in the 1 Series and it lost almost every battle including this one, this one and this one.

[00:00:23]>> [music] >> But today, that's all about to change with some modifications that will chop this JDM AMG. Welcome to another episode of Mighty Car Mods and I'm incredibly excited because today I'm going to be doing something that I've never done before in my life. I'm going to be working on a BMW. Now, I know the thing looks like a Mini and some of you may argue that it is a Mini, but in fact, it is not and we will hear today from actual BMW people confirming that it is a BMW. Now, I've never worked on one before other than this one that you may have seen, but of course, we fixed that with a V8. Today, we're going to be working on this and we have got so much stuff to do. [music] I do want to say a massive shout-out to Euro Work. I spoke to Oscar and the team down here and they said, "We're renovating. It's really busy. It's noisy. It's messy." I'm like, "Just give me a hoist and give me a person and I will BMW apprentice." And that is what I'm [music] about to do, so let's dive right into it.

[00:01:19]>> [music] [music] >> Welcome to another episode of Mighty Car Mods. I'm down here with Matt. How you doing?

[00:01:29]>> Well, thank you. Now, he's a real BMW mechanic. I've never worked on one in my life. So today, we're going to be working on this. Let's just get one thing straight first. Is this a BMW?

[00:01:39]It's certainly made by BMW and they parts been a lot of stuff, so I'd say it's a BMW. BMW engine, everything's made by BMW. I drive a patrol. I ride a Grom, so I've got the the spectrum of size there. Oh, so you're into four-wheel drives as well.

[00:01:53]>> yeah, yeah. Which will be perfect for the size of the new Mini.

[00:01:56]>> It's big. Have you seen Mighty Car Mods before? I have. I've been watching for a long time.

[00:02:00]>> Okay, have you got any favorite builds or cars? I really like your real Mini.

[00:02:04]I like the nuggety things. So, we are going to throw a whole bunch of mods at this car. Hopefully, we're going to be able to beat Marty's AMG with it. Let's have [music] a look and see what we're chucking on this car and then I'm very excited to apprentice for you today and learn [music] from you. So, thanks for having me.

[00:02:21]>> So, our plan for this BMW Mini is to basically throw a catalog at it. Now, MMX is an aftermarket [music] parts supplier from the UK. They specialize in BMWs and Minis. I got to be honest, I don't know exactly what's here. They just sent a bunch of stuff to Australia.

[00:02:35]What I do know is that they make a big brake [music] kit that's here. We've got a front mount. We've got a turbo back exhaust including a system from Milltek that they sent over. We've got some Whiteline parts to go >> inspect the car first and see if it needs anything else that might be good to do while it's apart. Work on the systems while we're in there so we don't [music] have to do work twice. They are a bit annoying, but if you follow the procedures, they're not that bad. Follow the procedures. Spoken by a true BMW mechanic. When you're modifying your car, it can be really helpful to have a clear goal first of what you want your car to be able to do and what you're trying to achieve.

[00:03:08]>> [music] >> In my case, I want the Mini to present like a bit of a sleeper, but be able to beat the AMG in every conceivable performance test from acceleration, roll racing, [music] track times, handling and braking. That's ridiculous. If you've seen our show before, you may be familiar with the term we use called wreck it. It was born from people saying that cars are [music] perfect from the factory and if you modify them, you wreck it. These people have no idea what they're talking about by the way, but this term became the perfect acronym for modifying your car. Wheels, rubber, exhaust, coil-overs or springs, kit, intake and tune. Of course, you can do some of these or all of these, but it's a great [music] starting point to cover 90% of what most people will do with a modern car. So, that's exactly what's [music] going to happen with this Mini.

[00:03:53]You can also just do a few of these mods and we usually recommend starting with wheels and tires and [music] working your way through the list in order.

[00:04:00]Finishing with the tune once you know exactly what mods are going to be going on your car. That will determine the final power figure when you're doing [music] a custom tune. So, hit that tune last. But our first step is to jack up the car and check for any existing damage or issues because I bought this car off Marketplace as the cheapest Mini Cooper [music] S in the country.

[00:04:19]>> So, what are you going to look for first? Just stuff leaking out of it basically. Pretty much. You can get an idea by like checking levels. Coolant is kind of low to be honest.

[00:04:28]Checking engine mounts. That's fed.

[00:04:32]That one's what? The engine mounts. See how much it's cracked and leaking?

[00:04:35]>> Oh, yeah. So, that's gone. Okay, good.

[00:04:38]And it looks like it has not been done before.

[00:04:42]Cuz they usually usually have witness marks around the trims. Yep. Um Yeah, so that's fed.

[00:04:50]Did you say that's fed?

[00:04:51]>> Yeah. Is that is like is that do young people say that? Is that a thing?

[00:04:55]>> That's fed. Cooked. I'll go Oh, cooked.

[00:04:57]Come to cooked. You got to cook it before you feed it, right? Another big one to check on these cars is the water pump and the oil filter housing, which are hidden underneath 532 8-mm bolts which are holding on this undertray. But after inspection, they are looking all good. But with everything given the all clear, my BMW apprenticeship can now begin with me literally failing the very first task of removing the wheels.

[00:05:21]Make it look as dramatic as possible.

[00:05:23]It's not going anywhere.

[00:05:25]Oh, that's red hot, bro. Just leave it hanging there.

[00:05:28]Oh, you can't do that? Sometimes they fall off. The center ring is holding it up. You just have to keep it on the center ring.

[00:05:33]>> All right.

[00:05:35]So, it doesn't actually take any effort.

[00:05:37]Oh, that's a pro tip.

[00:05:38]>> Yeah.

[00:05:39]I'm so excited to apply the knowledge of my new pro tip of holding the wheels against the hub centric ring, but I'm not so excited that I am going to leave it like this. [music] This Mini will get a full stud conversion making swapping between street wheels and track [music] wheels much easier and much quicker.

[00:05:55]Many European cars use bolts on the wheels instead of studs because of German spreadsheet efficiency, but studs are way easier for quick changes because the wheels don't fall off once the nuts are undone. There is an argument that studs are better for track performance, [music] but I don't totally buy that one. Next up, we're finding all of the hidden side [music] quest bolts and connectors so that the front bumper can come off so we can access the intercooler and replace it with something bigger and better. What is that?

[00:06:23]Why?

[00:06:24]Why, BMW? What I'm learning about this BMW already is it's just very complicated and there's stuff everywhere. It's like removing the intercooler is the final boss in the game, but you have to defeat his 50 henchmen [music] before you get to him.

[00:06:38]Uh we're just going to drop the frame.

[00:06:40]We've got suspension to do. We've got this to do. We've got pipes to do. It's all easier with a frame out and the frame is so easy to drop anyway. So, we'll do that next and it will look like overkill, but it's makes everything a lot easier.

[00:06:51]And then a lot of things will happen all at once. Boost makes heat and heat makes engine sad. So, an upgraded intercooler means more consistent power and less issues with heat soak. We're upgrading it with a big one like this except this particular one doesn't [music] fit my model Mini, but I didn't know that yet.

[00:07:07]>> What's going on in here? Is this a bit of BMW [music] stuff? Since we're taking the steering shaft off cuz the steering rack will come out with the subframe, we don't want the clock spring to rotate in one direction or the other.

[00:07:18]Um and so I just lock the steering wheel in place with a seatbelt. We've had to do this so many times [music] and it's never occurred to me just to put a belt through it. Like it's just I'm giving you the high five of BMW knowledge.

[00:07:31]These Minis are available in markets all over the world including the USA and in Japan, they absolutely love them and love modifying them. Strangely enough, when you're in Japan, it's more likely that you'll see a Mini like this rolling down a city street than you would a modified JDM hero. [music] It is very strange. So, you can see just how much work this one dog bone mount does by how much movement there now is in the engine. Look at this.

[00:07:57]All of that being stopped by that.

[00:08:01]Still axle [music] in down the road though. We're in the process of removing the front subframe to make installing our mods much easier and later we'll be removing the rear subframe, but for now, we [music] need access to install our aftermarket dump pipe which can unlock massive amounts of power on this B48 twin power turbo engine. And don't [music] even mention the twin power thing. This is not twin turbo. Originally, it referred to twin scroll turbos and then it became [music] a marketing term referring to dual valve timing. But anyway, this is a very common engine used across the BMW family [music] including the 1, 2 and 3 Series cars as well as the BMW X1, X2 and Z4.

[00:08:40]You can even get this engine in the new Toyota Supra and with the right mods, it's capable of making excellent power.

[00:08:46]Do you always put your clamps the same way? Like would it be weird for you to do that?

[00:08:51]>> Try and hide the head of it. If it's in the engine bay, I'll put them underneath the pipe so it just looks nice and clean.

[00:08:56]Um but if they're visible, then I'll have them all lined up. In this case, I'm going to put on this side >> because if it was around this way, it will rub up against the sump. Yeah. And so we'll leave the clearance on that side and there's plenty of space.

[00:09:37]>> [music] >> We're removing [music] the factory intake pipe which check this out, it includes a resonator that is designed to reduce turbo noises. How dare [music] they?

[00:09:54]>> Oh, go on, man. Yes!

[00:09:56]Let's go!

[00:09:58]>> [music] >> This is going in the bin where it belongs and being [music] replaced with a straight pipe for better airflow and better turbo noises. And now we [music] can get back underneath the car and remove the dump pipe off the turbo charger. This here is the OEM dump that came on our BMW engine. That one there is about to go in the bin and by bin I mean recycle bin. Over here we've got our performance dump pipe with a high flow cat. This one is made by Milltek.

[00:10:26]Super high quality. It's made in England so it makes me feel very fancy. How common is it for people with Euro cars just to change the dump and none of the rest?

[00:10:34]>> We do it all the time. Um you get a sound change and uh performance gain with the right tuning. Do you call it a stage two when you do a dump pipe? Are you into that?

[00:10:42]>> Stage 47. Who knows? Okay. I don't think it means anything. Okay. Do the mods you want.

[00:10:52]We have been using Milltek exhaust systems for years. Very kindly they uh send them over to us when we're doing these Euro kind of builds and what I've got to say is the stuff just fits like every time. We've never had a problem with it. With the dump pipe and the heat shield [music] back on, I'm hooking my man up with some mad new loot. Along with some power tools, there is a whole selection of MCM merch which you can check out on the Mighty Car Mods website. Now we can install the new intake resonator delete pipe. As well as the better boosty boy noises that I mentioned earlier on, they're also designed to give you a sharper boost response [music] and lets air flow directly to the turbo charger. Will it make much difference on a stock car?

[00:11:29]Probably not. But [music] like many supporting turbo mods, a custom tune is where everything really wakes up and it will sound so much better. Because of how the subframe holds the core. Mhm.

[00:11:41]The subframe should be on when that's on but we want to leave the subframe off for the suspension. Yeah, you don't have to take a subframe out to do suspension obviously but we have it out already and it makes it easier. So we'll just pop the drive shaft off, pop the brakes off and then the whole lot can come out together. Change our springers. Happy days. So should we go from intakes to suspension now?

[00:12:02]It seems like a weird transition but I think that might be the next step.

[00:12:04]>> Okay, nice. Let's do it.

[00:12:05]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [singing] >> So that that came out so easy. I'm often finding myself with a pry bar and a hammer trying to pry that open. I know there's specialty tools for it but what do you use? Yeah, you can get the ones that spread it. Um I modeled this bolt off a BMW special tool um which is pretty much looks like that but I don't have to walk over and get the tool. Uh just ground down a bolt.

[00:13:14]You shove it in, turn it 90°, opens that up, >> [music] >> out it slides.

[00:13:18]May not look very fancy but it gets the job done.

[00:13:22]Installing lowered springs [music] can sometimes make more sense than the full adjustability of coilovers, particularly when there's factory adaptive dampers.

[00:13:30]Mildly lowered springs [music] with adaptive dampers are meant to be the best of both worlds, a blend of day-to-day comfort during the week but capable of getting serious with the breakneck performance [music] required at the KFC drive-thru.

[00:13:42]These springs will give me around a 20 to 25 mm drop which [music] is 1 in of freedom units, giving a more aggressive stance while reducing body roll. [music] And they'll be paired with a set of Whiteline sway bars on the front and the rear for exceptional grip while also allowing the factory dampers to keep doing their magic when I'm not busy chopping Marty's AMG land barge. The car has somewhat of an identity issue. Now inside the door it says this is a John Cooper Works Mini Cooper S. It's not a John Cooper Works and a lot of the parts that we got were for a John Cooper Works because there are too many variants of Minis.

[00:14:18]There are a lot. And that makes things very confusing. So a lot of the stuff that we showed you that was going to fit did not fit. Can you run us through what you've worked out over here?

[00:14:26]>> Yeah, just off camera I took some measurements of the stock intercooler, um the new intercooler and a few different measurements with tank heights and how it interacts with the radiator in the car. Short version is that it didn't fit and so at some point we're like it doesn't fit around the radiator.

[00:14:42]Do we front end convert this to a JCW?

[00:14:44]It turns out getting a Mini Cooper S front mount intercooler is almost impossible in this country. They're very hard to find but um Airtec Motorsport, these are made in the UK. Um this one was available. So we have it and it's here. Uh they sent it over so thank you very much. So we're going to install that and hopefully that fits.

[00:15:02]Let's be honest, we don't know, do we?

[00:15:04]We'll find out. We'll find out. So many combinations. Um and then today we're also going to be diving into uh brakes as well and whatever else we can get our hands on. Yeah, there's a few extra little bits and some rear springs as well to match the front. There's around 100 variants of BMW Minis and that's not including regional differences and facelifts. So if you're buying parts, good luck because it can be an ecosystem of confusion. But this cooler is made for my model Cooper S so it will fit. And while a big aftermarket intercooler doesn't automatically give you more power, it will reduce heat [music] soak meaning it's better for the track and repeated hard pulls known as RHP which is very different [music] to the RHP that Mercedes owners are usually practicing. If you've been following the progress of this Mini so far, you would have seen that I'm going for a completely black and stealthy look which is why we've dechromed it. It's got black badges, black wheels and stuff as well. So I am going to blacken out the intercooler as well. This is um CRC black it. It's quick dry. I'm putting on a super light coat to [music] make sure that I don't clog any of the fins and with that done, the intercooler is successfully installed and you can see just how much bigger it is compared to the factory cooler. Now we can connect the pipes and then move onto the intake.

[00:16:16]All right. So while we're at the front end of the car, we are going to do the intake. Uh luckily this one here is for Cooper, Cooper S and Uh according to this, the actual installation looks very good with like full color photos. It's uh 31 steps. It does on the front that it's recommended a competent mechanic uh carries this So I guess I'll Should we Well, I'm here too so we should be all right.

[00:16:42]No, but it says competent. Ah.

[00:16:44]According [music] to the internet, some pod filters add 50 horsepower, summon boost instantly and transforms your Barina into a supercar. Yes, pod filters, they are a thing of myth and legend. But [music] with a tune and a heat shield like this one, when they're properly designed, there is actually power to be made. These can be installed directly onto the factory intake pipe or the resonator [music] delete pipe for some extra intake noises and I am all for it. And this one here has some of the best install instructions I've ever seen so 10 out of 10 for that. Other than some injectors that I'm going to [music] be installing later on when I give this car a service, the engine work is done. So there is still a lot to do but our work in the engine bay is finished and I'm sure you'll agree with me that that is a foul looking engine.

[00:17:31]Uh luckily we have this engine cover that can go what is twin power [music] turbo? What does that actually mean cuz this is not twin turbo. No, it's not twin turbo. BMW used to make twin turbo uh engine, the N54 which is well loved.

[00:17:47]Um and then they went to the N55 which was a twin scroll single turbo charger.

[00:17:53]And all the people who had twin turbo on the engine cover got upset when it didn't say that anymore. So marketing went oh, we'll go twin power turbo. It harnesses the power of turbocharging and valvetronic and stuff like that. That's what BMW told me.

[00:18:08]It's marketing. But which part of it's twin?

[00:18:14]It's none of it.

[00:18:16]>> [laughter] >> It uses multiple technologies and they went let's put the word twin in there because the people love it. Great. I don't like that. Give the people what they want. #BMW. Um all right, what are we doing? Sway bars? Or front end? What do you want to do? You're a mechanic, I'm not. We're we'll bring the car back up in the air and um do the sway bar while the subframe is out and then we can put that back in and the front end can go back together. Um and then we can do the same sway bar job on the rear.

[00:18:46]And then the other stuff.

[00:18:48]Yeah, and then there's a bunch of little bits and the brakes. Cool. All right, let's do it. It's probably time to address the elephant in the room and it is an elephant. It is massive. The original Mini was a [music] tiny can with four wheels with either a hip young lady behind the wheel, in my case that was my mom who owned one in the '60s, [music] or some legend with a weird neck beard who loved modifying them and making it their own. They were tiny, raw, with no power steering, no airbags, [music] and weighed around 600 kg. Then BMW bought the brand and made it bigger, safer, faster, and more comfortable at the expense of the rawness of it all.

[00:19:25]They got superchargers, then turbochargers, touchscreens, [music] and adaptive suspension and some people see this as a betrayal of what the brand stood for. The original Mini was a minimalist go-kart made for the people.

[00:19:37]The new Mini got big and heavy and weighs double the original. So does it deserve to wear the Mini badge? I'm glad the brand still exists because regardless of how you look at it, this is a small turbocharged 2 L car with heaps of personality [music] and loads of aftermarket mods and appeal. What really opened my eyes to these cars is seeing how readily accepted and popular they are in Japan. The truth is that there's a whole new generation of people that love these cars and [music] they get a lot of joy from them. So in that way, I'm glad that they exist. But do they have anything on the original Mini?

[00:20:11]Nope, [music] no they don't. This is a big Mini and as such, I shall refer to it as the Binny. So this here is the old engine mount and you can see just how shagged it is. Like with that split there, you can see like it's not actually functioning [music] at all and there is a lot of juice coming out of it all over the floor.

[00:20:31]Um as you can see here uh it is liquid filled. Yeah. Except a lot [clears throat] of that liquid uh is not meant to be outside of it. It's meant to be inside of it. Um why does this happen? Is this a front-wheel drive thing? It is a front-wheel drive thing.

[00:20:47]>> goo goo goo goo goo goo goo like that?

[00:20:49]>> Yeah, as you um try and accelerate, the engine is talking up and rotating um which is normally okay in a rear-wheel drive car cuz the mounts hold it securely, but this it wants to twist the whole engine and there's one mount on the bottom that's working really hard to stop it from rolling around, but there's only so much it can do and these will eventually flog out.

[00:21:07]>> You can see a stark difference between that and that just completely split there. If it's weakened and starting to go and you then you start driving really hard, it'll obviously exacerbate it.

[00:21:19]Being that there's some clearance here, but this has no clearance at all, you're also you're going to feel that as well in the car.

[00:21:25]>> Yeah, when they collapse fully, you get a lot of vibration through the cabin. Um you put a new engine mount in and it feels like a new car.

[00:21:31]>> Let's chuck that in the bin. Yeah, we'll transfer over a couple of bits and then stick it back in. Sometimes modifying a car is not just about making a thousand horsepower or breaking the internet, [music] it's about learning about a platform, making new friends and getting a better understanding of different ways of working and that has been my experience with this [music] BMW Binny.

[00:21:50]As an owner of a classic Mini, I'm looking forward to seeing what this car's like once it's modified and seeing if it can earn its place in the MCM garage once it chops Marty's wagon, of course. Massive thank you, of course, to Eurowork for having me down here with the talented crew down here in Castle Hill. It's awesome to be here. Thanks, of course, [music] as well to NMX, to Airtec, to Whiteline. Next episode, we will be back for even more modifications and then there's a battle with Marty's big Mercedes wagon. That battle is imminent and I'm very confident that my car is going to chop his. What do you think? If you do want to support the show, we've got Mighty Car Mods shirts, we got merch, we got all sorts of stuff at mightycarmods.com and see you next time. Bye.

[00:22:31]>> [music]