MINI Clubman Cooper S
PART SIX: The pressure’s on to get the final jobs ticked off in the last episode of our Clubman project. Rob Hawkins tries to remain calm as more troubles arise.
Part SIX: Last episode of our turbocharged 1.6. There’s lots of jobs to do.
Editor Martyn Knowles thinks Rob Hawkins is jinxed when it comes to electrical issues, especially flat batteries, which seem to be a regular occurrence at his home. Several project cars managed by Rob have needed a new battery, and the Clubman is one of them. Admittedly, the Clubman’s battery appears to be the original and is a genuine Stop-start AGM, so had done well to last so long.
After fitting a new AGM battery that was supplied by Autovaux, the Stop-start system worked again and the electric windows weren’t so slow, but as you’ll see over the following pages, more problems had to be fixed, including a dodgy highpressure fuel pump and water ingress. The water leak has been the biggest problem, appearing from nowhere, flooding the front passenger footwell and destroying the body control unit.
Thankfully, the leak was traced and fixed, although we’re awaiting a replacement BCU and currently using a spare from mad4mini that results in a few errors on the dashboard and the need to operate the electric window switches in the opposite directions!
The leaks seem to keep on coming at us. The next one saw a pool of liquid forming underneath the front of the Clubman. We initially thought the engine oil leak had returned, but after visiting mad4mini, they confirmed it was the electric coolant pump for the turbo, so we booked it in with them and ordered a new pump from Autovaux.
No repaint
We’ve completed most of the work we’d initially planned to do on the Clubman, with the exception of the peeled lacquer, which is a bigger job than we’d anticipated, involving a full respray of the bonnet, driver’s door and side door to the cost of around £850. It’s worth doing, but there’s no guarantee the lacquer in other areas of the car won’t begin to peel, so we’re holding off for now.
We also decided to not renew the upper suspension strut mounts after mad4mini inspected them again and felt they had a few more miles left in them. Otherwise, the project is finished and we have a much more capable and reliable car than when we first took it on.