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The evoloution of my 06 MINI ONE D. (with a lot of pics)

11K views 61 replies 27 participants last post by  R99 
#1 ·
Ok guys, this might go on for a bit, but I’m bored and it’s wet outside. I was also meant to be on the Cotswolds MINI event today, but it turned out to be over 220 miles each way so I had to abandon it :(. So I’m looking for something to do. The pics and descriptions depict the car as it was at each stage of the 'modding process' Hope you all enjot the read.

As some of you may know I bought my car back in December and many people on MINI2 helped me out with my initial questions about the car. It was also this site in conjuction with my first MINI run at the Derek Woodman world record attempt, which inspired me to start adding bits to the car.

The car is a 2006 ONE D (the Euro4 88bhp model) finished in astro black. I was lucky enough to find it for sale at a non MINI dealership so I didn’t pay over the odds. The car also came with the 17” R99 wheels and various other options such as Pepper Pack, Alarm, Harmon/Kardon, Zip roof decal and sports seats. Overall a nicely specc’d car.

Here is the car on the day I picked it up from Harrogate.



Initially I just started with basic things such as clear indicator lenses, stubby aerial and some company stickers.



Then after I started properly posting on M2 and went to the GWR event I got the MINI bug seriously and started to add the ‘bigger’ things. First on my list was spotlights and shortly after that I also upgraded the dipped and main beam bulbs to xenon gas items, which greatly improved night driving, along with the addition of the MINI spots. Not a cheap mod at £250, but I do really like the look of spotlighted MINI’s.



Next came a relatively small mod, body colour mirror caps. BMW wanted £143 for these. Buck luckily TonyRec took these off his brand new sidewalk convertible and I got them for £40. Bargain and I personally think they look much better than the standard matt black plastic ones. Around about the same time I also bought a set of spot lamp covers from Woodman MINI in the group buy section. I don’t use these all the time; just on journeys which might involve stone chips.



After that I managed to get hold of the all important MINI2.COM sticker for the car. 118 posted some pics of his new car and I just had to get one of the stickers he had. It turned out that Phil at MiniPirate had made them and for a £5 donation to the M2 Charity Ball he send me a couple out. :smile:




In June I was very kindly given a set of Cooper S bumpers from a fellow MIN2'er. However after enquiring about having them sprayed up in astro black it became obvious that with numerous quotes hitting the £500 mark I might as well go for the full Aero Kit, which also included new side skirts. I also decided to opt for the aero spoiler. So once again the car went off to the folks down at Woodman MINI for the treatment. Thanks to the group buy the value for money was excellent with the full kit plus aero spoiler coming to a few quid over £1k. The spoiler however was on back order so it didn’t go on straight away. This by far the best single mod I have made to the car as it really does improve the look of the car so much. The skirts also make it look lower that it originally did with the standard (Cooper S) items. :D




One small problem remained however. Those of you who have had a look around a ONE D will notice that unlike any other model MINI make, the rear bumper has no recess for an exhaust. This is because the diesels exhaust is bent downwards and is hidden behind the bumper. Therefore with the big recess on the Aero rear bumper it looked rather stupid, and that’s being polite. The guys at Woodman had originally thought that a Cooper chrome item could have been fitted to the existing back box, but it didn’t work out. To cut a long story short I ended up having a custom back box made up by PowerFlow exhausts, with a 3” slash cut tail pipe. It cost £150 but it improved the rear end so much. As a nice side effect it has also given the car a nice burble, fair enough it’s not as nice sounding as a petrol equivalent, but I wanted a diesel in the first place. Now its bedded in even more it sound so much nicer than the standard ONE D. (my younger brother has a standard ONE D to compare it to)

The pipe as it looked before the custom one:



The new look:



I then decided to add a cherished number plate. I looked at several and even went to a DVLA auction to bid on JAM 1Y which had a reserve of £900, but ended up selling for over £15k :eek:. In the end I went with a much more sensible £250 plate which reads R99 JOL. My second name is Jolly so it works well and R99 ties in nicely with the MINI side of things.



The final additions came this week, in fact on Friday. The Aero Spoiler finally came off back order from Germany and I also opted for a chrome Cooper S fuel cap, which was a Birthday present from my parents for my 20th. Once again the work was carried out at Woodman’s. A special mention should be made to Chris who has been very helpful throughout all of this. The aero spoiler has finished the back end off no end, a great improvement. The fuel cap also looks pretty neat and I’m glad I went for it instead of the standard cap. Shame it couldnt be had any cheaper than £150!! Here are some pics of my car as it looks today, I took them up by lake windermere. It was raining all day though, so excuse the dirty car! I know it looks lowerd in some pics, but its not it was just a very steep corner, infact the wheel lifted off the ground at one point on that turn!! :eek:



Future plans are a little sketchy at the moment, I don’t know where to go next with it? I am almost certainly going to lower it by 20mm before I go back to Uni in September, I think 30mm might be a little too low with the Aero, anyone know differently? MINISport have some 20mm springs for £99 at the moment, so I’m tempted to get those…..:confused:

Anyway I hope I haven’t bored people with this post, I just fancied showing everyone what I’ve done so far with the car. Any comments are welcome, and I’d appreciate it if anyone could recommend some more mods, but bear in mind I’m skint now, lol!! :aargh:


Regards,

James.
 
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#37 ·
Cheers Ben, hows the Cooper D treating you?

Car is looking good there James:nice: remember reading your going to drop it , it will look sweet just don't get the halo's i think it looks good as it is:wink:
Hi mate. Yeh, hopefully when I get some spare cash together (all of it has gone on my skiing hol for now!) then I'll get some 30mm Eibachs on her. Think it will look good. :)

I was thinking of the Halo headlamps, but I think I'll have to see a set in the flesh to make my mind up really. :confused:

well done, good work mate, a very nice mini...

greets, paulo
Thanks a lot, yours aint bad either!

gorgeous looking MINI!!
Cheers, I'm glad people like it, kinda makes all the effort worthwhile! :)

Regards,

James.
 
#38 ·
Just a brief update for anyone who is interested....

The car has been suffering from a 'hot start' problem recently. :(

Basically after driving the car, if you return to it when the engine is still warm and re-start it then it does not fire up properly. It sounds as if one (or more) of the cylinders are not firing, it makes a really clattery noise, and the idle is much lower than normal. The result is that if you try to let the clutch out the car will stall. The accelerator pedal is also totally unresponsive throughout the whole process. :eek:

The problem lasts for approx 10 - 15 seconds, then the engine returns to normal. Fortunately mine does not suffer from this very often, and is extremely intermittent (it has happened only 7 or 8 times). However it had been plaguing some owners for years. BMW/MINI have no solution for the problem. :angry: Woodmans have had a look, but as far as I'm aware couldn't find anything wrong, although they did find it needed topping up with oil. :eek:

In other news, I recently had to have the windscreen repaired after a stone from a lorry caused a small crack. The car has also been in for some remedial warranty work at Woodmans which consisted of dash rattles, a new drivers seat (the leather/cloth were replaced), new aero decals for the rear bumper, and finally they reattached my side skirt which had worked itself loose.

So all in all I've not been having the best luck with it recently, but I'm still enjoying every mile. :)

Here's a few recent pics of the motor anyway....






James.
 
#39 ·
--Update--​

The hot start problem has still not been cured. :(

My alloys have started to show signs corrosion again, its not even a year since they were replaced under warranty by BMW! Her next service is due in 1700 miles, so I think that's going to have to be looked at when it goes in! :(

James
 
#40 ·
Excellent write up James - how come I haven't noticed it before :confused:.
Good photos too (including one of mine ;)).
Also glad to see I am not the only person who is frequently found lingering at Woodmans - either warranty work, or upgrades through Chris in Parts.
Hope you get your problems sorted soon.
 
#42 ·
Just had confirmation that BMW will be replacing my alloys AGAIN! :)

If they corrode again (which in 95% sure they will) then I will get them swapped under warranty for a set of anthracite R99's instead, that way I wont be left stranded when I'm out of warranty with a set of rims which look awful.

In the mean time here is a photo of her on the Lakes Tour at the weekend....

 
#48 ·
Its the laquer that they use - it happens on the burnished JCW wheels too. I'm sure they are aware of the problem. At £1.4k a set I'm just glad they are replacing them and not me!

Hi James hope you had a good one in the lakes:wink:, where was that picture took looks like honister pass??
Hi Ste, It was towards the end of the run mate. I really cant remember what it was called, we had just done hardknott pass, I think it might have been Rhio pass (or Rhynose whatever its called)

hello James when we met briefly at the fast bit of pooley bridge...:biggrin: if it wasn't for your d badge i would of never of known!...:wink: see you at the hartbeat..:smile:
Thanks - I liked your comment about it not being standard when we got to the camp!

But you were motoring at that point Gary, I knew I had no chance of matching your pace - however it was nice to hear the supercharger whine as you passed though! ;)

Heartbeat should be fun, my mate who came to the Lakes is up for it, so I will check the details when Rams gets them online and I should be there!

Agree with Gary if you took that badge off no one would have guessed it was a ONE (D)
I might take the badge off - but part of me is proud that a little ONE D can cut the mustard!

I have seen west tuning offer a remap up to 115bhp - I'm sorely tempted, but I'm worried about massive clouds of black smoke billowing out of the exhuast every time I boot it.

Did either of you notice any black smoke at the Lakes?

Regards,

James.
 
#49 ·
---Update---

Alloys are now replaced, so lets see how long this set last! As I have already said, next time I will go for a set of anthracites.

The car has also had a service, and it feels so much better for it. I also needed new disks and pads, to the tune of £200 but you cant take chances with breaks so I had to cough up!

More expense is on the horizon though as one tyre is near the legal limit and one is showing signs of cracking. :(

I cant justify £140+VAT for runflats again so it might be time to swap over to conventional tyres?
 
#50 ·
Hi R99 i commented on your video on you tube the other week about the bend in the diesel exhaust, how much was you custom back box? What i have done is bought a Cooper exhaust tip and cut part of the bend off to make it fit nicely but eventually i will want to change the back box for it to look like your does. As you can see from the pictures it does point down a bit still, but it deffinatly looks better than the bent tail pipe. And i also need the aero side skirts to finish it off!
 

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#51 ·
Hi mate - glad to see you have found your way over to MINI2, welcome. :)

The back box was £160 from PowerFlow exhausts, that included VAT and labour, so I thought it was a pretty good deal really. I have had it on the car for a year now and no issues so far. :)

They offered me a full system with the removal of the cat, but I decided against it in the end, although it would probably have given me some more power due to removal of back pressure. I was 19 at the time though and I didn't fancy the insurance problems.

For now though it looks good, defo need to get the side skirts though to complete the package. How long have you had the car?

Regards,

James.
 
#52 ·
Well I am only 20 so can not do too many performance modifications aswell for insurance reasons, it went up £300 this year for no reason!!! We have had it from new in the familey since 2003 and i have had it since 2006. I have had no problems with it just had to replace the brake pads and tyres but you expect that anyway.

Thats seems a really good price for the back box, i thought you were going to say around £300!

Just looking for some aero skirts but they have to be at the right price, I am not going to be paying BMW prices for them.

What do you think to your diesel? are there any big mini shows in the summer?

Cheers,

Rich
 
#53 ·
Yes they are clamping down on young drivers, my premium took an increase as well this year. :(

I notified the insurance about my back box and there was no increase, there would have been for the full system though. ;)

I love my car, but now I have finished Uni and got a 'proper' job I hopefully will upgrade to a MCS in the next 18 months or so. You have just missed the Lakes Tour which is the best event on the calendar, but if you look in the UK&Ireland section on this site there are events most weekends during the summer, your spoilt for choice!

Whereabouts are you based?
 
#54 ·
I am in sheffield, right next to the M1 which makes it easy to get to most places. A couple of my friends have got minis so just looking for show that we can go to over the summer holidays.

I was looking at changing to a cooper this year but with the insurance there is no point with how much it would cost so i decided to spend a bit of money on the car that i have got at the moment. Like you said once I have got a job when i finish uni I will get a cooper or cooper s, carnt think of a better small car that these!!
 
#56 ·
Just a little up-date. My car has been awarded the "Best MINI diesel" Oscar award, as voted for by the readers on MM mag.

Thanks to those who slipped me a vote. :)

I haven't done anything to the car recently - I have my sights set firmly on a GP in roughly 12 months time. :D
 
#60 ·
Thanks for the kind words.

It's currently at the dealers being fixed, however to compensate I have a shiny new Cooper S to run around in. :D

LOVING the power and acceleration compared to my D.
 
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