[crisminir56]

Well, I was interested in acquiring a sports air filter for my 1.6 R56 gasoline Mini Cooper of the year 2009. I have seen that as standard my Mini has in the area of the air filter a kind of muffler (it is a black box). The thing is that I have been told that this box can be removed and replaced with a kind of tube (removing the box would leave a hole that must be filled with a silicone tube or something similar). I have seen that complete k&n kits are very expensive. Checking in stores, I can buy a k&n filter for 80 euro (it is not the complete kit, because, the complete one includes aluminium tube and so on). Do you know any way to get that tube in a cheap way? I'm not sure if a silicone tube would suit the engine. I hope you understand what I am referring to.

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[930.engineering]

IMHO 'sports' filter replacements are a waste of money. They do actually gain nothing except inferior filtering, resulting in increased engine wear. Just replace like for like, but DO replace it. New filters are better than dirty filters. I used a MANN C5082 filter and will change it every 40.000 km. Remember there's a diference between Euro spec and NA spec N12 airboxes due to different emissions regulations.
That being said modifying the muffler actually does provide some slight increase in noise. You could either use the OE Peugeot tube that replaces the entire Mini muffler or just tape the muffler box. Dont't miss to check if your Cooper has the trumpet shaped inlet near the headlight. Some R56 came with this while some didn't. Gains 1 HP...... 😅

R56 Cooper - Modified Intake Silencer - North American Motoring

Cooper (non S) - R56 Cooper - Modified Intake Silencer - Hi all! Me and some guys in Germany modified the Intake Silencer :grin:. Now I saw at realoem that american MINIs have the same thing installed. What we did ... we modified the part #12...

www.northamericanmotoring.com