I have recently purchased a 2008 base R56 Mini Cooper with a whopping 185,000 miles on the odometer. The car has had a lot of parts replaced on it and all of the major issues that these cars are known for have been tackled. The car is incredibly solid for its mileage.

My Mini, Simon


the car was initially bought by my brother, who works at Mini as a mechanic. He did the timing chain tensioner, valve cover gasket, oil filter housing gasket, tie rods, oil pan, he stripped the interior, etc... He was going to race the car in the “24 hours of LEMONS race”. He gave up on the idea and sold the car to me for a whopping $600. The car is solid, but it’s cheap price and lack of an interior is making the teenager in me come out. I want it to be loud. I also don’t want to spend more money on an exhaust than I did on the rest of the car. My plan is to cut open the muffler and remove the baffling and then weld the muffler shut. I am hesitant to do this as I am unsure what’s inside my muffler. The R56 S mufflers are simply stuffed with a net that can be removed to achieve a much louder exhaust tone. I’m not so sure my muffler is the same. I am wondering if anyone has any insight on what’s inside my base 2008 muffler. Any help is appreciated and I’d like to kindly remind you all that this car was VERY cheap. I’d do this the right way if it didn’t have so many miles. Basically I’m just asking you to be kind and don’t make fun of my sh*t box.


A picture of the muffler used in my car


A picture of a Mini Cooper S muffler with the baffling material removed

 

Congrats on the new BMW! I see the tow hook came with it, better just keep it where it is.
While your brother was in there, he didn't do the chain? If it's got high mileage, you might see a little more pep if you replace it.

 

It’s funny you’d say that. I did the chain myself over the weekend. I just did it as preventative maintenance, but the car drives noticeably better now having a new chain. I’m also picking up a new battery for the car today as the old one is nearly dead. The tow hooks were kinda just jokingly put on the car. I have anodized aftermarket ones on the car now😂 since the car was so cheap, I’m basically just having fun with it. I checkered the roof, did the aforementioned muffler “hollowing”, a res delete, made an 8-ball shift ****, put racing numbers on the hood and doors. and installed a k-brace to stiffen the car. He’s a cheap fun little car.

Picture of the car mid-timing chain replacement

 

Hi, glad to find someone who has done what I want to do. Did you do both muffler hollowing and resonator delete at the same time. Or separately. Also did you have any pics of the muffler open? This would help me out lots!

 

I did the muffler and resonator separately. After doing the muffler, there was no difference in the sound of the car. I then proceeded to cut the resonator out and clamp a section of stainless pipe in as a patch… this made a huge difference in the sound of the car! It sounds a bit “tinny” because the muffler is hollow, but I actually like it quite a bit… it suits the car very well. Your going to have to gut the whole top of the muffler off. Inside the muffler is a stamped mass of metal that forms an S pipe. I cut this out completely. The muffler will also be filled with a weird insulation… it’s like a string of feathers mixed with fiberglass. It’s really easy to remove. If you wanted to eliminate the “tinny” sound, I imagine you could run a solid pipe through the inside of the muffler. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the process… but it was very doable and completely worth it in my opinion. When your done gutting the muffler, I’d weld a patch on top. I’ve also seen people pop rivet a patch on with some sealant between the muffler and the patch…. This would be easier and just as effective. The beautiful thing is, you cut the patch off the top of the muffler, so when it’s in the car, it’s almost impossible to see!

 

Im surprised getting rid of the S pipe and the filling in the muffler didn’t make much difference. From the videos on YouTube, it seems to make a great difference, check this out: that is muffler removal but I’d have thought that removing the internals would achieve the same affect. So you would say the resonator delete had the best effect? Thanks

 

Its my understanding that just a muffler delete and no resonator delete on the later N16 powered base Minis is effective

 

That’s good then, I have N16 so I’m happy 😊 thanks for your help.

 

Hi mate,
I don't think your car is a s@it box,looks cool and it's all about fun,good on you for giving it a shot 😉