MINI parts reviews

I have Cooper Evolution Winters that are studdable. Huge fan of them and have never gotten stuck in the Wisconsin winters before.

I used the Ridex water pump. It's usually seen as a budget brand, but their water pump is the only full metal one I could find. I would definitely recommend replacing it with one that has a housing and the impeller made from metal.

I use Redline 5w-40 because I noticed my engine burns a quart every 2000miles using other brands or thinner grades. With RedLine there is barely any consumption.

I change from then OEM hankook ventus2 to high performance all season Kumho Ecsta PA51 and I love the,. They handle almost as good as the OEM summer performance tires but are much safer in winter, even though Texas winters aren’t terribly cold it does snow here and does drop,below freezing. It’s simply unsafe to drive summer tires below freezing. The kumhos handle very welll to and they are not expensive. And highly recommend.

You could save some money and have better handling by choosing something that's not run flat. I use Continental Extreme Contact tires (\~$947 installed with no alignment at Les Schwab, and yes I could have gotten them cheaper elsewhere but LS gives out credit like it's free candy) and I love them so far...

Amazon has some decent internal trim that doesn't cost much. But one of the easiest and cheapest improvements is to keep your tires black and shiny. Turtle Wax Wet & Black is good and inexpensive.

I'm running Continental PureContact LS 195/55R-16. Massive improvement in wet and dry grip over the stock Hankook.

I haven't done VW brakes in a while, but I usually use Textar pads on my BMW and Mini. They are OE supplier for most of the BMW brakes, but they do make a lot of dust.

I was driving the Mini when the engine began to struggle at idle and then shut off, refusing to restart. The starter engaged but hit a wall of resistance. After getting it home, I found the alternator was completely stuck. The one I replaced was a Bosch. Its bearing had failed catastrophically, and the pulley would not move.

I tried some Bosch once on sale and they skipped and squealed