Ask MF: Factory JCW Components Available A La Carte?
This latest Ask MF comes from Steve:
>As a Stage 1 JCW owner, am I able to purchase the factory JCW air mass sensor, air filter, inlet tube, exhaust and downpipe and ECU mapping? My guess is that it would cost an arm and a leg but curious at the performance benefit. My guess is that it would be pretty close to output of the factory JCW. Can you also enlighten us on whether or not warantee would be affected? Does the MINI dealers treat the factory JCW like the GP where only those owners are able to get those parts?
It’s a great series of questions and honestly we don’t know the answer because we haven’t tried. However we’re guessing a few readers have either looked into it or even gone down this path already. Do with that we’ll turn it over to them. Feel free to sound off in the comment section below.
<p>you might be able to get some of the hard bits, but I wouldn’t hold your bretah on the ECU programming. The stage2 programming probably wouldn’t work on your MINI anyway since at minimum the compression ratio is different.</p>
<p>You could bolt on a few things like th intake pipe but the stuff that really makes the difference such as the larger turbo, air mass, etc, not only rely on different engine internals but also on ECU programming. The ECU programming is VIN specific. It would be impossible to reprogram your existing ECU or even new uncoded ECU without it being done by VIN specific to a JCW factory car. There may be an enterprising company that writes some custom piggy back software and packages it with relevent JCW components but I can only imagine that that would not be very cost effective. Warranty, don’t even consider it.</p>
<p>I know someone who has the Factory JCW exhaust back box on his Cooper S and it sounds exactly the same as the factory car. relatively cheap as well. had no problems getting it either. just got the part no. from realOEM and ordered.</p>
<p>It seems you’re a little late in the US… Yes the Factory JCW exhaust back box on the Cooper S is THE MOD TO DO… Here in Europe more and more Cooper S are converted, including mine ;)</p>
<p>If you order a cooper S, and add all of the JCW pieces (Including the engine kit, brakes, suspension, comes to about $28000) Will that be the same as the JCW, which comes with the engine kit (still no brakes or suspension), and a bunch of useless add-ons like piano black dash, leather seats, and a bunch of other non-performance related bits to drive the price up?</p>
<blockquote>Will that be the same as the JCW, which comes with the engine kit (still no brakes or suspension),…</blockquote>
<p>It seems to me that JCW factory car comes with the brembo brake kit, but no suspension kit….I wonder if you compare MCS with JCW tuning kit, brake kit, suspension kit, even challenge spokes, with the JCW factory car + JCW suspension kit, could you justify 3-4k extra in the price of the latter…Is that engine in JCW factory car so much better than the “standard one” + tuning kit?</p>
<p>I have an 07′ R56 MCS with the stage 1 kit, and I added the Factory JCW’s turbo inlet tube instead of going with, say, an Alta tube. I installed it about a week after getting the Stage 1 kit on my car, and it’s hard to say, but I think it made a bit of difference. The turbo whine and blow off was noticeably louder, which sounds nice when you step on it. As for the other parts, I really don’t know, I didn’t have any problems ordering the Factory turbo inlet tube though. But the upgraded turbo is where the main difference is I would say. If you did somehow get a hold of one, and fit it to your R56, who knows how long your engine would last without being beefed up like the factory JCW’s components.</p>
<p>OK, I think this is still related to the original question, as brakes fall under JCW performance options.</p>
<p>I thought Brembos were standard on JCW factory car, based on the pictures of the car posted here and elsewhere, the fact they were mentioned in the “turbo toy boxes 2” comparison test (JCW factory car won), but also due to the fact that when you build your JCW car, brake kit does not exist as one of the options (so it has to be standard).</p>
<p>I looked into this a bit more today, and I tried to build an MCS so that it is as close as JCW factory car (+ JCW suspension) as possible. I added the JCW tuning, suspension and brake kits + EDLC. I tried adding the 17″ challenge-spoke wheels (standard on JCW factory car), and the simulator did not allow this option, unless the brake kit is removed. The only reason I can think of is lack of clearance, but how come it all fits on the JCW factory car?</p>
<p>So what is the deal here? Which one is it: JCW factory car has no Brembos; the challenge spokes optional for MCS are not identical to those on JCW factory car; MINI does not want you MCS to be too close in specs to the “exclusive/limited edition/special” JCW factory car; a bug in the build-your-own simulator?</p>
<p>@<a href="#comment-254868" rel="nofollow">r.burns</a>: What will this mod require as far as mechanical ability and what increase in performance will I get ?</p>
<p>you might be able to get some of the hard bits, but I wouldn’t hold your bretah on the ECU programming. The stage2 programming probably wouldn’t work on your MINI anyway since at minimum the compression ratio is different.</p>
<p>You could bolt on a few things like th intake pipe but the stuff that really makes the difference such as the larger turbo, air mass, etc, not only rely on different engine internals but also on ECU programming. The ECU programming is VIN specific. It would be impossible to reprogram your existing ECU or even new uncoded ECU without it being done by VIN specific to a JCW factory car. There may be an enterprising company that writes some custom piggy back software and packages it with relevent JCW components but I can only imagine that that would not be very cost effective. Warranty, don’t even consider it.</p>
<p>I just noticed where the park distance sensors are located. Nicely integrated.</p>
<p>Focus, beken. Focus. Very funny though.</p>
<p>I know someone who has the Factory JCW exhaust back box on his Cooper S and it sounds exactly the same as the factory car. relatively cheap as well. had no problems getting it either. just got the part no. from realOEM and ordered.</p>
<p>It seems you’re a little late in the US… Yes the Factory JCW exhaust back box on the Cooper S is THE MOD TO DO… Here in Europe more and more Cooper S are converted, including mine ;)</p>
<p>If you order a cooper S, and add all of the JCW pieces (Including the engine kit, brakes, suspension, comes to about $28000) Will that be the same as the JCW, which comes with the engine kit (still no brakes or suspension), and a bunch of useless add-ons like piano black dash, leather seats, and a bunch of other non-performance related bits to drive the price up?</p>
<blockquote>Will that be the same as the JCW, which comes with the engine kit (still no brakes or suspension),…</blockquote>
<p>It seems to me that JCW factory car comes with the brembo brake kit, but no suspension kit….I wonder if you compare MCS with JCW tuning kit, brake kit, suspension kit, even challenge spokes, with the JCW factory car + JCW suspension kit, could you justify 3-4k extra in the price of the latter…Is that engine in JCW factory car so much better than the “standard one” + tuning kit?</p>
<p>…OK, I may have overestimated it a bit, say 1.5-2k difference (not sure how much it costs to install the brakes)</p>
<p>I have an 07′ R56 MCS with the stage 1 kit, and I added the Factory JCW’s turbo inlet tube instead of going with, say, an Alta tube. I installed it about a week after getting the Stage 1 kit on my car, and it’s hard to say, but I think it made a bit of difference. The turbo whine and blow off was noticeably louder, which sounds nice when you step on it. As for the other parts, I really don’t know, I didn’t have any problems ordering the Factory turbo inlet tube though. But the upgraded turbo is where the main difference is I would say. If you did somehow get a hold of one, and fit it to your R56, who knows how long your engine would last without being beefed up like the factory JCW’s components.</p>
<p>OK, I think this is still related to the original question, as brakes fall under JCW performance options.</p>
<p>I thought Brembos were standard on JCW factory car, based on the pictures of the car posted here and elsewhere, the fact they were mentioned in the “turbo toy boxes 2” comparison test (JCW factory car won), but also due to the fact that when you build your JCW car, brake kit does not exist as one of the options (so it has to be standard).</p>
<p>I looked into this a bit more today, and I tried to build an MCS so that it is as close as JCW factory car (+ JCW suspension) as possible. I added the JCW tuning, suspension and brake kits + EDLC. I tried adding the 17″ challenge-spoke wheels (standard on JCW factory car), and the simulator did not allow this option, unless the brake kit is removed. The only reason I can think of is lack of clearance, but how come it all fits on the JCW factory car?</p>
<p>So what is the deal here? Which one is it: JCW factory car has no Brembos; the challenge spokes optional for MCS are not identical to those on JCW factory car; MINI does not want you MCS to be too close in specs to the “exclusive/limited edition/special” JCW factory car; a bug in the build-your-own simulator?</p>
<p>@<a href="#comment-254868" rel="nofollow">r.burns</a>: What will this mod require as far as mechanical ability and what increase in performance will I get ?</p>
<p>The only advantage is the JCW factory car SOUND, yet the stock exhaust is far from audible when you drive.</p>
<p>It requires a normal ability for a professionnal, but BMW seems to have lost its ability for this kind of job…</p>