The MINI Cooper S, codenamed the R56, is a small car made by BMW, a German automaker, that is patterned off the of the old Mini Cooper made by the British Motor Company. The two cars look similar, although they share no parts. The "new" MINI uses a 1.6 liter engine that BMW obtained from Peugeot, a French automaker, while the original Mini used an 848cc engine manufactured by the British automaker, Austin. To increase the carrying capacity of your R56 MINI, you may want to consider adding a roof rack.
Locate the four roof rack attachment points, two on each side of the roof, in the rubber strip at the edge of the roof just above the side windows. Insert the edge of the flat fitting aid that came with your roof rack installation kit in between the rubber strip and the painted portion of the roof at one of the attachment points.
Carefully remove the precut section of rubber strip with the tweezers that also came with the installation kit. Repeat this procedure for the three other attachment points.
Use the key that came with the roof rack and open the caps at each end of one of the rack bars. Rotate the caps upward to reveal the mounting bolts. Rotate the bolts in a counterclockwise direction with the torque wrench provided with the installation kit until they stop.
Observe the label on the underside of the roof bar that explains the correct bar alignment with the roof. Place the bar on the roof, making sure the feet of the bar are inserted into the attachment points on the roof as per the instructions on the label. Press down on the clamp plate just above the mounting bolt on each side of the roof rack bar so that the alignment pin protrudes though the hole in the plate..
Tighten the mounting bolts with the torque wrench until the two lines on the wrench line up. Rotate the caps downward on each side of the roof rack and lock them with the key.
Repeat steps 2 through 4 to install the other roof rack bar.
