Most liked posts in thread: What did you do with your MINI today?

Well, how about that? The day after I put on my snow tires, it warms up to +10c and rains.

and there is no tire forum on this site. How about that? I thought there was one.
I hate shopping for tires because they are the most subjective thing to shop for on a car. Even within a particular brand, each tire handles differently.

 

We had freezing rain this morning. I decided to take Babs clubster out & test the Michelin IceX 3 tires. Man they really worked well to & from the grocery store. Sure was nice having the roads & store all to myself. It was snowing a bit on the way home.

Tonight they are calling for more freezing rain. That's OK I have food & beer.

 

Today I washed both the wife’s Lexus RX350 and my MINI since we were out driving in the rain, leaves and snow this past week.

The MINI is back on the garage resting all nice and clean again.

 

Today I did something that may be very stupid. I entered my car in the 'Cavalcade of Customs' car show. This is part of the Autorama car show circuit with shows in various US cities. 500 cars supposed to be there. I'm old and old school. I grew up on drive-ins, sock hops, and custom cars and hot rods. It will mean a LOT of work in getting Peppurr clean (thanks Dave O.) and show ready. It's so much fun to be an old fart...

 

Replaced the melted driver side rear side marker light. Seems the bulbs don't actually burn out until after the socket melts so MINI doesn't bother selling you just the bulb. They sell you the entire side marker.

 

Put the blue daily driver on jack stands, rotated tires after a whopping 2000 miles since new, then searched for possible loose heat shields I hear rattling when the exhaust and engine are cold. After that put on the old clothes and sprayed on a good coat of Fluid Film on the bottom of the car.

 

I only spray fluid film only on spots with parts with threads or parts that you don’t want getting corrosion from salt. I do not spray the entire bottom of my car. Inner / outer tie rod threads, ball joints, endlinks brake cable ends and upper and lower adjustable control arm helm joints.

 

Mine has 83K miles, trouble free. I did have the dealer replace the timing chain kit right before it went out of warranty but other than that....no issues. I do change the oil regularly (every 10K miles) but other than that I just do routine maintenance. They used these engines in lots of Peugeots as well as the MINI, there are literally millions of them out there driving around just fine.

 

I bought a new trickle charger for the daily driver, since it's likely not going to get driven much at all this winter. Really nice unit with all the reconditioning, charge and maintenance mode tricks of the most expensive chargers. It even has an LCD readout that tells me charging voltage and current in realtime, etc..



ignore the reviews that state the lead polarity is reversed. May have been a bad batch, but mine is wired like any other charger.

$36 on amazon

Then I shoveled the driveway so I can get out with my fatbike and head to work.

In other Mini news: Looks like in January, there'll be a chance to add two more Minis to the stable:

 

Yes, years a go. I got a all aluminum tank from Jan with a real thermostat cap. I have not had any issues with it.

 

Teddy, I'd be honored to get one of your stickers, as my wife is a survivor.

 

^^^ that’s awesome.

Today I took my MINI out warmed her up and took here out for a drive to run a few errands.

Maybe she will get a wash this weekend, who knows.

 

All the OEM motor mounts are garbage. This is the one you need or an -5-06 MINI. They also make one for the early first gens.

https://www.greeneperformance.com/collections/mini-oem-performance-parts/products/vibra-technics-mini-cooper-s-r53-07-04-07-08-min906m-right-hand-engine-mount

 

Emptied the oil catch can on my lunch hour - hardly catches anything in the summer,
but now full of a little oil and a lot of water after the weather turned colder.
I was surprised by the outflow enough to drop the drain plug and it fell down
into the land of never to be found (and I'm pretty good at finding things).
So I walked two blocks to the ACE Hardware store near my work and got a
2.5 inch 14mm x 1.5 bolt to plug it, then got a oil pain plug with a rubber gasket
at Autozone on the way home, which looks and functions a lot better.
Tried to call BSH but they don't list a phone number, emailed them, but no answer so far,
and Outmotoring (where I bought the BSH OCC) said they don't carry the individual parts,
and to just wait on BSH by email.
... So I decided to order a Fumoto F106SX valve.
I haven't put them on my oil pans, but the catch can looks like a good application for one.

 

Put the Mini in the storage building yesterday because this was coming.

 

Put a Fumoto valve on my oil catch can for easier emptying.

 

What did I do with my MINI today? I checked the oil and drained the Oil Catch Can.
I didn't drive it though, it was raining.

 

My kid gave me a OBD2 Bluetooth plug in module. So today, I played around with Bimmercode. Kind of cool you can set the temperatures for the seat heaters and all the other things. Now I just have to buy the license to set codes.