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

It was more of a time issue than anything, it has to go through inspection and registration soon. My take away is I learned a lot about the process it takes for it to turn over. That and torque everything down after you hand tighten it. I still have a code, need to get at it today and see what it is. Might just let the shop mess with it when I bring it in for the alignment.


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Well... it wasn't with my MINI in particular, but in service to the MINI. I loaded up 4+ years of waste oil, brake fluid and coolant for the ride to one of Charlotte's recycling centers. All fluids were properly disposed of and I now have a remarkable amount of empty space on my workbench!

 

Ha! I was looking at my used fluids this weekend and was thinking how much room I could free up with a trip to the recycling center.


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WoooHooooooooo...I won a free alignment for my MCS at Best One Tire and got it done today! All is good again!

 

Have had a code for the air recirculating
sensor showing up intermittently over
the last year, and now on constantly for
the last week or so, so I ordered a new
sensor, and was able to swap it in by
reaching in through the battery flap
without even having to remove the
passenger side cowl.
Cleared the code and it’s staying off.
Yay!

 

Oil and filter change yesterday evening.
… and this 2 days ago:

 

I'm not sure what you mean by reset itself. If you mean, it just stops working, From time to time, my passenger window just doesn't work anymore. I use the Fonzie method and it seems to fix the issue for the next few years. In the 16 years I have had my R53, I've done it 3 times. My theory is the micro switches for the relays inside the door that operate the window motors might get wet and corrode. A good rap sometimes loosens the oxidation and allows the switches to reconnect. On the inside of your car, Draw an imaginary line between the door open handle and the center of the door speaker. About midway on that line, maybe just below the middle point of that line, with the palm of your hand, give it a good rap. Then try the window toggle switch again. It might take 2 or 3 tries, but it has worked for me.

 

Well after a few hours they figured out that it is the door lock actuator causing all the problems. Just put it on order and should have it installed by the end of next week.


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After the other night of trouble shooting the backup lights I guess I should have started with the exorcism. Checked the continuity of the fuse, bulbs and switch, all good although the switch was a little flaky. Bathed it in isopropyl alcohol, let it dry, put it back together to check voltages and everything worked. Took it in for the safety inspection Friday before anything else decided to act up, good for another year.
Maybe I’ll get to work on something fun on GIR here soon.

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Took GIR out to the body shop to see what a few touch ups was going to run as well as replacing the side mirror door seals. After my last encounter with interior door repair I am going to leave it to the pros. Dropped him off home and then took the R107s to a tire shop and had the rubber removed so I can have them repaired and resurfaced. Hate to see what that is going to cost, cheaper than brand news I would think.

 

That's great. I ordered mine Jan 2005 I received it Aug29 2005. I have 44k on the Odometer.

 

Will it's the end of the month so it's time to go start Checkers and charge the battery. It started easy enough. With the weather getting better it's almost time to start driving it again.

 

Not my MINI, but my 'daily driver' a Volvo XC60. It was time for maintenance work on the old daily driver. A few weeks back I did an oil/filter change. Car ran fine. I got a full tank of gas. Car ran fine. I swapped the plugs, air filter and interior air filter. When I started the engine, I had a CEL and a random misfire with codes on cyl 1 and 2. Engine runs rough. Dash has a warning about downshifting (but I never left the driveway) SHIT!

When I was swapping the plugs, I found 2 of the coil packs (individual packs like the gen 2-3 MINIs) that looked dodgy (bad seals) and some of the rubber was crumbly in places, so I bought a new set and replaced them. No dice... still rough. I switched back to the original plugs... no dice. Fuck I hate it when I CAUSE a problem.

I had to give up and call in the experts. I dropped the car off at my local garage. In the 1/2 mile there, the car never left 1st or 2nd gear (automatic transmission).

---------------

Update: Mechanic found a corroded lead/wiring bundle into a coil-pack. Apparently my handling caused the final failure and it was leaking electrons. Sigh.

 

About 5 years. We never did a full restore on it but we had just about everything replaced but the body.

 

Thanks. The reason I left was because almost all the same cars were there last year and the car that won was the clubs president son car so I thought the fix was in again.

 

Thanks! I never expected the freebie, and I wanted to tip the guy [extra] when I got the bill for the second job. He's a biker and I told him all about the Dragon and the surrounding roads. He said, "no charge" for the first, because he felt the info I had given him about the other roads down there was worth it and will extend the time that he and his buddies are down there in the future.

 

I was sitting at my favorite breakfast diner with my wife many years back (Dallas, TX). There were 2 bikers in the table next to us, planning their route. They were down from Canada for a conference of some sort and were taking a few weeks to see the US. They were plotting their way to the Dragon. I helped 'em choose the right highway (there are 2 routes from Dallas... one about 40 miles longer but MUCH smoother than the other) and then started asking them how twisty they wanted to go. I routed 'em in across the Cherohala Skyway, provisioning in Robbinsville and on to Fontana w/ a few days worth of roads and Dragon riding. We must have sat there for 30-45 minutes, going through the roads. I got an email and photos from them when they got home a few weeks later. Bikers and MINIs have the same taste in roads!

I met a father-son team who were on the son's post-college-bonding-trip-with-his-old-man at the brake cool-down lot on the west side of the Dragon. I think that they were out of Boston. I had an early camera set-up on the tow hook mounting points, so I got video of them (both in front of and behind me) driving the Dragon and sent them links when I got home. Those guys went CRAZY watching that footage and sending me links to their favorite bits for days (and ragging on each other for crossing the yellow).

 

Changing the turbo oil feed line
(Detroit Tuned) and oil filter/cooler/housing.
One of the turbo to down pipe studs
snapped a couple mm into the turbo so that
will be fun to deal with.
I’m to the point of trying to extract
(that trick never works [Rocket J Squirrel])
or drilling and tapping through the screw
or, if that doesn’t work due to the hardness
of the stud fragment, maybe an adjacent hole.
The oil filter cooler housing is back in
with new gaskets. So is the turbo line.
Lots of fun with all that, too.
I’m getting too old for this stuff.

 

Not an insurmountable problem...... If....
You can pull the turbo back off and take it to a capable Tig welder (not Mig welder)....
We would have this taken care of in 15 minutes in my metal shop....
We would lay a hex nut over the broken stud / bolt and add weld down through the threaded hole in the nut with the weld puddle on top of the broken stud / bolt.... The combination of the weld temperature would loosen the threads and the use of a socket or box wrench would allow you to back the stud out.... Those brittle EZ Out screw extractors never worked for me..... And if they snapped off.... You're in more trouble....

Clean out the threaded hole with a tap before going at it again with the new stud / bolt.

Good luck...