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

Overnight temperatures dropped to zero degrees celsius and there has been severe rain the last week so I finally got snow boots on all three MINIs in my household. Surprised the tireshop was not busy. 20 minutes for each car. I was all done by lunch time. So pleased with the guys at the tireshop, I bought them a box of Krispy Kreme donuts.

So...what's happening here....

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wyntk-bc-floods-nov-17-1.6251839

 

Yes, nice family boating in the low parts. We had a nice surprise Colorado snowstorm this evening, of course I have to take my sweet wife to airport in the morning, I will be driving my MINI daily while she is gone, must find good good food at lunch.

Everyone have a safe and great Thanksgiving Day.

Don

 

I took the MINI out for a drive this weekend. It was the first time I've driven it since a few days before Thanksgiving. I've been too busy with family stuff. It was not happy with me, at first. It ran pretty rough. After a few miles, it was running smooth.

I need to do a few basic repairs. The struts that hold the hatchback door up are toast. I got smacked in the back of the head as an indictor. None of the parts stores have them. I'll call my friend at RAC Performance, and he'll get them for me, and he won't mark them up. I still need to find the decorative chrome and black topper for the shift knob. Maybe my friend can get that, too.

I think I have my rat problem under control, but we are just now getting really cold weather. We've had a lot of record high temperature days so far this winter. I'll have to check under the hoods of both cars for rat's nests regularly now, and especially on the MINI, as it parks for longer. I have minimized their supply of materials for nest building. Shop rags and paper products are up high on shelves. I'm not seeing rat poop or acorn scraps on the floor, which is a good sign.

CD

 

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.