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

OK, I was going to just click "like" on this posting, but I do find it funny. Sad, but funny. I hope you get some quality cleaning time on the MINI, soon! Why do bthe bee folks not deal with Honey Bees, I thought the bee keeper folks trapped the bees for their hives or was this a swarm without a queen?

Appreciate the great car pictures you post too.

Don

 

Really, they didn't try and remove the swarm and nest and rehome it? I'm a little surprised...…

About the R56 lights, they were a significant improvement over those in the R53 series cars....the ones in my 2003 were only a tiny bit better than Halogens. The ones in my Clubman are terrific.

 

My R53 had HID low beams, but the high beams were a halogen bulb. I augmented the high beams with a pair of Hella 500 driving lights with 100w bulbs.

My wife's R55 has Bi-Xenon & they are great.

Sorry about your bee infestation. Glad they weren't africanized buzzers.

Many moons ago I came home from work & heard a strange buzzing coming from an exterior wall. Figured out where they were & called the exterminator. He wouldn't touch them but gave me the number of a bee keeper. The bee keeper told me he could capture the queen & the hoard would follow her to the new home. Trouble was to get the queen he was going to have to rip the siding off my house. No that ain't happening.

Mixed up a tank sprayer of diazinon & at last light of day I sprayed it in the little front door they were using. Next morning no buzzing & many dead bees laying on the ground.

I figured the dead bees under the siding acted like insulation & kept me warmer in the winter. Bees are very beneficial.

 

I think I've know you for 10 years or so. Every one of those years you say this MOTD will be my last one. Heck man keep on trucking & get yourself & those stinky stogies down to the dragon. Smell the roses Jeff, they smell like Cuban's.

 

Nope. My facelifted R53 has xenon headlights for the lowbeams only. They are not bi-xenon.

Highbeams are halogen H7 bulbs.
I installed a set of Philips Crystal Vision Ultra bulbs on my car. I thought only replacing the burned out bulb, but noticed the new bulb is much whiter than the stock bulbs, so I installed both and kept the bulb that still works as an emergency spare.

 

I bought my MINI as a daily driver, so I've done NO mods to it. I just do all the proper maintenance. So, I guess I am way ahead of you.

CD

 

Definitely drive mine every day too. When I do, I drive it pretty hard too!

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My tire expert tells me they still wear faster in the summer due to the tire compound being tailored more for cold weather, but the they work better so you can delay your change over. I guess if your car is a daily drive and you don't drive all that aggressively, they should be okay. My daughter's winter tires are just a bit narrower than her summer tires, though the wheel diameters are the same. So she will be switching back to her summer tires in the spring. However, she can delay that until whenever she feels like it, I guess.

As for me, my winter tires are on 15" wheels and they are narrower 195's as opposed to the 17" summer wheels, lower profile and wider tires.

My changeover doesn't bother me, because it gives me an excuse to rotate my tires.

This discussion should really be in the tire forum n'est pas? I will repost the pix on the tire forum.

 

Thanks for the reply beken. Time will tell if those tires are all that & a bag of chips.

I'm an advocate of narrow snow tires, they just work better.

We have a tire forum???

 

I dusted my hood in the garage while it snows outside.

 

I kinda failed with my repair. I changed the oil filter housing gaskets, oil cooler gaskets, and turbo oil lines. First start up after the repair no CEL's, car idled fine and drank coolant as expected. Let her drink for a little bit then shut it down to cool before buttoning up the heat top heat shield. Did all that, start it up to add more coolant and go for a test run and bam, CEL. Ran the codes, re-checked my work and found a connection under the turbo not fully seated. Pressed it in, started up and cleared the codes, got new codes that persisted. Towed her up to the shop yesterday and they just called. Some oil pressure harness and sensor need to be replaced as well as some harness from inside the oil pan that N18's are known for. Not really sure how I jacked up all this oil pressure stuff but I did. If I were to do the job again I'd completely remove the front end of the car. It'd be worth it. My knuckles haven't been this gouged up since I worked on my 91 Honda.

 

Snow tires are the cats meow I used to love passing by big 4x4's with knobby A/S's on snow covered highways.

 

Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3, supposed to be all seasons, but they don't give good traction in summer dry conditions, and they're terrible in snow and winter conditions. Plus too and also, they're supposed to last 50K and mine are well worn at 20 something.

They were highly rated by both Tire rack and Consumer Reports - I figured with that diverse a reporting group the results should be reliable......my opinion? They suck monkey balls.

I've had Michelins on all sorts of cars for many decades, these are the first I've been disappointed by.

 

Aww, com'on!
There is nothing wrong with the N14 engine. Mine has given me no problems and there are many, many others that have been completely reliable.

 

I got it at 38K 3 years ago. It looked like a new car (still does), the guy had all the receipts for work done. It's got 107K now. This is not my first rodeo with odd/maintenance intensive vehicles. I have a Benelli TnT motorbike, and '75 Mini, currently. When I first got it the timing chain was replaced-I have a BMW code reader, every time something comes up suspect it gets fixed immediately. Just did brakes all around, they had over 70K on them-mostly highway driving. Oil gets changed every 5K and it's never been more than a quart down since I've owned it.

 

I couldn't get a why out of them the first time, and they wanted to blame the tune the 2nd time. I thought they missed something for sure the first time, but what could I do if it was running right after the fix? The only reason they did that work is because they had replaced the HPFP about a month prior. I brought it to them because symptoms were similar and thought maybe the pump was failing again. Otherwise I would have had someone else do the work. If it's the head, they will cover it, if pistons are involved then that's additional I'm assuming. I've been really on top of this car and it's just cost a fortune. I don't know if the original owner could have neglected it in a way that doomed it, or it's just bad luck. We shall see.....

 

I don't know that they cut corners intentionally, I do think something was overlooked though. It's got a Frankenturbo-slightly larger than stock, and a tune by Etuners. They are worldwide and do a ton of tunes-especially this engine, as it's the owners, and seem to really know their stuff. It is only meant to work with the turbo better, not aggressive at all, not overriding any stock systems/sensors. Otherwise the car is stock. I sent of logs to them after the first valve went and monitored things. They assured me there was no chance the tune could have caused that. AF ratio has been spot on as well. The car is very well looked after and not abused, driven spirited at times, but certainly not flogged. Sorry-don't want to hijack this thread-really just venting frustration with the first post.

 

Not yet, I will post up when I know.

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Yesterday we had 66 degrees & sun. Wow justa like spring. I took the opportunity to give Skooby the deep cleaning & detailing it sorely needed. Inside & out!



Today as Babs backed out of the garage I found oil under where it was parked. Looks like a crank seal. Doh! Off to Best tomorrow to have that replaced.