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

I have my rain boots dusted off and ready in case I decide to venture out into the impending monsoon!

Oh, and this morning I cleaned all the glitter out of my Mini from my 4-year old sitting in it wearing her Disney Princess dresses. Hehe.

 

Clarkson can do in in 5 minutes.... He blow drys on the way to the office.... Cuts out a lot of time that way....

 

After spending a little time driving an appliance that shall remain unnamed, I decided not to trade my mini in. I would rather have a car that is fun to drive and needs attention than have a boring car for the masses. Picking up oil and filter now and will order the parts to repair my a/c this evening.

 

Got lost looking for a motoring road. But found this....

 

Thank you Jeff, for remembering all our brothers and sisters who didnt make it home.

 

Last night managed to get the driver's side seat installed.



Much better fit with these new Wedge brackets. I can actually grab the stock seatbelt without having to open the door now. It is as close as you could hope to get to being centered on the steering wheel. You wouldn't think that 1/2 - 5/8 of an inch would be a big/noticeable difference........ it was. Believe me.

At any rate the ride to work this morning was glorious. Gotta love commuting on the days when more than half of the post's workforce is on their RDO.

 

Spent the weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park. Lots of awesome cars there...







Oh yeah, mine's pretty awesome too.



Got some point-by's... this one from my old dream car... 911 Turbo.

 

Not mine but my son's girlfriend just picked up this pepper white justa.



Dealer replaced the timing chain and a few other things for her.

Took it for a quick spin and it rides pretty nice.

She is stoked!! Her first MINI.

 

Parked a pallet behind it.

 

I installed my Scangauge II. I didn't screw anything up. Praise the lord....

 

My wife and I drove over to MAG, traded in her 2011 Countryman S and picked up her brand new Countryman S All4.

 

It does. :ihih:

 

What I did to my non-MINI yesterday was let the dealer give me a free service, new earl & brake fluid flush. Met up with a MINI owning friend there & went for an Amish lunch.

Decided to do a bit of car shopping while I waited for the oil to drain. Thought I might trade in my Miata on one of these. So many great cars to chose from. I settled on the black, red & white one, but couldn't reach an agreement. Even when I added my house into the trade it wasn't enough.... :wink:

 

Pulled off broken bumper, got first look at engine without the radiator and intercooler in the way. Compression and leak down tests (PASSED!!!!). Replaced squished TMAP sensor. Ran it for a while!

Pulled an oil sample to make sure I don't have bearing damage. But so far, so good!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmXI7266F6A"]The Stroker LIVES - YouTube[/ame]

 

Went and showed the Rat off... Thought for a little while that I might actually place in the show by the crowds that were always around it... (Think back to the Dragon and X that by a few) In the end no trophy, but I didn't expect it either... Wining a small show is one thing, but when nearly 3500 cars and 10,000 people are in attendance... Well, [emoji90]!

It was a fun time though, so thats all that counts. [emoji2]

Here's a couple highlights:























Good Times! [emoji12]

 

Took the Rat up to the top of Mount Evans with a few other MINIs, a cute redhead riding shotgun, and the rest of my friends! Had a blast doing it, even though the ECU started freaking out at about 13,600 feet! [emoji2]

 

I sold it!



Or rather, I traded it..... for one of these






Mines not orange though. It's Thunder Grey w/white top, and nicely optioned. I'll see if I can get a picture of it. The dealer is going to deliver it to me at home, either today or Friday. I live 70 miles away.

 

Went down to the shop this morning...
Replaced the rear discs and pads...

I kept getting the yellow warning light that the MINI needed brake service.....
Turns out the rear pads still had about a 1/4" of material remaining...
Soooo apparently the way the brake sensor works is when the pads get to a 1/4" the sensor makes contact with the disc and is grounded... This gives the yellow warning.... As you continue to drive, eventually the sensor's copper wire is worn through and this breaks the circuit that then gives a red brake warning... IMHO, MINI is having the brakes replaced way too soon....
I decided to disarm the sensor by removing it completely, soldered the two sensor wires together and covered the end with heat shrink tubing.... Reset the brake service warning light..... Done... It's not that big of a deal to check the pad thickness and I'll get more pad wear without the brake warning light being activated....

 

I drove the Porker to the Brown Santa shipping department, and sent Goldsmithy his newly painted coolant tank back...

Going to miss seeing this thing on the table...



But, I know I will see it again! [emoji2]

If you are going to MSSD next week, you should be able to check it out too! [emoji12]

 

La Mosa has been at Helix for the past couple of weeks getting the rocker panels, wheel arches, and rear black bumper under piece color coded dark silver, as well as new front bumper. Isaiah also installed brake ducts yesterday for my RMW front big brake kit. Ordered new tires today to replace the new ones that I basically used up at this year's dragon. Visited the car there today and got to see the entire gang, including Eric, Mike, and Ryan, as well as Jan who is in town tuning, and Mendra, Katherine, Savvy, and Dave! Plans are to keep the car inside over the winter, then Helix will hopefully install Jan's new TVS in the spring before the Dragon.