It's always a bummer when you go out of your way to make things better and for some unexplained reason nothing has gotten better.
Not exactly today but... finished installing my carved emergency brake and custom boot to match the rest of the interior... and I finished my engine customizing (I'm a lead sled guy)
Swapped this out for a broken one, I guess it was the only one available in the whole U.S. of A. The price reflected that also....
Picked up my CAI from the painters (had it repowder coated) and installed it. Tomorrow I get my intercooler back from the polishers
Got back from Wisconsin last night. Put about 2k miles on her since last Wednesday with 0 issues the whole trip! Also a 14 hour trip in one day isn't so bad
I think we're going to cross the 250,000 mark before MTTS. Probably before or during The Great Canadian Bacon Invasion Rally to the West (feeder rally to MTTS west). LET'S DRIVE!!!!
Drove the R53 today. Been in the garage last week and some. Went on a road trip to AZ and back in the Explorer Sport. Felt good to be back in the MINI again! Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Dealer just called and I need new rear brake calipers because one of parking brake actuators is broken. I can still drive it so I told my "service advisor" that I will address that later when I have the budget for it. Time to convert to JCW brakes?
Drove the R53 to work. Still a very bad hesitation, AC compressor is very loud. No that’s not causing the hesitation, it does it with the AC OFF. I have a compressor but it has been in my garage about 5 years, under my blasting cabinet. Pulled in to work and got the trifecta of lights, ABS, low tire, and DCS. when I went to roll down my window it did not work. The old girl if falling apart. The window was fixed with the fonzi method. My scanner says the right wheel speed sensor is bad. I will be pulling the cat and checking my fuel pressure for the hesitation. There may be an R53 for sale
How old is your battery? You know that a bad/weak battery can cause some weird symptoms and problems. I have no experience with a R53, but have seen the problem on my and several other R56s.
Curbside alignment from hell today. I had a rear sway bar install and inspection done the week before last while I was on vacation as well as front control arm bushings. They said they did an alignment, but ... I noticed the rear toe-in on the right rear wheel was off (too much toe in) when I got it back and got around to fixing it today. First, it took me about an hour to find my eccentric socket tool for adjusting the rear toe. Then, I kept shifting the trailing arm with the MINI tool and kept getting either not enough or too much correction over and over. I tried to make sure the road was level and that I was always parked in the same spot and took a little drive around the block to settle the suspension after each trial, but still kept getting wonky readings. Checked the rear trailing arm bushings and control arms for slop, etc, but they were all ok. Front alignment was fine after the control arm bushings install, same as before. After about 4-5 hours, I finally spun that wheel and noticed quite a bit of wobble (other 3 wheels were fine). Took the wheel off and noticed that the circlip for the hubcentric ring was not seated properly, and the ring was sticking out on one side, giving the wheel about a 1 degree angle, hence the wobble and inconsistent alignment readings for camber and toe on that wheel. Probably happened when the pulled the wheel for inspection. Pulled the centering ring out (with some difficulty), got the wire ring in its groove, and tapped the centering ring it in flush and correct - no more wobble. After that, it only took an hour or so to get things pretty close to goal. Plus, I was on call today and had to stop to answer a couple pages, and had to stop another time for a half an hour for brief rain. I'm glad that ordeal is over.
I parked my MINI at the airport today... again. It will be their until Thursday night. At least it is in covered parking -- 16 bucks a day. I am in Florida again, and Paul McCartney's Mini should be running, and I am looking forward to taking it for a drive. The owner is pretty cool, so it should happen. I wish my MINI was here, so I could photograph them together. I will at least get a picture of me in the car. CD
Took my MINI out for a run today to deposit my loot from this weekends detail. Next weekend I have a Tesla detail. Last weekends car below was not washed at all in the last TWO YEARS when I did a full detail and coating.
My MINI is at DFW Airport again. I'm in Florida... again. Sir Paul's Mini still isn't running, so I won't get to drive it. I did drive Katharine Hepburn's 1995 Ford Crown Victoria today. Woohoo! CD