Wish I could join you Teddy. Time seems to move a lot faster these days. I’ll wish you a Happy Birthday now, because I’m sure I’ll forget about it before then. My clock rolled over 25,915 days last Sunday so I have an excuse.
Today I pulled the valve cover off the helmet. I found that all the intake valves snap up when the lob moves off them. the exhaust is smooth. N14 engine........wonder what could be causing sticky intake valves??? Seafoam........is my friend..... @Crashton likes Seafood too
Happy Future Birthday Teddy. Sorry I will not make it to Detroit for the Woodward event because I will be drinking cold beers in Key West with the wife.
Wash then clay bar’d yesterday. Quick wipe then waxed this am with P21S. Also put the missing bottom center front trim piece under the bumper on.
Could this be a sign of a bad Vanos unit Lee? Not sure so you better pour a load of Seafudge in there. Best snake oil ever.
Finally changed the control arm bushings with polyurethane ones. Feels so much better, and not all over the road. Alignment was still good too Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
I bought my MINI on a whim. I had the cash, and found a nice one, and bought it. I honestly expected it to be a maintenance nightmare, and at first, it was a bit of a nightmare, but I bought it with an extended warranty, so it wasn't a big deal. Once I got the car sorted out, it became a pretty reliable car. At first, it leaked every fluid it had in it. I got the leaks fixed with the extended warranty, and it hasn't been an issue, knock on wood. My MINI is 11-years-old now, and is as reliable as any other car I'd want to own. Could it implode tomorrow? Sure, but so could an 11-year-old Honda Civic -- the king of reliability, from what people say. At least I can enjoy driving a fun car, and not suffer the embarrassment of driving a Honda Civic. CD
Safety is all about engineering. Race cars weighing 1,500 pounds crash at 200 MPH, and the drivers walk away. German automakers are the best at engineering safety into cars. MINIs are German engineered. Here in Texas, people think a Chevy Suburban is what you need to be safe. It is a false sense of security. I'll take a small, well engineered car over a big, poorly engineered SUV any day of the week. CD
While I agree with you mostly on your last post...... I still feel pretty safe and really comfortable in my 2500HD Suburban. I just don’t like the intimate relationship between it’s 6 liter engine and 40 gallon gas tank with every filling station in sight.
Ditto for my F250... even though its a diesel, still the max MPG I can get is 15. Its a 2013... I understand the new 250 has a 8 speed transmission that gets a little bit better MPG. That said, I get the same driving without my big trailer as with..
Our F150 get's 24 on the highway I heart ecoboost. I haven't towed anything with it yet, but have hauled quiet a bit and it'll drop to 22 on the hwy. Still very decent. I feel very safe in both vehicles but prefer the sure footing of the MINI over the truck. The trucks rear can feel bouncy unloaded.
Got ISTA communicating with the MINI. Actually took me a couple of days to get the program loaded and the connection cable process figured out. Going to use ISTA and a program that can record a portion of the laptop screen as a way to do some data logging. No smart phone as I gave them up when I retired so forget the apps.
On the weekend, the Mrs and I went to visit our local MINI dealer. We had planned on just having a look and spending about an hour there. We ended being there for 5 hours. Drove a 2014 (R60) Countryman Cooper S JCW, fully loaded with almost every available option an only had 30K miles (50K kms) on the odometer. Then we drove a couple of F60 Countryman Coopers, well optioned with less than 10K kms (8000 miles) on the odometer. Power on the F60 Cooper was perfectly adequate for a family car. The R60 JCW definitely had more power and tighter handling, and in my opinion, the price was a bit of a performance bargain. The F60 is definitely a bigger car with much more leg space in the back, a bigger boot, and overall, a much more luxurious (BMW) feel. I felt handling and ride were noticeably more controlled and balanced than the R60. It had less of that tall car, short wheel base feel, especially in the rear seats. I am not sure that would translate to a faster car, but driving it would be much easier for my wife and if I had my parents or passengers in general in the back seat, they would be much happier on longer rides. So with the two R60s that we looked at, they were fairly well equipped so the out the door price would not be much less than if I configured a new 2019 car with the options that we definitely want and left off things we didn't necessarily need. One more thing that surprised us, in Canada, the F60 Countryman comes with a spare tire.