Dear wife returned from a trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons, end of season holiday for her and sister-in-law, 1800 miles on the 2011 CM, best mileage the 11 has recorded 31mpg for the trip average and MINI was very dirty. The half power light came on last Monday at the condo near Jackson, Wy, went off and the came on for the rest of the trip and during the return trip on Saturday from Wilson, Wy to home here in Colorado. It cleared on the 4th start/stop cycle this AM and then I went down and filled with local 91 Conoco. It's magic, I guess I will have the codes read at the dealer sometime this week, first I have to get a new taillight and side marker light with the wheel well cover replaced, blame that on a magic tree stump at the condo and wife who does not use her mirrors. The MINI turned 70K + on this trip, like I said best MPG ever and now loss of power I could detect even with the 1/2 power light showing. Love our MINIs. Take care, drive safe, she had snow in Jackson, so it will be here this w(eek). Don A little update: yes I washed and filled her MINI for her, my main job. And she drove the MINI to the local grocery store and the light stayed off. Sigh!
The black exterior plastic on my car gets treated with Rust Oleum's Wipe-New. Love the stuff. Lasts forever and even months after application looks like I did it yesterday and water beads off like crazy. I drove my Gyon Mohs treated Electric Blue in the rain to Menards today. Reason was to buy threaded rod, bolts washers etc to build a freaking ghetto press to remove stubborn Subaru Outback rear wheel bearings that have tested my patience for too long.
I use Mother's Back-to-Black. They have a wipe-on version that I use on most of the black trim, and a spray version that I use on the grills (front and back, on my R56 MCS). CD
Yesterday I took the rims from the R53 to have them powder coated white. When the strut failed it ruined my front tires. Discount tire took the old tires off, when I get the rims back I will have them put them tires back on.
Today put new tires on the 2016 MINi Countryman, the run-farts had lots of miles left, but 2 had cupped and they were hard as rocks, even harder than when they were new. They started going away at about 18K miles, I lasted until today, at 24K miles and bit. So I feel good to get 3 years and 24K out of them. I do wish MINI and BMW and the other manufacturers would get over this tire design and put a spare back into the various cars. I was looking at our 3rd set of Continentals in DWS 06 for the Countryman, tirerack had some nice comparisons and I have used Vredestein tires in the past on some of my classics, so why not try their new stuff. I think they worked out good for me. 225/45/18 Quatrac 5 Grand Touring All-Season with some decent rating on the rack. My local Discount Tire guys bought direct from the Denver Tire Rack warehouse and beat the Rack's online price per tire. Of course after I put on the Discount tire replacement certificates they became the normal replacement costs for tires. Very happy, I have a quiet Park Lane again, so far they feel great, traction, turn-in and noise. I will get to test the snow rating on Sunday as we are projected to have 2.5 inches new snow during the day. I can now compare one to one Contis vs Quatrac as we still have them on the 2011 CM. After I clean off the crud from the past few days of snow/road crud I will try to get a decent picture of tires on the MINI. Don
Drove to the train station. Rode the train to work as I have been doing for a few months now. Looking forward to driving it home after work. Nothing amazing. Sorry I haven't been very active most of my time and energy has been focused on my other hobby.
Put a new wiring harness in a classic Mini, then updated it to convert from a generator to an alternator Everything works now.....yay!
Yesterday I washed the Helmet, it's going to rain today. The day before that I changed the oil in it and and rotated the tires. This also means washing everything I can get to with the wheels off.
Gave the Classic a good bath in preparation for our big local Mini Charity event tomorrow. Event starts at 10, the rain is supposed to start at 9, and turn to snow by 12......oh boy.
When we arrived at the Event today it was misting heavily but not exactly raining, and stopped by 9. The show went on as planned and at the end they held the raffle - I won one of three new Mini folding bicycles - a $700 bike! First time I've even won anything in 12 years they've been having this event! I'm pumped!
My kid bought her MINI at the end of December (2017) so has had her car for 10 months. Her car was certified pre-owned and she turned down buying the Tire Insurance at $1700 for two years. Last night, her tire warning light came on and picked up her second nail puncture in the 10 months she has owned the car. That puts here right on schedule with my car when I had runflat tires. I had a flat tire situation every 6 months or so for the two years I had runflat tires on my car. In the last 11 years I have had my R53 with regular non-RF tires, I have not had a flat tire situation. My kid took her car in to have the tire patched (from the inside) and will get winter tires on this weekend. Then in the spring of next year, the runflat tires will be replaced with regular summer tires.
Did not drive the Mini through this. This is a couple miles down the road from me. This was 24 hours before the river peaked. Today it receded to moderate flood stage and should drop off pretty quickly now.