I have had Eagle GT's (not even F1's) on one of my other cars in the past. I would not even recommend them in the Pacific Northwest where it rains a lot. They grip like crazy when it's warm and dry. But they hydroplane quite a bit if you hit the puddles. Another follow up test should be winter tires on a RWD (rear) compare with winter tires on a FWD and winter tires on a AWD cars.
Have a great Thanksgiving to all you USA based MINI Motorers. Today, I submitted my shopping list to my kid so she can buy me the bluetooth OBD II adapter so I can code our MINIs with Bimmercode.
It's been 3 weeks since my daughter put on new wheels and winter tires. I went and re-torqued all the bolts for her. I guess I should show you what the wheels look like. I should have got them for myself.
....and the hits keep on coming. Just realized I crossed another mileage milestone this morning. I've never had a car with this much mileage on it before so I'm in uncharted reliability territory here. Yet it's still pulling strong.
With an impending snowstorm tomorrow (maybe, possibly, could be) I took advantage of today's 55+ temps to air up tires, check oil, fill the washer bottles, take off trailer hitch balls and fill the gas tanks of everything I own, including the genset. You all may thank me cause all this prep pretty much guarantees sunny weather for the next few weeks!
It got up to 68 here today. I road my motorcycle and washed my sons mustang. He drove it when he came home for Thanksgiving, it needed it.
Put the blue daily driver on jack stands, rotated tires after a whopping 2000 miles since new, then searched for possible loose heat shields I hear rattling when the exhaust and engine are cold. After that put on the old clothes and sprayed on a good coat of Fluid Film on the bottom of the car.
I only spray fluid film only on spots with parts with threads or parts that you don’t want getting corrosion from salt. I do not spray the entire bottom of my car. Inner / outer tie rod threads, ball joints, endlinks brake cable ends and upper and lower adjustable control arm helm joints.
The Good Year name doesn't pack as much punch as it used to. I've not yet had a set of them on any car I've owned. I used to just buy OE tires. Now that I actually care I go straight to ratings and reviews. On the snow tire thing, I had a 91 Vandura 1500 RWD. It was a hollow box and my sister actually spun around in an intersection one winter and never drove it again so I bought it. Threw some mid grad snows on and 300 lbs of sand bags, 150 at each wheel and I could go up a steep grade, stop, and keep climbing the hill with 0 struggles. I wish I still lived in a snowy area just so I could drive on some snow tires. Bet a MINI is a blast on some good ones.
So the verdict on Bitsy was some oil pressure control solenoid and the corresponding wiring which required something being soldered to the DME and some re-pinning. The solenoid setup sits in the oil pan and the wires from the unit run out the block and apparently they fill up with oil causing issues eventually. The car did have the "updated" version previously installed, so this is her 3rd. The boys at Bavarian did an awesome job. Figure I jacked something up replacing all those gaskets and oil lines. Twas quite the job, and kinda glad I didn't mess it up worse
We got quite a bit of snow here on Sunday, and even tho they put down enough salt to empty the great salt lake and plowed all night it was still pretty snowy in places, and today I had to run an errand across town - there it was - the guy in the 350Z with his summer tires on trying to go up a very slight incline from a stop at the light.... I just cruised on by (in the Audi Allroad of course - I'm no dummy!) The Michelins I put on the Clubman were supposed to be all seasons, but I haven't been happy with them in any season since I bought them, so when the snow hit I took it around the 'hood to check it out - and it was miserable. So it got parked and I grabbed the wife's Audi.
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.
Limped it into the dealer, 3rd time it's blown up this year. Anyone want to buy it? Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
My poor MINI is in DFW Airport parking, yet again. But, as usual, it is covered parking. I spent the day in Wyoming. It is one of the few states I've never been to before. I'm not in a hurry to go back. Cold, windy as s--t, and not particularly nice to look at, at least what I saw and the time of year. I live in Texas, and the number of mobile homes and tumbleweeds seemed a bit excessive to me. I did see a MINI-E on the highway from the Denver Airport to Fort Collins. I didn't think those were available here. But there it was. CD