Another mileage milestone crossed. Actually did that a few days ago. I wonder if I will cross 300K by the end of next year. That supercharger is starting to sound noisy.
Thanks! A few odds and ends to get done, grill, side splitters, rear diffuser and interior and it'll be all buttoned up.
Drove the front up on Rhino ramps and put on some Ultra Racing chassis braces on this am. Lower front and lower mid. Feels a bit more solid on rough roads and a little quicker steering response on good roads. You have to take the plate under the mid exhaust off to put the mid brace’s back 4 bolts on, but it’s much more solid than the OEM plate that you remove. About 2-2.5” tall, but tucked up so I’m only losing a little more than an inch of ground clearance, and I’m not lowered, so no worries there. pics are a bit limited as not much room to get a good view on ramps.
Drove the Countryman from Vancouver BC to Vancouver WA today. On the way, met up with another Countryman and we motored together until I turned off at Vancouver WA. We waved at each other. So wondering if somebody here drives a BRG F60 Countryman Cooper S, Washington plates BHU5454. I'm the owner of the Lapus Luxury Blue F60 Countryman Cooper S, BC plates SEE-777. Great fun motoring with you.
Not a favorite brand, but as long as they are the correct heat range & reach they should have been fine. That plug looks good to my eye. Nice healthy engine you have there. The miss could just be down to the age & miles driven on those. I change plugs out at 50K even if some say they last much longer. Yes I know some guys run colder plugs & change them more often.
That one pictured is missing the little pointier part at the top of the electrode, I'll attach a pic of one of the others and you can see the difference in gap. I hope she stays healthy! For a few more years at least... It was almost exactly 50k on the Champion plugs. I need to dig up that service order and see how much I was charged for them. I don't need colder plugs, I'm stock
After 50K they look look pretty good. Nothing screams look out trouble coming. The gap being opened up is normal I'd say. Pretty amazing really how long plugs last in these modern cars. Unleaded fuel is a large part I'd guess. Heck when I was young we only got maybe 10K out a set of plugs & I'd pull them at 5K & re-gap them.
Isn’t that the truth. Plugs, points, rotor, distributor cap, carb adjustments all seem like a distant memory now.
In the 70's the factory service interval for 911 Porsche plugs was 6K, and they were Bosch Platinums at $6 each - even then! Now engines routinely go 100K on a set of plugs. What I did with my MINI today - loaded up a Sprite head and bare block and took them to the machine shop.
Today, I'm getting rid of the POS BFGs that are on my S. I'm going back to the Nitto Neo Gens that served me so well when I was tracking my S, going Dragon slaying, and daily driving the car for over 35k. I guess I had a "Senior Moment" when I went to those BFGs...thinking that a warranted tire was a good tire. Those crappy BFGs were warranted for 35k and ride like run-rocks, are cupping and don't even have 20k on them. Good riddance, BFG!
Did you by chance get the Comp 2's? I've had 2 sets on 2 different cars, both ended up cupping. The set I had on my MINI led the guys at the tire shop I USED to use that I had bad struts. They weren't bad, but I replaced them anyway and got some Toyo Proxes Plus 4 AS's. They've been worlds better than the BFG's but it's getting to be time to change them too.
My other half is an AP at the high school near my house. I made friends with the auto shop teacher and he let me use a lift for a couple of hours to tinker around my car to find the rattles/clunks I've been hearing. Found nothing in the front aside from my recently replaced tie rod ends clunking when I'd wiggle them up and down. The rears, however, are a different story. The top of the struts where they mount into that upper spring retainer thingy, there are these foam/rubber/plastic bushings. I stuck a bar under each tire and lifted them up and down and there's about maybe an inch of travel. Could the distance between the bottom of the threads on the strut post and the seat below them be longer than OE spec? Thinking I'll need to replace the whole upper assembly to get rid of that travel. Are they supposed to move "freely" up and down about an inch like they are? The circled part in the picture below is where the movement is.
I know you weren't happy with those BFG tires. Glad you are putting something on that will make you happier. As for the cupping there are a couple of things that can cause that. Balance Lack of rotations Worn out struts Your car has a load of miles on it. You probably need new struts. I'd put my money on not frequent enough rotations. Enjoy the new tires Jeff.
I had that problem with worn out bushings (the yellow things). I replaced them with Powerflex bushings. https://www.detroittuned.com/powerflex-rear-shock-bushings/ I had to reuse the metal peace that runs through the bushings, the one that came with them was to small on the inside for the Koni. Make sure the bolt on top is tight and the two bolts that bolt it to the car are also tight
Awesome! I'll replace them bushings. I went with OE spec replacement struts so the metal spacer should be fine. I know all bolts/nuts are tight, I took the passenger side out twice to check when I first installed the struts because there was just a slight wiggle then. The wiggle has since worsened. Thanks for the info bud!
Must be car trouble week. Over the weekend, the exhaust manifold heat shield fell off my engine. It was rattling around in the engine bay but did not fall out (thankfully) because the shape it it kept it inside. I managed to put it back on temporarily until I can get a new one. Honestly, I have no idea how to get it out of from behind the engine without removing a bunch of parts. So it's not going to be a simple bolt on affair. This morning, I brought my car in to the local tire shop to have snow tires swapped on. They could not the wheel lock key into the bolts and told me I needed to take my car to the dealer to get them off and then replace the locking wheel bolts because, from their experience, all the MINI/BMW lock bolts eventually fail like that. I stopped by the dealer that was on my way to my office. They didn't have any bolts in stock. (really???). They do have them at the dealership not too far from my office so I will pick them up later and do the tire change over myself when I get home tonight. The dealer was booked full for service appointments today already.
I've had nothing but problems with locking lug bolts/nuts. First thing I do with a car is replace them if it has those blasted things. I have 4 from the GTI if you need them.