Category: My MINI

I’ve had my MINI almost 7 years all without an accident but I finally got a little bump today. Waiting at the stop light, number 4 in line, the light goes green, the car in front of me pulls away, I pull away, he suddenly stops accelerating, I do the same, car behind me goes into the back of me.

It felt big, everything on my parcel shelf went flying and I really thought I’d find half of my boot missing. But when we pulled over you couldn’t see any damage at all unless you looked real close to see a crack in the paintwork on the bumper. The guy was super apologetic and nice about it. I didn’t spot that he was English but he did have a Union Jack wallet and he knew that Southampton FC had been promoted last season. He gave me his number, told me to let him know if I find something that needed fixing, or if I suddenly developed medical issues.

With the amount of driving I do, the statistics say that I’m bound to have an accident. If that is mine, can’t do better than that.

Last night on the way out from work I passed 150k miles in the MINI. Couldn’t take a picture on the button as I was moving but did get it just a mile later.

The oil pressure light is coming on again when I take a sharp corner fast, really need to get her back in for an oil change, or I suppose I could top it off again in the expectation that she is being soon replaced?

You might remember (and if not its right there below this post…) that I had three warning lights on my dash recently: brake pads, traction control, and flat tyre. Well I am happy to say that I am now warning-light free:

It took three trips to Pep Boys to get it fixed though.

1. Got the brakes done, front and back, all lights remained on
2. After a couple of weeks there was this bad sounding crunching noise from the rear right when I braked so I took it back. They discovered that a bolt in the brake caliper was broken. They replaced it. Noise gone. I mentioned that the brake pad light was still on and asked if they had perhaps not replaced the sensor wires. They ordered wires.
3. About 150 miles after the bolt was fixed, the DSC and tyre warning lights went out
4. Back to Pep Boys for the sensor wires. Final light out.

Sure seemed like a lot of effort to get brakes done, but the cost for both sets of brakes was about the same price I paid for one set at the MINI garage I usually go to. Car is driving just great.

A few weeks ago I think I made the decision to sell the MINI. I say I think because it is such a great car to drive but after 7 years (plus 3 in the previous one) it is time for a change. It used to be that driving a MINI was a community thing but I don’t remember the last time I got a wave back from a fellow owner, the price of gas prevents me from driving the 150+ miles to join in any club events, so the MINI is just a means to get to my job each week, 130 miles away. I don’t have cruise control, the seats irritate on long journeys, there aren’t even any gadgets to keep me occupied.

So I am anticipating moving to a different vehicle in the summer. Now I must be doing something wrong because all the ex-MINI owners I know went on to Audis, BMWs etc but I can’t afford to move up, only down so we will see what I end up with. I’m currently looking at the Hyundai Veloster as a good mix of looks, technology and cost but I need to see just how poor the acceleration is. Of course nothing I buy will match the performance of the MINI but that’s ok, I seldom drive it like a race car.

Might yet change my mind, a few bills each month is better than a car loan, but for now I’m enjoying the idea of something new.

A couple of months ago two warning lights came on out of the blue: the tyre pressure warning light and the dynamic steering control light. I took the car to the America’s Discount Tyre to get a pressure check and they verified there was nothing wrong with the pressure. There’s nothing in the book about what to do if both lights come on at once and I figured there was a fault in the pressure sensor that caused the computer to disable the DSC.

Then, three weeks ago I picked up one more:

I knew it had been a very long time since I replaced the brakes so this was no surprise. My regular MINI guy wants $500 for each set so I took it to my local Pep Boys who did front, back, pads and rotors for $530 out of the door with a $60 rebate coupon.

The pad warning light was still on so I did a little research online and found that once the sensor light comes on, the sensors need to be replaced, and Pep Boys did not do that. No biggie, I’ll get to it later.

A week later and now when I brake at slow speeds there is a knocking metallic noise coming from the right rear wheel. It sounds bad and it doesn’t feel that great either. So I go back to Pep Boys and ask them to take a look at their work and could I have new sensors too. They found that a bolt in the brake calipers on that wheel had broken and the noise was it rubbing; they fixed it. Glad about that, not sure if that would have been fun for it to break completely. They didn’t have the sensors so I will have to go back.

This was Saturday and I’ve been driving around with all three lights on my dash and then this afternoon at lunch I noticed that the original two didn’t come on. Then tonight on the way from work they were still off. So I really don’t know what that was about.

My commute to San Diego on Monday was pretty bad, winds up and over the mountains must have been at least 30-40mph right on the nose. So it’s no surprise really that my petrol fill up today was pretty bad.

Miles driven: 260
Cost to fill tank: $50
Miles per gallon: 23.8

With Premium now impossible to find under $4.50 in San Diego, I really need to be doing better than that. I miss the days where I used to get almost 30.

Last night I took my MINI back to European Coach Auto Repair for their $100 oil service. You may remember that last time I went there I walked (or rather crawled) out having spent $2000 on a major overhaul so it should probably be no surprise that I lost more than a $100.

For quite a long time now the car has been making an awful noise when hot, sounded like a half-full kettle about to boil, so I was hoping they would find that problem, and they did.

During the oil change their technician Oscar called us over to show us blue fluid over the transmission and under the car. We could see it slowly dripping and there were places where it had been dried on for a long time. The culprit was a leaking thermostat housing so I had to have that replaced. Thinking that must have been my noise problem I figured we were done but then Oscar was testing his work and he set off my noise. I always thought it sounded scary from inside the car but from outside it sounds like total car death is imminent.

Again he called us over and showed us the culprit – the fan that cools the power steering had a bad bearing and this was making all the noise. It was still working so I/we debated not replacing it but in the end the noise just sounded so frightening that I said do it.

So all in all I walked out $700 poorer than I was but the MINI is probably in good shape for a few more months at least. I’m up to 137k miles now, doing my best to catch up with db, so you have to expect more of these kinds of repairs as things wear out.

Yes, I am still here, still motoring but mostly just work and back, though now the weather here has started to cool we’ll be able to use the car at weekends since we won’t die in the stifling heat with the car’s crappy a/c. It’s top down time baby.

The car went through 134k miles yesterday on the way home, it needs an oil change, got to decide where to take it this time. I’m expecting to be told I need front brakes but getting brakes done on this car is stupid expensive. But then again I suppose crashing into a canal because my brakes failed could be a bit more?

I’ve been doing a lot of travelling for work, in the last 3 weeks I’ve been to London, San Francisco and it looks like Tokyo will be next in November. I’m trying hard to get out of that one though.

Anyway, that’s about all I have. I’m drooling over the new Coupe, I spec’d one out for exactly $30k which I thought was pretty reasonable but I’m struggling to work out how to replace my 5 year old Mac Book Pro, replacing my 6 year old MINI Cooper isn’t an option at all.

Most of you know that for the last 10 years I’ve enjoyed a 2 hour commute to work on Monday and back home on Friday. The MINI makes it almost bearable but the saving grace has been my XM Radio which I’ve had much longer than that. But since the merger with Sirius the channel choice and quality has declined rapidly but at least it still had BBC Radio 1 and that’s pretty much all I listen to.

Until now. Whether the Beeb wanted too much, or Sirius just didn’t want to pay for it any more, BBC Radio 1 has been yanked from the service and some emails from their Sr Programming Director show they pretty much don’t care so I have cancelled.

The question now is what to listen to? There are parts of my journey where all I can pick up are Mexican channels so I can’t rely on over the air. Also, much of the trip I only have “1x” service on my phone so not sure I can even use a streaming app on the Droid.

Maybe I’ll listen to some CDs and finally learn Spanish???

Been a while so thought I’d post something, even if random.

MINI will reach 129k miles this week, still a little while until 6 years are up. Generally running ok but there is an awful sounding noise, like a fluid struggling to circulate, when the a/c is on. Well, I think that’s the only time. Did I say think? I meant hope! Of course it will soon be in the 110+ temps so I need the a/c even if it never has worked worth a damn in this car.

My step daughter had a scary run in with some girls in an open top MINI a few weeks ago! They thought she had cut them up and were waving the usual abuse that one does. Then later traffic was stopped and one of the girls got out and wanted to fight. Fortunately my step-d is pretty streetwise and made it clear she should get back in the car.

Recently I’ve had more waves than usual, maybe 5 or 6% of MINI drivers returning my wave.

Well that’s it for now, am off to the uk next week for a fortnight including a long weekend in Dublin to see Robbie Williams (and those has beens Take That). Later all.