UKPylot’s MINI Blog

To me, tyres are a necessary evil which I know does them an disservice. They are as integral a part of the experience as the supercharger and yet I pay more attention to the metal Union Jack badge on the side of the car then I do my choice of tyre.

Last few week the tyres have been screeching round corners when they never used to so I went for a rotate and balance. After a bit the boy came and showed me how the metal was wearing through the front driver tyre (and it had a leak) and two other tyres weren’t far off. Now I don’t know if the kid had spent 10 minutes with a knife making cuts but it seemed like I would have to buy new tyres.

Since I do about 22k a year I like to buy tyres that will last. These had lasted 21k, less than I had hoped. But I had also not liked them from the moment I drove them of the lot. So I have new ones, I listened to a bunch of choice and ended up with the most expensive of the options presented to me: Bridgestone Pole Positions. It was claimed they are a sport tyre but they also have a “40k lifetime” so we’ll see. I certainly liked how they handled on day one. And in the meantime I need an alignment to ensure they last as long as they can.

Today is the fifth anniversary of owning my MCS cabrio, having enjoyed around 110,500 miles in her. She’s holding up surprisingly well, really just the speedometer being an issue at this point and it is real intermittent (just got to keep a watch for it lest I am doing 90 when indicating 75). A lot of creaks in the joints but doesn’t that happen to all of us as we get old? It surely can’t be long before I get some major component failure but I’m keeping fingers crossed on that.

Sometimes the titles write themselves!

My intermittent speedometer problem continues but yesterday I caught it failing. As I was accelerating I noticed the needle rising and then it got stuck for an instant. I could see the needle trying to rise but instead it just shivered before finally breaking free of whatever was keeping it there. After that and for the rest of the trip the needle was consistently 6-9 mph under the actual speed (which was being accurately shown on the OBC). This morning the needle was fine.

I’d love to know how the speedo gets the speed information – I assume it’s not off the wheels. So does it get an absolute speed signal, or is it analogue?

Exactly one week later, and on the exact same stretch of road, the speedometer on the MINI started giving me erroneous readings again. A couple of restarts and it did not fix itself like it did last time. However, at some point it just picked up as I noticed it was (probably) reading correctly.

Unlike last time, the rev counter did not under-report.

Bermuda triangle-like area of San Diego ??

So I was driving at what I thought was around 50 when I look at the speedo and see it say around 20 and around 1500 rpm. This seemed real doubtful, especially since I was in 6th gear. When I came to a stop at the next traffic light I watched the needle go to zero, below zero and even more below if it could.

After I restarted the engine at a gas station everything seemed back to normal but I wonder if this is the start of a (no doubt expensive) sensor of some sorts taking a crap.

This August will be the fifth anniversary of owning my MCS cabrio, will probably be at the 109k mile mark by then, give or take. In the last few weeks three new MINIs have started parking in our lot at work making it five in total (out of maybe 60 cars) which is pretty good, I think. But these shiny new models are making my MINI look a bit tatty.

It doesn’t help that my seat covers have faded badly from the abuse of the desert sun, not to mention my stripes that appear oxidised (the only way I can think to describe them) and generally crappy. So I’m thinking a makeover is in order – new seat covers and new stripes, and a good luxurious detail.

For seat covers I will most likely return to Wet Okole, but I’m not sure which of the following colours to choose. Any suggestions? Remember, my MINI is light silver (click on the image for the Wet Okole colour page).

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

For stripes I’m toying with the idea of getting some aviation themed stripes custom-made, maybe a plane towing a banner that says “MINI Cooper S” ? Cheesy? Stick with the black stripes? Something else?

Any thoughts appreciated, I want to make Carrie look like a new car again!

This weekend, Teri and I went to the Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival where I had purchased a balloon ride for us to celebrate our 8th anniversary; awesome ride, taking off with about 40 other balloons at the same time (some pictures on my flickr).

We took the Mini because it’s way more fun to dash around the high desert back roads than in the Camry, and also because the Camry cooling system failed last week and was in the shop for repairs. But the problem with my Mini is that the a/c sucks, or rather it blows, and not in a good way. It’s been like this since day one and I’ve never been sure if this is a problem with the cabrio or just my example of it. So for much of the trip we might have been better off with the top down and the 95F wind in our faces than the sad effort from the a/c.

It works well below temps of, say, 90F but above that it’s not great unless you are 3″ from the vents, and that’s with the blower on level 3. Doing our weekend shopping around town in 105F yesterday it felt like it was blowing warm air rather than cold, and since we’re pretty much stuck at these temps until October, the Mini will be used as sparingly as possible. Which is a bummer.