UKPylot’s MINI Blog

I’ve been experiencing this noise off and on for quite some time but it’s becoming a more repeatable event and so I thought I would mention it here.

Not sure exactly how to reproduce it, but it seems that when I have been stuck in stop/start traffic for more than 5 or 6 minutes I hear this loud gurgling noise. It’s hard to explain, it’s a deep noise that makes me think of a liquid gurgling, or even coming to a boil, but without actually sounding like that. The other symptom is that I can “feel” the gurgling through the steering wheel.

It stops after about a minute, and I can feel the vibration in the steering stop the same time as the noise, so I’ve no idea what it is. Possibly it’s related to my power steering fluid leak?? And for all I know it happens at speed too, but just can’t hear it?

Anyway, I’m getting the leak fixed on Wednesday, I’ll bring it up then.

Over the Christmas holiday I pretty much came to the conclusion that I will keep my MINI running for at least another couple of years, rather than get out now before the big expenses comes my way. $2-4k on some maintenance is much less than what I’d need to get into something new and acceptable.

Other than a couple of garage bills, not sure there are any big MINI plans this year. I expect to hit the 100k mile mark in February. Since we did AMVIV last year, we will skip it this year unless my Dad, who will likely be visiting at the time, wants a trip to Vegas. We plan to take the train from New Orleans to SoCal shortly before that so it’s unlikely.

So… probably another quiet year on this old blog (which I prefer to a regular ranting of things going wrong!) but I’ll do my best to pop up from time to time. And in the meantime, hope you all have a great year.

A little later than the service indicator would have liked, I had my MINI in for the “95k” ? oil change service this morning. Everything went smoothly except for one identified problem: the low pressure power steering hose is leaking and will need to be replaced after Christmas. I hear the MINI is a tank without power steering.

Looking ahead to 100,000 miles they are recommending:

• replace spark plugs (something I should be able to do myself, right? I used to do it on my Mini Metro years ago)
• replace oxygen sensors
• top up the super charger oil reservoir (they are looking up a price for that and will let me know)

I’ll get the power steering taken care of in January, then start saving up for all these new goodies.

I’ve had my cousin visiting from Exeter, England, for the last two weeks and she’s seen a whole lot more of SoCal than I expected she might. One of those things was a spur of the moment outing yesterday in the MINI – to the sand dunes of Glamis. The wind was blowing pretty good, I think we both ate our fair share of sand but I did snap this picture of my MINI against the dunes as backdrop.

Got my tyres rotated and balanced this evening and, naturally, the flat tyre warning light came on after a while. I was expecting it shortly after I hit the road and I’d given up waiting for it when it actually did. Both in this MINI and the last one, this warning seems to occur pretty often and most of the time I totally ignore it.

In fact it came on Monday morning when I left home for San Diego and I did stop to take a look. I saw nothing to cause alarm and continued, remembering that just outside the house the tyres and slipped a bit on some oil or something.

One day though I probably will get a flat and keep on going, that’s the trouble with a warning that comes on too much.

On a side note, there seems to be a definite pulling to the left tendency after the tyre rotate, maybe time for an alignment.

So I’m finding myself thinking more and more about selling the MINI and getting something else. Right now there’s nothing wrong with the car but there’s no doubt there are a couple of big bills in my not-so-far future.

1. The super charger will need replacing of course. I’m at 91k right now so could still be 18 months away
2. The top has the “regular” wear and tear for the early cabrios but the plastic trim that goes around it has started breaking off in small pieces here and there, like it has gone brittle. Makes me think a new top will be in order, or I just don’t bother with the top any more
3. I’m tired of everything costing so much for even the littlest thing. $150 for an oil change, no thank you.
4. I’m also tired of people telling me how easy it is to do myself. I know they mean well but I have neither interest or aptitude, and the impression I am left with is that I am somehow unworthy to own a MINI because of this. It’s like me telling you to design your own web applications, no those are easy.

I have no idea what I would get instead, could probably not afford to put more than $5k above the trade-in value. Whatever I got would be a poor ride in comparison, no doubt about that but with all the driving I do something more roomy, more modern might be good?

Just thoughts over dinner tonight.

Got back from a week and a half in Hawaii today, a week on the Big Island, and a few days on Maui. More of that later over at the main blog at guapacha.com or you’ll be able to view the photos on my Flickr at some point soon.

Anyway, whilst in Hawaii we had 4 rental cars….

• 2 Ford Focuses (Focuii?): not bad little cars, nice interior, a bit of acceleration to them, small, go anywhere vehicle.
• 1 Sebring Convertible: not enough bad things can be said about this car, sluggish, crappy interior and ours smelled bad at low revs, I think something was burning. Oh, and it was too humid to put the top down much anyway
• 1 PT Cruiser: I really wanted to hate this car but it was surprisingly well equipped inside, very roomy and chugged away happily at my request. All was pretty good until I got out and had to look at it.

This morning I drove my MINI for the first time in nearly 2 weeks – heaven on wheels!