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.
So I was at E3 this week and one of the games on display was the (heretofore) mythical Gran Turismo 5. I remember when I joined Sony 4.5 years ago GT5 was “imminent” and yet only this week has it actually been seen in the wild, for real. But what does this have to do with you, dear reader? Well, GT5 is the ultimate driving sim (my own loyalties totally aside) and in this demo video premiered at E3, you get to see The Stig driving the Top Gear test track….. start paying attention around 58s into the video.
Coming November 2010 for PS3. Too right, it only does everything 
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).
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.
Inspired by the automechanical prowess over at dbmini I finally got around to changing my spark plugs at the weekend. I’d purchased them over a month ago but had never gotten round to buying the wrench and appropriate socket attachments. I’m a software guy, not many tools in my house.
The task was no less easy then db said it would be though I had changed spark plugs before, back in my old Mini Metro in the 80′s. Only one of the plugs gave some resistance, and I worried about trying too hard to get it loose and breaking it in the socket. Don’t know how I would get it out if I did that!
Can’t have taken more than 10 minutes for the whole thing, though I did scuff up some fingers: there was blood. Whole thing cost me $40 for the plugs and $35 for the toolkit plus tax and all. The garage that does my oil changes quoted me $260 so I saved me a chunk of change. So much so, that I bought some new leads to pretty it up under the bonnet.
Not sure there is any more DIY in my future. I wouldn’t mind having a go at the brake pads since everyone tells me that’s so easy but, again, no tools or anything so might as well just take it to someone who does.
Readers of my every day blog will already know that after years of being an Apple fanboy I’ve had it with them for a while, and ditched my iPhone for the new Droid Incredible.
So far I’ve been real impressed with the Incredible, the experience is on a par with, if not superior to my old 3G iPhone. And it’s fast, so much faster. Anyway, being a Google device it comes with the google naviagation app which I put to the test last week for my drive home.
The application combines Google Maps with turn by turn voice directions as well as speak to search for nearby things. Unfortunately I don’t have a mount for the phone yet so had to balance the phone precariously on the cup holder and after the second time it fell on the floor I put it on the seat.
Some of the cool things about the application are that you can add the regular google layers to it: real time traffic, street view etc. The map display auto zooms depending on the distance to the next turn or, it seems, the complexity of it. Freeway ramps became full screen clearly showing me where to go. On Verizon my journey home is almost all 3G covered (as opposed to the 30% that AT&T covers) so the map updated very well. It’s not without downsides: for example, I can’t find a way to save locations, have to type in my home address each time. But for a free application it’s very well featured.
And with Android having real multitasking I could drive home with Pandora playing through my MINI speakers (thanks to the AUX input) while the map was displayed: the sound would be auto-muted every time the navigation wanted to tell me something. When new gmail arrived I could browse it, still listening to Pandora, and still listening to the turn by turn – very cool, indeed. And the method of switching between tasks is easy and intuitive. I’ll be interested to see just how well this works with iPhone OS4. To me, the Sense UI on the Incredible gets it just right.
