Category: My MINI

My first piece of warranty work looks like being the passenger air-bag sensor. For the last week or so the air bag warning light has been staying on about 70% of the time, and at the same the passenger “air bag off” light is illuminated. This is true whether I have a passenger or not. Some of the time when Teri is in the car the lights will go off after a few minutes of driving.

Now, I do have the Wet Okole seat covers on the front seats (yeah, I know, still need to put up pictures of those) but I don’t see how they can be interfering as I thought it is weight-based. I think I’ll take the covers off and see if that fixes anything. Otherwise, its going to be an early trip to Brechts.

Had set myself some projects for the weekend, got the non-MINI ones completed in good time but got nowhere with the ones for Carrie. First up was installing the stripes. I had done the white stripes on Sarah myself and it had been really easy and looked great. I don’t know whether it was because the new stripes were of a much better quality or something else but the left stripe had lots of tiny bubbles in it and the right stripe ended up with a big crease in the middle. They had to come off and go in the trash. Too bad, though, as they looked great. So I will buy another set (maybe a different design, too) and this time get a professional to do the install. Maybe I just got lucky first time around?

Next up was the XM Direct install. I already knew I probably wouldn’t be able to get the antenna from the boot to the dashboard in any tidy way but I could at least do the hookup to the CD changer. Step one is to remove the screw that keeps the moulding in place over the CD changer port. The screw turned and turned and turned but would not come out. I know my DIY skills are poor but even I should be able to unscrew something and take it apart.

I’ve now done one and a half commutes using my new motoring strategy: on all flat pieces of road and going up hills I maintain 70mph or about 3000 rpm, and going down hills I’ll go faster but not so fast that the it feels like I am hurting the fuel consumption. If I turn the OBC to current mpg and notice that it is less than the average then I ease off.

So, the results… trip one started with a little city driving, then to Brawley and back to San Diego, got my best mpg yet – 26.9 (OBC said 28.1). Trip two started just outside El Cajon on the freeway to Brawley and the OBC currently reads 31.3 so I am hopeful of a 28 or 29 mpg. I’m impressed with the results and doing 70 ain’t so bad.

In anticipiation of putting on her stripes, I gave Carrie her first bath this weekend and a nice Zaino wax finish, she looked great. I was impressed at how waterproof the top is, the beads of water just sat on the fabric and were easily wiped off with a cloth. I have some 303 protectant that I will apply every now and then to keep it looking good. I am already noticing white marks on the top where the roof is wearing, seems like a poor design but it is what it is.

Unfortunately it was 108F during all of this fun and when I was finished I decided that drinking a beer whilst naked under the bedroom fan (sorry for the visual) was in order and I never did get to the stripes. And driving to San Diego yesterday we were attacked by white flies and now Carrie is as dirty as she was before.

Josh has some good tips for extending your mileage on his website. I tried some gentle driving techniques on the way home Friday and back here Monday and currently the OBC is indicating 26.1 which is better than previously. Not as good as his 29 though. One problem I have is that my highway commute goes from below sea level to 4500 feet and back over quite a few miles, its not the Grapevine but it does cause a 3-4 dip in the mpg just to get to the top. I’m curious to know what I’d get for fairly level highway driving.

I did get the universal garage door opener working, though which made me happy. Still to do: the stripes, the window auto-up circuit and the XM direct installs. But they might have to wait until it gets cooler.

A few more things:

• The rear visibility certainly is poor but not nearly as bad as I expected. I have had to adjust my driving style a little to accommodate not being able to see over my shoulder but I have always been attentive to the traffic around me so it hasn’t been a big issue. Parallel parking on the other hand is more of a challenge as I just can’t tell how close I am to the car behind me.
• The windows seem to go down faster than before
• The fuel guage acts differently. Before, I would get about 100 miles at the first mark, 160 at the second mark, 300 miles near empty. Now I get 140 at the first mark, 220 at the second mark, and 320 near empty.
• Fuel consumption is bad, best I’ve done so far after three fillups is 23.5 mpg and that was with almost all highway driving. My ’02 typically got 26mpg without trying. I hope this will get better as the engine breaks-in.
• Radio reception is poor, craps out often even in San Diego. Don’t know if this is a fault or just common with the model. My XM Direct hasn’t arrived yet so am using the iPod for the time being which works great through the aux input.
• Haven’t been able to get the Universal Remote to work with my garage door opener yet, need to work that out as I hate fiddling with the regular remote

I know my DIY skills are somewhat close to zero, but the parcel shelf install is supposed to be really easy and I did do the window-up circuit without any problems….

It didn’t help that it was 110F in the shade (118 in town) but I could not get the threaded inserts to stay in place when it came to screw the shelf into them. Each time the insert would slip down a fraction and be too low for the screw to go into. I even taped them in place but that didn’t work either. So, for now, the shelf is installed and stable but its not screwed into place.

[Update:] Did some research on the web and I appear to be in the majority to suffer this problem. Looks like superglue and patience are the answer.

And maybe it doesn’t matter, I still have the window circuit to do and probably have to remove that anyway.

I may write a full report on the differences between the 02 and 05 MCS’ or I may not. So in the meantime here’s a quick list of things that I’ve noticed every time I drive so far.

• I’m not a motoring journalist or otherwise I’d come up with some better word, but the gearbox is, well, tight. First gear is so much sharper, quicker off the mark and with none of that low-rev stumbling. The overall driving feel is a lot better.
• The top is a marvel of engineering. I don’t know if I will ever stop going ooh and aah every time it opens and closes. Three days in and no signs of the ‘infamous’ wear spots yet.
• I usually put my wallet in the door pocket but I can barely get my hand in there on the ’05. I am guessing this is because of the roll cage but its utility is limited if I can’t get things out of there real easy.
• I miss the location of the clock. I hadn’t realised how often I want to see both the clock and my current trip miles.
• There seems to be less leg room in the back. I don’t care as I don’t sit there but that’s how it looks to me.
• The leatherette is really nice, I think I prefer it to real leather. I will be covering it with the Wet Okoles but if you don’t live in super hot temps I think its a great choice.
• The three spoke steering wheel looks better than I had expected.
• The new OBC is great: more statistics to look at and, most impressively, it seems to be accurate this time. So far no predictions of 38 mpg and 600 mile ranges.

Well, thats it for now. Overall the car drives and feels so much better than the ’02, and it looks great. Count me as one happy new MINI owner.

Got home this evening to a call from the Sales Manager at South Bay MINI, my new MINI has arrived and is being “prepped for the aux input install and PDI”. That’s great news but I told them back in July not to install the aux input as I don’t want to pay their costs, and I want to put the socket under the console rather than in the glove box. I’ve tried calling her and a couple of the MAs but no one picked up. Going to be very annoying if they’ve done it already.

I’m also slightly concerned about the wheels and tyres. The Owners Lounge does not list my choice of wheels – I went for the 16″ non-run flats – so now I am wondering what my new baby is going to be riding on. I suppose I can live with 17″ run flats if I have to, but isn’t the whole point of this wait is to get the exact car you want?

Well, Sarah is off on her journey to a new city, tomorrow she will be calling San Francisco her new home. Her new owner was already beaming as he drove her away; another convert to MINI. Not sure if he will make up there without some tickets, though.

We had some good times, I’m going to miss her… Vegas, twisties in Julian…. hey, whose playing The Way We Were?

Good news today, the Owners Lounge says my vehicle is at the Distribution Centre! Estimated delivery date (to the dealer, I think) is 8/20/2005 so I think I should be on for picking it up on the 27th!

In the meantime I need a name for the car. Usually I pick ex-girlfriends or girls that I wished had been ex-girlfriends but I am informed by those who claim to know that a topless car should have a stripper name. Now, being an innocent abroad I don’t know any stripper names – anyone care to suggest any?