Category: My MINI

I am sad to say that on the way home last night I was responsible for the deaths of many living things. Its spring time in the mountains and last night there must have been thousands of butterflys trying to fly against the traffic flow. By the end of my trip home my windscreen looked like an impressionist painting: random patches of yellow and red littered the window. I washed it off when I got home but this will happen every day now for a while. Its sad, but unavoidable.

Hit 46,000 miles this morning, only 4000 to go under the warranty. I realised on the way to San Diego that I have a new issue: the rear wiper washer isn’t working, no water is coming out even though I filled the reservoirs just this weekend. I’ll get that done in the next couple of months and it will give me an opportunity to get the V.39 upgrade also. The service indicator is telling me that the next service is happening at 50,100 and I assume that will only get larger in the next 4000 miles. Bummer, I was hoping to squeeze one more free oil change out of the warranty.

I was parked at the airport last night, waiting to go up with a friend when a silver MINI pulled up alongside me and motioned for me to chat. The driver wanted to ask me a question: with the auto a/c package is there any way to vent the outside air into the vehicle. This is probably the one truly annoying feature of my MINI: the answer is no. I’ve asked online, I’ve asked service advisors and it seems like with the auto a/c there is no way to vent outside air without it being heated or cooled before it gets to me. If I buy another MINI it definitely will not have the auto a/c feature.

Of course, if anyone knows that it can be done, please tell me!

New car fever has subsided and given way to mod fever! First off, this weekend I received the Blitzsafe adapter that will allow me to run my iPod through the stereo. The head unit in my MINI has no aux input so the only other option is to use the FM transmitter (which I have and it sucks). But this adaptor connects to the CD changer port and gives you RCA leads to play with. Tonight I will go to Radio Shack, buy a long RCA to stereo headphone jack cable and my iPod will be kicking it.

This weekend I’m getting Sarah dyno’d to see just how much power she really has. I’ve read that stock MINIs can have as much as 15hp difference between them and I’ve long felt that my S is not as powerful as others. This weekend we’ll find out (if CA hasn’t been washed away by then).

And then in two weeks time I am having the pulley replacement and the Alta cold air intake installed. Its going to be like a whole new car.

Was going to post about my scary experience coming home last night by you can read db’s account of the very same thing. I really felt like I wasn’t going to get up the hill, had fears of sliding back down into the traffic. Shortly after I got out of the mess my flat tyre light came on but I pulled over and they were all fine.

I’ve haven’t had these tyres long so I am disappointed they haven’t lasted very long but I think the wheels are in desperate need of an alignment and I am sure that had a lot to do with it. So I am off to the tyre place this morning to swap them for new ones. Maybe I’ll have the back ones rotated to the front too?

I was able to get Sarah into Brecht’s yesterday afternoon, had to drive in hideous conditions to get there, plenty of wrecks off to the sides all the way up I-15. Many people have told me that Xenon bulbs just don’t break but my MINI is special and thats what it turned out to be. Fortunately they had a spare lamp and I was fullly lit (so to speak) in a couple of hours. I’m glad I am still under warranty – the bulb was $190!

Coming back along the 125 that connects 52 to the 8, there was so much rain on the road that I could feel Sarah almost continually aquaplaning/hydroplaning and the DSC light was coming on almost all the time. It was very unpleasant. I think I may need to replace the front two tyres (again, they are new last summer) for better traction.

This morning I was thinking about how long its been since my last problem with Sarah, it seems like its been ages especially since I was going to Brecht’s every month for the longest time. Well, I jinxed it. On the way home tonight I noticed that my driver’s side headlamp isn’t working. This happened once before and it turned out to be a loose connection, hopefully it will be the same again. When I book it in, I’ll try to get the V.39 software upgrade at the same time.

Well, not really, but last night on the way home to Brawley I had the cruise control enabled, a tail wind on my back, and the trip computer was showing a fuel consumption of 35.2 mpg and a range of 545 miles. Sadly, both the trip computer and the cruise control are somewhat mathematically challenged – even on an all freeway drive I have never gotten more than 350 miles out of a tank of gas and that worked out at about 31mpg. And the cruise control still wanders between +/- 5mph of what its set at, its definitely not set and forget like it is in every other car I’ve been in. But it does give me much better mileage than if I use my lead foot so I think for my twice weekly commute I shall use it more often.

So I’ve officially decided against going to Vegas. Instead, I plan to motor to Kingman, AZ, to finish up my Commercial pilot certificate at one of the two-day courses held by Sheble Aviation. Not sure when exactly I will go but I think it will be more fun, more friendly, and definitely more worthwhile (so long as I pass!)

Driving into San Diego today I was struck at how much fun it is to drive a manual transmission, or stick-shift if you must. I’ve always known this but the whine of the super charger as you change gear and accelerate adds something extra, I think. I’m not sure I could ever drive an automatic as my daily driver though thats not to say I don’t appreciate the ease it brings when I drive my wife’s Accord.

Coming into San Diego this morning through La Mesa, I spotted an Arco advertising regular unleaded for $1.89!! Premium was $2.11 which isn’t much different to what I pay in Brawley but I thought 1.89 was pretty decent for the times.