They say no news is good news so I think I have nothing but good news to report. Carrie seems to be fault free and other than the weekly commute to/from San Diego, there really isn’t any motoring going on. I haven’t been to a club event in what seems like years but I am entered in the Cruisin’ For a Cure event in September. I was booked last year but didn’t get to go due to the funeral, hopefully it will work out this year. Chances are there isn’t going to be a whole lot happening on the blog for a while but that if I think of something, I’ll put it up.
The Real Cost of Gas
This picture of a Manahattan Beach Shell gas station shows the real price of precious petrol in CA…
Though I have to say that my local station is down 21c over the last week or two. Its still $3.52 for the premium but that’s better than it was, looks like we’ve staved off $4 for now….
Made it at Last
Yep, on the way home from San Diego this afternoon, I hit the valley floor and saw the OBC rise to 104 degrees, old-school. Its getting warm, baby! And this at 5.45pm, glad I wasn’t here mid-afternoon.
I filled up with gas when I left work and despite terrible traffic on I-15, SR-52, and I-8 the OBC was indicating 29.7 mpg for a very long time. I’ve not seen that high before in Carrie over any distance. Unfortunately I had to put the a/c on (or die) and by the time I got home it was down to 29.0 but that’s still a record for me over 130 miles of driving. An hour in stop-start traffic, and then another 90 mnutes pretty much at 80.
No More MPG Tracking
Ever since I got Carrie back in August last year I’ve been dilligently tracking my fuel purchases and consumption on sandiegogasprices.com but this weekend I packed it in. Its too depressing to type in that I spent $46 in gas and only got 12 gallons. I did get 25.5 mpg on the last tank and it seems that this is now the norm for my new commute pattern. This morning on the drive to San Diego the OBC is indicating 27.6 which is awesome though the week’s to/from work commute will soon eat at that. Anyway, I am going to keep an eye on my fuel consumption via the OBC but no more record-taking.
SRS Light Finally Off
Carrie was back to Brecht’s today for the new seat sensor map install. They had it done in a couple of hours which was neat, no need to leave and come back. Driving to work it seemed wrong for the light to not be on, I think it will take a while to get used to not seeing the red light in the corner of my vision. We’ll see if it lasts a while, and then I have to decide if the seat covers are going back on or not.
Nearly There!
Got in the car this afternoon and the temperature readout on the OBC read 99F, I can’t believe its not even May and we are almost at 100. My in-laws said their car said it was 101 around 2pm so maybe it did reach the magic mark but it looks like we are in for a nice warm summer.
I wish the a/c was better in this MINI, my ’02 had great air conditioning but it had the auto a/c whereas this one does not. Its alright when moving along at 60+ but at street speeds it doesn’t seem to do a whole lot.
No More Pulley Parties?
[Update:] Decided to bite the bullet and go for the pulley install while the Webb-meister is still around. Sunday, May 7th 11.00 am, Carrie will be getting a little bit faster.
Was reading today that the infamous Pulley Parties by Randy Webb are coming to an end, only three left (LA, SFO and CIN) before he hangs up his pulley removal tool. Not sure of the reason (I suspect his real business is keeping him from touring the country to do the parties) but its a bummer as I want to get the 15% pulley at some point, but had figured I’d wait a year or so. I either have to get it done May 7th when he is in LA or find someone else who can do it when the time comes.
Acoustic Fuel Warning
I got to check out all the programming at the weekend, it was very cool to be able to open the top from outside the vehicle. Took a while to be able to verify the acoustic fuel warning, though, and when the time came it didn’t sound. Looking at the invoice from Brecht I see that I said (and the advisor wrote) “customer states program car to sound (acoustic fuel warning) when gas tank is empty“. So I am thinking that the bell is going to sound when the car is empty? Not sure I need that: the fact that the car is no longer moving is probably indicator enough. Now I have to decide whether I really care about this or not; probably not.
New Badges
Received my new magnetic badge holders and badges last week, installed them over the weekend. Well, when I say over it took 10 minutes…. Anyway, here is how they look for now. I might buy my own magnetic printer paper and try my hand at making my own.
Service Update
Had a call from Brecht this morning to say that the car had gone to the body shop on time and it would be ready to collect tomorrow lunch time. However, on the way over the SRS light had come back on so they had to take it back to have it looked at: they have diagnosed a faulty sensor in the seat but the replacement part will not be here until Tuesday so it looks like I have to go through this again sometime soon.
Had an email from Brecht this morning telling me I had missed my appointment and if I wanted to set another one up, to let them know. When I checked in yesterday, the advisor couldn’t find my appointment and had to enter everything in again. I guess I was in there somewhere.