UKPylot’s MINI Blog

My ’05 MINI has had the (dealer installed) AUX socket since day one and until recently it has always worked just fine. But the last few trips I’ve tried to use it I’ve had problems, and yesterday it was pretty much useless.

The music will play just fine and then it will abruptly stop. The iPhone is still playing but the radio on the MINI is no longer saying AUX and when I rotate through the choices AUX is no longer even available as an option. The fix is to remove the audio cable from the iPhone and plug it back in – the AUX option reappears. In traffic, this is quite the cumbersome thing to do so that’s pretty much it for my music listening.

It’s a bummer as sometimes there’s something I want to listen to, rather than the regular XM radio.

I suspect the fault lies with the AUX adaptor but we’ll find out fairly soon as in May I am ditching the iPhone and will be going Android. The iPhone is a great device and I am sure I will miss it, but I’m no longer willing to put money into the ever-increasing dictatorship that is Mr Jobs – what next, demanding I can only use your devices while wearing a black turtleneck?

Oh, and I really can’t stand AT&T anymore either.

While in San Diego, I park my MINI in various locations near the apartment I rent, sometimes right outside but other times it’s a half to a full block away. Last Thursday evening I parked almost right outside the entrance, clicked the key to lock the doors and there was nothing. I walked right up to the car, tried it again and still nothing. So I went inside, read about key fobs failing, expensive replacements, new rearview mirrors etc.

Next day I go down to the car and sure enough I still can’t open the car remotely. Open it old school and drive to work. Thinking that maybe the key had taken a charge on the short drive I tried locking it remotely and it worked. Pleased that I didn’t need a new key I thought no more about it until I had to go back to the apartment to pick up my Dad. I end up parking in the exact same spot I had left in the morning, get out of the car, go to lock the door and, dammit, nothing. Again, I cannot lock the door remotely.

Go in, pick up Dad and drive home. Get home and the key works fine. All weekend the key works fine (but the car was making some odd nosies that I need to investigate). Worked fine when I got to work this morning.

So, I’m about to go to the apartment. Will the key work? If not, is there some electrical field nearby that is blocking the signal for that one-two car lengths? Is that even possible?! It’s odd, very odd.

This short video says it all. First time I’ve ever owned a vehicle that has made it this far.

Driving home from work I see that Carrie picked up a little 100k “present”, a nice new rock chip in the top, centre, of the window.

Passed the 99,000 mile mark this morning on the way to work. I expect I’ll hit the big 100k at the end of Feb or maybe just into March.

Other than that, not much else to say. Other than Carrie is filthy dirty and needs a good bath.

After reading Josh’s comment in my last post suggesting that the noise I have been hearing is an empty power steering fluid reservoir, I took a look and sure enough there was just a tiny amount left in the can. I had planned to get my leak fixed on Wednesday but decided to cut out an extra day’s driving and get it fixed today.

And so, after a few hours at the shop, Carrie is repaired[*] and everything is groovy again. When I picked up the car I talked about supercharger options and the mechanic was of the view that I should do nothing until it actually breaks. I am convinced that an oil service is of no value this late into the part’s lifetime so I’d say it’s a replacement/recondition or nothing for the time being. We’ll see how things progress.

[*] Unless of course I get @dbwildo’s level of quality repair.

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.