All things about my MINI
No, not referring to an (inevitable) MINI repair bill, but rather a short video of the storm that came in So Cal yesterday. I didn’t quite get home in time to catch the real rain, but you can see by the flow down the hill that we got a bunch of it (1.25″ at Lindbergh Field).
Rain from Paul Sanders on Vimeo.
A little later than the service indicator would have liked, I had my MINI in for the “95k” ? oil change service this morning. Everything went smoothly except for one identified problem: the low pressure power steering hose is leaking and will need to be replaced after Christmas. I hear the MINI is a tank without power steering.
Looking ahead to 100,000 miles they are recommending:
I’ll get the power steering taken care of in January, then start saving up for all these new goodies.
I’ve had my cousin visiting from Exeter, England, for the last two weeks and she’s seen a whole lot more of SoCal than I expected she might. One of those things was a spur of the moment outing yesterday in the MINI – to the sand dunes of Glamis. The wind was blowing pretty good, I think we both ate our fair share of sand but I did snap this picture of my MINI against the dunes as backdrop.
Got my tyres rotated and balanced this evening and, naturally, the flat tyre warning light came on after a while. I was expecting it shortly after I hit the road and I’d given up waiting for it when it actually did. Both in this MINI and the last one, this warning seems to occur pretty often and most of the time I totally ignore it.
In fact it came on Monday morning when I left home for San Diego and I did stop to take a look. I saw nothing to cause alarm and continued, remembering that just outside the house the tyres and slipped a bit on some oil or something.
One day though I probably will get a flat and keep on going, that’s the trouble with a warning that comes on too much.
On a side note, there seems to be a definite pulling to the left tendency after the tyre rotate, maybe time for an alignment.
Nothing to see here, but while uploading some pictures from last night’s bbq with my English cousin I noticed I was wearing one of my TwistyBitz t-shirts so thought I would post. I’ll try to think of something to say later.
So I’m finding myself thinking more and more about selling the MINI and getting something else. Right now there’s nothing wrong with the car but there’s no doubt there are a couple of big bills in my not-so-far future.
I have no idea what I would get instead, could probably not afford to put more than $5k above the trade-in value. Whatever I got would be a poor ride in comparison, no doubt about that but with all the driving I do something more roomy, more modern might be good?
Just thoughts over dinner tonight.
Got back from a week and a half in Hawaii today, a week on the Big Island, and a few days on Maui. More of that later over at the main blog at guapacha.com or you’ll be able to view the photos on my Flickr at some point soon.
Anyway, whilst in Hawaii we had 4 rental cars….
This morning I drove my MINI for the first time in nearly 2 weeks – heaven on wheels!
You may remember that back in December I took my MINI for an inspection II and brake replacement. Since then I’ve had several phone messages from the owner asking to please call him. He’s called three times this week alone, twice on my cell and once on my work phone.
If your number isn’t one of the, maybe, 5 people who I want to call me I rarely pick up. And if I’m not interested in your message I won’t return your call, so why does he keep calling. I presume it’s because he’s looking for business but bad news for him is that I already got the front brakes done elsewhere (at about half the cost) and there’s nothing else required right now. So should I continue to ignore him, or break a rule and see what he has to say?
So with Carrie now at 90k and hurtling towards 100k I’m thinking about strategies to extend her life or, more accurately, save me money in the long term. All of the following have been suggested to me, any one think they are all worth doing at this time?
Oil change is in 3000 miles so maybe I’ll take it to an independent MINI dealer and have the oil and supercharger oil done at the same time?? Anything else you can suggest for the almost 100k MCS?
Another year has passed, today marks the 4th anniversary of taking ownership of my ’05 MCS cabriolet. I’m just a little under 90,000 miles which makes me average around 22k a year, sadly almost all of that is getting to work, not a whole load of pleasure motoring.
Touching wood, the car has been trouble free for the last year. I’ve been using the top a lot more and the infamous wear in the fabric is getting quite noticeable (at least to me), the clinking noise from the top while driving with it up is still there, never could work out where it is coming from. Right now the biggest problem is the twisted seatbelt and two months of dirt on the exterior. I’d give her a bath for her birthday but we’re going on holiday in a week and she’ll just be sitting outside for two weeks so I will do it when we get back. I think she’ll get a transmission fluid flush too, got to keep her regular.
Happy motoring to all!