Woo Hoo! Week 32 makes it to 2500 posts.

Not much happening here. We have snow showers in Dayton today, which really gets me thinking about winter. I know there are several threads about this topic in NAM, but I wanted to get the perspective of the Week 32ers about winter car care. Well, at least those of you in cold climates...

How do you plan to take care of your MINI this winter when it's too cold to hand wash? I've never worried about winter car care before (except to take the car through the car wash as needed to get the salt off).

Do you plan to use the touchless car washes? Go to a self-service wash and do it yourself? Do you just wash during the winter or do you apply any products? I assume everyone has a good coat of Epic or some other paint protector on their cars now.

 

I just went to a self service wash yesterday. I did one session on the soap and one on the rinse. I did not use their brush. When it gets to needing to wipe dirt off, I'll take my wool mitt with me. Took me $3.50 and a 1/2 hour of time including drying.

 

Since I'm OC about our vehicles (like most of us), I put a set of black plastic caps on the wheel lug bolts of our Mini this weekend. It's subtle, but a nice touch to finish off the look of the wheels. I found them on the web - here's the link: http://www.otisincla.com/Merchant2/m...Code=LUGCOVERS

No photos yet. I'll snap some when we give the Mini a bath and clean her up. She's a bit dirty right now...

 

Bleh. Still trying to figure out which snow tires I want. I'm finding, however, that it seems the Blizzaks are one of very few that come in 205/45/17 (I have a JCW so I need 17's). The tread life on the Blizzaks does not thrill me one bit at 12k-15k miles. Ugh.

 

I wash ours at home, but I plan to upgrade my water system with a filter!!

 

Fortunately, I don't need snow tires in Dayton. The roads get cleared quickly or I just work from home if they don't. I'm happy that I can just stick with the all-season tires year-round.

 

Just ordered a tire pressure gauge, it might be a bit on the pricey side, but I had to have it!!

http://new.minimania.com/web/Item/BIM3678/InvDetail.cfm

The current ones I have are from my days working at a Texaco station (30 years ago) ! I kinda thought Hilla deserves a newer model.
Also, just passed the 2000 mile mark. I'm going to see what kinda mileage I get if I drive civilized and no sport button! I hope I can restrain myself for a full tank!

At least here in Houston, I can use one set of tires year round. The only reason would be if and when I get some performance tires and additional rims!

 

I have a similar guage, but's it's a Longacre I got from Soloracer.com, for about $25 less.

I did a civil tank of gas on my JCW. Got around 29 MPH, mixed highway/city. I normally get about 25 MPG. But at $2/gal I don't care as much. I could get 15 MPG and still be better off than when I took delivery.

I also just got the Craven Speed Nuvi mount. It's a machined gauge mount that fits on the back of the tach and has an extension arm to fit the Nuvi mount. Pictures later.

 

Heh, I get just under 29 average on mine. My commute is about 80% backroads, 10% highway, and 10% city-ish driving.

 

I think your gauge is actually a bit better!! I've been hovering around the 24 to 25 mpg, but I'm like 90 percent city and not very civil. So I'm going to test the range for city driving!!

 

Tu13es, what your speed on the back roads? What are both your average speeds on the computer?

 

It does measure in 1 lbs rather than 2 lb increments. It's not fancy looking, but it gets the job done nicely. I stuff it inside the access panel of the rear fender.

 

Most of my commute is 30-35mph speed limits which means 40-45 if there's nobody in front of me.

FWIW, I use this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000B6JJUK/

Not the sturdiest built thing ever, but it measures in 0.5 increments. I just keep mine in my cargo net. :P

 

I've got a Griot's Garage tire gauge similiar to Sikamini & RaceTripper's gauges. I've had it several years and it still works great - accurate too...

 

Put Bernard in gear for the first time in TWO weeks today! Had a great day running errands. For about the first mile in our neighborhood, I had a rough engine idle and some noise when the rpms got about about 2300. Temp was in the mid 60's and it wasn't that "cold start" rattle" sound. Oh well, by the time I got out of the 30mph area, it was gone anyway.
Gotta love the Clubman: I easily fit in several shopping bags from various stops and a 40lb bag of dog food in the back.
Re washing in the winter: I can I'll rarely have the problem of it being too cold for very long. Today was a high of mid 70's.

 

No need to rub it in... we got a bit of snow today!

I will out of touch for just over a week. Off on a holiday trip to VA and NC. Phantom will be safe in the garage while we are gone. I finally sold my 19 year old Honda Prelude today. I'm happy it has a nice new home, but the sale was bittersweet... just watching someone else drive away in my baby.

But having Phantom really helps. I anticipate a long, happy relationship.

I'll be back about the end of the month. Week 32ers... motor on!

 

Have a nice trip!!!

 

Hi everyone! Sorry I have been 'Missing in Action'! Everyone has been sick here - uggghhh!

You all are doing a great job at keeping Week 32 ALIVE!! I need to get back here more often to help! Lucy needs a good washing, and now that I am feeling better - I'll need to attend to her. Still need to post my new license plate - after she is sparkling again!

Sikamini, I'll need to check the seatbelt, but don't think that is where the rattle is coming from. I need to take my husband for a ride so he can listen while I drive.

Motor On week 32!

 

Glad your all feeling better!!!
I've had a noise in the passenger side back, which is funny in that it's intermittent and very rare. The one I said was a seat belt, went away when I adjusted the belt a bit. Hilla is more solid than any car I've had, all sorts of bumps and no rattles, - I filled my tires recently and it seems the intermittent noise went away again.
Here's a question on the tire pressure monitor - does it react to a slow leak or just sudden change in pressure? Is it possible to lose around four pounds pressure over a 3 week period and not have the sensor notice?

 

IIRC they don't trip the sensor until they get pretty damn low, like low 20s or so. I've had mine as low as 31psi (whoops) and no alarm.

So, yes, very possible.

 

Have A Great Weekend all you Motoring 32ers!!! Get out and motor...

 

Thanks for confirming what I was suspecting!! I'll just have to check it more often!!

 

Good morning,

it was about 3 weeks ago my tire sensor monitor went off. The air pressure was down to about 30-31 lbs in all four. It was the first 'cold' morning.... not sure that it had anything to do with it or not.

 

That's likely so. Tire pressure can fluctuate quite a bit with temperature. They say to always fill your tires when they're cold.

 

Mmmmm those look good. I had found some lockable mini ones, now I'll have to look for that link. Thanks for the reminder.