Love the scarecrow. You need a crash test dummy jack-o-lantern!

 

Now that's an idea!

 

+2. Kirby, you da man !!! (or woman, if I err, I apologize). I have a Lowes about 3 miles away, I will check them out, I broke about 60% of mine trying to remove them, including 2 of the 4 that hold the upper grille assembly in place. Guess the good news is that by next spring (I assume) when I have the $$$$$ for the FMIC, I know how to mount it and also where to get the replacements for the ones I'm sure I'll break the next time around (or the bunged up ones I reused anyway )

 

Glad to help. I was really surprised to see there's an automotive section in the specialty fastener drawers. Hopefully they'll have the size you need.

Kirby's the Mini, Steph's the driver. No offense taken.

 

They sure do Albiecrazy...Molly went from a "plain Jane" to L@@k at ME...you can't catch ME!! When I replaced her 16" Bridgespokes to 16" Enkei T Forks...Love the look too...the tires now over hang the wheel well just enough!!

 

Molly got a nice bath today, I used the Blower end of my vacuum to dry off her wheels, all the little nooks and cranies of the grills, both front and rear...will need to finish up tomorrow with a nice interior detail and finish off with speedshine the wheels and vinyl/rubber protectant on the exterior trim and tires.

 

Yesterday I cleaned up my mini, inside & out, no wax or anything but I like to come home after class on Fridays and clean her up. Vaccume, wash, condition the leather, clean the wheels, trim, engine bay, check the oil, tire press, the basics. Good mini time!

This afternoon I finished hardwiring my V1 radar detector, my XM radio thingy, and I put in some 35W 6000k HID bulbs!







In the next year or so I'll be retro-fitting in some projectors and LED running lights. I did this on my truck (last vehicle I owned) and I will never go back to stock halogen reflector lights. The difference was literally night and day. But that project is a little more drawn out, not just a sat afternoon job!

 

Saturday I installed the Detroit Tuned Bypass Valve.
Directions say "about an hour".

3 hours later she was all done. 2 hrs to remove everything and one to put it all back together.

A few things:
1. The stock cold air duct just snaps out when you give it a good pull - and doesn't want to snap back in. Still working on that...
2. The 11mm nut on the back side of the air horn can be reached with a 1/4" 11mm socket. Found this out when I re-installed it and wish I'd figured it out when removing it.
3. I'd really like to see the channel lock pliers that will fit in the space available to lock the clamp for the tube on the throttle body from the air box. Think "needle nose pliers" for this.
4. The Supercharger Intake Tube has two vacuum fittings on the side: watch out that they don't pull out when you're trying to move the tube off the BPV and out of the way enough to remove the intercooler air horn. One of mine did pop off, but it wasn't difficult to reinstall.
5. "Be careful not to score the face of the air horn mounting surface on the studs sticking out from the intake manifold." Ahem. Getting it off was fine. Putting it back on, well, like Chad says, be careful. I was careful, but not quite perfect.

The old BPV was in pretty good shape. Definite difference in spring stiffness and the old BPV was showing about 70% more light around the circumference than the DT BPV.

I don't feel much change in response with my 2006 S. I'll have to drive her some more before I can really tell, but there is no big "Aha!" or "night and day" difference. I did reset the ECU, as recommended and I'll see how it feels after a couple hundred miles. Being at 7k ft above sea level means considerably less O2 and the performance does suffer some. I intend to put a 15% pulley on and will service the S/C and check all the connex then.

All in all, not a bad install. My first real wrenching on the MINI (I had replaced the power steering pump fan, but that doesn't count. The most difficult part of that was getting her jacked up).

I'm glad I did it. DT got the part to me very efficiently and the instructions were pretty thorough. I'll probably get my Pulley Kit from DT and my Control Arm Bushings. It's too bad Santa Fe doesn't have a place where you can rent a lift and tools. I know lots of cities have 'em, but I expect I'll pay a tech to do the Pulley and Bushings because I don't have access to the tools required.

 

Care to share more info. on the Headlight swap?? Link to where we might purchase these and info. on how to replace them??

TIA

 

Well what I did for right now is just basically a light bulb swap. The link to the company where I bought them are below. Its basically the same type of bulb that is in the Xenon mini headlights. If you plan to swap them into your car you should know they are not legal unless they come factory in the vehicle. As long as you aim them properly and go with a 35w kit (less power, not as bright as the 55w kit but MUCH brighter than halogens) you won't have any problems. I've had them in all my vehicles for 4 or so years now and have never had a problem.

The 6000k is the temperature at which the bulb burns (6000 kelvin), which means the color that the bulbs burn. 5000k is generally what comes stock in cars that have these bulb, 6000k has a slight hint of blue and I personally think looks the best. 8000k is starting to push it, has much more blue, 10000k has more blue and I've heard of several people getting pulled over for these, and 12000k is basically pure blue and 12000k is purple. Ricers generally run these higher temperatures.



You would need a 35w, and 5000k or 6000k would produce the most light and shouldn't give you any trouble from the popo. Make sure you buy the Hi/Lo bulb that way you still have high beams. You will have to do a little wiring but it's overall not bad at all, they supply all the instructions. The bulbs from this company have a lifetime warranty and are top quality. You can get the raptor kit (linked below) or poke around their website a bit and they have a slim ballast kit for a little extra (the HID ballast is a little smaller). All components should fit inside the MINI headlight housing without problems, at least mine did.

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Ap...Raptor-HID-Kit

Price will be $55 without shipping for the H13 Hi/Lo 35w HID kit. Shipping is extra.

What I plan to do later on down the road is retrofit in some projectors in. I'll buy a set of bi-xenon projectors and modify a set of mini headlights to house them. I'll run a 55w HID kit because the projectors have a strict cut-off so it won't blind on coming traffic and I'm going to implement some LED running lights because I don't want to run my HIDs full time, but I'd like to have running lights.

 

Finally took some time to clean up "2GEEK4U" today. Whew! Now the geekmobile looks nice!

 

JohnW94, lived in Flemington for 10 yrs, 6 yrs ago! Loved the area! Didn't own a Mini til 9 months ago....sigh

 

If you ever happen to drive through the area in the future, keep a look out for me. You might see me

 

Not likely to happen. Always had an eye for the Mini, but with kids, etc had to have an SUV. moved back to Md., traded in Jeep Grand Cherokee (great car) got my Mini, having time of my life! Joined C3M club....loving life!!!!!

My Mini created a whole new dimension to my life....Grandmother to 5 just goes to show, it's NEVER too late.

 

Glad to hear that things are going great for you =) It really is amazing what owning a MINI/Mini does to your life.

 

Hah! I lived in Long Valley 'til 2004, just up the road, but alas was Mini-less at the time too.

 

That's where I got my MINI... weird.

 

i was doing this (i'm silky green)

way right edge behind the red one

 

Wholly crap Rusty, you found that mythical curved road in Minnesota!

 

i found plenty of curved roads, some of my favorite from this trip were 9% winding downgrades in between the mississippi river and some farms. even broke loose the rear tires on a few of those turns. (still waiting on my buddies gopro footage)

 

We invited other Minis over to play

 

I installed a Homelink with some ambient lighting that shines ontop of the shift ****.

 

That is what I want to do and get rid of the pesky garage door opener. Can you give some details as to where you bought the device and how hard or easy it was to install?

I have the same setup in mine and I'm wondering what the vent on the right is for? Since you had it appart to install the HomeLink maybe you could tell me.

 

Got a new badge 4 Scoopie!

 

i spy a GP