MINI Cooper Review

Sorry for not updating much in the last week. Not much going on to talk about.

I did take my Cooper S in for some service and received a MINI Cooper as a loaner for the day. I had only driven a standard Cooper for about a day when I first ordered my Cooper S so it had been a while. I had forgotten just how great a car the regular Cooper is. Even with out the extra power as the S the Cooper is still great fun to drive. You get to keep the revs up, has as much pull off the line in 1st as an S and the noise the engine makes is as good if not better than the supercharger whine on my S. The only time you really miss the extra power is in when you try to floor it mid gear. When done on the S the supercharger adds the extra omph to put you in the back of your seat where the regular Cooper just doesn't have it. With gas prices where they are the regular Cooper is a great buy for a car that gets great mileage and still has a fun factor to it.

Heading to Las Vegas later this week for a quick getaway. Should be fun. Get back on Sunday then it is back out on the road for work, this time to Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. Hopefully I'll get a rental I've never had before and will have some thoughts.

TR is driving well but feeling the colder weather. I installed a 160 degree T-stat last spring to keep the engine cool in the summer, it now has the opposite effect and keeps the engine a bit too cold in the winter. I have to keep the choke out just a bit in order to keep the engine running smooth when it is below 55 degrees out. Thinking of ordering a 180 T-stat and new gaskets so that I can switch the T-stats out between the spring and fall.

Think that is about it for now.

Back in town

Got back in town Friday and slept most of the day. Didn't end up working on the TR's brakes this weekend because the brake fluid that I ordered has not come in yet. Hoping to get that done this coming weekend before I head out of town again.

Glad to be back driving the MINI after a week being stuck in the 300. Picked up a used rear bumper for the MINI. I just need to find a paint shop so that I can replace the dinged up current bumper on the car.

Not much else going on. Long term car plans: Brake work on the TR, work on the seat rails in the TR, replace rear differential seal on TR, find someone to do TR body work.

Exxon Valdez in my drive way...

I was changing the oil in the MINI last night, using a new drain pan. Well when I dropped the drain plug onto the drain pan and walked away I thought all was ok. Nope! When I came back out about 10 minutes later there was about a 4 quart oil slick growing out from under my car. Seems the drain plug fell and perfectly blocked the hole in the top of the pan so all the oil overflowed and ended up on the drive way! So I left for a quick trip to the grocery store to get cat litter and laundry detergent. Spread all of that on the spill and I will clean it up in a few days. Hopefully the cat litter will absorb most of the oil out of the driveway.

TR has been running great. Cleaned out the air filters last weekend. Plan on doing the oil and getting the wheels balanced this weekend. I also need to check the rear dif oil level. Right after I changed the oil in the rear dif it leaked alot, I am not sure if I over filled it or if the seal is starting to go bad (Hopefully it is the former). Also hoping the replacing the oil pan gasket will stop some of the oil drip that the car has (who am I kidding, anyone know a 40 year old British car that doesn't mark its territory?). I'll get back with some updates to the work this coming weekend.

MOTD 5

Got back from MOTD 5 as well as some business related traveling early last week. Kel and I had a great time. Wish that the weather up in NC had been better on Saturday but you can't have everything be perfect. Got a good number of clean runs on the Dragon through out the weekend. Kel and I did a bit of hiking in Joyce Kilmer and plan on doing a bit longer hike next year. All in all a very relaxing week. Much needed considering that I am in a stretch of only being home for 3 out of 16 days. But, if I am not traveling I'm not making money.

Plan on getting a bunch of work done on the cars this weekend (Triumph, Lexus, and the MINI). The idea is to finish the brake work on Kelly's Lexus, rotate the tires on the MINI (fronts are a bit used from the last weekend), and to finish the repairs (radiator hose) to the TR and do some other work (grease whole chassis, wash the car, change the transmission fluid, and change the rear dif fluid. I bought a suction pump to drain the rear dif.)

I'll out up an update after the weekend and may have a new car review depending on what I get on my trip to Virginia