Mary is a beautiful MINI, love the look you've gone for with it!

Drew

 

Whew! Rescued from page 2!

Mary got her first mods yesterday. She got a 19mm Alta rear sway bar (red of course!) and the Remus exhaust.

Starting her up was like putting on your favourite pair of shoes after a month of wearing new ones. It was awesome. I sooooo missed the sound of my Remus!

 

Sounds nice, I like your choices of mods. I'm driving a loaner car this evening and tomorrow while they replace the pass. side seat back cover for me, and hopefully diagnose and fix the dash rattle. It's so similar to mine that it's almost crazy. It's Hyper Blue/White, MCS 6-speed, H/K, rubber floor mats, Premium+Sport package... very few differences really, so it doesn't even feel all that weird to me.

Drew

PS. Hit 8700 miles as I pulled into the dealership today... sigh, crazy crazy mileage for a <2 month old car!

 

I hit 2000 this afternoon (I put my mods on at 1900).

 

I hit 4000 right on the 2 month mark yesterday. Commuting sucks....but it's more fun in a MINI.

 

Woo-hoo! Mom's just sprung for me to get the "Early-Warning" LoJack on Mary! They are going to come out to my office on Tuesday and put it on!

 

Two months with Pi Rho!
It has been a fabulous two months with Pi Rho and I am looking forward to many more ahead!
We've done a lot so far: MINI meet/run not even 24 hours after delivery, driving to Vermont, many fabulous comments, car washings, ice cream run, Pulley party in NH...

 

Nice pictures! I see you sprung for the tow hook plate bracket. Nice!

Mary's back in the shop today. She's getting her trans. fluid level checked. I suspect low levels have been causing her noises. We shall see.....

 

BLISS is still at Flow MINI. The new seat cover did not match. I can understand ordering the wrong one since they are very similar, but installing the wrong one without noticing it didn't match... not as easy to do. I wasn't even in my car when I saw it was the wrong style. Oh well, I'm still driving a nice loaner MCS 6-speed so I can't complain.

I have been very gentle to the loaner the whole time, but I did enjoy one set of twisties that I love, and I have to say... the LSD on these cars is a great option! The loaner doesn't have it and mine does, and the inside wheel spun through a couple of turns that I usually carry more speed through and have no wheel slip.

Drew

 

Pi Rho has just been added to the car "issue" list ...

I went to MINI of Peabody today to have them re-check his first gear resistance issue. (For those of you who don't know, Pi Rho has been having troubles going into first from idle almost since day one... certainly not normal function and I first brought him in the beginning of the month and while the problem seemed to go away, it did not go away in entirety.)

I waiting upstairs in the lounge for an hour and Chris came up, said they were idling the car to try to replicate the problem and hopefully figure what was wrong. So, about two hours later I got down because I was getting bored and bought some touch up paint while down there.

About 10 minutes later, Chris finds me and is all chipper and explains they checked the area and made sure everything was up to spec. with tighening and so forth, then mentions that they WERE able to duplicate the problem... turns out there is a defect or issue with first gear... just that gear, but still, a problem and said it most likely came from the factory in that condition.

So... with that info... Pi Rho will be getting... A NEW TRANSMISSION!! I think I set a record... just two months old too!

They have to wait for the parts to come in from NJ, so they'll call me when they arrive and hook me up with a rental (either another MINI or a BMW will suffice for me ) and then take a day and a half to swap out the faulty tranny.

You can bet that if there is the SLIGHTEST abnormal sound/feeling after this is resolved, I'm not even going to hesitate about bringing him in. I just *PRAY* this is his only problem ever...

 

How the hell did they duplicate it? Please?! Tell me! I want to know their secret! Esp. since I have the same problem.

I do have a bit of good news....sort of. We finally determined that the ghostly noise around 3K rpm wasn't the tranny, but infact the A/C compressor. That gets fixed Wed. Now, if they could just figure out why my car hates first gear and still makes that horrible noise occasionally.

 

Mary went back in today to get the a/c compressor fixed. I did tell my SA about your tranny "defect," Sheenabea. Maybe that will help point her in the right direction, but I would still love any more details if you have any!

Oh, BONUS! I finally got to use my fogs today (front and rear)! Woo-hoo!

 

GBMiniGirl, is that "ghostly" noise you're referring to like a very faint old (i.e. with bells, not electronic) telephone ringing? I started to get something like that between 2K & 3K shortly after break-in. As far as I've been able to tell it only happens when accelerating and not when I sit still and rev the motor in that same rpm area. It's much easier to hear with all the windows closed. With them open it's faint enough that the wind and road noise masks it.

 

Nope. And it wasn't faint at all. I could hear it over the radio right around 3000 rpms. It sounded like a strong wind, like what you hear at a marina on a windy day. We originally thought it might be the tranny (esp. since I was already having problems), but it would do it in neutral too.

 

So I was just thinking (and I may be waaay late to the game on this one) but, it would make sense that if one of us in PW27SG has a problem, that others may also. Which would explain the tranny issues that a couple are having.

When I drove a loaner car last week the clutch felt much more firm and responsive than mine, and the gears were easier to find as well as more solid when engaged. I made a remark about it, but I will be making that something that needs to be checked out when it is in for its first service. I actually managed to grind going into 2nd right after getting back into BLISS!!! I haven't done that in years...

Drew

 

Even though there's tons of variation in what we all ordered, I've still been thinking of this thread (in addition to its other benefits ) as a casual log of who has to get what unusual (i.e. out of service interval) work or repair done to see if I can spot trends of things to watch for. Even if we have different models, since we all started out at about the same time it's a good gauge of where we stand in terms of numbers of repairs and so on.

 

Drew - you make a good point. I wouldn't be half surprised if some of our MINIs had like or similar problems.

I am getting my transmission replaced next Wednesday. Hopefully all will go well and Pi Rho will be as good as new again.

 

Wow, I'm sorry to hear about all the problems everyone is having!! Hopefully they'll be resolved soon.

I had to jump in on the license plate theme from earlier. Here are my new ones, just in today:



There's a double meaning to it, which I think I've mentioned before. (Red Scooter, I decided to put the space in there - I think I like it better this way)

 

Hey Turcicus! Looks GREAT! I think the space makes sense, esp. with the JCW.

Btw, I saw a MINI the other day with BOOT on its license plate. Since we only have rear plates in AZ, it really works!

 

That's really funny (the BOOT plate)! I like your plate Turcicus!

I got Mary back this morning. The compressor is fixed, along with the door rattle. 1st gear issue? Still not fixed. Will probably drop by tomorrow afternoon when Mary is "warmed up" to take the head tech for a test drive. Boy, I hope she crunches....

 

Stopped by this afternoon after driving her around. She "crunched" driving into the parking lot, so I was hopeful! Low and behold, and completely beyond my amazement, she crunched for the tech....granted it wasn't with the full fearosity (my MA's term) that she normally does it with, but a crunch none the less.

So, she's parked back at the dealership again, probably for a while. My MA's happy because of the leather inquiries he gets when she's there. Helps that she's clean too. They wrote a ticket and have sent it off to corporate to find out what they want to do. No telling how long it will take to get a response from them. In the meantime, I have that CR MCSca again. I was given the option of hard top or convertible, so of course I took the convertible! It's not supposed to rain until Tuesday night.

 

Turcicus - I love the double-entendre on your plates! very nice.

GBMiniGirl- sorry to hear that Mary's got the crunches. I hope that gets resolved quickly.


Speaking of license plates, I need your all's help in deciding on my custom plates. The options I'm considering are:

TR 3VOM
3M INIM
Y8A8A3Y

If they ain't obvious to you... think of what they'd look like when I come screaming up behind you...

 

Plate sharing time!

 

I like all the choices! Very shagadelic, baby! I just can't decide!

 

OK...I'm in.

I don't think I've posted my plate yet.

And NO, there is no double entendre.



And tethernaut, I vote for TR 3VOM. VERY CLEVER!