Ok. With the weather forthcoming appearing to be headed in the warm direction, I wonder if it is time to dewinterize the Mini. AKA, put on everything that was taken off for the winter, and so on. I have a feeling we are not going to see much, if any, more snow this season.
What does everyone think?

 

you're in CT? I'd wait.
I'm not going to take my snowshoes off for another 2-3 weeks,,,

 

so lucky... we got forcast for snow... till sunday...

and won't see positive at least till 2 weeks after.... all i see is snow, and rain, and sleet

 

Logically, I keep telling myself to wait a bit more, and see if the weather continues to warm up. At least until the end of march. then there is that part of me saying, c'mon, you know you want to. How bad could it be?
AHHHHHH.

 

If you leave them on - it won't snow. Take them off and you'll be dumped on!
Last year thinking May 5th was safe enough I moved to summer tires for a road trip only to be nearly stuck (had to turn the DSC off) in 6" of snow. Now if I had left my snowshoes on I really doubt there would have been any snow.

 

We've got the possiblity of snow this evening and tomorrow here in Denver.

MiniMaybee is right. Out here when you think winter is done...Bam a snow storm dumps 6-12 inches of snow in April or May.

But I don't dewinterize...I just don't drive in the snow in my car.

What else do you do to dewinterize besides taking snow's off? Does anyone go for a wax?

 

I do the full detail toward the end of this month and then again in October. I also take out the rubber floor mats and put in my Coco mats, change oil and retreat my canvas.

 

Sunday & Yesterday it was 75 here.

 

Well for me, it would be swapping out rims + tires, and re-installing the front lip spoiler.
The difficult part, is that these summer wheels and tires are new, and I have never had them on my car before. Thus, the wait is killer.
I also got this Orbital polisher kit for xmas, and I've been dying to give that a whirl.

 

given the weather patterns for New England (you guys have been hammered this winter), I'd wait. There's a huge storm heading east as we speak...it could get dicey further north.
I'd also be careful with that polisher...swirl marks, ya know...

 

I took off the snow tires and I'm getting ready for Vegas, haven't changed the mats just yet, but will soon

 

I will probably put on my new Nittos for the trip to AMVIV. Risky, but if we have a caravan going from Denver then I can't get too stranded can I? If anyone sees a CR MCC stuck in a snow drift on I-70 on March 26 between Denver and Grand Junction, please stop and pull me out.

 

On Sunday it was 78f, since 6 am this morning we have had over 6 inches of snow, with more on the way. Anyone north east of St. Louis watch out it's heading that way.

Mark

 

I dewinterized once a weekend early (my benchmark is the Sunday of the first full weekend in April). Got caught at work with 3 inches of snow on the roads, and it was like trying to change the direction of a hockey puck. I shouldn't have driven home.

I *know* how it feels to have the "good" wheels in the garage and the snows on, you feel like you're grinding the snow tires to dust and the car's not looking as good as it should, BUT, I choose life!

March is WAY too early for New England.

 

I've noticed that if I ever got into much snow, that spoiler would be a problem - is it easy to remove and put back? Are we even talking about the same thing on my '04 Justacooper? (Newbie here, is it obvious? I want to practice safe winter driving, though - I've already noticed that Harmini eats snow for breakfast, they handle very well in snow -)

 

Hey if this helps you, I'm chancing it taking my snows off tomorrow I'm in Hartford.

 

I have a carbon fiber front lip that I take off in the winter. 1)so it doesn't get beat up in the weather. 2)So it doesn't act as a plow. Altough my bumper does that quite well sometimes. Here's a pic:

The lip you are talking about is part of the bumper cover. If you take that off then it will be like this:



That just made me want to do it all the more.

 

My target date is three weeks after the end of winter (i.e., mid-April). I put the snows on over the weekend following Thanksgiving and that seemed about right on the front end for this neck of the woods.

The pile next to the driveway has melted down about 2 ft, but it's still an obtrusive reminder not to get too greedy about moving to the summer setup.

 

You may be up to your bum in snow by then Our 10 inch snow storm in St Louis is heading your way.

 

It looks as if I'm playing it safe for a bit longer. However, tell your storm to go somewhere else!

 

NO, NO - we'll take it!

Handbrake turns anyone?

 

Mark

 

I broke down and put my summer wheels/ tires on today. I couldn't help myself! Plus, I've got my Alta Cat-Back coming soon and those Blizzaks are too expensive for me to smoke .

If we get buried there's always the gf's X3...

 

Its gonna be quite a while before I put the summer set up back on the 318ti, Im not risking it with how the weathers been lately.

 

Thanks, Astro. I don't have anything near as fancy. Your MCS is beautiful! So shiny! And black! So cool!