Painted my interior rings blue (:
I'll post pictures once I put them in the car, they're drying right now

 

I was thinking of doing the same thing. Did you get the silver ones powder coated or replace the wheels?

 

4 spray cans of black plastidip

Didn't know if I would like them, so I was a little afraid of powercoating them. We'll see how long the plastidip holds up. So far so good.

 

That's certainly a way to do it... I'm assuming if the wheels were cleaned well and you don't scuff them it should stay that way for quite a while. Let me know how well it holds up.

 

soon swapping out my rf.'s for a winter tire, and my 16" silver wheels for 17" black rims as well. Have you tested the Bridgestone Grids?? I know your winters up there are rough!! Appreciate the info!

 

Bridgestone GriDs are fantastic summer/3-season tires but you're going to be disappointed in them in ice and snow and cold, sorry! They'll be slightly better than dedicated summer tires, but not my much. In a snow autocross compared to "real" winter tires they're 30-40% slower, and harder to control - that's HUGE! (We tested winter tires at a Mini event, closed course, controlled conditions, a few years ago).

Get a set of real winter tires... unless you put "winter" in quotes since your car will be in a heated garage all winter! Good luck, and please understand that I really don't mean to be a buzzkill!!

 

No, buzzkill. NEED real info, thanks!! So what do YOU recommend!!!!????

 

Hit a skunk. It is now pretty bad inside and out. Any suggestions?

 

drove her to school and back, and started experiencing something i can only describe as repetitive whiplash coming from the transmission when starting from a stop....
this may be it...

 

Gosh, I dunno! Wash it with tomato juice?

It works on the dog.

Dave

 

Bought a new one :D

GP 0064 is mine

 

Congrats on the GP!!!

I put a new MSD coil in my R53. I don't think i can feel the difference. But I'm sure it there.
Oh and a new right front Hub.

 

Oh, where to start? Search on my username and "snow tires" or "winter tires" and you may find quite a lot!

Summary: PittStopMINI Club tested winter tires against all-seasons and summer tires in full-winter conditions at BeaveRun Motorsports Park for several years running, in some cases with quite formal stopwatch testing (none of that wimpy "hockey rink" stuff, we're talking winter autocross, mixed precip, packed snow and ice, slush, sometimes all at once, closed course, identical cars-type stuff).

Autocross results:
Winter tires (Dunlop Wintersport M3, Blizzak): 30-33 seconds, controllable, no drama
NEW all-seasons (both 15" Pirelli OE and 16" G/Y OE): best run 45 sec, most times around 50, barely controllable, with drama
Winter tires front, all-seasons rear: Do NOT do this! MUCH drama, back end comes around under even moderately aggressive braking, and plows mercilessly in the wet and dry.
Summer tires: Barely finished, 1:05 best, 1:15 average, no drama because in some cases we simply could not move or get enough speed to slide, and when sliding it was quite uncontrollable, even for the pro driving instructors.

Overall Evaluation:
Best all-around winter tire we tested: Dunlop WinterSport M3: Performs like an all-season in wet/dry, and does quite well on snow/packed snow/slush, or Bridgestone Blizzak, which is better on the white and icy stuff but very slightly less stable on wet/dry and showed very slightly more wear.

From personal experience since the testing (it was 3 years ago!)
Wintermark and Winterforce (and other cheapie snow tires) are snow-only, quite squishy otherwise. not recommended.
Hankook Icebear, iPike (which is on my Mini now) and General Arctimax (on my other 2 cars) perform a lot like the WinterSportM3, very nice, quiet as snows go, and not too squishy in the dry (though ALL winter tires are squishier in the dry).

If I were doing it now again: 16", 195/55/16 on R50 and 53, 205/55/16 on R55/56, General Arctimax seems the best cost/value/performance tradeoff for east coast conditions (lotsa slush and snow, but lotsa rain and dry roads too). I'd go Blizzak on ice, and either Arctimax or a Hakkapelitta in Finland or on exclusively snow.

Oh, by the way, studded tires do WORSE than Blizzaks. On ice. And you'll go deaf.
And Winter tires have a tread compound tht doesn't turn wooden in the cold like most all-seasons and all summer tires.

Didja count on that detailed a reply?

So... what did I do to my Mini today? Helped others with snow tire recommendations!

 

Wash down the area sprayed with a mixture of vinegar and water (about a cup of vinegar for each gallon of water).

My better-half swerved to avoid hitting a skunk, and the ungrateful vermin sprayed the passenger side of her MINI. We could see the oil on the side of the car, so it was easy to see where to wash it. The inside stunk too, so after washing off the skunk oil, we parked it in the breeze with the windows open for a couple hours and that got rid of the smell.

Any skunk oil on the underside of the car may be hard to get rid of. When I hit a skunk, I just went to the do-it-yourself car wash and hosed down the undercarriage with many dollars worth of soapy, high-pressure water. It still stunk, but it was a little bit better. The smell just went away on its own over time.

 

The Krautenküper got a new name tag...

 

Started loosening the wheel lugs to my usual seasonal winter tire swap and one of the damn F&%&%%# locking lugs broke off. Had to dump the wheels in the car, grab some new (non-locking) lugs and have my favorite tire shop do the swap for me. What a waste of time and $$.

Anyways, finished the day by taking my wife and dog on a long drive to a fun twisty road for some light hoonigan fun.

Also ordered some Enkei Performance Imola silver wheels with Pirelli Winter 210 Sottozero Serie II tires for the future JCW.

 

I bought a roof rack that we're about to installed today. Then later today, I'll be picking up a Thule cargo box for it. I need it for a trip to New Hampshire next weekend.

 

I'm curious to see how this turned out. Pictures!

 

Anti-seize compound, a table of correct torque values, and a torque wrench: best friends for ever.

I just removed mine and re-torqued them, and added some anti-seize. At 50k+ miles they're bone dry and squeal when you loosen them. I practically had to stand on an 18" breaker bar to get them off. No doubt some shop used an air impact wrench; they always do. One time at Les Schwab the guy at the counter swore with a straight face that they always tighten lugs with a torque wrench, right as I looked over his shoulder into the shop and watched their guy put tires on a car with an impact driver.

Same deal on my spark plugs. They were bone dry and a ***** to loosen.

 

I own a torque wrench and I was the last one to torque those lugs to spec... re-torqued after 100km too. I mean my wheels are swapped at least several times a year for seasonal changes by myself... and more than that when I need to rotate. It's not like they were on the car for the last 47,000km. Anyways it was definitely odd, maybe my wrench needs to be calibrated - but the other 15 lugs loosened with no issues.

I put anti-seize on the hubs to prevent sticking... My last car had a nasty habit of fusing the wheel to the hubs. I've read anti-seize should not be put on lugs? Because I went to a shop this time, I'll need to re-torque.

 

Mary Jane got a new sticker......

 

Lol well i put my clutch and suspension thru HELL in Downtown Atlanta with all those effin potholes!

 

Nice!

 

Loctite's data sheet for their anti-seize compound points out that "An anti-seize lubricant used on a bolt helps to develop greater clamp load for the same torque compared to an unlubricated bolt." Popular Mechanics' Mike Allen recommended in 1996 using oil, grease or anti-seize on wheel lugs, even saying to increase the torque by 20% if using anti-seize. But in 2002 he said use oil or grease unless the manufacture prohibits it, but never anti-seize, because the torque will be higher with anti-seize than without. Automatically adding anti-seize to lugs is recommended in some automotive textbooks but not others. NAPA's silver anti-seize 7651674 says it's made for lug nuts. By 2008, Popular Mechanics is certain they mean only use oil or grease, not anti-seize, on lug threads.

The R50 owner's manual says the lug torque is 88.5 lb ft, while the Bentley manual lists 89 lb ft +/- 7 ft lb, so if you were worried you could aim for the lower figure, 82, and feel confident that even with the anti-seize you weren't going over the maximum, 96.

So I think the over-torque threat of anti-seize is blown out of proportion, but if you're at all worried, just use oil or grease instead.

 

Giggles, Molly's Shoes are the G019 Grids, love them!! We had a pretty bad Winter last year...our Winter's have never been identical, but Molly made it through our Snowyest Day in 1hr. 20min. from work to home (16mi.) when the whole city was gridlocked for over 8hrs.

You may also consider the Conti DWS, I hear those are the one for great All-Season performance including Snow, hence the "S" in the Tire Designation.

Tire Rack is awesome for giving great reviews on all of their Tires, you can even view individual reviews from other MINIacs!!

Good Luck, I know Tire choices are as personal as our MINIs!!