Not sure if I'm just over reacting but I've noticed the front end of my Mini gets dirty pretty fast. Now that I have a MCSC I use it to commute to work once a week. That is a 40 mile drive one way. I never noticed this in my usual commuter car, but after driving the Mini the front end (front grill/bumber and windshield) is hit by many bugs! Is this due to the shape of the car? The color? Or am I just over reacting!

 

The shape of the front end and windshield is very upright. That may be your problem.

You also might be suffering from 'the fever' (MINI fever, that is)... and it's making you care more about your car's appearance and condition.

The solution: Premptive care... ZAINO!

 

I plan on doing Zaino but it just seems as though the Mini got a lot more bugs on it compared to driving my Toyota the same route.

 

Also to protect the front end of your MINI from annoying bug splatter and rock chips, I highly recommend you loooking into installing a new 3M clear bra.


If you can't stomach the $400+ cost of a new bra, then your other other alternative is a high quality Vinyl car Bra from Colgan Custom www.colgancustom.com

These retail for around $100 and have excellent fit and materials. If you follow care instructions carefully, you will never have a problem with it and will offer reasonable protection to the paint and front end of the car for little money.

Vinyl car bras demand a lot of attention and constant cleaning habits and they are not for everyone and certainly not intended to be put on and then forget about it for months. If you choose the Colgan Custom Bra (I have one for My S and one for my Cooper CVT), be sure you use it only for highway driving and remove it for normal city driving or when it gets wet.

However, if you can afford a permanent 3M clear bra, you will not have to confront the high maintenance issues associated with cheaper vinyl bras, thus preserving the beautiful look and finish of your car.

If you choose to do nothing about it, the front end of your car will be ruined and worned out in 6 months.

 

If you get your Clear bra thru Auto clear guard it will not cost $400 for the kit the installation you can do or have it installed by local company. I will be having mine installed in a few days when there is no chance of rain.

Also I have the Aero kit so I tend to have more bugs and stuff hit my front end.

Art

 

Yes, this is a common problem... along with small rock chips on the soft MINI paint- Ouch!

Things to help lessen or prevent the bug Death:

Clear Bra on the front- By the way check out the factory installed clear bra on the Lotus Elise- it is to die for- super thin- very nice. I wish MINI had a factory option like that.

Leather or vinyl bra on the front- just keep it clean underneath- hope the paint doesn't fade from the sun.

Drive slower- dodge the bugs

Lower your MINI- miss the high flying bugs

Draft another MINI- very close so the bugs cannot squeeze between you and the bug death car in front of you. Notice that if you follow a MINI it has the same outline as you so you don't have to dodge as many of the bugs.

Drive backwards- the boot area is already dirty and you won't notice a few (more) bugs.

Always remember- bugs are smaller than birds... as softer too.

 

I was considering the clear guard stuff but I was concerned that you can see where the film ends...I've seen some pics, it's not that noticeable but you can see it. I was just wondering why the Mini gets so many bugs on it compared to my other cars (Toyota Tercel - my beater commuter car and Acura MDX - family weekend SUV) Yes... my Mini gets more bugs than my SUV, maybe it's the color of the Mini?

 

You're not driving your SUV in bug infested areas I guess. Drive faster and dart around a bit more.

The SUV is bigger so you should be hitting your fair share of bugs.

You can always paint your MINI "bug mettallic brown"

The clear 3m stuff is a little thick and you can see it but it's not too bad. The Lotus clear film was ultra thin- hardly noticable.

 

If the bug traffic seems to reduce in the weeks ahead, maybe your commute just crosses some sort of "bug migration lane" similar to what birds follow, year after year. Once the mating or feeding frenzy is over, you just might see a decrease in bug population density.

FWIW, my CR/MCS is about 90 days old, and it's my daily driver. I've "already" got 2 tiny chips, probably picked up during expressway time. Both of these would have been prevented/deflected, if I'd had a clear bra installed.

Livin' with it, but if a more noticeable one appears, I'm picking up some Langka,

Tatt

 

Does your MINI end up looking like this?

 

Well it gets dirty but not that dirty! Is that from driving just one trip?

 

Aw man, thats clean, I'll have to post mine sometime. This time of year it always looks like this. Just a sign of mototing

Nik

 

One afternoon/dusk in the desert and mountains east of San Diego. As the sun went down, starting hitting big ol' swarms of little black bugs. Splatter-splat on the bumper, hood, mirrors - you should've seen the windshield! Pretty gross when I tried to clean them off the next day, but a couple washes and a clay bar and Penny was clean as a whistle.

 

Coefficient of drag = 0.36 for MCS, 0.35 for MC

The drag coefficient of the camary (if thats what you have) since the mid 90's has always been about 0.30, sometimes a couple tenths higher. The same can be said of the Accord.

The Honda insight has the lowest drag coefficient of any mass produced car at 0.25.

For an example, even some of the newer Ferraris have a D/C of about 0.33, but most involve some downforce.

The Ford Explorer has a D/C of 0.41.

Sooooo...the Mini is pushing more air than many of the cars out there, and therefore will hit that many more bugs along the way :smile:

 

A Reason for all the bugs can also be atributed to all the rain we have here on the west coast . More rain = more bugs

 

Clean the bugs off with any of the stuff that will do it ,get back in motor more,catch more bugs,do it again.Motor more,clean the bugs,motor more.....

 

Hey, on that Pepper White, the bugs actually look like real Pepper. :smile: :smile: If you tasted it, you probably have a little kick to it also.

 

That's what I've been doing! I was just wondering why my Mini gets dirtier than my other cars (Toyota Tercel and Acura MDX) even when they are driven the same routes.

 

kakaka ... pretty good 1 blargo

Wonder if Pepper White+ "Yellow" + bugs would look like

Maybe a sunny sideup with salt & pepper

 

You should have seen our MINI the other day (wish I had taken pix before washing!). It's butterfly season in Northern California, and we took a run along the river. Bug City! Big, messy yellow stuff too, because the butterflies are carrying a lot of fat for their long commute from South America to Canada. Spatters all over the windshield, front and side windows. What a bug homicide!

 

Yeah I get a decent share of the yellow smears on my front end too. To make things worse, I was cleaning off my windshield and there was a stubborn spot that wouldn't clean up, then I found that it wasn't dirt but a small ding in my windshield!

 

That musta been quite some bug!