My testament to the ruggedness of the MINI.

Last Sunday, I was coming home from a short roadtrip. I live on a small winding mountainous road, which makes my drive home most enjoyable. As I was coming around a 180 degree curve (inside curve so I was doing my best to hug the corner), I meet a mammoth Ford Expedition which is in the middle of the road. To keep from becoming Expedition excrement, I swerve to the right to avoid being smashed and hit an extremely large pothole with a huge thud. The handling of the car immediately told me something was wrong. I pull off the road, and look at the tire, and see it has no air. Having the run flats, I drive on home, which is about 1 mile.

Inspecting the tire and rim, I see no damage on the outside, other than the tire having no air. I pump the tire up and it wont hold air, so I pull the tire off the car and on the back of the rim is a large dent about 5 inches long and caved in about 2 inches. The seal is gone on the tire, so there's no way to drive on the rim.

I call Hank Aaron BMW/MINI (Atlanta) monday morning and arrange to carry the rim and tire (using wife's car) and get a new rim. The technician inspects the runflat and pronounces it safe to drive, puts the tire on the new rim and I'm on my way back home within an hour.

Once home, I put the rim/tire back on the MINI. But now I wonder what damage was done to the front end/alignment after taking such a jolt. I test drive the car and notice no apparent damage to the front end. No pulling left or right, nothing unusual with handling, alignment, ride or anything. Apparently there is no damage to the MINI. The runflat is in great shape and the only damage was to the rim.

I can attest to the strength of the MINI front end. A jolt like this in any other car would have probably ended up requiring a new rim, new tire, front end alignment, and who knows what else.

The MINI.........$135 for a new rim and she's good as new!!

 

May I inquire what type of wheel was damaged? Stock MINI rim or aftermarket?

Oh and I'm glad everything went alright...

 

Cool. Glad to hear that worked out nicely for you.

I had a similar scare when a Ford Explorer decided to make a 6 point U-turn in a blind corner on a mountain road. Not a pleasant feeling to have to jam on the brakes. Fortunately the drivers behind me also were on top of things and got slowed down in time (they were all MINI owners on a group drive).

 

He has a 2003 with the sport package, so I'm going to say it was a 17" S-lite.

 

I'm running the stock 16" 5 spokes. (I think the MINI number is R83). I'm also running the Dunlop runflats.

One other thing I'd like to add. Once the run flat lost air pressure, the handling was almost nonexistant. I've heard talk that they can be run up to 50 mph on the sidewalls, but after this experience, I'd never go that fast. I'd put the MINI mini spare on and get the runflat changed or fixed ASAP.

 

Valiant try Dave!

 

[quote]Valiant try Dave! :smile:

 

Sometimes, jumping to conclusions is the only exercise I get !

 

>>Sometimes, jumping to conclusions is the only exercise I get !<<




Cheers!
Clover

 

Wow, glad you and MINI are ok...
I have ruined three rims and tires (not on my MINI thank God) on potholes in Ohio roads... one car suffered minor front end damage too. It's good to hear that your MINI held up so well...

Motor on... Happy New Year, Paul

 

Nothing like a giant pothole to put a damper on your motoring fun....glad to hear everything is all right!

(They are working on my street right now...it's one BIG pothole and not very MINI friendly. I have to drive like 5 MPH on my road so I don't destroy my car....)

 

>>>>
>>He has a 2003 with the sport package, so I'm going to say it was a 17" S-lite.
>>

Actually Dave, he has a Cooper, not an S. So I would assume it was the 5-star 16".