great pics Cheffie - Love the street name, and really dig Burnie's new "teeth"!

I re-wired my brake light circuit board today. I swapped the fogs and brake lights; the fog reflector is a more focused beam and appears brighter to the vehicle directly behind, so I wanted that lens to be the brake light. The fogs naturally went to the lower lens, which is shared with the parking lamp, and is more diffuse.

ok, no laughing, this pic is from my phone.


Cheers!
Ryan

 

So for anyone who recently went through the process of getting their MINI, abuot how long did it take to move through the various steps? Should I expect my MINI to be On Order for a few weeks?

I'd imagen it has a lot to do with how much demand there is right now, but I'm not too sure exactly how they determine the wait.

 

>>So for anyone who recently went through the process of getting their MINI, abuot how long did it take to move through the various steps? Should I expect my MINI to be On Order for a few weeks?
>>
>>I'd imagen it has a lot to do with how much demand there is right now, but I'm not too sure exactly how they determine the wait.

It seems that "On Order" means your MINI dealer has placed the order to the factory, meaning that you should already be in a build queue. If you call ASKMINI they can tell you (approximately) when your car is scheduled for production to give you a better idea. In reading through last year's wait it seems that from the time your car is finished to the time you pick it up (on the East cost) is approximately 20-30 days (or 1 month). So for a fairly good estimate, find out your production week, add 4-5 weeks, and you'll have a pretty good idea.

Just from my own anecdotal experiments w/ dealer's estimated delivery timeframe and this method it seems fairly accurate. I'm guessing the dealers pick the last day of your production week and tack on a month for an estimated date (at least it seems to be what mine did).

 

>>-->Rachel...Mung beans???? I'll have to give that one some thought (errrr, how much is a crap-load, exactly?)
>>

at least a two, perhaps closer to three pounds. I've been giving the bag the dirty eyeball for a few months since housemate brought it home. Now it's time to get rid of it, constructively. I suppose it could be worse. I'm not (yet) asking for solutions to the unbelieveable excess of dried seaweed....

Great job on the grill! Burnie looks GREAT!

 

I second (third actually) the grill comments chef.... really slick/nice looking package you've got there! I think the black grill looks absolutely killer with your stripes. I've so far resisted the urge to buy stripes since I just bought the car........ but I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out.

Are there any static cling or magnetic stripes one could install themselves rather than having to pay for a (more permanent) vinyl installation?

Oh, and I HAVE to tell everyone. I had my first stop-in-the-middle-of-traffic motoring experience today! Not traffic exactly, but stopped in the right side of a 2-lane left turn "lane" I saw a DS/B MCS approaching. He pulled up next to me, rolled down his window, and we had a nice little chat during morning rush hour (traffic was at a dead stop ahead of us anyways, always is at this particular intersection for at least 3 runs of the light). Turns out he bought his MCS the same day I got my MC, but from a different dealership in the Atlanta area. We traded a couple of motoring stories before heading on our way. Hopefully I'll run into him at future Atlanta MINIs meets, he was a pretty cool guy.

 

Cool, thanks for the info, I'll give ASKMINI a call tomorrow or something. Its nice to know that the dealer's assesment is accurate. Right now its looking at getting here around the end of april, beginning of may and I absolutely NEED the car by the end of may, I hope nothing happens to delay it.

 

I refreshed The April Club website, so the pics hosted in the gallery here work again, as well as the links section. Also put the slang decoder back in!

Cheers,
Ryan

P.S. this might scare TNG April-ites, but I'm considering putting MM2 back to full-stock and pushing Lemon-Law due to the Yo-Yo. The crap drivability can't be masked even with my re-designed bypass valve

 

Hey, thats what the lemon law is for right?

 

>>P.S. this might scare TNG April-ites, but I'm considering putting MM2 back to full-stock and pushing Lemon-Law due to the Yo-Yo. The crap drivability can't be masked even with my re-designed bypass valve

That's such a bummer!

I've been in denial that my stumble/yo-yo issues aren't there, but steadily they're getting worse... enough so that it's beginning to get irritating. I'll try the latest software, but, well... not expecting that it'll totally solve any of the problems. I'm sure they're still not as bad as the '04's are reputed to be

 

All this lemon law talk makes me happy to have the CVT :smile:

Aside from the slight lag on takeoff (which is easy to compensate for, once you get used to it) the thing is absolutely solid and smooth in operation.

I did notice one thing today that irritated me (though, mind you, it is a VERY minute gripe). When you turn off the auto AC, it seems to still either pull air from outside or actually "heat" the air a bit. Is there a way to stop this short of closing all the vents? I know that for the defroster you have to hold it in for a second to adjust the fan speed, wondering if there's something similar?

The defroster thing doesn't bother me at all... because I understand its reason for being. When it's cold in the AM and the windows are all foggy, that thing clears them in mere seconds. My old Honda would take up to 5 minutes (at least, 10-15 if it was more than moderately chilly) to accomplish such a task

 

How about end of April or early May? Could anyone out there give the instructions/address for finding the marine date info and monitoring the ships, etc. I know I saw the info on a previous thread, but can't find it. I knew I should have saved it, but at that time hadn't ordered my mini yet. Now I have and can't seem to think about anything else.

 

Try the link below for boat tracking.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...amp;topic=5511

 

I've built a program for tracking your ships... that is if you know the call sign. PM me with the call sign and your email address and you will get an email report each time your ship reports in. Note that my ship --the Bujin, never reported in. Others like the Carmen report in all the time.

emerika

 

I'm "en route."

 

>>great pics Cheffie - Love the street name, and really dig Burnie's new "teeth"!
>>
>>I re-wired my brake light circuit board today. I swapped the fogs and brake lights; the fog reflector is a more focused beam and appears brighter to the vehicle directly behind, so I wanted that lens to be the brake light. The fogs naturally went to the lower lens, which is shared with the parking lamp, and is more diffuse.
>>
>>ok, no laughing, this pic is from my phone.
>>


I agree. I wired my non fogs to brake lights right away. They add a measure of safety, and the bulbs and sockets are there.

Regards,
Red

 

Add me to the the April Club! Just got confirmation that my MCS is scheduled for week 12 production (today I saw my production order get changed to my specs). So hopefully I'll picking her up in Memphis sometime mid-late April and driving back to sunny San Diego - nothing like a short little break-in drive huh? Well I was looking for a reason to see some family anyway...

My MCS:
CR/W w/Bonnet Stripes
Anthracite
Black leather
All 3 pkgs
H/K
R fogs
Auto wipers/mirror

Though I'm getting the 17"wheels in the package my dealer will trade me out for a set of 16" V-spokes. Currently I think I'm leaning towards doing that.

Already planning on adding aux audio kit, roof decal, aftermarket driving lights, euro shelf. Seriously debating whether to keep the car stock (performance-wise) in order to run in GS or to throw caution (and possibly warranty) to the wind and add pulley/ECM/intake for more daily smiles...

Woo Hoo, can't wait - I'm already buying accessories!
-WebWerker

 

Welcome WebWerker!

You're twice lucky...you're soon to be motoring, and you'rea n April Clubber. Lot's of experience here and willing to share, so ask away-- your car will be sweet....mods or no mods, I highly reccomend the parcel shelf and AUX, I love mine...

Best wishes for a quick build and smooth seas--Ahoy!

chef

 

Thanks Chef!
I hope I can make my fellow April Clubbers proud with a level of MINI obsession and fanatiscm that is to be expected from this group. BTW, is it April yet? Now? No? How about now??
Its going to be a long 6 weeks...
-WebWerker

 

Welcome to the club WebWerker.

Great looking smile Cheffie!

Just got back from a trip to LA. 80 mph all the way. Not even a hiccup. This is the first time I have really spent a long time in this car, and it was very comfortable and a very good trip. Cruise control held 72-75 mph all the way up the grapevine. The only bad part was having to spend $30 to fill up. But That's California.

Got to go scrape bugs.

Andy

 

>>Got to go scrape bugs.
>>
::sniffle:: I MISS bug season.

It's supposed to snow here again tomorrow and through the week.

It was _60_ degrees yesterday. *sob*

 

ditto on the crazy weather!
Friday was torrential downpour and over 1 inch of rain
Saturday was 70F, 30MPH winds and sunny
today was 30F, calm, and snowing!

Welcome to Michigan

 

If I had only known I would have saved them and mailed the to you. Sorry, my mistake.

Andy

 

>>Welcome to Michigan

Well do I remember Michigan! I think it HAD to be the state that originated the saying 'if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes...'

 

>>If I had only known I would have saved them and mailed the to you. Sorry, my mistake.

Did you really need another excuse to go out and play some more and make more bugsplats?!

 

If anyone is still keeping track here, my car has hit the US and is on it's way to the vdc. Fingers crossed that a compatible '04 jcw kit arrives at the dealer soon.