Thanks! It's raining today and I have to take Ambrosia 100+miles roundtrip to the dealer to get her washer jet check-valves installed...so we'll see how it works for me.

 

Nope - just the two remotes (that have keys inside them).

David

 

Here's one: if you have the ipod hook up, go to your ipod or iphone settings and make sure the equalization is set for 'off' or 'none' or whatever. The sounds is much richer/less distorted that way. I have the hifi audio and it still pretty much sounds like crap with mp3s and such. Pour me a beverage.

 

For those of you with a sunroof:

Did you think that deflector at the front was just to keep the bugs and dirt from flying in?

Drive at least 40mph and push that deflector down.

 

Will do!

 

Make sure you plug your ears when you do, Luck.

 

haha, ok.

 

Yeah I did that when I first used the sunroof.

 

My OB is on its way, but I have not yet ordered a deflector. I saw on another thread that the dealers have a good one. Is that what you have, and may I ask what the cost was?

Thanks!

 

yeah, i did that when I first got mine because the salesman mentioned that it was a new feature that cut way down on noise.. so I had to test it! If that thing wasn't there, I wouldn't use the sunroof, that would drive me bonkers

 

The deflector mentioned above is built into the sunroof and comes up when the sunroof is open.It catches the bugs and dirt and apparently keeps your ear drums intact also!I have some pics in my gallery with the sunroof open if you want to see the deflector.

 

They are speaking of the factory unit.... if you push it down at speed there is a bit of 'buffeting'

 

The rock chip protection covers not only the nose and the mirror caps, but the door handle wells too. Keeps the paint safe from you lugs with razor sharp bear claws.

 

OMG! This works wonders to get rid of the distortion, particularly when listening to songs with lots of bass... Thank you, thank you, thank you...

 

What rock chip protection?

 

The optional accessory that is a layer of some clear space-age polycarbonate or something that is applied to the forward-facing surfaces of your MINI. In my case it was applied by a detail shop close to NW MINI in Fife. (Seattle area)

(When I first considered that option I had to ask if it was an insurance policy where they fixed my dings for free for three years or so...)

 

it's just clear tape, and can be bought for any car nowdays

it makes the paint look weird though

 

AKA Clear bra

 

If it is the same stuff used for headlight protection, it is clear vinyl that is much thicker than your standard clear tape. If you have stripes (which are usually a thin vinyl) putting a bra over them can leave a small space at the edge of stripe where moisture can get underneath the bra. Whether that is a problem, or not, seems to be a matter of debate.

 

There is a Mini in the parking lot at work that has the stripes and the clear protection and seeing the gap at the stripe is what made me decide against it. It just looked wrong and made it quite obvious it was there. Of course I don't have any dings yet (jinx) which means my opinion will surely change when I receive that first ding.

 

FYI on the clear bra, if the clear bra is done right, there won't be any issues even with the stripes. Nontheless, if it bothers you that much, you can get the entire hood done in the clear bra. I've never heard of them doing it for the door handle wells though.

 

I did the door handle well paint protection on my Z3 last year. I thought I was pretty smart to have thought of doing that, but guess I'm just ordinary.

 

Yeah, I went ahead and let my installer talk me into putting the clear bra over my stripes but it just looks terrible and now dirt has gone deep down into the gap between the stripe (I have the sport stripes and the biggest problem is on the lower front stripe under the scoop) and the clear bra. Of course my installer sucks and I am currently trying to get him to sort this mess out.

 

rippymcs, I'm going to get a clear bra put on soon and I will ask about getting it put in the door handle wells also. That area gets scratched a lot over time.

Ambrosia, sorry to hear about the dirt on the stripes. Do you think you would maybe get the whole hood done or the entire stripes covered?

 

Well I don't know any installers off the top of my head that would do the entire hood since that is not something most normally do and would be an additional charge....guess a custom order could be done but I think that would be overkill. From the vendors I talked to it normally goes up to about 18" on the hood (something like that). I think I should have just done what I had originally wanted to do and that was cut out where the stripes are. This is a good idea in case you ever need to change the stripes for whatever reason (eventual fading). However, I also was just unlucky to end up with a rather unskilled/sloppy installer