Hey Deb - Congrats! I'm so glad to hear your MINI's finally catching up. You'll be tearing up the pavement in no time!

So has anyone else had their side windows get smeared up when rolling them down and then back up?

Both of mine get this big smeary streak happening. I've only had Sheamus one day, so he obviously is still the way he came from the dealer, and hasn't been washed by me yet. Is it just some manufacturing residue that will wear off the window guides or something?

And just how hard is it to stay below 4,500 rpm during the break-in period, eh? I'm finding that Sheamus really starts getting himself going at around 3,000 - 3,500 rpm, and then I have to shift when we get to around 4,000 (shifting with the paddles on the steptronic).:( Only 1,880 more kilometers to go...
MiniVee - My windows did the same thing for about a month or so, but reading your post I realized it no longer does. I wonder if it is from excess lubrication during the build process? Anyway, it should go away.

And just how hard is it to stay below 4,500 rpm during the break-in period, eh? I'm finding that Sheamus really starts getting himself going at around 3,000 - 3,500 rpm, and then I have to shift when we get to around 4,000 (shifting with the paddles on the steptronic).:( Only 1,880 more kilometers to go...

Yes,it's extremely difficult to stay below 4500 rpm, fortunately I have a JCW Mini so it still makes great power down low. The really hard part is that at 4500 rpm, a flap on the JCW airbox opens up and makes more power and (aparently)a deeper and meaner growl-I have yet to hear it because I never rev it high enough :(

We picked up our MCSC today, and we LOVE our new MINI! The rest of the drivers on the road must have thought we were crazy, bundled up in scarves, hats, and gloves drivin' like maniacs with the roof down with temps in the mid-40's.
:D :D :D
The sun came out for a few minutes, though, at least long enough to take a picture or two.

http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/FirstDay.jpg

Haven't managed to capture the Chili Red color very well yet, but we're working on it. We'll post more pictures later.

Spent the rest of the day driving, and topped off the evening by watching the Italian Job (hated to watch the MINI abuse, though! :aargh: ) Happy Motoring everyone!

I'm glad the weather was accommodating for you yesterday. Your MINI looks great. I love the chili red with the black stripes. The web spokes looks great too! Enjoy the rest of the weekend with your new baby.

I guess I will one of the last ones to get my MINI.

Looking forward to more pictures. :nice:

Deb

We picked up our MCSC today, and we LOVE our new MINI! The rest of the drivers on the road must have thought we were crazy, bundled up in scarves, hats, and gloves drivin' like maniacs with the roof down with temps in the mid-40's.
:D :D :D

Where did you get the rear stripes from?

Here's Zephyr! I picked him up yesterday on a snowy day in Denver -- perfect conditions for me actually... (more images in my gallery -- have yet to figure out how to make the small images clickable thumbnails)

http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/medium/Pfront_snow_.jpghttp://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/thumbs/Pback_snow_.jpghttp://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/thumbs/Pside_snow_.jpghttp://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/thumbs/Aaron-Vince.jpghttp://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/thumbs/D-interior.jpghttp://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/thumbs/roof_Webb_.jpg

Hey Micahbones! Your Zephry looks awesome! The color is great for I almost picked the same. Man these Coopers are too much fun. I've alread got 1300 miles on The Pooper. Have a good time Micahbones. Al

Here she is after a few glitches:

105713

105714

105715

105716

105717

Our new car's been cursed by a girl!! :aargh:
We took it out for lunch today, and at the table behind us, this guy says to his daughter "That's a nice looking MINI out there" :D Then his daughter says, "Yeah, but they break down all the time.":aargh:

We chuckled to ourselves, thinking how wrong she was, and how much we're lovin' our new car.

Ten minutes later, we're driving down the road, brake moderately hard (by no means did we "slam" on the brakes or anything...) , and the DSC light and the Service Engine Soon (SES) light come on. A couple of minutes later, the SES light starts flashing, and the engine's running really rough. Turn off the car ... wait a few minutes ... turn it back on, SES light stays on but the car's running ok. A few minutes later, the light is blinking again, and the car's running rough again, and the DSC light's on again. We ended up driving it 40 miles back to the dealership for the service department to have a look at in the morning. :frown: :frown: :frown: :frown:

Ouch!

That really sucks Roymo! I hope it is nothing serious! :frown:

You know what they say about kids and their sixth sense; a friend of ours had a young daughter that was freaky about predicting winners at the track...

I drove 600 kms today and am now halfway towards the 2000 km break-in period. I averaged 9.1L/100km for fuel economy and am amazed at the power and cornering ability. I love the car more than ever

I just wanted to say thanks for everyone's compliments on Zephyr. I was out motoring this weekend and didn't get on the computer to say so earlier...

After putting a couple hundred miles the Mini since taking delivery, all I can say is "Wow!" This car handles so well it is ridiculous. Even with all season run flat tires, the amount of mechanical grip afforded by the suspension simply blows my previous car, a '98 VW GTI VR6 with a Peloquin LSD and Shine rear sway bar, out of the water. The quick steering ratio and light weight of the vehicle are also revelations -- now I can keep my hands at 10 and 2 around tight corners and make quick transitions with much more smoothness and grace (makes the GTI seem like a truck in comparison)!

I hope the other week 40'ers who have their Minis are also getting out and enjoying the pure driving experience :biggrin:

(Roymo your car looks outstanding! Sorry to hear about the tribulations -- any word on what happened? :puzzled: )

(Roymo your car looks outstanding! Sorry to hear about the tribulations -- any word on what happened? :puzzled: )

We're not happy campers at the moment. The service department is looking at our vehicle - the computer code tells them there was a misfire, but they're telling me it's a single-incident. That's definitely not what we experienced driving the vehicle - we had problems on and off over a 40-mile drive back to the dealership. They're still checking everything over. And, they've offered to deliver the car back to us, saving us the trip down and back this evening. I'm not really inclined to let them drive our car that far, but if they come back to us claiming it was a temporary glitch and nothing's wrong, we'll probably take them up on their offer - if it's going to have problems on the way home, I'd like to have it happen while they're driving the car and not us, after service department hours.

Just a quick update. The service department cleared the warning lights, gave our car a thorough going-over, but couldn't find anything wrong with it, and couldn't duplicate the problem, despite a good LONG test drive. We drove it home again last night, and all was well. We'd really like to believe it was just a strange glitch, but probably won't really trust the car for a few weeks.
Still, it's really good to have the MINI at home again, back in our garage.

Here she is after a few glitches:


What ever became of your SES light issue? Is all well with your MINI?
Looks great, by the way!

Still, it's really good to have the MINI at home again, back in our garage.

Glad to hear it Roymo!

I have heard some talk about Minis going into this "limp" mode when the computer senses a problem (I think it may have even been discussed at an early point in this thread). I think I mentioned this before, but at a Mini5280 (Denver mini club) event at Webb Motorsports, one owner mentioned that his Mini just suddenly lost power while driving at altitude over 10,000 feet. Randy Webb said that the ECU probably sensed too little oxygen in the O2 sensor (at that elevation there is something like 30 percent less oxygen in the air than at sea level), thought there was a serious problem, and put the engine in limp mode to "protect" it.

This owner had not had a problem since, so hopefully this was just a one-time glitch for you. :)

We picked him up on Thursday, and this past Sunday was Sheamus' first MINI run. 28 MINIs in total on some nice twisties. We all enjoyed it greatly!

http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/medium/Sheamus_at_Ghost_Lake.jpg

http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/medium/Ghost_Lake.jpg

Glad to hear everything is well at this point roymo, although I can understand you being a little "gunshy" now for the next few miles.

I've heard of that limp mode too; but if that happens, shouldn't the service dept be able to tell what triggered it?

Apparently, the "single misfire" was the problem the computer detected. However, I'm a bit concerned because (1) The problem went way beyond a simple indicator light - the car was actually misfiring and losing power over a period of time, and (2) The problem came and went, and came and went, and this was not due solely to giving it a rest and restarting the engine. When the problem first manifested, we turned the engine off for about 5 minutes. It then ran fine, for a mile or so, and started to have problems again. So we gave it a rest for a few more minutes - then it drove fine until we got home though the SES and DSC lights remained on. We probably let it rest about 20 minutes before we decided to take it back to the dealership, and when we started the car, the SES and DSC lights were still on. It ran ok until we got on the freeway, then started misfiring again and the SES light began flashing again. When we got off the free way, SES light went back to solid and car ran better for awhile, then went back to misfiring.
Seems like if it was due to the computer detecting a single misfire and going into protective mode, it would have STAYED in protective mode. :confused: :confused:

Sorry to bore you all with such detail, but maybe these posts will be of some help to others who may experience a similar issue down the road. (I spent Sunday evening scouring the forums for keywords "engine" and "light" and "dsc".

Glad to hear everyone else is enjoying their MINIs so much! I still love ours to bits, but I'll enjoy it more if we can get through a few weeks of dependability. :frown:

Picking up the MINI today at 3:00!!!!!!!

It has been fun reading the posts and seeing all the new MINI's.

Will post pictures soon.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

:black: Deb

What ever became of your SES light issue? Is all well with your MINI?
Looks great, by the way

Thanks.

The SES light is still coming back on every few days. I bought a OBDII autoscanner and the default keeps reading PO456 and it indicated a small leak somewhere in the EVAP system. This is the sytem used to capture gasoline vapors and be sure they do not leak into the air. I'm having too much fun to drop the car back off. I only need another 300 miles to really start motoring. If you keep having trouble, I suggest the OBDII scanner. If I did not have it, I would have been too nervous to drive the car and the car would have been back to the dealer 3 times already (in 2 weeks). I will bring it in but not for a week or two.

It is getting toooo cold for me now. It was 21 degrees this morning. Guess the top will be up for a few days.

Omigosh-I finally reached the 2000 km mark on the odometer and took the car up to it's redline-it will spin the tires all the way through 1st and 2nd gear all the way to 100 km/h!! I couldn't believe it!

:black: We picked up our new MINI Cooper Wednesday and have been enjoying it!

We have already ordered a few "bits" for our MINI.

I've included a couple of pictures and will add more later.

Deb

Love the web spokes! And I know you will love the car.

We picked up our MCSC today, and we LOVE our new MINI! The rest of the drivers on the road must have thought we were crazy, bundled up in scarves, hats, and gloves drivin' like maniacs with the roof down with temps in the mid-40's.
:D :D :D
The sun came out for a few minutes, though, at least long enough to take a picture or two.

http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/500/FirstDay.jpg

Haven't managed to capture the Chili Red color very well yet, but we're working on it. We'll post more pictures later.

Spent the rest of the day driving, and topped off the evening by watching the Italian Job (hated to watch the MINI abuse, though! :aargh: ) Happy Motoring everyone!


Excellent choice Roymo. Beautiful Cooper... Have fun and hurry up and get to through the break in period. The fun really begins then...

I am having so much fun with my new MINI!!

I have washed it two times since Wednesday. I can't stand to see it dirty.

I hope you are all having fun with your new MINI's!!

Deb

I am having so much fun with my new MINI!!

I have washed it two times since Wednesday. I can't stand to see it dirty.

I hope you are all having fun with your new MINI's!!

Deb

Less washing ... MORE DRIVING! :p

Glad you're having so much fun! We've been out looking for curvy roads - so far, so good!

So has anyone else had their side windows get smeared up when rolling them down and then back up?

Both of mine get this big smeary streak happening. I've only had Sheamus one day, so he obviously is still the way he came from the dealer, and hasn't been washed by me yet. Is it just some manufacturing residue that will wear off the window guides or something?

And just how hard is it to stay below 4,500 rpm during the break-in period, eh? I'm finding that Sheamus really starts getting himself going at around 3,000 - 3,500 rpm, and then I have to shift when we get to around 4,000 (shifting with the paddles on the steptronic).:( Only 1,880 more kilometers to go...


Here is a possible solution... Check the gaskets at the bottom of the windows, when the windows are ALL the way down... Our passanger side was totally pushed in the wrong way.. Kinda like when a Window Tinter pushes them downward into the door frame to get full coverage for tint line..

The way I fixed ours was to use a credit card and slowly "walked" the gasket into its proper position..

Good Luck..

I have washed it two times since Wednesday. I can't stand to see it dirty.

Deb

I know how you feel...my MINI gets dirty all the time because of where I park it at work. And not to mention, bugs for some reason love flying around my car, everytime I'm out driving, especially when I have just cleaned my car -- they decide to commit suicide on my windows. I keep trying to keep it clean but it happens everytime I go out on the freeway -- I gave up. :rolleyes:

We picked up our new MINI Cooper Wednesday and have been enjoying it!

We have already ordered a few "bits" for our MINI.

Congrats Deb -- your Mini looks outstanding -- I love the Astro Black/Silver combo! AB and Space Blue have a similar quality to them...

After about 750 miles learning how the Mini handles (about half of those miles on twisty roads), I am enthralled with the car, but IMO a stiffer rear sway bar is definitely necessary. When pushed it has a pronounced tendency to understeer (even with a limited slip), and I plan to cure that with Webb Motorsports' new rear sway bar currently under development and soon to be in production. Despite the cost and wasted rubber, I also plan to dump the stock all-season run flats (which suck in the dry, wet, and snowy conditions) in favor of some dedicated winter performance tires like the Dunlop Winter Sport M3s (non run flats!).

What "bits" have you ordered Deb, and others as well? Last night Randy and Brian at WMS installed an M7 supercharger pulley, Alta intake, Denso plugs, and Nology wires -- and Zephyr is for sure putting more power down to the wheels! My 16x7 Team Dynamics Pro Race 2 wheels have also arrived, and will be getting Falken Azenis RT-615 tires this week (for summer and track use only). With a rear sway bar and brake pads / fluid, it should be good to go for my trip in a couple of weeks to Laguna Seca for the Phil Wicks Mini event!