*PULLEY PARTY* - Amherst, NH: Sat. 9/23/2006

[GadgetGav]

"Hello, is that MC2 magazine? Yes, I'd like to cancel my subscription. Thank you"

[GBMINI]

Don't worry - any camera lens would shatter!

[holdenontoit]

Adam(antiquecarnut) and his friend (jmacMINI) put on a first class event at Amherst,NH today, at one point I counted 19 minis!

Pete and John were awesome as usual, I think there were 9 pullies and a bunch of RSB's installed. Adam spent the day trying to put 25 lbs of ***t into a 5 lb bag with little success, but I would lay odds that the next time will find his MINI with the loudest horns on the planet. Kudos!

[Voodoo]

Agreed.. (on the first class event). Thanks John for hosting, Pete and John for the work on my car. Aside from getting mods done it was a great little diversion and good to see you all.


Pete, you said to call if I had any problems with the car..
Well, there's this funny thing that keeps happening when I step on the gas..

I sink further back into the seat and my face starts grinning

[GBMINI]

Nice to see so many folks today - some old & some new ... Glad you enjoyed the GP drive, Joe

Pics on GBMINI later ...

[Sheenabea]

Jock- Sorry I didn't get the chance to test out the short shifter on a drive. Next meet up I see you at I'll make sure to try it out!

JMac- Thanks for hosting everyone and serving food! You have a nice little plot of land. You're lucky I didn't need to park on the grass...

[retsej]

I had a blast as usual with all you miniacs. When Ang gets home I'll have her put the pictures up.

P.S. John, can you leave me your garage in your will?

[LePew]

A Sooper day and so much fun to see old friends and meet a few new ones. Many thanks to AntiqueCarNut and Jmac for arranging this, for feeding us, and to Pete and John for their tireless hard work.

Thanks, Ian and Joe, for letting me experience the shotgun seat for that spirited run up Route 13 in Ian's GP. MINI really has put together the perfect package in every way.

The only lingering question .... why did you people let me wait so long for a pulley upgrade?

[snid]

You know what sucks?

Getting halfway home and having you power steering go away.

If only I lived closer to a MINI dealership / service department.


I took the back roads from Amherst to I-91. On the way, I stopped for gas. After filling up, I went to move the car to a parking spot before going in to get something to drink, and the power steering seemed to be not so helpful. But, it wasn't bad enough for me to go "hey! soemthing's wrong!" There was just a strange though in the back of my head. I bought my drink, got back in the car and started it up, and all was fine. A little later, I made another stop to buy windhsield washer fluid - a dragonfly had splatted into my windshield and I was out of fluid. Got back in the car after that, and no power steering. I couldn't turn the wheel at all with the car stationary. I tried turning it off and back on again a few times, no dice. Since I was still somewhat near Rick's place, I checked my phone thinking about calling him, but I had no cell service. So, I kept heading home, without power steering.

I stopped at the next rest area, and checked the little fan under the front of the car for the power steering motor - the fan still spun easily by hand. I looked in the fuse panel inside the car, and didn't see any fuses that had a little picture of a steering wheel. (Is there another set of fuses in the engine bay?)

So, I made it home, and still have no power steering. Time to do some searching here, and probably some phone calls on Monday morning to see if I can maybe get the power steering fixed in time to go to the track on Wednesday... or see if I can get a refund for the track days.

[snid]

Crap.

Fuses look good (I saw mention of F5 as the power steering fan fuse, that one looks good). Found the fuse box in the engine bay, everything looks good there, too. I didn't pull out all the fuses one by one to check, but nothing obviously wrong and the ones with little fan pictures I did pull out and they're good.

Checked the power steering fluid and there's plenty of that. Little bottle next to the coolant tank (on my Cooper) with a lid that says CHF 11 S only - I'm pretty sure that's the power steering fluid.

No power steering whine when it's stationary and I turn the wheel, and no steering assist.

Unless there's a fuse I missed, I think my power steering motor died.

A) how much will this cost me
b) what are the chances of it getting done on Monday or Tuesday so I can be driving around the track at Watkins Glen on Wednesday.

[GBMINI]

Sorry to hear this Jason
Sadly I don't know if this is a failure that happens more than just this once - if it does, you can bet MoP carry spares but if it's a very rare event, they probably don't have parts.
If there's parts in USA warehouse, they probably can order Monday and fit Tuesday. Price unknown - it's an electric motor and pump and it might have to be replaced as a combo, rather than only the motor. That'll make it more expensive.

[GadgetGav]

Jason, do you know if you had the recall done to separate the power steering fuse from the cooling fan..? Fuse 05 was the combined fuse when they were the same circuit. If you had the recall, it will now be on a different fuse, but the notice I saw did not specify which one - maybe it varied depending on options fitting / fuse bays available.

Good to see the people who were there when I finally showed up...! It seems that NoNo must have left before I got there..!! At least I saw one of the browns, so am now exempt from the Wrath of Brown for a while. Oh, and if you want the house-based excuse as to why I wasn't there until late afternoon, I was waiting for Comcast to deliver my dual HD DVR and they were running late.

Many thanks to Pete and John for a very speedy brake job and to Adam and John for hosting. I now know where to find the halo lights I'd been looking for, which products to try on my black trim and where to get a lead on a replacement rear bumper. Plus I have nice new Frozen Rotors and EBC Red stopping power. All in all a good afternoon

[snid]

Quote: Originally Posted by GadgetGav (original)

Jason, do you know if you had the recall done to separate the power steering fuse from the cooling fan..? Fuse 05 was the combined fuse when they were the same circuit. If you had the recall, it will now be on a different fuse, but the notice I saw did not specify which one - maybe it varied depending on options fitting / fuse bays available.

Nope, no circuit split has been done on my car. And is it fuse 5 in the fuse box inside the passenger compartment, or fuse 5 in the fuse box in the engine bay?

I've also read that there might be a 100 amp fuse hiding under the engine bay fuse box that is a fuse for... ummm... something power steering related.

[snid]

No refunds for the track day I have scheduled after September 13. Looks like that might be $400 down the drain, on top of around $600 for a new power steering pump.

[snid]

And for the angry trifecta:

Is a blown automotive fuse visually obvious without removing the fuse?