I think it’s time to clean the MINI.
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Archive for the ‘Motoring’ Category
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Tuesday, October 18th, 2005I think it’s time to clean the MINI.
Daddy, come play!
Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
’05 MINI Cooper wheel lug torque spec
Tuesday, October 18th, 2005For future reference, the torque specification for the wheel lugs on a 2005 MINI Cooper is 120 N•m.
Discount Tire has it wrong, and that nearly cost me a lug…
update: Discount Tire’s webmaster already replied to my email and said they will address the problem.
MINI OCD
Sunday, October 16th, 2005I went on a bit of a gadget frenzy recently. I picked up a refurbished Garmin 2610 GPS last week; I used the trip to Chicago for Nic’s marathon as an excuse to buy an auto-routing unit with detailed city maps. I’ve been looking for the excuse for a while, and this did the trick. 
I’ve seen lots of people rave about the “bean bag” mount that Garmin provides, but it’s no match for the MINI’s cornering abilities. I also found that the screen was too distracting and took up too much of my field of view when plopped on the dash in front of the steering wheel. I’d installed a PanaVise inDash bracket in the MINI initially for use with the ice>Link: Plus cradle, but that eventually got moved to the glove box. A bit of research turned up the Garmin motorcycle mount bracket that has holes which line up with the ones on the PanaVise bracket and it seemed like a good fit.
Turns out it worked pretty well. The bracket, while solid, does flex a bit, and I find the GPS tends to shake more than I’d like, but it’s easy to put a finger on it with my hand on the shifter, so that works good enough, unless I find a more sturdy bracket. I’ll have to hard-wire the GPS one of these days, too; Mikey The Mini has an adapter that allows the GPS audio to come through one speaker of the audio system, and I’ll probably pursue that at some point; all it takes is money…
Before mounting the GPS on that bracket, I’d used it with a clamp-type cell phone holder to, er, hold my cell phone. That’s been relegated to one of the cup holders once more, which I don’t really like, but it will have to do for now. I still want to get one of the euro parcel shelves. Maybe for Christmas…
Since moving the iPod to the glove box, the ice>Link cradle had just been knocking around in there, requiring two hands to slide it into place. Yesterday I finally managed to securely mount the cradle to the glove box organizer I stuck in there, which also gave me a space to tuck the GPS when I wanted it out of sight. I’m still struggling with the glove box; it’s got some usable space, but it still tends to dump its guts every time I open the door…
I obsessively annotated the contents of my glove box in that picture… sigh
Finally, I relegated the owners manual to one of the little secret compartments in the boot; it’s a snug fit, but that thing just took up too much space. Hopefully that area doesn’t see any water.
Now that my car’s been organized to within an inch of its life, Let’s Motor!
MINI Scavenger Hunt #1
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005
This is my entry for the MINI Scavenger Hunt. Remember to upload your pictures to Flickr and tag them with “miniscavengerhunt”! The concept is cool, but MINIUSA’s Owner’s Network is barely usable and they really mangle the pictures you upload…
Everybody loves the MINI
Tuesday, August 9th, 2005... even homeless guys.
I was filling up at the Shell at 63rd and College in Broad Ripple this morning, and I noticed a rather disheveled gentleman perched on the footbridge abutment smoking a cigarette. I immediately figured him for being homeless, and, given how dirty he looked, I’m pretty sure he was. After the tank was full, I pulled ahead into a parking spot to record my mileage (“*geek!*” cries the crowd) and while I’m writing, this guy starts walking toward me. My immediate thought is that he’s looking for a handout or a ride or something, as that’s happened to me at that station before. I shake my head “no” and start to pull away (hurriedly, and I’m sure I was as obvious as a horse in a dog park) and I hear him yell something. I’m not sure why, but I stopped and he repeated himself. “I said, what kind of car is that?” Crikey. Here I am, basically running away from him, and he’s wondering what kind of car I’m driving.
“It’s a MINI Cooper”, I reply.
“A what?”, like I’d told him it’s a jersey cow
“A MINI Cooper.”
“Looks kinda foreign lookin’. I haven’t seen many of them around before. Kinda small.”
“Well, it’s a lot of fun to drive!”
“Just don’t get hit by anything big.”
“They hold up better than the big cars!”. Lame. Can I go now?
And I’m off. And kicking myself for stereotyping and jumping to conclusions. I feel about two inches tall. Where’s the love? In my defense, out of the last six times I’ve filled up, this is the third time I’ve been approached by someone, and the last two by people looking for a handout.
So, I think I’m going to keep a couple of “handout bucks” in the glove box. The next time someone comes looking for money, I’ll give him one, and stop with the stock response “I’ve got no cash on me”, which nobody, including myself, really believes. Then, provided I don’t feel like I’m going to be attacked, I can stick around and let some otherwise-innocent guy compliment me on my car and not run for the hills, making him feel like a leper.
Warning, this is *not* a MINI!
Friday, July 22nd, 2005
Apparently even the venerable Brits, inventors of the original Mini, aren’t immune to the effects of the new MINI craze. Take the quiz at Make Sure It’s a MINI Adventure to make sure you can tell the difference between the MINI and mere pretenders!
Fun with Google Maps
Friday, July 15th, 2005I’ve been going crazy with the Google Maps API over the last few days. After seeing the googlegpx tool (for viewing GPX tracklogs), I got to thinking again about the things I’ve been wanting to do to visualize my own tracklogs. I finally broke down and stuffed them all into a MySQL database and have been able to display them dynamically on the map. AJAX (aka XmlHTTPRequest) rocks. More on that later.
I’ve gushed about the API to a couple of people in the last couple of days, and today had a chance to put my money where my mouth is. Ian posted today about the distribution of his auto-up window circuits for the MINI. He’s been using Tiger maps to render a map of where the circuits are being sent around the country, and in relation to the various MINI dealers in the US. He made some remark about not being able to figure out how to get Hawaii and Alaska on there, and my little brain got to thinkin’. Never a good thing, I know. Ian offered up his data, and in a few minutes, I was able to display his data on the map. I worked for another couple of hours on sorting and selectively displaying points that are only visible in the current viewport and I’m very happy with the results. I’ve gotta work on the filtering algorithm that only displays the first point in a calculated radius, and that radius should change with zoom level, but for now it works. See it in action!
It’s pretty zippy in Firefox, but Safari chokes for quite a while, and then starts responding properly again. I think it may be the sorting that’s a problem, and there’s really no need to sort the data on the fly, as I’m reading it in from a separate file; it should be pre-sorted.
Whee!
Quick MINI update
Monday, June 20th, 2005I’ve been meaning to post an update for nearly a week, now. I’m back on the road and very happy. The problem seems to have been solved and I’ve gone the last week without a hiccup. The folks at Dreyer & Reinbold did a great job making me happy, and once again, Rhonda went above and beyond. I’ll get a little verbose as soon as I get a chance.
The MINI’s kaput again
Saturday, June 11th, 2005I could not be more crushed this morning. About an hour ago, as I was heading out of town for the driving school, my MINI started acting up again. Just like last time, as soon as I hit 4000 RPM (which is just short of my typical shift point), the engine cut out and wouldn’t run any faster than 2000 RPM, even in neutral and with the pedal to the floor. Today, instead of just the SES light, the EML and DSC lights came on. EML I can understand, but DSC?!
I’m gutted, and not just because I’m missing the school today and have no expectation that my fee will be refunded (hey, it’s not their fault my car won’t run). My experience with the service department was less than favorable this week, and I already know that they’re depending on MINI (USA? Some engineer in das Fatherland? Dunno.) to tell them what to try next. The escalation process with MINI doesn’t exist, as far as I’m concerned. They seem to have a 24 hour SLA on requests from this dealer, anyway, so I’m guaranteed at least a two-day visit to the shop.
Of course, the service department’s closed today.
I’ll update here as I learn more, or feel like Nicole needs a break from my venting. My readership’s up to four (via aggregators, anyway); don’t wanna leave y’all hanging!
Heh. I just noticed the title of the previous post. That pretty much captures how I felt as I saw today’s school slipping away.