Mini

Three To Two

This morning I owned 3 cars and now it is down to 2. Which in reality makes me a one car family temporarily because their are no seatbelts in Bucky, they are In Transit to Next Facility according to USPS. I can drive it without the radio, but I think I’ll wait for the belts.

Brother-In-Law Scott came down from Everett on the train and I picked him up in Vancouver, Washington. He asked if I preferred Vancouver or Portland to pick him up at, I didn’t have a preference, but I picked Vancouver. Basically because it is not much further than the Portland train station and Vancouver is a lot smaller of a town.

We had a late breakfast or early lunch in Vancouver at the only restaurant I knew in town, Victoria’s Cafe. The only reason I know of it is because I met up with Sally’s daughter Claire and her new beau and his kids about a month ago.

We drove back here, loaded the snow tires in the back of Mini Two, and off it went on its way to its new home in Granite Falls.

Brownsville

Brownsville – 97327: Just a quick tuck off I-5 to capture a Post Office on my way home from Eugene with the old tires and wheels off of Bucky. (2/21/25)

Today was the first time I drove to Eugene and FTW Tuning and turned right around and came home. I just went down to pick up Bucky’s wheels and tires. The tires looked good from a distance, but 25 years can take a toll. When I was lifting them into the back of the Mini I noticed every tire had a long crack in them, one or two of them were almost around the whole circumference.

I am going to mount some Ultra High Performance All-Season tires on the stock 2001 16″ wheels to put them on the New Miata (see this mock-up.)

Maybe I can sell the 17″ wheels and tires that came on the New Miata to somebody in the local Miata club. There is one wheel that has a bit of a curb scrape, but I think a little black paint will take care of that. Now I have to go join Facebook just so I can contact folks in the Mt Hood Miata Club.

Jordan Is A Car Guy

We go through the dive-in line at Chick-Fil-A and when we get our order there are stickers on the both the drink lids and the food bags. The info on those stickers consist of which of the two lanes we are in, the name you gave the order person and a description of the vehicle. This lets the runners know the correct car to bring the food to.

We have been going to get that tasty chicken in numerous forms about once every 3 or 4 weeks since we have been here and every time the Vehicle ID is listed as a White or Silver SUV. Our regular ol’ Cooper, not a Clubman or Countryman, has only two doors and when was the last time an SUV was produced with just two doors?

Today our stickers said Silver Coupe because Jordan must be a car guy and he correctly knew Mini does not equal SUV and 2-doors equals coupe.

Shortest Day Of The Year

This morning on a quick run to Fred Meyer the Mini beeped to let me know that the outside temperature was 37 degrees (so as to let me know to be careful as ice may form on overpasses.) Even though the winter solstice hadn’t actually happen yet, still had about 12 hours, it was now winter here in Fairview because this was the first time the temperature has been that low since last winter.

Swapping Minis – Part 5

If you haven’t already, go back and read Part 1, then follow the links at the bottom of the posts to find your way back here.

The weather folks were right in their weather predictions, there was no further snow or rain and the temps were above freezing during the day. The roads up and down the Cascades were dry and clear for our trip over & back to Medford and John’s Auto Care Center. The 7 miles of OR140 through the pass, between Lake of the Woods and Fish Lake, did require a bit of slowing down in spots because there was some left over ice on that stretch.

We drove over on Monday and spent the night in a HIE so that we could get the Mini to John’s early on Tuesday. We knew that they needed at least 3 hours for the job and I wanted an oil change and coolant flush as well because who knows when the last one of those was done. After dropping the car off, instead of sitting around their waiting room for several hours we did what we did the other time we had some work done on the old Mini, walked the 1/2 mile over to the Rouge Valley Airport and rented a car.

We went back to the hotel and killed a little time and then checked out. We drove into downtown Central Point and dropped a Travel Bug we’ve had for too long in i5’s Travel Bug BnB. From there we drove back to Medford to shop a little at Harry & David. Next up we wandered around the Rouge Valley Mall looking for a winter knit hat that matched Donna’s winter coat. From there we drove over to get some lunch at chain that we don’t have in Klamath Falls and we used to enjoy back in Aiken, Firehouse Subs.

Having not yet heard about the car and with nothing else we wanted to do we drove back to John’s to ask in person. The Kombi switch was in, but they didn’t have a slot to do the oil change until 3:00 PM, so the car would be ready at 4 o’clock. We still had the car, so I said, “Let’s go for a drive.” After about a mile or so, Donna asked where I was going to go, I had no answer. She said, “I’m tired of driving around, let’s just return the car.

After giving National their Toyota Corolla back we were going to just shop in the little airport store, but the only way to get to it was through the TSA checkpoint. As we were walking out I saw a sign that said Observation Deck, so we rode the elevator up to the second floor and spent a pleasant hour or so watching regional jets take off and land.

With our Mini on the lift getting the oil changed I wandered into the office area and asked if they had contacted CarMax about payment for the Kombi Switch. The fellow handling it said he tried and left a message earlier, but hadn’t heard back yet. The last time I tried contacting the service department I left a message and was called back less than 5 minutes later. I said, “Let me try.” I called, left a message and waited. Nothing back. By now the car was done and we were ready to go. I tried again and instead of leaving another message I hung up and called the main number. After telling my story to someone random in their call center I was finally transferred to a different person in the Salem location’s service department. Finally, with about 20 minutes of emailing back and worth between John’s Auto Care Center and CarMax a working one time credit card number supplied the money.

Because of the time of year, by the time we got home at 6:00 PM, it was full on dark and I got to use our now working as advertised high beams.

Swapping Minis – Part 4

Go read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 then come back, I’ll wait.

After about a week of waiting to hear from John’s Auto Care Center letting me know my $700 part was in, on Halloween morning I called them. The part was there, it came through their door late on the previous Friday. We scheduled a day for us to bring the car in, Tuesday the 8th of November (today.)

We were watching the weather closely as snow was predicted for yesterday and today in southern Oregon. For us to get to Medford we have to cross over the Cascades at five thousand feet where the snowfalls are always heavier and the temps were already just barely rising above freezing during the day.

Late last week it looked like the snow was going to start on Monday night into Tuesday then quit, so we made a hotel reservation for Monday night hoping to beat the snow over the mountain Monday morning. This way we could drive back in the afternoon on Tuesday when it would be the warmest and any daytime traffic might have made leeway on clearing a path through any snow.

Midmorning Monday (yesterday) after looking at a couple of traffic cams along our route I made the command decision to call off the trip. The roads were just wet on the first one nearest Klamath Falls, Doak Mountain, but the one nearer to the high point of the trip, Lake of the Woods, was white with just black top visible in two tracks in each lane.

I’m glad we didn’t go because looking at those cams now, about the time we might have been coming home, Doak Mountain & Lake of the Woods look like no fun to be driving on. Probably could have made it if the situation was life or death, but why take a trip like that if you don’t need to.

After looking at the weather for the following week where it was going to be in the 40s I called John’s and rescheduled for next Tuesday the 15th.

Part 5

Tire Juggling

The last couple of years when it came time to put snow tires on the 2013 Mini for the winter I would take the all-seasons off and mount up the non-studded Blizzaks and MSW wheel package we bought from Tire Rack. Because the Miata and the Mini both had 15″ wheels with the same bolt pattern I could take those all-seasons and put them on the Miata. I’d then take those ultra high performance tires off the Miata and store them. You don’t drive on them when the temperature is below 40 degrees because they turn rock hard and stop handling/riding well.

Even though the Mini’s tires fit on the car they weren’t a perfect fit, they would scrape against the plastic inner fender liners when I turn the steering wheel almost all the way in either direction. This was really okay, because it was not like I was going to drive it in the snow or take a trip in it. This was just so the Miata could be driven on dry roads about once a week to keep the battery charged and give the car a little exercise keeping from having to winterize it while it sat for 4-ish months.

Well, the new Mini has thrown this routine into disarray. The 2013 was a 2nd generation of the “new” Mini and the 2016 we just bought is a 3rd generation, besides growing a few inches in all directions they changed to a 5 lug wheel. So, now what do I do about putting an all-season tire on the Miata in the winter? Turns out the solution was relatively easy.

After test driving the 2016 Mini we realized that we were going to need new tires for the car. CarMax put on two new tires because they were worn down enough as to not be safe and replaced them with a bargain Chinese brand that were very noisy. Maybe the 6-year old OEM Michelins contributed to the sound some too. I went to TireRack and found a Grand Touring All-Season that was the quietest of all the options, the Kumho Majesty 9 Solus TA91. We still wanted to maintain the ease of wheel swapping that we had previously, the Kumhos were ordered mounted and balanced on their own set of rims.

While the lug count on the 2016 Mini changed, the wheel diameter stayed the same at 15 inches, so that meant we could keep using the 2-year old Blizzaks, we just needed some 5-lug wheels to put them on. Those wheels were literally right in front of us, the current wheels that on the 2016 Mini. All I had to do drive to a local tire store in the Mini with the old Mini’s winter tire package and have them flip flop them. So, now the new Mini sports the Blizzaks on the OEM wheels and the crappy tires are on the MSW Type 22T rims, that as you can see above, I’ve put on the Miata as its winter wear.