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MINI Cooper Care & Maintenance

282 messages,  Last post on Nov 26, 2009 at 6:07 PM

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#195 of 282 Seat Care by matt14 Jul 16, 2008 (3:53 pm)
I have an '06 with 2 tone sport seats. It's my understanding the seats are "real" leather, but my guess is the main part of the two tone (seat and back) are leather while the rest is fake leather. What part is leather and what do I use to clean and protect it? I assume you don't use the same thing on both leather and fake leather. Replies to this message: coupah (Jul 22, 2008 1:29 pm)
#196 of 282 Press Request by KarenS HOST Jul 16, 2008 (4:31 pm)
A newswire reporter would like to speak with owners of the Mini Cooper. If you are an owner, please respond to ctalatiedmunds.com with your daytime contact information no later than Friday, July 18th.
#197 of 282 Re: Seat Care [matt14] by coupah Jul 22, 2008 (1:29 pm)
Replying to: matt14 (Jul 16, 2008 3:53 pm) Matt, On most (leather) seats, the part you sit on, is leather. For economic reasons, the "other parts' are synthetic. Hard to tell, far as I can see. Of course, big-buck cars are ALL leather...
#198 of 282 Re: MINI Cooper Owners: Care & Maintenance [KarenS] by zxbosguy Sep 02, 2008 (8:19 am)
Replying to: KarenS (Dec 02, 2003 10:06 am) I have a couple questions for you about extending the warranty on my Mini and wonder if you have ever considered or dealt with any of this. Even if you have not, I would appreciate your thoughts. My 2005 Mini maintenance and mechanical warranties (two separate agreements) are up in March 2009.    I am considering extending either, or both, warranties for another 2 years. They are separate decisions, and are priced separately, so I want to know what you have done or think I should do.    Maintenance warranty covers all routine stuff like oil changes ($200 if bot separately), alignment ($200), tune ups at major milestones ($800), wiper replacement ($100), convertble top alignment ($200), etc. To extend the warranty unitl March 2011, it will cost me $1995.    Mechanical warranty covers everything except the exhaust system, such as engine failure, brakes, transmission, clutch, etc, and that's another $2095.    Where I put about 6k miles per year on vehicle, I figure things are going to wear out slower than the avereage car. But the routine maintenance will still need to be performed. So, I'm thinking of skipping the mechanical and going with the maint warranty extension. What do you think?     Your thoughts? Replies to this message: rlmiller9 (Sep 02, 2008 4:10 pm)
#200 of 282 Re: MINI Cooper Owners: Care & Maintenance [zxbosguy] by rlmiller9 Sep 02, 2008 (4:10 pm)
Replying to: zxbosguy (Sep 02, 2008 8:19 am) If your tranny goes it will be about 6 big ones and there are not any independant shops that can do it. With the shody history of this model I would (shop but) get all the warranty you can afford.
#201 of 282 Mini Cooper Tires by carl_spackler Sep 16, 2008 (10:07 am)
I have 40K miles on my factory tires. I live in Minnesota in the snow and cold. I am looking for a set of tires for my Mini Cooper S that are not run flats and that will provide all around good performance with good traction. Does anyone have a recommendation on a tire?   Thank you!
#202 of 282 Re: more frequent changes... [eashley] by zman401 Sep 28, 2008 (1:20 am)
Replying to: eashley (Jul 04, 2008 4:11 pm) The more often the better.. this is a quote from a Carb bible or possible an engine builders bible. it is about how often to change oil. This should help others assuming they read this frequently.." You can never change your engine oil too frequently. The more you do it, the longer the engine will last. The whole debate about exactly when you change your oil is somewhat of a grey area. Manufacturers tell you every 10,000 miles or so. Your mate with a classic car tells you every 3,000 miles. Ole' Bob with the bad breath who drives a truck tells you he's never once changed the oil in his car. Fact is, large quantities of water are produced by the normal combustion process and, depending on engine wear, some of it gets into the crank case. If you have a good crank case breathing system it gets removed from there PDQ, but even so, in cold weather a lot of condensation will take place. This is bad enough in itself, since water is not noted for its lubrication qualities in an engine, but even worse, that water dissolves any nitrates formed during the combustion process. If my memory of chemistry serves me right, that leaves you with a mixture of Nitric (HNO3) and Nitrous (HNO2) acid circulating round your engine! So not only do you suffer a high rate of wear at start-up and when the engine is cold, you suffer a high rate of subsequent corrosion during normal running or even when stationary. The point I'm trying to make is that the optimum time for changing oil ought to be related to a number of factors, of which distance travelled is probably one of the least important in most cases. Here is my selection in rough order of importance:   1.Number of cold starts (more condensation in a cold engine) 2.Ambient temperature (how long before warm enough to stop serious condensation) 3.Effectiveness of crank case scavenging (more of that anon) 4.State of wear of the engine (piston blow-by multiplies the problem) 5.Accuracy of carburation during warm-up period (extra gook produced) 6.Distance travelled (well, lets get that one out of the way) If you were clever (or anal) enough, you could probably come up with a really clever formula incorporating all those factors. However, I would give 1, 2, and 3 equal top weighting. Items 1 to 3 have to be taken together since a given number of "cold" starts in the Dakar in summer is not the same as an equal number conducted in Fargo in January. The effect in either case will be modified by how much gas gets past the pistons. What we are really after is the severity and duration of the initial condensation period. All other things being equal, that will give you how much condensate will be produced and I would suggest that more than anything else determines when the oil should be dumped" In short even conventional oil last a good while if you have ideal conditions. Synthetic definately flows better and lasts longer no doubt. The article also pointed to a BMW enthusiast site talking about how some of them are having sludge problems. So If you are going to keep your MINI forever Change it often, IF it is a lease or if you know you are going to trade it in use manufacturers/dealers recommendations
#203 of 282 Re: mini radiator fan [mymemni] by cinboden Oct 06, 2008 (12:39 pm)
Replying to: mymemni (Jul 06, 2008 5:05 am) The problem you described was a few months ago, but I hope you remember everything that happened. I have a 2003 Cooper S, and I'm having the exact same problem with the ever-running radiator fan. I really don't want to spend about 600 bucks, but I have almost no technical ability when it comes to fixing cars. Could you explain what you mean as far as the relays and contacts? Did your "temp" solution work, and if so, for how long? Thanks. Replies to this message: mymemni (Oct 06, 2008 5:01 pm) snicker2 (Oct 21, 2009 3:25 am)
#204 of 282 Re: mini radiator fan [cinboden] by mymemni Oct 06, 2008 (5:01 pm)
Replying to: cinboden (Oct 06, 2008 12:39 pm) I took my car to my local shade tree mechanic who tapped on a relay that goes to the fan, where that relay was, I haven't a clue. if I were you I would go to your local garage and describe the problem and tell him what happened to mine, any halfway mechanic should be able to figure out what relay it is, meanwhile you can just disconnect the neg battery cable (which is kind of a pain in the butt everytime you stop) Sorry I'm not much help, oh, and by the way, mine has been working fine ever since, must have just been stuck good luck

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