3.1 miles in 22:14 at 29 years 9 months.
i've only gained 22 seconds per mile in 12 years.
not bad, H, not bad.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
complete at-home guide to reparing a british mini
page 1: jiggle the wires. any wires. just jiggle them. again. maybe you're jiggling the wrong wires. look for other wires. jiggle them.
page 2: hmm. well, let it sit overnight. then go through the steps on page 1.
page 3: talk nice to the mini. then see page 1 and page 2.
page 4: curse at the mini. then see pages 1-3.
page 5: call your mechanic.
this process has worked really well for me during the past 29 months of mini ownership. granted, it is an old car and it is to be expected that things wear out. we have done more than our fair share of real, legitimate, routine classic-car maintenance (fan belt, alignment, brakes, suspension), but when crazy stuff happens, i follow (carefully) the steps above.
for example, the fuel gauge stopped working. come to find out, page 2 is the answer. most of the time when the weather changes, it gets damp and cold and the gauges will stick for a few days (or overnight). just park it somewhere dry and wait a bit and they'll work suddenly.
or a few months ago the windshield wipers wouldn't work. page 1 TOTALLY solved the entire problem. jiggle, jiggle, voila! i can see!
i also got some auxiliary headlamps put on the front and they didn't work one day. page 1, page 2, page 3, then page 1 again and i was back in business.
but recently i had to resort to page 5. for some reason the mini has become more Herbie-like than i am comfortable with. i pulled into the garage and switched off the ignition, and the radio stayed on. then it went off. then it came back on. i turned the car back on, off again, pulled the key out and 10 seconds later the radio came on again. then, the heater, too. i jiggled, cursed, talked nice, waited, tried again. nothing. i guess the car has decided that it is in charge of its own electrical system from now on. maybe it was tired of all the jiggling.
so, i decided that the mini is officially possessed. i just hope it doesn't figure out how to drive itself; i don't want to end up at the top of the Golden Gate.
page 2: hmm. well, let it sit overnight. then go through the steps on page 1.
page 3: talk nice to the mini. then see page 1 and page 2.
page 4: curse at the mini. then see pages 1-3.
page 5: call your mechanic.
this process has worked really well for me during the past 29 months of mini ownership. granted, it is an old car and it is to be expected that things wear out. we have done more than our fair share of real, legitimate, routine classic-car maintenance (fan belt, alignment, brakes, suspension), but when crazy stuff happens, i follow (carefully) the steps above.
for example, the fuel gauge stopped working. come to find out, page 2 is the answer. most of the time when the weather changes, it gets damp and cold and the gauges will stick for a few days (or overnight). just park it somewhere dry and wait a bit and they'll work suddenly.
or a few months ago the windshield wipers wouldn't work. page 1 TOTALLY solved the entire problem. jiggle, jiggle, voila! i can see!
i also got some auxiliary headlamps put on the front and they didn't work one day. page 1, page 2, page 3, then page 1 again and i was back in business.
but recently i had to resort to page 5. for some reason the mini has become more Herbie-like than i am comfortable with. i pulled into the garage and switched off the ignition, and the radio stayed on. then it went off. then it came back on. i turned the car back on, off again, pulled the key out and 10 seconds later the radio came on again. then, the heater, too. i jiggled, cursed, talked nice, waited, tried again. nothing. i guess the car has decided that it is in charge of its own electrical system from now on. maybe it was tired of all the jiggling.
so, i decided that the mini is officially possessed. i just hope it doesn't figure out how to drive itself; i don't want to end up at the top of the Golden Gate.
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