Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

February 27, 2008

Foglight Gremlins

Filed under: — Josh Wardell @ 11:19 pm

Ever since my bumper was destroyed in June, my foglights would not turn on. I assumed the filaments were broken by the impact, as one of the front turn signals suffered the same fate. However, I kept putting off replacing them for two reasons: First, every guide I found to do so involved removing both front wheels and wheel liners as you can only access the bulbs from the back. And secondly, I could never conclusively determine if the bulbs were H7 or H11s–discussions argued both ways in the forums, and even my dealer’s parts department saw indications of both and wasn’t sure! I eventually came up with a good short cut, and attempted replacement last week.

First, a guide to replace the foglight bulbs easily–something I haven’t seen documented elsewhere. Simply turn your wheels all the way to one side. Then with a standard phillips screwdriver (ideally a stubby one to help with the smaller space), unscrew and pull out the four plastic rivets towards the front of the wheel well. This will almost allow you to pull back the plastic wheel liner; unscrew the one metal screw upside-down under the front bumper, and the liner will then be freed. You should be able to pull it back now enough to see the back of the fog light. Simply rotate the L-shaped wire assembly 90 degrees and you can then pull it out of the lamp enclosure. There’s plenty of slack in the wire to pull it out from behind to more easily work on it.

The bulb turns out to be an H7 in an H11 socket. There are a few weld points, however. They could probably be pried off pretty easily, however it is much easier just to replace the whole H11 assembly. Simply squeeze the tabs on either side of the wire connector to pull it off. As for the bulbs themselves, they can be found in most parts stores. The MINI dealership wanted a whopping $23 each for them! So instead I went to my favorite aftermarket lighting website, Autolumination where the bulbs can be had in a variety of brands and colors for as little as $3.49! This is also a great opportunity to stock up on back up H7s for headlights, and 7507 turn signal bulbs..even available in silver-coated.

Enough of the how-to, on with the story. After close examination, I noticed the filaments in the bulbs were just fine. After plugging them back in, turning on the car, and trying the lights…the foglights worked! Strange…. Then I noticed that now my REAR foglights were not working! I checked fuses everywhere, and eventually went to the back and wiggled the cables..tried again and they worked. What is going on?? Perhaps a british car starts showing its age around 65,000mi with old-fashioned electrical gremlins. But I was happy…everything was working.

The next morning, when leaving for work I then noticed a headlight out! I quickly inspected it as the other headlight bulb had legitimately blown a few weeks earlier, but the filament was intact. And sure enough after re-attaching, the headlight worked again! Strange indeed.

February 16, 2008

MOP’s MINI Clubman Debut

Filed under: — Josh Wardell @ 2:53 am

MINI of Peabody threw a fun introduction party for the MINI Clubman tonight. The event started with an excellent catered dinner and drinks (including Young’s Double Chocolate Stout) at its Centenial Drive service facility. After an hour and a half of mingling and munching, they filed everyone into the service bays and started the show.

After going over some MINI news (including the announcement that MOP will eventually be moving to their current Acura location on Rt. 114), Paul first displayed a parade of the current model MINIs. Then we had a parade of Clubmen (?) with several creative demonstrations. Afterwards everyone was able to have a first hand look at all the new MINIs, and of course everyone had to climb into the back seat.

As I had thought, the Clubman looked better in person than I had seen in many photos. I do like the contrasting rear design, though I’m still not crazy about its side profile. I have no desire for one but I do think it was a smart idea, as many people have avoided a MINI simply because they wanted a bit more rear legroom. I met one excited person who already had theirs on order for and that very reason, their first mini.

Visit the gallery to view all my photos of the event.

December 17, 2007

MINI SUV Spyshot

Filed under: — Josh Wardell @ 9:53 am

MINI is apparently going against all its beliefs and developing a MINI SUV. While shoveling on Friday I thought this is what it might look like!

Despite having a small snowblower, I spent nearly ten hours total shoveling over the last few days, thanks to two storms. Thursday’s storm was all about bad timing and bad logistics; as is typical around here the plows forgot to pre-treat the roads before the first storm and nearly everyone left their jobs early at the same time, creating gridlock even 50 miles out of Boston. I spent six hours driving home, inch by inch, on roads that would have made good Ski slopes. Thankfully I had no traction issues thanks to my Nokians, but the same couldn’t be said for others as even full tractor trailers were stuck on some hills on the highway, not to mention dozens of cars out of gas and abandoned. After hours of barely moving I literally cheered when I crossed over the Tobin bridge into Boston, but it was still more than an hour before I got into my house and ate dinner at 10pm.

We were socked again on Sunday where thankfully no driving was required, the predicted three inches was a foot of snow when I started shoveling at 9:30, quickly changing to fierce wind-blown sleet, and after a few hours soaking rain. I had to change clothes four times. All that rainwater then froze again overnight making for some more nasty conditions this morning. Last year about this time it was in the 60’s….welcome to New England!

December 11, 2007

MINIs on StreetView

Filed under: — Josh Wardell @ 2:13 pm

Today Google added the Boston area to its StreetView feature of Google Maps. To my surprise it extends well out of the city of Boston, including my house and all the way up to MINI of Peabody:

(Ian noted there must be something wrong with it, because his car isn’t in the lot!)

It’s fun to “drive” around familiar areas using StreetView, perhaps you’ll come across some other MINIs on the road.

Just something fun during a lull in MINI activity and my blog as I’ve been very busy with other things .

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