Today I was finally able to get my first “real” service done at MINI Peabody (I did a “halfway” one back in July).
The distance-to-service counted down ever more slowly – so today after the service I passed 12,345 miles on the way home!
As well as the oil & filter change, I got new wiper blades (the old ones were streaky almost from new!) and – hopefully – had one small dash rattle eliminated. I think GBMINI was washed too, but with rain all day today it was hard to tell!
Margaret The American
Today Margaret completed her goal of becoming an American Citizen! The road to Citizenship began when we emigrated in 1996; once we got our Green Cards in 2000, we had to wait five years before applying for citizenship … Margaret started the process back in the summer, did her “citizenship test” a while ago and today finally went through the swearing in & Oath Of Allegiance.
Todays events were held at Faneuil Hall in Boston; more than 400 people became citizens in this ceremony, which includes some final paperwork checking, handing in the (now redundant) Green Card, renouncing your previous citizenship, and swearing an Oath to defend America … Finally you are awarded a Certificate Of Citizenship, and you are then American – next stop, an American passport!
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Failed light mod
For some time the side repeaters of GBMINI have been annoying me. The off white plastic just does not fit nicely with the general red & chrome of the car.
Recently I saw “NEW ERA CHROME OVAL LED REPEATERS” in a MINI Mania UK advert so bought a set. Installation suggests cutting the cars wiring, so I put off installation for a while …
Today I decided instead to modify the side repeaters so that the cars wiring was unchanged (thankfully!); I checked the car connections, and added small pin connectors to the side repeaters, then I took them out to check them on the car – the first one I checked seemed fine, so I modified the second one, and took both out to fit to the car; then I discovered two significant problems!
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The first is that they are badly designed – they simply don’t properly fit in the indentation of the side grille! The oval shape of the new lights seems to be too long vertically, and not long enough horizontally, so that it does not sit neatly.
The other problem is that one of the two lights is poorly made – some of the individual LEDs don’t light up properly, and if you apply light pressure to the housing the LEDs will get more dim or bright. Apparently there is a soldering / assembly issue. Of course I can’t return them to MINI Mania now that I have modified the connector, so unless I decide to repair them and like the poor fit, it’s off to the junk pile with them …
M&I / GBMINI 