Last Saturday, I started hearing some very worrying sounds from GBMINI; whenever I hit even the slightest bump in the road, there was a “clunk” type of noise from the back of the car 😦
I thought maybe an exhaust mount had come loose, so checked for that when I got home and all looked well; then I thought to check the engine mounts – I found that the mounts were fine, but my engine bay was full of chestnuts! I cleared them all out, with some tightly jammed between engine and car body (forgot to take any pics) … then I could no longer hear any noise from the car when driving.
Yesterday, GBMINI had already started a new nut collection:
I even saw the little red guy (chipmunk? squrrel?) standing in front of the car with a chestnut in his mouth!
Still a bit concerned about the noise, and taking corners very slowly and carefully just in case, I took GBMINI to MINI of Peabody and Brian did a thorough inspection of everything – no problems found (hooray!) and more chestnuts removed.
So now I can happily drive GBMINI again, but I am parking in a different place further away from the chestnut trees, in the hope that I won’t get filled up again.
Still don’t know what the original noise was, although Jons theory that it was chestnuts dropping out of the engine bay and banging the car seems plausible!
M&I / GBMINI 
sounds like your MINI wants a game of conkers!
sounds like you need a sticker for the rear window:
“Caution: May contain traces of Nuts”
Check out Kirks pictures in this NAM thread …
Hmmm. I have my MINI garaged for the winter but I do go out and start it about once a week, I also check her over and the first time I did this I found that both the cavities in the top of the strut towers were packed TIGHT with seeds. I vacuumed them out and the went hunting for Chip and Dale. I removed the bird seed from the garage and I haven’t had a problem since – although I did see the Chipmunks once out behind the garage.
I had a nest like that in GBMINI#2; there were many chestnuts in the driver side support on GBMINI#3 this Monday – but I forgot to take pic before clearing it out.
Maybe I have to let the guy fill it up again, just to get a picture 😉
Chestnuts roasting on an engine block…
Well, I guess I was a little off with my sway bar guess!
Caution…there are more nuts in this car than you think.
This happened to my 328i last September when it was parked outside during landscape construction. Seems a though the little critters are fond of the lingering warmth under the bonnet. A neighbor suggested I put some mothballs in a netted bag under the bonnet to discourage the little buggers.
It actually worked! But, alas, one must remember to remove the bag-o-balls before starting-off in the morning! The smell is slowly dissapating now however…
Theo
It’s always nice to keep your nuts warm.
Where’s Ian?
Ian just got back from a week in Aruba 😉
Bastard!
Hey any old Mini Mokes?
I saw no MINIs / Minis at all down there – mind you I rarely left the beach / sea / sun 😉
I would have done the samething! My wife says I’m like a beached whale when I see a beach…there’s no moving me!
Last trip to Jamaica I told the drink stewered….come by every 20 minutes with another Red Stripe and you’ll get a fat tip at the end of the week. He did and I did. Even had to show the beach guys how to BBQ a burger.