Various Cars - not interesting enough for separate threads

The dash looks great, I had mine done in a similar fashion years ago as I couldn't find a good one, shame hes covered the wrong side of the parcel shelf though!

Corrola Slicktop?

Not Ms. Triss (yet) but SWMBO's 2013 Mini. Quick story, my Kia Soul's timing chain broke 2 weeks into COVID. So we have only had one car - the Mini - for a year. Other than occasionally wishing it were a little bigger it has been more than awesome. (we are still only filling it up about once a month.) At any rate the last couple of weeks it developed a slight misfire - not enough to pull a code - but enough to hesitate while accelerating and while sitting at a light. Fortunately this happened once before and I had a clue. Took off the coil and sure enough, plug #1 tube was half full of oil. Apparently it is a known flaw that Mini's have leaky head gaskets. So, cleaned it out (don't actually have a metric plug socket) but got it about 95% clear. So, very happy.



OTOH why oh why does BMW build such cra*ppy engines? Over and over again I read/ hear /watch stories of these engines failing in spectacular fashion. Everything costs more and I just can't get over what fails sooner than expected. I am glad that this happens only rarely (this is the second time) but, still.



But let's talk about Midgets. It is the first day of spring and I thought a little jaunt in Ms. Triss would be awesome. Put down the top, jump in the car and.... nada. Ok just one click. Am I correct in thinking solenoid?



Tomorrow I will try powering the starter directly. and then if nothing it is the starter but if something, then the solenoid? any other thoughts? It ran in the fall when I put it away.



cheers all!

Give the starter some Tonya Harding treatment.

Good stuff.

Since posting we've had the same issue with both the '7 6v batteries. Cold killed a cell or two I think ☹

Starter also needed some tlc so have had that off for a clean and will try again at the weekend.

Did have them on a trickle for part of the winter. I suspect that even with the charger having the battery only used half the year is hard on it. OTOH while I was planning to go to another store (Canadian Tire) for a new battery I noticed the warranty on the top of the battery. Took it back to Costco and was refunded 40% of the original price of the battery - not bad after 5 years.

My normal MO is it dies three weeks after the warranty. Hot water heater a couple of years ago - made especially annoying because my younger brother had his water heater go about the same time - three weeks before the warranty expired.

OTOH we had issues with the dishwasher and in the process of contacting the company (LG) I established the unit was three months out of warranty. In the course of the conversation I pointed this out and asked 'is there anything you can do?' to which the answer was 'now we can.' Turns out there was flexibility - BUT the customer had to ask. (1/2 argh/ 1/2 phew)

(Oh though - when we did get the Water heater we had some issues. There was a sensor issue. The problem was the installer blamed the vendor who blamed the manufacturer who blamed the installer. Called the manufacturer and was told the warranty had expired. 'No says I there is a 1 year warranty and I have had it 8 months.' Fella responds: 'no sir the warranty begins on the date of manufacture.' I patiently explains that only milk and meat have the warranty begin ticking on the day of manufacture. Finally arrived at a compromise - I had to go and take a picture of the labels on the heater to prove that it was installed AFTER it was manufactured! (let that sink in - proof that it was installed after it was manufactured - and no I am not making it up) Unbelievable.

Annnddd we have contact! Although a little cool today I managed to get a couple hours in the garage. Put in the new battery and a shot of starter fluid and off she went. Got her around the block and she was backfiring and sputtering and not happy at all. Brought it home, pulled the plugs and all sooted up. (they have probably 10 miles on the plugs.) cleaned them up - it ran pretty good for a block, but, just in case I nursed it to the gas station and topped up the tank with fresh (non ethanol) gas - no difference. Got home and sure enough sooted up again. Cleaned them, and then leaned up the SU three flats. Started instantly ran smoothly and when I got home the plugs were nice and clean. Needless to say I am delighted but just a little perplexed. In my experience cars don't jump out of tune and I had to use a wrench on the nut so it wasn't loose enough to vibrate out of tune. The only theory I have is that somehow the choke cable was binding and that when I thought the choke was off it wasn't and leaning out the carb then compensated for the choke. I did fiddle with the choke and it seems smooth enough, but, we shall see. In the meantime it runs and I am happy. To my imagination it doesn't have quite the pickup as it did before but that could be me and it could be fine tuning.

It will be lurking somewhere - good luck