Mini

Goodbye Mini

A fleet reduction has become a necessity. When you’re living on a reduced income, which we very much are (happily out of lifestyle choice rather than economic gloom), it has to be said that running five elderly vehicles is not easy! Even though I do much of the servicing and upkeep myself, there’s still road tax, insurance (group classic policies minimise this though) and MOTs to consider.

The Mini is the first casualty, and it sold on Ebay for a sensible amount – £1375. Against the purchase price of £741 in 2006, that’s pretty good! Especially if you ignore the £3500 restoration in the middle of that time…

Rachel took to the Mini from the start. She liked it so much that she even cleaned it! This event was so shocking that I captured the moment on camera. I’m not sure she’s cleaned it since mind…

Betsy joins the fleet in 2006, and actually gets washed by my wife! A rare event

Betsy proved surprisingly reliable in daily use, especially given that Rachel was using her for the commute. At the time, that was either a 20 mile round-trip to Banbury from our then home in Northants, or a remarkable 70 miles to Oxford if Rachel had decided to drive all the way rather than catch the train. She did this for a year and I can’t remember any issues in that time.

Betsy behaved slightly less well when we moved to Cambs. The points gap – or rather its propensity to close up – became an issue and more than once, Betsy conked out and refused to play. Not that it ever took very long to get her going again. I even managed to limp her home after she suffered condenser failure! I’ve become quite good at driving cars that are running very badly…

Generally reliable, but not always!

I loved the Mini’s handling, but was less keen on the suspension and cramped driving position. I bravely took ‘Betsy’ the Mini to Kent once, for the Bromley Pageant when I was working on Classic Car Weekly. My aching legs made sure I never spent that much time in it again! We were living in Cambs at the time so it was a long trek.

Betsy makes an appearance at the Bromley Pageant

Even though I wasn’t that keen on her though, Betsy won me over with her cheeky charm. But with corrosion nipping in at various points, it was definitely time to say goodbye. She’s gone back to her original home in the Midlands, and the new owner seems very enthusiastic. Betsy is now called James Bund…

Goodbye old friend! Betsy heads to her new home

One of those days. Again

Read through my Blogs and you’ll see that there are days that really test those who like older cars. For some reason, my cars do often seem to conspire to play up all at the same time. Today was one of those days.

Before I start, I shall exonerate the BX. It coped with a 320 mile day recently, despite still being far from entirely healthy. Perhaps I used up all of my car luck on that journey…

Anyway, I got up this morning and headed in to town for some totally unexciting shopping. Things didn’t start well – or at all – when the 2CV’s ignition barrel resolutely refused to take the key. I do have a spare barrel kicking about because the one fitted has played up before, but I was in a hurry to get to Morrisons before the Aberystwyth masses arrived. So, into the Maverick I hopped and off I went.

It was a horrible morning, with mist and rain conspiring to make me very glad of the variable intermittent wipers. Well, until they just suddenly started going continuously all of their own accord. I tried turning them off. They just kept on going. Ok. One of those delightful electrical quirks eh? Switching to fast and then off did make them behave, but then I needed the intermittent setting again – which lasted for precisely two wipes. Gah!

I bought an oil filter for the Mini and then went supermarket shopping, ensuring that I also filled my trolley with some cheap 15w40 oil for the 2CV and BX. They never get fancy stuff, especially as the BX soon leaks most of it back out. I tried not to get too upset with the wipers on the drive back and thankfully, for the most part, they did behave themselves. It’s either a relay or an earthing issue – probably not a duff wiper stalk as I first suspected.

After lunch, and far too much time spent reading the third instalment of the superb Stieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy, I eventually got myself outside to tackle an oil change on the Mini. The usual cursing and scraped knuckles ensued, and I had to park the car on pieces of wood to enable me to get my oil catch can beneath the sump. The oil filter is also horrible to get at unless you remove the grille, which involves removing and subsequently losing far too many screws. Ugh.

My mood was not enhanced when after refilling the engine with lovely, fresh 20w50 oil, a distinct dripping sound could be heard. I gawped underneath and watched lots of lovely new oil pour from somewhere at the rear of the engine. What?! It wasn’t from the sump plug or the filter. I was entirely baffled. Also, very, very anxious as the Mini is meant to be tackling a 300 mile drive to Cornwall in the morning – probably the furthest it’s ever travelled in a day in our ownership. I was starting to wonder if I should have just left it, but Minis rely on good engine oil, as it’s also the gearbox oil. And it’s well over a year since it was last changed… (to be fair, only about 2000 miles ago).

I decided to bravely attempt a test drive, as no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to repeat the random oil dumping. It seemed to be behaving.

My conclusion is that the rocker cover gasket is shot. I think I poured so much oil in via the filler that the rocker cover actually filled up with fresh oil. I suspect (by the stains out the back of the rocker cover) that a fair dollop of the fresh oil bypassed the engine and flooded straight down the back of the engine. I hope it’ll be ok…

I try not to get too disheartened as mechanical issues are never far away when you’re dealing with older cars that have plenty of miles on them. Yet weeks can go by with no problems at all! Well, they did until I bought the BX…

At least none of these issues required a laptop to sort them out, or special tools. And as bad as a Mini is to work on, it’s a lot better than some moderns. Plus, I’d feel really, REALLY annoyed if I experienced mechanical trauma with a car that cost tens of thousands to buy. Ignoring restoration and running costs (of probably £10,000 across the entire fleet) the purchase costs of the fleet are £450 (2cv, 12 years ago), £741 (Mini, 6 years ago), £250 (BX, six months ago) and £500 (Maverick, last month). They may cause me woes at times, but financially, they still make a lot of sense!

Mini caliper rebuild – Part 2

Having received the new wheel stud, I could complete the left-hand side. It all went back together beautifully and with an attractive assistant (the wife) on pedal duty, it was soon bled and functioning correctly. Lovely.

New brake caliper and disc fitted to proper Mini

Hmmm. Sooo shiny. seems a shame to cover it up with a wheel. New disc and pads plus refurbished caliper

Now attention could turn to the opposite side. I lowered the car back to the ground as I needed to reposition it – space is tight in the garage. This time, I remembered to undo the main driveshaft nut BEFORE jacking the car up. Having read the Haynes manual, I decided to remove the caliper complete with pads this time. That was stupid – I then couldn’t get the pistons out. So, I connected the caliper back up and with the handy assistant again, could use hydraulic pressure to force the pistons most of the way out – using a spanner to stop the first one from popping all the way out until the second one was also easing outwards. It was then an easy job to use pliers to pull the pistons out – you wouldn’t want to do this if you were planning to re-use the pistons, but I wasn’t. They were in a dreadful state.

The only seized bolt on the entire job caused some issues – I couldn’t get the caliper into its two main parts. Eventually, I managed to smash a slightly-too-small socket onto the corroded head, and out it came. There may have been some colourful language before this! I then had to locate another bolt, which involved a trip to see a Mini enthusiast in Aberystwyth. Thanks Dave!

This was the side that had seized the most ferociously, and getting the old seals out proved a real ‘bind.’ See what I did there? The new seal holder things are incredibly soft and easy to damage but on this caliper, I actually managed to get one of the new ones to fit – though had to resort to an old one for the second piston. Then it was a simple case of swapping the disc and then re-fitting the caliper. New pads completed the job and with another bleeding session, she was ready to go!

The difference on the road was marked. When you’ve only got 45bhp to play with, binding brakes can be a very noticeable drag. I’m still to bed the brakes in – only 8 miles covered so far – but look forward to seeing how they go.

Yup, that'll be scrap then. No point putting this back on.

With fixed brakes, Betsy the Mini is ready to go!

Mini caliper rebuild – Part 1

Mini gets a brake overhaul. Citroen BX rear seat should be back in the car, rather than being a Mini hat...

It was going so well. Despite a hectic week with much writing work, I actually managed to find some time to work on the Mini’s brakes. They’d started binding really badly and before Christmas, I had the pads out and discovered seriously manky pistons (see below). Rebuild time.

Rimmer Brothers were able to supply the bits I needed and after finally getting my hands on the necessary tools (Ebay saved me a fortune) I could begin work. Being a bloke, I decided to find my own way, rather than lower myself to reading instructions. This was how I ended up removing the caliper BEFORE undoing the main driveshaft nut. That made removing the brake disc (I decided to replace everything) impossible. Fortunately, I managed to put the wheel back on, jam a ramp underneath and then undo the driveshaft nut without having to go through the rigmarole of lowering the car of its axle stands.

When putting the wheel on, I noticed that I’d managed to damage one of the wheel stud threads, so work has come to a stop while I await a new one. I did get as far as fitting new pistons and seals to the caliper on that side though, so progress has been made! Once I get the new stud, I can put it all back together again and do the other side…

No wonder the brakes were binding - and this is the better side!

HubNut – celebrating the average!