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Gearhead60

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Posts posted by Gearhead60

  1. I've had the Continental DWSs, the Pirelli P7s, and now Michelin Premiers on my wife's Mazda 5. The Contis did not wear long enough in my opinion. The Pirellis actually got to 35,000 before I replaced them for losing wet traction. They were probably still good for 10,000 miles and sold them for $50 on FB market place! We're now on the Premiers and they are working really well. On my Clubman, I have the Pirelli P7 runflats. Dealer had to replace 2 under the Road Hazard warranty. I don't expect to get more than 25,000 miles on them. Traction has been good in all conditions. I've not had to run them in any serious accumulation of snow, but expect the all wheel drive to help with that. When looking forward, I will look at non runflat options, likely looking at what the current Pirelli or Michelin options might be. I worked for Goodyear for many years, but haven't been impressed with their offerings lately. Just remember the old adage, "You get what you pay for". This holds very true in regard to tires.

    I recently bought tires for my son's car and put the VREDESTEIN QUATRAC 5 on his Mazda 3, https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?zip-code=20110&width=205/&ratio=45&diameter=17&rearWidth=255/&rearRatio=40&rearDiameter=17. So far they seem to be a reasonable tire for the price and are holding up well. Vredestein has been around as long as I can remember and my dad put them on his BMW more than 30 years ago, replacing the self destructing Continentals. They are well regarded in Europe.

    Where to buy? Try Tirerack or Discount Tire. Tirerack has a network of installers that you can have them sent to once you decide. Not sure about Discount Tire. I've bought countless tires from Tirerack and have never has an issue.

  2. I do the oil changes between the warranty ones. Mini says every 10,000....I say F that. I change it every 5,000. I have a shop with a lift at work and I can do it relatively easily. Add in I'm 45-60 minutes from any Mini dealer so the aggravation of taking it there outweighs doing it myself. As far as other fluids I only have 12,000 miles on the car. I haven't even added windshield washer fluid yet, although I just ordered BMW concentrate from Amazon.  Damn warning chime, I must finally be low. I haven't figure out how the change the headlight fluid yet, but am open to assistance.... 

  3. 1 hour ago, wyretrip said:

    This is what K&N provides with the kit.. I will probably never put my car on a dyno to find out what the real world is.. so.. yeah. I also have a 2.0 liter engine so it does not reflect my car anyway.

    g3nme2310dyno.jpg

    Apples to Oranges in my opinion. Read this article, especially down at the bottowm where they cover the F series cars.... http://www.motoringfile.com/2018/04/20/need-cold-air-intake-system-mini/ 

    If you are looking for relatively inexpensive performance gains, buy a Dinan Dinantronix tuner ($300 new, or less used) or the NM Module. I have the Dinantronix and it is a noticable gain in power and performance that is worth the money. I have the earlier model which increases HP by about 30hp, but they now have what they call the Elite model which is a lot more money with substantial more HP.

  4. Looking at the picture, it would seem that the area where the cone filter sits is sealed by the hood. Assuming this is correct, the feed of air is still coming from the air snorkel, that directly fed the old air box, positioned in front of it. So, it follows that the amount of air the CAI can pull in is no more than when the air box was installed. The only way you will see a chance of increasing performance is by increasing the volume of fresh air to take advantage of the bigger surface area of the filter. I now see why no one publishes a measurable increase in performance with a CAI on the F series cars. BTW, CAI is really a bad label for this part as no more cold air comes into this area than before.....

    On the issue of heat sink, I would think with the factory air box supplying fresh air through the snorkel, it likely provides an insulating effect from the engine heat, thereby cancelling out any effective heating of the air from the engine, especially at idle.

    Aside from the difference in sound, the visual appeal and the butt dyno feel, I would have to conclude that for performance sake, these intake systems are a waste of money....

  5. 1 hour ago, GreenCactus said:

    Ooh... I’ve really been missing the ability to open the windows and sunroof from my key fob!

    Don’t worry there will be other chances or you could visit Manassas and bribe me with IPAs. 

  6. 2 hours ago, TGGRRR (Ali) said:

    I looked and don't see a code I would like but maybe I didn't see them. What I really would like is when I turn the car off, all doors would unlock. I always toss my purse on the seat next to me or the back seat. Then I turn off the car, get out and go to get my purse and the door is locked. I haven't been able to find a way to set this. It unlocks all doors on unlock when entering the car, but not when shutting it off. 

    Mine has the same issue. Don't see that Carly has a fix for that. Might be considered a security thing that they don't what to mess with.

    • Like 1
  7. 2 hours ago, Gearhead60 said:

    Although I'm a maybe on the RSVP, I do plan to be there, but sh*t happens so I am leaving it at maybe. If I do make it, I would like to make available to anyone interested with F series and some R series cars the Carly phone app and adapter that allows coding on these cars. http://support.mycarly.com/knowledge-base/code-bmw-what-is-possible/

    If there is interest, I would encourage you to review what coding options are available on your particular model through the link provided. It can be a tedious process, so picking 3-4 changes you would like to make will give everyone an opportunity if there is a high demand for some free coding.

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