The end of one thing is the immediate start to another

Throughout the months various things got replaced;
In the winter I found out the battery was dying - which was why I was having to Jump Start it every morning off the X5!
Then I had a corroded relay switch connecting to the starter motor replaced as every time it rained or I cleaned my car, water would seep into the electrics and cause the circuit to complete - do you know what this means?
It means that Sparky would start turning over all by herself! And she would stop turning over until she either dried out or I took the connections out of the starter motor!

Anyhow ....

While I had her in the garage to have this replaced, I had asked the boys to try and find out what this weird noise coming from the engine was...
...it was only every so often, but it sounded like a house burglar alarm....coming from my engine bay.....?
Surely thats not right.

As it turns out, the clutch was fucked.....not so fucked that it affected my clutch controle enough for me to realise, it was the slave cylinder mainly, but the fucked slave cylinder then fucked my clutch... bye bye £360!

I decided to cheer myself up a bit by spending even more money...
ON A SUB!

Hello Subwoofer!

By this point I had already added a speaker board under the rear seats complete with two 6x9 Alpine Speakers, so I was just completing the set really :)

Unfortunately, this day turned bitter sweet.

It was during the installation of my new sub that I had bought after the clutch episode that I cracked the screen of my macbook while it was in the passenger side footwell!

On The Road

During the ownership of my little mini, I have had many adventures.

We joined the Essex Mini Club and also helped create Chelmsford Mini Club too!

 I am always changing bits and pieces on Sparky, from small shiny bits to the essential big important mechanical bits. In December 2009 I was driving home to Witham on the A12 when Sparky's engine temperature got very high, I started losing power so I pulled off at the next junction and managed to get to the top of the slope before it completely cut out.

We rolled it into the near-by Park and Ride entrance and sat there for an hour while we waited for break down recovery. When they arrived, they simply re-filled the rad, emptying an entire new bottle of anti-freeze into it in the process, and sent me on my way - I get home fine - problem solved ....?


 The next day I'm back on the A12, heading to work when, low and behold - Sparky is over heating - yet again! I pull over once more and await my recovery, this time I tell them to take my car to my mechanic as something is obviously wrong.

Sparky is loaded onto recovery and we make our way to Terling (absolute middle of no-where hamlet!)

It turns out the water pump was leaking out water like a sieve and so this was the first expensive item to be replaced...