Joined Teh Club and Ready to Roll
The last few weeks or so, I’ve been finding myself hanging out with a lot of MINI Cooper owners, and the time spent with them has paid off.
I now get 10% off parts from the local MINI Cooper dealership, and that is amazingly awesome.
This was discovered as I was hanging out at the dealership getting the last bit of my car fixed under my now defunct manufacturer’s warranty, and since Cherise is due for a belt change, I bought a replacement supercharger belt. The Parts Specialist (fancy title) remembered me hanging out with the other members of the club when I was last at the dealership. Yes, I paid my membership dues but had not received my membership card at the time of purchasing the belt, but she gave me the discount via the honor system. Very kick ass. If I wasn’t a member already, it would have motivated me to become one!
All that’s left is to wait until one of the guys are free to “help” me change the belt as I need a belt tensioner tool to make sure I don’t lose any fingers should the tensioner snap while I’m in there, but the dealership doesn’t sell any of those tools cheaply (or at least not to us mere mortals), and I see them going for $100 dollars online + shipping. Steep pricing. I may buy my own tool once I see how it works and when I get a reduced sized pulley. Apparently, the factory sized pulley can hold up to 50k miles before a belt change, but it’s been advised for smaller sized pulleys to have their belt changed every 25k miles. I would take heed since a belt snapping during your daily commute would be a crappy situation to deal with, since you know, all the systems (water pump, a/c, etc) run on ONE belt.
I figure once I save up enough money, I’ll take Cherise over to the PTP guys and have them change the gasket and seals for Cherise’s 50k mile achievement. Or maybe I’ll have them install something “fun” for the 50k mile achievement, since I’m a slacker and didn’t get Cherise anything for our four year anniversary. Four years!!! Can you believe that? Suggestions on what would fall under “fun” for MINI Coopers?