Thinking of selling - what should I do?

Almost forgot can you tell me when Bromley is on and as your a member of LSMOC in the latest MINI TALK mag you can get an entry for £5 insted of £9 to Brooklands every little helps STEVE

Cheers,

It's in my diary now!! Hopefully Marc and I should both be there

Sorry to come in late on this one as I've not been around here for a bit, but next time you consider selling your Elf for something more modern and "reliable", think on this:

My daughter Holly was running an 88 Mini, which in truth did have issues and we replaced it with a very low-mileage 92 Mini. This in turn had a brake cylinder fail which was replaced by a friend in the area (she's away at university). My wife got worried about the reliability of the Minis and we bought her an 04 Citroen C2.

The C2 has had an electrical issue that requires diagnostics which only a main dealer can perform. It's been in there three times, we've thrown the best part of £500 at it, and still the battery light comes on occasionally. Modern reliability? Pah. At least you can fix Elfs & Minis yourself.

And the Minis it replaced? We still have both of them at home and both have behaved perfectly ever since!

Thats very true, I have no confidence in these modern vehicles, we bought a close to brand new, ex showroom Nissan Almera 5 years ago and a year ago the gearbox went on it, it had hardly done 40k on the clock. I sourced a secondand gearbox and a great mechanic fixed it for us quite cheap, took us about £400 to fix all in all after being quoted 1000+ by Nissan.03 Nissan Almeras fitted with 1500cc engines are notorious for this mulfunction I came to find out. Then a month ago my wife was driving to work, this is about 2 weeks after it had had service and MOT, it stalled in the middle of the motorway(she is expectant). AA came out and thought it will be a routine service issue but realised it was something more sinister, they took it away and a guy with a diagnostic machine had a good look at it and declared the ECU all its assistant sensors, which apparently monitor majority of the cars mechanical functions, had burnt out.Mind you this car was just a standard model, theres nothing mechanically wrong with this car at all just the brainbox. It was a job that could only be rectified by Nissan, who casually informed us it will take £1500 to sort out. I had had enough of all the B.S, so I looked on a Nissan complaints webring and some people who had suffered a similar misfortune were saying that vehicles manufatured 2003 and after were fitted with Renault electronics as part of a deal after a merger between Renault and Nissan back in 2002/2003. Apparently Its a common issue with these particular Nissans of this era. I have vowed never to waste my money on new cars, I know Toyota are also rubbish right now but the older ones are o.k so Ive bought a 98 one which has recently had a cam belt change, low mileage and one lady owner, quite neat, but at least if this dies I wont feel like Ive thrown away 6k which is what I bought the Nissan for.

asahartz wrote:. At least you can fix Elfs & Minis yourself.

If only I could!!! Infortunately I can only do to the very basics.

I totally hear what you and robinkritz are saying. I have had a warning light keep coming on, but as I got it from the main dealer, it's been sorted out without any cost, so far.

Ironic thing is, that since the weather has turned better I've been driving Katy more and she now seems to be running fine!! I guess I just needed a winter car. Oh well, it's only money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If it's the bad weather causing bad running perhaps you need an ignition shield. If the distributor gets wet then the engine does run slugishly or not at all. My old A-reg mini burnt out it's points and the mechanic sugested that was the problem. I've just fitted one to my Elf after she was having problems and she's been fine since.

Mini Spares sell one for an auto engine but at £60 it's not the cheapest of things.

http://www.minispares.com/Product.aspx?ty=pb&pid=42405&title=DISTRIBUTOR%20SHIELD%20ONLY%20-...

To be honest I made a temporary one for Lexy until the proper one arrived. All you need is some thick plastic behind the grill to stop rain getting in to the engine bay. Best to take it off again for the summer to let the air through otherwise you'll end up over heating.

Simpler than that - I use a section of old inner tube over the dizzy cap, tied at the top with a tie-wrap. Works a treat. My Minis took me to work (25 miles each way) every day through the winter, even in the snow.

Many people use a Marigold glove with the fingertips cut off for the same purpose.