(no subject)

[geekchick]

For those of you who are stumped for birthday present ideas: ;)

http://www.miniusa.com/link/ourcars/jcw_gp_kit

Speaking of cars, time for a new mechanic. The timing belt/water pump/valve cover gaskets were replaced, then not two hours later the spark plug wires went kablooey, which is why it wouldn't start on Friday night. They replaced the spark plugs and wires and things seemed to be okay, but this morning when I started the car up I heard a disturbing noise coming from under the hood and the world disappeared in a huge cloud of smoke that smelled like oil. Screw it, I'm going to find the closest Mazda dealer and let them take a look at it.

Comments

[wolfy.livejournal.com]

Ugh sorry to hear.


At the rate things are going I'll be able to fix it when I get there.
I hope it's nothing more than them f'ing up the vavle cover job and your smoke was from it leaking.

but the noise has me worried.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

But... the Mini only has a tiny 1.6L 4-banger...

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

Sizest!!!

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

And it is way too small in the back seat...

[geekchick]

There is no back seat in that car. They took it out.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

Some of us don't worry about back seat size anymore.

[nminusone.livejournal.com]

I'll look at it tonight. It may have been a spill, or oil pooling, something like that. The noise is much more disturbing.

[geekchick]

It would've been an awfully big spill, although I guess that could be it. I thought I saw some smoke coming out from under the hood as well, but I couldn't be absolutely sure it wasn't just stuff being blown around the car by the wind. It only happened the first time I started the car up, although the noise showed up every time I turned the car on.

[winterbadger]

I would recommend the mechanics I use, but I think they'd be a bit impractically far for you to consult on a regular basis. Nutley Street Exxon, just off I-66 south of Vienna. The Thai accents make thing s a little hard to understand, but they're wizard fixers of things and very straight with one (as far as I've been able to tell) about stuff like "Yhis needs to be replaced right away" vs. "You could replace this now, but, really it will be fine for another 1,000 miles or so."

Mmmm. Mini construction kit.... *drool* British racing green, roof rack...