Stay outta the dashboard Lebowski!

Due to the cancellation of my weekly beach-volleyball game this past Sunday- I found myself with a totally free afternoon and decided it was time to tackle a few small projects on the MINI. Here's what I had in mind:

Planned Projects:

-Swapped out my stock headlight bulbs for SuperWhite halogen bulbs (12 bucks on ebay)

-Installed Ian's "Auto Up" Window circuit behind my switch panel

-Inspected the radio to try and clarify which model headunit I have in the car...

Surprise Work:

-Replaced the 6 stripped torx screws that hold the stereo, climate control, and switch panel in the dash (more on this later)

And now for the installs:

Headlights:

Why change 'em? Simple- get more light. Though the MINI's stock bulbs are great - that is no reason that they should'nt be hotrodded :) It is important to note that my car does not have the xenon headlamp option. I recently bought a set of SuperWhite HighOutput Halogen Bulbs on ebay for $12 (I think I bought them because I was bored and looking for a project). At first glance they don't look "super white" they look "super blue"



I know from experience that one can get a pretty fat ticket for sporting the blue headlights- but I figured I would trust in the product name and install them- see what color they made when turned on.

The replacement procedure is easy and hard- the access to the light and the method of replacement are ingenius- but it helps if you are a bit of a contortionist. Let me explain.

Because the MINI's headlights are built into the bonnet (or "hood" for all you uncultured readers) in order to replace the bulbs- the bonnet must be raised. Raising the bonnet points the lights at the ceiling. This is cool because everything is easy to reach but in order to see the housing where the bulb enters and is later secured- the installer is forced to do an interesting bending trick with the back and neck - sort of like a twisted limbo to get a good look at the setup. It wasn't all that bad and I had the first light swapped out in about 5 minutes. Here is a pic of the two access panels for each headlight:



You can see in those pics that there are two rubber covers that just pull off to reveal the bulb holders for both the low beam and high beam lights. Like an idiot I replaced the high beams by accident and had to go back and switch the bulbs around- Now I'm very well aquainted with the light setup- but that's all part of the thing.

With one light switched I decided to do a side by side comparison to see if I could tell the difference- Boy could I! -unfortunatley for me, and you - my camera leaves much to be desired these days and so I couldn't get a picture that would accuratley communicate the difference, so yer just gonna have to trust me.

The old bulb looked almost yellow and dull compared to the crisp bright white of the new one. (Cool- so they really are white) - Confident that I got what I paid for I swapped out the other bulb and marvelled at my new light system. Quick, cheap- and easy- not a bad project. Now on to the next one.

After much hemming and hawing about which MINI club (if any) to join I finally signed up with a local MINI club called the SoCal MINI Maniacs - or the preferred "SCMM" (for short). This club seems to have cool and frequent events and so far everyone I've met has been great. They also have an online message board for club members- which has proven quite valuable for info gathering and most recently for an opportunity to get in on a great group by for a custom made circuit boards which enable my power windows to have the "auto up" feature.

One of my little complaints about the MINI is that the windows will go down with a tap of the toggle but to get them back up one must hold the toggle the whole way. I think that sux and so jumped at the chance to remedy this problem.

The circuit is custom made by an electrical wizard and MINI enthusiast named Ian and is available for $40. There are two versions of the circuit- one which does just the windows- and one which will do the windows and deactivate the DSC and leave it off for track days. I opted for the windows only one (not sure how I feel about monkeying with my DSC (dynamic stability control)). The kit came with the cirtuit as described and a packet of instructions explaining how to install and how to program the unit.

Here's a pic:



The first step is to remove the downtubes and then the switch panel. If you haven't tried this yet- the procedure is pretty straight forward...usually.

I was very surprised to find that all six of the torx screws that hold in my radio, climate control panel, and switch-bay were stripped out. Funny thing was that they weren't stripped out last time I worked on the car.

Then a thought dawned on me- when was the last time the car was at the dealer- oh yeah- a little while after I installed my garage door opener button. I was a little nervous to bring it in after that mod- if memory serves something was wonky with the stereo head unit- and I thought the dealer might cry foul since I had self-wired the switch bay for the opener button.

Turns out the dealer said nothing- but perhaps had left me a little hint as to their feelings on modding the car in a set of stripped screws as if to say:

"Stay out of the dashboard Lebowski!" -

Well whatever the reason, I was not to be dettered- I decided to get into that switch-bay one way or another. Putting as much of the car back together as was needed to drive it, I shot over to Home Depot where I picked up a Hanson 5 Piece Spiral Flute Screw Extractor Kit, a cobalt drill bit- and a set of replacement screws- They wanna play rough? I don't even care I'll drill into the dash- go ahead dare me...

Now back in the garage and armed with my new weapons of deconstruction - I saddled up my cordless DeWalt and was just about to let the first screw have it when I took pause- Here I was again- the infamous point of no return- once this drill hit that screw there was no going back- I gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger.

A few aluminum shavings later- the first screw was out- man that extractor kit worked like a charm. I had the other six removed in about 5 minutes and the whole thing went off without a hitch. Feeling a little bit of a mechanics high at this point I pressed on with the installation.

The instructions provided by Ian were superb and explained what to do - and more importantly what not to do in great detail. The circuit basically installs inline to the switch-bay. In other words- you unplug the switch-bay's main connector & plug it into the circuit board- then plug the board into the switch-bay- it's just that easy. A few flips of the toggles later and the whole thing was programmed and working like a charm.

That's two projects in the bank- Next Project

I recently bought a new MP3 player -no it's not an iPod- not that there is anything wrong with the almight iPod (lest I start getting hate mail) - I just went a different direction and there is nothing wrong with that- moving on - Point is - I would like to wire an auxilliary input into my car stereo so I can plug in said MP3 player.

I have come to find out that the aux input option offered by BMW is only compatible with '03 and later model cars. Mine is an '02. Then I remembered the stripped screws and my wonky headunit- perhaps they replaced it with a more recent model- Since I had the dash apart anyway I pulled the stereo out and snapped a couple of pictures of the model number and all that jazz-so I can determine which one I've got. If I have the newer one- great $30 - a trip to the dealer and I can install my new aux switch and have all the "legally ripped and never traded" music I can stand for road trips etc.

If I've got the older model- things may get a little hairy. Looks like I pretty much have one option- and it's made by a company called Blitzsafe (sold through RSpeed.net and costs about $90. The cost isnt SO bad but the install is a pain- it wires into the pre-existing leads in the trunk which are intended for the factory style CD Changer. problem is that unless you want to leave your Aux device in the trunk (unlikely) you will have to run wires to the front of the car- which means disassembling most of the interior to hide the wires. I would like to avoid this if possible.

Anyway- the mystery will be solved once I call my dealer and check what model stereo I've got- Until then try and deal with the suspense while you wait in desperate anticipation for the shocking and exciting conclusion. Stay tuned

This just in! So much for the cliffhanger- I just got off the phone with the dealership and they informed me that even if my headunit is a more recent model the stock amplifier is not compatible with the aux cable. So it looks like I'll be going Blitzsafe-

Ok so now stay tuned...