Brake Time

To finish the lug nut story, I went to my parent's on Wednesday and my Dad went at the lug nut cap with a pick and a hammer. Although my wheel got a little dinged up in the process, we were able to break the cap off. None of the other caps gave me trouble.

On Friday, I got off work early and went about replacing the brake pads. Starting on the front left wheel, I removed the pads and compared them with the new ones out of the box. They were hardly worn at all. The seller must've put in new pads before he sold me the car. So I ended up putting these back on. I ran out and got some quiet brake grease stuff from the auto store to put on the back of the pads. I also slipped in the anti-squeal shims I ordered. It took me a couple hours to do this on the one side, which is probably laughable to any competent mechanic.

Today, I did the same on the other side. It went much quicker. I noticed some rust on this rotor that wasn't present on the left side (as seen in the above photo.)

Regardless, I drove the car about 30 miles today and the brakes didn't make a peep. So I'm pretty happy.

Inspection

It's been awhile since my last post. Which is good. Because it means I've been enjoying my cars on the roads and not in my garage.

The Midget's inspection was up this month. Since it's my first year up in Bethlehem, I tried out a garage a couple blocks from my place of employment. Everyone seemed nice there and I got the car back the same day with no problems. The bill was $35. This seemed low even though, due to its year, the car is exempt from having to pass emissions. I guess it might seem low because I think it's the first year it passed without any problems.

The Mini, on the other hand, has been experiencing some pretty loud screeching whilst braking. I was excited to replace the brake pads because, to me, brakes are so straight forward. It's a simple mechanical job (unlike the electrical troubleshooting headaches I've been having with the Midget.) I started taking the lug nuts off the front left wheel and the one was extremely stubborn. I pulled quite hard, and it loosened, but it wouldn't come off. These nuts have caps on them (so they looked pretty) and I think I managed to strip the caps hold on the nut. So as of now, it's still on the wheel. I have to go to my parent's house tomorrow, so I think I'm going to have my Dad look at it. It looks like something for which I'll need a special tool.

That's it for now. I'll keep you updated.

Near Accident

I had quite a scare on my way home today from work.

The road I drive on once I enter my neighborhood intersects with a few other roads until I get to my house. These other roads have stop signs and I have the right of way. There was a lady sitting at one of these stop signs to my right. See diagram below.

As I approached her, she was starting to inch out. When I realized she wasn't going to bother looking my way (more or less stop), I hit the brakes and turned the wheel to the right. To the best of my recollection, below is how we ended up.

It happened very quickly, but I probably kicked the wheel to the right because I assumed she would've continued through the intersection. But she either saw me as I was braking and for some reason decided to stop. Or she crossed the intersection and backed up afterwards. All I know is that prior to my reaction she made no effort to look in my direction or to stop her car.

After all the action, I looked up and made eye contact with the innocent bystander who was doing yard work. Then I looked back and was surprised to see that she was still at the scene. She was saying something, so I rolled my window down. She said something that sounded like an apology. I said, "It's alright," very begrudgingly with some kind of hand motion. I backed up and sped off.

Now I've been in several similar situations in other cars where I had to turn and slam the brakes. And in those cases I always felt like the car was out of my control. But this car handled exceptionally. Looking at the diagram, it appears I almost did a 180 degree spin. Given the wet roads and the close proximity of everything, I think if I was in any other car I would've hit her.

Granted, the Mini isn't the safest car to be in when there IS an accident. But today it helped me avoid one altogether.