Tire Road Noise Driving me Crazy British Racing GreenBlack Roof/Mirror CapsStripes. A proud member of team volcanic orangeTeam Volcanic Orange To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. Originally Posted by radiocaf I run on 16 inch non-run-flat Black Victory wheels and I didn't know there was an issue with road noise and I've never heard it on my Cooper and It's also a comfy ride. 19 inch on a Ford Kuga that's another matter! but, fit 18inch on a Kuga and it disappears so does low profile play a part in road noise? If you want to be in the picture, you'd better sit on this side of the table. Jesus of Nazareth.To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. DaveCooper SD,F55 Team VO-SunnyGinaTo view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. Originally Posted by DaveT Good to hear, because your wheels are exactly what my wheels will be! British Racing GreenBlack Roof/Mirror CapsStripes.

If you feel the noise is related to the car moving forward, backward or making turns, check your tire pressure, tread and suspension, and CV axles.To check CV axles, check inside and outside boots on both front axles. Check the back too while you're at it. That's a second jacking of the car from the rear. If you see any tears in the boots, replace the axles or boots. You're probably safest replacing the whole axle so you get a brand new boot with no junk in the joint as opposed to replacing the torn boots and repacking the joint. The latter may leave built up road debris in your joint and do more damage to already damaged bearings.Tread should be above the tire wear bars, no tire belts should be showing.If you hear the sound mostly while making turns, it could be your tie rods, wheel bearings or ball joints. To check wheel bearings, jack the car up and place it on jack stands. try rocking your wheels vertically. There should be NO play at all. If they do rock this way, replace your wheel bearings.

Take the brake pads out to be safe on the next test. Formula Vee Tyres For SaleAfter they are out, spin the wheel. Chiweenie Puppies For Sale In Orlando FlYou should not hear the wheel, or rotor, rotating if you already have the wheel and brake pads off, spinning. Conversion Van Rental Minneapolis MnThat's the sound of worn bearings. Still serviceable if there's no play but that's a first indication of wear. If the sound is really bothering you, replace them.Tie rods should be replaced if you can rock the tie rod perpendicular to the direction the tie rod runs. Personally, I wouldn't do it unless they had no resistance at all. If they really don't resist being rocked or they have obvious play where they meet the steering knuckle, replace them.

To inspect U-joints check out these linksBall Joint, Control Arm, and Tie Rod Inspection Tips | KnowYourParts I don't know if bmw still do but a few years back they were obsessed with run flat tyres, it could be that it has run flats onWe’ve come to Puerto Rico to drive the latest incarnation of BMW’s Mini, the third since the iconic small car was reinvented in 2001. In the 13 intervening years, more than 2m Minis have exited the Oxford plant, built on the site of the old Morris Cowley factory. But what appears at first glance to be nothing more than a midlife tickle of the three-door Mini hatch, is in fact an entirely new car. New platform, new engines, new tech. But the same old appeal, the same character. That was a key goal, and one that was going to be tough to achieve in the face of a bigger footprint and demands for greater refinement. Compared with the outgoing Mini, this one has grown 98mm in length, but, to the disappointment of anyone who’ll ever sit in the back, only 28mm in wheelbase.

The remainder has been eaten up meeting pedestrian safety standards and providing a much-needed 30% improvement in luggage space. You still need the flexibility of overcooked pasta to get in the back (the position of the seat catch doesn’t help; the forthcoming five-door may have the answer), but a big increase in shoulder room does make the new car feel more spacious. Not that you’ll notice at first, because you’ll be too busy prodding and poking a cabin whose material quality has jumped ten-fold compared with its predecessors’.  Nowhere more is this felt than in the centre stack, previously home to a hideously sub-Dacia collection of brittle plastics, but now as pleasing as that in any 3-series. Once you’ve finished admiring the craftsmanship, a second thought dawns. It’s all recognisably Mini in here, but it’s gone a bit sensible too. The window switches are now located on the door panel rather than the console, and the iconic central speedo has moved permanently to a pod behind the steering wheel.

The big circular hole it vacates is still there, and now home to a BMW-style infotainment screen that’s so clearly the wrong shape and cries out to be touched, but is actually operated, like the old one, by an iDrive-type controller between the seats. I hear that touch-screen tech may soon be on the way. The Mini team say this shift is a response to customer feedback, particularly from the US. They didn’t like the old starter button being hidden behind the steering wheel, for instance, so now it’s a much cooler looking toggle located in the centre console. To complement it, every Mini in the range has keyless go as standard. That may change when more affordable entry-level models arrive, taking the place of the current Mini One and First, and probably augmented by a full Monopoly Board’s worth of London-themed special editions. But when the first cars land in dealers this spring, the range will be limited to just three versions: £15,300 Cooper, £16,450 Cooper Diesel, and £18,650 Cooper S.

It’s tempting to head straight for the big lad, which takes a peculiarly un-zeitgeisty path, swapping last year’s 1.6-litre turbo petrol for a new 2.0 turbo four. Power climbs from 181bhp to 189bhp and torque leaps from 177lb ft to 206lb ft, even reaching 221lb ft when the overboost function is in full flight. We’re sticking with the far slower, but far more intriguing Cooper for reasons we’ll come to in a minute. The oversized lamps front and rear, and their giant chrome surrounds make it easier to differentiate this Mini from its predecessor than it was in 2007, and there’s one huge differentiator under the bonnet. Or not so huge, because should you lift the clamshell bonnet and remove the stylised insulation pad, you’re faced with a shoebox of an engine. It’s a 1.5-litre triple, and, like the platform, will go on to power the first BMW-badged front-driver currently being readied in Munich. More exotically, it is also very closely related to the 1.5-litre three augmenting a huge battery pack in BMW’s i8 hybrid supercar.

Best moderate your enthusiasm just a little though, because the Cooper’s 134bhp is somewhat less hirsute than the 228bhp in the i8. Still, that’s 16bhp more than the last, naturally aspirated, Cooper made, and anyway, it’s the torque that’s the real story. Where the old Cooper produced just 118lb ft and needed to be abused, the new Cooper makes a solid 162lb ft from only 1250rpm, transforming not only the performance, but its character too. Toggle the starter switch and the little engine erupts with just the right amount of burble. Triples usually sound cool, but they’re not always the most refined of engines. This one channels just the right amount of Quattro-ness to make it interesting, but not so much that the car illiterate would even notice it was anything other than a conventional in-line four. Grab the shifter, now mercifully redesigned so it doesn’t feel like the top half has fallen off, push forward for the first of the six available ratios and the Mini scoots away on a wave of torque.

Performance is now firmly in lower-rung hot-hatch territory for the first time on a non-S Cooper. Sixty-two appears on the new speedo in 7.9sec, a massive 1.1sec quicker than before, but it’s the in-gear shove you notice the most, that easily accessed big-car surge that makes climbing hills and overtaking easier. So it’s a much more usable engine than before, and hugely more frugal too. The old Cooper was one of the least profligate petrol cars on sale, recording 52mpg on the combined cycle, but the new car can better 60, which is so good that as a private buyer you’d have to question the wisdom of shelling out another £1150 for the 80mpg Cooper D, which also derives its 113bhp from a new 1.5-litre triple. But don’t uncork that champagne just yet: to make those numbers work, BMW has saddled the Cooper with a decidedly unsporting set of ratios that don’t let the little triple show what it can really do. Second gear runs to 70mph and third to over 100mph, meaning that not only is in-gear go compromised, but the big gap hurts through-the-gears pace too.

This is a great little engine, but it never feels quite as energetic as it could. Speaking to a senior Munich-based engineer, I ask if we might expect a hotter Cooper (the first since 2002’s Cooper Works) to join the range, bridging the gap between this car and the S. He doesn’t deny it. That being said, you can still get up to serious mischief in the Cooper. Flick the controller at the base of the gearstick to Sport and the throttle response improves markedly, while simultaneously adding a little heft to the steering. Throw a few curves at the new chassis and it’s clear that for all its newfound refinement, the Mini hasn’t lost any of its ability to entertain. The steering is quick, responsive and points the nose with unfailing accuracy, although the weightier Sport mode adds an unwelcome viscosity away from centre. Though other small cars have made strides when it comes to agility, the Mini remains the entertainment benchmark, still boasting that trademark agility.

Standard Coopers still come on 15-inch tyres, but ours had the optional 17s, as will many UK cars. Though Mini’s claim to have invented the ability to personalise your car is plainly a fib (it conveniently forgets the ’64 Mustang), few cars are as configurable as this. And it’s not just paint and trim we’re talking about. To fit with the new premium feel, there are premium options too: adaptive cruise control, LED headlights, and a reversing camera. Of them all, the adaptive dampers are likely the most worthwhile, particularly if you’re planning to run big rubber. Clever work by Mini’s engineers means you don’t hear much thumping as you pass over bumps, but, as with every Mini, you certainly feel them. Hitching a ride back to the airport in a Countryman however, revealed just how much better the new car is. While the Countryman assaults you with painful levels of road noise and a jarring ride, the latest Mini feels mostly composed and always quiet, and the cabin quality is on another plane.