Tickman

Looking forward to see what the dream car is for a man that has an AC Cobra.
 

Looking forward to see what the dream car is for a man that has an AC Cobra.
 

Alignment done at lunchtime today. Need to get my brain used to having the steering wheel straight in this car when going straight along. My brain gets used to a cars steering quirks with time and my brain requires it's steering angle data reset. 
The tracking guy was nearly having orgasms about how nice and easy a job it was being not all rusted solid. Apparently it was very much a welcome change from the others he had in today. 


 
Camber and caster are out on the front. Not sure much can be done about that unless the subframes are shifted about. Maybe new console bushes may help too in time. Drives fine though. 
Rear camber is within the limits but at the limits. Possibly worn bushes. It should be adjustable but I don't think anyone want to dare touch those adjustment bolts. Certainly I didn't! 

Looking forward to see what the dream car is for a man that has an AC Cobra.
 

Looking forward to see what the dream car is for a man that has an AC Cobra.
 

Looking forward to see what the dream car is for a man that has an AC Cobra.
 

Looking forward to see what the dream car is for a man that has an AC Cobra.
 

Enquired about 2 birds needing rescuing yesterday 

Off to see them tomorrow after work 🥰🥰 
It ticked some boxes, the house is so lonely and quiet without Phoenix and the outside cage will soon start to fall apart if I just ignore it another 6 months. Did (and do still) fancy a pair of white doves, but the advert above got Wafted my way and budgies were on the list! 
A pair was key as I did feel phoenix wasn't terribly happy on his own, and 2 females which is good as 2 males can fight as they age, and 1 of each will be eggs and babies and I don't want that. 
The lady at the service said if I like them tomorrow bring something to get them home in so I've taken that as a sign to reassemble the cage after sloshing a small bit of rust converter here and there right at the bottom

And realised I can fit 4 wheels from a scrap hoover base mega easily so it won't be such a massive wanker to drag out for cleaning (which I didn't do as often as I should...) 

I often forget how much and why I love my alternative motoring-lifestyle.
Running* six heaps is all too often just a never ending barrage of jobs of varying priority and can easily leave you wondering “why?!”
</fate_tempted> The Mini is a joy and recently I had to make a 150 mile journey - in the words of Ewan McGregor, Choose Shite

Woke up this morning to find the Rover covered in Saharan dust.



Quick blast with the hose and it's got the worst of it off.

Car is loaded and we're ready to go!

Long old day ahead of us. Setting off now.

That looks alright.
A bit of a clean up and that should be a pleasant place to be.

Oh yes.
What have I bought?
A former family fun bus, that's had absolutely zero sales prep done.

It looks better for having those awful trims removed.
It has various sun cream hand prints and scuffs all over it. No dents or scratches though.
Three of the tyres look like this:

Then the left rear is an almost dead Landsail.

Ah, but. The full size spare has a tyre that matches the other three but has a slow leak. A trip to the local tyre place may be in order.
Moving on to the interior...

I'll be throwing mats and seat covers in there anyway.

I know it's not exactly warm this morning, but I suspect the external temperature sensor is dead. Level of caring about that = zero.
I also bumped the clock forwards an hour.
I then discovered that the radio has an aux in function, but...

What the fuck, Renault?
 
How does it drive? Seems fine, clutch is light and maybe a wee bit higher than you expect but that seems to be a Renault thing. Doesn't slip or judder or anything. Very narrow gate on the gear change. I had to check I was actually in 2nd, not 4th, a couple of times.
There's a wee rattle from the front right over bad bumps. File under ignore for now.
I know modrin eco diesels run quite cool but it didn't move above one notch in the crappy digital temperature gauge on the circa 10 mile drive home. Thermostat time?
Service history? None.
Are these DCI lumps belt or chain? I can't recall. I also don't really care...

Another year of fun to (hopefully) be had out of the LS400! Looks like I did around 1,250 miles between tests, a little more than I'd thought. Just sorted tax and should be using it for work tomorrow after I drop the Laurel in at the garage.

I think next time I'll happily pay the £300 or whatever for someone else to do it 🤣
Under £29 for the materials (4m of fabric and a can of Trim Fix) including postage. Then like 14 hours of my time. 

Christ almighty was that a fight getting it back in. A helper would have been very useful in doing it. I really did not want it taking nearly two days to do. I had the weekend to myself and I really wanted to get on with my Midget. Right now I have a backlog of things left to do in the house and not going to get any more car time this evening.
Also these bastard clips kept falling apart. They go into the metal body work and the trim fixing screw goes through it. The threaded nut thing kept falling out and into awkward places. Usually as I just got one side in then the other side fell out. 

Also discovered the screw cover on the jesus handles acts as a prop when open to stop them closing up. Neat little bit of design there.

 
Anyway it's now in and fully tightened up. Definitely not a job I'd be in a rush to do again.
Colour is obvious different but it's a million times nicer than it was. The headliner is more ivory (even though it was supposed to be beige) and the standard type you usually get in lighter coloured interiors. I'm sure the other trim pieces could be had (or redone) in ivory to make match as it looks like standard VAG light coloured interior. Beige in the Golf I think was a one year option and very rare anyway.
As is, is certainly not horrendous though and a million times nicer than it was. At the very least it's nice not to have it raining foam into your hair every time you close the door. 
 

It was the Polos turn today.
Old pollen filter looked fine but I had a new one...

That should make a difference.
Then the air filter. On this car the housing is part of the engine cover with 7,000 screws holding it together. That got changed and all this detritus was disappeared as well.

The sump plug came out no bother with two copper washers and ptfe on it as well. I think it was done up quite tight!

Nothing wrong with the plug or the sump so I cleaned it all back and it was screwed back together.
The oil filter was a bit awkward as I had to take a bracket off to get it away from the engine. It was also rather tight so the new one went on hand tight with a bit of oil on the face. Glad this wasn't done on the drive as this would have made it very awkward.
I also don't have a drive!
Normal service of nothing happening should now resume for a few weeks.

It was the Polos turn today.
Old pollen filter looked fine but I had a new one...

That should make a difference.
Then the air filter. On this car the housing is part of the engine cover with 7,000 screws holding it together. That got changed and all this detritus was disappeared as well.

The sump plug came out no bother with two copper washers and ptfe on it as well. I think it was done up quite tight!

Nothing wrong with the plug or the sump so I cleaned it all back and it was screwed back together.
The oil filter was a bit awkward as I had to take a bracket off to get it away from the engine. It was also rather tight so the new one went on hand tight with a bit of oil on the face. Glad this wasn't done on the drive as this would have made it very awkward.
I also don't have a drive!
Normal service of nothing happening should now resume for a few weeks.

It was the Polos turn today.
Old pollen filter looked fine but I had a new one...

That should make a difference.
Then the air filter. On this car the housing is part of the engine cover with 7,000 screws holding it together. That got changed and all this detritus was disappeared as well.

The sump plug came out no bother with two copper washers and ptfe on it as well. I think it was done up quite tight!

Nothing wrong with the plug or the sump so I cleaned it all back and it was screwed back together.
The oil filter was a bit awkward as I had to take a bracket off to get it away from the engine. It was also rather tight so the new one went on hand tight with a bit of oil on the face. Glad this wasn't done on the drive as this would have made it very awkward.
I also don't have a drive!
Normal service of nothing happening should now resume for a few weeks.

It was the Polos turn today.
Old pollen filter looked fine but I had a new one...

That should make a difference.
Then the air filter. On this car the housing is part of the engine cover with 7,000 screws holding it together. That got changed and all this detritus was disappeared as well.

The sump plug came out no bother with two copper washers and ptfe on it as well. I think it was done up quite tight!

Nothing wrong with the plug or the sump so I cleaned it all back and it was screwed back together.
The oil filter was a bit awkward as I had to take a bracket off to get it away from the engine. It was also rather tight so the new one went on hand tight with a bit of oil on the face. Glad this wasn't done on the drive as this would have made it very awkward.
I also don't have a drive!
Normal service of nothing happening should now resume for a few weeks.

It was the Polos turn today.
Old pollen filter looked fine but I had a new one...

That should make a difference.
Then the air filter. On this car the housing is part of the engine cover with 7,000 screws holding it together. That got changed and all this detritus was disappeared as well.

The sump plug came out no bother with two copper washers and ptfe on it as well. I think it was done up quite tight!

Nothing wrong with the plug or the sump so I cleaned it all back and it was screwed back together.
The oil filter was a bit awkward as I had to take a bracket off to get it away from the engine. It was also rather tight so the new one went on hand tight with a bit of oil on the face. Glad this wasn't done on the drive as this would have made it very awkward.
I also don't have a drive!
Normal service of nothing happening should now resume for a few weeks.

My youngest who has the Aygo purchased from @davehedgehog31 mentioned the right indicator was becoming troublesome. This is a common thing with the switch and it needs a strip and clean which I did on her previous Peugeot 107 also purchased from @davehedgehog31 but this time she was only going to be home briefly as she is about to start her final exams so I ordered a high quality* item from eBay for about £13 and swapped it out like so




Then the clock spring comes off and the whole lot comes off when you squeeze the metal spring clip together, taking the two screws out and moving the speedometer out of the way makes it much easier and quicker.
Once done a quick reassemble and you are done.
The new switch is really cheap shit so I can sort the original one now and refit it before it's MOT is due.
 
 

As I have been racking up the miles I have been driven mad by the buzzing of the rear speakers so I decided something needed done about it.
Halfords didn't stock the correct Pioneer speakers for £30 that I had checked in store so I had to look elsewhere, Amazon came up with the new version of the same speakers for £13.94. Result!
This was the problem

This was the solution

I also fitted one of these as recommended by @loserone

I was then recommended a music player app by @juular and it has been getting a work out since.
This also got fitted from my stock of them.

I do still have to do something about the wiring issue but 🤷‍♀️

Time to get on with stuff.
I order some service bits for the Clio as I've done 5,800 miles since the start of November.
I went to remove the old pollen filter but it was empty, not any more.

Next up was the air filter.

Quite simple right at the back of the engine.

I checked the spark plugs and they seemed ok

Then the oil and filter, wonder when it was last changed I doubt it was long ago 😂

The oil was very thin, it has had a refill from the Manol oil deal that was posted about on here.
That is the 'maintenance' side of things taken care of.

It was the Polos turn today.
Old pollen filter looked fine but I had a new one...

That should make a difference.
Then the air filter. On this car the housing is part of the engine cover with 7,000 screws holding it together. That got changed and all this detritus was disappeared as well.

The sump plug came out no bother with two copper washers and ptfe on it as well. I think it was done up quite tight!

Nothing wrong with the plug or the sump so I cleaned it all back and it was screwed back together.
The oil filter was a bit awkward as I had to take a bracket off to get it away from the engine. It was also rather tight so the new one went on hand tight with a bit of oil on the face. Glad this wasn't done on the drive as this would have made it very awkward.
I also don't have a drive!
Normal service of nothing happening should now resume for a few weeks.