Slartibartfast

No spare, only goo, but everyone is OK and mobile tyre man is here.

Kerbed the wheel doing about 50. Am a complete idiot.

Ugh. Today is one of those days.

Well, between paying for the repairs on Wolvo, the Jazz and my daughter's first month of insurance I'm pretty much cleaned out.

Haha, no. Not me. An imposter. I like electric cars.

The Jazzy Jaz hands is getting worked on today so that hopefully we can get it through an MOT. Daughter has been champing at the bit to drive it since she passed her test a few weeks ago. Fingers crossed.

Ooh, I'll get it out of the skip then!

I think the pulley was ... recalcitrant and needed encouragement. The timing chain cover damage was all down to the failing pulley though.

After all these bits were replaced, Wolvo lives again!

Lesson learned. Don't play serpentine belt roulette, kids.

Chain drive thankfully

Well, it cost a fair bit, and working it's still worth a fair bit. Not working it's probably worth about £200. Also if you ever get the chance to drive it you'll understand

Tame mechanic is fixing it today. The bearings in one of the idler pulleys (or the idler pulley? Not sure if it has more than one or indeed if any car has more than one. In fact I'm going to investigate now. It does in fact have more than one.) failed. This was ... less than ideal. The bearing failure munched the mounting thingo it sits on. This is part of the timing case which a single cast piece of aluminium. So the timing case and a whole bunch of other stuff needs replacing. Thankfully he's able to do it without pulling the engine out. He's managed to get most of it done but he's waiting on one part from Sweden which won't arrive until Friday.

On the upside I had it valeted that morning so we weren't pushing against a nasty blanket of bird shit

Aux belt went yesterday, looks like it took the water pump with it too. Lost power steering, charging and cooling while on the drive home. Had to drive a short distance to find a safe place to stop. Hope I haven't damaged the engine even further. Tame mechanic rescued me and is going to come and have a look as soon as his schedule allows.