Marm Toastsmith

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b083mrvh Not sure how I missed this, or if it's already been posted on here. Only one episode in but so far it's brilliant.

Yes! Wood 100% daily that. I'm glad about the £2k I saved by not buying the Porsche now.

Being a tightwad, and seeing as the oil leak is “not excessive” I decided to postpone the sump replacement. It can wait til summer, which will also be a nice time to clean up the driveway. In the meantime occasional top-ups offer a good chance to use up the various unlabelled cans of engine oil cluttering up the garage, and the leak will hopefully aid in rust prevention as it coats the underside of the car.

I got away with the caddy at the tip. Rear seats were enough to convince them it was a car.

It's a year since I bought the Micra, which means it's time to book another MOT. Should be OK I reckon. I'm even thinking about treating it to a new sump (the current, corroded one being the cause of the slight oil leak) as it's been such a faithful servant. It will end up getting an early oil change, the lucky thing. In other news MPGs aren't amazing but then it is seeing a bit more traffic etc. on my recently changed commute. I might alter my driving style (i.e. try not driving it flat out all the time) and see if I can do a bit better. Still very cheap motoring over all, especially now I'm not paying tax etc. on the Honda too. This is now my main family car. I think most people must think I'm either very poor, or mad, or both. I love the fact that it's doing everything I need it to, and is still putting a massive smile on my face. In nearly 30 years of motoring I am convinced that this is the best car I have ever owned.

Went with the sikaflex stuff - we'll see if it lasts. The stuff I scraped off the glass seemed to be some kind of silicone based adhesive. I made sure glass and clips were super clean and grease free so it's got half a chance but it was fiddly to get a good amount of adhesive squeezed into both of the clips due to awkward access - with hindsight I probably should have pumped some glue in before refitting them into the regulator. There is some deformation of the rubber in the runners so the glass isn't sliding down as nicely as it should, which might be part of the reason why it pulled out of the clips in the first place. For winter I think I'll play it safe and leave the winder in the glovebox. At least the car is back in one piece and not covered in gaffa tape (which was causing water to drip onto the passenger seat). I'll try again in spring when I need to open it! Also replaced the wing mirror, the incorrect sized glass was wobbling about on the old one so I bought an entire second hand unit rather than mess about. On closer inspection the old mirror was held in place with more gaffa. I'm surprised it hadn't fallen off by now! The rubber gasket on both had started to perish too, I used the best one which I think is good enough.

The situation with the passenger window in the Micra is not really good enough, especially now I'm ride sharing with a colleague at work. UHU was not really good enough for holding the glass in the two little plastic clips, but on the plus side it has cleaned off easily enough. What should I use? This Sikaflex promises to be suitable. I wonder... Gonna have lunch first, hopefully the weather will allow me to put it back together this afternoon.

Spot on... although accessing the lower screw actually requires removal of the door card. Brilliant* design. I have tightened the top one properly and screwed the lower one home with my fingers and some needle nosed pliers. Of course because it's a VW of this era, the plastic trim, having been removed and now replaced, feels slightly loose, and pieces of crumbling foam have gone everywhere. The way the interior is constructed is probably equally what made these feel "premium" in the first place and what makes them shite now. It's a good little car over all, but it's not nearly as well put together as their image at the time would have suggested.

The CR-V has gone. There's space on the driveway. 😃 And money burning a hole in my pocket.🤔

Thanks all, temp guage does exactly what you'd expect in a car with properly functioning cooling system. Car warms up reasonably quickly and stays warm on a fast run in cold weather, and heater only really varies between tepid and lukewarm so blocked matrix makes sense, also I trust the garage, they are good guys. I will have a bit of a poke around and double check things - I need to look into the loose door mirror on the passenger side so I might as well let it idle and see what's what with the cooling/heating.

This occurred to me this morning, in fact I’m surprised the garage didn’t suggest it, generally they are very sensible, maybe I just didn’t ask the right questions. Took it for a run out today, at one point (sat in traffic) the heating got passably warm and I thought it had fixed itself. Back out on the open road it quickly dropped to just barely lukewarm. Anyway, have a couple of pics.

Long time no update... Since the last time I wrote about it, the Polo has had a new cam belt and water pump a new rear exhaust section (for the MOT) 4 new tyres (Sumitomo BC100) It's been Mrs Toastsmith's runabout, she's enjoyed using it despite only covering 1500 miles in her 1st year, it is a likeable little thing. The gearbox continues to slip very slightly before changing into second, but only once a day, the first time it is used. Once it's even slightly warm it's perfect. Garage confirmed there's no filter, they think it may be something we have to live with, I'm hoping it will get better with continued use and the new ATF (we think maybe it is improving slightly). The interior has remained dry (phew) although I did notice a little bit of water in the boot earlier today. By old VW standards it's pretty dry, I'm happy. Winter has thrown up another issue, the heater is poor. Garage have diagnosed blocked heater matrix. The part is cheap but I think it's a dash out job. We'll see. Have a random fleet pic from earlier today.

Yep. I actually bought a 4th wheel trim to replace the missing one. I just don't like plastic wheel trims. The badge is going back on, I took it off for cleaning purposes, but I don't regret removing the dealer sticker.

Guarantee I'll miss it. I always concentrate on the road when I should be looking at the odometer.

I know, poor thing has been ignored. All I need to do really is try some fresh fuel in it but the last time I tried to do anything with it I managed to drop it on myself so it's become a bit of a mental block. Oh and previously I managed to cross thread the bolt that holds the battery cover in place. Not a great start. I'm not normally quite this hopeless. Or maybe I am? Planning to have it on the road by spring, the weather is not particularly conducive to riding or tinkering at the moment but I will get round to it. Hope the battery still works by then, I should probably go and charge it now.

Many trouble free miles travelled by Micra. Nice to move on to a new decade. Hope the 80s aren't worse than the 70s, the 70s were great.

I’m getting nervous that you’re never going to sell it! Agreed though… the micra serves the same carefree purpose… but the verso would be such a practicality upgrade!

That is SO nice.

Only a few of the images are showing up for me, but seriously wow.

Can I see the remnants of a tow bar? It's almost perfect*

double dibs

Same here. Dibs when you get bored, assuming it looks a lot worse than it really is.

But what is it? Not another Nissan?

The Micra only managed 36.2 on the same run last night, although an almost constant 80mph on the M4/M5 with a roof rack howling in the wind probably isn't the most efficient way to run it. The Maxima looks an infinitely more pleasant vehicle to do the run in. Very nice.