dozeydustman

Had a weird one on Friday after work. Saab would tick over as in not fuelling properly. Gauge on 1/4 no reserve light on. Tame fitter had a look and reckons the sender in the tank may be bollocksed. Gave me 10l of diesel and after a bit of stuttering normal service resumed. Went to petrol station nearby and on way gauge plummeted to empty and refill fuel now ding dong. Another £20 went in and after the 20 minute drive home the gauge finally went up to about half way. Had been fine all weekend until yesterday afternoon car lacked power on way home from lunch out with the mrs. 2 things I can think of is clogged fuel filter or a banjaxed lift pump. Just on my way to collect the filters from the local Halfrauds - it could be a paper element or a spin on canister so ordered both. If that doesn’t sort it I’ll be looking for a lift pump! gives me an opportunity to find which wheel bearing is grumbly as well.

This is all good stuff. Please don’t stop!

New bit of vacuum hose ordered fir the Saab arrived the other day and fitted, turbo spool-up now back. EML back on so I can only assume it’s the failing EGR, so that will be fitted around the various jobs in the house. Will get the codes read again. New shed arrives today, so once that’s built after I’ve finished converting the hall cupboard into a laundry I can sort my garage out. And the Kia’s booked in for MoT in 2 weeks so I really ought to so the advisories from last year.

It’s there for cyclists who think they are immortal. I hate them too. But they work round these parts.

We tested the battery as well, it’s still in good order as is the alternator. Which for a Fiat 1.9JTD is unusual

Fitter at work plugged the workshop’s all-singing all-dancing code reader into the Saab this morning to find the cause of intermittent EML. 18 codes cleared, including the fault, which is something to do with the wastegate actuator vacuum pipe. Located a tiny pipe from the vacuum pump with a very frayed and perished end. Cut back to good, it’s a bit of a squeeze, but no more EML. Some of the faults were unusual - cooling fan open circuit, which is weird as it certainly runs in hot weather, and passenger door pack reversed. No idea, the window button works fine. Will be interesting to see if any of the oddball codes come back

PLA are at the Royal Terrace Pier, which is slightly to the east

Gravesend town pier some time in the 60s The pier was a connection from Gravesend to Tilbury railway station on the ferry with both Gravesend Central and Gravesend West being 5-10 minute walks (Gravesend West closed to passengers in the 1953 but freight ran there to the end of steam). The Town Pier was managed by LMS prior to British Rail. The Three Dawes pub is still going strong, they do great grub. Fact. Oldest surviving intact cast iron pier in the UK (if not the world)

Oh, so that’s what you look like! 🤪

I saw it, brother papped it and still hasn’t shared any FOTU snaps with me the sod! R14 is the only suitcase engined car I haven’t driven.

How to make a Fiat 500 look even tinier We were tempted to see if the owner would let us attempt to get in, but we didn’t want to break the poor little thing!

We saw you arriving today. Was that your daughter driving the Dacia in?

Dad and brother enjoyed the day out, as did I. Recognised a few forum cars along with some wonderful others. Our mode of transport was probably shunned, being a Discovery 5. Waiting for dad and brother to forward me more photos. The Y-reg Samba cabrio may be one as once belonging to a guy I played rugby with as his was an HKL 5–Y

I did see a few shiters in the distance but didn’t want to disrupt conversations and videoing. Pretty sure I saw @Kiltox, @Vin and @Grey the Floydian Sergal

Took dad for belated father’s day/birthday day out to FOTU. Some pretty good automotive tat on display. my dad distracted Steph @Idriveaclassicto have a phot with his two little boys. Sorry Steph if Alex and I made you feel intimidated!

Stopped off for breakfast on way to dad’s belated father’s day out. I’m allergic to soya. Everything where we have stopped for breakfast may contain soya and guess who forgot his epipen

Is that an Rolls-Royce?

Couple from today E-series Cresta I have seen wafting about a few times. One for the SVM.

When I find the neighbour I may have to borrow my dad’s .22

A couple of ex-Southdown buses on a farm in the middle of nowhere. The double decker is a Bristol VR, but unsure what the single decker is. Thinking Leyland Leopard. No identification on it

Never really understood why Renault used the designation ‘Campus’ for some of its lower spec Supercinqs, or were these just poverty-spec run out models after the Clio was launched?

The spiritual successors to the Escort and Cortina Huntsman editions but with a more exotic* French name? (Chasseur being French for hunter/huntsman)

Sadly I need to get the old house cleared out and gardened by Monday next, FOTU on Saturday, friendly mechanic may have to look. Hopefully it’s just a drop link or something similar.

I dailied a couple of Scimitars between 2001 and 2005. The first was really reliable, only twos failures were caused by poor quality HT leads and later a seizing trunnion. It had a few sensible upgrades but was otherwise as it came out the factory. Second Scimitar was a pain. By the time I got it running reliably it needed a while lot of other parts overhauling, both mechanical and structural to the rollover bar mounts. It also had a really bad manual choke conversion and so many bodges once I started stripping parts down for overhaul I lost interest. Both were more than capable of keeping up with traffic at the time with braking performance to match. Something 80s-onward with good parts supply in theory would be usable daily. If you’re going older make sure it’s a good one to start with and parts supply in the event of FTP doesn’t mean waiting for back orders or parts quality roulette. Cars hate prolonged periods of inactivity I echo the comments re: drivers bullying and the need to change your driving style to compensate for poor braking performance.

Guy next door has been doing DIY since 6am. Another neighbour has chickens. Don’t mind that, I’d love 2-3 hens clucking around in the garden. Except they have a rooster which is non-stop from 4am-is to whenever the sun goes down. And yesterday afternoon the Saab started making a clonking noise from the rear suspension. Great.