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N19

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Everything posted by N19

  1. I think one of the local motorfactors has one on the shelf. He did have a set of hatchback ones which ended up on the bASe a few years ago. I'll make enquiries.
  2. Thanks for taking on the unsexy shite jobs that means we can discuss shite in peace.
  3. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    Thanks guys. I guess it's a confidence thing on my part - not wanting to start having it to bits and then getting stuck, or doing something stupid. But, as you say, what have I got to lose? The car is effectively un-usable as it stands. And, I suppose, doing it myself will save quite a bit on labour costs...
  4. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    No noticeable oil loss prior to the issue, and no major rattles etc. An odd wandering idle occasionally, but that's it.
  5. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    I haven't the ability or time to do it myself, so I'd be asking the garage to work on it. Clearly this comes with a cost. Cambelt done 4 years ago and a clutch put on 3 years ago so it's not that it's been undisturbed forever. I suppose I've nothing to lose.
  6. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    Mondeo news is not good. Garage vacuum filled, took it on a trip up the motorway to have a look, overheat o'clock again. Combustion gases in the coolant and water out the back, yes, OMGHGF. Options - engine swap, head skim, or scrappie. It's a 23 year old Mondeo with 186000 on the clock. I've had it for 4 years / 26000 of those miles. It's not ULEZ compliant so is restricted to out-of-London journeys with a few local trips thrown in. I like the car, it's behaved well over the years, very good long distance, cosmetically tired but otherwise was always fine. Estate incredibly useful for moving stuff around and saved me quite a bit on van hire over the years. Towbar come in handy a couple of times. Anywhere else than AS it'd be a no brainer... So do I... (A) chuck another Zetec in it, having (A1) bought something off Ebay, or (A2) paid £££ for a brand new unit (B) get the garage to repair the existing engine (C) write it off as a goner, strip anything I possibly can for spares, and scrap it, with possibilities (C1) buy something newer, bigger, and ULEZ compliant, (C2) buy something older and non-ULEZ because it takes that 'slot' in the fleet and because why not. I'm really not sure what's for best at the moment in all honesty! Have I got any chance of finding a car in the sub-£1k category that will do what it did, in today's market... equally, would I throw £££ at it on an old car. Decisions decisions. Thoughts and bad encouragement welcome. @sierraman I almost know what you'll say, but you're the resident expert.
  7. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    1295 miles completed in the last week. Left London at 6.30am on Monday. Notice the shininess of the Focus, compared to later pictures... Stopped at Ferrybridge where there are shiny new electric milkfloat chargers available.... powered by, err, a big diesel generator?! How does that one work?! Anyway, pressed on to Newcastle, stopped for fuel and saw a 2CV. A couple of days later and I found myself going up the Cairn o'Mount with beautiful* weather... comparison - here's a picture taken with the Capri just behind where I was in the pic above - just without the fog oh and I suppose I should complete the set with when the Bluebird (I miss that car) did the same journey years ago The atrocious visibility was confined to just the higher bits of ground, fortunately. Some very nice roads up there. The Focus behaved impeccably, it's more capable on long journeys than I had thought, although it's definitely not as comfortable as the Mondeo with motorway cruising. More miles covered and eventually we were back home. ... in dire need of a wash, but that can wait.
  8. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    Caliper replaced with a new one, £39+vat from the factors, no exchange required. Slide pin thread screwed, which is sub-optimal, new ones on order. Nice when things feel a little less crap!
  9. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    I'm fairly sure that's what it is - it began about a month after I changed the coolant. As the garage is at the end of my street and can look at it tomorrow and won't take the pee with costs (but will take the pee if i've overlooked something!). Hadn't looked into vacuum filling, but the cost of the kit to do so is likely more than any labour charge? Yeah, it just has moments of frustration when you trip over a stored exhaust manifold and go "why the hell did I do this, the car went perfectly fine beforehand, I could have been out driving it today" etc etc but, of course, you're right. It'll go together and there'll be the satisfaction of having done lots of it myself.
  10. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    I let the car cool, then filled up with water, ran around locally, then headed for home (I was in WGC at the time) - similar thing happened about a mile north of South Mimms. As I'm planning on taking it a long distance soon, I am pondering throwing it at the garage and letting somebody with the time, facilities and brains look at it rather than running myself ragged during a busy week.
  11. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    Fuck a duck The Mondeo has been having a few moments of late, coolant wise. I thought I'd managed to bleed the system again properly, there were a few moments without hot air through the heater but broadly speaking everything was fine. Bowling up the A1 on a test trip, prior to a 400-mile journey next week, and the needle flops into the red. More scarily, presumably the overflow was making it difficult for the alternator to catch up, as everything electrical became that little bit dimmer and slower. Predictably this happened just after a turning, carried on at 50 to the next junction. It's vomited out the expansion cap... Just waiting for things to cool down and see what's going on.
  12. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    Every so often, as I've been clambering around a Capri in the throes of dismantling, repair and rebuild, over the last 18 months, with yet more being added to the list and no end in sight.... every so often I think to myself, "why am I doing this/ I should have left it as it was!". Then I scroll back to the pictures to remind me of the problems it had hiding below the surface.
  13. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    Not a terribly exciting update, but then again, I don't promise to be terribly exciting! Driving around late last night in the Focus, I noticed a 'hot' smell, and slower acceleration than usual. Worried it might be the clutch, I did the tried and tested clutch-strength-test which it passed (stalling the car in 5th from a standstill). When I got home I had a feel around and the heat coming from the NSF wheel was something to behold. Investigation began at lunchtime with suitable consumables to hand. Seized caliper, it will release with a pry bar, but then when applied it's not releasing again. I took the slider pins out and greased them up to high heaven, but no dice. Sadly the only motorfactors open today near me didn't have one on the shelf, so I'll pick one up from the local place in a couple of days and fit it.
  14. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    I'm due to do a lot of mileage in the Mondeo in the next few months, so I want to make sure that it's going to be ok. Done a few long motorway trips and the temperature gauge doesn't budge, although the heater is on and off, but not as dramatically as it was before (going cold for 10 seconds, before staying toasty warm for the rest of the time). I've been told collection of the Capri for paint in the next 2 weeks.
  15. N19

    Bus Shite

    I remember Volvo B7TLs of that era sounding like a howling vacuum cleaner a couple of years after being new, in the hands of some less well-maintaining operators - shame that they are still groaning around.
  16. Great to see some of your Barné sightings on here - that's a well known local car!
  17. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    Slow progress. Reattaching the bonnet is supposed to be a 2 man job, and if the car weren't going for paint soon, I'd definitely have got a second pair of hands doing it! It's not perfectly aligned by any stretch of the imagination, but as it'll likely have to come off to be sprayed, I'll sort that out further down the line. With the engine out the car sits nice and noticeably higher at the front! Meanwhile the wiring loom, bauden cables and so on that go under the bonnet have been wrapped up, hopefully to avoid any damage. Always a little wary with 44 year old wiring, I did worry if it'd cause any issues, but I suppose it's worse if it just floats around under there and invariably gets snagged or whatnot when being moved. Mondeo airlock seems better - did a reasonable bit of driving today and temp gauge sitting reasonably with no wild variation, although the heater was on and off.
  18. I got a PCN from the Dartford charge today. Back in October I crossed both ways, when I got home and went online to pay, it only let me pay for one crossing. Hmm, odd. I tried a couple of days later and the trip back was available, so I paid for that too. Only it's triggered (three months later) that the second payment was too late. I don't know what I was supposed to do - put it through as a 'future payment'? What a bloody shite system! Anyway, the ticket is only £2.50 as it's my first "offence". I can't be bothered arguing with them, so I've sent them £2.50. By cheque. To an address in Leeds (?!). I'm hoping that the cost of finding my details from Swansea, posting me a letter, and processing the received cheque will be greater than £2.50.
  19. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    It's been bastard cold during January and I've been busy and tired, so progress limited. The Capri turned 44 today! 4 years ago I celebrated the historic status being achieved. I celebrated with a picture on the top of The Spires, complete with a pound shop decoration. At the time, I had the front seats out and with an upholstorer who did a really really good job with them. I still have the passenger seat, which I picked up from someone in Thetford, it's actually in the car now as I'd worry about damaging the nice originals with so much work ongoing! End of Jan 2020. How little we knew about how the world was about to go slightly mad.... I still have the banner somewhere. If I keep it for another 6 years, it'll be valid for me! Back to today. I did get the brake lines out, including the rear one. It was quite a bugger to release, and I ended up cutting through it so I could get a socket on the rear cylinder. A new full car set is only £55, with all the pipes cut and bent to size. I may also spray them green, which was the original colour. The hydraulic system was then drained, master cylinder removed, pulled most of the electrical and bauden cables from the front of the car together and secured it. Then got to work on a bit of the surface rust on the engine bay, in a location that would usually be an utter bastard to get to. Hoping to go away in a couple of weeks and come back for easter. I changed the coolant on the Mondeo a while ago, and I think I managed to introduce an air lock. The heater varies wildly, as does the indicated temperature and coolant level. I had to pull off the A1 today at South Mymms to top up the expansion tank. Back home, and in the dark, I took off the highest hose in the system (on the rhs of the expansion tank here, next to the water-bottle-funnel) and ran the engine until water started spitting out. See if that behaves any. A little easier solving them on the Capri, massage the big hoses and keep the rad cap off! The Mondeo also needs 2 new tyres soonish (down to about 3mm). Various long trips in the next few months including Scotland three times, Norwich and Brizzle.
  20. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    Engine came out with very little hassle in the end- Bloody heavy things, a pinto with a gearbox attached. Nicely stowed in the garage for now. leaving a bereft looking engine bay Featuring, pile of washing powder over where the gearbox pissed everywhere (just when I thought it was empty!). Next jobs, removal of o/s wing mirror, clean and degrease the engine bay, remove the brake lines (bar the one to the back - that's a bugger and can stay) and servo/master cylinder.
  21. I gained one of these task lights a few months ago, left behind and not collected by contractor or contractors unknown. The reviews talk about the battery life being shite which, unfortunately, is pretty true. Despite showing full charge, it'll normally only last 2-3 hours before flashing and giving up. Which is a shame because it's a bloody good light!
  22. N19

    2023 mileage

    Interestingly, by comparison, in 2021 I did 6436 (Mondeo) 2711 (Bluebird) 3148 (Capri). Fewer long distance trips because covid, but more day-to-day driving because I had a 20-mile round trip drive to work at that time (these days I usually drive to the station and take the tube).
  23. N19

    2023 mileage

    Just totting up the mileage I've done in the fleet this year - Mondeo - 6,249 mi (long distance trips, local pottering and so on) Focus - 2,407 mi (from May '23 - mostly local) Bluebird - 968 mi (until June '23 - mostly local) Capri - 1 mi (sum total of trips up and down the yard, into/out of workshops from the transporter etc) Anyone else keep records?
  24. N19

    N19's fleet - OMGHGF

    I was thinking about the clutch, but it was replaced 5 years / 14k miles ago, so I don't think it'd be worth it? Good shout on the rear crank seal!
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