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TomW86

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  1. Could be tricky, I'm in the south west of Englandshire. Would be a long way to go to borrow a socket. I'll look at ordering one, can't even take it to the garage until I get the front tyres changed anyways so still no rush. Thanks for the suggestions though guys πŸ‘
  2. Figured I'd make a start on that fail sheet this week so went and ordered a new set of ramps and chocks (as you do) - my reasoning is I'm less happy working under a car on stands and a jack the older I get and especially now that I'm a Dad. Ordered a new lambda sensor and a pair of 501 bulbs for the reg lamps, all arrived nice and quick so got her up on the ramps: Lots of working space so I'm happy there, got underneath to see this: Gave it a good soaking in WD-40, and then another whilst I had a brew, got my biggest 22m spanner on there and gave it hell........with no bloody luck!! That bastard is in there good and tight, I'd bet anything that the place that replaced the front downpipe and cat 2 years ago bunged the old sensor back in without any anti-seize at all 🀬🀬🀬 So thats an hour's labour I'm gonna have to fork out to my local garage at some point in the near future 🀬🀬 On the plus side I did get to have a good poke around underneath and there is very little to worry about body wise, a little surface corrosion on some suspension components and the lower arms but not much else - wherever the minor oil leak is coming from has done a good job throwing it around the bay over time so that has added a bit of weather protection! Undaunted I did manage to change both bulbs at the back which just confirmed how much I hate plastic trim clips but that's another little job ticked off. And then because this is AS and non important jobs are vital I went and changed the pollen filters: Probably the 21 year old originals by the looks of things 😳 then this fell out the filter housing: Add a good hoovering to the next tinkering days list πŸ™„ I was quite impressed with the ease of access to the filter housing to be honest, pull out three bungs and the cover falls off into the footwell: And now I have a fan that doesn't feel like being breathed on by an asthmatic mouse and hair filled with bits of old leaf and twigs because someone forgot what happens when you change filters and then whack the fan on full blast! 🀣🀣 Next installment should see new tyres on the front to get rid of the dangerous fail and hopefully that lambda sensor replaced.
  3. Well............ Oh bollocks, not the world's worst fail sheet but I am pissed off for missing the rear reg light and the front tyre 🀬 The tester reckons a new lambda sensor would sort the emissions result as the HC was in range. So that plus two new tyres, a pair of bulbs and a pair of new CV boots should see this through a retest. No rush though, I have 5 months to get it all sorted before the Starlet is needed for second car duties.
  4. Getting it warmed up pre-test is the plan, luckily I booked for 10am so I have time to go into town with it to do a few odds and sods first. I'm also going to take it out this evening for another run (can you tell I'm really enjoying driving the little thing yet?) πŸ˜‰
  5. So MOT in the morning and I've been looking through the various invoices and paperwork that came with the car. Two things stood out: 1. This has had two replacement catalytic converters in the last 3 years. 2. The last invoice for any service items is dated 2013 at 52k miles 😳😳 (currently on 134k, the timing belt is much higher up the list of priorities now!) I had been planning to do a basic filters and fluids service post MOT but decided to move the top end stuff up the schedule, especially on discovering these things ( and that the HC and CO counts on the last MOT were higher than I like) So ordered up a few bits and bobs from CP4L at the weekend and got cracking this morning. State of the bay when I started: A bit grubby and oily under here: Gave it all a spray in Gunk degreaser and wiped the worst off before I started with the air filter: Yuck! Poor Starlet probably thought it had asthma trying to breath through all that, Crosland replacement went in and closed up tidily. Next the plugs: Double yuck! And that was the best one out of cylinder 1. They were also the wrong heat range and had been put in without any anti-seize πŸ™„πŸ€¬. Replaced with proper Denso ones in the right heat rating. I had bought a replacement fuel filter too to replace this factory original: But the bastard lower 14mm union wouldn't budge and started to round so I decided not to risk an FTP in the morning. I'll have another go after its had a good couple of dousings in WD-40 in a week or so. All fired up okay (thank god!) and I took it out for an Italian tune-up. About 20 miles of A and B roads and wow what a difference 😁 much quicker throttle response and less vibration both on and off throttle. Fingers crossed that should help with tomorrow's emissions 🀞
  6. As today was a rare day off I thought I'd do a bit of MOT prep ready for Thursday (in all this rain, I'm definitely mad 🀣) I'd noticed on my collection drive home that all was a little off on the lighting front, everything worked just not quite as intended. Touching the brake pedal with the headlights off caused the dash lighting to come on in sympathy. Turning the headlights on got all of the brake lights to come on as well, I'm surprised that no-one was flashing me on the way home. So into the boot to check the rear light clusters, went through all the bulbs till: That's not a twin filament in the left side brake/tail light holder 😐. A quick rattle through the spares draw brought up a replacement with right number of wires: Popped it all back together and yay success! No instant MOT fail 😁😁 Isn't it funny how a little win like this can brighten an otherwise piss poor weekend πŸ˜πŸ‘
  7. TomW86

    Mercedes C180K

    Oooh my intrigue levels are high, any clues?
  8. So much want! Absolutely no need but so much want 😁😁
  9. MOT test booked for the 8th at my local friendly Council test centre - helps that I work for them and having lots of dealings with them with our Fleet vans πŸ˜‰
  10. I shall do my best not to disappoint πŸ‘ and am really looking forward to getting stuck in - as and when my 4 month old son allows me to! The plan is to put it in for MOT in the next two weeks and see what happens - if it fails then I'll start with the fail points. If it passes then it'll be a basic service and then I'll start investigating / stripping down / sorting to give it a new lease of life. That's the plan, but we all know what happens on AutoShite πŸ˜‚
  11. I think it's down to the lack of recent running to be honest, like I said it settles down to a nice steady idle pretty quickly. Looking at the oil mist/gunk buildup around the filler cap and number 1 injector/ inlet manifold area I'd say the cam cover gasket is a bit tired so that's going on the list of little jobs to do. I think it'll walk through its test in a few weeks to be honest, feels a very straight, eager little thing thats just a bit tired. I honestly had more fun driving home in it than I've had with my Octavia in 6 months. Felt like it could run at a steady 55/60 for ever.
  12. Yeah I like a lot of milk in my porridge 🀭 and a bit of golden syrup but always proper whole oats, none of that quick oatmeal rubbish πŸ˜† Tasted a lot better than it looked......honest πŸ˜‰
  13. That is incredible!! What did they think was going to fail it on the next test? I can't find any corrosion on first inspection in nasty areas and I've already fixed the exhaust knock/vibration - manifold heat shield had cracked around all three bolts, whipped it off in 5 minutes and no more nasty metal on metal sound 😊 It's running a bit rich when cold but the idle is stable and a top up on the oil has quietened things a lot, I spotted the low coolant in the reservoir but the gauge was rock solid all the way home yesterday so maybe a little leak somewhere to investigate. The body scuffs and scrapes are just cosmetic and don't bother me 😁 Like I said this is going to be a project for me, it's not going into daily service till March at the earliest so it'll get a winter in the garage getting fettled and I think it's got many years left to run. Any idea when / if the timing belt was changed at all? Non-interference engine so not crucial but nice to know if I need to factor in a replacement earlier rather than later.
  14. We plan to ☺️ frankly this is just meant to be something fun for me to spanner on but my wife is concerned about taking the modern to work when her maternity leave ends next March. She works in a school that's down a narrow country lane and has had previous run ins with the buses so the Starlet will probably be put into service then as it's so dinky she shouldn't have any problems getting through. But till then it's my toy 😁
  15. Thanks πŸ‘ I picked it up from Ashurst in Kent. Looking at the history folder I was given (about the last 10 years so not bad really) it's lived around there for much of its life. Crazy really that I got it for so little, the previous owners spent nearly Β£700 on it in the last 18 months! New cat, 4 new tyres and a battery, both belts changed in 2018 and its done less than 20k miles since they were done. At 133k on the clock it's just about run in for a 90's Toyota 😁
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