PicantoJon

Fuck me sideways, the job I was on yesterday was a blast... 'Can I plug it back in? I have work to do...' 'Ol' mate fix` 'It's fine, just don't unplug it...' 'Insert screwdriver here for a good time...' I give up.

These cheap shitty cables have given me nothing but trouble, and the site I'm working at is full of the fucking things. The connectors are so shitty that it was causing my tester to fail them, cue: Earth cont: Fail. *jiggle connector* Earth cont: Pass Oh good, I'll just double check it... Earth cont: Fail Gets a bit boring after the fiftieth time!

Don't do it human. You know what happened last time... Against the better advice of my feline assistant, I decided to crack on with more tinkering on the ever-ungreatful Peugeot. Namely refreshing the washer and seals on number 3/number 2 (depending on however Peugeot decided to number them this week) injector. Getting to the injectors was straightforward enough, unbolt the plastic loom holder, disconnect connectors and carefully* wedge it out of the way. Likewise, removing the leak-off pipe watsits only required removing the clip holding each in place and levering off its injector, again stuffing it aside. High pressure lines came off easy too. Am I getting my hopes up? Yes. Slight battle getting the rocker cover out, as one of the 8mm bolts was helpfully hidden behind the pipe going from the intercooler to the turbo. Though loosening it's retaining clip gave me enough space to get at the aforementioned bolt. Twist, wriggle, curse the bastard who designed this engine and the rocker cover came out. Oh. Swear words. Moving swiftly on (to preserve my sanity if anything...) Removing the injector involved liberal application of carb cleaner and scraping around the clamp, the escaping combustion gases had solidified back into a hellish combination of tar and very solid carbon. Unsurprisingly effective at holding the injector in place but it yielded. Lovely. That took a significant amount of time to clean all whilst paranoidly avoiding the tip of the damn thing. Cleaned up the bore with an amazon spesh cleaning kit and replaced the seal that sits at the top, with only a slight faff getting the blighted little rubber bastard to seat properly. Not perfect by any stretch but it do. Put new spacer thing and copper washer on the comprehensively refurbished* injector before chucking it back in its home, reattaching everything and putting off turning the damn thing back on. A smidgen of hesitation and puckering of the sphincter, then I turned the key. Chuff successfully banished and I don't have to keep the air con in recirc anymore!

From what I could see it was limited to that particular lobe. Doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. 😬

That's the one. That was my guess too, annoying seeing how I've been changing oil and filter every 6-7,000 miles.

Found this whilst changing one of the the injector seals. Arses.

Free cress! Yummy!

FTFY

Can we book a bit less rain this time? @AnnoyingPentium I'm bringing a crash helmet!

Aquaplaning? 😂

Fuqstiks. 😢 A sad end for the rescue vehicle of many* a shiter.

Double whammy for this episode of mechanical incompetence. New alternator belt, tensioner and an oil change. Saturday began with me getting up at fuckthis o'clock to take the merdemobile for a new pair of front tyres. Only I didn't need to get up early as my appointment wasn't until 11 o'clock! Decided to kill time by picking up the new alternator tensioner and belt. Anyway, a pair of shiny new Continental EcoContact 6ses and a wheel alignment later, the Pug feels a lot better to drive. Quieter and less twitchy, old tyres must have been on the edge of perishing despite appearances. Get home, get tools out and set about jacking up the front end to get the wheel and arch liner oot for access to the belt itself. Getting sufficient access to the tensioner saw me playing brittle plastic connector roulette and winning, thank fuck. Levered back the old tensioner back and using an 'approved tool' (a small screwdriver that only got bent slightly*) locked it. Looks deceptively roomy, it really wasn't! 2/3 bolts came out no problem, the one furthest away just wasn't reachable from above so had to go at it from the wheel arch. Managed to get it off eventually and only dropped the spanner 553 times... Lobbed the new belt and tensioner in and made the absolute stupid mistake of placing my pry tool on the engine cover... Of course it fucked off down the back of the engine! Like, right down. Bawlicks to this I thought, after removing several layers of skin from my hands trying to wedge them through the letterbox sized gap, so I sacked it off for the evening and went indoors to get mocked by the cat. Sunday rears it's head and I head back out to try and figure out how to pry the trapped tool from the HDi's grasp. Didn't take long, though I lost more skin as the car fought to claim it's sacrifice. SUCCESS. Reunited with it, I was able to finally remove the locking pin from the new tensioner and feel the warmth of a job actually done. Oil and filter got changed too, which went flawlessly and there were no issues whatsoever... Ffs. Luckily that was the old oil and I remembered to replace the sump plug before putting in the new stuff.

Taste and sense? On here?! Have you seen us... 😂

My 207 SW has that too, especially handy seeing as the boot release has given up...

Dad update (couldn't think of anywhere else to put it so hey ho...): He's still in the ICU at Blackpool Victoria but is making progress, sitting out of bed and walking around with the physio. Still early days but I'm hopeful. He has asked me to do the timing belt on the Picanto, the bloody cheek! I'm going to have to do it aren't I? HALP! 🙈

Does the V in SVM stands for Vehicular now, seeing as the collective appears to be expanding its remit... 😂

NOGO!

Can't be, there's no square sosig!

I've stayed in that holiday inn! Interesting area with the planes dive bombing overhead into London City Airport and Canning Tahhhn Underground just up the road, that place is a fucking maze... Still no idea what is going on! 😂

To tone down the orangeyness, press the left hand sticky out thing on the instrument cluster. 👍

Think the SVM will actually collect a car this time? The last collection fred had me scratching my head! 😂

So far I've been able to do the mechanical stuff on my own 207 SW, and my technical skills are just beyond the knowing arses from elbows stage.

The old man is currently in intensive care after having his knackered atrial valve replaced. Even though I know he's in the absolute best place, I'm still worried shitless. Not sure I'll be sleeping tonight.

Update: AA rocked up ten minutes after their ETA, not bad considering that it was around 5 o'clock and the poor bugger had to endure the M65 to get to me (bloody jumped up dual carriageway!). One good poke around later and diagnosis: yer aux belt tensioner is fookin fooked m9. Really... I called the AA over that?! Anyway, now it was established in my anxiety ridden brain that the car was in fact driveable, I set off home with Mr AA in tow as he offered to check it again once I'd arrived home to ensure no more Frenchness had occurred. Home safely achieved and after checking again, Mr AA went on his way to actual breakdowns...

Well that didn't take long... Finished work and noticed a distinct chattering noise coming from the land of belts. Occasionally said chatter suddenly stops, the engine bogs and the headlights go bright. Signs point to alternator shenanigans but I'm an idiot and don't trust my own judgement any longer. At least there's a Subway in the petrol station in case I get hungry...