beko1987

All was going well, and we're going back together! New disc on, retaining screws in and then the caliper bracket. I got the bolts started, and ran them in and gave them a few clicks with my small impact gun. I then went at the bottom bolt with the breaker bar and

Arse. A text to a local mate who said he had one and would text me later gave me some relief, and as I'd mildly ugga dugga'd the top one in imminent doom was not going to happen, and I can get to the bolt later so I carried on

Much shiny, more thick

There we go then, just collected it and it doesnt pull to the left at all now! 
Means I can look at the cost of the most expensive MOT the car's given me to date...
Test - £54.85
1st Parts Run - £36.84
Inner rod/2nd Parts Run - £20.49
-£11.88 for the boot I returned (refund came in this morning)
Tracking - £42
Total cost - £142.23, the vast % of which went on the test and tracking! Could be worse I guess!
I then get to hand over more money to someone for more parts for planned work later today 😂

And I think she just passed 👌

None, until you've confirmed that the first time you pull away the engine, front subframe and bulkhead isn't going to rip away from the rest of the car and bugger off down the road on it's own, leaving you sat in the remains of the car looking out into fresh air.

Not many, because pre digital and all that - here's when I bought it from an ad in the Sporting Escorts owners club magazine

The whole reason I bought this one was because my parents had an identical T-reg (local FN registered) from 1980-until the mid 90's

As mentioned before, when dad sold it, I kept the Serck plates, which to this day are in the shed

Whereabouts are you based - seem to recall you are/were somewhere around Marlow / Wycombe sort of direction?
I've got a copy of the dealer Diagbox / Lexia tool and if theres no one closer and you're not in a desperate hurry then I'm happy to plug it in and see what is says - how repeatable is the issue though as it sounds quite intermittent from your description?

Swing a ding!
After a bit time today lugging stuff about ready for collection , i spent the remainder of the afternoon stripping the brakes off this ready to clean up and rebuild with new pistons

Seal Kit with new stainless pistons from the bigg guys.

Stripped appart, Degrease, Cleaned up with the knotwheel on the angle grinder and painted with weld through primer. Its high zinc so holds up okay ish, thin and fast drying which is key as i wanted to spend no more than 5 or so hours on these.  Turns out id picked up a can of the copper based too in my last order so embraced it. 

A few from me.
Recent spots in Belgium:

Hyundai i20. Looks to have been there for a long time.

This 207 in a local shops carpark that I use to park in too. 207 has been here for a good year or so, it was here in August last year.
UK:

This Polo is by mine, owned by an older gentleman. Hasn't moved now for a good half a year but is still taxed and MoT'd (or least it was last time I checked)

Focus in Halesowen. Been here for ages, not moved since about 2010/11.

75 V6, although it doesn't look abandoned, it hasn't moved for a while.

106, Erdington near a shiter. 

Toyota Avensis. Outside a shop in Selly Oak, Birmingham.
 

I have one too. As you say it's quite compact so it usually lives in the boot of the Triumph where it tucks in neatly on one side. This is because the Triumph went through a phase of popping the driveshaft out of the CV joint if you accelerated too hard on full lock. Fortunately it hasn't done it for a few years. But I found if you put a trolley jack under the hub and got the angle right you could pop it in again without having to undo any ball joints so I always carry that and an axle stand in the boot now. 
Coincidentally I took a crap picture of it only yesterday for my own thread. I have a big jack for the garage but I used the little one for refitting the rear strut, jacking it up until the holes lined up. It's there hiding behind the big jack handle. 

 

Whatever, the cable tie that was there was working fine so I simply replaced it with a new one with just a bit less slack built into it's placement

Then a good coating of lithium spray grease on the latch 

Bonnet has never worked so well 😂 Closes with the lightest of drops with a nice quiet thunk from the latch. Pulling the lever inside the car the bonnet now pops up a tiny bit whereas before it didn't and you just got used to sliding your fingers under the gap onto the lever. 
Sprayed the same grease over all the door check straps and hinges too, although not too much so it gathers grime. 
Ill call that good enough, got one job done and I think I'll go find some hoses and at least call it preventative maintenance. Anyone know wtf their called? 2.0 hdi 110

I cleaned it off and flushed so much grit out with some small brushes I have

(and scrubbed the bit you push to open the bonnet so I don't get filthy fingers topping off screenwash 👌)
This revealed a structural cable tie

I've no idea what the end of the cable is supposed to look like but I assume part of it is snapped? 

Still at nill-nill on the day I remembered another annoyance, the bonnet latch. It's always been mushy and a bit meh to open, but more alarmingly recently it's been a sod to latch shut. As I was working on the above I fired some brake clean at it, and 5minutes later it had shit itself

Noting the trim piece covering it only had 2 fixings left and I've got a whole box of those I took it off and found a disgusting lump of shite

Bonnet cable looks happy m8

I'd bought a tin of brake clean during the week, and went outside to have a look at some rubber pipes. It's been mostly fine but did loose the turbo twice during a 400 mile trip I did last Saturday... Again on and off the throttle (changing up a gear in reality but I think it's coming off and on the throttle that's doing it) fixes it and that's that! 
Cleaned off the weeping from the bottom intercooler hose and my eyes are sure they see a straight line running from the edge of the hose and up a bit. Not the circular line of the last layer of hose, it's not really clear on the photo. Gave it all a good squeeze and nothing was immediately apparent. 

Next was this hose coming off the back of the engine and running down the side of the block. I've read about this on a few forum threads. 

It's rock hard at the top, then goes very soft and squishy as it passes past the cambelt covers and goes to whatever metal thing I felt it clamp to. Engine was stone cold.
Didnt fancy removing pipes right now, they all feel 'old' and am sure will fuck up as I remove them and not seat properly when I refit. Going to see how much new hoses are and maybe treat it to them as a mild parts cannon guess. 
I did notice the bracket that holds all the vacuum things in place only had 1 nut... 

I'm lacking any suitable nuts to use (what size would this use? Wouldn't hurt to get an assorted sized set as I've found this alot as I work on it 😂). In leiu of anything proper some cable ties snugged it down well enough 

 

I have screenwash again! 
It died on the way to work Monday, so I ordered a new pump, which came yesterday. 
Nice and quiet at work/I've done so many hours these past couple of weeks for no extra pay I could have all next week off and still come out on top so don't feel bad. 

Only the finest quality parts here! 
Peeling back the arch liner and cutting 1 cable tie gave me the access I needed, so I pulled the old pump and saved the fresh screenwash I'd filled it with the prior Saturday... 

Fitted the new pump, sloshed a bit back in filtering it through a microfiber cloth as I went as there was some dirt that came out and... It leaked! 
Out it all came again, I tried again and it still dripped. Ffs never mind does it work? No. 
Got the multimeter out and there was no juice at the wires

Turns out it was the fuses, I was just looking at the wrong one (because the diagram in the manual bears zero relation to the fuse box I have.) Borrowed a 10a from somewhere else and 12v was restored.
Back out with the new pump, and I fitted it back in with the old rubber seal and it's not leaking anymore, and the washer jets are a shit load more powerful now! The old pump was knackered, between leak 1 and after the multimeter shot above I refitted the OG one assuming the new pump was just shite quality, changed the fuse from something else and it fired it once and blew the fuse again. Old seal and new pump sorted it
Also noticed the last proper fixing for the undertray had gone awol and it was flapping in the breeze like so many golf's and insignias I see on the m40, so I deployed more cable ties. There are now zero proper fixings holding it on, and it's probably stronger for it! 
Need to go into town at lunchtime and get more fuses (no idea what I robbed a fuse from and I don't care for now) and it should be good to go again! I'm also dripping wet after laying in mud and screenwash to fit the pump and sort the undertray. 
Almost 174k on the original pump, and I've had it empty and frozen many times so I'll forgive it. Hopefully this new one lasts at least a year

Ah that wasn't nearly as bad as the fb group people made it out to be, and nowhere near as bad as the sidelight bulbs are. 7/10 would be higher but it's 0 degrees here. 
I chucked the possibly used osram of unknown origin on the passenger side, confirmed it's operation and then fitted the brand new 0 hours bulb to the drivers side to treat myself. I need a back rubber cover for that side... 

Huzzah. Checked the full beams

Marvellous! So what came out? 


The Classic had classically shat it's pants

But the mighty KX is still fully working
So it went into the bulb kit with the HnnNnnnG to make 2 working spares for emergencies! Chucked a few sidelight and other random bulbs I had in the kitchen from buying packs of 10 on ebay so we iz well stocked now! 
If I'm lucky I'll be able to see more when I next drive in the dark, which will probably be Tuesday evening... 
Here ends an exciting update for a boring car! (It needs to carry on being boring and reliable too please 🙏) 

I now have 2 matching part number bulbs. 
One brand new from toolstation, one that's been sat in a bulb kit in the boot of probably my last 4 cars 😂 I wonder which one won't work... 

I mean it could be worse, a friend said this cold snap took his grandad out the other week, here I am moaning about it taking some bulbs out!
Yesterday I became aware one of the brake light bulbs had gone on the back. Fair enough, no bother, got it changed. Came out this morning to de-ice the car to nip out somewhere and ah...

Explains why I felt I couldnt see shit Tuesday night coming home from work! Luckily I was only nipping out, not going to the office so just turned them off and carried on. Came home and had a peek under the cover to check the connector hadn't melted or some other annoyance. Luckily all seems fine

I gathered all the random bulb packs I have from the car and house and did find 2 H7 bulbs, which the manual (which is falling apart now sadly) says I need

Their a mis-matched pair though, which I can almost forsee being an annoyance...

However, I channeled my inner LBF and one is an Osram 64210-L. I've heard of Osram. The other bulb says HNG and some code that google thinks is an I7-1255U and gives me nothing else.

Given how I've been moaning about the shite headlights for the past few winters, and officially their a bumper off job to change, I've opted to push the boat out. Toolstation supposedly sell an Osram 64210-B for £7 and my local one had one in stock. So I've ordered one of those, and will put a matched Osram pair in, hope the B and L suffixes don't denote something important and keep the rando no name bulb in the kit for emergencies!#
And only slice my hands up in the freezing cold on Saturday once 👌 Although the main beam bulbs are easier to get at. I had to do the sidelights last time which were buried far down and in, if I pop the battery off and unplug the ABS mobule (or even just unplug the ABS module...) I should have good* access.
The brake light was nice though, who actually noticed was the Ex and Charlie out driving, they must have been behind me driving home, so Charlie got to help pop the cluster off, check which bulb it was and fit a new one, which he seemed happy about. (I didn't tell him Amy had text me prior but it wasn't the sidelight and I can't easily check the brakes on my own...)

George works very well! 

Didn't take long as the car wasn't filthy but I then got my Vorwerk VK150 out (£2,000 odd worth of vacuum!) and got the turbo brush all over the velour and carpets

Then took the mats in and put the carpet head on them which is really aggressive. 

Paid £40 for it in the summer and it's fab! I might keep it and sell the others, I don't need 5/6 of them... Do I? 

Currently refurbishing the green ones, anyone fancy a cheap REALLY good vacuum in a few weeks? Stripped and washed the floor heads, main bodies are next on the to-do list

 

I then grabbed the new drain plug and washer and tbh I don't even know why I bothered, the old ones fine

I think I hammered the torx in the last 2 changes... 

Washed and re used the oil filter AND I was clever, and before I dropped the oil I loosened the filter with one hand and a couple of grunts before I got all oily 👌💪

Lobbed the entire bottle and 1l I had kicking around else where to bring the level up on the dipstick to the middle, I left the axle stand under as I did it so my fat arse would fit back under to refit everything and I think I actually angled rhe engine backwards and the sump was level and loads flowed out. Certainly wasn't all pouring out the bottom so meh! 
Held down the magic button 


And that's the service warning not coming on every time I start the car! Bloody modern cars with their warnings on the dash 😡 (that tbh I completely ignore, I ignore the oil level thing too as I park at a backwards angle mostly so it's never accurate from there) 
Left it out on the road incase my mate comes early tomorrow, otherwise I'll park it back up and he ca hope there's a space when he turns up! I get to do it all again to a 2019 astra 1.0 tomorrow... (that's what paid for the oil) 

It was warm and sunny at 4pm when I shut my laptop down, so I pulled the car round and assumed the position! 

The time is 172k


Time to chuck this in! The only thing I've paid for is a new sump plug 👌 got the under tray off and had her drain. Noticed a few oil leaks... The rocker cover gasket isn't getting any better, I cleaned this all when I was last under here.  Active but slow drips

The oil runs uphill too 🤣 The bottom of the intercooler is a bit moist too... 

It's coming out of a little bung, which is nice as that side won't rust now

First proper drive completed, and to work and back so familiar. The fact the car stops better and with less pedal needed isn't even the best bit, something must have been binding somewhere as I don't loose anywhere as near as much speed as I used to just lifting off the accelerator! 
Hope that translates into a free mpg bump! 

Replacement T55 bought, especially as I know what it fits now, and if I have need to get back in there it's probably gonna be a fucking urgent need 😂
We went into town earlier, nearly put Eva through the windscreen braking at the usual shove I do at the first roundabout 👌 I can lightly breathe on the pedal and slow down a good amount now, must have been very used to it not doing much before to the point I didn't notice at all

Obv this was the brake fluid pushing back out again and the pistons needed to go back alot 😂 Fired some brake cleaner at it, will do it again tomorrow in the daylight

I taught Charlie what down and up means and we got the brakes bled. They didn't need bleeding but I pushed 5/6 pumps through, it was a bit grotty

The time is 172k, just an oil change and maybe the rocker gasket if I can be arsed to fit in this year now! (oil change is overdue, but only by a month, and last year it got changed at 12 months/sub 5,000 miles so it's fine 😂. And keep an eye on the turbo issue 

Brakes felt way sharper pulling to round to my parking spot, and hopefully the small marks on the road will soften over winter... 

Oh that's good to know then, and yes one is different! Does it matter what at they go? I swapped them round until they were as good as they would be, and hopefully that'll do it! 

My mate came round with his medium size impact and a T55 bit and in 6 minutes we went from this to this

He went home after this and I carried on with the pads, which went well until I noticed fluid pouring from the engine bay... 

All looks much better from this angle now

And I gave the wheel bolts a clean off with the wire brush and brake clean


They spin in so much nicer now! Currently paused waiting for a replacement T55 to be in my hand (and I'd best buy a new one so I've got it) then I'll finish off this side and do the other. It all certainly wants changing, which is good to see now I'm changing it!