Sloth's motoring year 2015, how not to change a thermostat

[Sloth in a bowl]

So a new year is upon us and new beginnings are begun.

 

This year I intend to:

1. Sell the Kia (I only really bought it for shitefest and never intended to keep it this long)

2. Buy a replacement, maybe a Cannock Car Auctions job

3. MoT and use the Datsun

4. Get a cheap video camera for filming all the shite I see on the way to work (and other things)

5. Get to more car meets and events

6. Do a pointless road trip

7. Find a reasonable chod storage location

 

The budget will be about £150/month plus fuel

 

I've started the year by having a breakfast with Lord Stirling and Chaseracer which also included replacing the front wipers on the Kia with Wilko sourced things for £2 each (That's the MoT prep done).

This afternoon we have the Kia's MoT so once it's got a ticket then expect a for sale thread in the near future.

 

 

Money spent so far £4

[oldcars]

Like your Kia pride shame to see it go. Hope its looked after by the new owner.

[Inspector Morose]

So a new year is upon us and new beginnings are begun.

 

This year I intend to:

 

6. Do a pointless road trip

 

TALK TO ME.

[Sloth in a bowl]

First job ticked, the Pride has passed its MOT with no advisories 

 

 

Money spent so far £44

[Sloth in a bowl]

TALK TO ME.

 

Andy

 

I'm thinking something simple in late spring (warmer to camp and more daylight hours), like;

Driving to the 4 corner points of Wales over a weekend with an overnight stop on the west coast.

or

Land's End to Lowestoft in a day (Fri, drive to Land's End. Sat, Drive to Lowestoft. Sun drive home.)

 

if you have any ideas then throw them at me and we'll sort something out.

[Pillock]

 

 

2. Buy a replacement, maybe a Cannock Car Auctions job

 

Oh come on, I struggle to win at the best of times without you invoking the automatic first place rule!

[Inspector Morose]

Hell via Hull and Halifax? (Sorry, couldn't resist) Wales sound good. How about the whole United Kingdom in a weekend (England, Scotland, Wales and NI) add the extra task of getting a photo of a shiter in every country visited?

[Sloth in a bowl]

I may have cracked the pointless road trip with one simple map of 12 target locations.

Stuff to look at, at each target and I suspect that shite will congregate at these points anyway.

 

[Sloth in a bowl]

Visited the in laws today and did some chod spotting that the local garage for local people that is just down the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few more at https://www.flickr.com/photos/113220255@N05/sets/72157649708051628/

[AnthonyG]

I notice that that Chod-tactic garage already has future-proofed itself with a Rover 75.

 

These will be the 21st century equivalent of the Rover P4, or maybe the Ferguson tractor, in that every rural automotive establishment will have a dead one on its grounds.

[Sloth in a bowl]

I've bought the goodbye service kit for the Kia

 

Alternator belt £3.84

Air filter £9.72

Thermostat £5.40

Coolant £2.88

Oil £15.00

Oil filter £6.99

Oil filter wrench £5.99

 

Total £49.82

 

 

 

Total for year so far £93.82

[mat_the_cat]

It looks like your road trip will be passing by my front door! So feel free to drop me a PM if you want my address for a cuppa stop, or good roads around the area...

 

[chaseracer]

TALK TO ME.

 

AND ME 

[Sloth in a bowl]

AND ME 

 

of course I will

[Sloth in a bowl]

So this week..

 

The Skoda reached 14,000 miles, needs new front tyres.

 

I met up with a load of fellow shitters at Cannock Motor Auctions and a good time was had by all

 

and I tried and failed to service a few bits on the Kia

 

Air filter, easy, 4 screws, old filter out, new filter in, job done in 5 mins

 

Alternator belt, I see that alternator has a bolt at the back that runs on slide,a touch of plus gas and the bolt undoes and the alternator fails to move at all, no alternator movement means no tension reduction (as the alternator is the tensioner) so no getting the old belt off.

Look at what is around it to lever it forward but the off side engine mount is in the way of everything

Take the 3 bolts of that to move it and realize that though the engine mount and engine are easily parted, getting the engine mount to body end to move means taking the air filter box and god knows what else off, so hold on that idea for now.

I'm considering get something that will fit between the bulkhead and alternator and jack the alternator forward on it's slide, does anybody do a pint size scissor jack?

 

Then move onto the thermostat

Getting the old thermostat off is easy, but then the problems start.

Old thermostat is metal edged with a separate gasket (now in pieces)

New themostat has a rubber ring round it and no gasket.

New thermostat is not going into the hole that the old thermostat came out of as the rubber ring is too large

Tried various bodges but the current plan is to trim the rubber ring so the stat fits in the hole and get some gasket sealant for the metal surfaces.

The job is massively not helped by the lower and totally hidden bolt having the heating pipework running right in front of it so blocking any useful access and to remove the heating pipe would include taking the heat shield off the front of the engine and feck knows what else

 

Just as I was getting a good old swear up, snow stopped play.

[PiperCub]

Sorry, there's actually a brand of oil (from Wilko) called "Oil's Well" ????

 

You live and learn......

[oman5]

I may have cracked the pointless road trip with one simple map of 12 target locations.

Stuff to look at, at each target and I suspect that shite will congregate at these points anyway.

 

 

Is n.12 Brecon mountain railway? I'd be up for that

[Sloth in a bowl]

Is n.12 Brecon mountain railway? I'd be up for that

 

 

From http://www.walesdirectory.co.uk/maps/steamtrains.htm

 

1 Llanberis Lake Railway. 

Tel: 01286 870549

2 Snowdon Mountain Railway. 

Tel: 01286 870223

3 Welsh Highland Railway-Caernarfon-Porthmadog. 

Tel: 01766516000

4 Ffestiniog Railway. 

Tel: 01766 512340

5 Llangollen Railway. 

Tel: 01978 860951

6 Bala Lake Railway. 

Tel: 01938 810441

7 Talyllyn Railway. 

Tel: 01654 710472

8 Welshpool and Llanfair Railway. 

Tel: 01938 810441

9 Vale of Rheidol Railway. 

Tel: 01970 625 819

10 Teifi Valley Railway. 

Tel: 01559 371007

11 Gwili Railway. 

Tel: 01267 230666

12 Brecon Mountain Railway. 

Tel: 01938 810441

13 Fairbourne Railway. near Barmouth. 

Tel: 01341 250362

13 Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. Porthmadog. 

Tel: 01766 513402

 

I was thinking of waiting till the lines put out some full 2015 timetables before selecting a weekend, possibly a Fri/Sat/Sun or Sat/Sun/Mon in late June or early July.

But nothing definite planned yet. 

[Sloth in a bowl]

Today I bought some universal gasket sealant stuff from Halfords (£4.99) for sorting out the Thermostat.

 

Also looked up alternator belt change on Ford Festivas as yanks bother to bung this stuff on the internet. Looks like I need to jack the car up and undo the bolts at the back and below the alternator before it will shift forward.

Here's hoping that the ground is dry on Saturday morning.

[Sloth in a bowl]

Not written on here for a while so here goes with a tale of fuckwittery and doh.

 

Changing a thermostat on a Kia Pride should be easy, 2 bolts undone, old stat out, remove old gasket, clean surfaces, new stat in, new gasket down, 2 bolts done up, top up coolant, bingo

 

A bit of plusgas and the bolts undid well, old stat came out and coolant was a nice clean blue so no drain and flush needed.

 

Then I look at the new and old stats

 

I realise with a bit of messing about that the new stat will have to lose the rubber ring to go into the place where to old one came out of and that as it didn't come with a  gasket then I would try some gasket goo to seal it.

The joy* of put putting it back in place involves working round both the distributor (top right) and the heating pipework (bottom right) which means that you can seen nothing but the top corner of what you are working on.

 

 

This means that I bolted the thing back in, filled up the coolant and saw liquid pour from god knows where.

The next attempt I left for a week so the gasket goo could cure properly before pouring liquid in, it still went everywhere.

 

Today I took the cover tot he local motor parts place and got a gasket for £1 (big money)

 

put it back together and found that the issue was that the bolt that I couldn't see was sticking in its hole and not tightening up, maybe the gasket glue wasn't to blame.

So out came the torque wrench and a bit of 50ft/lbs setting which leaves me with this.

 

Arse biscuits.

 

So if anybody in Birmingham has a stud extractor kit that can help then I'm interested in learning how to use one, I'm currently contemplating trying to get a lefthanded drill bit as that trick should work on what is a not very 'stuck' item, just inaccessible.

 

 

In other news I spent £200 on a pair on New Goodyear Eagle F1's for the Skoda, hopefully they will last a bit more than the 15,000 miles that the Priellis covered before being knackered enough to flash traction control at me in 3rd gear on damp roads.

[Louise2cv]

My front door is on the map too. But I am a rubbish hostess, ask Mat the Cat.

[xtriple]

Were the bolts different lengths? They do things like put the long one in the top and a shorter one in the bottom just to confuse and spoil your day/week/month.

 

Delete as applicable.

[Sloth in a bowl]

Were the bolts different lengths? They do things like put the long one in the top and a shorter one in the bottom just to confuse and spoil your day/week/month.

 

Delete as applicable.

 

Not noticeably different, but I wonder if there was a 2-3mm difference, that's all it would need, but then why not make them both the shorter length?

[The Moog]

To get my gasket bolt out I cut a small slot in top with dremel then unscrewed it. It was slightly above flush so wasn't too bad to do.

[Sloth in a bowl]

Thanks Moog

 

I may have a go at that method, but will probably still order a left handed cobalt bit as it looked like a very neat trick in the youtube video.

[messerschmitt owner]

Visited the in laws today and did some chod spotting that the local garage for local people that is just down the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few more at https://www.flickr.com/photos/113220255@N05/sets/72157649708051628/

on the road at Yorkley!

He's a VX man. He does like his Es and PAs