Sold Dollywobbler's Bluebird - Buy an award winner! £SOLD

[Brodders]

Were you at Clacket Lane services today Dollywobbler? I thought I saw someone who looked similar to you when I was there around 12:30.

[SiC]

At least it's providing you with its services now and being reliable. 450 miles in couple of days will test any car.

[Snipes]

I had a bluey hatch 1.6lx which I "rescued" from a zxoc members driveway. I ran it form almost 3 years with basically zero maintenance and it never FTP'd and everything worked! Maybe I was lucky?

[dollywobbler]

Were you at Clacket Lane services today Dollywobbler? I thought I saw someone who looked similar to you when I was there around 12:30.

Not guilty. I've driven past, but not stopped there.

[dollywobbler]

On Saturday, I went for a drive to meet Egg and have a Fleet Special head to head. 

 

Good to catch up and also good to have my first drive of a Mk1 Mondeo in about 20 years. Frightening though that fact is.

 

Then I had to go and do some 'work,' which involved this Heritage meeting.

 

As if that wasn't enough giddy excitement for one day, I then drove to a field to camp for the night. It contained many Datsuns. In fact, we had a good representation of Nissan's car range in the late 1980s. Laurel, Bluebird, Sunnys, Micra.

 

We went out for quality* eats at KFC in this V6 Homy. It was awesome.

 

The next day, the Bluebird was part of the Datsun/Nissan display at Oh So Retro. It was a pretty remarkable. All these are owned by one bloke!

 

Other tasty spottings.

 

I somehow didn't buy this.

 

Soft focus, because 1980s PORNOGRAPHY. Diesel 3dr estate.

 

The Bluebird even won a prize - Most Original Datsun!

 

This was despite me admitting that one wheel trim had been replaced, and that the tyres were slightly too wide.

 

I have been driving around the clutch issue, and it only honks on hill starts or if I'm too hasty at the traffic light grand prix. If I'm gentle, it's fine, so hopefully it'll continue to hold until we're back in Wales. The starter motor has taken to occasionally failing to engage, and just spinning, and often doesn't seem to engage cleanly. I'm wondering if it's worth pulling it off and trying to blast the carbon dust and muck out of it. May give that a go when I get home. But, we're comfortably over 550 miles for the trip so far now, with yet more work miles to do tomorrow and Wednesday before we head back. Come on ol' girl, you can do this.

[3VOM]

 

The starter motor has taken to occasionally failing to engage, and just spinning, and often doesn't seem to engage cleanly. I'm wondering if it's worth pulling it off and trying to blast the carbon dust and muck out of it.

You can check the flywheel ringgear when you do the clutch, can't you?

[Zelandeth]

If it's worth anything, the thrust bearing on our C plate Cherry 1.3SGL Maxima (coming from a Nova, it felt seriously plush!) howled under similar circumstances - and apparently continued for about five years after we sold it before terminal rust consigned the car to the scrappy.

 

Still fancy one of those if I could find one...

[Fabergé Greggs]

How much was the yugo?

[dollywobbler]

How much was the yugo?

 

Alas there was no-one there to ask, so I didn't.

[mk2_craig]

Just browsed through the entire thread, what an entertaining read! I think you can justifiably alter the title to include the words AWARD-WINNING.

[dollywobbler]

FTP alert! I went to drive Moog's Vel Satis, which is currently with Bucketeer in Surrey. Bucketeer looked at my Bluebird and then it was broken. I'd started it while we had one last look at the Vel Satis, but it conked out. It would restart, but immediately die. I decided I'd been wrong to ignore the lack of power on the M23 this morning. I had to drop to fourth on an incline.

 

Felt it was probably fuel. Possibly the ancient filter that I'd forgotten to change. We bypassed it with a bit of pipe and all was well once more.

 

Can I get a replacement filter? Can I balls. So, I've reinforced the bodge with self amalgamating tape and I'm hoping that'll last until we're home. Only about 300 miles until we are...

[Ghosty]

Never heard of an Astra referred to as a 'soft focus' before.

[dollywobbler]

Over 80 miles since FTP, some of it in truly terrible weather, so I'm declaring it fixed. 851 miles covered in one week.

 

I did almost get side swiped by a truck on the utterly appalling new M3-M25 south junction. I had fully braced for impact and was practically steering into the expected skid. Scary stuff.

[dollywobbler]

The day started with optimism. We managed to get the car loaded and ready to go only half an hour after we meant to.

 

For some reason, Sat Nav chose to take us up the pretty M40 rather than the usual M4. We went with it. Turns out this was a mistake.

 

Of course, there was no warning of a collision that required central reservation repairs and two lanes to be closed. Oh no. Perish the thought that the Highways Agency might actually want to stop people getting stuck in jams. ARSEHOLES.

 

Things got scary.

 

I'm not sure why that happened really. The fan was definitely cutting in at one point, because the Bluey raises the revs for electrical load. No fan minutes later though, so I turned the engine off (hence red lights). We sat for quite a while, so I left the engine off. I got out for a quick peek and to play with electrical connections, but then the traffic started moving again. Very slowly. The Range Rover Sport in front of us began belching smoke, so I comforted myself with the fact that he faced much bigger bills. Meanwhile, the newly-functional heater matrix came in very useful for avoiding a boil-up.

 

After we finally got moving again, it was fine. We had a merry hoon through Welsh border country, on deserted roads. Bliss after a week in the south of England! Well, I had a merry hoon anyway. There was mild complaint from the passenger seat...

 

Nearing home, I stopped for this photo. This was stupid.

 

Firstly, after that steep climb, the car was stinking of coolant, though I saw no drips. Mrs DW claimed to have seen a whiff of steam. Secondly, the clutch really isn't up for hill starts. We only just got going, with no more than 1cm left of clutch travel. I'm an idiot.

 

However, home was achieved, with us having covered 1117 trouble-free* miles since last Thursday. Even better, on the tank of fuel while in the south, I managed to achieve 41mpg! That was by sticking to no more than 63mph on the motorways - and there was a lot of motorway driving. Of course, a clogged fuel filter acting as an economy device probably helped too...

 

Now, anyone want to buy a Bluebird? Now has 98,000 miles on the clock, comes with a clutch kit and is definitely* 100% reliable (well, I never actually failed to complete a journey!).

[dollywobbler]

Furthermore, I've just been tweeted by the owner of this coffee shop. It's his car on the wall art.

[mk2_craig]

That's legendary. Is it some sort of post-ironic "so uncool, it's cool" thing going on there?

[dollywobbler]

I have no idea. I fully approve though. As long as they sell a proper cup of tea that is.

[Stanky]

Tweet back and ask if he wants the real thing as a mobile marketing tool - or with all those flat surfaces, a hipster-uber-alles static display/coffee table for inside the coffee shop?

[PhilA]

Nah, that's a fairly normal position on the gauge for when it's hot.

 

There's a lot of needle movement for not many degrees difference in engine temperature.

 

 

Phil

[dollywobbler]

It went higher than that. It never goes above halfway normally. I wasn't going to risk it.

[dollywobbler]

Having sort-of proved this car with a long trip, or at least that it can cover long distances with barely any issues, it's up for sale again. I need to crack on with the Proton!

 

For the first time, I've made a video highlighting this car's stunning* features.

 

[Heidel_Kakao]

I assume the Proton roffle is cancelled then? A shame as I was "hoping" to win it.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

^ Now THAT'S a proper car sales advertisement. Eloquent, all the key features and foibles shown, a bit of startup and revving action, along with fine detail such as, 'the tartan blanket isn't included.'

If I needed a Bluebird, I'd be crossing the Tamar right now.

[dollywobbler]

I assume the Proton roffle is cancelled then? A shame as I was "hoping" to win it.

 

Well, I haven't cancelled it, more given up as it's still some way from getting anywhere near full. 

[dollywobbler]

Maybe YouTube wasn't such a good idea. No bites yet.

[dollywobbler]

Roadtrip video. Contains bodgery.

 

Things are getting farcical with this bloody fuel filter though. Ordered one online (not on Ebay for once) and it's been cancelled as they can't supply the part. WHY ADVERTISE IT ON YOUR WEBSITE THEN?

 

It's only a bloody fuel filter. Why are they impossible to find?

[egg]

The other evil empire suggests this?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanparts-FC-110S-Fuel-filter/dp/B00DZL5LNC/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1506943097&vehicle=80-1023-1203-6120-11-0&sr=1-2

[Liggle]

Things are getting farcical with this bloody fuel filter though. Ordered one online (not on Ebay for once) and it's been cancelled as they can't supply the part. WHY ADVERTISE IT ON YOUR WEBSITE THEN?

 

It's only a bloody fuel filter. Why are they impossible to find?

I had this experience with a MK1 MR2 water pump. Ordered three different ones for them to be cancelled due to no stock! I ended up finding a NOS one on eBay. 

[dollywobbler]

The other evil empire suggests this?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanparts-FC-110S-Fuel-filter/dp/B00DZL5LNC/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1506943097&vehicle=80-1023-1203-6120-11-0&sr=1-2

 

Deleted my Amazon account some years ago as I dislike them even more than Ebay. Managed to score one on Ebay for a tenner delivered. If it actually exists...

[cpjitservices]

Deleted my Amazon account some years ago as I dislike them even more than Ebay. Managed to score one on Ebay for a tenner delivered. If it actually exists...

Good Luck.