Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[LightBulbFun]

13 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Hmm, intriguing.  There must be a reason for it. 

Your mentioning different carb types has reminded me that I really do need to have another bash at finding a service kit, or one that's at least close enough for mine.  While it works fine it weeps from several seals, which I'd really rather put a stop to.  Even just a genuine top cover gasket that's actually in decent shape would probably help.

Regarding the stubby filter on TPA - I've no idea.  Remembering how hacked about KPL was, anything is possible...and to be honest it's a bit of a surprise she even *had* an air filter.  No idea if it's an original one that was just cut down, though if they've done that they have also shortened the threaded rod things screw onto, which I'm assuming wasn't threaded all the way into the housing, so would have had to be replaced, so wasn't a ten second job.  

Pretty sure the reason for the larger filter body is to reduce noise.  The induction roar at higher speeds in TPA is really quite noticeable, which I reckon having a bit more volume in the filter housing may help muffle a bit.  Or given Steyr-Puch seem to know what they're doing it could even be tuned to help improve breathing using resonance effects to their advantage... it's all guesswork and speculation though.  Plus I've no idea why my filter is smaller!

Yeah! as you know im a sucker for the fine details, so I find it most curious  

on the carb service kit I think this might do the trick   https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265075077626

(I do wonder what the 2 brass things on the right are?)

and if you dont want to get it from Italy Im sure haflinger technik would probably be able to help (and failing that, I do know of someone who rebuilt Model 70 carbs in the 1980's for the Ministry so have a load of rebuild kits on the shelf still)

[Mr Pastry]

2 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

(I do wonder what the 2 brass things on the right are?)

Needle valve and seating.

[Zelandeth]

Brief evening additional repair distraction.

Yesterday evening the air conditioner in here packed in. 

Trying to keep this room cool without AC is impossible.  I shut everything in here that generates heat off as soon as it became apparent there was issues and threw the window wide open - was still 23C in the annexe which serves as the actual bedroom at 3AM when it was -2C outside.  If the computer is doing anything vaguely strenuous it will end up touching 30C after a few hours.  Once the room is down to temperature it's not bad to keep it there - but actually getting it down there in the first place requires the services of a heat pump!  The radiator in here has been buried and never switched on even once (seriously - there's a desk built over the top of it now) since 2014!

Fault condition was that the compressor wouldn't start - just made angry buzzing noises for a few seconds before tripping out on the internal thermal overload.

My gut feeling was that this wasn't a physical compressor failure, most likely would be the motor start capacitor which had packed in.

These Seveso units are pretty sensibly designed and are pretty easy to work on really.  Bit awkward simply because there is a lot of stuff crammed into a pretty compact unit, but not too bad really.  I knew from last time I was in there that the start cap was just screwed into the back of the fan cowling.

Hey, look at that...

Yep...one of the leads no longer being attached to the start cap, that would explain why the compressor wasn't starting.

Looks to me like the spade terminal has become a bit loose over time through vibration and heat cycling, started arcing...which made it overheat, which made it worse...until it ate away enough of the terminal that it fell off.

Evaporator could do with a clean too.

Surprisingly the capacitor tested out as absolutely fine...not bad after 30 years.

Snipped the toasty wire back to good metal, crimped a new spade terminal on, connected it up and pressed the button.  Fired straight up. 

Then just a matter of putting things back together - including the 39485659398 screws holding the back and top of the case on.

Would have been daft not to clean the evaporator while I had the front panel off (which only takes 30 seconds and two screws to remove), so gave that a good brush and vacuum out.

Straightened a few of the bent fins out a bit too.  Won't make a huge difference, but I figure even fractional efficiency improvements are still improvements.

There we go, back up and running and with the usual stack of stuff back in place.

I was going to clean the exterior unit before dumping it back outside...but ran out of enthusiasm before getting to that.  The condenser itself is perfectly clear, just looks a bit grubby.

Don't imagine you would buy one today and still have the original capacitors working fine after 30 years!

Hopefully won't need any more remedial work for a while.  At least I won't boil to death tonight.  

We would have fitted a fixed unit in here by now if we were looking to stay here long term.  However as we're likel to be moving in the next couple of years so the portable mini split will do for now.  It's several orders of magnitude more efficient than those hose-out-the-window jobs at least.  When we switched over to these from those newer domestic grade ones it caused a very obvious drop in our energy usage.

[Zelandeth]

Today I waved goodbye to the S123.

Which is staying in the fold you'll be glad to hear.

It's gone to live just up the road at the Six-Cylinder household to keep their S124 company.

If it were a project car I would have probably persevered with it, however as it was intended to be the main car on fleet that was going to be quite a major hassle if I did need to go down the engine full rebuild or replacement route as it would mean the car being out of action for an appreciable amount of time.  Was I overly optimistic thinking I could get away with treating a 34 year old Mercedes at this end of the market as my daily?  Maybe.  Nevertheless, I've always wanted an S123 so even if it wasn't without its hiccups I'm glad to have ticked that one off.

It will be replaced at some point in the near future with what's intended to be my main project for this year, which some of you may recall me mentioning a while back.

Which will be quite a rewarding revival hopefully.  They're pretty simple cars and this one by and large is exceptionally solid.  A friend on another forum has already offered me use of their car roller which will make the bit of welding on the offside sill inner several orders of magnitude easier.  Will also make doing a decent job of rust proofing it easier - though I may well still just farm that out to a specialist.

I am going to offer the BX up for grabs shortly though.  It's not urgent and if it doesn't find a new home I'll keep chipping away at getting it back on the road.  However while it's a great example and if I had all the space in the world I'd keep it - it doesn't really fit anywhere in my current fleet requirements and I'd really rather have the space back.  My main intent back when I picked it up was to ensure that it remained safe from the scrapper and to ensure its chances of survival were maximised.  It's now running well and aside from needing the rear hydraulic lines replaced (which isn't a small job, especially laying on your back in the garden), I don't reckon is far from an MOT at all.

A very heavy package arrived this afternoon, catching me completely by surprise as it's not meant to be here until the end of next week and still isn't shown as even having been dispatched yet.

Unfortunately having had quite a busy day aside from peeking in the box to grab the manual so I could confirm the grade of oil the engine needs I've not had a chance to look at it yet.

Should be a decent upgrade from a fairly low end electric pressure washer...and having 30 metres of hose to play with will be a massive help in itself compared to the four I'm used to.  Putting that all together will be tomorrow afternoon's task.  Then hopefully I can give the engine bay in the Caddy a bit of a clean up, ready to refit the contents of the second box that turned up today.

Hardly mission critical, but will just be nice to not know it's missing.  Plus it provides support for the top of the dipstick tube which currently vibrates a LOT at idle because of resonance effects.  Just three bolts hold it on so hardly a major hassle to remove for access.

[Zelandeth]

Bobdisk very kindly dropped by today with his diagnostic gizmo to hook up to the OBD2 port on the Caddy.  As we had hoped, a couple of codes were logged.

The first of which is the interesting one.

"Motor for intake flap (V157) - sporadic - open/short circuit to earth."

The second code is expected as it's indicating the solenoid for the EGR valve being open circuit - because I've unplugged it.

This is really useful as it gives me a component to home in on with my investigation.  First port of call is to make sure the wiring to it isn't obviously damaged as it is quite exposed.  Then we'll give it a good clean, which it really wants anyway.

Apparently this vehicle had issues with the aftermarket alarm at some point, hence it's loom being left in this state.

Alarm sounder end:

Bulkhead end:

Turns out that one of those wires does indeed still have 12V on it too in addition to being a gaping hole through the bulkhead.

I've now found that end of the tail (buried behind the heater box), and each of the wires has been taped, heat shrink covered then the tail as a whole treated the same way.  The actual alarm module is buried up behind the centre console and I didn't have the patience to go chasing that further today.

This lot was pulled out.

The above area now looks like this.  By pure chance I found a bung sitting on the drive that was exactly the right size to fill the hole left by that alarm wiring.

 

Much better.

While in that corner I dropped a new pollen filter in.

Far easier than on a huge number of modern cars.  Old one wasn't horrible so has definitely been changed before, but was definitely due a change.

I wanted to make sure I had actually picked up the correct engine cover as there are a few variants so dropped that on as well.

Should have the covers for the mounting points here in a couple of days (along with a replacement for the broken lock pull for the driver's door).  It takes about 90 seconds to remove/install so am not bothered about it being a hindrance at service time.  Plus makes a convenient tray to put things in once it's removed, which is nice as this engine bay does lack a convenient flat area to put anything.

It *does* make a noticeable difference to noise levels at least outside the van too so does serve at least some useful purpose.

[Zelandeth]

As a follow up to the appearance of this box on Friday, what was in it?

After about half an hour of assembly, this.

Assembly was about as simple as you could ask for - all the necessary tools and some PTFE tape were in the box.

The biggest complaint I'd seen from people in reviews of this unit was that they were managing to melt the hose that runs between the pump and hose reel on the exhaust.  Have to assume they had it routed like this.

Whereas if you just route it like this and stick a couple of cable ties in place it's a non-issue.

Yes the reel is very obviously an afterthought they just managed to find space to bolt onto the frame as it does make access to the pull start slightly awkward.

Really not badly though so long as you've uncoiled the hose, which you're meant to do before starting the engine anyway.  

Speaking of the hose...being used to working with a crappy little plastic thing with a 4 metre hose meaning I was forever having to move it round a car while cleaning it, this amount of reach is pure luxury.

That's not even using the additional ten metre extension that came in the box!

Will be so nice not having to keep moving the unit around.  Can just get on with the job at hand.

Fit and finish is a lot better than I was expecting to be honest.  Just a shame the polystyrene packing has reacted with the paint on the frame in one spot.  Everything slotted, clipped or screwed together nicely as it was mean to and I had no issues with sharp edges or burrs on anything.

Engine is your typical Honda clone which turns up on everything from go karts to lawn mowers to generators...and while I'd obviously prefer the real thing (or being me to be honest, a flathead Briggs), I've never personally had any issues with these on any of my equipment or anything I've helped others look after.  If it was being used for hours on end every day, maybe.  For a couple of hours every week or two it should be fine.

It does have a low oil shutoff, which is always nice to have on a piece of equipment like this.

The detergent tank is a nice detail rather than just a hose dangling off to dip in a bottle (which inevitably gets either lost or broken) or an awkward thing you have to clip to the lance like the Nilfisk this replaces had.

As for performance?  Well you'd expect it to have more punch than the 1400W electric ones given the engine here is rated at 5500W if my math is right (8hp).  Yep... that's definitely the case...you properly have to brace yourself when pulling the trigger on this and use common sense as even with the wider nozzles fitted I don't doubt for a second that this thing will strip paint off metal if you're not careful.

Hoping to give it a proper test in the week, today was just a run of a few minutes to make sure everything behaved, and allowed me to blast some of the worst of the gunk out of the gutters and after a dousing in degreaser, the engine bay of the Caddy.  Not an oily engine anyway, just grubby from 20 years of use.  The washer bottle is going to need separate attention, but it generally looks a lot cleaner now.

Cars are much likely to get cleaned now as this reduces the hassle factor massively!

List price for this is £379, though it was discounted to £330 when I ordered it - decided it was a good thing to stick the £100 or so of vouchers I've had sitting around literally for years to use for - plus my nan sent some money at Christmas too...so good excuse for a new toy I reckon!

[Zelandeth]

Very little to report as I've been running around all over the shop again this week so far.

Horrible sounding clatter/rattle when the engine stopped on the Caddy resolved.

Before:

After:

There was a good 3/4" of free play in the bonnet when latched and the nearside was rattling.  I think looking at it the nearside hinge wants moving back fractionally too, that's a job for another day though.  At least it doesn't rattle now.

Broken driver's door lock pull has now been replaced as it was bugging me.

I think tyres may be on the menu soonish.  For all these aren't at all old they just seem to have virtually no grip when the surface is anything other than bone dry.  2nd gear wheel spin shouldn't be a daily issue on roundabouts with 64bhp on tap when trying to move off anything resembling briskly.

I've had indication that someone might be interested in taking the BX on as a project in its current form, so I'll hold off the creation of an actual for sale post until they've had a chance to say yay or nay.  If it stays I'll keep picking away at the to do list, I'd just rather concentrate on the projects I've actively gone shopping for this year if I have the choice.

Not really expecting to get any time to do much else this week as the diary is pretty full.

 

[Zelandeth]

I really need to properly investigate why this keeps happening.

Kind of getting fed up of having to shove it back into place after every other trip.

...Or may just be evidence of how bloody awful the roads around here are!

I do have a question though for folks who know these cars/vans better than me. 

Does anyone know how the radiator etc should actually be supported?  The top of mine is currently secured by cable ties (having previously been hanging by the coolant and AC refrigerant lines) as there is no evidence of any viable means for it to be secured to the underside of the slam panel.  I've also completely failed to find photos online of anything which looks like what's in place in my engine bay - not sure if that's just because AC wasn't a common option on the Polo/Caddy back in 2002 or if I'm just useless at internet searches.  It's pretty obviously wrong in most cases though as the majority of them only have a position available for a single fan, whereas I've got two.  The ones I have seen with dual fans show two which are very different sizes, and a plastic cowling...rather than these two which are pretty similar in size (the offside one is a bit bigger) and a metal cowl of quite a different design.  So I'm confused.

I'm guessing that there should be some form of bracket/block/fitting...thing...that secures the radiator to the bolt through the panel on both sides.

There isn't a threaded hole or anything on the radiator for that bolt to screw into by the way - I did wonder if it was that simple, but no.

Attempting to trawl Google for anything helpful has proven completely fruitless...and in fact about 70% of the radiators shown don't even have *any* tab/bracket etc at the top corners shown at all.  I'm basing this on Polo stuff, as trying to search for Caddy specific things is completely hopeless as the search engine totally ignores 2002 and just spits out a plethora of matches for the current models. 

I don't think the radiator can be lifted very much as I think the bottom end (which feels like it's located by pegs rather than bolts given it moves pretty freely vertically) will then lift out of whatever retains it down there...which makes me think that there must be something missing between the slam panel and the top of the radiator.  It's one of those situations where I know the solution is probably dead simple, but without a proper diagram of how it all fits together I'm just guessing.

I could pull the bumper off to try to get a better look at things, but with it looking like something is actually missing I don't really know what that would gain me anyway other than being able to see that something is missing...

[PhilA]

Shouldn't the indicator be held in with a spring loaded clip that hooks into the bodywork further back? 

That was a typical VAG thing back in the day*

[Zelandeth]

20 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Shouldn't the indicator be held in with a spring loaded clip that hooks into the bodywork further back? 

That was a typical VAG thing back in the day*

Entirely possibly.  I'm still quite new to this whole VW thing.  Just not a marque I have any real prior relevant knowledge of - not much common DNA with the T25 I owned years ago.

[PhilA]

35 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Entirely possibly.  I'm still quite new to this whole VW thing.  Just not a marque I have any real prior relevant knowledge of - not much common DNA with the T25 I owned years ago.

The ones on my father's Audi pushed in to a degree, then had a spring with a claw hook on one end that grabbed the light, the other end was bent into a V shape with a circular piece to grab and pull so the V would sit in a notch.

Access was via a hole in the inner wheel well. They're under a fair bit of tension and would break the plastic when it got brittle.

[Zelandeth]

19 hours ago, PhilA said:

The ones on my father's Audi pushed in to a degree, then had a spring with a claw hook on one end that grabbed the light, the other end was bent into a V shape with a circular piece to grab and pull so the V would sit in a notch.

Access was via a hole in the inner wheel well. They're under a fair bit of tension and would break the plastic when it got brittle.

Let's sort this.

Looking in there it was pretty quickly obvious that there was indeed a spring clip meant to be involved.

However it was just flapping in the breeze.

Took a bit of figuring out that the spring was actually meant to fit into a groove on the back of the headlight, which has been deformed in this case so it doesn't fit very securely. 

It should sit like this, but kept popping out whenever I tried to insert the peg the spring is meant to hook over.

(Front of the van is frame right)

Once I worked that out though it wasn't too difficult to sort.

Fixed.

The plastic tab the spring hooks over does have a crack in it, so I'll likely replace the unit at some point as I imagine at some point the other bit will also break - and the indicator units are dirt cheap so I'm not too bothered about it.

That is the grand total of useful work I've got done today...really hoping I can get more done this coming week!  The last few weeks have been ones where I seem to have been unendingly busy but have very little to actually show for it.  That gets old in a hurry!

[Anglevan]

The radiator is held in with a plastic stopper. The bolt winds down from the front panel trapping it.. On my sons mk2f it's a hard round stopper. The design on yours looks square but seeing the bolt it has to be same principle.. 

[Zelandeth]

8 hours ago, Anglevan said:

The radiator is held in with a plastic stopper. The bolt winds down from the front panel trapping it.. On my sons mk2f it's a hard round stopper. The design on yours looks square but seeing the bolt it has to be same principle.. 

Does kind of confirm my suspicion that there should be some sort of thing in there, just wish I knew what it was actually called/the part number so I had half a chance of finding it.

The lower end of the radiator does as I thought have pegs which sit in rubber bushes in the cross member.

Hard to see in a photo I know.

[Zelandeth]

Noticed that there's a slightly noisy pulley in the aux belt area on the Caddy.  It's not bad, but with a long drive coming up at the end of next week I'd rather get it changed as a precaution.  The tensioner in particular looks quite rough so that's my prime suspect.

I'm not used to being able to walk into the motor factors and just get parts rather than having to wait several days for things to be ordered in.

Not sure if it's the idler or the tensioner so I've just picked up both.

Just need to figure out how to de-tension the tensioner, as that's going to be a major part of the job I think.

Hoping it's not a major pain of a job to change.

[Zelandeth]

Okay, that's going to be one of "those" jobs.

Only way to get a spanner (can't be a socket as it's too close to the chassis rail) onto the tensioner to back it off is from underneath, which means I need to get the under tray and wheel arch liner out.  

That ain't happening today with how windy it is.

At least the actual bolts holding the tensioner to the engine are pretty easily accessible.  However until I've safely restrained the world's strongest spring that's not a lot of use to me.

[Zelandeth]

Had to get Star to a vet's appointment today so we had the opportunity to properly test out the Caddy as dog transport.

Worked pretty well.  They have their harnesses tethered via a slightly elasticated short leash to to the wheelchair lashing eyes - they're normally facing forward, but had turned around to look at me when I opened the door.

We've got an old dog bed I'm going to cut down to slot into the lowered floor section as the only gripe really is that they do slide around a bit.  

Overall I'm really still enjoying the van.  I've found myself deliberately taking the longer way to get places because I'm just enjoying the drive, so I reckon she may see some money thrown at her over the next months.

To do list as I can currently remember:

[] Sort rust in a few places, over-cab window being the most obvious, though underbody around the dropped floor is probably the most important.

[] Long term rust proofing.  Likely will be entrusted to the place Dollywobbler has used s couple of times.

[] Add rear speakers.

[] Paint.

[] New windscreen to get rid of that sodding chip.

[] Wheel alignment.  Alignment is actually okay, but the steering wheel isn't straight and it makes the indicator self cancelling mechanism over-zealous when turning right.  Also means thanks to VW positioning them in a daft spot that the temperature/coolant level warning light is hidden by the wheel when driving straight...and I'd rather be able to see that.

[] Fit softer dampers.  The suspension is very much set up to deal with the maximum payload so the ride is very firm.  Almost Series Land Rover levels of jarring bounciness at times.  I'm never going to be carting around a tonne of cargo so I think we can dial that back a bit.

[] Tyres.  The Kumho Eco wings just aren't filling me with confidence.  The rubber compound is just too hard and unless the road is absolutely bone dry they really don't grip well at all.  Wheel spin in second gear shouldn't be an issue with 64bhp!

[] Clutch.  The bite point is quite low (though from memory they're always like that), and it does judder a bit.  If it needs one it will get done.

[] Properly sort the EGR related engine management issue.  I'm waiting on a supposed good air intake metering unit arriving and we'll see if that does it - the logged error code pointed to issues with the actuator motor in that.  Fingers crossed.  Failing that there are a couple of highly recommended VW specialists more or less on my doorstep, so it will get tossed towards them if I can't solve it myself.

[] See if I can improve the rear seat arrangement a bit.  At the very least we need seat belt extensions.  I'm a 36" waist and I can *just* get them fastened...the feels are really really short!

On Thursday we will be driving up to Glasgow for Scotiacon, and I'm looking forward to seeing how she performs on the drive.  Long motorway runs are where you learn a lot about a car I think.  Should be about seven hours including a lunch stop.  

I'm taking bets on fuel economy...my guess is 46mpg.  Gentle driving I'm sure could see north of 50, but aerodynamics will come into play at motorway speeds given the box welded on the back!

I've given the interior a quick clean out this afternoon, hoping to give the exterior a clean tomorrow too.  I always like to have a car as clean before a long run as I can.  Just makes it more pleasant I feel.

I did pick up some snow foam today...never used it before, but having a pressure washer now with a proper foam lance attachment made me decide that now's a good time to give it a try.  If it helps get any of the gunk off the camper I'll call that a win given it takes about a week to wash!

[Zelandeth]

Right... everything is packed (probably 85% of which is actually for the people in the other car)...

We've got a full tank of fuel...

Distance to destination according to satnav: 356 miles.

Let's hope the gods of motorway traffic are in a good mood today.

[Zelandeth]

We have arrived...sorry there's an Audi in the way.

Made it reasonably comfortably on one tank of fuel.  Level is actually a little higher than this as it drops a bit with the engine not running.  It's just under the 1/4 mark.

Maintained 70 no bother climbing Shap without needing to drop a gear or anything  which confirms to me that the claims that the SDI is painfully underpowered are pretty much nonsense.  It's absolutely fine.

Really would be nice to have cruise control though...it really wants to drift up to nearer 80 than sit at 70...and 50 requires you to watch it like a hawk.

[bobdisk]

You could always fit an aftermarket cruise control. 

https://www.advanced-incar.co.uk/product/volkswagen-cruise-control/

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, bobdisk said:

You could always fit an aftermarket cruise control. 

https://www.advanced-incar.co.uk/product/volkswagen-cruise-control/

I need to properly Investigate what's involved.  The engine in this is all fly-by-wire so *potentially* it could be pretty simple if there was provision for it from the factory.  Plug the correct stalk and any pedal switches in and if necessary enable it through the computer.

If however there was no factory provision for it that is likely to be far more complicated...because you can't just stick a vacuum actuator on the throttle linkage as there isn't one.

Does anyone know if it was ever even an option on the 6N Polo SDI/Mark 2 Caddy?  Back then it seems quite likely to me it wouldn't even have been an option.

It's not a huge issue really, and a few years ago I'd not even have thought about it.  Just the proliferation of average speed cameras these days does make me somewhat nervous on the motorway.

Noise is probably the only area there's some room for improvement - and that's basically all down to the wheelchair conversion.  Firstly there is zero sound insulation on the dropped floor, and the linoleum floor covering doesn't exactly help with reverb.  The sides of the dropped section show quite a bit of bare metal - with several holes where fasteners have been removed too which won't be helping. 

So there's quite a bit of road noise.

I'd like to get a soft flooring finish fitted on there anyway to help stop the poor dogs sliding around on it, and haven't discounted the idea of fitting a false floor to give a flat load bay and a hidden storage compartment.  That would help a lot there I reckon.  Oh, and plug all the holes.

The other issue from the conversion is that the exhaust does drone quite a bit at speed.  Normally the Caddy would have a large silencer right at the back of the system, however the dropped floor gets in the way of that so instead the rear silencer is actually mounted crosswise forward of the back axle.  Not really a huge amount to do about that, reckon the aforementioned improvements to general rear end sound deadening will help quite a bit too.  I can see daylight around the bottom of the door closure too which also won't help.

It's honestly absolutely fine...I just like improving things where I can.  See also why I spent so much time messing around with TPA's interior...I think it's a sign I like a car when I start looking at detail jobs like that.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Enjoy Glesga. Was up for four days this week as opposed to my usual five for university.

[Zelandeth]

Sadly all good things have to come to an end, and that meant that this morning we had to pack up and head home after saying our goodbyes.  Hopefully this time "See you all next year!" actually means it!

It's been a great weekend and we're all sad to have to turn back to the harsh realities of normal boring day to day life again.

On the plus side it sounds like the hotel really liked us.  Even if we did run the bar out of Tenent's (twice) and Guinness on the Friday evening.  They saw takings of over £10K through the weekend in the main bar alone, never mind the restaurant etc.  There was only one kerfuffle over the weekend with some people having a massive loud party in one room...which when investigated turned out to be a resident who was nothing to do with our event whatsoever.  Fingers crossed this means they'll welcome us back next year, even if we did co fuse the heck out of a lot of their usual customers.  Maybe turn the heating down a couple of degrees too, that was my main gripe.  The whole building was roasting.  Oh, and have the most stupidly laid out and unusably narrow bathtubs known to human kind.

If there could not be a Simply Red and James Blunt concert on next door on two days we're there that would be even better.  Though I guess that's what you get in the hotel that's physically attached to the SECC.

This time we ended up throwing *everything* in the Caddy rather than trying to juggle two cars (there's no proper loading bay at the hotel).

In honesty this was a way simpler solution really.

When we filled up for the trip home I ran the numbers for the trip north, which came back at 46.5MPG.  I'm pretty happy with that.

The return trip interestingly we seem to have done even better, the gauge showing this when we parked up on the drive.

Still a good 1/3 a tank in there.  In spite of me having all the luggage this time and me emphatically not hanging around.  Reckon there would have been an easy 400 miles in there.

I'm absolutely staggered by how happy the Caddy is on the motorway.  Cruises far more happily than it has any right to.

Long trips do a lot to form your opinions of a car I reckon and this one has definitely made me like this one even more than I already did.  Really does drive nicely...and the above photo helps show just how bloody *useful* it is, but without a lot of the baggage that comes with a full size van.  Fits under heigh barriers and is no harder to park than any car.

Really think this one might be a proper keeper.

[AnnoyingPentium]

18 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Really think this one might be a proper keeper.

Damn right. 😆

[Zelandeth]

Economy figures in for the return trip.  Despite having a lot more cargo on board and having had my foot down more on the way back.  50.2mpg.

Absolutely no way to complain about that.  Didn't think for a second we'd crack 50, I was expecting high 40s.

That's an average of 48.4 for the trip both ways.

Not bad at all for a 20 year old, 100K mile van.

[PhilA]

Return trip better because cobwebs removed.

 

And it's all downhill from Scotland, right?

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, PhilA said:

And it's all downhill from Scotland, right?

In which sense...? 😆

 

[Zelandeth]

35 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

In which sense...? 😆

 

I think "all of them" fits well enough.

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 14/02/2022 at 21:47, Zelandeth said:

The return trip interestingly we seem to have done even better, the gauge showing this when we parked up on the drive.

 

durr that's becos it was downhill! 🤪😁🤣

[Zelandeth]

Had a chance to check over the Caddy after the trip today and remove all the rubbish from the door pockets, centre console etc.  Oh, and fished my sunglasses back out of the overhead storage shelf.  Note to self: Don't put things you ever want to see again in there.

Post trip report.

[] Overall fuel economy: 48.4mpg.

[] Coolant used:  None.

[] Oil used: None.

[] Tyre pressure change: None.

[] Windscreen washer fluid barely moved despite using them a bunch - the reservoir being 7 litres helps, though it still needs cleaning.

[] Issues noted/brought up the to do list during the run:

-> Wheel alignment.  Not being able to see the left hand half of the warning lights in the dash bothers me.  Especially as that's the side that the coolant temperature and oil pressure warning lights are.

-> Sort that bloody squeak from the windscreen wiper mechanism.

-> Not got any worse over the trip, but the aux belt tensioner and idler still need changing.  I give it 7/10 chances that a garage might get handed that job.

Definitely now needs a really good clean even more than before externally to blast as much of the salty gunk off as possible.  Hoping the weather will eventually let me get that done...still haven't had a chance to properly test the new pressure washer yet.

Walking through the garage really has highlighted that it's too long since TPA was out, though I'm still waiting on the bits for the air cleaner.  It's realistically a five minute job to come up with a serviceable solution rather than the ridiculous cone filter currently in there.  She's definitely going nowhere over this weekend though given the weather forecast!

The carb rebuild kit appears to *finally* have shipped to me...that's taken weeks!  Hoping that will resolve the tendency for it to weep fuel so much.