Datsuncog's Heaps: Sept 2023 - Another Year's T-Met Exemption Certificate...

[hairnet]

3 minutes ago, grogee said:

 until it goes bang

goes rust - j tin unlikely to mechanically cark - even in the land of potato and harry ferguson pieces of paper

[Datsuncog]

5 minutes ago, grogee said:

Is the MoT man able to see either of these... patina marks without removing any trim?

If not, then Shirley it's a straight* pass, no?

I mean, yes it's probably not long for this world, but with a new ticket you could smoke about in it until it goes bang, by which time you'll have magicked some money out of nowhere to buy a shiny new* Auris.

Alternatively, consider a "low" interest loan and buy a Vectra/Land Rover/NSU Ro80 (other vehicles are available).

Unfortunately, the holed inner arch would be quite obvious as soon as it's lifted on the ramp - it's about 10cm long and pretty visible. Having seen the testers at work, they usually check the area pretty closely, rapping at it with hammers.

The unholed, but soft, nearside arch will crumble as soon as any pressure's applied - of that I'm certain!

I just don't want a rerun of my XM's horrendous MOT in 2010, when they basically ripped the sill open from end to end with a hammer and screwdriver like they were gutting a fish...

Yeah, that wasn't a good day. I'd like to avoid that, if possible.

[Datsuncog]

Ok, well... a decision of sorts.

I've swapped my Friday MOT appointment for the next available one at the Mallusk testing centre.

Which just happens to be in early March next year.

I'm not exactly delighted about doing this, but it does buy me a little more time to get a proper assessment and all necessary work done. The welder which @The_Equalizer has used seems a solid place to start enquiries,and I've pinged him a message to get the ball rolling.

I appreciate that it'll likely cost me a couple of hundred quid to sort (which I don't really have to hand) - but there's no way I could buy another car for that sort of money. And the Corolla has been otherwise a reliable, comfortable and spacious car that does what's asked of it without complaint.

If it can be fixed, I'd like to get it fixed - and then see if I can move the MOT forward again, to get it tested as soon as practicable. There's a helpline which allows 'priority' appointments; I'll see if I can arrange something, since an MOT in March seems a very long way off. I'd sooner have a year's ticket safely on it than running it without an MOT, using a technical loophole.

Even if I'm getting myself all steamed up over nothing and the holes aren't serious enough to cause a total FAIL, I'd still want to get them seen to before the winter salting starts - cos that'd kill the wee thing in short order, and I don't want to do that...

[Soundwave]

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

5 hours ago, hairnet said:

 

I thought it was called the never never never round these parts...

...no more. Agricultural welders are a good shout, but depends what sort of area you're in.

[Datsuncog]

Cheers all for the suggestions/ commiserations.

Current state of play is the welder fella seems keen enough and, looking through the pics on his Facebook page, he seems to have done some very tidy work on a variety of Mk1 Fiestas, Sierras, Beetles and a very crusty Fourtrak, in addition to agricultural welding and fabricating bespoke gates and trailers.

City Welding And Fab | Facebook

So with any luck I'll be able to drop the Rockin' 'Rolla over to him in a few weeks when he has an opening, and he can assess what's needed and come back to me with a price and a timescale for the necessary work.

I hesitantly informed MrsDC of the developments last night; it was probably a wise move for me to come up with a plan of attack before broaching the topic. My usual style is to run in, all tears and snot, whimpering about how my car looks like a colander underneath, again. And that's not really a good look; not for the third time in a year, anyway.

I know she likes this car a lot, so I want to do all in my power to save it - despite meagre financial resources, I know I'm unlikely to get any sort of replacement for much under £1.5k... ideally the repairs here will come in at a bit under that!

[GrumpiusMaximus]

At this rate, you may as well buy yourself a MIG welder, a subscription for a gas bottle, some ramps and an evening class or three.

[The_Equalizer]

17 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

At this rate, you may as well buy yourself a MIG welder, a subscription for a gas bottle, some ramps and an evening class or three.

This is the nearest I've ever found. @Datsuncog

https://www.nrc.ac.uk/course/leisure-welding-workshop7

[Datsuncog]

While appreciating the sentiment, I'm not sure it's a good idea to let a man who has significant trouble glueing a slipper run amok with A Very Hot Thing...

[Dyslexic Viking]

Welding on cars is not as easy as many make it out to be. I've tried to learn but it's not for me.

[Matty]

Just now, Datsuncog said:

While appreciating the sentiment, I'm not sure it's a good idea to let a man who has significant trouble glueing a slipper run amok with A Very Hot Thing...

Not sure how it works in NI but in England you can attend college at night and do upto NVQ level 2 in your choice of welding discipline. Bare in mind this is welding only, not fab.

As far as the car goes, looks a good one. In todays market,  if you sunk say 500 quid into it, what would that buy you if you were to start again?

[hairnet]

53 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Welding on cars is not as easy as many make it out to be. I've tried to learn but it's not for me.

sveising i 1,5 meter snø er ikke bra

*løper bort

[JMotor]

13 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

While appreciating the sentiment, I'm not sure it's a good idea to let a man who has significant trouble glueing a slipper run amok with A Very Hot Thing...

Welding is disappointment, rogue spark burns, piss poor access and burnt grinder discs. 

It's really not for everyone, so I don't blame you for not wanting to do it.

Hopefully you get someone who will be able to sort the patches. The arch liner mount looks about the worst bit.

 

[Datsuncog]

15 hours ago, Matty said:

Not sure how it works in NI but in England you can attend college at night and do upto NVQ level 2 in your choice of welding discipline. Bare in mind this is welding only, not fab.

Yeah, @The_Equalizer linked what's probably my nearest course - it's about an hour and a half round trip on a Tuesday, and isn't bad value at £160 for a fifteen week course (plus you supply your own PPE).

Welding's something I've always had an interest in learning, so it's something I'd certainly consider. Right now though, I'm kinda being kept busy with the plumbing/ electicals/ joinery/ general decorating in the new house, and I dunno how well it'd go down if I were to absent myself one night a week to learn how to burn myself in new and interesting ways...

I should maybe start off by trying to achieve adequacy with soldering; I've owned two electric soldering irons and neither ever seemed to work quite right (with one, the tip kept falling off and the other never seemed to get hot enough). Even carefully following YouTube videos, everything just seemed to either not melt at all or else squidge everywhere except whatever I was trying to join.

I picked up a gas soldering iron set from Lidl a year or two ago, but so far I've had no opportunity to try to use it.

Quote

As far as the car goes, looks a good one. In todays market,  if you sunk say 500 quid into it, what would that buy you if you were to start again?

I couldn't get anything for £500 from the classifieds, other than something crash damaged or a non-runner. Certainly nothing usable as-is. A search on AutoTrader gives a grand total of 5 cars under £1k within a 50 mile radius; the best one being a Peugeot 107 with a full year's ticket for £995 - but I don't think it'd be all that much use as a load lugger.

The dire MOT situation here means there's so many cars languishing out of test - and it's an absolute crapshoot as to whether it's genuinely 'just out of test', or it's been tested and failed abysmally, since there's still no way to check MOT history over here - which seems daft as they're all done centrally.

So - I'd have no confidence that I wouldn't end up landed with another lemon.

I agree that fixing what I have is probably the best option - unless it's much worse than I think underneath...

[Missy Charm]

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

Yeah, @The_Equalizer linked what's probably my nearest course - it's about an hour and a half round trip on a Tuesday, and isn't bad value at £160 for a fifteen week course (plus you supply your own PPE).

Welding's something I've always had an interest in learning, so it's something I'd certainly consider. Right now though, I'm kinda being kept busy with the plumbing/ electicals/ joinery/ general decorating in the new house, and I dunno how well it'd go down if I were to absent myself one night a week to learn how to burn myself in new and interesting ways...

I should maybe start off by trying to achieve adequacy with soldering; I've owned two electric soldering irons and neither ever seemed to work quite right (with one, the tip kept falling off and the other never seemed to get hot enough). Even carefully following YouTube videos, everything just seemed to either not melt at all or else squidge everywhere except whatever I was trying to join.

I picked up a gas soldering iron set from Lidl a year or two ago, but so far I've had no opportunity to try to use it.

I couldn't get anything for £500 from the classifieds, other than something crash damaged or a non-runner. Certainly nothing usable as-is. A search on AutoTrader gives a grand total of 5 cars under £1k within a 50 mile radius; the best one being a Peugeot 107 with a full year's ticket for £995 - but I don't think it'd be all that much use as a load lugger.

The dire MOT situation here means there's so many cars languishing out of test - and it's an absolute crapshoot as to whether it's genuinely 'just out of test', or it's been tested and failed abysmally, since there's still no way to check MOT history over here - which seems daft as they're all done centrally.

So - I'd have no confidence that I wouldn't end up landed with another lemon.

I agree that fixing what I have is probably the best option - unless it's much worse than I think underneath...

Most soldering, other than the tedious business of sticking electronic components to circuit boards, is hit and miss.  I've done soldering, well lead soldering and brazing, for craft work and nothing really gets close to a flame with a sniff of oxygen in it.  Oxy-acetylene is possibly overkill, given the modern propensity for oxy-LPG in jewellery making and the like, but it does get lovely and hot.  A gas soldering iron from a supermarket is likely to be junk (sorry), as at heart it's nothing more than a glorified cigarette lighter.  Trying to solder metal will be beyond it, for reasons of heat conduction away from the work piece.  You might be able to soften or even melt solder with it, but that's about all you can do; getting stuff to actually stick together requires more heat.  

So what?  Don't lose heart because a toy soldering iron doesn't work properly.  Proper gear, and indeed welding equipment, does.  You might never be a great welder, or even a good welder, but at least with a proper welding torch you'll have a tool that is capable of sticking two bits of metal together and you therefore might be able to.  You haven't a prayer without something that's good enough to do the job.  

[Datsuncog]

Yeah, you need the right gear. I don't, which is why I won't be doing any of this myself.

[hairnet]

On 11/15/2022 at 5:39 PM, Datsuncog said:

Cheers all for the suggestions/ commiserations.

So with any luck I'll be able to drop the Rockin' 'Rolla over to him - if you think its worth it

whimpering - can you sack off your account and get her on here instead (kidding obvs)

I know she likes this car a lot, so I want to do all in my power to save it - cos i might never see my plums again

fixt

[Datsuncog]

One of those delightful* life moments occurred just there now.

You know the sort, when one is taking a few moments of sweet relief from a hectic day to idly scroll through the New News 24 Thread, while delicately supping a mug of Kenco, just to see what's happening in the Wonderful World of Shite.

Ah, someone's got an MOT pass.

Good on them. That's worth a 'like'.

MOT.

MOT.

Cue a distant ringing somewhere deep, deep in the brain's nooks and crannies.

MOT.

Why does that prod at me?

MOT.

What day's today?

Hang on...

Sudden sprint over to the calendar, and there it is in big red highlighter.

OH FUCKSTICKS.

That's right.

The Yaris is up for its annual Date With Destiny tomorrow evening.

Yes. Despite writing it on the calendar some weeks ago, I hadn't managed to connect the dots between 'MOT due at the end of August' and the fact that, ever since then, we've been inexorably drawing towards the end of August - one day at a time - with frightening predictability.

Because I'm a frigging idiot. 

This is the car that's had its EML winking at me coquettishly for the past four years (something to do with a dodgy fan sensor that wasn't fixed by replacing the sensor), which I periodically knock off around MOT time using a cheapo eBay dongle and Torque Lite app.

This is the car that we took out last weekend for a moderately long trip, just to give it a bit of a run - at which point it started making light thumping noises on left turns, which then morphed into quite impressive thumps and bangs coming from somewhere underneath by the time we got back.

This is the car with a small moss garden growing in the door rubbers.

This is not a car that'll pass an MOT.

Guess it's going to be a busy evening...

 

[Datsuncog]

Right then.

With full headless chicken mode ACTIVATED, out I dashed to put some manners on this thing.

Okay, engine management light first.

I've just got so used to its cheery presence on the dash now; it's like a friend to me.

In with the £9.99 Chinesium dongle, then...

And on with the ancient Samsung J3 Android phone, which I only keep because it seems newer versions of android won't work with the Torque app.

Yup, still the same bastarding fault.

Like it's going to have fixed itself.

My hot take is that a wire's broken somewhere; call me lazy, but it just hasn't been a major priority.

'CLOSE' and 'CLEAR ALL FAULT CODES'.

Boof.

FIXT.

Hopefully it'll stay off til tomorrow, but I'll keep the dongle in the car just in case...

Okay then - the BAD NOISES.

A cursory pop of the bonnet and jiggle of the suspension produced no noises, with shocks apparently boinging okay.

Top mounts seemed tight, and a quick shufty around the arches indicated springs were intact and where they ought to be.

But then looking more closely around the control arm on the driver's side...

Mmm.

NOPE.

I've a very funny feeling there used to be a rubber cup on that drop link.

And, curiously, there isn't now. 🧐

Right. Well.

The other side's also pretty rough looking.

A squizz on EuroCartPrats indicates that the Mallusk branch happens to have two of these in stock and ready for collection.

Am I that desperate?

Apparently so.

Now I just* have to get across greater Belfast in rush hour before the shop shuts, to pick up what'll probably arrive on the ECP counter as half a set of Picanto brake pads and an air filter for a Tagora.

And, in the extremely unlikely event of obtaining the correct parts, then try to change these rusted-out buggers on the driveway before it gets dark.

Ain't life beautiful?

TBC, I daresay...

[mk2_craig]

47 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

an air filter for a Tagora.

I’m sure you can make it fit. 
 

Good luck - there’s a daunting amount of brown under there! 

[Datsuncog]

Alright, well they LOOK like teeny-tiny Yaris droplinks alright...

And, quite importantly, they don't look like someone else's old drop links stuffed back into the box and reshelved as a return.

I guess we'll find out shortly, hey?

[Dyslexic Viking]

I replaced these on a Yaris like this earlier this summer. And it wasn't a bad job, but it required an angle grinder and it's a good idea to take a picture of them or have one to look at before they are cut into pieces so you know where all the parts on the new ones go. And you probably know this, but jacking up both sides when doing these is a good idea, I did so.

[Datsuncog]

On 8/29/2023 at 5:35 PM, Dyslexic Viking said:

I replaced these on a Yaris like this earlier this summer. And it wasn't a bad job, but it required an angle grinder and it's a good idea to take a picture of them or have one to look at before they are cut into pieces so you know where all the parts on the new ones go. And you probably know this, but jacking up both sides when doing these is a good idea, I did so.

Thanks for the kind words!

Yes, after my last experience of droplinks on the Subaru, the angle grinder will be going in first!

There's no point even trying to argue with old rusted bolts.

On 2/8/2022 at 1:33 PM, Datsuncog said:

Well, there's been precious little in the way of updates on the Outback, kids, and for that I apologise.

After all the thrills 'n' spills of the collection from deepest Volvoshire, it's hard to imagine how I could top that.

Broadly speaking, things are going not too badly with the other Subaru.

Back in December I forced myself to change the front drop links, as the thumping and banging from the front every time I stopped or steered was becoming quite alarming.

This was a job I'd never carried out before, as I've either had cars too old for such suspension fripperies, or I've been able to ignore it for longer.

Of course, carrying out these jobs in the winter twilight as rain runs down one's collar only adds to the general fun.

Despite being fitted relatively recently, the failed set of links were fairly well rusted on and just didn't want to come off.

So, after many hours of swearing and knuckle grazing, it took the tender attentions of the angle grinder to finally persuade them to come off.

Fitting the new set and torqueing them down was comparatively easy - but I was slightly perturbed that the knocking and banging continued.

It wasn't the top struts, as there was no noise when travelling over road bumps at speed - but putting the wheels on full lock would guarantee a loud, visceral 'thump' from the front end, as would the act of braking to come to a halt at a junction.

I torqued the links up a bit more, and there was some improvement, but still a bit of banging. Some online sleuthing advised that Outbacks of this era are rather prone to their front anti-roll bars making various horrid noises, once they get past about ten years of age or so.

I was pricing up ARBs and idly wondering just how badly I could fuck this job up, when the noise just... stopped. And I haven't heard it for about eight weeks now.

Oh well.

What has been a bit less helpful has been the array of disco lights on the dash.

JimH was totally upfront about the ABS light and 'ERR 55' code, which was flashing at the point he sold it to me. This had been potentially traced to a faulty front offside sensor lead, a new one of which was helpfully supplied ready to fit. 

Of course, I haven't fitted it yet. The idea was to swap it over when sorting the drop links, but this proved to be such a ballache that I forgot all about it until after I'd dropped it back down off the axle stands. So the light's still glowing away on the dash, though does occasionally switch itself off for a while.

The yellow EML also popped on one evening on the motorway, much to MrsDC's dismay. A quick tickle with the OBD2 dongle and Torque Lite shows the same lambda sensor fault code the Forester sporadically gave me, indicating an imbalance somewhere or other. As before, it may represent a duff sensor rather than a fault with the engine, but it can't help cause a sinking feeling - especially with MOT time drawing close.

The EML tends to turn itself on and off every few hundred miles, though while doing a few pick-up/ drop-offs around Belfast last month I did wonder if the exhaust fumes smelled a bit rich and fuelly - there seemed to be quite a bit of smoke coming from the twin pipes, and I couldn't be sure if it was just the cold morning causing the vapour to condense.

Hmmm.

Lastly, there's The Squeal.

I understand the belts and everything were changed last year as part of the herculean recommissioning of this car, but while guddling under the bonnet I'd noticed a slight squeak, apparently coming from the auxiliary belt idler pulley that runs the aircon compressor.

One of the belts appeared to be a smidge slack, so I'd tried my best to tighten it a bit using the hex adjuster, but this only seemed to make matters worse, with the belt then screaming like a demented banshee pretty much all the time.

So I slackened it off a little, but now it swings wildly between absolutely silent or else shrieking long and loud each time I change gear.

Weird.

So, with the MOT coming up, and there being many other pressures on my time, I've opted to farm these niggles out to the Mechanic of Choice, who no doubt will be delighted* to see me rock up in another teenaged Subaru tomorrow morning.

Jobs are:

- make the ABS light go away
- make the EML go away
- stop the belt squeal on the aircon loop
- tighten the handbrake a bit, as there's a fair bit of travel and it doesn't always hold.

Provided these issues can be attended to, and nothing else untoward is uncovered, then I can put it in for its MOT with total* confidence!

Or something.

Stay tuned.

I'll try jacking it up on both sides to take the tension off the anti-roll bar - hopefully that'll help when putting the new ones on.

All I need is a dry evening to get them fitted...

Oh.

[hairnet]

dacia will open in the morning

the underneath - nowhere in NI is that far from the atlantic

 

 

[Dave_Q]

7 minutes ago, hairnet said:

dacia will open in the morning

the underneath - nowhere in NI is that far from the atlantic

 

 

Surely yer MOT man will be so blinded by the shiny droplinks, he'll form the opinion that this is a well maintained example, over look the mild and surely only cosmetic BROON under there and issue a pass forthwith.

A man can dream, right?

[beko1987]

Oooh good luck! 

I bet your currently enjoying yourself RIGHT NOW on it 🤞

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

One of those delightful* life moments occurred just there now.

You know the sort, when one is taking a few moments of sweet relief from a hectic day to idly scroll through the New News 24 Thread, while delicately supping a mug of Kenco, just to see what's happening in the Wonderful World of Shite.

Ah, someone's got an MOT pass.

Good on them. That's worth a 'like'.

MOT.

MOT.

Cue a distant ringing somewhere deep, deep in the brain's nooks and crannies.

MOT.

Why does that prod at me?

MOT.

What day's today?

Hang on...

Sudden sprint over to the calendar, and there it is in big red highlighter.

OH FUCKSTICKS.

That's right.

The Yaris is up for its annual Date With Destiny tomorrow evening.

Yes. Despite writing it on the calendar some weeks ago, I hadn't managed to connect the dots between 'MOT due at the end of August' and the fact that, ever since then, we've been inexorably drawing towards the end of August - one day at a time - with frightening predictability.

Because I'm a frigging idiot. 

This is the car that's had its EML winking at me coquettishly for the past four years (something to do with a dodgy fan sensor that wasn't fixed by replacing the sensor), which I periodically knock off around MOT time using a cheapo eBay dongle and Torque Lite app.

This is the car that we took out last weekend for a moderately long trip, just to give it a bit of a run - at which point it started making light thumping noises on left turns, which then morphed into quite impressive thumps and bangs coming from somewhere underneath by the time we got back.

This is the car with a small moss garden growing in the door rubbers.

This is not a car that'll pass an MOT.

Guess it's going to be a busy evening...

 

I see what you did wrong there, you marked the wrong month. I make a calendar entry for 1 month before, so in your case on July 30th it would have said 'Yaris MOT 30/8'. Having said that, it's not entirely foolproof, so the handy email from 'MOT remind me' a fortnight later engages 'oh shit' mode and prompts me to DO SOMETHING.

[hairnet]

1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

 surely only cosmetic BROON 

A man can dream, right?

more cowshit and red tape

few harrys might work tho right @Datsuncog cog?

[Datsuncog]

Well alright then.

After fighting my way back from ECP through evening traffic, and hastily swallowing a semi-frozen pizza to provide me with some sustenance for the task ahead of me - it was time for some car-based funsies.

Of course, if I'd known I was going to be doing some messing about with hopeless shit cars in the short term I probably wouldn't have put a bathroom and a load of other stuff in front of my axle stands and trolley jack.

Probably.

Spot the other axle stand.

Mmm, good and accessible.

Finally I dragged everything together, and hoicked the car up in the air so I could get the wheels off...

Naturally, at this point of the operation a blood sacrifice was demanded, and received.

Nipping your thumb while telescoping up the extendable wheelnut wrench - not recommended.

I know it's crusty under here. I know.

Many years of hard use, followed by several years of comparatively little use, have not been kind to this little car.

It's only managed to increase the odometer reading by 1,500 miles since the last MOT, as it was immobile for most of the winter due to the seized alternator (which I've just realised I never managed to get it together to share on this beleaguered thread).

Frankly, I'm amazed it's still going. For the past five years I've been expecting a catastrophic fail on structural integrity, and every year have been gently trying to manage MrsDC's expectations accordingly.

But so far, there's been nary a sniff from the testers. Just the same old arseache of brakes, brake pipes, headlight adjustment and bloody bulbs blowing on their way over to the test centre.

But who knows what tomorrow may bring?

One thing's for sure though - we've certainly got our money's worth from the original drop links. These are the factory fitted items.

The lower fastening has literally worn away to nothing, and isn't connected to the control arm at all.

One point which came to my attention was that raising the car enough to remove the wheels also moved the driveshaft much closer to the droplinks.

Hmm. This was annoying, as Lidl's finest angle grinder isn't all that manoeuvrable under the wheel arch.

Obviously, cutting into the anti roll bar or slicing through the CV gaiter with the grinding disc was something I wanted to avoid at all costs.

But, despite me being generally shit-scared of power tools, and none too appreciative of getting the odd earful of sparks, I managed to get the sorry remains of the top nut evaporated without too much effort or swearing.

And a little bit of gentle persuasion with a bar later...

Oh! It's out!

Bloody Nora.

Yup, I reckon that's done its duty.

Stand down, soldier.

A little bit of trial and error was required to get the right bits of the new drop link in the correct places:

Taking a reference pic of the old unit only helps so much, whenever half of it's completely worn away.

At this point, the Haynes Book Of Lies unexpectedly rode to the rescue with an exploded diagram of the front suspension set-up.

It was incredibly small and hard to read, but I kinda got the gist.

Probably.

Hopefully.

Yes, those little dots marked 6, 7 and 8 - that are literally smaller than the head of a pin - are the one True and Faithful way to reassemble Yaris droplinks. So sayeth the Word of our Lord John Haynes (O.B.E.) in the Book of Suspension and Steering, Chapter 5, Verse 7.

Amen.

Once I was fairly sure I had things the right way round, I also found it necessary to put the jack under the wheel hub and raise it up a little, reducing the gap between the ARB and lower arm so that enough of the thread protruded downwards to allow the metal cups, rubber bushes and the locknut to actually fit together.

It took a fair bit of poking, hauling and adjusting to try to get everything lined up more or less straight on the main shaft of the link...

And I'm not sure if it'll need adjusting again when the wheels are refitted and it's back on the ground again, to avoid any misalignment or asymmetric loading which might tear the rubber bits apart in short order.

Maybe.

The HBoL also tells me that the locknuts on these links should be torqued to a fairly low 13 Nm - but the trouble is, the handle on my torque wrench is so long that I can't get it to fit under the wheelarch.

(Obvious innuendos only, please.)

So I just tightened them up with a 13mm ratchet spanner, and stopped once I started to feel some resistance.

So! One droplink fitted... it was getting pretty dark by this stage, and the infrequent bouts of drizzle weren't really helping matters much. Not only was my mauled thumb throbbing, but my arse was wet from the dampness of the driveway.

Since this driver's side droplink was the critical component requiring urgent replacement, I took an executive decision to pack up for the night and come back to replace the other, slightly less critical side tomorrow morning.

The hope is that now I've a better idea of what needs doing to get the link to slot into place, it shouldn't take me all that long.

That's the theory, anyway.

Another, more risk-averse part of me is baulking at the idea of immobilising the car unnecessarily on MOT day, just in case I do something unbelievably stupid like slice through a brake line while waving around my angry grinder.

So who knows what tomorrow may bring? I sure as hell don't.

In celebration of yet another trademark half-assed job, bodged in the twilight mere hours before it's due on the MOT tester's ramp, I went back to finish the coffee I'd abandoned earlier on in my mad panic.

Unbelievably, it had gone cold.

How very appropriate.

More to come tomorrow, kids - of that, I've no doubt.

[Datsuncog]

It would appear that, despite ample precedence set out in the collected works of the Brothers Grimm, a band of friendly elves has not sorted out the other drop link overnight.

nOboDY wANts tO woRK aNYmORe

So I guess I'm going to have to do it myself.

Having said that, I'm not sure what qualifications elves have these days in automotive repair; it's a little different from making shoes or churning butter, I suppose.

Plus, I'd brought the HBoL into the house with me last night, so they'd probably be equally baffled about which bits go above and below the control arms.

Maybe it's for the best, hey?

But first, coffee.

Hot, this time.