Datsuncog's Heaps: May 2025 - Fleet Addition, Avensising

[GrumpiusMaximus]

[Datsuncog]

Verdict:

Ah, FFS.

There's a leak at a connector. Of course there's a leak.

I'll have to take it back down to the Mechanic of Choice again.

I mean, I guess I'd sooner know that there's leak in the brake lines so I can take an action to fix it - rather than drive around not knowing until something quite bad happens - but still, I absolutely don't need this shiz right now with everything else going on.

This disrupts quite a few plans.

Fucksticks.

[beko1987]

I fucking well hope he looked very sympathetically at you after eyeballing all the brand new shit under there 😡

[High Jetter]

6 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Good luck, hopefully the EML will stay off until 7.30pm-ish

 

Or, buy another?

[Datsuncog]

In fairness, the tester did look very sheepish as he gave me the bad news - starting with, "I can see you've had a lot of work done under there, but..."

Well, that rather knocked me for six as I'd kinda assumed that the re-test was a mere formality - and if anything was going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it was going to be the bloody EML putting on an encore performance that no-one very much wanted.

Hot damn.

Well, there was evidently a conversation to be had with the Mechanic of Choice.

So, mindful that he'd mentioned he was having to stay late at the workshop to try to clear the backlog, I thought I'd swing by and see what was what. Maybe just leave the car if possible, rather than have to go home and then call back down again another day.

Arriving down there around 7.30, the workshop lights were still on, and he was deep in conversation with a lady who was being mildly passive-aggressive over a £540 bill on her Bini outside. Clocking me arriving with a fail slip in hand did not, presumably, improve matters.

With Mrs Bini finally pacified and sent away, I explained what had transpired up at the test centre. MoC looked pained, but at least something wholly mechanical might be less of an annoyance than the reappearance of the EML...

So I brought it on round to the workshop, and he hoisted the wee Toyota up on a spare two-post.

Yes, it's looking pretty crusty under there. I know.

New lines were all present and correct, but there was indeed a tiny - tiny - drop of brake fluid visible at the union where the new lines met the old lines.

MoC shook his head. "If I were the tester, I'd have told you to take it back to the garage to get that nipped up, and given you a pass."

So, he duly nipped it up, and then I got to go up in the lift to stomp on the brake pedal a whole bunch of times to check it definitely wasn't leaking now.

But it is looking pretty crispy under there, no question.

We had a bit of a chat for a while once it was down off the ramp, as he was looking pretty frazzled by everything, and I gave him a bit of a hug before I left cos he looked like he needed one.

Look after your mechanics, people.

And then I logged back on to the DVA site to see if there were any last-minute test slots available soonish.

Well well well.

That's soon.

Very soon.

In fact - I gotta go...

[mk2_craig]

Good luck DC!!

[Split_Pin]

[Bradders59]

But - its - LARNE !! 🤐😟🤣

 

Good luck with the MOT.  Hope your time in Larne is very short. 

I know the test is a different thing over here, but my MOT man would have nipped it up for me and said no more about it. 

[beko1987]

Wow go go go 😂

[Datsuncog]

38 minutes ago, Bradders59 said:

But - its - LARNE !! 🤐😟🤣

Lovely, picturesque Larne.

In the rain.

I did see quite a tasty Ledbury Maestro on the way up though, so - an omen of good fortune, maybe?

T minus five minutes now... I'm going in.

[Datsuncog]

Déjà voooooo...

Back in the Greenhouse Of Shame.

At least it's dry.

Ish.

[Dave_Q]

What me? Yes I'm working. What kind of person is searching for the MOT results of some bloke they know off the beigenet when they should be working? An outrageous accusation.

Congrats.

[Datsuncog]

Bloody hell, I didn't think Larne even had internet connection that fast!

In fact, I just assumed at the end of the day they shoved all the test results into a basket tied onto the back of a pig, smacked its arse, and sent it running back to Belfast for someone with opposable thumbs and a working knowledge of the alphabet to input onto the DVA system...

(Other hyper-local regional slurs are available)

[Datsuncog]

Yes indeed - at the moment of truth...

"Yeah, that's all fine now."

MrsDC is more prosaic about these things.

Y'all know who T-Met is, right?

Right then! Success! 

[Split_Pin]

I never* do that @Dave_Q 😂

Congrats!

 

[Datsuncog]

A breakfast of champions awaits.

But hang on - it's Tat Friday, isn't it...?

I gotta get me to the market...

[eddyramrod]

Yes you have!  And quick, because I have to go out in about ten minutes and won't be home until nearly 1.

[beko1987]

Fucking decent morning there! 

[egg]

Nice one, now to eBay to order some Vactan and then Bilt Hamber all round!

[beko1987]

2 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

What me? Yes I'm working. What kind of person is searching for the MOT results of some bloke they know off the beigenet when they should be working? An outrageous accusation.

Congrats.

It's certainly a collection of colours underneath 

[mk2_craig]

2 hours ago, egg said:

Nice one, now to eBay to order some Vactan and then Bilt Hamber all round a better Yaris!

Corrected.

Well done DC, are you planning to get the full year out of it this time?

[Datsuncog]

It's up to MrsDC, it's her car - I've been telling her for years it's looking pretty bad underneath, but I keep thumping at it expecting the worst and it's not gone into holes yet; just a crispy crunchy coating.

I know it's going to die, she knows it's going to die, but the prevailing attitude is: keep 'er running til she'll run no more. And then we'll find a replacement.

And, given that this particular Yaris has outlasted twelve of my cars, who am I to argue?

My preference is that she should get the Corolla - she's very fond of E110 Corollas, always wanted one - and I'll look out for something more interesting for myself, but who knows?

The immediate pressure's been removed, at least, so I can get back to the house renovation!

[Datsuncog]

Well well well... another 18 months without a thread update - damn, I'm losing it here.

I mean, with two Toyotas on the fleet there's not really been such a churn of excitement* as there was with the Renaults - but it's not been entirely plain sailing.

So the Corolla's MOT fell due in April.

That didn't go so brilliantly.

I did a bit of a live update session on the New News 24 Thread, so this is just to keep everything tidy, like.

I oscillated between being quite relieved that the only problem seemed to be an insignificant piece of rot, and mildly infuriated that the only problem seemed to be an insignificant piece of rot.

Yeah, that little fillet piece betwixt sill and floorpan.

The next day I took it up to a local welder who operates out of a nicely equipped shed on a farm to assess, and he was equally surprised that it had failed on such a minor point.

He's a popular guy who does a lot of work on some shite that's fairly far gone, with a specialism in Land Rovers:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094406572651&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user

When I called up, he had a stripped-down Discovery 2 up on the ramp which definitely had more fresh air than metal in the sills and wheel arches - the kind of thing that most garages would run screaming from, so fair play to him.

So it's been a waiting game for the past fortnight waiting for a slot to become available, and I received a text late yesterday afternoon to bring the Rockin' 'Rolla up to his premises for the necessary tickle with the sparkly stick today.

He said he'd let me know if there's was anything else untoward discovered once he'd got it up in the air, so you can imagine I was mildly concerned to receive a video through this morning:

(Screenshot only above and below, don't waste your time tapping on it!)

He'd sliced out the offending piece, but had found that the sill end section of wheelarch directly behind it didn't look too clever either.

This was actually a bit of a relief; if that was all he could find that was pressing, I'd take that. He said he could sort that out too today, and later sent me a pic of what was left once he'd taken the wire wheel to it:

So - I'm hopeful that he can get this finished off today, and I might be able to get a short-notice slot at either the Larne MOT centre or one of the Greater Belfast ones - and, fingers crossed, that should get me mobile again.

The plan is to get the floorpan properly tidied up at a later stage and then sprayed with Lanoguard to give a bit of protection - it's been a tremendous car to us, and I'd sooner not let it die of neglect. A stitch in time, and all that...

More to come, no doubt!

[Datsuncog]

It's maybe also worth documenting all the fun* I had with the Corolla's front brakes back in February and March.

A bit of a squeal became apparent when cornering at low speed, though not actually when braking. I broke out the axle stands to investigate.

Mmm, little bit crusty but not too awful.

Lucas brake calipers, suggesting this is a Derbyshire built car - Japanese examples have Sumitomo components.

Pads actually still had a fair bit of meat left on them:

But what's going on with the lower slider pin?

Yes, the boot had split, the grease had escaped and the pin was pretty jammed inside the carrier.

Took a bit of Brute Force™ to persuade it to come out, but it did come out.

I'd no doubt the existing pins would probably clean up ok, but funnily enough it didn't seem possible to just buy a replacement boot separately.

I ended up ordering a whole new slider pin kit from Frentec on eBay for £9, reasoning that if one had gone, the rest probably weren't far behind and it wouldn't hurt to give it all a refresh.

I dithered about getting new discs too, but other than a bit of a groove where the stuck slider had been binding and some minor lipping, they still seemed alright.

It took a week for the slider kit to show up, then guess what...?

No... no, they're not the same part at all.

Despite ordering Lucas pins, I'd been sent Sumitomo ones, which are shorter and have a hex fastener at the end.

This is what I needed:

In fairness, Frentec very quickly sent the correct set once I drew this to their attention, so I can't fault them for that.

That's more like it. A good lick of monkey blood, and then in.

The existing pads were only about half worn, but since I had everything off anyway it made sense to just throw on a new set of Eicher pads and clips:

All went swimmingly, until it came to winding the pistons back to refit the calipers. They didn't want to budge. At all.

I scratched my head, because in the past I'd never had any bother pushing a piston back in by hand, perhaps resorting to an F-clamp on those rare occasions when further encouragement was needed.

The bleed nipple loosened off fine, some fluid came out into the catch jar, but the damn piston wouldn't move back into the caliper body.

In the interests of getting the job finished, I scuttled over to Screwfix for a cheapo Hilka piston rewind tool.

This helpfully came with a reversible plate to brace against the top edge of the piston, but which was far too small. Even fully wound, the tool wouldn't reach far enough in to exert any force.

I could have bought another brake winder kit in a red case that came with about a dozen different sizes of these brace plates, but I'd no way of obtaining it in the same week.

I could also have removed the calipers, stripped them all down and rebuilt them, but I wasn't really equipped with the knowledge or tools to do so.

Desperate times, desperate measures. I hoked through the recycling bin and found a reasonably sturdy lid off an old marmalade jar.

I know. Professional mechanics may wish to look away now.

Hey, it's not stupid if it works, right?

It took rather more force than I'd anticipated, but I wound the piston back enough for the caliper to fit over the new pads, and buttoned everything up along with a few puffs of brake cleaner to remove any greasy fingerprints from the disc surface.

Onto the other side, and this went pretty easily now that I knew exactly what I was doing.

Until it came to winding back the piston. This side proved too much strain for my faithful marmalade lid:

While some stacked food tin lids proved equally heroic in their failure.

Eventually, rummaging frantically through some old Quality Street tins of assorted rubbish, I found a lone plastic castor cup that was just the right size to locate into the piston.

I mean, it split immediately - but it kept on going.

OMG DONE

I know my cars are rubbish, but now it seems that literal rubbish forms part of my toolkit.

Not that the rest of my tools are very much better.

But nonetheless - FIXT

A quick shakedown revealed no further noises or cause for concern, and it passed the brake roller test for the MOT, so - sorted for now, I guess?

[Datsuncog]

And, sure enough, a message came through mid-p.m. today complete with photos, to advise that the sill repair was now complete.

He'd gone for a belt-and-braces approach, with any metal that was suboptimal chopped out and replaced.

Hey, if it'll please the MOT tester, then I'm happy enough.

I headed back up to the yard just after 5, and the Corolla was waiting alongside Robert the welder's own transport:

Yup, all looks solid enough.

I've never seen anyone leave their business details affixed to a repair before, but I don't hate it. 

I guess that if you've had a vehicle welded once, chances are it'll need doing again...

He'd also gifted me quite a snazzy promotional keyring, as an additional memento. Nice.

There were no last-minute MOT slots available this evening (at least, not unless I wanted to hoof it all the way up to Derry), but I managed to swap my Mallusk appointment on 15 May for one over in Newtownards tomorrow morning, so I'm pleased enough with that.

We'll see what the morning brings!

[sierraman]

Neat repair that, should outlast the car.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Nice write-up, glad you got it sorted. Why the writing on the can lids though, working out which was strongest or had the paper labels come off in storage?

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Why the writing on the can lids though, working out which was strongest or had the paper labels come off in storage?

Heh, right... this is probably going to get me roasted like with my toaster-in-the-drawer revelation last year, but...

When we designed the kitchen in this house, we put in tall units with a mix of shelves and drawers in them. The tinned food lives in one of the pull-out inner drawers, and it works well except that it's hard to tell what's what whenever you look down from above.

My solution was to keep a Sharpie close by and write the contents on the lid after doing the shopping...

[Split_Pin]

Nice job and looks a given that the Rockin' Rolla is going to be on the road for some years to come.

Am I the only one who enjoys a good rummage of the tinned foods at B&M and such like to see what delicious meals are possible?

[Noel Tidybeard]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Neat repair that, should outlast the car.

sod the repair just look at the keyring!!1!