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

[Datsuncog]

(Just as an aside, I've gone through and thrown together an index on the front page of this thread - mostly for my own convenience, but also in case you, gentle reader, might like to relive some of the godawful balls-ups I've managed to make over the past five years but don't want to wade through almost eighty pages of my codswallop.)

 

[bunglebus]

6 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

At which point I realised that there was not one, not two, but a frankly ludicrous SIX individual 21w fog light bulbs already sitting there in the smegging case.

So now I've got seven of the buggers

Back when you could wander around scrapyards, I would fill my pockets with bulbs and fuses. I must have 30 382 bulbs - but never a 380 which is always the one that fails. My bulb stock is about 20 years old but they don't have an expiry date

[Datsuncog]

Heh, I'm fairly sure my bulb stash is a legacy from my Halfords days - I used to do the faulty goods (FAGO) returns and stock write-offs on a Sunday morning when it was quiet, and over the course of a week there'd be plenty of twin pack bulb packages found stuffed down behind the Haynes manuals and the like, with one bulb torn out.

In their infinite wisdom, Head Office refused to let us sell the half-packs at the till for 50p or whatever - they had to be written off as stolen, and whatever bulbs remained were supposed to be binned. Staff were absolutely forbidden from taking anything.

I'm sure I'll get round to binning them some day; I've just been busy since 2007...

[bunglebus]

I'm still working my way through chamois leathers and bottles of T-Cut that got contaminated/labels damaged in transit for the same reason

[Split_Pin]

I got one of those Home Bargains bulb kits the other week, great value at £2.50 or so. Next door in B&M the same package, except with an 'RAC' branded sticker was seven quid!

Not a bad result at all on the Yaris.

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I'm still working my way through chamois leathers and bottles of T-Cut that got contaminated/labels damaged in transit for the same reason

Oh yeah, that was always a good one - £500 worth of Meguiars chamois leathers dumped in a speedflow box, along with a lone leaky bottle of Redex... the amount of stock write-offs due to crap packing practices at the Redditch warehouse were shocking!

Air fresheners were another product that used to get the packaging ruined by liquid spills in transit, but were fine otherwise as they were still sealed in plastic... now I've never been one for synthetic smells, but some of the lads had 100+ fresheners in their cars... the smell was, um, very very fresh... 

[beko1987]

I had a boozy summer thanks to stock write-offs once... 

Sainsburys, would have been 19/20. Big cardboard stand stacked full of bottles of budweiser. Glass bottles too. 

3 days later the whole lot crumples and a few bottles smash. I'm charged with cleaning the lot up, and it's all written off because it's covered in glass and beer. 

I duly cleared it up and accidentally quickly sorted and triple bagged the good bottles, and placed them ever so carefully into the bin... 

Shift over, round the back, carefully carry 2 massive sacks of beer home, then half an hour washing each bottle off and I had beer for ages 👌 

[MorrisItalSLX]

Stock write offs and credit claims are one of the better reason for working in retail.

I have many a freebie from my days working in a hardware shop. 2 Stabila levels, Stanley screwdrivers and handtools, Bahco chisels and saws, Makita gear, paint, WD40 by the gallon, Fiskars gardening tools, drill bits, barely expired Sikaflex and enough nails/screws/bolts/nuts/washers to sink multiple battleships.

It’s amazing how much stock gets damaged in transit (especially when I have a job on).

[Datsuncog]

So, the Mechanic of Choice played a blinder - and had the Yaris brake pipes swapped by the end of Tuesday, for the fairly trifling sum of £50.

Re-test has now been booked for Wednesday evening, giving me the whole weekend to break out the drill and go mediaeval on the bleary old headlight lenses with my cheapo eBay special restoration kit.

Place your bets now on whether you'll find me frantically trying to sand the buggers back twenty minutes before the MOT starts, in the rain...

 

(For, as you all know by now, I never learn...)

[Datsuncog]

So then.

With the brake pipes replaced and a new fog light bulb doing its thing, all that was left from the Yaris' MOT fail sheet was the bleary ol' eyes issue.

Did I spend the bank holiday wisely, attending to such matters?

No, I did not.

So I had to scuttle out at lunchtime today to sort the bloody thing.

Yeah, I can see why this isn't really giving a great reading on the testing equipment.

Ebay-grade headlight restoration kit and Black & Decker drill that's older than me READY.

I'd ordered a Sealey kit for £10, rather than cheaper no-name kits for a fiver .

It will surprise you not one jot to learn that the contents are 100% identical to the £5 kit I got for the Forester back in 2019 (bar the Sealey branded instruction leaflet, which was less amusingly Chinglish than the previous one).

I slapped some thin masking tape round the edges of the lamp, as instructed, to protect the concours* paintwork.

First stage - wet 'n' dry sanding discs to take off as much oxidised plastic as possible.

The nearside light is the worst, being the original from 2005.

GLADIATORS - READY.

Urgh.

Messy, and not entirely successful - the Forester had quite small, flattish lenses while the Yaris has large, domed lights with sticky-out bits.

The drill tended to 'drag' a bit in places - don't know if it was down to the curved profile, or the paper drying out (I was sprinkling it from time to time with a small watering can - ideal when using an electric drill at the same time, you'll agree).

So by the time I'd gone through successively finer grades of abrasive, there were now a few quite deep gouges on the lens surface.

Fucksticks.

Mmm. Not tremendous...

Can maybe see the bulb at the back a little better, but that's about it.

On with the polishing paste.

Yuuuuuurgh. Oh, that's giving me very unpleasant flashbacks to what I'd find on the floor every morning during our very elderly cat's final few weeks. We couldn't even be sure which end it had emanated from.

Okaaay...

Less drag from the drill with the sponge attachment, but by cracky, this stuff likes to go everywhere.

Everywhere.

And, with some rinsing...

Well now, that does look a bit better.

For a few moments. Until it dried, and then it went all cloudy again.

Bah.

But, there were two lots of packets in the kit, and since I already looked like the runner-up in a shit-slinging fight, I thought I may as well have a crack at the other side.

This light was replaced in 2010, and was a Valeo replacement bought from a local motor factor, as the supplying Toyota main dealer didn't stock them and had absolutely no interest in ordering one in for me, curiously enough.

Have I previously mentioned on this thread that Charles Hurst are a bag of dicks? I think I have, but it's definitely worth re-stating.

It wasn't quite as badly clouded, being a mere twelve years old.

Whenever I whinged about the fogging on the nearside lamp a few years ago, someone rather querulously responded that it was my own fault for not replacing both lights as a pair at the time.

Well, I hadn't really enough money to even afford the one headlight after it was vandalised, and had to shut the heating off for two months to pay for it. Let alone spend another £120 to replace what was at that point a perfectly good headlight.

Honestly.

So anyway, more drilly drilly.

Second verse, same as the first.

By the time I'd finished with the polishing paste, the car looked like it had been enjoying a refreshing dip in the sea near a sewage outlet pipe.

My efforts to clean it up with a wet rag made it look much better*.

There was no other option. I was going to have to wash it.

Now, I'm not much of a car washer.

I'm not a two-bucket wrong 'un.

I'm barely a one-bucket wrong 'un.

I might throw it through the automatic brush-roller thing up at the BP garage a couple of times a year, if it's looking particularly encrusted with mank/ bird clabber/ insects/ moss.

Despite once having had a fairly encyclopedic knowledge of various car-care products - my Halfords years bestowing upon me various excitable spiels from the AutoGlym and Meguiars reps - I just don't find washing cars to be a pleasant or rewarding experience.

Which is probably why this bottle of Asda car shampoo is now close to its thirteenth birthday, and still isn't empty.

(I can date this fairly easily as it came from the Asda store in Dundonald - and I haven't been in there since I moved away in 2010. Mk 2 Hyundai Accent FTW, too.)

So, out with the bucket, sponge and hose... and after about twenty minutes of squirting myself in the face and getting my shoes soggy, the Yaris stopped looking quite so dreadful.

For the third time, yuuuurgh.

So all there was left to do was dry the headlights, and throw on the magic snake-oil UV protector liquid using the little applicator- which definitely isn't just nail polish clear coat.

That's... borderline acceptable.

Yeah, that's not too bad either.

All it has to do is not rain for 24hrs, and that should be that.

Oh...

And of course, I managed to get the clear-coat all over my fingers - and as well as the interesting aroma, it really started to sting.

Water wasn't much help in getting it off my burning digits either.

Nor was white spirit; that just made it sting more.

Eventually, I twigged that acetone might be of help here, and after raiding MrsDC's makeup drawer, it did eventually clean off.

Great, thanks.

Off to the bin with you.

Improvement?

Hopefully.

MOT retest is over at Mallusk at teatime tomorrow.

So we'll find out then. Stay tuned, kids.

I'm very glad that the Corolla has glass headlamp lenses, and not the plastic abominations!

[Zelandeth]

Points for perseverance there, these headlight restoration kits always seem a lot of faffing about...when the ones on the Cappuccino needed doing (they looked worse than those) I just went after then with T-Cut on a rag, some normal polish, then waxed the living daylights out of them.  Worked fine and still seemed fine a year later!

Does look miles better though, hopefully should be fine for the test now.

[bunglebus]

Yeah I just use cutting compound of some sort, T-Cut or that stuff in the yellow tube. 

I did buy a resto kit out of Lidaldi a while back but just used the sealer stuff to see if it slowed the rate at which they re-grew the cataracts. Outcome - undecided. They still look OK about 6 months later and we have had a lot of sunshine....

[Stanky]

Nice work, the immediate aftermath of the wet n dry paper is always a bit 'I've just made this a thousand times worse...' but the cat poo/sick polish stuff does seem to miraculously sort things out. Should you feel so inclined, a dab of autosol metal polish on the drill buffer pad every year or two to take off the surface corrosion followed by a spritz & buff with the UV sealer does actually seem to keep the cateracts at bay...

Also, you know you're a pro* when you get the speckles EVERYWHERE.

amusingly (for me) I noticed that on the latest for sale ad, a good 5 years after I buffed the lights on our old Yaris that's been through about 5 shiters since, there were still detectable speckles of the cat poo/sick stuff around the car. You were wise to not open the bonnet while you did it!

[Datsuncog]

On 8/30/2022 at 6:15 PM, Stanky said:

You were wise to not open the bonnet while you did it!

Heh, wisdom is but acquired experience... when I did the Forester's lights back in 2019, I unwisely left the bonnet up, and yes... EVERYWHERE.

There were still spits visible on the brickwork at the side of the house, three years later.

So that's one lesson learned (for a change).

And cheers for the Autosol tip - that's a good idea to give the lenses a preventative whizz every few years, and while I'm probably too lazy/ disorganized to actually manage such a task, maybe some others here will benefit!

 

On 8/30/2022 at 5:53 PM, Zelandeth said:

Does look miles better though, hopefully should be fine for the test now.

Thanks! I had another look this morning, and despite some streakiness in the clear coat (possibly a result of there being some residual moisture after I'd washed it), it's much clearer.

 

Whether it gets a pass... well, the Mechanic of Choice had told me to come back again to get the headlight alignment checked, once I'd abraded the lenses enough to actually let some light out.

So I took the Yaris down to Carrick's answer to Pripyat the garage earlier this morning, to find a scene of mild confusion with various broken cars parked everywhere inside and outside the workshop.

I sensed that this wasn't maybe the very best time, and offered to come back around lunchtime if that suited better, but cars were moved, and the headlight tester rig was brought forth.

Results were... not exactly great. Both headlights were measuring just fractionally over the break point, for some reason, and much twiddling of adjustors failed to bring them down to within pass levels.

With more time, the lights could be removed and shims fitted - as done to one of my Lagunas many years ago - but today, time was short.

The advice was to keep the dipped beams on while driving over to the test centre, as this should heat the lamp unit up and may bring the beam pattern down a little. Maybe.

I left a tenner for the workshop's tea fund by way of thanks, and scooted off.

Retest is just before 7pm, so won't this be exciting... I'll be mucho annoyed if I get another fail based on the light pattern being 1mm over the lamp test line.

We'll see... we'll see.

Stay tuned.

[Stanky]

59 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

The advice was to keep the dipped beams on while driving over to the test centre, as this should heat the lamp unit up and may bring the beam pattern down a little. Maybe.

 

(I may be talking utter tosh here, as ever - but) If they need to come down a whisker then could you over-inflate the rear tyres and/or deflate the fronts to slightly 'stance' the front of the car and as a handy side effect move the beam down? Are they just retesting the beam pattern, or is it a full checkover?

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

There were still spits visible on the brickwork at the side of the house, three years later.

 

You know you've done it right when this happens!

[Datsuncog]

1 hour ago, Stanky said:

If they need to come down a whisker then could you over-inflate the rear tyres and/or deflate the fronts to slightly 'stance' the front of the car and as a handy side effect move the beam down? Are they just retesting the beam pattern, or is it a full checkover?

Ah, now... that's a good idea. That's a very good idea.

It's also made me realise I haven't checked the tyre pressures on this since the fast fit place put some new boots on it the other week.

So... if I were really lucky (unlikely, but bear with me), I might find that the front tyres are currently overinflated, causing it to ride a bit high at the front. Making the opposite situation occur might just give me the change I need to edge a pass.

If all goes well, the centre will just be retesting the car on the failed items - so a rolling road resistance check and visual inspection for the replaced brake lines; a visual check of the foglight; and then measuring the headlight beam pattern using one of their little measuring box devices.

Although the fail sheet says DVA reserve the right to conduct a full test on cars presenting for re-test, I don't think they have the time or personnel to go faffing with that right now.

Hopefully!

[chaseracer]

[Split_Pin]

A bit extreme but taking the spare wheel out would surely point its backside up a touch and this the beam down? 

Hopefully all will be well though!

[Datsuncog]

Well, things going about as well* as can be expected...

Went out to inflate/ deflate the tyres on the Yaris.

Couldn't find my wee tyre pressure gauge. Wasted quite a while rummaging through the garage before quitting.

Ah well. I can always do it up at the BP garage on my way, thought I.

Just for a change, the pressure machine bay wasn't occupied by a giffer doing their weekly shop at the adjoining Spar.

Trying to get the valve dust caps off, I fumbled one and dropped it down the inside of the wheeltrim. So then I had to prise the trim off to retrieve it... Yup, hands now streaked in brake dust and general grot.

Right, so, tyrepressures should be 33psi up front and 30psi at the back. Maybe if I reverse those...?

Only... the machine just spat the coins back out at me. 50p, £1, £2 coin... didn't matter. Sput. Sput. Sput. No dice.

Gaaah.

Right, fine. Be like that. There's another garage on the way, at Greenisland. I'll just do the pressures there when I'm passing.

AW, COME ON. FFS.

Screw you, AIRServ, and your rubbishy omni-broken machines.

Then I got stuck behind a tootler in a Kadjar, all the way to Corr's Corner,  further raising my blood pressure.

I arrived at the test centre with about five minutes to spare, and on jumping out in a fit of paranoia to check that the foglight was still working, I discovered the wheeltrim I'd had to remove and replace at the BP garage had now departed somewhere en route, for more fulfilling life somewhere along the A8's verdant verges.

FML.

I'd only just stopped when the tester came out, and directed me to go and wait over by the office over at the far side while he brought it through.

Yeesh.

Car's now in the centre...

*Gulp*

[Datsuncog]

Okay, well - despite everything, PASS obtained!

Phew.

Plus bonus guest appearance from @R9UKE at the centre, getting a pass on a Cactus. Good to see him.

Now-traditional T-Met gates pic:

Hang on, what's that red thing on the left?

They'd better not be squashing that!!

[Split_Pin]

Good result, I heard that there was a computer glitch that caused all NI test centres to close so looks like you were lucky!

[Datsuncog]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I heard that there was a computer glitch that caused all NI test centres to close so looks like you were lucky!

Were they? Crumbs, hadn't heard that... I'm not surprised, considering their ropey systems, but I'm glad it didn't end up having to be rescheduled!

[mat_the_cat]

On 8/23/2022 at 1:49 PM, Datsuncog said:

At which point I realised that there was not one, not two, but a frankly ludicrous SIX individual 21w fog light bulbs already sitting there in the smegging case.

I recently organised my spare bulb collection, and it was a sad moment indeed when I calculated that I actually had enough spares (and fuses too, for that matter) to outlast me. (I'm early 40s BTW, so it says more about my hoarding tendencies than (hopefully!) my likely life expectancy).

[Split_Pin]

7 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Were they? Crumbs, hadn't heard that... I'm not surprised, considering their ropey systems, but I'm glad it didn't end up having to be rescheduled!

Yeah a Rover chap from NI that I follow on 'The Socials' wasn't happy!

 

[Datsuncog]

Mmm... I wonder if that's why the MOT status still hasn't updated this morning on the DVLA website?

 

[Datsuncog]

10 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

I recently organised my spare bulb collection, and it was a sad moment indeed when I calculated that I actually had enough spares (and fuses too, for that matter) to outlast me. (I'm early 40s BTW, so it says more about my hoarding tendencies than (hopefully!) my likely life expectancy).

Yes... I have to say, such a thought occurred to me too - must be an age thing (early 40s also!)

I was irrationally annoyed with myself over the whole bulb thing - not so much for the unnecessary £1.79 expenditure, as that I *could* have reduced my fog light bulb count to five, but now I have seven to store indefinitely... and I'll never conceivably use seven fog light bulbs in the next twenty or thirty years.

Even taking the whole veil of mortality thing out of it, I reckon LEDs will soon become the default for most cars on the road, and incandescent auto bulbs will go the way of carbide lamps...

[Datsuncog]

Fleet Update: everything running okay.

I'm still mildly concerned about the health of the Yaris' CV joints/ driveshaft, but it's been through two MOT inspections in the past month, MrsDC reckons 'It's always made that noise, a bit', and the Mechanic of Choice advised me just to 'Keep an eye on it, see if it gets any worse', so - okay. I guess I'll do that.

The correct MOT status has finally been updated on the system, after the DVA software meltdown last week.

LEGAL YO.

 

Meanwhile, the Corolla is continuing to amaze people by swallowing large things.

The warehouse guy was totally unconvinced I could even get one door to fit in the back, but his jaw was soon on the floor as I just kept loadin' them in.

Yes, that's five doors from Howdens. It would have taken the sixth too, only it turned out to be damaged - so I have to wait and come back next week for its replacement.

Despite being given a good scrub the other week, the back is once again full of cement dust and bits of broken plasterboard and radiator gunk, so it's not exactly a lovely space for passengers.

But! It's earning its keep rightly.

While over loading the wooden doors, I noticed that one of the number plate lights was out. At least it was a simple fix - the little hatches on the tailgate gave instant access to the socket, and it was a matter of mere moments to extract the blown 501 bulb and install another.

I like it when things are actively easy.

One thing I'd like to do on this car is replace the speakers. The current ones buzz and rattle horribly when trying to replicate anything on the bassier end of the sound spectrum, and this has only got worse since the rears are now filled with bits of plaster dust too.

I've a £20 Halfords voucher that needs spent before the end of the month, so I'll see if I can measure the existing cones and order up a set of reasonable aftermarket two-ways. I think the original door speakers need to be drilled out, but it's probably within my capabilities... and I'll see if MrsDC has any old tights that could be stretched over the rears, to stop further debris making contact with the cone itself and messing up my fine tunage.

However, there's a slight concern eating away at me that all's not well with the clutch. 9 times out of 10 it's fine while pulling away from a standstill, but every now and again it'll give quite a bit of judder, which I normally resolve by dipping the clutch a little and giving it some more throttle. Once or twice it's really gone for it, kangaroo style, to the point I thought I was trying to move off in third gear by mistake - but no.

Although - now I type this, I'm wondering if maybe replacing the fuel filter might be the first port of call?

This thing needs a full service, that much is true. Despite the previous owner's assurances of all servicing being done on the button, the latest evidence I can find of any work being carried out is 2018. And I think a new set of belts wouldn't harm it either - the owner said they'd been done, and while they look ok visually and there's only about 20k on the clock since they were done, the history file says that was way back in 2012. Hmmm.

But - so far, so good.

It's true what they say. 1990s-era Toyotas just keep on keepin' on.

I can highly recommend.

[Split_Pin]

Apart from my nearly new Duster and the current Saab 93,  I think all my other manual cars have had slight clutch judder from time to time. Not to the degree you have experienced but I just put it down to the age of the component. Nothing else untoward happened so I'm certain it's not a sign of impending doom of any sort. 

The same goes for the drive shafts on the Yaris. Unless Mrs DC does regular burnouts I think they'll continue in their current state for years. It might be a different story if it was a high powered car but 70bhp or whatever isn't going to explode anything.

[hairnet]

how much taxi to balmoral please

 

[Datsuncog]

Well, there's a £50 cleaning surcharge if you boke in the back...