🚨L1's♦️ shenanigans. MOT time, 1/3 down

[loserone]

12 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

steam cleaned the engine bay!

Unfortunately it was beautifully detailed until it spurted coolant everywhere 

[Jazoli]

That looks like a lot of fun, I’m sure I owned one of these at some point in the past, it was awful. 😆

[Schaefft]

55 minutes ago, loserone said:

Unplugged that quick and mid emissions test this happened.

 

I start to feel sorry for him with the kwaliti motors we rock up in regularly at this point.

[PSAPerv]

I had precisely no disasters with this car and now your doing them all in one day 🤦

[scaryoldcortina]

21 hours ago, Schaefft said:

I start to feel sorry for him with the kwaliti motors we rock up in regularly at this point.

It's not just you lot. This fella doesn't even use Autoshite although his volvo t5 has a 6 mile bottom dealer sticker

[loserone]

That's a fiiine vehicle that is.  Doesn't sound as good as @Schaefft's taxi though.  

 

Probably less rusty than that Kuga mind.

[Schaefft]

9 minutes ago, scaryoldcortina said:

It's not just you lot. This fella doesn't even use Autoshite although his volvo t5 has a 6 mile bottom dealer sticker

If anything you can't beat the variety of oddball cars showing up. Hope that Jag can get sorted fairly easily in comparison.

[scaryoldcortina]

On 17/12/2024 at 18:11, loserone said:

Unplugged that quick and mid emissions test this happened.

 

oh this reminds me, I got complained at today because your car rained all over the socket the pit pump uses and tripped the rcd so Wishy came in to 4 ft of water in the pit. Takes about an hour to pump out, all tests delayed.

[loserone]

Oh, I am very sorry 😂😅

[loserone]

A day of activity here.

First of all, replace the fan resistor on the duster.

Assume the position 

All the videos show removing the glovebox, which is just* nine screws and three trim clips, so instead I did it with my arms around the glovebox.  

All done, all speeds service resumed.

[loserone]

No pics of the second piece as I was holding the torch and passing the tools, but 6 year old middle son replaced the radiator fan of the Mégane with one very kindly supplied by @PSAPerv inc.   easy peasy.

[320touring]

6 minutes ago, loserone said:

No pics of the second piece as I was holding the torch and passing the tools, but 6 year old middle son replaced the radiator fan of the Mégane with one very kindly supplied by @PSAPerv inc.   easy peasy.

"Dad, does misery always feel like this?"

 

"If you have Renaults, yes son"

[loserone]

Now, where was I?

Last weekend I used the express to collect a couple of small bits of timber

Unfortunately the journey was unnecessarily exciting because 

The alternator packed in.

I got onto eBay and found one for £45 or so which arrived on Thursday, so I had a go at getting the dead one out.  This was as far as I got, there not being enough access to actually remove the thing.

 

This morning I got another chance and dug in properly

By removing the grill I got enough access to pass it through the front.

Tada!

Now following the haynes principle.

I have a new belt, but I don't have it, it's with a load of bits bought last year for a mega service with Mr McGregor when he gets a break from chasing rabbits from his allotment.

I took the opportunity to clean up the battery tray which was full of battery acid, rust and leaves.  Then took it on a 60 mile test run to drop off a trailer to be filled with shit this week.

Meanwhile the Mégane was the subject of some attention meaning I might have been leaving the fleet and I still hadn't given the previous owner his wheels back.  Here was Tuesdays effort

Eventually I stopped the kids from fighting, crying and chasing chickens, found all the bits I needed and got the front on axle stands and two wheels off. 

On my round trip test drive today I dropped these wheels with @PSAPerv who very kindly fitted them to his bonny coupe and left the much better 14" wheels with good tyres for me to fit.  No, I don't understand either.

Then I decided to move the Mégane out of the car port to make access better 

That's a fucking no, isn't it.

Still, express to the rescue 

Tonight I just ran back over to his and swapped the other two over, and then came home and put them onto the cabriolet.   Here's an action shot from the way home.

Actually that's the break, most of the 40 mile round trip looked like this

Which means the cabriolet now has good tyres and wheels the right size. 

What's better is the interest has waned so I can now concentrate on waiting for some sunny weather and actually enjoying the thing 

 

 

 

[PSAPerv]

A Coupe needs a sportier wheel though 😍

[loserone]

36 minutes ago, PSAPerv said:

A Coupe needs a sportier wheel though 😍

 

A sportier wheel requires some new tyres before twixfest!

[Supernaut]

Oh god, that alternator job is giving me flashbacks to the Clio.

It would only come out through the space occupied by the drivers side headlight. Luckily Renault pre-empted this and the bolts holding it in handily went in through the front, not the side.

[loserone]

2 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

Oh god, that alternator job is giving me flashbacks to the Clio.

It would only come out through the space occupied by the drivers side headlight. Luckily Renault pre-empted this and the bolts holding it in handily went in through the front, not the side.

To be fair, the manual said:

 

[PSAPerv]

2 hours ago, loserone said:

 

A sportier wheel requires some new tyres before twixfest!

Unlikely, but we'll see 😂

[loserone]

Bit of fleet fettling today.

First of all, these two out of the way. 

Assume the position 

Old* and new.

One done.  Repeat for the other side.

 

Now no longer rattling over the delightful roads we have around here.  Pretty shit to only get 19800miles out of them from new but at £22 a pair delivered I'm happy enough, the second one took 15 mins to the first ones 45 finding all the tools and getting the right position, so happy enough doing that every, er, year and a bit.

 

No, we've not had it a year yet.  No, it's not had an MOT yet.

[PSAPerv]

My 208 didn't even make it that far down the line before the drop links were rattling like a 3 day clean smackhead

[loserone]

2 minutes ago, PSAPerv said:

My 208 didn't even make it that far down the line before the drop links were rattling like a 3 day clean smackhead

Yeah a lot of folk don't appreciate how hard the roads around here are on cars.

 

Pat seemed amused at me returning your hat btw 

[PSAPerv]

Yeah... excessively so 😂

[loserone]

I hope you put it on for the journey

[loserone]

Spent a bit of time today sorting the fuel cap on the express.  The rubber still wasn't quite sealing.

Now added some milk carton to space it out a bit

[loserone]

Meanwhile the Mégane really needed all the rainwater flushing out of the coolant system

 

Seemed to go OK other than this.

Had a V brake mount bolt which fits alright 

 

[PSAPerv]

I must have done 4 flushes on that car when I used it every day, and you still managed to blow more out of it 😂

[loserone]

The coolant was *really* clean before the radiator fan caught fire mid MOT

[Kiltox]

On 09/03/2025 at 19:08, loserone said:

Bit of fleet fettling today.

First of all, these two out of the way. 

Assume the position 

Old* and new.

One done.  Repeat for the other side.

 

Now no longer rattling over the delightful roads we have around here.  Pretty shit to only get 19800miles out of them from new but at £22 a pair delivered I'm happy enough, the second one took 15 mins to the first ones 45 finding all the tools and getting the right position, so happy enough doing that every, er, year and a bit.

 

No, we've not had it a year yet.  No, it's not had an MOT yet.

19800 miles is good for Zoe drop links tbh. Be interested to see how long you get out the cheap ones because it’s all I fit now. 

[Dave_Q]

It's almost impossible to buy suspension bits that last for any money now so might as well go cheap as you'll be doing it next year either way.

[Kiltox]

I’d grease the threads on those so they’re easier to take off next week/month/year @loserone