big Al & Flat4 fleet fred--- from famine to feast

[colino]

It's been a while since I used them, but try Star Radiators in Govan, they might even be able to fix your old one.

[Flat4]

Which of these cars do we reckon will still be around in another 20 years? 😉

Curious as well, is electric actually cheaper these days than a petrol that does 40mpg?

Quick fleet update - rad for the Volvo has been sourced, from Eurocarparts of all places! The measurements line up so just got to keep fingers crossed it's the correct one for a manual.

Outback has returned from loan even more broken than when it went 😔 Engine sounds very rough, losing water and gets 3/4s of the way to the red zone, temperature wise, unless on a free flowing road at a decent speed to get some air flow over it. Interior wasn't as bad as expected but the genuine Subaru mats will need shampoo'd as they're covered in mud 😡 That was after I asked my friend to use the mats out her own car and she assured me she'd buy some for it....

So it's now up for sale as I don't trust it even as a back up car. Hopefully recoup some money to get the Volvo repaired and the Forester MOT'd.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/386152231826

[Flat4]

I'm gonna cry....

According to the garage, I have bought the wrong rad for the Volvo. They claim there is some sort of inlet missing on the top and one of the brackets is lower on one side than the original. Personally, I am not convinced.

Looks right and measures right, just 1 hole, possible for a bleed nipple is different.

Al is taking the old one to a motor factors on Monday to see if we can match one up. Also can't see where the original rad was rotted out either...

That problem, however, is insignificant compared to this...

Neighbour has a new car, an automatic, and reversed in to the Outback 🙄

May work out better for us in the long term if insurance write it off and pay out but it's rather screwed us over in the short term coz now I can't sell it 😔 Altho the eBay buyer was being a right fucking arse and wanted it delivering to Cairnryan so at least this gives me a valid excuse to cancel the sale from him.

I'm just so fucking grateful it wasn't Paddy, who is actually usually parked in that space. When he came to the door and told us, he said it was the Toyota he'd hit and I swear I nearly lost my shit because it's our only working car atm. I was so relieved to see it wasn't. He's offered to pay to have it fixed but will see if his own insurance gets in touch first coz I'd imagine he'll need to claim on his own car. We've told him not to worry about it either way, it's only a car, it can be fixed/replaced.

I need a fucking stiff drink tho! And a spare car that actually works would be good too!

[Flat4]

Round 2 of radiator shenanigans for the Volvo today.

Al went to TMS on Friday, showed them the old rad and the sales guy was adamant it was right. I was utterly fucking raging when I looked at it over the weekend and discovered it was not!

When you lined the bolt holes up at the top, the out let and the bottom bolt holes don't. It also had an extra 2 inlets/outlets with nothing to cap them off which said motor factor claimed was because it's a universal part designed to fit lots of models.... What we discovered when the garage looked at it this morning, is they've given us the rad for a fucking automatic!!!! Which also explains why the price increased from the initial £130 to £171!!!! I'm so fucking pissed off with them because even with the old rad in front of their face, they still couldn't get it right!!! And Al is now having to make 2 wasted trips to pick up and return the wrong.fucking.part!!!

So garage are now going to fabricate some sort of bracket to fit the one that I purchased because at least it doesn't have 2 extra holes in it that water can piss out of/need blocked off. They're confident it will be fine from a functional perspective and there was only 1 bolt they felt didn't line up. I am wondering about user error in that regard but at least they're being very careful that they can get it secure.

Hopefully there will be good news when I phone them at 1pm...wish us luck!

[Flat4]

It's fixed!!!! 😁😁😁😁 Picking it up once I finish work at 2pm. Keep everything crossed it works properly!

[Flat4]

So we've just done less than 10 miles in the Volvo and the warning for low coolant came on 😡😡😡 Expansion tank was empty. Topped it up and it's made the last 10 miles back home without a problem. 🤔 I'm sincerely hoping it was just burping itself/had a bit of an air lock as the expansion tank now has coolant-coloured fluid in it. Al is going to try the drive to work in it on Friday and hope it behaves. I honestly cannot believe the faff over a bloody radiator!

On the plus side, we were attempting to take the Forester in to storage til it can be MOT'd so it's now done another 20 miles with it's new coolant hoses and hasn't lost any fluid and isn't overheating. I'm tentatively calling that fixed 😉

[big_al_granvia]

And meanwhile paddy the 98 corolla just keeps on going. St jude, you built a great car mate

[Dobloseven]

10 minutes ago, big_al_granvia said:

And meanwhile paddy the 98 corolla just keeps on going. St jude, you built a great car mate

Hey Jude, don't look so sad. Take a bad car and make it better..........! Sorry, couldn't resist! 

[sdkrc]

On 11/10/2023 at 15:43, Flat4 said:

 

I think you'll be handsomely better off through the insurance. A working outback is £1k+ to replace, I'd be surprised if that's not an instant write off over the phone.

[Flat4]

1 hour ago, Dobloseven said:

Hey Jude, don't look so sad. Take a bad car and make it better..........! Sorry, couldn't resist! 

It was never a bad car to start with! But he did make it significantly better.

1 hour ago, sdkrc said:

I think you'll be handsomely better off through the insurance. A working outback is £1k+ to replace, I'd be surprised if that's not an instant write off over the phone.

Probably but it would take longer to pay out and I don't think he's actually claiming off his own insurance for his own car because it's now covered in gaffer tape. As much as a grand in the bank would be nice, I also value our new home more than that and I don't want any bad relations with our neighbours, putting a claim through that will affect his premiums for years to come. 

[Flat4]

So, after the Volvo burping itself 10 miles after having it's new rad fitted, it has successfully held on to all it's coolant and hadn't put a foot wrong....until today! We'd used it to do the shopping twice, so 16 miles all in as we live out in the sticks now and Al has been to work in it and back at least once, so we were feeling reasonably confident that it was indeed mended. It's our weapon of choice for long distance runs so we attempted to go to our exotics vet which is an hour's drive away...

We'd just left Ayrshire when Al says it was down on power, very little torque so it wouldn't pull properly and the engine was surging. It felt a bit like a petrol misfiring! We had to join a motorway slip road in 2nd gear to get enough speed up to merge at something ridiculous like 40mph....The surging eventually smoothed out once on the motorway and it wasn't throwing up any red warning triangles (which means fucking stop right now in Volvo speak) so we decided to nurse it to the vets because we had 2 going for a check up and if needed, we could have gotten recovered home from there. Eventually the power did actually come back and Al was starting to blame poor quality supermarket fuel as it seemed to have resolved itself. I was starting to wonder about water in the fuel and changing the fuel filter because it is due a service. Then, we were maybe 10 minutes away from the vet, going up hill on a dual carriageway when a passing van honked his horn at us. I looked in the passenger mirror as the exhaust was on that side and it was clagging like hell, belching black smoke 😔 I was genuinely fearing the worst now as I was sure the turbo was making more noise than usual. I could hear it spooling up and a bit of wastegate chatter much more clearly than usual, which worried me. I told Al to back off the throttle and be as gentle as possible with it til we got to the vet and we'd deal with it after our appointment....

Al's thinking if the turbo is gone then the car is scrap, I was fairly sure it was a boost hose detached until I saw the black smoke. Guess who was right:

NEITHER! An intercooler pipe had blown off as the jubilee clip was loose. They'd had to come off when the rad was replaced. I starting laughing like an idiot when I saw it, as I was so relieved it was something that simple! 😆 So we attempted to wedge it back in place because of course there is gaffer tape and tools in every other car but not in this one because it hadn't been used properly for 6 weeks while we sorted out the rad fiasco 🙄 I took over the drive home and very gently managed about 15 miles when climbing a hill in the outside lane to clear a queue waiting to exit, we clearly hear the pipe pop off again and the whole car started kangarooing, trying to rehash the air/fuel mixture again. Fortunately it chose a very convenient place to break down again as it turned out we were only 2 miles from a Home Bargains, where we were able to buy a set of screwdrivers for 3 quid, various forms of tape and a litre of oil. It was getting dark by now so I tightened up the jubilee clips on both sides of the intercooler by torch light from my phone and it had spaffed half a litre of oil through the exhaust and dripping out from intercooler and pipework. 

I am reserving judgement on the workmanship of the garage who changed the rad until I see what the jubilee clips do over the next few miles....To give them the benefit of the doubt, they may be the originals and hadn't been loosened for years so despite asking them to replace them, maybe they are just old and worn. On the other hand, the side that hadn't blown off was not at all tight and it's making me nervous for all the water connections they'll have had to do up on the rad....Al wants to give them a right bollocking. I do agree that they need to be aware because I have my suspicions about human error why they couldn't make my rad fit when it was clearly correct but I'm thinking more, asking nicely if they will please check these jubilee clips again because this one blew off...

I shall sleep on it and have another look at the rest of the clips in daylight, before I decide what to do.

[big_al_granvia]

To be fair a bit of rust on a jub could give the impression that it is tight. Go round them all and check, 

[Flat4]

Today is a fucking good day 😁😁😁

I was quietly confident but you just never know what may be lurking at MOT time. Thankfully not much at all! So glad to have my little problem child back on the road again 😆 Just in time for winter too!

Touch wood, it has behaved itself since the hoses were replaced so I'm not that worried about the head any more. We shall see how it does and enjoy it regardless 😁

[Flat4]

Quick general fleet update -

Volvo also behaving itself since jubilee clips were tightened up.

Paddy being dependable old Paddy and sharing commuting duties with the Civic. Used when Al needs to give a lift to a client as it has a business policy.

Civic being used mainly by Al for commuting to work. It's annoying the hell out of me because no matter how much I fiddle with the controls, I can't get it to blow warm air with out a shit ton of cold air. I may use it more in summer....

Rather nice to have 4 working and road legal cars again 😁

[Noel Tidybeard]

just set temp to 20-22 and leave it in auto