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THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST


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I nearly pranged the BX last night...

 

I was two minutes from home, about 6pm, driving along a straight road in the pouring rain, headlights on (yellow bulbs), at 30 mph... A youngish lady in a oldish Volvo estate turned out from a sideroad on the right directly in front of me. I locked up and skidded on the soaking wet road, thinking I had no chance, but I didn't hit her. It was lucky she'd almost completed the turn during my skid and was accelerating away from me which increased the distance... Good job I had decent tread on my tyres too. I *eventually* found the horn, after I'd stalled the engine. She pulled over onto the pavement with hazards on, as did I. She got out and profusely apologised, saying she hadn't seen me... and checked I was OK and asked if there was anything she could do. I was rather shaken, to be fair! I'm just glad there wasn't anyone following close behind me. In hindsight, I should have made her buy me a drink or something from the petrol station!!

 

Mark.

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She even shook my hand before she left!

 

It just proves what I read/heard recently: that a high proportion of accidents (or near accidents) happen when you're driving home from work and minutes from your door.

 

Mark.

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my se5 Scimitar has 12 months MOT

 

passed this afternoon, at its first attempt

 

the last MOT certificate was issued on 22nd July 1991

 

908 miles in the last 19 years

 

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off to local dvliars office in the morning to change to historic tax and pick up my free taxdisc :D

 

huge thanks to scaryoldcortina for his help, support and musical accompaniment over the last 6 weeks

I do love those wheels. Well done mate! Is it broken yet?

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Decided I'm going to sell the 205 come September and wazz a bit of my student loan on something interesting and not automatic. It's starting to do my nut now (the automatic-ness, the actual car works just fine). So I've cleaned up the old steel wheels and chucked them back on it, no pics tho because of the pissing rain I narrowly avoided...

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Attempted to fix the Astrashite earlier so bought secondhand throttle position sensor, coolant temp sensor and air intake sensor.

 

No difference. Well it does idle at about 1k rpm then surges again. GRRRRRR. Anybody got some idea of what it could be? Temp gauge doesnt rocket up like it used to though so there's some good news out of it.

 

Have also registered my interest in a set of 14" steel wheels - the ones that were on the cop car Astras :wink:

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One of the back numberplate bulbs was out on the 626, so I dropped into Motorworld to get another. Wasn't in the book, so I unscrewed the assembly using a clublock key and popped the bulb out - £2 later and I was back in business. I love it when you can sort a car out without tools.

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No, the tools are the best bit!

 

Today I finished painting the underside of the car. Nasty job done badly, but at least I know there aren't huge areas of bare rust under there. Halfway through I got a call from my sister, whose clutch had gone at the top of the street.

 

Seemed to work though so we brought it home and went for a test drive, on which it gave out completely. I drove it home in first. Edit: fixed it - the cable had come off the pedal!

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I passed the 200k point this morning on the way to work in the Brava.

 

I know it's not really earth shattering news, especially as diesels are capable of high mileages, but I still had a smile on my face as I watched 199999 disappear..... :D

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I had fun Saturday with doing the exhaust on the Micra, We managed to get it off ok but the middle section we got was wrong :roll: typical pattern parts, The bore size one end was different to the other.

 

I had paid £33 + vat for it from my local motor factors, I tried Nissan, they wanted £88 + vat!, bugger, Luckily we was able to save the original middle section in the end and it seems to have sealed ok so hopefully it will last until after the mot in a few months.

 

In other news i picked up my new car on Saturday, I've done about 200 miles in it so far and it seems very good, It has a knocking sound from the front somewhere which I'm hoping is just a bush and it also has a rumbling rear wheel bearing and it needs some new rear pads but for £2500 i can't grumble to much, Imagine getting a 02 plate Golf for that money from a garage!.

 

It don't half fly as well being the 130 bhp model with 6 speed box!

 

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jeez I must be out of touch with car prices......£2.5k for an 02 plate :shock::shock: that there is another good reason for me to just buy old chod

I'm with you! Time was you could buy an 8-year-old family saloon for 50 notes, I know, I did it many many times. I feel old...

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:lol: Yeah i plan to go all rat look with in INNIT!

 

£2.5k isn't that bad for a 8 year old diesel VW, Even similar aged Focuses sell for that that, Good luck find a car for £50 these days though!.

 

I've just got back from the motor factors where i used to work, the rear wheel bearing on these is a hub unit and the cost to me (I get staff discount still) is £68 + Vat, It trades at £90+vat normally! Bugger!

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Father Ted in Car Maintenance Shocker....

 

Another bout of insomnia last night. So I decided to wash the car.

Actually its rather nice going ut in the wee small hours f daylight and not putting my hearing aids in as everything is so peaceful. I can just about hear the birds.

 

Anyway, I washed the Micra, then decided to take it for a quick run as I need to move it anyway to put the caravan away. Then I decided whilst it was hot to drop the oil. And so one oil and filter change later I was just cleaning up when the postman arrived at 7.30 with the two new rear tailgate struts for the Zafira. So I fitted them (though in a moment of cack handedness I managed to massacre a clip on the new strut and spent 5 minutes taking one off the old one and transferring over.

 

All this before breakfast.

 

Just had toast with cottage cheese and peanut butter - lovely.

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I has (I think) finally solved the mystery of Astrashite's high idle.

 

It's the AFM.

 

I had already replaced the Idle Control Valve, the Throttle Position Sensor, the Coolant temp sensor (the temp gauge is more accurate now) and the Air Intake Sensor - no difference at all.

 

So out of morbid curiosity I unplugged the AFM, and it ran lumpy, idling up and down - like the ICV did when plugged in.

 

I then revved it to about 1500rpm for half a minute and then the idle settled down to 950. Perfect idle at last!

 

So I think replacing the AFM will solve it - it was a bugger to start earlier too. My old man had the AFM go on his Mazda 626, it showed similar symptoms.

 

Happy happy :D

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Got back a couple of hours ago from the Family_Seth holiday extravaganza 2010. The Hillman did us proud once more.

 

We were home for about 48 hours after the R-R Gathering (something like 250 mile round trip towing the Campavan) before setting off down to Goodwood for the Vintage festival, again with Campavan but this time bikes on the roof as well. The Minx was going on display so that blagged us free tickets and camping through to the Monday. From there we headed down to the coast for a few more days camping joy/misery. I've not even checked the oil and water since Sparkford.... Magic. :D

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I should get the BX back tomorrow, with a nice, new wishbone and fresh bushes. That should make a difference! It's been clonking more than a big bag of clonky things lately.

 

Also going to attempt to replace the alternator on the CX. If there's time after all this, I need to retard the 2CV's ignition timing.

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