Car troubles

So the car saga continues. Just when I think I've gotit sorted, something else rears its ugly head. While I'm still trying sort the rear wheel hub, 3 attempts later and still no joy!, there is now another matter that needs attention.

The passenger headlight has been a struggle to get right, as the beam has been way off but I got it sorted. I lined it all up using the garage door and was pretty happy with it and the garage said they would fine tune it for me, mostly out of sympathy i think. Great, apart from one minor issue, its a left hand driver headlight! So, I had to source and fit a RHD unit, which isn't as easy as it sounds.

Fitting a headlight.

As you can see, fitting requires stripping off the bumper. Fairly simple, just long winded and a pain. Managed to clean and polish the drivers headlight, so that's nice and clear now. 

The car should have been back in for its mot retest but the new hub, brand spanking new instead of second d hand, was supposed to arrive by UPS48 on Tuesday, but didn't turn up till Thursday, so more like UPS96. This meant the garage didn't have time to dealwith the car before we headed off on holiday, so the cars back sitting on the drive, not good.

Hopefully it will all be sorted as soon as I get home. I'm really looking forward to having her back in the road!

Car update........que the disappointment

Well, I was hoping to have some good news to share, however, things didn't quite go according to plan. The car was in for its long overdue retest yesterday and I was secretly hopeful that it would pass. It didn't.

Fail points.

Not all is lost though, as the list is now down from 9 to 2. Yes, most of its been fixed, although in fixing some bits, new issues have arisen, but we'll get to that in a bit. Firstly, we'll deal with the failures, which are the headlight and hub. Now the headlight is going to be a pain, as the inner part, the reflective bit, has come loose and its this that seems to be causing the problem. I need to figure a way of propping this up and fixing it in to position or get a new headlight unit. The former should be cheap and cheerful bodge work, the latter, the proper way. For the moment ill be bodging it, somehow. The second point is the hub and this should be easy, as I have all the parts I need in the garage and now I've done it once already. I don't know what went wrong last time and don't really care right now, I just want to fix it. Hopefully I'll get some time at the weekend to do everything. Oh, and point three, the tyres, they've been changed, not sure why they did it after the MoT but they did, so ignore that one.

Advisories page 1

Advisories page 2

The list of advisories is still long, but again, some of it can be ignored. The main ones are 8, 12, 13, 14, 17 and 19. The powersteering seepage is annoying but not a problem, I will have to track it down at some point, but not now. The tire has been done along with the valve, so that's pointless. The discs being rusty is because the cars been sat for weeks with no mot, so is to be expected! As for the rusty underside, its a 13 year old car, its gonna be a bit rusty in places as it hasn't been taken care of properly. The spongy peddles because the brakes haven't been bled properly, as I couldn't undo the front bleed nipples. 

As for the rest, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 15 and 16, these are problems I intend to fix over the summer. The head light clouding is not much of a problem and I've already got the kit of ebay and I'm Not worried about the pads, their consumables, so they will need replacing every so often anyway. This also leads back to the hand brake travel, now pads will have an impact on that but ultimately the cable will need replacing as I think its stretched. Fixing the various exhaust mounts shouldn't be too hard, but with a non-standard exhaust it might be trickier than expected. The only two items that I'm really worried about are the CV gaiters, as this will require disassembling most of the front hub assembly to change properly, not a 5 minute job. However, I'm confident I can do it, and if it does of wrong or take me ages, well its not the end of the world.

The only other items on the list are the brake pipe, which I have replacements for but am going to hold off a little longer as they are still fine, just getting old. Ill have another check before the next MoT. The final point is the SIRS warning light. This could just be the bulb and a simple fix or it could be a major issue with the system. My view is its the bulb, as a major issue would cause the bulb to light up constantly, not dissapear off on holiday. It doesn't seem to be an issue for the MoT which is good!

So more issues to fix and a deadline for good measure. I've got all the bits I need this time round, so hopefully it will be plain sailing! Oh the joys of owning an old banner! And to think, I'd quite like that mgf thats sitting up the road on bricks! As much as I would love to buy it, if I did I think the next post on here would be my obituary! 

MOT

Well, I took my car for its yearly MOT test the other day, and yeah, not good. I was expecting a few advisories to come up, but nothing like this! A failure on 9 points!

Sorry for the picture, but for some reason my phone keeps putting it this way round not matter what I do!

Ok, so its not as bad as it first sounds. 2 for the hand brake and 3 for the fuel filler. I've got reconditioned rear calipers and hubs on route (with Hermes somewhere) and I'm in the process of sourcing a new fuel neck. That should solve 5 problems. A new tyre, new locking pin and tightening up a bolt are simple. The head light couldbe because the lense is dodgy and needs cleaning and polishing. I think that it should all be rather easy, just need to get the bits to do it all.

And then there is the whole raft of advisories to deal with!

Yes, that really does reach 21.

Again, nothing to serious. Brake discs are mostly due to lack of use, especially the rears, as the calipers are shot. A perished tyre, that'll be replaced with the other for an axle pair. That will also sort the valve issue. The rear beari21.will be sorted with new hubs (with the calipers somewhere). The exhaust mounts can be replaced easily, and are probably due replacement and the power steering issue is because I haven't cleaned it all up properly when I did the power steering gaiter change.

The only items that worry me are the CV gaiters. These are going to be more difficult to replace, but not impossible, however, I think I will replace both the inner and outer gaiters at the same time ( although I've yet to check the inner ones) so that I dint have to repeat the process again.

So all in all not so bad, just annoying and it will take some time to correct. Hopefully the car will be back on the road in no time.

Oh, and the rear handles and locks are playing up again! (New handles with hubs and calipers somewhere)

Change of direction

Well, this blog has been ticking along for the last few months aand I've  been struggling with the balance of the blog. I initially started this as a blog about being a stay at home father but for several reasons I have found it difficult to find the right balance between public and private and have in many respects been avoiding the blog and one mote than one occasion have considered deleting the blog and all the posts, however, I have decided to continue but change the direction.

So what direction is the blog going in? Well it won't be a dramatic shift, but the main focus of the blog will be on my DIY and my car, there maybe a few parenting posts but they will be few and far between.

There is always plenty of DIY going on, currently moving a bathroom and there is always something up with the car, currently two of the door handles don't work.

Car, Mid service by torch light

Bathroom, Post plumbing nightmare

So the blog will continue, and hopefully there will be more regular updates, hopefully!

Hire cars

As some of you may have noticed, I'm a bit of a car nut. I like cars, both in terms of driving and designers, although my main taste is older cars. We hire cars pretty regularly as we fly south quite often, usually when my wife has work south and as a result we end up driving all sorts of cars, although they are usually medium to large family cars, focus to mondeo size.

Over the years we've had various cars, from memory the ones I remember are; Seat Ibiza ( older style, not very good), Vauxhall Astra (various mk's, all rubbish) Vauxhall Insignia (petrol's rubbish, diesel is quite good), VW Polo (gutless but comfy), Kia C'eed (alright), Hyundai i30 (newer version, very good on several occasions) Nissan Quasqui (unmemerable, as in I remember we had one but I remember nothing about it!). I'm sure there have been a few others, cutoff the top of my head I can't remember. Both my wife and I have driven various others cars over the years too; Ford Focus ( both types), Toyota Avensis and Auris, VW Fox (cracking little car), Vauxhall Zafira, plus a few others that escape me. There is of course the Rover 25, both MG ZR's Andy current MG ZS to add to the list, but they were all fabulous cars ( ok, so I'm slightly bias).

So whatscthe point in all this? I'm not trying to brag about all the cars I've driven, just saying I've driven a few, so when I say the Vauxhall Mocka and the 2wd Toyota Rav4 are crap cars, you know I'm basing it on having driven lots of cars and not just because there not the same as my car. So;

THE VAUXHALL MOCKA AND 2WD TOYOTA RAV4 ARE CRAP CARS.

Don't worry, I am going to justify my opinion. We'll start with the Rav4, and ill start with the positives, which there are a few.

The forward sidewards vision is great, mostly due to the height of the vehicle and it is a conftable and very spacious car. We managed the 4 of us with all our luggage for 2 weeks with no problems at all. The engine was great to, if I remember rightly it was the diesel version. For these reasons alone I wanted to like the car. However, there were 2 major drawbacks, namely rear vision was not great, I might have gotten use to it in time, but the killer was the ride quality. On a flat straight road it was very comfy, but the moment you hit a bump you'd been better off on a bouncy castle! And ill not go in to the whole driving down county lanes. When a car is bouncing and wallowing down the road, it doesn't inspire any confidence. I don't know how well it would have handled as I never had the confidence to push it. Now, I know its no sports car, but even so, ill not be hoping for another one, which is a shame as it does have a lot going for it. As a simple plod arounfmd town car it would be great, but I'm a driver and its not a drivers car.

However, no matter how bad the Rav4 was, the Mocka was in another league of rubbish! Ill be kind and start with the positives, um...... Well with that done we'll move to the negatives. Ready? Rear vision is rubbish (thank good for parking sensors), wing mirrors are rubbish, cabin space is rubbish for such a big car and boot space is just laughable, you can't fit a fold away child buggy across ways and leave your large cases at home, there's only just room for a couple of small cases if you want to leave the parcel shelf on. The 1.4 turbo engine is possibly the worst engine I've ever had the pleasure of using, its pretty gutless at any speed and has no grunt, we were I first on many occasions when going up the steep country lanes as you had to keep the engine screaming to get any it to move at anything other than a snails pace. Yes I know that turbo engines work better at high revs, but this one had nothing below about 3000rpm and above that it had very little, you had to properly flog it to get it to go. Not really what you want when trying to join a motorway at 70!

Friends of ours bought a Mocka when they first came out, think theirs was a diesel one, anyway they swapped it after less then a year for a BMW X1.

So, the 2wd Rav4 isn't great (I assume the 4wd isn't much different) and the Mocka is just rubbish but what about good cars? Ill leave out the MG's as I'm defiantly bias there, I will however praise two cars, the VW Fox, its just a shame they replaced it with the UP, and the Hyundai i30 which was a very present surprise when we hired it.

We had a VW Fox for several year and we went all over the country and a trip round the Republic of Ireland, all without any dramas. Granted, there was little to shout about with the car, but it did everything we ever asked it to do and never gave a moments trouble. It is the perfect car for any young driver, cheap but with the VW build quality. The Hyundai i30 on the other hand was a surprise. When we first got it we thought it was going to be rubbish, but very quickly we realised that it wasnt, we've had a few over the years and even the 1.4 petrol is a good car, a little gutless on the motorway but not like the Mocka! The 1.6 diesel is an excellent little car, so much so that we very nearly bought one. We didn't in the end as we got given a Toyota Auris by the inlaws, as they were going to get rid of it. I would have brought the Hyundai but a free car is a free car, next time were in the market for a new car though, it'll be an i40 we'll be looking at.