Tag: car

Destroying Kitchens!

Oh what fun!!
The past week we have been ripping the old kitchen out of our new house!

The amount of plaster that came off of the walls is shocking! In some places we have managed to get right back to the brick wall!

We have attempted to re-plaster some of the smaller holes, which went ok, but we are now stuck with the larger expanses!

To make matters worse, we have the new kitchen cabinets lying in flat-pack form on the dining room floor, and we have our new fridge freezer being delivered tomorrow, and no kitchen for it to go into! Lol!

I have plenty of photo’s but I have had no time to get onto the Internet to upload them.

I have only come home to eat dinner, and nick more tools, and have only had about half hour on my computer a day! (Which is more than my girlfriend thinks I should be on here for! Lol!)

To top it all off, I have no car, as it is making a really loud grinding noise. We hope it just another wheel bearing, but it sounds nothing like last time!

But it’s not all bad news, as we have managed to get the lounge/front room painted, and we have a dining room table and chairs! We have also got a bed!

But we have no mattress, so we’re sleeping in a sleeping bag on an air mattress.

But it has been so hot at night we have just ended up on top of the sleeping bag!

It’s time to go now, we’re only here to look for a spanner and to check the delivery time for our fridge freezer!
More soon

The bit the Haynes manual forgot to mention…

Yesterday I was trying to work on my car replacing the clutch cable, the Haynes manual made it sound so easy

8 To refit the cable, thread it through from the engine compartment, place it over the self-adjusting cam, and connect the inner cable end to the quadrant. […]
9 Refit the inner cable guide to the top of the pedal.

Easier said then done, luckily I tied some string to the end of the old one so I could just pull the new one through.
Now, try doing that when you are led across both front seats with your head and shoulders cramped into the foot well.
Oh yeah, you are also upside-down resting on your neck, and you have your hands weaving their way through pedals and other bits of car designed to get in your way!

10 Working in the engine compartment, slip the other end of the cable through the bellhousing bracket, and connect the inner cable to the release fork […]

Yep, done! Only its down there, and you need hands as small as a childs to get to it, and fingers as strong as a professional finger weightlifter!

11 Depress the clutch pedal to draw the outer cable into its locating hole in the bulkhead, ensuring it locates properly. At the same time, the inner cable guide will be automatically pulled onto the top of the pedal to hold the inner cable in position.

Only the outer cable doesn’t move! The self-adjusting cam doesn’t lock, so the quadrant springs back and the end of the cable springs free.

Back to step 9!

Oh what fun!!

Speed Camera’s

The other day when I saw a car drive straight through the red light on a pedestrian crossing, I had a brain wave!

Why not put speed camera’s on every traffic light, and pedestrian controlled light’s!?

My reasoning is thus:

  1. They will prevent more accidents occurring from drivers jumping red lights.
  2. They well cause less accidents from drivers suddenly slowing down when they spot a speed camera.
  3. They might probably generate more money!

Of course, with the numbers needed to cover every traffic light the money generated would be less per camera than it currently is.

Yes, this is the crazy kind of thoughts that run through my head!

Failed MOT!

My car went in for its MOT in Monday, and failed!

It failed on two things:

  1. The offside constant velocity joint gaiter is split
  2. And the nearside MacPherson strut has excessive movement

There was also an advisory saying that the offside MacPherson strut has slight movement.

Luckily she passed the emissions!

I’ve now got 10 days to get the faults fixed and take the car back in for a free retest.

Three Week Update!

Its been three weeks since I last blogged!!?? Whats going on!!!??? Lol!

For a start I’ve been back from holiday for just over a week now, I was going to post before leaving, but to be honest on the day it was too hectic that I just didn’t have any time to post!

My Flickr photos are up for viewing on Flickr and from the photo section!

The holiday, like last years was a week in Jersey. The ferry left Weymouth at 10am on Sunday 29th June, and arrived back in Weymouth at 23:45 on Sunday 6th July, seven hours late!

This year we drove down the night before and slept (read: closed eyes and pretended to sleep!) in a lay-by outside Weymouth and drove down to the harbour in the morning.

The holiday went fast! This year, instead of going around visiting loads of attractions we spent most of our time on a beach! But we did visit the Lavender Farm again!

Friday evening and during the later part of Saturday the wind picked up! On Sunday, after we had packed up the car and ready to leave, we were told that the ferry had been delayed for six hours and would not be due in until 18:20.

We spent the rest of the day driving around the north coast of Jersey stopping at some the beaches and looking at the rough seas! I also took that opportunity to fill the car’s tank up.

We found a garage that was selling petrol for 89.99 pence a litre. I picked up the pump and it read 99.99 pence a litre. When I went in to pay there was 10% off the price of petrol!
I only managed to put 25.53 litres in, but it only cost me £22.95!

We got to the ferry terminal for six, and the ferry did not turn up until seven.

I think we didn’t set off for Guernsey until about half past seven. And boy was it rough! We was going slow because of the sea, and nothing was open! At times all you could see out of the windows was the sea on one side, and the sky on the other!

During that leg of the journey the duty free shop was only open for five minutes before we got to Guernsey for people departing at Guernsey.
We stayed in Guernsey harbour for an hour to let the seas die down a bit. We left at half past nine.

We brought our stuff from the duty free shop as soon as it was open. We didn’t really have any time to look around as we were all holding onto the shelving just to stay upright!

I spent about an hour up on deck facing the way we had just come trying to settle my stomach and not be sick. It was quite interesting watching the horizon, it would raise up and the sink down, and at the same time it would be moving diagonally first sloping off to the right, and then the left.

After five minutes of me going back inside I filled up one and a half sick bags!

We docked in Weymouth at about 23:45. We found the lay-by we slept in the week before and attempted to sleep!
We set off in the morning at about six and got home about half past eight!

My Flickr photos are up for viewing on Flickr and from the photo section!

Another Year, Another Birthday!

I’m getting old now, I’m going to start drawing a pension soon if I carry on like this! Lol!

Yep, as you may of guessed from the title, I have recently had a birthday, it was on Saturday, and I am now 23!

The day started off alright, I opened my presents, and then I got a phone call from my mum, who was on holiday at the time in Cyprus.
Then my girlfriend came over and took me out for the day for a picnic on the Cheddar downs.

Boy was that some trek! First we had to walk up the road to a path, and then we had to walk up a load of steps, which would of been alright, but we were carrying all the food, and my presents!

Luckily it didn’t rain, and, even though the sun wasn’t out, it was warm, and it wasn’t all that windy either!
After the picnic we spent an hour or two in the gorge going in and out of all the shops.

And here’s the mandatory present list:

And now some news on my car.

On Sunday dad took me on a guided tour of the innards of my cars engine, we had towed the car to his work Friday evening, and he was working on it all Saturday. The photos can be seen in the usual places, on my website, and on flickr.

From what dad can see at the moment, it just looks like the valves need replacing, and because its been taken off, so does the head gasket.
But first dads got to make sure the cylinder head hasn’t been warped.

That’s it for now
Till next time!

The End of an Era

The timing belt on my car broke on the way to work this morning, it happened just as I was going on to the slip road off the motorway.

I managed to get the car on to a lay-by, and then I had walk the rest of the way to work – it wasn’t that far.

Dad then towed my car to his work place to have a look at it, he phoned me to tell me what was wrong.

He got a new belt and fitted it, but the engine won’t start again, it’s knackered.

Thats the end of the road for my car, and I don’t have any photo’s of it!

A Quiet Car

Ok, that is a bit of a weird title, but it does have a bit of a story to go with it, read on to hear a sad tale about a noisy little car…
Since not long after getting my car a loud noise started up.
My dad let one of his work mates have a listen to the noise and he said that it could be a wheel bearing.

So, the other day dad jacked up each front corner of the car and let the engine turn the wheel, the noise was coming from the left side.

On Saturday we went to the Renault dealers on Whitby Road and brought a new wheel bearing for £41.51

Dad fitted it that Saturday while I was working

I’m glad to say that my car is nice and quiet, the only sound I can hear is the tyres on the road, and when doing 70mph down the motorway the wind rushing past the car!

The silence is almost deafening!

I think that is it!
Till next time
Bye for now!