DozeyDustman's Fleet update.

[dozeydustman]

Oh Glenn , I forgot to tell you ...My daughter's now at Chichester Uni . I told her you'd heip her out ,if she was in dire straits or there was an emergency ! Thanks !

My wife works in the library there so they’ll probably meet each other!

[christine]

The library was impressive!

[dozeydustman]

Stepdaughter’s car got some attention today. Need to keep myself normal rather than stew on things. Pre-MoT said new rear pads needed as worn out; discs not brilliant nor are rear flexis, and offside front to rear metal pipe is too rusty.

Did the discs and pads today, waiting for the f-r metal pipes to be delivered as I need access to a 4-poster or a pit to install them. I’m not tolling around on the oil, cat-piss and rainwater soaked floor of my garage. If the neighbours’ cats didn’t keep scenting up the door, I’d scrabble about a bit.

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I hate disc retaining screws. Off with its head.

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These are fucked.

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Brake fluid should NOT be this colour.

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It’s quite apparent this car has had some neglect in its life. Cheap tyres, choked up filters, lumpy oil and now brake fluid which looks like builder’s tea. I ran 1 litre of brake fluid through the system before it started to bleed out clear. The pedal still feels absolutely soft, but I think the car is over-servoed as without the engine running it’s rock hard. The calliper sliders will also need new rubbers and lube, what’s there will do for now but I’m not happy.

Once the metal pipes have been done I’ll flush the whole brake system through with fresh. There’s no excuse for this.

[dozeydustman]

The library was impressive!

Indeed it is, but the staff are disorganised.

[Hooli]

That is impressively bad brake fluid!

[cros]

I reckon when they designed that BMW Mini they just took my Rover 25 3 door, made everything twice as difficult to mend and then charged 3 times as much to do it. I know the old mini was sometimes a bit fiddly to fix but the idiots didn't have to copy that part.

[dozeydustman]

That is impressively bad brake fluid!

It had lumps in.

[dozeydustman]

I’ve been trying to update this thread for over a week but for some reason when I logged in and opened it I kept getting logged out.

Mini passed MoT last week with help from Stanky of the beige. The original test on 24th October failed on one massively worn rear brake pad and a rusted brake line. The rear discs and flexis were an advisory so between us we managed to swap the flexis, free off the stuck rear calliper and give it a rebuild with new sliders and rubbers.

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This was made so much easier with the offer of a dry garage and a tiltable car lift. To change the metal brake line properly we needed to drop the tank and the exhaust, but having only one afternoon we gently shaped it by hand and the more complex series of bends made using a proper pipe shaper, feeding it over the exhaust. I needed to cut the old line to get it out. Thankfully all unions were free despite them being steel, and 6 hours of working on both mine and his car simultaneously the Mini and his Sirion turbo nutter thing both had the requisite jobs done. We neither of us had changed metal brake lines before, it took 2 hours, more time spent getting the car at the correct height or angle for my ample bulk taking most of that time. Sadly we damaged the exhaust heat shield so the next morning I had to find some penny washers larger than 1”.

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Only place I could find them was in a mixed pack of washers from Halfords. 8mm hole instead of the required 6mm but what the hell, it holds. Only managed to change one as the other side was a bit recalcitrant and I didn’t want a sheared fixing in a place that’s less than ideal to get to. I’ll see if I can get a good second hand exhaust shield, the battery cables pass directly over the exhaust at the rearmost section, so AFAIK that’s an MoT fail.

Got an advisory for front flexis and minor corrosion on the other rearward metal brake line. I have the front flexis already and will change them when next I have a clear day and no rain.

[Eddie Honda]

Sadly we damaged the exhaust heat shield so the next morning I had to find some penny washers larger than 1”.

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Only place I could find them was in a mixed pack of washers from Halfords. 8mm hole instead of the required 6mm but what the hell, it holds. Only managed to change one as the other side was a bit recalcitrant and I didn’t want a sheared fixing in a place that’s less than ideal to get to. I’ll see if I can get a good second hand exhaust shield,

Don't be pissing around looking in Halfords.



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[dozeydustman]

Saab the second had some remedial work done at the weekend, mainly because water was gathering in the heater fan blower and being blown into the passenger front footwell.

Removed the scuttle trims and was quite please to find the plenums dry, but with a small amount of debris on them. However the cabin filter was installed backwards and the plastic top installed by someone just placing it loosely in the scuttle. Would explain water getting in. Filter was pretty manky as well.

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I removed a fair bit of leaf, silt and damp from the blower housing, while I was at it added a couple of drops of light machine oil (read: 3-in-1) to the fan motor spindle as it was straining to start up. New filter in and the whole filter assembly correctly reinstalled the fan no longer squeals and water doesn’t get in the cabin.

While I was there i whipped the negative lead off the battery as the safety jam on the driver’s door window has started forgetting its anti-pinch/closed position on automatic raise. Stop position reset, it also had the added benefit of recalibrating the external temperature sensor so it read a more accurate 12 Celsius and not the -6 it had been showing.

MOT a couple of months back had one advisory for a minor exhaust leak, I have a new portion (flexi) and I’ll fit that when there is better weather.