thermostat is kaput !

sigh, the thermostat has died after 88k miles and in the middle of winter to boot. Bl00dy brilliant. Tomorrow will be spent checking if I have the tools and access to the thermostat housing in order to change it. Plus the appropriate number of buckets to catch the 13L of coolant likely to leak out in the process. Ho hum

Still it was a white christmas so I'm not bothered at the moment ;¬) Enjoy it everybody

car wash and insurance news -

first off the insurance renewal. Decided that in the next year I will fit an Electronic Boost controller or at the very minimum the chargecooler I have sitting in the box room. Renewal time is apon me so I decided to ask around and get some quotes on std as the car is and then after I had added the above mods. Surprisingly Norich Direct, Prestige and Elephant all said no to the modifications I was planning and even the std car was going to be rather expensive.

I spoke to Adrian Flux and they quoted me very nicely and even the planned mods would be no bother either. Oddly enough I took them up on their offer before they changed their minds. Woo hoo

Washed the car today as the amount of grit on the road is turning the car a sh1tty shade of brown and I'm having difficulty seeing out the sdie windows. Ho hum. Now its winter up here in bonny scotland and the last few days have ben somewhat cold. Nothing out of th ordinary for this time of year just plain old cold. So i turn up at the jetwash and its frozen. Go to the next one and its frozen too. What is wrong with these places that they can't keep the jetwashes operating in cold weather. Not even snow on the ground just a bit cold. At this point I'm running out of options and daylight so plan Z is hatched. head to the parents!

Now normally I would be quite happy just to wash the car using bucket and sponge but because of the grit and mank on the car from the roads I wanted to jet wash the blighter first and then sponge it down. So headed off to my parents and set up their hose and soaked the car. Upon applying the soapy water with the sponge I realised the soapy water was actually freezing on the car body! Ok, now thats cold. Of course the water that was on the car was freezing meant that the water that was falling to the ground was.... yup its was freezing on the ground too. Mmmm maybe this wasn't such a good idea afterall???

Got the car washed without breaking my neck and it looked pretty good I have to say.

The weather is pretty cold as I have said and the roads are just greasy and horrible to drive on so I am taking it really carefull out there and just crusing round the corners and only giving it the gas when I know its all straightened up. Don't get any prizes for digging a hole in the crash barrier or the tarmac.

let there be music -

indeed the stereo is back in the car but I have mounted it in the upper DIN slot instead of the previous lower. Why? I reckoned the LED temp gauge would be better masked by the overhang of the radio making the gauge easier to read in daylight.

Took a fair length drive tonight and car feels quite stable. Very nice indeed

fog light switch -

its now fixed and back to its clicky operating self. Fantastic all I need to do now is clean the car and it will be looking good.

back to the garage again -

this time the front fog switch has been broken so the fogs don't work. Ho hum, at least this won't cost me anything

well its back -

new sensors fitted and the wiring done properly (how can I tell?) Seems to work ok but never tempt fate.

The tracking was slightly out but has been straightened anyway. Cool. Now I need petrol :-(

groan -

turns out the alarm was missing a bonnet sensor and the passenger door did not trip the alarm either. Now fixed and just the tracking to be done

will it be fixed ?

well the alarm system is again getting looked at after the re-wire and hopefully this will resolve the current issues. I'd like to think it will resolve all the issues but not likely.

I'm getting the tracking looked at also since it feels slightly out to the left so hopefully back to its true steering self.

Coming back from a car meet on Sunday there the front undertray decided to get close to the road. At 70mph the last thing you want is the front tray falling down. Its now a little shorter than it was before and completely bent at an obtuse angle. Hopefully be able to straighten it out with a little heat and patience.

Also, JohnO has an ECU reader than runs from the diagnostic port for his mini and it may fit mine too. Something to try in the near future methinks.

A

yea - the ignition works

shame the immobiliser doesn't. Ho hum, getting that fixed tomorrow.

Also will need to get the tracking looked at as I feel the steering wheel is not quite straight ahead for driving. Weather pretty cold and very greasy on the roads so I have been driving very gently as I have no wish to end up in the ditch or the crash barriers.

Roll on the summer ; - )