air con totally dead -

i guess after 2 years of no gas and not working (sic) it was inevitable that something else would be wrong with the system. I think in this case the compresser seals have gone as the front condenser seals are all new. Whatever the air con no working and I'm not spending any more money on it. With luck I'll get some money back for the front condenser and then seal up the pipes that are remaining.

On another note the replacement coolant radiator has developed a leak. Anybody see a pattern emerging yet? The good news is I discovered today that the bleed valve had another 1/2 to 3/4 turn left on it til it started tightening up. I wonder who left it like that? Ah that would be me....

This might explain the somewhat odd behaviour of the leak. It only seemed to leak when the engine was turned off. Was fine while idling but not after the engine was shut down. A loose bleed valve might allow the coolant to escape as the pressure built up after shut down. That's my hope anyway so I'll monitor the levels and leaks over the coming days. More hassle more expense. Pah!

another applecross run -

the last run of the year methinks. Had a sublime journey up the side of Loch Lomond and along to Tyndrum and then onwards through Glen Coe. Stunning scenery and the weather was just fabby. Continued north until Spean Bridge then headed along the Newtonmore road past Loch Laggan.

Some simply stunning sweeping bends that you could just power on through and really feel like you were driving the car. Again the scenery was awesome. The usual happened though, once onto the single track road, yup stuck behind 2 cars and a coach. Ho hum.

Meet up with a few folks in Aviemore and then onwards to Elgin via the B9007. Another sublime bit of tarmac, single track but hugely open so you could see half a mile ahead most times. Lovely job and the sun setting in the back ground just made it perfect.Few beers in Elgin and then some sleep.

Sunday morning and the run to applecross begins. Of course to get there requires some driving but hey, that's the point of these things. Eventually we arrive at the base of the climb and look up. Cloud cover is somewhat lower than hoped for but hey we're here lets do it. Half way up the climb and straight into the clouds. A 1 in 5 climb on a single track road with mostly no barriers just a sheer drop. Not funny at all. At the top however the view was worth it.


Yup, visibility was around 10 metres. Ho hum. Time for lunch. The descent down was a slow affair but halfway down we left the clouds behind to be greeted with this


Never ones to admit defeat we had lunch in the fine Applecross Inn and then headed round the coast all the way back to the original starting point of the Applecross. There we met a nice couple who had just driven down the pass. They confirmed yes it's clear so game on.

A wee bit of powersliding round the hairpins and at the top we were greeted with the view we had waited so long for.


A quick blatt back down the hill and hey presto we all needed petrol. A quick run to Kirkton before the gas station shut and then onwards back home.

The run down the side of the Caledonian Canal in the wet was interesting but good clean fun. The run down through Glen Coe in the dark was more focusing. A very long day but a fun one nevertheless. It's weekend's like this that remind me why I have the car I do.

new boost hose clamp fitted -

yeah baby. Fitted it earlier this evening and it's a job done. Also discovered an easier way for getting the boost pipes back on. Only taken about 3 years to figure that out.

air con recharged -

yeah man cool baby. Indeedy the air con is working but for how long? The new condenser seems leak proof but only time will tell. Was nice having COLD air within the car.

On another note my loose clamp on the intercooler pipe is giving up the ghost. Nearly blew the pipe clean off tonight while chasing a clio. I still would have caught him if I hadn't have had a slow scooby in front of me. Pah, legacy's

some car pics for no reason

washed the car today, thought I would post some front end pics. The car looks somewhat different with the fog lights missing. I may keep it that way. Any thoughts on this?





Me like a little, not a lot. You can't see the mesh that I've fitted behind the bumper to (hopefully) protect the radiator. Ho hum

been a while so some updates

decided it was time to fix the air con and get the radiator removed. Sadly while in the process of removing the air con rad I realised why sometimes the car was getting warmer than it should have been. Yup, the normal coolant radiator was gubbed. The fins in the lower half of the rad were gone, completely. I could see through the darned thing! Wasn't happy. Notice also the huge bend in the cross frame support. That has now been fixed with some nifty foot work.

Busted rad in situ


New rad (2nd hand actually but look at the condition of it ) before placing


Air con rad also to be fitted and the charge cooler pre-rad hopefully same time. Don't hold your breath lol.

Later

big miles -

100k miles on the clock but stills runs like a good 'un. As a reward for the car being so good I washed it then polished it. Yes indeed I did. Scary eh?

funny old world -

saw a pigeon pecked to death on the way home from work. A big dirty feck off sized seagull just pecked it til it was dead. Nature at its best.

I've also updated my website with some fabby details regarding

• Evo 6 OZ wheels


• front droplink replacement

Hopefully I'll also get the number plate fitted this weekend too. Nobody out there hold their breath on this one.

later

lovely day -

so I took the t-bars off and went for a drive to Inverary. Fabby.

Also bought some bolts for the licence plate holder but alas the wrong ones. Ho hum

number plate removal -

indeed I have removed the rubbish UK spec number plate and all the gunk that was left. Left to do are

• fix the marked paintwork - looks like left over from another plate holder


• get some mounting screws for the JDM spec plate I have
• er fit the plate and holder onto the car

The plate was stuck on with sticky pads and I pondered for a while how to remove the blighter. Couldn't really lever it off as that would wreak the paintwork. Couldn't pull the plate off cause, well I just couldn't. Then John had a brilliant almost offhand idea. Use Dental floss!

Indeed 3 or 4 metres of dental floss later I had cheesewired the old plate off. Took about 15 minutes. Just wrap the ends round a pair of screwdrivers (saved cutting my fingers off lol) and saw at the plate. Came off in one piece very quickly. Bumper started like



ended up like this after plate removal



and after some cleaning with white spirit ended up with this (note bag and my feet lol)



Now just to get the new plate and holder fitted and hey presto, nice front end .

OEM Lambda (O2) Sensor fitted -

indeed, plugged it in and went for a wee jaunt. Boring cruising along the motor way cause that's when the Lambda does its thing. Well it survived the first journey ok. No error codes created. Woo hoo

new boost pipes fitted -

always had a wee nick in the turbo to intercooler pipe but never bothered changing the pipes. Even bought some pipes through a group buy and never did anything about fitting them. Well the ever increasing whistling from the engine bay under boost was enough to convice me it was time for a change.

so from this



to this



No more whistling and boost seems stronger too. Doesn't take as long to come on song and holds the boost better too. Lovely

sensor ordered -

hopefully arrive Monday, get it fitted and hassle ends. Next on list, ignition leads and maybe cap / rota arm. Need that lottery win soon.

sigh O2 sensor no worky -

will need to buy an OEM unit as the generic units are not being liked by the ecu. Will also post up some pics of the droplink change, the boost hose change and maybe even some pics of the new wheels.

Also I picked up some front undertrays last night, for once somebody selling stuff that actually has the items ready for collection. Good bloke, didn't even take amrket value on them.

shock horror -

saw a 1 series BMW driver using their indicators AND in the correct fashion. Not to worry, it would have been a new beemer driver and the weekend BMW Advanced Driving Course will sort out that madness.

Take it easy out there.

new O2 sensor fitted -

indeed I have fitted the replacement O2 sensor which of course was a replacement itself for the original Toyota unit. I had a bit of a nightmare with one of the nuts falling into the engine bay which took about 45 minutes to locate. This was after removing the undertrays and checking everywhere. Only when I was putting things back together again did I find the nut. Lucky thing cause no nut = no driving.

Anyhow the new O2 sensor survived without producing an error code on the first drive but I'll check again before and after each drive and make sure its still keeping the ECU happy.

Also I have collected the droplinks for the front so hopefully they will get fitted along with the wheel studs this coming weekend.

I have also sourced some replacement front undertrays so its all coming together. All I need now is a lottery win and an Air Con radiator (condensor)

99k miles

indeed the tubby has hit 99,000 miles.


Big numbers so I'm expecting some maintenance bills shortly, starting with the front drop links. Ho hum.

Other news, I have finally managed to get the Oz wheels from the Evo 6 sorted so now I know they actually do fit. With all the messing around I've had to do they have not turned out to be such a bargin but at least now I know they do fit the car properly. Just need to get a few things tidied up and the car will be right as rain. I'll do a write up on me website for future reference for anybody who stumbles apon the site

Also, the replacement O2 sensor is a dud so another one has been purchased and its getting fitted soon so I can get a refund on the original replacement. Ho hum

there I was driving along -

in the lovely sunshine with the t-bars off and just mellowing when some fugging muppet in a 1 series beemer decides to not only nearly run into the back of me but then give me the finger and a dirty look and all because i never indicated I was turning right. A few responses to this incident

it was a right only lane and therefore I did not have to indicate I was turning right

the road signs 100 yards previous to my right turn informed road users the third lane was only for turning right

there are painted signs on the road that indicate the lane is for turning right only


So in response to your antics Mr 1 Series Driver I say this

Get a fugging life you sad flucker and read the fugging highway code you dense fcukwit and stop being a funking kn0bjockey.


On another note, my car was making funny popping noises from the exhaust tonight between gearchanges. Lovely

The newly installed O2 sensor does not appear to be working so another is on order for a swap out.

Some new wheel nuts will be ordered tomorrow to go with the newly bought wheel studs. Going to order some 2nd hand front undertrays and get that lot fixed.

You'd think I'd had a pay rise. Sadly far from it.

A

mr2oc april 06 highland drive -

well what a week. Been on an awesome weekend drive up in the Highlands of Scotland and had a fantastic time. Awesome roads, awesome company and the weather even played ball for most of it.

We counted them all out and we counted them all back in. Various levels of damage to cars, usual stone chips odd cracked windscreen and one puncture but we reckon 2 busted rims. Also of note were a couple of sticking brake callipers. They were slightly overworked. Other casualties included a couple of blowing exhausts and mine does sound a little different.I reckon thats down to a good de-coking. We'll see soon enough.

Anyhow, drove up to the Aultguish Inn on the friday afternoon. This hotel is on the A835 halfway bewteen Inverness and Ullapool which oddly enough are the 2 nearest petrol stations up there, Saturday was the run for the Applecross Road.
This is simply an awesome road which is a single track (with passing places) up the side of a mountain. 2000ft rise from sea level in barely 5 miles then it drops back down to sea level again. Some alpine style hairpins that required 1st gear to get out of which certainly tested the ole LSD on the diff. It worked for sure, left some twin strips of rubber on the way up.

We had started by heading to Achnasheen along the A832 which is the road to Gairloch then entering Achnasheen we headed for Lochcarron along the A980 and then turn left for the Applecross road. You know it's a scary road cause the sign at the bottom of the road says its not suitable for learner drivers! Certainly gets your attention.



And of course it started to rain just as I was about to head off. Perfect really, there were no dramas but the brakes were certainly working hard on the way down the other side as you never get off them long enough to cool them down.

The applecross is just amazing, like a stage from Corsica in Colin McRae rally except get it wrong it will hurt a lot and cost even more. Wonderful just bliss.

After a bite to eat in the Applecross Inn a wee blatt along the coast road then onto the A986 to head for Kinlochewe then the A832 for inverness then back onto the A835 to the hotel. A days worth of great driving, the weather wasn't the best but to be honest none of us cared that much cause we were driving some fantastic roads through some of the worlds most amazing scenery. Fabby dabby.

Saturday night was a run to Ullapool so we could get the required top up of petrol and while we were there top ourselves up with some food too. The run back to the hotel in the dark was interesting, the local wildlife made a suicide bid with the car in front of me. It looked really close from where I was sitting and I was on the brakes hard cause if they had hit that deer, the car would have literally stopped dead in its tracks. Lucky they never hit it but the looks on their faces back at the hotel was enough to confirm it was a real close miss. But it was a miss so thats what counts.

Sunday, well that could have been a short day but where's the fun in that.

We started off heading to Ullapool then took the Gairloch A832 and followed the coast round along some simply breathtaking scenery. It was stunning and even a cove / beach of golden sand that wouldn't have looked out of place in the med. Except even though the sun was out the windchill factor made it seem like -10degC lol. Followed the A832 through Poolewe (been along this whole road with the works' van two weeks previous) through Gairloch and onto Achnasheen. Turn onto the A890 heading to Strathcarron and some lovely roads. Had a plate of amzing mince and tatties in the Strathcarron Inn for lunch, would definitely recommend this place for food / staying. At 2pm on a sunday afternoon they had some folk playing music in the bar, real good atmosphere the food was great and the service was spot on too.
Heartily recommended.

After lunch in the Strathcarron we were still 80 odd miles from Fort William which is itself 105 miles from Glasgow and it was like 3pm in the afternoon. Clearly was going to be a long day of driving. Lucky we had such great roads / scenery to make it worthwhile. Oh yes indeedy.After lunch we headed along the A87 for Inverness then headed for Fort William.

Quick run through Glen Coe then a slight detour along the A84 to drop my passenger off at Stirling Services so his lift could run him back to Edinburgh while I continued onto Glasgow.

680 miles of fantastic driving. Simply the best weekend in a long time and the best driving weekend ever. Fantastic roads, stunning scenery great company and everybody made it home without any real dramas.

When pipex get their webspace sorted I'll post up a link and some pics but rest assured it was just amazing.

pah toyo 15" rubbish -

had a chance to try out the new toyo 1r's and what a huge disappointment. Exactly the same as the 1s's. Feels like the sidewall is flexing under load and the car is just unstable with direction changes / line changes / tightening lines etc.

It feels like the tyres just dont grip until you give them abuse then I have to wind off some lock to keep the same line. But when I arrive at the next corner, they have cooled down again and the same thing happens again. boo hoo.

Have managed to get a set of evo 6 rims which were advertised as 17 x 8inch rims but turned out to be 17 x 7.5inch which means I'm squashing tyres to fit for the rear 235 x 40 and I'd guess rules out any chance of 245 x 35. Just waiting on some spigots and shorter wheel nuts to arrive then I can fit the wheels to the car. In time for the spirited april drive next weekend. On new wheels( for me ) and brand new tyres. Perfect timing no............ Defo not even good timing

Should be interesting though