http://passionate-about-cars.com How to survive the world of modern motoring Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:40:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 © andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk () andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk() 1440 Just another WordPress weblog andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk No no http://passionate-about-cars.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://passionate-about-cars.com 144 144 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2011/02/20-i-gotta-take-a-leak/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2011/02/20-i-gotta-take-a-leak/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:07:15 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=175 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2011/02/20-i-gotta-take-a-leak/feed/ 0 29:34 Steve is thrown into the hot seat as Kathleen is off today - so I chatted to him in his 'Alan Sugar' office. We discuss: The ... Steve is thrown into the hot seat as Kathleen is off today - so I chatted to him in his 'Alan Sugar' office. We discuss: The idea of using incontinence pads while at the front desk An update on the roof insurance story - insurance claims and how to write letters of complaint The art of complaining The slipping clutch on my Volvo 940SE and Volvo drivers in general Autodata When Haynes Manuals go bad Austin Maxi exhausts and carburetor balancing Built-in redundancy conspiracy theories How Steve interacts with the competing garage next door - yes they DO come around to borrow spanners! Traffic wardens and the garage Photo: Elsie esq. law,and,regulations andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/10/18-stroll-on-alan-sugar/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/10/18-stroll-on-alan-sugar/#comments Sun, 31 Oct 2010 07:26:48 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=166 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/10/18-stroll-on-alan-sugar/feed/ 0 17:18 In today's show, Steve has become Alan Sugar and showed me his new board room! Also - some great news on a new community venture ... In today's show, Steve has become Alan Sugar and showed me his new board room! Also - some great news on a new community venture Steve has piloted - all coming up in Passionate About Cars... Andy: Irsquo;m with Steve from 1st Class garage. Today Steve is looking like Alan Sugar because hersquo;s in his manager clothes, hersquo;s not in his normal shop floor clothes and hersquo;s got a new office havenrsquo;t you, Steve. Steve: Yeh. Irsquo;ve got the new office now sorted and yes, I have a collar on - Irsquo;ve stopped short of putting a tie on yet. Irsquo;ve gothellip; Andy: You can tell from the rustle of his shirt Steve: Yes. Itrsquo;s well starched. Thatrsquo;s the old ex-army training. Andy: Hersquo;s already pointed his finger and fired me. Your fired! Steve: Well I did think, because this office is on a couple of levels I did think about moving the desk to the edge of that upper level, and have the other chair below that so that people have got to look up - but no, no, no. Some people might say Irsquo;m a bit of a control freak at times anyway. But this is the new office which is quite nice because where I had a desk in one of the front offices there, that was all well and good but it doesnrsquo;t allow you much in the way of privacy. So wersquo;re expanding a little bit, Irsquo;ve now taken this office. Wersquo;ve got a yard there which can get about 15 vehicles in which will go quite a way towards our parking issues which wersquo;ve constantly ranted about in the pasthellip; Andy: Wersquo;ve spoken about this so many times havenrsquo;t we, the parking issues. Steve: Yeh, anyone with a business in Brighton would know the problems faced with trying to park vehicles. Itrsquo;s extremely difficult. Because we are a garage and we work with vehicles, thatrsquo;s what our business is, we need to have somewhere to put vehicles. Particularly when theyrsquo;re waiting for parts - wersquo;ve got a vehicle in there at the moment thatrsquo;s waiting for a part from America, I think we spoke about it before, itrsquo;s waiting for the part. So the vehicles get sidelined but you need somewhere to put them. The yard will certainly help in that aspect. Itrsquo;s something wersquo;ve been looking at for some time and itrsquo;s very convenient because it adjoins the main garage - so thatrsquo;s perfect. The other thing of course, it gets me a nice little warm office so this time of year when itrsquo;s quite chilly in the garage I can come in and have a little warm up in the office and the boys can freeze their rocks off in the workshop. Andy: Talking of the workshop, shall we go and see whatrsquo;s going on? Are you still in touch with whatrsquo;s going on, Steve? Can you remember whatrsquo;s going on? Steve: Well Irsquo;ve got a bit of a clue whatrsquo;s going on round there - we can have a look and see what sort of jobs wersquo;ve got in today. I guess wersquo;d better have a wonder round to the workshop and see whatrsquo;s going on. Andy: Is there a shortcut through from here, Steve or do we have to go back round the front again? Steve: No, wersquo;ve got to wonder out through the front door and then up the street. Andy: So wersquo;re walking out Steversquo;s specially heated and humidified office - Irsquo;ll leave my bag there. Through the front office - past Kathleen - hello Kathleen. She was on the phone. Oooo, wind, horrible wind - hang on a second. Steve: Montague Place is renowned for itrsquo;s windiness because of the block of flats. Andy: Oh yes because yoursquo;re right next to a block of flats, thatrsquo;s where all that wind was coming from. Apologies to our listeners for that horrible noise of the wind. So whatrsquo;s going on, Steve, here on the shop floor? Steve: Well wersquo;ve got the taxi van here, itrsquo;s been with us now about 3 or 4 weeks waiting for various parts. This is one of the vehicles where it never got much in the way of maintenance, it... faults andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/06/14-peugeots-parking-and-busses/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/06/14-peugeots-parking-and-busses/#comments Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:15:04 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=133 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/06/14-peugeots-parking-and-busses/feed/ 0 21:02 In today's show, Steve rants passionately about ho much he loves Peugeots, some observations of parking in Brighton, and an opinion about public transport and ... In today's show, Steve rants passionately about ho much he loves Peugeots, some observations of parking in Brighton, and an opinion about public transport and particularly the busses. Andy: So wersquo;re with Steve, this is the third take, Irsquo;ve had a bit of a technical problem, a bit of equipment failure here going on with the old recorder but never mind, this is the third take now. Steve yoursquo;ve had your brother down havenrsquo;t you, apparently he's a chef from Oz? Steve Kennard: Yes he is, yes. Andy: Have you been having nice barbecues and things? Steve Kennard: Absolutely, yes hersquo;s been making the food taste really wonderful. Being a chef you know hersquo;s ndash; as I say hersquo;s ndash; even something silly like mashed potato tastes totally different, absolutely different. So yes itrsquo;s been nice to see him and yes hersquo;s gone back to Oz now so I need to get my work head back on again. Andy: Yes and therersquo;s loads of ndash; is it Peugeots on the shop floor at the moment? I bet you love French cars donrsquo;t you? Steve Kennard: Absolutely, Fr- Andy: Let me guess, electrical problems? Steve Kennard: Yes French cars ndash; most of the problems we get with the French cars that come in are electrical problems. There is... [Car horn] Andy: Excuse me... Steve Kennard: Yes. Yes, this is live. Yes therersquo;s... Andy: No editing here. Steve Kennard: No definitely not. We actually have a ndash; there is a Peugeot 206 there, therersquo;s not an electrical problem actually, that particular one there has had a cam belt failure. But actually when we looked into it, it wasnrsquo;t purely and simply a cam belt failure it was actually a partial seizure on the engine which has then done the cam belt. Itrsquo;s had a total snowball effect. The result is it requires another engine; itrsquo;s not viable to pull that one apart and rebuild it. But- Andy: What caused it to seize in the first place? Steve Kennard: Well we havenrsquo;t actually taken it out and stripped it down that far; wersquo;ve taken the cylinder head off and had a look to see because it had a belt failure. The engine itself was fairly well locked up and you know it wouldnrsquo;t move either way so we took the head off and had a look at it and even with the head off the crank shaft was extremely tight to turn and it shouldnrsquo;t be. If yoursquo;ve got the cylinder head off, yoursquo;ve got no resistances; if the bottom end of the engine is in pretty good shape then it should rotate pretty freely. This one here itrsquo;s taking quite a length of bar on it to turn it over so itrsquo;s suggesting to us that the engine has suffered a bit of a partial seizure at some stage and itrsquo;s probably that thatrsquo;s resulted in the belt failure because the belt in fairness didnrsquo;t look that bad. If you inspect the belts, most belts when theyrsquo;re coming to the end of their working life have got evidence on the belt. If you inspect the belt you can see around the base of the teeth starting to crack up, just a general you know visible inspection of the belt will give you an idea on the condition of the belt. This one here didnrsquo;t really look too bad. It ripped off some teeth where the engine had obviously suffered this seizure and thatrsquo;s it. And of course then it runs out of sync, cam shaft to crank shaft and- Andy: You get things banging into each other? Steve Kennard: Yes yoursquo;ll get valves touching pistons which is whatrsquo;s happened, but even then with the head off the engine should still rotate pretty freely. It hasnrsquo;t been, or it wonrsquo;t do that, so itrsquo;s telling us itrsquo;s got a problem internally and thatrsquo;s going to result in ndash; you know we can take the engine out, strip it down and rebuild it but nowadays the cost of doing that is more expensive than actually buying a ready built unit to fit in. And thatrsquo;s what wersquo;re going to do with that ... faults andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No