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/2011/06/22-its-quite-hot-in-here/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2011/06/22-its-quite-hot-in-here/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:37:48 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=178 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2011/06/22-its-quite-hot-in-here/feed/ 0 21:58 As Steve gets back into the throws of work after a bank holiday packed few weeks - we discuss: Growing hops in Steve's workshop Steve and Andy's ... As Steve gets back into the throws of work after a bank holiday packed few weeks - we discuss: Growing hops in Steve's workshop Steve and Andy's new Bank Holiday regime Peaceful protests and Steve's annoyance at the council's welcoming attitude Volkswagen Campers Triumph Stag steering bushes Rovers and head gaskets A VW Beetle with a broken window mechanism A long journey for Andy's Volvo with a slipping clutch Clutch bandages Observing traffic wardens and their need for tea and coffee Steve gets his roof fixed - but the insurance company DID NOT PAY Photo: johnrobertshepherd faults andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/07/16-five-foot-cycle-lanes/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/07/16-five-foot-cycle-lanes/#comments Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:15:45 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=148 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/07/16-five-foot-cycle-lanes/feed/ 0 18:40 Steve this morning showed me an article about cycle lanes in yesterdays newspaper. In todays show we discuss a Triumph Stag with engine trouble and ... Steve this morning showed me an article about cycle lanes in yesterdays newspaper. In todays show we discuss a Triumph Stag with engine trouble and daft cycle lane planning. Andy: Steversquo;s rushing around like a blue arse fly this morning and I walked in and hersquo;s got a Triumph Stag on the rack with an over heating engine and hersquo;s already been to the car and got a newspaper out and hersquo;s ranting about cycle lanes. Steve: Wersquo;ll come to the cycle lanes in a minute Andy, I guess we must get the garage business out the way first of all. Andy: Yeah, whatrsquo;s the story with this lovely yellow Triumph Stag without an engine? Steve: I said to a guy that owns the Stag that you know itrsquo;s loosing water; it was loosing it from around what appeared to be around underneath the manifold in the middle of the engine, itrsquo;s a V8 engine. Not very easy to actually see underneath the manifold whatrsquo;s going on, but when we took the manifold off we could then see that it was actually leaking from the sides of the heads, so we said to him right, itrsquo;s your loosing water from around the heads and obviously the heads need to come off. So he said OK, took the car away and I think it was about three days after that it decided to overheat and blow the hoses. Pressured up, blow the hoses and we recovered it, we got it back here now, obviously done a head gasket. Andy: Yeah, I can see a mangled head gasket on top of it. Steve: Yeah well itrsquo;s done a, I mean therersquo;s two head gaskets so you know. Itrsquo;s really a case on these, take the engine out. But this particular engine had a little bit of a ?[01:46] from the timing chain which theyrsquo;re quite prone for and also a little bit noisy on the cam shaft and when we actually striped it, one of the buckets or the followers on top of the valve was, the cam was actually worn through it. The cam on one of the lobes has worn square and one of the other followers is cracked so yeah. I mean this engine, according to the owner, was actually rebuilt two years ago so, I donrsquo;t know who rebuilt it but it hasnrsquo;t lasted very long for two years because it hasnrsquo;t done an awful lot of miles in those two years. Andy: No but itrsquo;s now hanging on a chain and therersquo;s a young chap. Whatrsquo;s he doing painting it? Steve: Yeah he is, I mean we said to the guy that owns the car you know whilst itrsquo;s out wersquo;ve got the blocks striped right down now, the blocks just hanging there on the hoist and we got young Richard there and hersquo;s actually painting it. Being a Stag, the car that it is, I mean ?[02:52-02:53] wersquo;ll give the engine bay a good clean out and probably even polish the engine bay for him. But yeah I mean it needs a full rebuild. Wersquo;ve made inquiries, I donrsquo;t doubt there are engines out there somewhere but it does seem like the best way to do this is to actually rebuild it and if we rebuild it then we know itrsquo;s going to be done right and done properly because if that engine, we donrsquo;t know the history, all I know is that it was supposedly a recon two years ago and of course itrsquo;s two years down the road itrsquo;s not in a very good state for a two year old engine you know, so yoursquo;ve got to sort of wonder what sort of recon did they do. Or was it just a con engine rather than a recon, I donrsquo;t know. Andy: Well if it was a recon maybe it had been conned before and now itrsquo;s being conned again. Recon. Steve: Yeah I suppose that it depends on the definition of the word recon you know. Andy: So the blocks fine itrsquo;s just the bits that go on to the block need replacing is it? Steve: Yeah the block itself is OK, itrsquo;s you know obviously head gaskets are quite prone for it. Timing chains tend to wear; this one was a bit chattery so wersquo;re going to replace all this. The heads have been sent away, theyrsquo;ve been tested, and theyrsquo;re OK. Theyrsquo;ve bee... faults andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/02/12-dont-drive-your-mini-through-a-ford/ http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/02/12-dont-drive-your-mini-through-a-ford/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:01:11 +0000 admin http://passionate-about-cars.com/?p=114 http://passionate-about-cars.com/2010/02/12-dont-drive-your-mini-through-a-ford/feed/ 0 17:35 Amongst other things, Steve tells the story of how driving a mini through a ford resulted in a new engine. Andy: It's Friday 29th January, I'm at ... Amongst other things, Steve tells the story of how driving a mini through a ford resulted in a new engine. Andy: It's Friday 29th January, I'm at 1st Class Garage with Steven. Steven's just been playing - not dominos - that game where you have to move things around to make space with cars. Steve: Well, it's almost like musical chairs with the cars, just shunting the cars around so that people can get in and out. And, yes, I mean, it's the same sort of problem wherever you go in the town. I don't know; I don't know what the answer to it is really. Well, I do know the answer is not to fleece the motorists. That's basically all that's happening; it's all about money. I mean, if you go not too far from here there's, like, it's 11-hour meters. And if you go up and down those roads you'll find that most of those are standing empty because, of course, the cost of parking now. So we've got roads around here that has got not a lot of vehicles parked on them because they're now metered. Whereas before the meters, obviously people used to park there, so all the cars that used to park there, where have they gone? You know, they've only moved them to another area. And this is the common practice: when they started zoning this town people used to park on the outskirts of the zones, so they moved the zones out. People park on the outskirts of those zones, so it is a little bit of a knock-on effect. And the parking issues in this town, I mean, I could spend hours talking about it and I don't really want to go down that - because it does make the blood boil. Andy: Have you had any nice, juicy run-ins with traffic wardens recently, Steve? Steve: Just lately, no. I've got to say, in fairness, the guys we've had around here have been very understanding, because obviously we work with cars; we're in the town; parking is a problem. When people drop their cars off, you know, we then have to move vehicles around to accommodate them or we have to find somewhere that we can park them, you know, safely and legally. So yes, parking is a little bit of an issue and we've had run-ins in the past with various wardens - I don't know what their, sort of, their actual job title is now, but... Andy: Traffic enforcement officers, I think, something like that. Steve: Oh, traffic enforcement... Andy: Or parking enforcement officers. Something like that, I think. Steve: Yes. That's a lovely term, isn't it? I mean, just directly outside the garage here we've got double yellow lines. We did ask if we could actually have, like, the white bar that they used to put across sunken pavements. Because this is a sunken pavement, or a crossover as they call it, which means that you - you know, that really other people - or people shouldn't really park there because we need access to it. So we asked if we could have the white bar there because of cars being dropped off; it'll allow customers just to pull their cars up outside there without getting hassled. And one or two of the wardens in the past have really hassled us, you know, they don't appreciate that we have a job to do like they have a job to do. We've got to have a little bit of sense and just - it is, it's common sense really. Andy: But on a bright note it's good news about the understanding wardens that you've encountered recently. We salute understanding wardens, don't we? Well, I do. Steve: Absolutely, I'm all for it. Everybody has a job to do and I'm sure they hate to get abused, but there are ones out there that actually encourage abuse with the way they go about their job. You can understand why people do get wound-up and do, like, howl verbal abuse at them. I'm not condoning it - I can't condone it - but yes, you know, it'll make your blood boil, particularly if you're having a bit of a bad day and their lack of understanding is - it doesn't help matters. It's just fuel to the fire really, isn't it? Andy: Now Steve, last time I spoke to you, which was in December, was faults,,law,and,regulations,,winter andy@wireworldmedia.co.uk no No