Maintenance & Repair: Well, if you can't laugh, what can you do . . . . .

Eventful week this week for me, car-wise. Sunday night I end up working
(wish I'd said no to it, which I could have done, but anyhoo, I'll get on
with it). Going from Slough to Oxford, and going quick-ish (around 85 or
so, getting up towards 90) and the overheating light comes on. "Shit", I
think. Hazards on, pull over to the hard shoulder, and in the process of
stopping it's gone off. Pop up the bonnet, and slowly take the coolant cap
off, no hissing of coolant under pressure, looks all ok, I get on with
journey. Next time it happens I just ease off the throttle, get down to
about 70, and it goes off. Make an effort on the return journey to
definitely drive no faster than 65-70 max (had to anyway as it happens as
the fuel light had come on), and it all seemed fine. In the next few days I
think it came on once, when I was going up a hill, doing about 70, but
letting off the throttle made the light go off again. Knowing I had to be
gentle with it, I was nice to it, and especially careful on uphill
stretches. From then on, though, I was pretty much on London runs all the
time (which I prefer). The cooling fan was coming on loads, but the
overheating light never came on. At one point I popped off the grille at a
time when the fan was on, and the rad was cold. Worrying. I didn't worry
too much based on the fact that it hadn't overheated in all this London
traffic, and there was obviously a sticking thermostat (or maybe something
else) but I'd get it sorted at the weekend as it hadn't *actually* given me
a problem. Then Wednesday night, heading out of town (to the West) on the
Embankment road, the overheating light came on. I pulled over AQAP, popped
up the bonnet, and slowly loosened the coolant cap, to be greeted by lots of
thick brown crap boiling over. "Shit", I think. Leave it for a few
minutes, check the oil, and that's still clean, not mayonnaise like or
anything. I wondered if the engine would still run, and it started up and
ran fine. Got it a few minutes up the road and the light comes on again.
This time leave it for ages to cool down properly and get all the way up to
the BP garage just before the Hammersmith Flyover before the light comes on.
Call RAC, am advised that I only have the basic membership that only
entitles me to a tow up to 10 miles, try to blag it that I was told 50,
doesn't work, call my mate out who tows me home.

The next day, I take the good old reliable Carlton into town. As expected,
it gets rather hot in town, but turning the heater on full blast stops the
needle from going much above the 3/4 mark, even though it does make me sweat
my bollocks off sitting in the car. Gets me out of a hole, but I can't help
thinking that I'd much rather be in an air-conditioned automatic car, as
using the clutch twenty times a minute does tend to wear one's shoes down
(lucky I got them cheap, eh!). Hold on a minute, I say, I've got an Omega
Elite. Take that into town the next day. Problem solved. In on the
M4/A312/A40 to Park Royal, over to Ikea at Brent Park, then around the NCR
to Hanger Lane (crawling for the last half mile) and along the A40 to the
A3220 (crawling again) - but it doesn't bother me, as I'm in a relaxing
climate-controlled automatic. Along the A3220, down to Fulham, a couple of
drops in Fulham, and crawling again up to Hammersmith. Couple of hours in
Hammersmith, then out to Uxbridge and on to Slough. All going swimmingly.
Then over to Henley, back to Slough, then over to Reading and back to
Slough, via Bracknell. Then pick up another few late jobs into London
(leaving Slough at about 5pm) - one for Victoria Station (dropped off at
5:40pm) and another one for the City (dropped off at 6pm), and then onto
Ilford (get there at 6:30pm) to pick up something for Putney. Fuel very low
at Ilford, fill up at the Esso garage by the A12/A406 roundabout, and also
buy oil and top up (as I checked it earlier and it was on the minimum mark).

Before I top up the oil I check it again (engine's been stopped for about 10
mintues by now, so a fairly reliable reading) - yep it's at the minimum
mark. Fully aware of the risks of overfilling it, I put about a quarter of
the litre bottle (10W/40 for turbo diesels - checked the viscosity rating
with the car's handbook) - that brought it up to about a third way between
min and max, so chucked a reasonable amount more in - that got it to about
2/3rds of the way between min and max. That'll do fine, methinks. Drive
away. Reset trip computer, and go down the new-ish A12 (cruise set at 50,
38mpg average down that bit, but don't worry it was down to 24mpg before
long!), down past Docklands (Aspen Way/Limehouse Link), along to Tower
Bridge, cut through Southwark and Lambeth, out onto the Embankment (lights
out at one of the junctions here, causing queuing, helped to bring the
economy down a fair bit!), then through Fulham, out onto Putney Bridge, and
over to Putney - exactly an hour from Ilford to Putney, so a bloody good run
in and out of town. Delivered the package, then head out through Barnes out
to the A316, and out towards the M3.

Going over the flyover at Sunbury Cross (start of the M3), and it starts to
make worrying noises and lose power. No hard shoulder on the flyover, and
the slip-road's joining - luckily it's clear, enabling me to go over to the
hard shoulder of the slip-road. I turn the engine off, then attempte to
start it again, lots of rattling, but it revs up ok, so the timing is fine
(chain is obviously still intact). Loads of smoke coming from the engine
bay. I'm thinking that there's an oil seal buggered and it's burning off
oil left right and centre. Looking under the car it's certainly lost shit
loads of oil. Anyway, I call my mate to tow me back (2nd car I've fucked in
3 days, we're both in hysterics at this point) and we get it back home. The
next day another mate of mine looks at it in daylight and the massive
amounts of smoke are still happening, and that's with a cold engine, so
that's not oil burning off from anywhere. He reckons there's something
buggered about the exhaust manifold (a crack or something), or maybe the
turbo's fucked. We check the oil, and it's *above* the maximum.
WTF???????? When I topped up the oil it was *definitely* just below max
after I'd topped it up. Is there any way that the turbo could store any
oil, and if a seal or something popped then this could cause the oil level
to go up?? Maybe I'm picking at straws here, but either I completely cocked
up topping up the oil (and I swear blind that I didn't) or all of a sudden
an amount of oil equal to just below the max mark on the dipstick was equal
to amount just above the max mark plus a whole load of oil all over the hard
shoulder on the M3 sliproad at Sunbury.

Anyway, I did what I swore I'd never do and took the Fiesta into the Ford
dealer to do the head gasket (and whatever else needs doing) - they said
£500 for the head gasket job (6 hours labour plus parts) - eeeeekkk.
They're going to replace the cambelt as a matter of course when doing the
head gasket job as they don't like to retension old belts, and considering
it was due a cambelt anyway, that's effectively best part of £200 off the
price IYSWIM.

The Omega? Well, ebay here we come.

I was getting a bit fed up of the Carlton, but jumping into it after having
towed home the Omega I suddenly loved it again (and it wasn't just to do
with the fact that it was the only one of my cars that still goes
properly!). Also, yesterday we towed the Omega down to the local jet-wash
with the Carlton - would have made a great photo opportunity, an Omega
Estate being towed by a Carlton Estate.

And there was me thinking I'd be the lucky one if I sold my Carlton for just
a few hundred less than the Omega cost me. Whoever bought the Carlton would
be laughing from the other side of the fence now!

Peter

"AstraVanMan" <com> wrote in message
news:vIQfb.5977$server.ntli.net...

<SNIP>

Oh dear... sounds a bit like the week I had when both the Nova and Vectra
went majorly tits up within 12 hours of each other!

Rotten luck, old chap.
 

Now this I don't understand, unless of course it's because of time
constraints; why get all that done at a main dealer, when you must surely be
able to get it done far cheaper at a local independent?

Ob Fiesta:

So glad I bought it now... yes, it needs a fair bit of welding to sort out
the rot at the back, but with mechanicals nursed for all of its 65k before
landing in my lap, by an old duffer, it drives like new, and has only needed
a new rad, new front pads and an oil service in the two weeks and nigh on 3k
I've driven it.

Take it easy on a long run? Over 60mpg with ease.

Thrash it here there and everywhere, and it never drops below 45mpg.

All in all, extremely happy with it.

Good luck in sorting out a plan to get all yours sorted.

--
JackH