Friday, 5 October 2012

Taming the inner Jonah

Fresh from sorting the saxo, down the drive came the parcelfarce van, bonnet up and top the C5 with rather a lot of hydraulic fluid which in turn, with the ignition on, produced a fair bit of motor noises lots of air bubbles and a Citroen on it's highest setting, to be sure all air was gone.

Letting it down we set off for greasy garage and some detailed investigations.

The man himself shoved his head under the wing and found one of the suspension pipes had pulled itself out of it's housing. So, instead of returning suspension fluid to the reservoir it was dumping it on the road, something you might never notice, as it w ould be doing this when the car was moving but not when it was parked.  So no tell tale puddles of oil to see. The "cure" was a temporary bodge until the replacement bits arrive but this was a lot cheaper than it could have been.

On to the VW, the garage had described some sort of combustion chamber Armageddon. I was expecting a mass of broken metal and shattered castings. Perhaps I have seen the effect of more mechanical butchers than them, either way, I wasn't that bothered, I have rebuilt far worse messes in the days when I was into rebuilding things myself.      

Our neighbours have been far less lucky, they have insurance that includes break down. The ancilliary drive belt went about a week ago and out came the insurance companies repair agent. Not sure where he went wrong but by heck the end result was a trashed engine, the belt flew off, locked up the crankshaft and wrapped itself round the camshaft. This stopped the top end of the engine dead. The camshaft pulley was ripped clean off the cam and the shaft itself then shattered by valves being driven up by the pistons.

Trashed is a really good description, far worse than our engine.

That's enough about cars, lets talk social care.
 
R   

The power of psychology

When you drive a car it can be a weird thing. Out on the motorway every squeak can be the sound of collapsing suspension. Light rattle is obviously the engine trashing itself and that bottle rolling round in the back is the sound of the car tearing apart.

Last day I had full on convinced myself the gearbox in the saxo was on the way out. This morning as I was leaving Taliesin noticed that something fell out from behind the wheel. There was a stone between the brake disk and the hub which in turn makes a noise very like a gearbox destroying itself.....

Thursday, 4 October 2012

Cartastrophy Continued

Just as I was leaving for the old Bill they came on the phone. Some of you will know there is a catastrophe unfolding in mid wales. Lots of our local bobbies have just been redeployed to mid wales to help with the search for that missing 5 year old girl. So no Police Interviews for us tonight

Compared to that families woes we have it easy. That said, the VW is off the road with a major engine fault, I hesitate to phone the garage and ask.

This morning out we went and the C5 suspension didn't. Normally the C5 pumps itself up to height but there is sits on the ground.

Shuffle and rethink, into the VTR, this morning the gearbox was making a distant whir, this afternoon it's making a full on horrid noise.     

The C5 seems to have leaked it's suspension fluid somewhere, of course the modern Citroen does not use the ever popular LHM, it uses some new fangled high tech suspension fluid that the motor factor has never heard of and the Citroen main agent does not stock.

Brilliant!!!

Thank goodness for GSF, they may well be in London but they will get it to me tomorrow.




Back in the Jug again

Haven't been in the custody suite in a while.... Reports have been filtering back over the summer that little D has been engaged in a bit of criminality, then on the day of his 17th down the drive came the white van with all the lights.No, they weren't there to wish him a happy birthday but they did invite him to visit their office..

So this afternoon myself, himself and R'Ottweiler  solicitor at law will be presenting ourselves at the local nick to watch some home movies they have collected from a local source.

Now technically as Appropriate Adult  I am supposed to know nothing of what he is about to be charged but it was hard not to notice his name on the front door of our local Spar with the one word "BANNED" next to it.

So on a whim I went inside and had a look at what was where and crucially where the cameras live and where they point. Nothing like a visit to the locus in quo as Rumpole termed it.

Haven't had to do an AA in so many years I had to go and look for my course notes.   

Of course the man himself has let out a few of the broadest type hints that he might not turn up, that could be interesting, having him brought in on an arrest warrant. Not done one of those for even longer!!!

R

Wednesday, 3 October 2012

Terrible weather

This is the very worst sort of weather, cool, dry with not a lot of wind.

The worst weather, I will be able to find no excuses for not getting the chain saw out and getting on with chopping more firewood.

Now Harley and Bethan are back so there is likely to be a big cutathon and chopathon tomorrow.

R

Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Driven to distraction.

Today was one of those days that held a promise of a lovely day. The student went off to university I settled in for a quiet day.

As if, Tallies girlfriend was going to work so I gave her a lift all was well in the world.

Half way home the van just stopped - strange.

It wasn't turning over - time to call the RAC.

Dragged the thing over to the garage and a sad tale.

A minor oil leak had contaminated the cam belt which had snapped

Not good in an open wallet surgery sort of way.

Still it could have been worse, it could have let go last week in France.

Monday, 1 October 2012

Twas the night before uni.....

Well the student and I had a quiet day before she goes back to uni.

Quietly unloaded the van.

Tidied up the hole that is called my side of the bed.

Moved stuff round

Went shopping

Printed off a load of her handouts for uni.

Meanwhile I have been reading stuff for a new project in the field of training that I really hope comes off.

Could be an exciting new direction to go in. Well it excites me anyway and that's all that counts.

A late PS - how could I forget, neither Bruce nor the students grants seem to be sorted so that was not peaceful - no there were touches of full on drama there!!

R