it get's worse...

Going on from my post on Friday about a few problems with the 106. On Saturday, i took the car back to Rapid-Fit in Lowestoft to get the funny sound looked at. My original thought was a warped disc, and seeing as Rapid-fit done the brakes 8 months back, if it was the problem, they could fix it under waranty!... Alas, it wasn't a warped disc. The dodgy sound is coming from a knackered driveshaft knuckle. NOT what i wanted to hear. Other problems that the nice mechanic spotted included:

• A blowing coming from the front part of the exhaust system.
• Excessive travel in the handbrake. Either requires welding or new shoes in the rear drums.
• A bald tyre (now rectified).

Oh joy! So i've just got back from the local tyre place to replace the front tyre which was bald. So a new tyre on there, and i thought whilst i was there, i'd get the valve replaced in the back tyre which appears to keep going down... turn's out there was a big f***in nail stuck in there! So that's been repaired.

The leaky radiator is playing games still. It hasn't leaked in almost a week after releiving itself of it's contents all over the road last monday. In the 2 day's following, i put in 5 litres of water and i could see that it was leaking, however, as i said, it hasn't leaked since last wednesday, and that's after nearly 400 miles of driving. How queer. Never-the-less, my dad has yet again prevailed, and has a shiny new radiator sitting at his house waiting for me.

Lastly, over the weekend, BWS & I fitted a head unit into the Scooby. It was quite hard to do. Halfords didn't have an ISO connector to fit the scooby, so we hard-wired the lot and it worked! Also, the scooby has a double din socket (twice the size of a normal head unit). So we had to fabricate a facia panel to make the whole install look a hell of a lot nicer! Again, Halfords couldn't help us on a facia panel, so off to wickes we went, and purchased some materials to create our own. I don't have pictures, but the job was a good'un!

It's all gone wrong.

1) The front passanger brakes are making a very strange noise whilst braking. Warped disks?... I'll have to get that looked at!

2) I have a hole in my radiator. It's leaking water and it's not funny when you have no heating.

3) I have to scrape ice off the car... that's not fun either.

Have i seen the light?...

H & I went to suffolk at the weekend for a fireworks night party. I didn't take any photo's, but got a lot of footage on the vid-cam! So once i work out how to get it on the PC i'll be sorted. We also went up to suffolk to see their new motor. I tell you what, it's a lot of motor for not a lot of money!

They have bought a Subaru Impreza WRX Sti wagon for a shade of £2,500, which is a bargain if ever i saw one. It's automatic (hmm), It's a turbo (woooo), and it's all wheel drive so damn fun!. I was a bit apprehensive to drive it and didn't really want to drive it to be honest as i know what my driving's like and with that much power (around 250bhp) it could get quite messy. Not only that, but i've never driven an automatic before, so the last thing i wanted to do was crash it!

But we found a quite road and parked up. I was handed the keys... EEEP!... So anyway, got in the drivers seat, took a crash course on automatics, and then set about having a quick drive of it. I didnt want to push it so i ended up creeping along the road getting used to the car, but BWS was in the passanger seat egging me on saying "at this rate, we'll be home for christmas"... Sooo... I put my foot down and oh... my.... god..... that thing flies like s**t off a shovel. Went flying up this quiet road, round a bend to be met by a tractor so promptly slowed down (tested the brakes... they were good!). I Then overtook the tractor at an alarming rate (as the scooby has the power to do this!) before getting to a round-about, turning around, and heading back towards the car park!.

I'd seriously love one of these cars. They are not pretty to look at by any stretch of the imagination, but the power more than makes up for it and it was a real pleasure to drive. The car feels solid on the straights, and feels as if it is on the rails when going round the corners. The power delivery is nice and smooth and certainly plants you into your seat when you accelerate. The turbo-lag is a bit of a let-down. You put your foot down and you have to wait for the power to kick in, but all in all.. it's a damn fine motor. And i'd be cracking open the money pot and searching for one if it hadn't been for the insurance. The cheapest quote i got was £1650!... WOW.

Anyways, here is the scooby!


On another note, the pug is a bit worse for wear, im sure the exhaust or the cat has knackered as it's a bit slow on the up-take and rather noisy to boot.... eeeesh!

del.icio.us links

Last week, i heard about a new browser which has hit the market. Well, i say that, it's still in it's pre-release state, and not overly stable, but Flock 0.5 is new none-the-less, and i like new stuff.

Flock is built on the Firefox browser, and is geared more towards sharing. So it comes built in with del.icio.us favourites rather than 'normal' bookmarks. Whatever you bookmark on flock, it's automatically stored on del.icio.us. Quite a nifty idea i thought. Only problem being is that i didnt have a del.icio.us account. So i promptly signed up (it's free, and we all like freebies!) and to be honest, i quite like the new linking system. It also uses Flickr to share photo's.

As for flock, it's quite cool. I wont be using it just yet. I think i'll stick with firefox, but i will definatly keep an eye on Flock as it could be good in the future.

Anywho, whilst looking through the del.icio.us website, i found the "linkroll" which is a bit of code you stick on your website and it let's other people see the bookmarks you've saved. So i've added that to the sidebar on the right!... Spread the love, share the love. you know how it is!

Other than that, im thinking about moving the blog again (lol), i also think the exhaust is playing up on the pug as it seems quite noisy and it also appears to have lost some power!... Maybe another seal has gone... maybe i should go for a proper exhaust rather than a crappy kwikfit jobby.

Oh, and i get to see 'BWS's' scooby on Saturday. Quite looking forward to that :)... piccies soon come!

The Car's back, im back.... We're back!

Soo... the last post was before i went on holiday with "H". It was our first holiday together alone, and we had a great time. It may seem boring to you, but we both jumped in the car last Monday, and headed for Teignmouth, in Devon for the week. H had been there before as she has some relatives who live there, but i had never seen it, and my god, the scenery is fantastic! And so are the roads. If you've never been to Devon, the place is full of hills. It always feels like your walking up-hill! It is crazy, but the roads, as i said, were fantastic. Lot's of country lanes, winding up a hill, and then back down the other side. No pavements, and just tree's & banks either side of the road. It was a shame it was raining & wet though, i didnt want to push the car too fast, only to slip on the wet road and end up in the sea!!.. eeesh! The car held up superbly on the 250 mile drive there & back. No problems what-so-ever, which is good news.

The timing belt which was done on the Thursday before we left didn't really change the feel of the car (not that i expected it to), but at least i knew that it wouldn't snap whilst we were down in Devon, and have to pay for the car to be either fixed there, or towed home to London!. Either way, it would have been VERY expensive.

I saw some gorgeous motor's around town & on my travels. A fair few Impreza's & Evo's. A nice looking Lotus, and some other high-powered expensive metal!

Only other news (if you can call it that), is that H's step-father has got himself a Suburu Impreza Wagon. It's the turbo model, it's black, only had 60k miles on the clock, and is around 10 years old. Bad thing though is that it's an automatic (boo hiss!). Manual's are much more fun! But he won this little gem on eBay for a shade over £2,500 which i think is an absolute steal, and at that price, i'd snap one up!... And i very nearly did until i saw the quote for the insurance... £1600 TPFT! YOUCH! Oh well, never mind though, next august, i'll be 25, and hopefully, the insurance will come down a bit!

So, in 2 week's time, H & I are off to Suffolk to see her family for a fireworks night party & i will get a chance to see the Impreza, and if i can swindle it, a nice lil drive hehe. I will definatly get some piccies!

A few bits...

At the weekend, i visited my dad and we decided to do a few servicey bits to the car. We changed the oil & filter, and i watched his every move so now i can do it myself. We also decided to change the timing belt, however, time was not on our side, so my dad, the nice guy that he is, said to me that he'll pay for it to get done in a garage! Bonus! (thanks dad!!)

So today, the Pug has gone into the local garage to get the Timing belt replaced. I hope it'll be alright cos i'll be doing a lot of miles next week! Friday night, My girlie & i are off to Suffolk (150 miles), We may go to Norwich on Saturday (60 miles), and then sunday, we're coming back home to London (another 150 miles). Monday morning, My girlie & i are off on Holiday for the week. We're off to Devon which will be really nice! (our first holiday together). It's 230ish miles to Devon from london. Then obviously, we'll be driving around all week, which could be another 70 miles, and then next Friday, we'll be driving home again (230 miles). So over the next 8 day's, my pug will cover around 900-1000 miles! Which is a fair bit for a car which was designed for town driving.

The only reason i wanted the timing belt changed is that it's meant to be changed every 72000 miles, but the Haynes manual suggests you do it every 36000 miles! I've had the car for around 32,000 miles, but im not sure when the timing belt was last changed IF it has been changed at all. The pug is coming upto 85ooo miles, so i thought it'd best be done as soon as possible.

So the pug should be back with me by 5pm tonight!... And even though i dont drive it during the day whilst im in the office, im actually missing the car! Because it's not sat outside, it does seem very strange!... I CANT WAIT! God know's what i'll be like IF i get the engine done!

PGAC Kent meet - 9th Oct 2005

Well, i visited the PGAC Kent meet on Sunday. It was a small joint meet between Kent, Surrey & Sussex. There was a few nice car's there, i really enjoyed myself and would definatly go again!... I've made some new friends and that is always a bonus!...

Shouts to everyone who was there!... Here's the pic's