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

I really need to clean my windows

it's that time of year again. There's brown leaves fluttering to the floor, there's a chilly wind in the mornings, there's dew on car window's, and that bastid sun is rising when i go to work! This means that i cannot see a thing when im driving to work! I put my shades on to help but it doesn't work!... i really should buy some window cleaning solution...

it doesn't help that i smoke and it appears that the inside of my windscreen is now yellow from nicotine... bonus :(

Service

Spoke to my dad last night, hopefully he should be getting the bits & peices we need to do a decent service on my car. He should be getting a timing belt, an oil filter, and some oil! The car doesn't need plugs (i put some in 6 months ago), but we'll have a look at those anyway. Air Filter's also 6 months old but i'll give that a quick once over, so with a bit of luck, the car should be running better than ever on Saturday after it's been serviced.

Also whilst on the phone to my dad, we spoke about my smoked indicators. I'm now a bit weary of them because when i trial tested them the other weekend, they weren't that bright. So, what im gonna do is get the connections sorted so i can easily plug them in, and then maybe saturday night, hook them up, and test them in the dark.. If they are bright enough, they'll stay on! If not, ill pay a visit to the local Pug Dealer, and pic up some S2 clear indicators.

Other than that, not much has been going on.. i MUST get some new tyres as i checked them the other weekend, and 2 were just above the legal limit, so not long left on those now.

Oh and i heard on the PGAC that somebody managed to pick up an S1 Rallye for £30!... THIRTY POUNDS!... That would of been ideal for me! I wanna find a dog of a motor. And then cut my teeth on the mechanical side of things whilst trying to fix it lol!

Freebies

Dont you just love freebies!... Thanks to my boss for his phone, a Sony Ericsson K700i, infrared, bluetooth, camera, video & more... Im pretty amazed by the apparant picture size of upto 1280x960. I haven't got the USB Cable for it yet, but that should be coming soon! And then i'll be able to get the photo's from the phone and see what the photo quality is like!

You see, i hate paying £200 for phones, so i try and get phones for free. I haven't bought a phone since 1999, and i've had some pretty decent phones since then! This will probably replace my Sony Ericsson P800

Plasma dials

A saw a link the other week to a german forum. One of their user's has created some plasma dials for his 205, and oh my god they look fantastic! The good thing about these dials is that the needles change colour! They are blue when the engine is running, but say when the engine is revving high and the needle reaches around 6000rpm, the needle changes to purple (strange colour!)

Now this could have many advantages. It could be ideal to warn drivers when they need to change gear (to stop the engine revving out). It could also warn drivers when the fuel is low or even, in some cases, when they are breaking the speed limit!

I dont know any german, but i ran the site through babelfish, and managed to pick up that it cost around 200 euro's and 2 weeks to build!

I'd love to know how it was done!!!

Have a look at the post here > Peugeotforum.net