Peter.N. wrote:
The only upside was that although I had to pay the fine a couple of weeks later I received a nice letter from the Nottingham shire constabulary containing a reimbursement of my fine.
Different times Peter... Can't imagine such a thing happening today, more's the pity
I long for those days when courtesy and consideration still meant something...
CitroJim wrote:Different times Peter... Can't imagine such a thing happening today, more's the pity
I long for those days when courtesy and consideration still meant something...
Damn right.
Last September I took a carload of "stuff" down to London for my youngest daughter who was about to start a new course at one of the Unis there. Her new accommodation was near to Brixron and I performed a right turn at some traffic lights in Coldharbour Lane. An illegal right turn as I later discovered when I received a demand with menaces through the post.
I wrote back saying that the incident was not deliberate and I was a visitor to London and that there very little traffic anyway. I received a reply saying the penalty had been correctly applied and that they could see no reason to withdraw it.
It's just taxation. A no right turn just to catch people out. And why does London have so many of the bloody things anyway?
As I get older I think a lot about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.
Inside every old person is a young person wondering what the hell happened.
"Trying is the first step towards failure" ~ Homer J Simpson
I did see the only No Right Turn on the traffic light (left unit), but if you pan back there is also a Low Bridge warning sign that conceals the No Right Turn bit for some of the approach.
James ex BX 1.9
ex Xantia 2.0HDi SX
ex Xantia 2.0HDi LX
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.2HDi VTX+
Yes, I am paranoid, but am I paranoid ENOUGH?
Out amongst the stars, looking for a world of my own!
Stickyfinger wrote:The lighter an oiler gets the more "rattles" it will have.....less metal = more noise.
They can cast thinner/stronger/lighter these days.....
Nice to know, but was this meant for another thread? or in reference to my comment about the XUD11's refinement? Either way, it wasn't so refined this morning. Clattered into life one cylinder at a time (must sort the glow plugs!) and when it settled there was a lovely "chirp-chirp-chirp" of birdsong from the alternator belt as the tensioner bearing has collapsed, or worse, leading to it slowly working it's way off the inside of the pulleys... I seem to remember reading that somebody had a nightmare with the tensioner setup on a 2.1 XM so not particularly looking forward to finding the issue with that.
Actually this 406 does seem to exhibit a few XM-esque traits. As well as the tensioner problem, I have the outside temperature hovering around 60*c, the front seatbelts have started to saw through the height adjuster trims, the brakes are amazingly powerful with a firm pedal AND my favourite one, the driver's door lock likes to spin without doing anything until you "j-j-jiggle it a bit" (yet to find a 1620 battery and see if the buttons work on the key) Just enough quirks to keep someone like me happy, in fact
Well, just got in for some lunch after spending an hour or so on the 406 as I didn't trust the alternator belt to last much longer. Result was an easy and free fix, after all my worrying! Turns out the belt must have been changed not long before I bought the car and they'd managed to get it sat one groove over so it was rubbing. Access is a real pig as expected but there's not too much damage done and on refitting correctly it's now quiet even on full lock (before it used to throw up a helluva racket and put the charge light on).
Buoyed by that oily success, I decided to tackle the heated rear window that I'd decided would be "chewy" as I could hear the relay clicking but no sign of life. As it happened, it looks like the relay is packing up and the contacts had burned out. For now I've cleaned it up and all seems to be working so just need to get a replacement on the next scrappy visit.
Well pleased at how things went, I think the motoring Gods may be smiling a little more favourably upon me today as I managed a good deed earlier on, running a guy to the petrol station and back when he & his family ran out of fuel outside the house. Either that or I'm just bloody lucky lol (I think the latter to be honest, the better half even came out and gave the 406 a quick clean over and wax too... I'm definitely lucky there, she's a gooden )
I must get round to checking those glow plugs though, I keep putting it off as the plan is to combine it with a good cleanup under the bonnet while the upper manifold etc is out of the way. That and tend to the odometer backlight so I can be reminded more often just how well-travelled this car is, since it doesn't drive like it.
Small update, things have continued to go unexpectedly well with the old girl (I'm now 99% sure she started life as a taxi in Manchester, all the radio and phone wiring plus missing lighter/ashtray along with the huge mileage, 211k in it's first 10 years, tell the story even if there's no holes in the dash or bumpers).
So on the glowplug front, after my fiddling round with the alternator belt the other day it's actually fired up well first time every time so perhaps I wiggled a dodgy connection in doing that job. How are the GP's controlled on this setup? I can't find a relay box like on the 1.9 motor otherwise I could've checked properly there.
I did reinstate a couple of relays to the underbonnet box that had seemingly been missing for donkey's years but apart from that nothing else electrically under the bonnet so I'm a bit confused, if pleased, at how that seems to have panned out...
Also the water leak into the rear seems to have been entirely down to the offside rear light cluster, since after cleaning up and remaking the seal with a healthy smear of silicone it's been dry so far. Not rained since though that will be the test of this job. Also got round to renewing the instrument cluster bulbs so everything that should work does, surprising how many options there were that have a dash warning.
Not fitted are-: Side airbags, ASR, Traction control, Electronic "Sport" suspension (guess that was to do with the cars that had hydraulic rear suspension, 4x4 models? if it was indeed the 406 I'm thinking of?) and God knows how many assorted warning systems to do with cooling/FAP/brake pressure etc.
Only real "downer" on things is the clock bulb decided to die as I was refitting the instrument cluster and it seems the plastic case of the clock has gone brittle and crumbled so I can't fit a new bulb now. Choices are either find a clock in the scrapyard that's likely just as bad internally, or I can perform "surgery" with an LED, resistor and soldering iron to reinstate the illumination that way.
Excellent! Glowplugs are controlled via the engine ECU and a special glowplug relay normally mounted on the bulkhead somewhere... Follow the thick glowplug cable back and you'll find it...
Connections to it can corrode a bit and cause low voltage at the glowplugs...
Yes I tried the follow-the-wire method but it disappears into some trunking with more of the loom towards the flywheel end of the engine about halfway down the block. Just remembered another thing that could have been affecting the first start of the day, there was a slightly loose hose clip on the return line from the pump that I tightened.
Found my old multimeter earlier, while it's pretty knackered I should be able to make it work long enough to check voltage at the plugs if the fault returns. For now though it seems to have responded well to the attention in other areas, further bolstering my strange (but oft semi-proven) belief that cars have a soul/feelings or whatever you care to call it. It's surprising how many times a car either rewards a little TLC with unrelated other bits "healing", and conversely how often a car suddenly throws a fit if the owner tries to replace it.
Look for an electrical box under the bonnet with a couple of thick wires going to it, or switch the ignition on and listen under the bonnet for a 'click' when the relay drops out.
Just enough quirks to keep someone like me happy, in fact 
Turns out the belt must have been changed not long before I bought the car and they'd managed to get it sat one groove over so it was rubbing. Access is a real pig as expected but there's not too much damage done and on refitting correctly it's now quiet even on full lock (before it used to throw up a helluva racket and put the charge light on).
)