It's my own fault....

[j_roc]

It's been 8 months with the Xantia that I paid £90 for, yep only £90!!! Mind you it had its problems that over the period of time I have been resolving one by one. As you can see from my signature I only have 5 jobs left, but like all things car like it dont go as smooth as that. I have always known that the hydraulic pump was shot but I guess it was a case of wonder how long it will last before giving up the ghost. Well it is totally my own fault as in the last 2 - 3 months the thing has been making a terrible sound - like the bearings in it are shagged. Things came to a head on Monday lunchtime on a day out (why do things always go bad when youre miles from annywhere???? ). The first thing that I noticed was that the power steering went very heavy followed by the ignition light coming on almost straight after the steering. Managed to get the car to the side of the road safely, and decided to pop the bonnet and find the problem (as best as I could without my toolboxes in the car ).
The problem was quite obvious the fan belt was loose, and the small pool of LHM under the car spelt trouble, sighing to myself i gave the hp pully a light poke it moved about 2 - 3 inches - the bearings looked as if they have collapsed. The end story is that I had to pay almost £115 + vat to have the car put on a low loader to take it home (the suspension had sank down by the time he turned up) then more probs getting the car on the truck. Tuesday was spent finding a pump from a breakers - £60 all in for it, + 2 ltr of LHM from GSF. If after reading the post you feel like giving me a smack in the mouth or a kick up the ar*e for being a complete tit, then please feel free to do so, because Faye was none impressed (believe me) - Alex.