It's been a good week and a great weekend. Stories to tell on the 2.1TD, the V6 and my nephew's 205

The V6 story will be continued in my V6 Blog - Brief Encounter II, and the story of my Nephew's Lucas Diesel Pump antics will hopefully now be concluded in my Contaminated Diesel Pump Blog..
On Wednesday evening, during my regular big mid-week "Dads Taxi" run, my 2.1TD started to very slightly misfire on very light throttle openings when on the over-run; almost like a petrol engine with a very slight misfire. Very odd. I made a mental note to have a look into it at the next opportunity.
Before that opportunity came, I had a job to do in Southampton and for this, the 2.1TD made the run. The misfire was slightly apparant going down and got steadily more noticeable on the return leg. Under power it was fine, if maybe a little rougher than usual.
Whilst in Southampton I met up with David (ellevie) and we enjoyed an extremely good natter, a delicuous pub lunch (game pie) and a stroll across the Common in Sothampton. An absolutely great way to spend a couple of hours at lunchtime

next tike I'm in Southampton David...
I set off and it all went horribly wrong on the A34

There must have been an accident or something that closed the northbound carriageway totally. Luckily perhaps, I was near the head of the queue and after about 30 minutes the Police directed us onto a side-road and away from it. Jane, who lives in my Tom-Tom, very kindly navigated me through a collection of lanes back onto the A34 some miles beyond the snarl-up. In all, I lost about an hour so not bad at all...
As soon as I got home, after picking up the girls for the evening, I popped the Lexia on the 2.1 and did a full diagnostic of the pump and ECU. Nothing wrong apart from a lone Needle Lift Sensor error that cleared fine and all diagnostic tests and actuator tests then passed fine.
That "misfire" was still there though. So what was it? I scratched my head a bit and then it dawned on me. When was the fuel filter last changed? I never had in the 14 months I've had the car and I've done near-on 20K in that time.. Sunday I replaced the filter. It looked about a thousand years old and was practically black
Not surprisingly, things are much better with a new filter

How bloody careless of me
Given the problem on the 2.1 and not knowing the cause then, I took my Activa to Somerset and back on Saturday. Deep joy

I love driving the Activa and it performed wonderfully. It was a lovely dry day so it stayed clean but I did have to pass a gritter on the A34 late on Saturday night and it was like running through a sandstorm

No damage but the front was covered in salt though
