CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[CitroJim]

What are the plans with the Skoda Jim?

A slow and gentle rolling restoration back to as near to excellent as I can get. The car is an excellent candidate for this kind of restoration. I'm just going to take it slowly and enjoy the journey; I don't care how long it takes but at the end I want something I'll be really proud to show at a rally...

The work and progress will be documented here even though it's not very French and has nothing in common with plaything French save perhaps the Renault Dauphine and Renault 8/10. They're the only rear-engined French cars i can think of right now...

No work will be done today as I've been busy running Today I ran the Milton Keynes Mo Run 10K... A run to raise money and awareness of men's diseases such as prostate and testicular cancers much like the Race For Life does for women's cancers...

https://www.mo-running.com/milton-keynes

It was the perfect day for it. Cold but gloriously sunny

My time and route as captured on my Garmin..

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2339746731

I was delighted to come in under the hour This was despite great congestion in the first few Km's of the run.. 1500 runners onto narrow footpaths around the parklands of MK is like Monday morning rush-hour on the M25

It was great fun and a great morning out. I ran from home to the venue and back as parking was going to be a trial and besides, my car was all iced-up first thing!

A couple of photos..

Own Work

Now to rest and replace all those calories burned

[Zelandeth]

One thing I've always meant to try regarding the fuel drain-down issue was to take the fuel pump apart and clean everything in case one of the valves there isn't sealing perfectly due to a bit of gunk in there.

It's been on the to do list forever, but given how rarely I used the car, the need to manually prime it once a day was never really a huge issue.

Speaking of fuel line, that was my initial plan to make the trip to/from the garage on Tuesday less of a pain - get a bit of narrow bore fuel line and a couple of hose clips and clamp it over the bit where the hard line has rubbed through. It's not a permanent fix by any means, but it may handle a couple of dozen clutch applications, which is all it needs to.

[Hell Razor5543]

Now, if you were to pop around 30 seconds after he read this post I am fairly certain you will find Jim up to his elbows in the fuel system!

[Zelandeth]

Now, if you were to pop around 30 seconds after he read this post I am fairly certain you will find Jim up to his elbows in the fuel system!

Wouldn't think there's enough to the system for that!

Though it would probably be sufficient to hear the first question of "why on earth did they do that?" before he was done.

[CitroJim]

Steve, firstly, thanks for putting me upright!!!

One thing I've always meant to try regarding the fuel drain-down issue was to take the fuel pump apart and clean everything in case one of the valves there isn't sealing perfectly due to a bit of gunk in there.

That was my thinking Zel and whilst I'm at it I wonder if it might not be a bad idea to replace the diaphragm?

Now, if you were to pop around 30 seconds after he read this post I am fairly certain you will find Jim up to his elbows in the fuel system!

Nope, been resting and baking after my run today James Truth is, I fell asleep after lunch. It was starting to get dark when I awoke...

Though it would probably be sufficient to hear the first question of "why on earth did they do that?" before he was done.

I'm already wondering why it has a cast-iron head on an aluminium block I'm sure similar questions will soon arise but maybe not quite so often as when dealing with PSA vehicles!!!

I love the handle on the slam panel to release the spare wheel... I don't wonder why they did that but do think it's a great idea - shame PSA never did the same!!!

[Zelandeth]

The spare wheel holder is a nice bit of design.

I'm still pretty convinced the reuse of the old cast iron head was down to them running out of either time or money when developing the new "all alloy" engine - especially given that we did later see the same block used but with an alloy head. That lived on to be used all the way up to the first generation Fabia I believe.

I think the answer in many cases to why then did downright odd things usually turns out to be because that part happened to be what they had in the parts bin.

[CitroJim]

Zel, I reckon you may well be right!

[CitroJim]

Shocked to receive the new V5C for the Skoda today

That was seriously quick on the part of the DVLA!!!

Doing the job on-line is definitely the way to do it

[Michel]

Shocked to receive the new V5C for the Skoda today

That was seriously quick on the part of the DVLA!!!

Doing the job on-line is definitely the way to do it

Bought the Ka on Monday last week, transferred online. Got documents on Thursday.

Bought Focus from dealer, who didn't do it online, 5 weeks ago - no paperwork yet.
Bought Picasso from dealer, who didn't do it online, 3 weeks ago - no paperwork yet.

Is this just DVLA being a pain, or some tax-fiddle going on on the part of the dealers, to say they only sold them next month or something?

[CitroJim]

Bought Focus from dealer, who didn't do it online, 5 weeks ago - no paperwork yet.
Bought Picasso from dealer, who didn't do it online, 3 weeks ago - no paperwork yet.

That's shocking Mike but sadly, as I know to my cost, the DVLA are good at loosing stuff sent to them by post... It'll never be lost in the post but within DVLA...

In recent times I've now had two V5s go astray like that plus related correspondence...

Give them a call and they should be able to confirm receipt even if they haven't got around to processing them yet.

The thing with the on-line system is that it's totally automatic and has no human intervention at all...

The manual process with posted V5s does and that's where it falls down

[Zelandeth]

Makes a lot of sense that it would be a lot quicker doing it via the online systems - because it eliminates pretty much all the manual steps (assuming they've got a decently screwed together backend system behind it anyway)...

The last time I had issues with them (I'm not counting the most recent one as that was at least a bit of an odd situation, so I'll give them a pass there) was when we moved house. I sent the V5C for both the Saab and Skoda in to them - in the same envelope, recorded delivery. A couple of weeks later I got the V5 back for the Saab - but they denied all knowledge of having had anything for the Skoda, and ended up charging me £25 for a replacement V5 - after I'd gone through all the faff of having to fill in a V62 as well.

Given the recent customer service both Jim and I have had on the phone I'd say give them a ring...If nothing else they should be able to confirm exactly what the current state of play is.

Would tend to think the garage would want to get things processed sharpish though so that nothing came back to bite them if the car was caught speeding/was used in a crime etc...That's probably bringing far too much logic into it though.

[CitroJim]

That's probably bringing far too much logic into it though.

Sadly yes, I think it might well be

Maybe DVLA have fewer staff these days dealing with V5s now most is done on-line. Surprised the motor trades bit isn't though as that must account for a very large bulk of their work...

Perhaps a lot of staff formerly doing this work are now working on the telephone help lines... Their prompt and skilled responses might suggest this...

I was delighted to be back riding my bike to work today after over a week without riding... It felt so good and I don't seem to have lost any condition

This definitely applies

Awesome Tees

The new Oxygen Sensor has arrived for Sally the Saxo If all is well this afternoon I'll swap it and see if Sally's occasional hesitation is fixed. Having said that, it's not been so bad recently...

[Zelandeth]

Skoda was safely dropped off at the garage a couple of hours ago for the welding for the MOT to be done. The hydraulic leak having mysteriously stopped itself for now apparently - not complaining though as having a clutch is far easier than not!

Fingers crossed she'll have a fresh ticket on by the close of play today.

[Gibbo2286]

Dealers handling the documents would be more concerned with notifying the MIB of the sale than the DVLA, they probably do the DVLA stuff in a batch weekly on maybe Friday afternoons.

[CitroJim]

Fingers crossed she'll have a fresh ticket on by the close of play today.

Excellent! Thanks Zel, very appreciated I did notice an empty driveway when I got home from work - via the scenic route

Sally is now parked there ready to have her oxygen sensor swapped as soon as I've had lunch - can't waste this decent weather