Xac's adventures with Cassy (and friends + wife)

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 19 Jan 2009, 07:18

How do you get through tyres so quickly Xac?

Xac wrote:..so unless Jim's heard any horror stories..

Only when they do clutches Xac

MOT should be fine but the old sage that works in my favourite one, Just MOTs, reckons they're cheap because they'll always find something to fail the car on; something thay can do for you at a cost... Personally, I'd not go there and choose an MOT place that just does MOTs. There's a clue in the name of the one I use...

Still, Cassy is in fine fettle and any MOT tester will struggle to find anything wrong with her

Xac wrote: Anyone know if a flashing air-bag light is a pass or fail?

I'm given to understand it's an advisory Xac, not an outright fail

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 19 Jan 2009, 17:45

How do I get through tyres Jim? You know what a great rally course MK's road system is, with all those roundabouts

Cassy, of course, passed

I got to watch the test through the window and he was quite thorough.

Other than the front tyres which I knew about, I had a few other "advisories"

Apparently there's a leak from the power steering tank cap (er, that'll be normal spillage of LHM when topping up and missing).

Power steering pipe or hose has slight seepage from a component (I'm guessing that's just the LHM that escaped when I replaced the feed tube)

Battery insecure - got to check that one.

Oil leak - not very descriptive, probably oil left over from when we did the head etc, will get the engine cleaned one of these days.

Oh and with a tank full of v-power, the smoke test was 1.92 1/m (limit is 3 1/m)

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 19 Jan 2009, 17:59

Yep, with all the roundabouts around here, that makes sense

Congrats on the MOT pass

Brilliant!

They always give an advisory on an oil leak. They did for me even though it was just a drip on the turbo hose under the engine..

Power Steering tank indeed

Xac wrote: Oh and with a tank full of v-power, the smoke test was 1.92 1/m (limit is 3 1/m)

Now that is interesting. My pass was 0.03 l/m with a 1.5 l/m limit. So does that mean the EPIC XUD11 is subject to a more stringent test than an AS3 XUD9? Worth bearing in mind if a pump swap is carried out on a 2.1TD. Was that a "Fast Pass" on the smoke test?

Must do some more looking into this as if yours had been an XUD11 with a mechanical pump it might have failed maybe

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 04 Feb 2009, 08:05

Work has suddenly gotten really busy so I've spent most of my time in an exhausted daze.
So much so that when I saw Jenny's tax was up for renewal, I instantly assumed her MoT was due too.
Dropped the car off on Monday morning, managing to dodge the idiots who don't know how to drive when it's been snowing, and took a taxi back to work.
No sooner had I sat down at my desk than my mobile rang.
"We can't MoT your car sir, it's current MoT hasn't expired"
So another taxi trip and a quick browse through the DVLA's website to renew the tax.
Turns out the MoT runs out in June!

I also swapped batteries with Cassy on Monday morning as Joan (my next door neighbour) had been driving Jenny and somehow draining the battery, despite with the engine running, the voltage on idle is 14v.
I'm thinking it's something else, if Jenny's been standing for a while, she takes quite some time to splutter into life, which to me sounds like fueling.
Will check her leakoff pipes and fuel filter as soon as I get a chance.
Apparently Jenny had broken down about a week ago, but Joan neglected to inform me because she "didn't want to bother me"

I also found a pear in the glove box, thankfully just before it turned to mush.
I'm not a happy bunny.

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 06 Feb 2009, 17:56

Well, as I couldn't get to work today (ironic as I'm one of the closest) I changed Jenny's fuel filter.
The old one was a slight orange/gold so definitely needed swapping, and she seems better at starting now, more like Cassy.

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 17 Feb 2009, 18:42

Well, so far I've driven Jenny for 2 weeks without her battery running flat.
She doesn't like starting first thing unless you pump the accelerator pedal, so my guess is air is getting in over night.
I presume what Joan was doing was just trying to start Jenny, giving up after 20 seconds or so (ie just before she'd roar into life), then try again, each time draining the battery quite a bit.

Now the weather is getting better, I'll give her a good service, definitely need to swap out the LHM for hydroflush.
Also need to disable the EGR. If she sits idling for a while, there's loads of dark grey smoke when you pull away.

Yesterday her rad fans were going full pelt as soon as she started, but a quick removal and reseat of the brown connector by the fuel filter sorted that.

She is a lovely drive, but I am missing Cassy, so I think later this week I'll do a battery swap and get Cassy going again - and sort out new tyres for her!

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 28 Feb 2009, 20:39

Back in Cassy now, gave her a good service and will be taking her to stansted tomorrow night to pick up Netta.
Took her to Costco this morning and had two shiny new michelin's fitted to the rear, and while waiting for them to finish, I was entertained by an informative video they have playing from michelin about tyres.
It was quite indepth and very interesting.
They showed the difference between a Scenic with 1bar pressure and 2.5bar pressure going round a track, on 1bar it actually threw a tyre!
Also gave a demonstration why new tyres should go on the back.

Thursday night I went round to a guy at work's place to help him with his rear brakes.
The car failed it's MoT as the calipers are touching the discs, not the pads.
Did the usual remove and clean, and it should now pass.
His strut tops however are looking very scary, not helped by all 6 spheres seeming either flat or split, so hopefully he'll order new spheres during the week and I'll give him a hand with the strut tops at the weekend.

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 07 Mar 2009, 00:57

Took Cassy down to Heathrow today with Netta to meet her dad.
She drove back with him in a piddly little Nissan, while I went ahead and waited for them at Toddington services.
They somehow ended up going southbound on the M25 (despite having a satnav) so by the time they'd turned around I'd been waiting about an hour.
Had a bite to eat with them and returned to Cassy to find someone had smashed her passenger window.
Not a hole big enough to get through, and nothing was missing (dorrs were deadlocked anyway).
Autoglass won't have a window in stock until Saturday, and don't have any perspex either so she's outside with bin liners taped to the door

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 07 Mar 2009, 01:34

Xac tought you were saying they had gone the wrong way round!

sorry about Cassy

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 07 Mar 2009, 09:09

Xac wrote: Had a bite to eat with them and returned to Cassy to find someone had smashed her passenger window.

At Toddington Services Andy?

That's shocking

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 07 Mar 2009, 22:59

Well two blokes from autoglass finally turned up tonight about 8pm to replace the window.
20 minutes later it was all done.

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 26 Apr 2009, 13:05

Last Saturday, I took Cassy down to London to pick Netta up after Pesach.
On the way home, we popped into Tescos to do a bit of shopping.
Now Cassy's aux belt had been sounding a bit flappy and I was due to look at it last Sunday. Her timing sounded out slightly too.
As we pulled into a parking bay there was a thunk and the steering went heavy.
We phoned the AA, went and did our shopping, and 2 hours later one of the local garages towed us home.
Looking the next day, the belt had jumped off, and both edges were seriously split. It had looked fine when I checked it from above the week before.
Thinking back Jim, was it around 2 years ago we swapped her head? That was the last time I changed the belt!
Headed in Jenny out to Eurocarparts to get a new belt, only to be told that they didn't have it in stock.
Thankfully I asked what size that belt was. 1690 I think, and there was no way it'd fit as I know the 1725 nearly does but not quite.
They looked on their system and had 1733 belts in stock, so I duly bought and fitted it.
Cassy's running a lot smoother now, so I'm guessing the disintegrating belt was causing resistance on the crank pulley and affecting the timing slightly.
I also replaced the two easy glow plugs on Jenny with Bosch ones, will replace the other two once Halfrauds get them in stock as with a trade card they're reasonably priced.
Tested the old plugs with jump leads, and one glowed nearly all the way up, and the other didn't even smoulder, so hopefully the new ones will make an improvement to her starting, and replacing the other two will sort it completely.

PS Nearly forgot the spooky part!
When the belt snapped, I tried calling Jim incase he had a spare, but couldn't get through to his mobile.
While we were in Tescos, we turned down an isle, and who should we bump into?
Yup, Jim!
As always, a very pleasant impromptu FCF meet

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 26 Apr 2009, 13:47

Xac wrote: PS Nearly forgot the spooky part!

Even spookier, I had just told Dad the story, looked on the forum and read your post Xac 8)

Unread post by **xantia_v6** » 26 Apr 2009, 18:30

Xac wrote:...returned to Cassy to find someone had smashed her passenger window.

be thankful you are not insured with the company that insured this!

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 26 Apr 2009, 18:52

Seems a trivial reason to write off what looks a tidy car, despite being a 2.2HDi...