Tales of a C3, a Goddess and some BMW's.

[Deanxm]

[DickieG]

Dawn had a significant birthday last week so we arranged a large party at our favourite hotel for last Friday, she had a good turnout of friends dating back from her early school years, an evening of fun and jollity was had by all Finding her a birthday present is becoming increasingly harder each year so as her favourite radio station is only available on digital radio I bought her a new DAB car radio. I researched the subject extensively and came to the conclusion that the best one available was this Philips CEM 3000B made all the more appealing as Halfords had it on special offer at the time. Fitting it to her BMW was a breeze including the aerial (came with the radio) and feeding through its lead from the N/S/R wing as BMW provide trunking for wires to run from the boot through to the cabin. It's been widely reported that the reception for DAB car radio's is supposedly quite poor, however that appears not to be the case in this instance as Dawn is yet to suffer anything in the way of interference or loss of signal whatsoever as its now over a week since it was installed, it might have something to do with most car DAB's being supplied with a stick on windscreen aerial whereas this Philips one comes with an external magnetic one. I must say after hearing the clear and interference free reception I quite fancy fitting this DAB to my daily hack.

Only another three weeks to go until the operation on my back, last week I had my premeds which went fine but as I've volunteered to go on the cancellation list the downside of it is that I've had to stop taking anti-inflammatory pills so that the surgeon can fully assess the amount of pressure being placed upon my spinal cord. Now that the pills effect has worn off its making life 'interesting', I can't say that I suffer a significant increase in pain but I do now have the problem of my legs suddenly going wobbly and my body to twitch at inopportune moments due to the sharp pains, yesterday I was in a supermarket checkout queue when I suffered one such incident which caused me to reach out for support, judging by the look on the faces of the other shoppers they must have thought I was starting to have a fit

[DickieG]

Rather a significant day for me today as I went to work for the very last time, after 31 years in the job its now all over. Despite the long build up to it, its only really over the past week that it started to hit me that I'll never be going back, today felt really strange taking that last look around the place and I'll really miss the great bunch of guys and girls I've been working with for the past 12 years and the fantastic banter between us. Being my last day it would have been rude not to play a schoolboy prank on one of my colleagues, best of all he went absolutely mad when it happened I'm having a knees up on Friday to celebrate my retirement then on Tuesday I'll be under the Surgeons knife finally having the operation done to sort out my back problem.

Car wise, last week I fitted one of those useful rechargeable torches found in the glove box of BMW's to my estate, I mounted the recharging socket within the little recess alongside the handbrake as it keeps the torch out of sight yet easy to access and there is space below to allow room for the socket, a well worth addition. My next little project will be to find some way of discreetly fitting some decent interior lights (again from a BMW as they are so bright) as the map reading lights on Xantias are about as bright as a damp candle.

As I'm going under the knife next week and it looks unlikely that I'll be able to do anything in the way of car repairs for some time I intend to spend some time this week giving my cars a thorough look over to stay ahead of the game so to speak, I won't be able to do very much even now but it'd drive me mad to discover a problem that needs sorting just after the op. The MOT on my estate is due in December so I want to make sure that's prepared nice and early to ensure a pass. I have a feeling it might need another set of front droplinks as I can hear a slight thud from the front suspension when negotiating pot holes and speed bumps. I replaced them just 4k miles ago with a pair of QH ones I had in stock from somewhere but I suspect they maybe the cause as it appears that any make other than Lemforder when it comes to suspension ball joints on Xantia's has a lifetime measured in minutes.

[Xaccers]

Richard, have you thought about taking the sunglasses off at night?
Check the voltage at the bulb sockets, you know what these cars are like with their old electrics.

[DickieG]

Richard, have you thought about taking the sunglasses off at night?
Check the voltage at the bulb sockets, you know what these cars are like with their old electrics.

I have they are and always have been as dim as a match even from when I bought Xantia's right from brand new. The trouble is I'm used to the bright interior lights as fitted to BMW's and the like, their map reading lights allow you to do just that whereas Xantia map reading lights just reduce the level of darkness. The bulb wattage in Xantia interior lights is perfectly acceptable @ 21W but the lenses are rubbish, by comparison the map reading lights fitted to BMW's are halogen. What I'd also like to fit at the same time are a couple of those little LED's fitted to BMW's and Audi's to give a very subtle level of ambient lighting to the interior at night.

[Xaccers]

Does seem strange, mine are fine.
It's like the headlights, Cassy's are much better (especially now I've done the relay mod and got rid of the corrosion on the +ve feed) than Juliets's despite reports that S2 headlights are better.

[DickieG]

I've had a good tinker over the past few days and discovered that the rattle on the front suspension was down to a worn n/s steering track rod end balljoint so I picked up a couple of Lemforder replacements and fitted them this afternoon. This gave me the opportunity to use the latest additions to my tool collection by way of an air compressor and a air impact gun, wow how brilliant is that tool, I now know what I've been missing over the years As the thread on the balljoints was suffering from corrosion at the ends a I lopped off the threads with an angle grinder then used the windy gun to whip the nuts off. Despite doing my best to match the location of the balljoints on the track arms I'm now left with a wonky steering wheel so a visit to the tyre fitters for a laser tracking adjustment is in order for next week. The suspension rattle has now gone so once the trackings sorted a good job well done.

I picked up a spare set of wheels this week that came with a couple of decent Michelin tyres on so as I have a couple of other tyres due for replacement, when I visit the tyre fitters for tracking I'll enquire about some winter tyres then I'll be able to judge whether they are worth the effort, mind you although the overnight temperatures are getting quite low the daytime temperatures are still above 10°C so there won't be much point in fitting them for the time being. I can almost envisage it being a case of carrying a spare set of wheels and doing an F1 tyre change dependant upon the weather

I had my retirement leaving drink yesterday which turned out to be a pleasant evening albeit a little sad to be saying goodbye to such a great bunch of guys and girls who I've spent the past twelve years working with. It feels as if I've walked away from some close family friends especially with after some personal messages of goodwill from a few colleagues who I took under my wing so to speak and successfully trained them when they were struggling to make the grade, its at times like this that I realise it was worth going the extra mile to help them as the feeling of satisfaction is immense.

My back is generally better overall although it changes from day to day and never fails to surprise me, for the past week I've had quite strong dull pains coming from my right hip joint then within a couple of hours it'll be giving me grief down my left leg again. Yesterday morning I was really struggling then come the afternoon I felt relatively good not long to wait now as surgery is due on Wednesday

[Citroenmad]

Ah, so you have decided to give winter tyres a go them Richard, good stuff!

I hope your operation goes well on Wednesday

[DickieG]

Ah, so you have decided to give winter tyres a go them Richard, good stuff!

Curiosity is getting the better of me

I hope your operation goes well on Wednesday

Thanks Chris.

[myglaren]

I hope your operation goes well on Wednesday

I'll second that!

And I hope retirement will be the pleasure for you that it should be Richard.

[DickieG]

I hope your operation goes well on Wednesday

I'll second that!

And I hope retirement will be the pleasure for you that it should be Richard.

Thanks Steve

[davetherave]

Citroenmad wrote:I hope your operation goes well on Wednesday


Myglaren wrote: I'll second that!

Third'ed?
Hope it goes well!

[DickieG]

Update time, well I had my operation as planned which went very well indeed, it turned out that the problem I was having with my back was down to a cyst growing on the spine which was putting pressure onto the spinal cord and in turn causing sciatic pains to run down my left leg/give me a numb left foot. I had my final check up with the Consultant on Thursday, he stated that now the cyst has been nearly all been removed (1mm was left behind as trying to remove it could have caused damage to the spinal cord) following another six weeks recovery/physio I will make a full recovery without any long term effects and the cyst will not regrow, result


As part of my physio work I popped up to Jims yesterday to assist him in changing the heater matrix/box in Rattiva, this was the first time I'd picked up tools since the operation and I must say it was rather pleasant and therapeutic to get my hand's slightly dirty.


I mentioned elsewhere that I had been looking for a C3 for my daughter, well I found one for sale on eBay down in Ashford Kent, 90 miles away, it was advertised as a one elderly owner who had to give up driving due to poor eyesight 56 reg 17k miles, whilst it was way over my original budget it was available for a bargain price so having looked at the car I just couldn't resist it so on Monday I popped back down to collect it.

On the drive home I was waiting at a 'T' junction for a gap when I glanced down at the dash and noticed that the 17570 miles was on the right side of the dash and on the left was 11730 with a service spanner displayed next to it, yes the 17k was 1757.0 on the tripmeter, the actual mileage is only 11730, brilliant even lower mileage The car is just like new to look at and drive, not one rattle and feels very tight, I've got it hidden away at a friends house until her birthday in February when I will spring the surprise on her on the day, no doubt presented with a big bow tied around it

It's got a little scuff on the N/S/R bumper which Gareth will hopefully be sorting out tomorrow and I need to sort out a spare key as one of them doest work with the immobiliser or central locking, I've checked that it transmits OK and gone through the handbook procedure for re-programming after a battery change but that didn't sort it so I then tried my Lexia 2 but they won't communicate with each other due to the C3 being too new for my Lexai so I'm now on the lookout for a Lexia 3 which can code keys, if anyone knows of a version available for sale or can recommended a seller please let me know.


I have been having a massive clear out at home over the past few weeks and came across a few photo's of the Cobra I built, the first shows it together with my M3 of the time, a brilliant pair of car's, the M3 had just about the handling available at the time and the Cobra with it's 5.3 litre V12 Jaguar engine attached to a manual gearbox was well rather quick to say the least, seeing off chipped Cosworth's, Porsche 911's and even very powerful motorcycles, I still vividly recall my challenging me to a drag race with him on his Kawasaki zzzxxxrrrr whatever then seeing him getting smaller and smaller in the mirror






The following picture was taken nearby me in Langley Park



At the rear of Windsor Castle



This photo of my Dad assisting with fitting the engine gives an idea of the size of the Jaguar V12, I later replaced it with an almost brand new HE one out of a crashed XJS, the torque curves on the original V12 and HE version was very noticeable with the HE being much quicker off the mark. Oh the joys of being single without kids, how times have changed

[CitroJim]

Lovely to see some pictures of the Cobra Richard It looked a mighty fine car

I wonder sometimes what I'd have wheel-wise if it wasn't for the kids. A big bike (or bikes) for sure and an equally big car (or cars) I expect....

But, tell you what, I'd not swap the kids for anything...

Danni is going to be one very happy girl when she sees her birthday present..

Who's teaching her to drive I wonder

[Deanxm]

Glad your mobile again Richard and everything has gone to plan, i take it you will be sleeping in the back of that vsx at next years cxm then and not cheating again , that Cobra kit is very good indeed ,some look a little bit wrong but yours is perfectly proportioned, must of been a whole lot of fun .