Bargain Basement Motoring

[myglaren]

Excellent. We will have to pop to our local Maxwells. Thanks Neil.

Wonder if they have silver hammers?

[Gibbo2286]

I got all the timber and post spikes for my fence online from here, https://www.ruby-group.co.uk/ delivered free. This is the done job.
The original was close boarded but with the prevailing winds attacking it it kept getting blown down, no such problem now.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Excellent. We will have to pop to our local Maxwells. Thanks Neil.

Wonder if they have silver hammers?

Give then a ring first Steve, not all stores carry the same level of stock.

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

I have looked online at the local one and those they list look too short. Cheap though.

They are so close I would sooner go for a snoop around. Despise using the phone and due to a family problem have had to use it loads lately.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Bargain Basement Micra showed its worth over the last couple of days.

It was selected for our little jaunt over to the Lakes, and notched up 304 miles to boot.

Could have done it with the Leaf, but not quite in the way it was done. With it being a low range EV the longer trips require a bit of planning, and with a couple of chargers en-route shown up on Zap-Map as not working, and with timed rendezvous needing to be made, yes it was far easier to put some fuel in the Micra and use that, and on route there was a lot more spontaneous changes of anticipated route.

So this was ticked off the mini holiday to do list

AA Box Dunmail Raise

Ended up here purely at random. Grasmere and every parking space was full and the road up by the garden centre guided us up and over the hills and into Langdale, just as busy, so headed up to Dungeon Ghyll and a very nice outdoor Cafe at Sticklebarn with some fantastic scenery of the Langdale Pikes to enjoy at close hand.

Suprising thing..It was run by the National Trust and didnt have to pay for the Cafe Carpark!

Regards Neil

[Michel]

My newly acquired bargain basement SAAB 9-3, for the princely sum of £250.

137k miles
11 months MOT
Full service history (last serviced at MOT time by the same SAAB specialist it’s gone to for the last 10 years)
All bills ever
Everything works including automatic dual-zone climate
4 Good Michelin Primacy tyres (on car)
4 Good Michelin Cross-climate tyres on another set of correct SAAB alloys
1 brand new, boxed, alloy wheel.
2 keys and all owners manuals.

£250. Yep. No catch . Friend emigrating, didn’t have time or patience to sell it for full value. Told me to give
him scrap value. He said £250.

It’s a 150bhp low-blow petrol turbo auto, lovely thing to drive. Not the most economical but for the price and a few years worth of tyres.. it’s spotless inside too.

[NewcastleFalcon]

The view from the Bargain Basement Micra today...could hardly keep up!

The car in front is a Lagonda

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

BB mIcra getting a breath of fresh Yorkshire air between Wensleydale and Swaledale

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

The BB Micra had a decent over 200 mile run out to Bedale in North Yorkshire and the excellent Institution Cafe, up to Leyburn, Aysgarth (yes passed the AA Box but nowhere to stop and too much traffic behind this time for a photo), Redmire, Reeth and over the tops to Teesdale and the now infamous Barnard Castle.

The same trip in the Leaf would have been perfectly possible, but much more planning needed and a few half hour recharges at strategic locations (providing there was no waiting around for the chargers to be free). One good thing to note for future trips, just off the A1M Bedale has a "polar" rapid charger. (now BP Pulse but logoed up as polar still).

The up hill and down dale nature of the territory also puts a bit extra strain on the range. You lose more on the way up than you gain through regen on the way down . The route we chose crossed the Wensleydale, Swaledale, Teesdale, Weardale, and Tynedale with the hilly bits in between. The little Micra took it in its small stride.

Absolutely gorgeous countryside, and out came the sun about 4 o'clock-ish to make it even more glorious.

Castle Bolton

BB Micra the road ahead 1

BB Micra the road ahead 2

BB Micra the road ahead 3

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Castle Bolton is one of my favourite memories from our school's Castle Club.
For five bob, a weekly skive from school, bus trips to castles and abbeys in N. Yorks mainly.
An all-day event every week.

[Gibbo2286]

We didn't do castles, our outings were to factories, coal mines etc. I toured the BSA factory, Round Oak steel works and rolling mills, Kingsbury coal mine and another mine the name of which has slipped my mind at the moment.
In around 1956 I had a day at the Morris works at Cowley Oxford organised by the company for Morris dealers and their staff.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Shoving the BB MIcra in for an early MOT because Leaf and Micra have "too close together" current MOT's end August early Sept. Get the Micra out the way now, see what they come up with. I no doubt will have to have some faffing with the reversing light if nothing else.

I may well have to come up with some creativity because of a simple reversing light not working. Yes thats reversing light singular, as the Micra only has one and only meant to have one on the nearside rear. What could be simpler a switch to put a reversing light on when in reverse and extinguish it when not in reverse and the simplest of all circuits to activate the light.

Not so, Nissan have chosen to put the switch in the gearbox, made most of the parts out of plastic which break on attempted removal, and replacement results in an outpouring of gearbox fluid, and some convoluted arrangement to refill which involves taking the speedo drive out of the box to create a hole for refilling. All underneath/ at the back of awkwardness, and the switch itself is unnecessarily pricy, fiddly to fit, and has a tendency to leak after replacement.

Quite a few Micra owners don't bother with a replacement but come up with a homemade adaption using the gearstick gate and suitable mounting of a microswitch causing activation of the light whenever the gear stick is moved into the reverse position, and extinguishing the light when the gearstick is in any other position.

I don't want BB Micra to turn into B expensive Micra just because a reversing light needs fixing.

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

What year is the Micra? prior to 2009 they don't come in the MOT.

[NewcastleFalcon]

What year is the Micra? prior to 2009 they don't come in the MOT.

2005 Gibbo,

It hasn't appeared as a fail so either threatened with the MOT the reversing light has somehow sprung back to life again (havent checked), or doesn't apply as you say.

Only one job to do for the MOT, broken coil spring front offside. Cant even feel where it has broken if the pig-tail at the bottom has broken off the rest of the spring has settled back to the stop quite neatly

I know what to expect from the job having to to the same at the other side for last years MOT, where corrosion of bolt heads and the nut/thread at top of the shock absorber made things difficult, as well as the expected compulsory angle grinding of the drop link. After 16 years the shock absorbers and strut look pretty corroded so as well as the spring I will replace that too.



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

That's the old strut out.

Got 4 new bits on order, shock absorber, strut-top mounting, coil spring and drop link, a complete new strut. Yes its my first with carparts4less, but price was definitely 4less than the local factors, and their alter ego ECP, and its delivered to your door at no extra cost.

So £12 more than the entire car purchase price. Still bargain basement motoring territory, and I probably would have got away with just a spring at less than £20, but decided just to renew the lot. Did the same for the other side last year.

Regards Neil