:: Diary - August 2009 ::

:: Saturday, August 1, 2009 ::

I now have the art of bleeding the cooling system on a V8 Cerbera down to the fluid flow of movement you would expect from an F1 pit crew.

A few fan on / fan off cycles confirms it's behaving as it should. I'm still not prepared to risk taking it to the TVR Car Club meeting tomorrow - and anyway I want a go in the S...

:: Sunday, August 2, 2009 ::

First thing, I nip along to the garage to fetch the S, having charged up my starter booster pack in case it doesn't start - I haven't even set eyes on the car for nearly 2 months. But my faith in TVRs is restored: it starts first turn of the key, no problem.

The drive back to the house is great - the car is going well, and sounds great. A wash and dry, a wee dusting down inside and then I decide to adjust the drivers door mirror - except it won't go downwards enough. I've had this problem before, all it needs is a wee push to shift the mirror down on the ratchet inside - so crack! - aye, that'll be a new mirror glass required then...

First I meet up with Dave and Jim, and then we set off to collect Adrian on the way. The car is behaving perfectly - it sounds great, it picks up well, the weather is great so the top's down. It's so agile and stable on bends, really planted... This is a great wee car. 90% of the fun of the Cerbera, 10% of the costs, and none of the worries...

The Cerbera's been getting me down, not because it's overheating, but because I can't work out why. There's nothing worse than an intermittent fault that you can't diagnose. The S has reminded my what I wanted from a car - fun, practicality and also, a car that I can tinker with and fix myself. The Cerb is just too specialised.

So as I drive along, I'm thinking - I'll get the Cerb through its MOT and then decide what to do - but I'll probably sell it. MOT expires on 19 August, and I collect the keys for the new house on the 17th, so my first job will be to drive the Cerb there and put it in the garage while it's still road-legal.

Anyway, back to today. The meeting is good, then 4 of us have a nice fast run back home along wee twisty roads, which just go to prove how good an S is...

Then we all stop off at Mike's, whose car is due for its MOT tomorrow after being off the road for 7 months while he changed the exhaust manifolds and, just as a laugh while he was doing it, repainted the front half of the chassis, repainted the rocker covers, removed and painted the petrol tank, and several other ancillary tasks that fill a list.

Anyway, his car won't start - the starter motor isn't engaging properly. He's taken off the motor, and it seems to be ok. Dave and I check it on the bench (well on the floor to be precise) with jump leads and it seems to work. When he puts it back in though, there's nothing except a rattle as the teeth fail to engage properly. Mine does exactly that when the battery is flat so we advise him to charge it up overnight and see how it goes.

Then it's a simple matter of taking the car back to the farm (possibly for the last time...) and coming home to get the web site up to date.

:: Saturday, August 8, 2009 ::

I've arranged to meet an owner from Northern Ireland who is over here on holiday.

First I nip along to the farm to collect the car. Again it starts on the button and runs like a wee sweetie. My faith in TVRs is restored: it starts first turn of the key, no problem. It's all dusty though and I haven't left myself enough time to clean it. Never mind.

The drive there is great - the car is going well and sounds superb. Roof down, sun shining, you can't beat it!

His car is about 4 weeks newer than mine, and has the same dash - I've only seen photos of one car with the same dash and that's in Sweden! We talk about exhaust manifolds, heaters, rocker covers, hinges, front indicators ,roof repairs, seat belts, windscreen delamination and all the other normal topics of S-Series ownership.

Unfortunately I scraped the exhaust on a speed ramp going into the street, and I think it's blowing slightly again. I also see a million wee things I need to attend to - this car has been sadly neglected this year!

:: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 ::

I've had a bit of a brainwave. I was reading somewhere the other day about Cerbera thermostats sometimes sticking, and sort of ignored it because my thermostat seems to be working ok - the engine warms up to 88 degress, then the temp drops as the thermostat opens, and then rises again to run between 83 and 88, as it should. The engine runs cooler at speed, but warms up when stationary, with the fans cutting in at 88 and going off at 83. It's when you're trickling along at slow speeds that it's not happy...

But today it dawned on me - what if the thermostat is opening, but not fully? What if it's sticking part way? That would give you the right warm-up routine as the thermostat opened, and it would also work at speed when the pump was going faster and was able to pump water through - and also the airflow through the radiator is better at speed too. When stationary, the engine isn't under any load, so the fans are able (just) to cope with the heat output. When you're driving slowly, though, what if the water flow through the radiator isn't enough to cool that little bit extra heat from the engine?

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense - it could be the thermostat - so I order one - £40 for a bit of peace of mind is a worthwhile investment.

Also Dave phones to tell me about a set of Cerbera dampers for half their new price, for sale in the classifieds. I phone the guy up, he's also selling front brake disks which are as rare as hen's teeth. Hexham said mine were corroded, and I can hear a rubbing noise when I brake lightly, so I suspect I need new ones. I agree to buy the lot.

So now I'll have these spare bits lying around:

Exhaust hangers for the rear;
Dampers;
Driveshaft gaiters and fitting kit;
Front brake disks.

All I need now is time to fit all this stuff!

Well, it won't be till after I move house now - at least then I'll have a garage I can work in when I feel like it, instead of making a special trip with half my shed packed in the boot.

Once I've done all that and anything else for the MOT, I'll decide what to do with the car. Might keep it if that all works, might sell it. Might get something else, might not.

:: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 ::

Well, I got the keys to the new house yesterday. Shifted a few boxes and things up, but one priority is to get the Cerbera shifted up there before the MOT runs out tomorrow! It's only half a mile or something so no opportunity for it to overheat.

Its arrival at the new house, reversed up the drive and into the garage, appears to go largely un-noticed - that's if you pretend not to see the various curtains twitching in surrounding houses. I try to put it away as quietly as possible - no point falling out with neighbours before I've even moved in, eh? Plenty time for that later.

:: Saturday, August 22, 2009 ::

I'm all sore... I spent all day yesterday moving most of the contents of my house, using a 3.5 tonne Luton van. AT least it had a tail lift so the real heavy lifting was done for me! It was still hard going though - and the old house is so full of junck that even after we've moved out, it doesn't look any emptier...

Today I moved the last of the stuff we wanted from the house, and then moved on to the contents of the shed. Now it's only an 8 foot by 6 foot shed, about half the size of a Luton - so how come it too me two trips to shift it all eh? Must have been expandable in water (I didn't mention the rain, did I?)

But it's done! Most of the stuff we want has been moved, the house and loft is still full of junk that I'll hire a skip for, but it's done.

I can hardly stand up though.

Anyway, I'm supposed to be going to the Big Northern Gathering tomorrow, and it won't be in the Cerb - the lack of MOT puts paid to any foolish notion that it might be able to make it that far under its own steam (or to be more precise, that it could make it that far WITHOUT ending up under a cloud of its own steam).

So I nip along to the garage after taking the hire van back, to collect the S, and bring it back to the house.

This is the first time that the whole stable of TVRGIT family cars have been in the same place at the same time!

I have to leave early tomorrow (Sunday) to meet up with the others for the run down to Penrith. I spend the night planning how to sneak out as quietly as possible.

:: Sunday, August 23, 2009 ::

I go out at 6:30 am to leave for the BNG. I walk as quietly as I can to the car, and get in without banging the door. I put my seatbelt on so that I don't have to faff about after it starts. I turn it on, let the fuel pump prime, and then start it - with a backfart so loud that it would waken the dead. It doesn't usually do that!

I stick it in gear and burble off round the corner before any of the neighbours have time to pad across their bedrooms to have a peek out the curtains. I think I got away with it (unless of course any of them are reading this...)

Get to the meeting point and there's one car there, where there should be 6. Somebody must have been late getting to the first meeting point for the other 4. Wonder who that could have been? Good job they are late though because it gives me time to put fuel in without holding everybody up (although I could probably have got there and most of the way back, with what I had in the tank anyway).

Anyway we finally set off in convoy. Once again nobody knows the way, so I end up in front. We drive to meet another two, at services on the M74 - except one of them has slept in, so off we go again, eventually, after our new leader seems to get lost from the front of the convoy (I still don't know how that can happen but it did).

It's been bucketing rain since we left, but it dries up a bit when we're about 30 minutes from the venue. Is this a portent of a brightening day? In a word, no.

In fact it buckets down for the whole day, except for a couple of periods where the bucketing lets up to allow for absolute pishing down.

Still a good day though - I meet a few people including Woral who has a Paradise Purple Cerb, Russ who has an S but who listens to my tale of woe about the Cerbera and suggests that, unlikely as it might seem, it could be the thermostat (which is reassuring because that confirms previous advice and my own suspicions). I also meet the legend that is Pauline the TVRCC Regional Co-ordinator, plus KeTVRin (again), Ian (again), and others too numerous to mention.

The journey back is also fun. We agree that if the convoy gets broken up, we'll regroup if necessary at the rest stop north of junction 44, and off we go. When we get to junction 43 (not 44) we appear to decide, for some reason, not to follow the leaders of the convoy, but the guy who is 3rd, who has nothing to do with us but is just going home. After a mile we seem to realise that, and all turn around, just on a bend. The locals aren't impressed.

Back on to the motorway and then off at junction 44 (although the rest stop is further up the road). As we stop at the roundabout at the top of the slip roads, a motor bike comes past 5 of us and runs into the back of a Cerbera at the front. We all turn left from the middle lane so that the parties can exchange details. The locals aren't impressed.

We stop on the verge of a dual carriageway, partly blocking the nearside lane. The locals aren't impressed.

Then we set off, finally, for the agreed regrouping point, to wait for the Cerb driver.

Then it's off again up the road, back to the services for our dinner. We set off again in convoy for the last leg home, with me this time right at the back. When we get on to the motorway I see that once again, somehow, we have lost the front two members of a convoy we were all supposed to be following. Maybe they are further up the road? Maybe they are behind us? Does anybody know?

After a few miles varying between 45 and 60 mph in the pishing rain, with me at the back watching vans and lorries swing out into the middle lane to avoid us at the last minute, I decide that I don't like being at the back any more. I've had enough near-death experiences for one day. I'm also nearly falling asleep after the exertions of moving house, and I need to motor along to keep my brain in gear. So I wait for a gap in the middle lane, and plant it to catch up to the general motorway traffic speed.

One Chimaera comes with me, and I can't see through the spray, whether the others are there or not. When I turn off the motorway, and he goes straight on, I can see that they aren't. Oh well.

I head back up the road for home and put the car away.

Overall, an enjoyable day, although the weather could have been better.

One worrying point though - Russ told me that my website wasn't working. I have no telephone or internet connection in the new house, and the old one has been disconnected, so I can't check properly. A quick check on my phone internet suggests that he's right though.

It turns out that my ISP has closed my old account and deleted all my web space, on the day that I moved out of the old house (ie Friday), but can't activate my new phone line and broadband (and the associated web space for that) until Friday. In the meantime, I have no web space. Fortunately, because I'm too thick to work any of the web designer packages, but write the site in html in Notepad and then upload files, I have a complete copy of everything on my PC, so as soon as I get web space I'll be up and running again. In the meantime, though, I have no way of telling people that!

They have also discontinued all of my old blueyonder email addresses, so they are now dead as dodos, and I can't get them back, because I have to get virgin-branded ones, see?

Customer service. You can't beat it. Much as you'd like to try.

:: Saturday, August 29, 2009 ::

I decided to book an MOT for the Cerbera, just to see what I had to fix to get it through, and today's the day. It's booked for 8am so again I have to leave really early, and avoid upsetting my neighbours for the second weekend in a row.

I have a moment of panic when the damn thing won't start. I connect up the booster pack and it's away! Good investment, a booster pack...

Another moment of panic when the tester asks to check that the hazard warning lights work, and I can't find the switch. After searching about for bloody ages trying to figure out where it is, I remember that I've sometimes switched them on by accident when I first got it, but I've learned not to. Where's the damn switch? Brainwave! It's a tiny button in the end of the indicator stalk.

Anyway - net result is that it passes! I can't believe it! I am so grateful that I give the guy some biscuits for his guide dog.

There are two or three advisories:

drive shaft gaiters (which I knew about and I have the parts)
corrosion on brake disks (ditto for the front disks, I'll have to look at the rear ones)
the exhaust has been patched near the diff, and there's corrosion in the patch (which I didn't know about).

Nevertheless, I'm a happy scone. It passed!

So - I need to reconsider my options - do I keep it, or sell it? If I decide to sell it, do I fit the bits I've bought already, or as it is? I might as well fit the bits I have, and then see what it's worth - should make it easier to sell. Or easier to keep!

If I can be sure I've fixed the overheating, I'll be happier with it.