:: Diary - August 2011 ::

:: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 ::

I was reading the other day about a man who bought an S Series, and in the file the owner gave him, there were loads of receipts for previous work, including an invoice for a service in March this year - well it wasn't a service, the description seemed only to be oil and filter change, new spark plugs, plus checking and lubricating stuff - no mention of fuel filter etc. The cost was over £600, and the itemised bill included an item for the oil - £152. What? £152 for 4.5 litres of oil? That's, em, hang on, £34 a litre! What kind of oil was that? And was it delivered personally by Sheik Ahmed Bin Rip-off?

As if that wasn't bad enough, there was another £350 for labour... Now that's either an extortionate hourly rate, or somebody's been charging for the time he spent asleep lying under the car draining the oil out.

There are times when I'm glad I can do that stuff myself.

Mind you, there are also times when I curse the day I ever picked up a spanner...

Of course, there are those who say that home servicing reduces your car's resale value, and they're right - they shouldn't be right, because I think that a competent home mechanic (or even me!) is more likely to be careful to get things right - in all my time driving, the biggest mistakes I have had to cope with have been those perpetrated by garages, at huge expense, and the subsequent excuses and attempts to cover up their mistakes. In any case, even if home maintenance does reduce the car's value, let's just put that into perspective... I've had the S 8 years and have carried out 9 services. If those cost £600 each time, that would be a total outlay of £5,400.

But each service has actually cost me about £60, so that's a total of £540 - a difference of £4,900 or so. Now I didn't pay that for the car when I bought it, and I'd be happy to get that for it now. But if I HAD devalued the car by servicing it myself, I could afford to give it away for nothing, and still be in pocket.

So to the "home servicing devalues your car" brigade, I say "bollocks".

Anyway, to devalue the car a bit more, I decided to finish resealing the leaky windscreen myself - I've already drizzled in a load of Seek 'n' Seal, and now it's time to reseal the edge. It doesn't take long to nip along to the farm to lay a bead of sealant along the top edge of the glass - in fact I spent longer chatting to him about stock cars, chip shops and the value of Mk 1 Escorts (and if you can't see how those 3 topics are related you need to hand in your petrolhead licence right now), than I spend actually sealing the screen.

So with that finished, I need to leave it to harden, so I head back to the house, and jack each corner of the Cerbera off to remove each wheel, to tighten up each damper by a quarter turn - I feel the ride is just a wee bit too soft, and cornering could be sharper.

I might devalue it a bit more by driving it later.

:: Saturday, August 6, 2011 ::

The weather forecast for the TVR Car Club barbecue tomorrow isn't too promising, so I decide to have a wee run in the Cerbera today, to see if the suspension adjustments have made any difference. I think so, but it's hard to tell.

Then I nip along to the farm to finish off sealing the edge of the windscreen on the S.

So that's both cars back available for use!

:: Sunday, August 7, 2011 ::

As forecast, it's pissing down. Hard. It's not too bad by the time we meet up at Dave's though, but at 8am, it was hammering down. And it's gonna be the same later. A perfect day for devaluing your TVR by using it.

Steve, the owner of the last S-series to leave the factory, meets up with us for the run to the hotel. Another new boy! I met him a couple of years ago when he first bought it, but I didn't see the car then - it looks good!

We set off in convoy, new boy second in line as usual. The roads are soaking and I'm driving like Miss Daisy, because I'm a wimp. I'm also aware that half of the people out on the roads at this time are still half-asleep, and of all the possible scanrios for meeting my maker, carooming off the side of a Micra into a bridge, holds the least appeal. It's being so miserable that keeps me happy.

I set up a wee Sporting Bears display board, and it's soon time to get wired into the grub. Twice. Alan has brought some items for a raffle, and between that, and contributions from members and the hotel, we've raised £153 for the Hearts&Minds Clowndoctors today - brilliant!

There's another new S from Falkirk - he's only just bought his. That's 10 that I know of, in east central Scotland. We swap stories of his broken bonnet hinge, Jim's broken trailing arm, and me trying to write mine off into the side of my own Saab a few years ago.

By the time we set off to go home, the rain is back with a vengeance, so we just potter back along the motorway, and even then, I have two small water- skiing episodes in the outside lane.

I remembered to take the camera, but forgot to take any photos. Plonker.

Later at night, I go out to take the display board out of the boot. There's also a couple of bags of polishing stuff in there from last week, on top of a tin of spare oil got from the man I bought the car from, and I was carrying it about when the car needed more frequent topping up than it does now. When I take the oil can out, I find that it's soaking wet underneath. The bags aren't wet though, but the carpet is soaking in that left hand corner. I have a feel up round the edge of the boot but it's dry. So is the fuel filler, and the sides of the boot and tank.

Bonus though - while I am groping about, I find a loose wire hanging down, right behind the boot light switch. I touch the wire on to the terminal and the boot light comes on! That's a job I've been meaning to do but keep forgetting to add it to the list. Now I can see what I'm doing!

It's only the floor that's wet... I get a cloth to mop up the water, and when I go to wring it out, it's pink and smells of antifreeze - no it's not the basin Jordan keeps her knockers in at night, it's where I used to carry my emergency antifreeze when the car was doing its expensive kettle impersonations. I found it had been leaking, and I thought I had dried it out, but obviously not enough.

Again I mop out as much as possible with terry towels, and then lift my dehumidifier into the boot and turn it on - that should draw out the moisture if I leave it a few hours.

Then as I am leaving, I realise that the boot is open and the light is on.... Aaah... I usually park the car in the garage with the boot open (so that I can get in if the battery goes flat) and so did the previous owner, but if the light is on, the battery will flatten quicker, so it's a bit of a Catch-22, which can only be resolved by... disconnecting the boot light. Aaaah... now I see...

:: Monday, August 9, 2011 ::

Well I go out to the Cerbera's boot this morning, and the inside of the garage is as dry as the sahara, and the tank of the dehumidifier is half-full - but the bit of boot carpet right beside it is still soaking. Antifreeze is a bugger, I forget the technical term, latency or specific gravity or something like that, but basically it means it takes the bloody stuff ages to evaporate.

So instead of waiting for it to reach its half-life of 20 years, I decide that more drastic action is required. I get a Vax wet-vacuum cleaner, and just vacuum the water out. Now for a slightly damp carpet, I don't half end up with a lot of water in the Vax tank - but the carpet is touch-dry!

I also test the closure of the boot and the point where it operates the light switch - and I find that the light goes off long before you click the boot shut, so you can leave it unlatched (for emergency entry when the battery's flat) without the light staying on. I leave it connected up this time!

:: Sunday, August 15, 2011 ::

I haven't had much time for TVR-fiddling this past week - plenty of other stuff to do. Today, though, I had to move it to shift a couple of things around in the garage, and the ice detection warning light came on. That's nothing new, it's been on since about March, but I had a look for the detector itself (it's supposed to be fixed to the wiring loom just behind the number plate) but I couldn't find it at the time. Now I keep forgetting about it till I go to use the car each time.

Coincidentally, there's a thread running on Pistonheads where somebody else has the same problem, so I decide to have another go while I remember. First I look up the web site of a parts supplier to (a) make sure that you can still buy them and (b) see what it looks like, so that I know what I'm looking for. Then I remove the number plate, which I notice is held on with 3 screws, not the two it had originally - the garage who did the wing repair must have taken it off. They have also used some double sided tape on the back, which merrily removes the top coat of paint when I pull the plate off.

This is why I prefer doing stuff myself - nearly every time you let somebody else do something, they cock something else up. I am quite capable of cocking things up myself (but cheaper).

Anyway, back to the ice detector - I find it hanging down in the centre of the main loom just behind the horns. It just unplugs (although you need to get both hands in to unplug it, and the Cerbera's radiator opening isn't very wide!). Close inspection shows that one of the pins to the thermistor on the end is broken - well, rusted through would be more accurate. I know from the receipts I have, that the previous owner replaced that about 3 years ago (well he bought a new one - I don't know if he actually replaced it or not, I suppose) so they might not last very long.

I can't repair it, and a trial with a bit of bent wire pushed into the terminals on the loom shows that the light goes out when the circuit is complete.

So I need to order a new one. First, though, I'm going to adapt this one so that the light stays off in the meantime. I can't get into the terminals where the thermistor is, so I adopt the rather less subtle approach of putting the whole thing in a vice and cutting a centimetre off the end of it. This exposes the back end of the two main terminals. A wee drill down the edge of each terminal, a bit of stiff wire formed into a staple shape pushed into the holes, and I've connected the two terminals together, and refit it to the car - and the warning light stays off! At least that confirms that it's the sensor that was faulty.

Then it's just a matter of replacing the number plate, and going indoors to order a new sensor - and a couple of other wee bits and pieces that I could do with, but didn't want to pay the postage on.

:: Thursday, August 18, 2011 ::

Postman Pat brought me a letter today - well a wee envelope containing various bits and pieces including a new ice detector sensor, a new 125 amp fuse, ame a steering rack pinion oil seal.

So, it's back off with the number plate, and grope about behind to remove the old sensor, before adding some of that contact grease and putting the new sensor on. Another check confirms that the light stays off!