Almost exactly a week later, (Saturday) in the middle of nowhere, the Clio refused to start yet again. The RAC eventually found us, but not until after we’d tried bumpstarting etc. The RAC guy tried the old “percussive maintenance” trick (hammer), to no avail. It started via a bumpstart in 1st. That got us home.… Read More Clio Starting Issues Part 2
You probably know you can check tax and MOT status via the government website? https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/?locale=en But do you know you can also check the MOT details as well, also via the government website? https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history Even better, you can check for car details and insurance issues (write-offs etc) using the Auto Trader website? You just pretend… Read More How to check a vehicle’s history for free.
I test drove an Astra Sport Hatch. It was spot on. Except the Aircon didn’t work. Checked with the insurers to make sure it wasn’t ridiculous to insure etc. Bought the Haynes manual. Just waiting for the dealer to put 12 months test on it. Except.. The deal fell through. The dealer had bought a… Read More The case of the missing Astra.
Sunday night. Ordered McDonald’s for pickup. Jumped in the car. Turned the key, and.. “click”. That’s it. Bloody click. Had to walk to Mackie’s FFS! Tried the Halfords booster battery (see earlier post). Nope. Click.. Tried the fancy battery charger. It reckoned there was plenty of charge and shut itself down. Bugger. So. Probably starter… Read More Starting Issues and another tyre.
I noticed that my wheel trims were looking a bit dull. So I had a closer look.. Looks like something corrosive has eaten away the surface in places.. no surprise considering where I work.. (industrial area. Restricted access. Security. All sorts of crap on the roads) So I decided to get some new ones. First… Read More Wheel Trims, Tyres and Tracking
I tried to reverse out of the drive yesterday, only to find that the rear brake was stuck on the passenger side. It felt like I was trying to drive over a big kerb.. I managed to get it freed off a bit, enough to get it to move, but still sticking. My tame garage… Read More A fly in the ointment
A few weeks back, I bought an O2 sensor for the Clio from eBay. https://ebay.us/ES6O0V Disclaimer: I may be paid a commission by eBay if you purchase anything via my link. The idea was that I was going to fit this myself, but it’s bloody impossible to get to without a garage lift. Anyway, the… Read More Clio Update: O2 Sensor
See also : Sunroof sorted. Hopefully. I realised I’d missed an opportunity yesterday: I should have taken photos of the job. Bugger. In my defence, it was 29 degrees out there, and I had 2 hours max window anyway. Anyway, here are a couple of non-obvious points I discovered: 1. The handle won’t come off… Read More Some details on the sunroof handle fix..
Bought a replacement sunroof Handle and catch from eBay. Sounded like a simple job, but the old one was broken, and wouldn’t release. Had to take the old handle apart (including the two screws some bodger installed to lock the handle down..) took about an hour (in 29C heat). Just need to sort out the… Read More Sunroof sorted. Hopefully.
The Clio has been back to the car dealers twice now, and they have so far failed to sort out the “warming up” bad running issue. It goes like this: starts up, runs fine, about 1/2 mile later it splutters and loses power. Rev it a bit and it sorts itself out. I’m thinking it’s… Read More Clio issues update
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