Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Kam’s Column - 30/07/02
Hello Again!
It seems that the British summer has finally arrived. Hot and sticky, with no wind blowing the worst of the heat away. As I’m sure you can imagine, it isn’t too much fun in the workshops right now – not only do we not get a tan, but the airflow around the buildings isn’t brilliant. Safe to say by the end of each day, everyone has lost about a stone in sweat alone… It’s a great way to diet! Glynn’s doing OK for himself at the moment – he’s on his boat for a fortnight, lucky devil!
It has been a busy period for our bodyshop, hence we had to bring one of their jobs into our workshop. Mr Smith (name changed to protect the innocent) had owned his gorgeous original Mini Cooper since new and had given it every conceivable luxury. However, as old cars are wont to do, it had rewarded his efforts by letting the demon tin-worm get its teeth into the shell and now both sills needed rewelding. You can imagine that I wasn’t the most popular person when I handed the long, hot and laborious job to Andy and Shaun. I thought that they were going to barricade me into the office (which would have prompted a major rescue operation a la the American miners when I didn’t show up for the special meal Mandy had planned!), but I got away lightly with a few dirty looks!
The actual fitting of the new sills wasn’t a difficult job in itself, but to do it properly, the guys had to take the old sills right out, prepare the bodywork and then line the new ones up perfectly before MiG welding them into place. Needless to say, once completed, Andy and Shaun were happy with the end result. The bodyshop were greatly impressed with our efforts, and hinted that they’d be putting more work our way… Just let the weather cool down a bit first!
The second job to roll through the door on Monday was a really fiddly one. My long-time friend Rob Palmer (no, not the singer!) had just bought a ‘T’ plated Ford Mondeo at auction, the only catch being that it had no service history and, once he drove it away from the auction house, Rob found that it wheezed its way to 50mph and would go no faster.
Having dispatched him in a courtesy vehicle, I let Scott loose on the Mondeo, which looked clean enough on the outside and under the bonnet. It had had new plugs and leads fitted, and someone had obviously given it a quick once over just prior to sale. The problem was that the fault could be almost anywhere in the engine, so Scott started with the easy stuff. The electrical system checked out OK, as did the fuel injection system.
The emissions test gave us a little more information. The Mondeo was running very lean. One issue with this particular model is that it requires a specialist synthetic oil, otherwise the valve lifters can stick. Sure enough, the wrong oil had been used before, so Scott flushed the system and put the correct grade in.
A quick road test revealed an improvement, but the Mondeo still wasn’t in the best of health, so this was another head scratcher. The answer came in the form of a cat, which strolled into the workshop, sat down just next to a puddle of oil and promptly coughed up a hair-ball.
“Of course!” Scott leapt up, punching the air. “The cat’s blocked, that has to be it!” After removing the catalytic converter, Scott took the Mondeo for a quick test drive. It sounded like a tank and scared most of the animals in the Midlands, but we’d found the problem! Since the cat had become blocked, it was causing high back pressure through the system and that was the root of the problems! Once a new unit was fitted, I gave Rob a ring.
“Never mind Ferrari Modena,” he said after he’d given his car a run, “this is more like Ferrari Mondeo! I’ve never known a car with so much punch!”
Spare a thought for your car in the coming days – while you can enjoy a chilled drink on the patio to help you cool down, your car can’t help itself from the fridge! Keep an eye on all of your coolant levels or give us a ring and we’ll do all the necessary for you! Overheated cars aren’t happy cars…
Until next week, keep cool!
Dr Kev Allen.
It seems that the British summer has finally arrived. Hot and sticky, with no wind blowing the worst of the heat away. As I’m sure you can imagine, it isn’t too much fun in the workshops right now – not only do we not get a tan, but the airflow around the buildings isn’t brilliant. Safe to say by the end of each day, everyone has lost about a stone in sweat alone… It’s a great way to diet! Glynn’s doing OK for himself at the moment – he’s on his boat for a fortnight, lucky devil!
It has been a busy period for our bodyshop, hence we had to bring one of their jobs into our workshop. Mr Smith (name changed to protect the innocent) had owned his gorgeous original Mini Cooper since new and had given it every conceivable luxury. However, as old cars are wont to do, it had rewarded his efforts by letting the demon tin-worm get its teeth into the shell and now both sills needed rewelding. You can imagine that I wasn’t the most popular person when I handed the long, hot and laborious job to Andy and Shaun. I thought that they were going to barricade me into the office (which would have prompted a major rescue operation a la the American miners when I didn’t show up for the special meal Mandy had planned!), but I got away lightly with a few dirty looks!
The actual fitting of the new sills wasn’t a difficult job in itself, but to do it properly, the guys had to take the old sills right out, prepare the bodywork and then line the new ones up perfectly before MiG welding them into place. Needless to say, once completed, Andy and Shaun were happy with the end result. The bodyshop were greatly impressed with our efforts, and hinted that they’d be putting more work our way… Just let the weather cool down a bit first!
The second job to roll through the door on Monday was a really fiddly one. My long-time friend Rob Palmer (no, not the singer!) had just bought a ‘T’ plated Ford Mondeo at auction, the only catch being that it had no service history and, once he drove it away from the auction house, Rob found that it wheezed its way to 50mph and would go no faster.
Having dispatched him in a courtesy vehicle, I let Scott loose on the Mondeo, which looked clean enough on the outside and under the bonnet. It had had new plugs and leads fitted, and someone had obviously given it a quick once over just prior to sale. The problem was that the fault could be almost anywhere in the engine, so Scott started with the easy stuff. The electrical system checked out OK, as did the fuel injection system.
The emissions test gave us a little more information. The Mondeo was running very lean. One issue with this particular model is that it requires a specialist synthetic oil, otherwise the valve lifters can stick. Sure enough, the wrong oil had been used before, so Scott flushed the system and put the correct grade in.
A quick road test revealed an improvement, but the Mondeo still wasn’t in the best of health, so this was another head scratcher. The answer came in the form of a cat, which strolled into the workshop, sat down just next to a puddle of oil and promptly coughed up a hair-ball.
“Of course!” Scott leapt up, punching the air. “The cat’s blocked, that has to be it!” After removing the catalytic converter, Scott took the Mondeo for a quick test drive. It sounded like a tank and scared most of the animals in the Midlands, but we’d found the problem! Since the cat had become blocked, it was causing high back pressure through the system and that was the root of the problems! Once a new unit was fitted, I gave Rob a ring.
“Never mind Ferrari Modena,” he said after he’d given his car a run, “this is more like Ferrari Mondeo! I’ve never known a car with so much punch!”
Spare a thought for your car in the coming days – while you can enjoy a chilled drink on the patio to help you cool down, your car can’t help itself from the fridge! Keep an eye on all of your coolant levels or give us a ring and we’ll do all the necessary for you! Overheated cars aren’t happy cars…
Until next week, keep cool!
Dr Kev Allen.
