Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Kam’s Column - 11/03/03
Hello Again!
It’s been another hectic week here at Kam. Quite apart from anything else, it’s been bitterly cold and I’ve now got quite a large snuffle, which I’m sure is starting to annoy the guys in the workshops! Still, that will teach me not to lie on my back, in the wet mud, trying to fix a customer’s car by the roadside. Next time I’ll take a waterproof sheet for my back!
The news has still been dominated by the indecision of the UN, and the fact that there is an impending Labour revolution if a second Security Council resolution is not achieved. Therefore, we’re looking at a split right down the centre of our government and of the UN itself. Come to think of it, Europe is pretty divided over the issue when you consider that Tony is girding his loins for war and the French are trying to persuade everyone to drop their weapons. I’m reminded of a line from a song that appeared in the charts some years ago – and forgive me if I paraphrase wrongly, I haven’t heard this in years. ‘Put down your weapons, or else we’ll all be gone’ was the rough gist. Alternatively, there is the memorable line from one of the most active political singers of the 60s, Phil Ochs – “Look at what we’ve won with the sabre and the gun – tell me, is it worth it all?”
Of course, with the papers so full of war, the tragic loss of Barry Sheen almost went unnoticed. He lost his battle against cancer, and it’s a bitter irony that he lost his life to something within himself after all the near-misses on the track. I saw him race at Castle Donnington a few years ago – and that was an amazing experience. He had a truly exceptional talent that somehow kept in from crossing the line into outright danger, no matter what situation he was in. He will be sorely missed.
Anyway, on to this week’s story. Mr Davies (name changed to protect his innocence) brought his rather lovely turbo-charged Nissan 200SX into the workshop. I say rather lovely, but it was actually a non-runner. Only two cylinders were firing and there was this almighty noise coming from under the bonnet. It sounded like a con-rod had been propelled from the case, which would mean almost certain death for the engine.
As soon as it arrived in the workshop, I dispatched it down to the technical bay under Scott’s care. Obviously, the first thing that needed to be done was a compression test, to ascertain if any terrible fury had been wrought inside. Impressively, all of the cylinders checked out OK on the test, meaning that the problems should be fairly straight forward.
A few minutes later, I heard Scott utter a loud ‘Eww’ and he quickly emerged from the tech bay looking a little green about the gills.
“Kev, come and have a look at this.”
I cautiously poked my head into the bay, and spotted the problem. The oil in the hundy (as 200 SXs are affectionately called) was literally as thick as treacle. Come to think of it, even Mandy’s treacle tart has more fluid motion than this black gunk. It must have been years since this car was serviced.
“Actually Kev, it’s about two and a half years,” said Mr Davies when I phoned to advise him on the progress of the job.
“Two and a half?” I spluttered. “Are you being serious?”
“’Fraid so. I bought the car from my dad and he’d not used it that much.”
I shook my head in disbelief. Some people just don’t seem to think about the on-going maintenance of their vehicles.
Scott meanwhile was having a fine time flushing all of the oil out of the engine case. It took two attempts before the engine was clean enough to even consider adding new oil and filters too. While we were at it, we replaced the spark plugs with new NGK items and were horrified at the state of the old plugs.
Once we’d flushed everything through, it was time for a quick test drive. The good news was that all four cylinders were firing properly. The bad news was that the horrible noise was still there. As soon as it was back in the workshop, the problem became self-evident. The turbo was an oil-cooled example and because the old fluids were so horrible, it hadn’t received the proper cooling. This caused the bearings to self-destruct.
Now, regular reader, I’m not going to tell you how much we were quoted for a new turbo. Suffice to say that after checking out all of our trusted suppliers on the Internet, we found a fully guaranteed and reconditioned one for a fraction of the previous quotes.
Had Mr Davies (junior or senior) attended to the regular maintenance of the hundy, they would never have had this really rather large bill. A few pounds a year, which you really should budget for, go a long way in ensuring the longevity of your ride.
Now that we’ve got Mr Davies’ car in pristine form, we’ve arranged to send him two reminders for every service and MoT. Then there is no excuse!
So many of you have commented on the stunning Stunners on the Rover courtesy car this week. I’ve had 20,000 miles out of them and they are still going strong – in fact, I never had this many out of my previous premium branded items (I’m not allowed to say which ones they were!). The handling is still spot on perfect and I think we’ll get many more miles out of them yet… In fact, I can’t recommend them highly enough!
Until next week, remember your servicing (with free MoT if it is a major service)!
Dr Kev Allen
It’s been another hectic week here at Kam. Quite apart from anything else, it’s been bitterly cold and I’ve now got quite a large snuffle, which I’m sure is starting to annoy the guys in the workshops! Still, that will teach me not to lie on my back, in the wet mud, trying to fix a customer’s car by the roadside. Next time I’ll take a waterproof sheet for my back!
The news has still been dominated by the indecision of the UN, and the fact that there is an impending Labour revolution if a second Security Council resolution is not achieved. Therefore, we’re looking at a split right down the centre of our government and of the UN itself. Come to think of it, Europe is pretty divided over the issue when you consider that Tony is girding his loins for war and the French are trying to persuade everyone to drop their weapons. I’m reminded of a line from a song that appeared in the charts some years ago – and forgive me if I paraphrase wrongly, I haven’t heard this in years. ‘Put down your weapons, or else we’ll all be gone’ was the rough gist. Alternatively, there is the memorable line from one of the most active political singers of the 60s, Phil Ochs – “Look at what we’ve won with the sabre and the gun – tell me, is it worth it all?”
Of course, with the papers so full of war, the tragic loss of Barry Sheen almost went unnoticed. He lost his battle against cancer, and it’s a bitter irony that he lost his life to something within himself after all the near-misses on the track. I saw him race at Castle Donnington a few years ago – and that was an amazing experience. He had a truly exceptional talent that somehow kept in from crossing the line into outright danger, no matter what situation he was in. He will be sorely missed.
Anyway, on to this week’s story. Mr Davies (name changed to protect his innocence) brought his rather lovely turbo-charged Nissan 200SX into the workshop. I say rather lovely, but it was actually a non-runner. Only two cylinders were firing and there was this almighty noise coming from under the bonnet. It sounded like a con-rod had been propelled from the case, which would mean almost certain death for the engine.
As soon as it arrived in the workshop, I dispatched it down to the technical bay under Scott’s care. Obviously, the first thing that needed to be done was a compression test, to ascertain if any terrible fury had been wrought inside. Impressively, all of the cylinders checked out OK on the test, meaning that the problems should be fairly straight forward.
A few minutes later, I heard Scott utter a loud ‘Eww’ and he quickly emerged from the tech bay looking a little green about the gills.
“Kev, come and have a look at this.”
I cautiously poked my head into the bay, and spotted the problem. The oil in the hundy (as 200 SXs are affectionately called) was literally as thick as treacle. Come to think of it, even Mandy’s treacle tart has more fluid motion than this black gunk. It must have been years since this car was serviced.
“Actually Kev, it’s about two and a half years,” said Mr Davies when I phoned to advise him on the progress of the job.
“Two and a half?” I spluttered. “Are you being serious?”
“’Fraid so. I bought the car from my dad and he’d not used it that much.”
I shook my head in disbelief. Some people just don’t seem to think about the on-going maintenance of their vehicles.
Scott meanwhile was having a fine time flushing all of the oil out of the engine case. It took two attempts before the engine was clean enough to even consider adding new oil and filters too. While we were at it, we replaced the spark plugs with new NGK items and were horrified at the state of the old plugs.
Once we’d flushed everything through, it was time for a quick test drive. The good news was that all four cylinders were firing properly. The bad news was that the horrible noise was still there. As soon as it was back in the workshop, the problem became self-evident. The turbo was an oil-cooled example and because the old fluids were so horrible, it hadn’t received the proper cooling. This caused the bearings to self-destruct.
Now, regular reader, I’m not going to tell you how much we were quoted for a new turbo. Suffice to say that after checking out all of our trusted suppliers on the Internet, we found a fully guaranteed and reconditioned one for a fraction of the previous quotes.
Had Mr Davies (junior or senior) attended to the regular maintenance of the hundy, they would never have had this really rather large bill. A few pounds a year, which you really should budget for, go a long way in ensuring the longevity of your ride.
Now that we’ve got Mr Davies’ car in pristine form, we’ve arranged to send him two reminders for every service and MoT. Then there is no excuse!
So many of you have commented on the stunning Stunners on the Rover courtesy car this week. I’ve had 20,000 miles out of them and they are still going strong – in fact, I never had this many out of my previous premium branded items (I’m not allowed to say which ones they were!). The handling is still spot on perfect and I think we’ll get many more miles out of them yet… In fact, I can’t recommend them highly enough!
Until next week, remember your servicing (with free MoT if it is a major service)!
Dr Kev Allen
