Yeap, passed with no advisory, taxed, so another year of motoring! Well chuffed, since I got some niggles and other things fixed prior to that:
- I've got split top IC hose, in fact fubared right in the middle of nowhere. As well it broke radiator overflow pipe (small one), loss a bit coolant and lead to a dead stop due to complete loss of boost. Had a duct tape, swiss army knife, plastic 1/2 litre bottle of water and a pen. Disassembled the pen, cut the body in half, rammed it firmly into the hole of the radiator overflow and connected the overflow hose to the other side of the pen. Had to sacrifice one of my shoe laces to hold it in place. Refilled the coolant tank with water i got, cut the water bottle in half and used it to extend IC hose (rammed the firmer, top half of the bottle into the hose, put some generous layers of duct tape all around to connect it firmly to what has left of the IC hose, placed everything back and connected it to the intercooler radiator. Took a wee cranking to start it again probably because ECU was confused about sudden boost loss... Anyway, it was all worth the effort since I had no time to wait for the tow truck and I drove it some 60 miles home safely, with a wee throttle and not over 2k revs.
- Whilst waiting to get a new IC hose some f... retard tried to rip my front grill off (and maybe install it on his Fiat, I don't know), luckily one bracket still held it in place after being vandalized so it wasn't nicked after all. But unfortunately, aerial (second one since I bought the car) wasn't so lucky. I found it on the bottom of the windscreen.
- As bad luck always comes in threes, a couple of days later, early in the morning, around 5 AM my TV had spontaneous combustion. Yes, it burst into flames for no reason whatsoever while it was off, a 4 year old 32" LCD. It was a nightmare, that. Luckily I woke up at the very moment, God knows how and managed to put out the fire myself. Luckily my wife and son were at her folks for a weekend at the time and I was lucky enough not to get intoxicated with the smoke, or worse, never wake up again...
- I had to fully refurbish the apartment and all stuff in it needed detailing, first thing first, myself, since my face was black beyond recognition.
- When it was finally over and I finally stopped jumping out of bed for no reason in the middle of the night due to fair amount of stress I've been through, I had a wee time to think about my poor zed as well, sitting at the parking lot, crippled inside out. Weather got freezing cold in the mean time, so the battery was dead as well (several days upon warranty expired). MOT was overdue as well.
- I got in touch with a real pro in welding plastic and he did a great job welding and reinforcing the overflow tube on the radiator, and even better job on welding and reinforcing the grill (that f... retard would require a sledge hammer next time he tries nicking it) - All for 40 euros
- Fitted genuine IC hose - 70 euros
- Fitted new expansion cap and wiper blades - around 20 euros
- After unpleasant conversation with the garage they were sorry to fit an aftermarket IC hose and booked a free coolant, oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter change and a car wash
- passed the MOT, taxed - 350 euros
- Things to do:
- Go to the garage for above service
- Buy and fit a pair of new rubber for the fronts (452's to order from Germany or BF Goodrich gforce profiler’s and save a bit) - 270 or 240 euros
- New battery (72 ah Tudor hi-tech with 42 months warranty) - around 100 euros
- a bit detailing, maybe a wheel refurb if the budget allows, since a new TV set is a must
- new aerial?
- Take a few days off and enjoy the ride, take my wife and a wee man somewhere and relieve all the stress.
Hopefully all goes well from now on. Thanks for reading, you were quite patient, that is sorry for the long post but it has been a while and quite a lot had happened. Cheers
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