Month: April 2022

We left our digs in Bromley this morning and had a short commute down the road, where it was great to meet Barry, who had got in touch back in November having recently purchased a TF 135.

Quite a few things needed sorting on the car, some of which he has done himself. When he took it in for the MOT it failed on a couple of things.

So this morning we replaced one of the front lower arms and both forward front subframe mounts. They had definitely seen better days!! Minor service carried out too. Only one of the subframe mount bolts was awkward, as it had obviously snapped off on a previous repair, and the head of which had been welded in to place. This was drilled and tapped out and new bolt fitted.

Bit of a wet and cold day, but fortunately Barry had borrowed a gazebo, which was very welcome as we forgot to transfer ours over from the camper!

Really good day apart from that.

Now at our new digs for the next couple of nights in Croydon. Had a bit of a walk around the place. Admin time now and room service steak is on the menu for Jon tonight. 🥩 Think he deserves it after lying in the wet all morning 🌧 – https://ift.tt/hCR5qPj

A very early and frosty start to travel down to Welling this morning, where it was good to see Simon again and his definitely not Eww TF 160…

Simon had got in touch as the car had suffered from coolant loss while out in December and had called upon the RAC, the chap who arrived to assist was a 160 owner himself and located the leaking hose and carried a roadside repair to get Simon home again, which included bypassing the oil cooler. A cracking repair, using a bit of ingenuity, which involved 2 long sockets used as coolant pipe joiners. As it was just a temporary repair Simon asked if we could come and see him when we were next in the area to refit the pipes with proper pipe connectors. All our usual tests carried out to see if everything else was ok and any signs of head gasket failure, but all found to be good.

The last MOT had advised on the brake lines, so the two front ones were replaced also while we were there. Had a chat about fitting a soft-ride-kit later in the year.

Now at our digs in Bromley. I enjoyed a lovely long walk around Beckenham Place Park this evening, what a fab place, well worth a visit. – https://ift.tt/nAl9Y5P

We managed to dodge the snow and hail fairly well today…

Great to see Lorna again in Yeadon for work on her fab TF 135, ‘Madge’ that was needing the discs and pads replacing. The reverse lights weren’t working so we fitted a new switch and got that working again. Pre MOT check done ahead of the test next week.

Thanks for the cuppas Lorna, nice to have a catch-up and hope you had a nice run out this evening.

From there we headed over to Keighley to assess what was occurring with Steve’s fab TF 160. He had noticed intermittent coolant loss, slowly getting worse and the engine management light had come on.

On pressure testing the system we found that the head was weeping externally and the oil had mild emulsification. Head gasket duly replaced and car back up and running lovely again. The EML codes were showing that it was down to the lambda sensor, but once cleared didn’t seem to be coming back again, but if it does will be looked into.

Great to see Steve and have a chat while we worked and we look forward to seeing him and the car again later in the year for some further work.

Almost home now, and thawing out, with a few more roadworks and hold ups, but it’s still light and lots of squalls to see over the hills. 🌨 – https://ift.tt/xgDo3FU