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Lincoln & Louth today, with a bit of a change in temperature and a definite autumnal nip in the air.
Our first call was to James and his 2004 TF 135, that we’d found on our last visit, when chatting with him, that the cambelt service was well overdue. This was done for him today along with new alternator belt as the one on the car was starting to split, a timely replacement!
Good to see James again briefly in between his work calls.
From there we called into to Rimmer Bros to restock on a number of things on our way to our next call near Louth.
This car was also noted to be overdue its cambelt service on our last visit, a MGF steptronic in Wedgewood. So this was all sorted, along with replacement of the rear plastic window, what we’d ordered in, as the one on the car was very old and split.
It was good to meet Mark this time and have a chat, thanks to him for the supply of many cuppas.
He mentioned that at the recent MOT they’d noticed a coolant leak and were unsure where from. So we pressure tested the system and found it to be coming from the inlet manifold, so we took this apart and fitted a new gasket, cleaned it all up and removed the jiggle valve. Car ran up to temperature with no issues. We look forward to seeing Mark again, next month, when he drops it off with us at the workshop for underfloor treatment.
We had a new apprentice today, Olive, the chicken! She seemed very keen to help out and we named her so as she was quite partial to a bit of our olive bread. Bless her, she stayed with us all afternoon until it got a bit late and she toddled off home to the house up the road where she lives.
We should have been in Wigan yesterday, but the weather forecast was way too bad for the jobs we had planned and the gazebo would not have been sufficient. The owner even messaged yesterday to say we’d made the right decision.
Instead, given the situation we thought we’d nip over to Sheffield to drop off my sons birthday presents and pop in for a brew, taking the TF 135, instead of the van, as it wouldn’t incur the ‘clean air zone’ charge, only for the alternator to pack up on the way! Argh! Fortunately, we had our mini jump-pack with us so hooked that up and made to James’s flat. Deposited birthday gifts, had a cuppa and then found a local Euro car parts, bought a new battery, fitted that and prayed that we would make it back to the workshop. We did. Phew.
It’s worth mentioning, that should you find yourself in this situation that this is a good way of getting out of trouble relatively simply, quickly and cheaply, you may only get up to 70 miles, without obviously using fans, radio, windows, wipers etc., but when needs must!
So, that was our first proper day back today, after a truly difficult time and have to say we’re properly pooped. We just want to say though, “Thank you”, to everyone, for being so understanding and sending your messages, it has been such a great support. – https://ift.tt/puwPDHv
