Eventful week this week for me, car-wise. Sunday night I end up working (wish I'd said no to it, which I could have done, but anyhoo, I'll get on with it). Going from Slough to Oxford, and going quick-ish (around 85 or so, getting up towards 90) and the overheating light comes on. "Shit", I think. Hazards on, pull over to the hard shoulder, and in the process of stopping it's gone off. Pop up the bonnet, and slowly take the coolant cap off, no hissing of coolant under pressure, looks all ok, I get on with journey. Next time it happens I just ease off the throttle, get down to about 70, and it goes off. Make an effort on the return journey to definitely drive no faster than 65-70 max (had to anyway as it happens as the fuel light had come on), and it all seemed fine. In the next few days I think it came on once, when I was going up a hill, doing about 70, but letting off the throttle made the light go off again. Knowing I had to be gentle with it, I was nice to it, and especially careful on uphill stretches. From then on, though, I was pretty much on London runs all the time (which I prefer). The cooling fan was coming on loads, but the overheating light never came on. At one point I popped off the grille at a time when the fan was on, and the rad was cold. Worrying. I didn't worry too much based on the fact that it hadn't overheated in all this London traffic, and there was obviously a sticking thermostat (or maybe something else) but I'd get it sorted at the weekend as it hadn't *actually* given me a problem. Then Wednesday night, heading out of town (to the West) on the Embankment road, the overheating light came on. I pulled over AQAP, popped up the bonnet, and slowly loosened the coolant cap, to be greeted by lots of thick brown crap boiling over. "Shit", I think. Leave it for a few minutes, check the oil, and that's still clean, not mayonnaise like or anything. I wondered if the engine would still run, and it started up and ran fine. Got it a few minutes up the road and the light comes on again. This time leave it for ages to cool down properly and get all the way up to the BP garage just before the Hammersmith Flyover before the light comes on. Call RAC, am advised that I only have the basic membership that only entitles me to a tow up to 10 miles, try to blag it that I was told 50, doesn't work, call my mate out who tows me home.
The next day, I take the good old reliable Carlton into town. As expected, it gets rather hot in town, but turning the heater on full blast stops the needle from going much above the 3/4 mark, even though it does make me sweat my bollocks off sitting in the car. Gets me out of a hole, but I can't help thinking that I'd much rather be in an air-conditioned automatic car, as using the clutch twenty times a minute does tend to wear one's shoes down (lucky I got them cheap, eh!). Hold on a minute, I say, I've got an Omega Elite. Take that into town the next day. Problem solved. In on the M4/A312/A40 to Park Royal, over to Ikea at Brent Park, then around the NCR to Hanger Lane (crawling for the last half mile) and along the A40 to the A3220 (crawling again) - but it doesn't bother me, as I'm in a relaxing climate-controlled automatic. Along the A3220, down to Fulham, a couple of drops in Fulham, and crawling again up to Hammersmith. Couple of hours in Hammersmith, then out to Uxbridge and on to Slough. All going swimmingly. Then over to Henley, back to Slough, then over to Reading and back to Slough, via Bracknell. Then pick up another few late jobs into London (leaving Slough at about 5pm) - one for Victoria Station (dropped off at
5:40pm) and another one for the City (dropped off at 6pm), and then onto Ilford (get there at 6:30pm) to pick up something for Putney. Fuel very low at Ilford, fill up at the Esso garage by the A12/A406 roundabout, and also buy oil and top up (as I checked it earlier and it was on the minimum mark).Before I top up the oil I check it again (engine's been stopped for about 10 mintues by now, so a fairly reliable reading) - yep it's at the minimum mark. Fully aware of the risks of overfilling it, I put about a quarter of the litre bottle (10W/40 for turbo diesels - checked the viscosity rating with the car's handbook) - that brought it up to about a third way between min and max, so chucked a reasonable amount more in - that got it to about
2/3rds of the way between min and max. That'll do fine, methinks. Drive away. Reset trip computer, and go down the new-ish A12 (cruise set at 50, 38mpg average down that bit, but don't worry it was down to 24mpg before long!), down past Docklands (Aspen Way/Limehouse Link), along to Tower Bridge, cut through Southwark and Lambeth, out onto the Embankment (lights out at one of the junctions here, causing queuing, helped to bring the economy down a fair bit!), then through Fulham, out onto Putney Bridge, and over to Putney - exactly an hour from Ilford to Putney, so a bloody good run in and out of town. Delivered the package, then head out through Barnes out to the A316, and out towards the M3.Going over the flyover at Sunbury Cross (start of the M3), and it starts to make worrying noises and lose power. No hard shoulder on the flyover, and the slip-road's joining - luckily it's clear, enabling me to go over to the hard shoulder of the slip-road. I turn the engine off, then attempte to start it again, lots of rattling, but it revs up ok, so the timing is fine (chain is obviously still intact). Loads of smoke coming from the engine bay. I'm thinking that there's an oil seal buggered and it's burning off oil left right and centre. Looking under the car it's certainly lost shit loads of oil. Anyway, I call my mate to tow me back (2nd car I've f***ed in
3 days, we're both in hysterics at this point) and we get it back home. The next day another mate of mine looks at it in daylight and the massive amounts of smoke are still happening, and that's with a cold engine, so that's not oil burning off from anywhere. He reckons there's something buggered about the exhaust manifold (a crack or something), or maybe the turbo's f***ed. We check the oil, and it's *above* the maximum. WTF???????? When I topped up the oil it was *definitely* just below max after I'd topped it up. Is there any way that the turbo could store any oil, and if a seal or something popped then this could cause the oil level to go up?? Maybe I'm picking at straws here, but either I completely cocked up topping up the oil (and I swear blind that I didn't) or all of a sudden an amount of oil equal to just below the max mark on the dipstick was equal to amount just above the max mark plus a whole load of oil all over the hard shoulder on the M3 sliproad at Sunbury.Anyway, I did what I swore I'd never do and took the Fiesta into the Ford dealer to do the head gasket (and whatever else needs doing) - they said £500 for the head gasket job (6 hours labour plus parts) - eeeeekkk. They're going to replace the cambelt as a matter of course when doing the head gasket job as they don't like to retension old belts, and considering it was due a cambelt anyway, that's effectively best part of £200 off the price IYSWIM.
The Omega? Well, ebay here we come.
I was getting a bit fed up of the Carlton, but jumping into it after having towed home the Omega I suddenly loved it again (and it wasn't just to do with the fact that it was the only one of my cars that still goes properly!). Also, yesterday we towed the Omega down to the local jet-wash with the Carlton - would have made a great photo opportunity, an Omega Estate being towed by a Carlton Estate.
And there was me thinking I'd be the lucky one if I sold my Carlton for just a few hundred less than the Omega cost me. Whoever bought the Carlton would be laughing from the other side of the fence now!
Peter