North Broomhill, Horncastle, Market Drayton, Uttoxeter, Woking, Storrington…
A bit of a longer week this week starting off on Monday morning over at the workshop to get the van sorted. Jon replaced the CV boot, front brakes and offside front shocker and then it was taken for its MOT and then all restocked up for the week ahead.
The first call of week was up in North Broomhill on a very sunny Tuesday morning for head gasket replacement on Kevin’s 2001 Trophy. Great to see him and Amanda and get the car ready for their next adventures!
Wednesday morning found us over in Horncastle for head gasket replacement on Adrian’s 2003 TF 135 (in xpower grey – LEF), plus replacing the plugs and filters. The head gasket hadn’t gone as such, Adrian just wanted it doing preemptively for peace of mind. Next up was Dale’s 1996 MGF 120 (in British Racing Green – HAM) for minor service and gearbox oil change. Good to see them both again and thanks to Adrian for a cracking brew.
We headed down to Market Drayton on Thursday for the minor service on Michael’s 2011 LE 500 (number 243, paint code 106). Good to see him again and his chatty Geese, that gave Jon some eggs last time, but not this year as they will be hatching this batch, shame we weren’t a few weeks later to see them! 🪿
From there we went on to Stafford for an overnight stay ready to head over to just near Uttoxeter, on Friday morning, where it was great to see Rob again. His 2001 MGF 120 (in Tahiti – JRJ) had been off the road for some years and they were wanting to start using it again this year.
Full cambelt service carried out, alternator belt, both key fobs synced, a couple of other bits and a good check over. Unfortunately, a mouse had got in, and made a mess of the boot liner so we took a replacement one along with us. Shame not to see Jo this time, we wish them lots of fun in the car again over the summer months.
Our initial plan was to head over to Welshpool afterwards for work on Saturday morning, but this was cancelled. This, however, opened up a slot for us to head back down to see Colin’s ZR that we’d carried out a head gasket replacement and cambelt service on last November. Following a stop over in Woking on Friday night we set off bright and early to Storrington.
He’d just recently started to use the car and thought that the gasket had maybe failed again. So we carried out all our usual checks and found nothing that pointed us towards the head gasket. However, with it being such a great distance from our base we decided to take the cylinder head off and make sure that everything was as it should be. Once removed this was found to be perfect, no leakage into the cylinders, no mixing of oil. So we refitted a new N-series head gasket. Once back together checked that the thermostat was opening correctly, it had a good coolant flow. ECU checked for error codes, only found one relating to the Lambda sensor, although this wouldn’t have caused any issues with the symptoms that Colin was describing. It was nice to see them both again though and chat to Juliet while we worked. It’s good to know that they have a really decent turnout at the runs and events they orgnanise in the area.
So we’re now not too far from home on the M18. We just called into McDonalds for a cuppa on the M1 and got chatting to a chap who was on his way back from ‘Pride of Longbridge’, it was nice to hear that this had a really good turnout this year. I know it’s some years since we’ve been able to make it, maybe next year?
Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone near and far, the weathers certainly been good for all those cars emerging from their winter hibernation. 🌞 – https://ift.tt/dJeyrnt
