Having unplugged the ODBII Bluetooth sender when I was trying to figure out why the battery kept flattening, I forgot to plug it back in again so no ECU data recently. Therefore I am back to measuring fuel consumption the old fashioned way… tripometer & how much new fuel I’ve added. Today was a bit disappointing. 37 litres to do 72 miles… which works out at just over 8mpg. Admittedly that has been 100% commuting in stop start traffic 4.5 miles each way but… Ouch!!!
Category Archives: Car
Marcos 60th anniversary event now being trailed
The MOC are really going for it with the plans for the 60th anniversary of Marcos. Lots going on, based around Wroxall Abbey between July 5th & 7th 2019, but… £500 for a single room (plus event tickets). Blimey!
Methinks I probably ought to finish paying off the engine conversion first!
Where’s Noah?
One of my greatest pleasures from having the Marcos is driving with the hood down. I normally consider myself (& the long-suffering car) fairly tolerant on the weather front… but I got rather moist today! 😳 Having slightly misjudged the intensity of rain when glancing out of the office window before blindly setting off home, heavy traffic (& male pride) meant that I didn’t have the opportunity to put the hood up for about 15 minutes of… this!
A combination of no fuel (again) & standing water in the passenger seat (again) forced me to concede defeat & pull into a petrol station. Curse you, weather Gods!
Now one of the reasons I don’t get hung up on putting the hood up when it’s raining is that it doesn’t actually stop you from getting wet – it just concentrates the water in a few key places. At least, that’s the score in my car. I already knew the new hood had gaps around the leading window edge which let water in when driving, but I wasn’t expecting it to be coming in through the front seal above the windscreen & dripping steadily off the sun visor (yeah… guess how much that gets used in Manchester…) and onto my lap. It’s never happened before so a bit perplexing & subsequent inspection hasn’t revealed anything obviously wrong with the rubber. What it did mean however was a s**tload of water in the car, now being superheated by the 6.2 litre footwarmer with the result that EVERYTHING misted up & I couldn’t see out of the car. The front screen demister didn’t stand a chance! As the traffic inched forward I became terrified of driving into the (unseen) car in front, in the end putting the hazard lights on & pulling off onto a sidestreet until the rain abated somewhat. Not my finest arrival home!
On a cheerier note, since replacing the battery the car has started without any issues so it looks like the Optima was a worthwhile investment.
Battery trouble
Jolly handy this new multimeter! The battery is reading 10.8V or 14.4V when the engine is running, which seems to indicate a battery issue not the alternator. The battery was only put in when the LS3 was added so less than 12 months old – diagnosis is a faulty battery. I can’t rule out something draining it but neither can I afford to not know whether the car will start each time I go to it, so I have purchased an Optima Red Top battery (730CCA) and also a DBPower DJS50 Portable Car Jump Starter. Both arrived this morning & having failed to start the car on the battery I’ve tried the DBPower portable starter & it worked first time – in fact I have to say I am very impressed with it! Small, light, with it’s own hard case & plenty of connectors to power phones, laptops & anything else requiring USB power… A seriously cool piece of kit..
Aww c’mon car…
A bitter sweet day today. The car barely started after 3 days trickle charging & is reading 10.8V across the battery. On the other hand once the car was going it was a lovely drive to & from work, with two “Nice car mate”s and a “Mind if I take some pictures of your car?” (lorry driver several feet above me in the other lane!). I will charge it up overnight & then measure the voltage across the battery while the engine is running.
Fingers crossed…
Grumpy
Another almost flat battery this morning after four days of the car not being used. 😢 Looking like the issue is not as intermittent as I had hoped. Hoping to hear back from Colin the excellent auto electrician who sorted the LED indicator really a couple of years ago. One weird thing is that the Engine Start button lights up as I turn the interior fan up from medium to high. Odd!
The proverbial Dodo
After a great trip down from Cheshire to Bedford on Sunday then not using the car for three days, worrying to find the battery wasn’t up to starting the car to get home on Thursday afternoon. No idea what’s causing this & had even unplugged the ODB2 Bluetooth sender after last time, so at a bit of a loss. The car started with the help of a friendly neighbour with jump leads
Palatial
At the 2017 International Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace with my son today. Not showing the car but there by invitation to pad out the serious money exhibition cars. A reasonably dry weekend limited to a few minutes with the hood up after leaving Hampton Court Palace to head home, but it wasn’t long before the top went down & we just drove through the rest! Meh!
I have to add that HCP was amazing!
Preaching to the Catalytic Converted
Dropped the car off at JP Exhausts in Macclesfield this morning to have catalytic converters (aka ‘Cats’) fitted. It was a good trip over to Macc & I spent a lot of time soaking up the exhaust note in case it changed after the cats were fitted. How sad is that! (At least I didn’t record it!… Although… I might have at some point.). It was nice to be greeted by the whole JP crew as I arrived (only because I was early – not sure I am getting the red carpet treatment) & the car was quickly ushered in & onto the ramp. I took a quick ‘Before’ picture of the Jetex 200 catalytic converter, pre polishing & fitting of cones as I’ve never seen one before (with apologies for the poor focus).
Kyle also spotted that the nearside exhaust was touching the sump guard bracket, potentially generating a rattle (which I hadn’t spotted due to all the other rattles… & the 105Db exhaust!) which he would try & sort out at the same time as the cats. Good man!
Having been told it was ‘an all day job’ I headed back over to JP a few minutes before 1700 to pick the car up. The cats were fitted & somehow or other Kyle had managed to keep them above the height of the sump guard, which he had lowered by a few millimeters with a washer to clear the exhaust. Polished up & with the cones fitted, they looked the business & should mean no more fretting about emissions at MOT time.
Shocking
I finally followed up on the leaking fluid inside the rear nearside wheel, which appeared a few days after getting back from Le Mans. As I suspected, it was confirmed as the shock absorbers. Given this pair was fitted in 2008 & are nine years old, I considered replacing them with Gaz Golds or Bilsteins (if available) but needed the car on the road for the following weekend’s trip up to the Lakes. The local garage whipped both rears off Friday & sent them down to Protech who fitted new seals & sent them back for refitting Wednesday – not bad in four working days! Unfortunately the stiffness setting was not recorded before refit so the new settings are a pure guess at six turns. Hopefully I have the paperwork from TopCats who I think set the suspension up way back when (although no idea if it still applies).