That was the week, that was.....

[Doggy]

I don't really believe in luck, I think we make our own. The majority of problems are preceeded by clear signs of what's to come and failing to plan for the inevitable is what most people decry as bad luck [/Sermon]

Last week did challenge that hypothesis just a tad....

Monday afternoon - Garage door broke.
My fault. It's an up & over, (canopy),type & the wire ropes, bobbins, guide rollers etc. are all worn out. I was trying to make it last until the garage conversion in a couple of months, but alas no. Tracked down replacement kit on Ebay, £21 delivered, still to fit, see below....

Tuesday morning - Pug's doors frozen shut.
Had to leave it outside because of garage door, ergo my fault too, kindof. It unlocked on the remote, but the doors were frozen to the seals. Managed to yank the back one open by pulling on the handle and top of door together, but the drivers door was just going to bend. Poured gallons of tepid water over it & eventually got in with no apparent damage.

Wednesday afternoon - strained back / dropped sack of coal on kitchen floor.
Got home early from college so decided to stock up on coal in the daylight. Hitched trailer up, fetched 4 sacks from the merchant, but had to cart them from driveway, through front door, hall, kitchen to garage, because of the good old garage door, so arguably still my fault. You can guess the rest.

Thursday morning - trip to Gatwick etc.
I've already bored you with this one so won't elaborate.
Thursday also brought the cancellation of the advert for selling the Citroen. My daughter's 206SW has a misfire, engine management light on type problem & is at an independent garage. So far it's had plugs & a coil pack, now believed to be a faulty ecu, which is away for checking. This saga feels like it will run & run. (Any suggestions very welcome here, it's a 53 plate 1.4 petrol, symptoms uneven running, lack of power). Obvious thing was to lend her the Citroen so she's got transport & also to remove pressure for a quick & possibly more expensive, fix of 206. She tried transferring her insurance, but they wouldn't do it, offering temporary cover at £60/week or £160/month. Robbin Barstewards She did it for a week, so far.

Friday afternoon - tumble drier caught fire
Well, smoked a bit & stank to high heaven. Can't really see how this one's down to yours truly.
Postponed garage door repair Saturday & investigated. Inside of m/c literally packed with compacted fluff due to worn out rear drum seal. Took enough out to quarter fill a wheelie bin. Motor bearings sh@gged too - only 2x6001's, but to change them you have to remove the fan drive flange that's pressed onto helical splines & is made from dead thin pressed sheet. I'll probably try pulling it off etc but don't have access to the necessary kit 'til Monday. Replacement motor £70, rear seal about £10 & wait for delivery. Looking like new drier time Wasted remainder of Saturday afternoon looking, without finding anything suitable locally, (Swore next time I'd get an auto shut of type as Mrs Doggy doesn't get the concept of it not always needing 2.5 hours to dry a teatowel ) & I want to keep cost down.

Saturday afternoon - 406 develops leaky roof
Well a few drops of water dripping from passenger side ultrasonic sensor area
Any suggestions please? I'm thinking leaky sunroof / blocked drain. It did creak a lot when frozen up during the week. Trouble is, I've never opened it and wasn't going to until next year. Or at least until I can put in the garage if I find a snag

Saturday evening - Citroen gets rear-ended
Son & daughter have part-time jobs at a Northampton nightclub & some tw@t bumps the back end of poor old Xsara at a roundabout. Haven't seen it yet. "Only a scratch dad." Main thing is they're OK & I guess it wasn't worth a great deal anyway. They've exchanged insurance details etc, but I've never failed to loose out somehow in these situations

Right, let's think positive. Get @rse into gear & sort it, 'stead of whingeing.

Predictions, anyone

[teamster1975]

Oh dear oh dear matey, it never rains!
It can only be better this coming week!
Re the rain coming in some guys have had leaks around the aerial seal; you could loosen it off and wind some silicon under it as a quick fix!
The locks were frozen up on my '6 several mornings but that plip is a lifesaver!

[steve_earwig]

I got some stuff for putting on rubber door seals to stop doors freezing up. Don't ask me what it's called though: it's in German...

Sack barrows are quite cheap these days...

Predictions? Umm, the value of the pound will drop to parity with the €urine and Gordon Clown and Chancellor Eyebrows will take it as an excuse to adopt it. Civil war will then break out, there'll be tanks in Whitehall and nobody will have a happy Cristmas.

[teamster1975]

Predictions? Umm, the value of the pound will drop to parity with the €urine and Gordon Clown and Chancellor Eyebrows will take it as an excuse to adopt it.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if they tried to weasel it in.
The "Great British Public" up in arms over it? That'd be the day. I don't know what it would take to make people take a stand.

[teamster1975]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7782234.stm

[steve_earwig]

I just clocked that one myself (as well as the one about the guy using a pizza to fight off muggers in the 'states)

[jasper5]

Dogslife, regarding the 206 misfire problem, has anyone suggested fuel injector problems?

The 206 has a very common fault connected with the injectors....management light comes on, engine misfires/lacks power.

Whenever I get asked to fix one of these (if this is your problem), the solution is remove the injectors and swap them around, eg, 1to 4, 2 to 3 etc.
This fix has never failed...I learned this fix from a mobile tuner friend of mine, I had the fault on a customer's car, did all the usual, coil pack etc.

The management light goes out after a couple of days driving, or have it reset.

The 206 also suffers from bad earthing problems, giving all sorts of weird problems.

[mjb]

Tuesday morning - Pug's doors frozen shut.

I keep a can of de-icer in the boot. Sprayed over the top door seal it lets me get in on cold mornings. I've tried vaseline on the seals, but it doesn't work

Wonder if WD40 would do the job

Saturday afternoon - 406 develops leaky roof

I've done a howto on getting the aerial on and off, but in short:

Prise the courtesy light out
Undo the screws and take the panel out
Pull the cover off the aerial base if you can, then undo the nut, or unscrew the whole thing from outside if you don't care too much about your paintwork

Then make up your own seal and put it all back together

[Doggy]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.
Do you remember, a few weeks ago someone saying how daft it was for the aerial on later D9 estates to be mounted at the back? Yep, this is one of them. The headlining doesn't seem damp and there's no staining anywhere. Think I'm back to sunroof as cheif suspect.

Thanks for the 206 suggestions Jasper, I'll certainly pass that along.

Yippee! Garage door's fixed Better than it was when we moved in (1992)

[mjb]

Hm. Didn't realise it was a D9 with rear mounted aerial. The top side of the headlining is waterproof, so you won't feel any damp, but it's worth bearing in mind the aerial mount actually seems to be designed without any thought whatsoever to waterproofing. I'd definitely get the cap off the aerial plug inside to see if it's damp. It shouldn't be too hard to get to and will give you a definitive answer

[steve_earwig]

...daft...

I'm not so sure about that, if the groundplane of an arial is at one side it will transmit and/or recieve better on that side, so your car radio's reception will be biassed towards the direction you are heading rather than where you've been, which kind of makes more sense for local radio traffic reports etc.

Don't pour too much water in while you're testing the sunroof drains!

[Welly]

Frozen door seals = Autoglym 'bumper care' gelly on the seals

Tumble dryer = If you've got a 'spare-ish' room in the house use a clothes horse and buy a dehumidifier from B&Q (£65.00) and that will create a drying room with no condensation

We've been running one for over a year now and you can dry your washing with jeans/large towels etc indoors over night! (smell nice too) I also recycle the water it collects (2 litres, sometimes just overnight) and re-use it for watering etc.

Dehumidifier = 260watts

Tumble drier = 2000 watts?

Take care this week

[mjb]

I just chuck everything on radiators... Takes about an hour to dry jeans

[Welly]

I just chuck everything on radiators... Takes about an hour to dry jeans into cardboard

[mjb]

Best way to have 'em, especially towels! Can't stand using soft ones, they've got to be crispy...