Car for my Daughter to learn in?

[Welly]

The Twingo's NSF alloy has been twatted on a curb stone full-on.

The 6 week old £85.00 tyre now has a 5p piece-sized chunk missing in the sidewall, a chink of alloy has gone but worse is the inside of the rim is buckled, only evident when I took the wheel off.

Going to a wheel specialist to see if they can repair the wheel as, looking on fleabay, the factory alloys are made from unobtainium

[steve_earwig]

Balls If you do replace it does the new one have to match? I'm sure a mismatched alloy would be a good aide-de-memoir not to ram the car up kerbs...

[Welly]

Fresh MOT achieved Monday, no advisories, the MOT man dislikes French cars and was quite disappointed I think that nothing was wrong with it.

[DaiRees]

Excellent work Welters, I love a shiny new MOT

Punto is still going strong too, and the boy passed his driving test last week at the first time of asking so happy days! The learner insurance policy has been cancelled and a new proper policy taken out at £953. Its a bit of a sad state when you're relieved that the insurance is "ONLY" twice the value of the car! Telematics box being fitted on Monday, I'll have to remember about that when I drive it, won't I... I have a feeling I'm going to ruin his score!

[Welly]

Yes it's weird driving with being 'watched' by the black box, sticking to 30mph it harder than you imagine. She used to get mostly 9/10 or 10/10 scores and was rewarded monies by the insurance on a pre-loaded credit card thing. Think she earned at least £50.00.

I fitted a sticker in the back window saying "Black Box Monitored" it was a simple and effective warning, not like some of the ridiculous jokey ones out there

Insurance for year 2 with Admiral is £440.00 car in her name, with me and wife as named drivers.

[Welly]

Changed the Oil on the Twingo last Sunday....

Placed a huge clear plastic sheet down in the Garage so I could drive onto it....typically the wind kept blowing it away from the car as I approached it

Oil change all went good with brand new Renner dealer sump washer (see previous lesson learnt) and even 'torqued' the sump nut

Monday I get a phone call at work...."the car smells like burning"

First things that ran through my mind were "did I tighten the oil filter" and "the sump nut" etc

Got home and found the plastic sheeting had flapped up at some point, touched the CAT, and left melting plastic stuck to it

[Welly]

The Twingo has disgraced itself, the Throttle Body failed and we had to get it towed

Worst thing was that upon starting the engine (at 5 deg C) it immediately went to *full* revs

Apparently common for the Renault 1.2 pez engines to suffer this, they use 'drive by wire' and the TB fails in all kinds of amusing French ways

Sourced a second hand unit off a 2012 car with 50k miles for £42.00 delivered, my Mechanic did the diagnostics and fitting for £45.00 so £87.00 all in

[Doggy]

You got off fairly lightly there - it was over £100 for one for my bro's 407 which, predictably,didn't fix it.

[steve_earwig]

Worst thing was that upon starting the engine (at 5 deg C) it immediately went to *full* revs

That'll have blown the cobwebs out Presumably it's got choked up and the throttle jammed. That could have made quite an interesting drive...

'drive by wire'

Doesn't everything these days? Bloody moderns Ah well, glad you got it sorted without selling a kidney.

[Welly]

Performed an Oil change yesterday on the Twingo - 12 months and only 2000 miles and the oil was black, 'petroly' and thin, must be the short journeys.

Just goes to show how important an oil service is even if you don't do the miles, I know lots of people who'd say "its not due for one".....

[Doggy]

I suspect an oil sample a few days from now won't look much different to the stuff you've just drained from it. My petrol cars of old were just the same despite a 60 mile daily round trip.

Oh how I miss commuting.

[DaiRees]

How's the Daughter's Insurance looking Welters? Rees Jr's renewal at end of year 2 has come in at 447 with Admiral, which now only equals what we paid for the car. Done all the comparison sites and the cheapest they're finding is 461 so we'll let it renew. I don't think that's too bad actually but I know that the fairer sex do tend to get it a bit cheaper so was just wondering.

We gave the Punto a full home service including timing belt last summer, more to try to get the boy to hold a spanner than anything else. Must say I found it quite therapeutic to be working on an older, less valuable car again.