I've gone mad...

[steve_earwig]

...and had new springs and shocks put on the front of the D8. I didn't want to say anything in case you lot tried to discourage me and yes, I am spending money I don't have (it's my new facade money, the guy's been pi$$ing me about for so long now he'll have to wait for it). The thing is, when I spent all the money on just registering it, it really galled me how much I could have fixed on it instead, but looking at it, it did look rather sad doing a nose dive into the ground like that. It probably would have been wiser to spend on the rear brakes but, as it'll need backplates (£80 odd a pop) and wheel bearings (£something truly stupid a pop) I thought this was probably the best I could do. I don't know how long I'll be driving it, if it doesn't go this autumn I don't see any point in registering the D9, so it could be a long time.

I can't remember who made the new springs but they were black, about 6 inches longer than my old ones and, reassuringly, didn't have a little lion on them anywhere. I asked for shocks as well as I figured the old ones must be pretty shagged by now (and they were), I had a choice of 4 but Sachs were second cheapest after a Japanese company I'd never heard of. Oh, and both drop links were knackered too

So... a bill I feel a bit better about because it actually did something useful:

Springs - £90
Shocks - £126.20
Drop links - £46.93
Labour (2 hours) - £33.52
Minus my special 10% discount (the guy who runs it is a friend of my other half, his colleague is a biker buddy)
Total - £267.93

It's not quite like driving a new car but loads better. Shame about the grating noise from the back brakes and the rubbing noise in left-handers. Oh, and the plip stopped working yesterday

[Welly]

Labour (2 hours) - £33.52

Can they look at my car please?

I wouldn't worry steve, it's a decent job to do on the car and it's not cost too much really, if you say it quickly

I always think it's better to do what you've done rather than smash the sump off on something cos it's running too low

[steve_earwig]

It's the dragging the front subframe on the ground thing that got me, I nearly got beached once. They've had the high road up here all bluddy summer and there's so many different levels you would believe it, ok in the '9 so long as I take it easy but I reckon it was only a matter of time 'til I did some damage to the '8. Plus, when I first stuffed it in the shed here as quickly as I do the '9 there was a big bang as it hit the sill.

I must measure it later and compare it to this