September 10th

 

commute, tip at lunchtime, commute home via garage for yet more air for the tyres

 

concerned by the lack of bothers given at the tip.

"Can you do anything with this foam?"

"nah just stick it in this "General Waste" compactor"

"what about this seat back it's got a metal frame?"

"chuck it in"

"these head rests? again metal legs?"

"nah it'll be fine"

"What about this plastic?"

"oh no can't compact that stick it in that bin over there"

 

very odd.

That said it's cleared a space

September 11th

 

2 dull commutes with next to no terrorist incidents

September 12th

 

Yet more uninspiring drivnig to and from work

September 13th

 

Woohoo Friday - still means driving to and from work though

September 14th

 

Castle Combe Action Day

 

Unfamiliar position of being on the stand rather than taking part in the track session/sessions

Still saving the car for Oulton in October so probably for the best.

Arrived at half 10 just in time to say some hello's before everyone headed off to the pits before their 10:45 session.

 

Observed the first session from Quarry corner and felt a pang of regret not being out there.

Consoled myself by taking pictures instead.

 

Session over wander backdown to the pits to catch up with some now scared/excited looking members still buzzing with adrenaline.

 

One member looking a little whiter than others and quietly offered me his place in the second track session as "neither he nor his car would be up to a second session".

While i wasn't really bothered about being out on track when someone offers you the chance you grab it with both hands.

Briefing wrist band swapped over, track ticket and hanger passed over and helmet borrowed I was on. 

Right up until the moment i realised sat in the queue for the track hat i hadn't been sound tested and now didn't have time to go get it done.

No bother as it didn't matter and i was just waved through.

 

Car felt great on track, smokey as normal but pulling like a train, the new (old) turbo standing up to the abuse pretty well.

ONe brown trouser moment occured when Korban lost it at Old Paddock right in front of me and i needed to stamp the brakes avoid T-boning him.
Still awesome fun though.

 

 

It does feel soooo soft on the standard suspension though.

really rolls and take ages to settle down for direction changes or over the bumps into Quarry.

Outlon is gunna be great though!!

 

One black mark was an exaggerated exhaust note towards the end of the track session.

Which went away on part throttle through the show back to the stand but became hugely evident and worrying when accelerating up the road after the show.

A quick 180 back for some advice from the remaining esteemed members and Jason gave up 10 minutes of his time to come or a spin.

Deffo exhaust potentially manifold - not words i wanted to hear.

No drop in performance though so can't be too serious - drove home gently and without further incident.

September 15th

 

Exhaust places open on a Sunday?

That'll be the national chains with dodgy reputations then!

Luckily both places were perfectly helpful and gave almost the same diagnosis.

 

Car up in the air and F1 Autocentres give a "chuffing like a train from behind the engine rather than anywhere else in the exhaust system."

All good as i don't really wanna pay for a new exhaust, even less if it's the cat.

"Probably just a gasket between the turbo and the downpipe."

Awesome

 

Kwikfit next - uh oh - who knows waht they are going to say

Say initial diagnosis but prepared to investigate further.

Under tray off and a hand up behind the engine.

"Not the downpipe gasket as it's not blowing from there"

ummmmm

"looks like it might be that little silver plate and gasket there on the back of the engine"

"the one on the exhaust manifold?"

"yep"

"excellent!"

 

That's one of the Darkside blanking plates in my pikey EGR delete and makes perfect sense.

Given we were only expecting to need a new gasket between manifold and EGR pipe we only bought one new one.

This one (i can but assume) went between blanking plate and bottom of the EGR valve, leaving an old one on the manifold.

 

In theory a new gasket and some exhaust sealing paste shoudl se the job sorted!

 

fingers crossed a £3 gasket will be the only fix it needs :wonder:

 

One other issue noticed while it was in the air - other than me picking the final bits of paint off my RARB - was this

 

 

Might need to invest in some rubber pads for my jack

September 16th

May or may not have nearly set myself on fire this morning.

Just to confirm the leaking. Linking plate and gasket I thought it'd be a good idea to stuff a white rag in behind it for the commute to work.

If it comes out sooty bingo there's the leak.

Didn't stop consider that the rag was an old almost all polyester shirt.

Couldn't smell the extra fumes over all the melting & burning polyester.

Turns out unprocessed exhaust fumes a pretty hot

Deffo that gasket that is leaking though.

May or may not have also gone to tax the car today, as it expires at the end of the month, only to be rejected online due to not having a valid MOT.

That's not right I mean I only got one...errr....um....middle of August last year.

Oopsie.

September 17th

 

luckily incident and fire free commutes but exhaust still blowing like a goodun.

sounds quite nice actually.

If only it didn't mean increased fuel usage

September 18th

 

Lunchtime trip to my local dealers for a £2.72 EGR return pipe gasket

Then on to my tame mechanic for fitting. oh the joys of trying to remove threads, a gasket and blanking playe from a piping hot manifold.

Ah well it was his hands rather than mine

 

Turns out the standard VW paper type gasket has practically disintegrated.

The paper on either side has fried away leaving a perforated metal inner, hence the blowing.

It kind of points towards a warped blanking plate (which is annoying given it's OEM) but the new all metal gasket should be much more up to the job.

And to be honest it took a trackday to kill the old one and £3.00 is hardly a lot to add on to each service.... 

September 19th

 

dropped Mrs Pasty's car off with the tame mechanic for a service (15k's ok between oil changes riiiight? ) and new discs and pads all round.

kerching!!

 

That meant my car was drafted in to extensive use to ferry us to an extended weekend in cornwall.

filled up before heading to the mother land

 

Fuel - £48.35 - MPG - 46.4

 

Given that includes the track session at Combe and a week with a blowing exhaust that's not too shabby.

September 20th

 

Running around the green and pleasant land in the south west.

Passenger door still playing up but working eventually with some persuasion

September 21st

 

Mrs Pasty's birthday so ready for a big day out travelling way way west.

Until the passenger door decided to stop working entirely.

A day of climbing across the drivers seat to get in the car was not waht Mrs Pasty planned for her big day, so instead the car was abandoned on in-law's drive and we took their caddy van instead.

A noisy headache inducing way to do almost 200 miles.

September 22nd

 

More miles with less stops and a requirement to have a head which didn't feel like it's going to explode meant climbing over was fine.

Car performed admirably and the squidgy non-metal-support-barred bolsters of my recaros actually helped.

Although at one stage she did kick the front of the stereo and off the front of the aircon controls, which was nice!

September 23rd

 

one final climb over for the journey back oop north (well Gloucester is North from there!)

 

a steady 70mph plus the long perod of average 50mph on the M5 resulted in a healthy 58mpg for 160 miles.

stopped for fuel again at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol

 

Fuel - £51.56 - MPG - 51.8

 

not bad at all given it included plenty of back lane driving in cornwall as well as the motorway time

 

Once home I diverted to my tame mechanic to pic up Mrs Pasty's car ad get my door looked at.

A few lock/unlock button presses timed with a well placed punch to the door panel and the lock sprung in to life.

Not sure what that is conclusive proof of but at least the door opens now

 

Once home got the tools out and popped the door panel off - much easier than the rear ones attemtped when resealing them.

Bad news though the carriers are riveting on rather than the super early ones which were bolted.

means drilling and replacing if we're chaning the lock.

 

 

 

That said once finished a kneejerk reaction to lock the car from the key when walking away prompted some swearing but strangely the unlock button proved it's purpose and the door work perfectly.

All very odd

further testing has the lock mechanism now functioning correct on presses from the driver door buttons.

am tempted jsut to never put the door back on!

September 24th

 

A couple of dull commutes without incident, followed by a kneejerk door locking when i got home.]

F**K IT

Much door punching and swearing but luckily popped open

September 25th

 

No news but another habitual locking of the door when i got to work.

Result is an embarrassing 10 minutes of me giving the door some abuse to try and get it open again.

September 26th

 

Got the hang of this now

contents of the car removed and avoided locking the car

September 27th

 

Car remained locked in the garage while we attended a friend's wedding in the black car.

lovely do it was too

September 28th

 

Weekend redundancy locked in the garage

September 29th

 

locked away waiting 

September 30th

 

Another week and yet more commutes

no drama although did have to wedge a couple of bits of foam behind a couple of annoying bits of metal on the naked door which clinked over even the tiniest bump

October 1st

 

New door lock sourced via breaking car on here, which happens to be super local

Collection later in the week

October 2nd

 

dull commutes but did manage almost 65mpg on the way home

October 3rd

 

quick half hour trip across gloucester to see jambro and collect my new lock.

Hoorah i can almost consider it safe in all conditions again

 

Essential - New door lock - £15

October 4th

 

Final day of leaving the car unlocked at work and on to the garage straight after for the fitting.

 

Rivets drilled out, glass wedged in place and removed from the carrier, door lock removed.

compare door locks, yes they are the same

lose track of which was new and which was old (my tame main dealer mechanic excuse was "well we never fit dirty old parts so it's always easy tell old from brand new so i don't normally NEED to keep track.

A bit of investigation work and correct new (old) lock in and door ancillary carrier put back in with a couple of rivets.

lock tested - nothing.

lock unlock - nothing.

no latching, no unlatching - nothing

well that's less than i had before.....

 

drill out more rivets, remove lock, check it is definitely the new one, find that the lock has over extended and got stuck behind a bit of trim.

let out long thankful gasp smile

put back in test, works fine, rivet the door car back on.

run out of rivets (FFS)

put in 1 in each corner and leave

 

well we got there in the end but the door is now working again, will collect a few more rivets and get the whole thing done before putting the door card back on