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Wednesday,
26
July
2007
Okay, I know. This is a rather late blog; a
week and two days late to be precise.
You see, I have almost wiped out the last
fortnight preparing my car for an MOT. Well, actually, putting right all the
things that caused it to fail its MOT.
Firstly there were the Brake discs that had
to be changed. Looking at the manual, it would be a doddle. My son is an
apprentice mechanic so I thought he could do with the experience. First day
we found that we couldn’t slacken off two of the bolts. Having purchased
some more tools and a blow torch, brute force did the trick.
Then we attempted to fit one of the new brake
discs, only to find that it was totally different to the one we had removed.
Back to the motor factor’s shop to tell them they had supplied the wrong
ones. Just to prove it, we took the old one with us. How embarrassed was I
when the guy in the shop said, “well, if you remove the bearing inserts and
put them in the new ones, they will be the same.” An engineer (me) and an
apprentice mechanic (my son) didn’t spot the sleeves that had to be drifted
out.
So, remove the inserts I did, only to find
that the oil seal got damaged in the process. On a Saturday night, there was
no chance of getting new ones. As I had to take a trip to the Audi
dealership on Tuesday, I thought I could do without the car until then.
Problem with that idea was that the dealers did not have any. They did have
the anti-roll bar mounting bushes that I had ordered, though.
So that took me to Thursday. I got all the
parts together, got all my tools out, and then had to put them all back
again, when the rain started. This ritual was repeated over the next few
days, until I was finally able to install the brake disc – remember, I still
had the other one to do. Then I found that the piston would not go back into
the cylinder!! In order to accomplish this, I discovered that I had to
slacken off the handbrake cables. That required me to remove a big section
of heat shield from under the car. That required me to jack up a third
wheel. Uh?????.
Finally I got to fitting the one disc and the
brake cylinder and the wheel. By now it was Monday – 10 days after starting!
This time, there was no way the bolts on the other side were going to budge.
I had to buy another hex-drive socket and modify it so I could use brute
force (well, a big lump hammer, really). Cutting that long story short, I
finally got the brakes done, the handbrake adjusted and all the wheels on.
Tuesday, day eleven. Next, the bushes. Now,
these have to be replaced with the front wheels down. Easy! Just drive up
onto the ramps and… Oh! The bumpers are so low that I cannot drive onto the
ramps. Bugger this! I rang the garage. Yes they could do it on the following
day, just in time to get the MOT retest within the fortnight allowed. I
dropped the car off and went into Liverpool to do some library research for
another script I have in mind. At four-thirty, I discover that the Audi
dealership had ordered the wrong bushes. Aghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So now, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that
the car will be finished and MOT’d when I phone them this afternoon. I’ll
let you know.
Till next time, this is yours truly signing
off.
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