B@st@rd Ford parts

That's supposed to be the best engine to have isn't it? Good compromise between economy, performance and reliability it seems. My father in law used to have a 1.4, he complained that it used too much fuel. Maybe it did, but on his 1000-1500 miles a year it couldn't have been too painful, but it irritated him enough to want to change it.

The 1.25L Yamaha engine was a great engine and the basis of the Puma engines as well. I drove a 1995 Fiesta for a short while with it and it performed very well. Pity the body didn't last as long as the engine...

Son is back for the weekend, to have the brakes checked over.

Not the best of weather to be working on the drive, but the job is done. There might be a little bit of uneven pad wear (on the side opposite that recorded) but certainly not over-concerning.

Given that I was going to be largely dismantling the brakes to check, I'd already resolved to replace the pads (£28 for Brembo ones, and free labour makes it a no-brainer, given the ones on there were the eight year old originals) so the pads were ready.

If all goes well, it's an easy job (I have a brake piston rewind tool that has been used a few times) and the first side was fine. The second side was less so; the flexible brake pipe bracket nut was rusted solid (I'd put penetrating fluid on both sides last night, and the first side was no problem at all). Though the recommendation is to remove these brackets, luckily there is just enough clearance to get the caliper off without (and without unduly bending the flexible pipe). Sigh of relief all round.

Job jobbed, and all appears well.

Booked in locally for two new tyres tomorrow morning (same place and tyres as the Dunlops coming off, which have seen him over 20K on the driven wheels). Cheapest price I could get anywhere, including via all the brokers.

Doubt it would have got sorted very quickly if I hadn't intervened (though I am sure he wouldn't have gone unsafe and/or illegal)

...yeah; it's quite nice to have the opportunity to break somebody else's car.....

It's even nicer to realise, even though various instructions are to the contrary, that you don't even have to remove it.

(I inherited an old, but immaculate, mechanical impact driver from my F-i-L. Place the "driver" head on the screw/bolt, and hit it with a lump hammer! Worked perfectly on some recalcitrant fasteners when I was changing discs some time ago!)

Rather like this:

...had an interesting experience at the tyre centre (Part of a small, national chain).

To get the best price, the tyres were ordered online and paid for in advance. First appointment on Sunday morning was selected for fitting (which gave me all of Saturday to wrangle with the brakes/weather, and enough time for laddo to depart for the South before the traffic).

Left the car with them and walked next door to look at the cars on the VW dealer's forecourt. Then noticed the mechanic walking over to us. "Do you really want to change those" he said, "You've got a few miles in them yet".

Nice of him to mention and offer - he reckoned something under 4mm left (though I had measured slightly less than 3mm a month ago, directly before the MOT that issued advisories on them, interestingly at a branch of the same chain near where the car lives). We went ahead anyway - I think I was a bit more accurate with my measurement (using a gauge), though there certainly was a margin of legal use still there.

The manager was at this time standing next to him, and said "Your choice", and then pointed to the car parked next to us. "The tyres on that are better than yours, and he's having all four replaced" (at which point the mechanic nearly fell over).

I suspect some of it is the demographic they see. Not the most wealthy of areas, and most of their clientele want absolute maximum mileage from their tyres.