Today's smile? well actually Monday's smile. My youngest boy and his family have gone down to Devon for their summer holidays so I decided to go out and pick up the Jazz, bring it back here and go through it from front to back as It's been about a year since I last properly got my hands on it and it's got a strange, very loud, rattle from around the O/S/F hub. Sounds like the disc splash guard?
I knew I wasn't going to get out there and back and be able to do a big service, sort the rattle and probably other stuff as well, all in the one day. I rather reluctantly, decided that as Becky (our Panda) is worth a lot less dosh than our much newer Ibiza, it would be sensible to leave Becky out there overnight and then come home in her when I drop the Jazz back at their house. Feels a bit like abandoning a good friend though!
So I stuck my spare petrol can in the boot (the Jazz often seems to be running on fumes), my watering can and my emergency tools too - actually that's about the boot full - and set out. To avoid the heaviest traffic I cut up to Pickardy Place using back roads all with speed bumps. Then up Leith street and left down by the Black Bull and around the back of Waverley station and up onto the Royal Mile then down St Marys Street which is a cobbled street and in very very poor repair. I'd forgotten just how bad it is and as I progressed down it it occurred to me that the earlier speed bumps and now these horrendous cobbles are actually going to be a good test for that corroded back axle.
Then on out of the city onto the main A7 south and eventually to my boy's house. This is the first run I've done with her on a fast main road since I fitted her new thermostat and I'm very pleased to be able to say that she ran beautifully with no sign of the part throttle hesitation she previously suffered.
She cruised along at speed varying between 40 and 60 mph very happily and I really enjoyed driving her with the driver's window half down and the wind in my hair!
When I got to my boy's house I took a very good look under the back at the spring pans and they seem to have survived just fine. My plan to use the Fertan on it is looking realistic I think.
Checked the house, watered the plants, moved the Jazz so I could park Becky in front of his front path and told a couple of the neighbours I was swapping the Panda for the Jazz for a couple of days. I felt strangely like a traitor as I saw Becky in my rear view mirror as I drove away in the Jazz though.
It's now Wednesday night and I've just finished with the Jazz - nothing's simple on older cars is it? - although it won't be going back home until Saturday morning because I've run into a problem which Kenny and his "merry men" are going to sort out for me on Friday.
Think I'll take a run out to water the planets again and check up on Becky tomorrow.
