Tour of disappointing seaside towns, part 3

-
There's been no proper holiday this year because of OPERATION KITCHEN but the boy and I had a couple of nights in Blackpool last week. I'd not been there since the mid 90s (when I left early in disgust), but I visited it as a child and loved it, so thought I'd give monkeyboy a chance to experience it. Surely it couldn't be as bad as Tenby or Yarmouth, could it?
Actually... no, it was pretty good. The 1930s trams remain, the pleasure beach is still very good (which you now pay a single fee to enter, like other theme parks), the sea defenses are being imaginatively rebuilt and feature large pieces of modern art, and the weather was great.

Unfortunately most of the bad bits remain; the nasty seafront hotels (ranging from sleazy to cheesy), rows of squalid chip shops, scruffy nightclubs, gaudy arcades (sometimes claiming to be 'casinos'), and souvenir tat shops. All place great emphasis on how cheap they are - clearly their patrons don't care much for quality. It's particularly bad around the tower, we avoided the area altogether.

Unless they take a bulldozer to all of this, I don't think Blackpool can possibly recover any of it's credibility as a family holiday destination, despite the great efforts being made by the council.
In other news... dog had his first trip to the beach at the weekend.

The Mazda has been cleaned and polished, and returned to the road... briefly. After noticing the dipstick dislodged from it's tube and high oil consumption when using a heavy right foot, I suspected all was not right with the oil breather and blocked off the connection to the inlet manifold. That fixed it, and provided noticeably more power - I suspect much of the boost had been going past that valve and pressurising the crankcase.

This was REALLY GOOD, and I was having a fine tussle with a M3 on a quiet B-road... until it went BANG. The air filter had been blown off the turbo (presumably because I still don't have a dump valve), which had taken out the hose from the electronic boost controller, which in turn led to excessive boost pressure which resulted in a blown off intercooler tube, which knocked out the IAT sensor. But it still ran! Not very well of course, but enough to get me home.

I've got a nasty ebay chavtastic dump valve on it's way now, so there will be much pSHHHHHHHt hilarity once I've found a way of bodging it on. A better-fitting air filter and (hopefully tougher) silicone vacuum hose for the EBC is coming too. It's supposed to be going to Swansea on Saturday to get the roof fixed, will it be ready in time?

Popular posts from this blog

Adding bluetooth to a Mini with Harman Kardon audio

-
Image
My R53 Cooper S has the unexpected bonus of the Harman Kardon premium audio system.  While it has impressive power and sound quality (once you discover the hidden settings ), it's firmly stuck in the past with just CD and analogue radio.  You can't change the head unit as the speakers are all wired to the 10-channel amp that lives in the boot, so new cables would need to be run from the head unit to each speaker, which would be an almighty faff. I wanted to add bluetooth so I could play my cheesy '80s music from Spotify, so bought a Grom BT3  which is a small module that plugs into the CD-changer port on the rear of the standard-fit Boost head unit.  It allows you to stream music from your mobile, and make/receive calls via the supplied microphone.  You can also buy another module that plugs into the Grom to provide DAB radio, USB, or iPod wired connections, I didn't bother with any of those, I just wanted Bananarama, loud. There are 2 versions of the Grom for BMW
Read more

BMW E39 diesel pump replacement

-
Image
I replaced the fuel pump in the tank of the 530D yesterday.  It was quite fiddly and I couldn't find any useful guide on the internet, so I thought I'd create a quick outline of the procedure: Symptoms of failure : poor starting/cutting out when the fuel level falls to around a quarter of a tank. Cost : £42 from GSF , plus 2x 9mm petrol hose clips (the originals are not reusable). Procedure :  remove the rear seat base by pulling up sharply on it's front edge (there are a pair of spring clips holding it in place).  Beneath are 2 access panels to the tank, the pump is under the right-hand side one (behind the driver on a UK right-hand drive car).  Remove the cover and disconnect the 2 hose connections and the electrical plug (removed by pushing the locking clip sideways).  Unscrew the locking ring by gently rotating it with a hammer and chisel. Now slowly remove the fuel sender unit, noting it's orientation and how it slots into the pump assembly below - it'
Read more

MINI tailgate hinge replacement

-
Image
I replaced the snapped tailgate hinge on t'old MINI today, and it wasn't too bad a job.  The design is a bit crap and they tend to seize, and then break and attempt to bonk you on the head with the tailgate.  Didn't like that. The hinge is held on by a single nut but you need to partially drop the headlining to reach it.  To do this you need to: remove the tailgate seal remove the rear seats remove the rear side panel trim on the affected side This is all covered by some helpful folks in this YouTube video.  After this, you need to remove the white C-pillar trim; it's held in by 4 plastic tabs (2 top, 2 bottom), which fit into metal clips in the body.  It needs a sharp tug but there is a fair risk of breaking the tabs, but I got away with it. Now you should be able to gently pull down the headlining, to release the clip in the centre: That should give just enough clearance to get a 13mm socket onto the nut securing the hinge.  There is quite a lot
Read more