Eunos Chump

It's here, it's vast, and I love it.  Definitely a wafting car - trying to go quickly results in engine noise and little of the promised Velocity, and in fast corners the only thing stopping it falling off the road is the fact you'll fall out of the seat first.  But those seats!  Wide and comfortable, it's nicer than my house (but that's not saying much, perhaps). Heated too. It's a big, soft cocoon of peace so it's definitely delivering on the Satisfaction front.   Took it to work today, bad traffic on the way home and had to make much use of the electronic handbrake.  Don't trust it, but at least I know where the emergency release is now.

Despite the sterling work of the GTV, I don't feel I have enough rammel in my life so I've taken steps: 5 more sleeps to go, during which I need to stick some new pads on the GTV and put the dash back together (the heater flap motors have started working again, I believe this is known as 'character'). UPDATE : this car is famous. For not being very good.

GTV is back on the road, and has covered 20 miles without the wheels falling off.  Getting the driveshaft back on was difficult, and then the bolts didn't screw into the flange as I'd expected, which was very puzzling.  Turns out there were nuts behind the flange - all 6 had fallen off and into an expansion gap in my concrete drive without me noticing.  What a donkey!  Had to use a spring compressor to get the strut back in place too, deffo the wrong procedure there.  Oil and filter changed, tightened up leaking coolant hoses, and it was ready to go. It does drive well and the engine is very eager, but I need to replace the cambelt ASAP; would be very annoyed if it went pop after all the time I've spent on it. Noticed some new problems while I was test driving it - drivers window rattly, but most annoyingly the air direction on the HVAC doesn't work (it's electronic and it seems there's a little motor module at fault). That prevents it being usabl...

Woke up early and set to work while the car was still frosted up. This machine is never far from my thoughts, it's become a puzzle I must solve. Perhaps I'm going a bit mental. Driveshaft finally off, though ended up taking off the strut to get clearance. I've got a PDF of the factory Alfa workshop manual (complete with dodgy translations), it reckons you can take the shaft off by only removing 1 bolt from the strut but nope. Should have just undone the bottom balljoint. New thermostat on, with £15 of new hoseclips from Halfords. Exhaust back on, but unable to test as in middle of oil change. Didn't take long for rain to stop my obsessive fun.

Have spent all day drilling out the broken studs on the cat on the GTV.  OK, I didn't start until mid-morning and then there was lunch, and 2 trips to Screwfix, and the light was going by 4pm, but still... am totally knackered now.  Last 1.5mm took 2 bloody hours! Chris welded up the broken exhaust mount for me, it's now seriously over-engineered. Exhaust was fixed at local place, have not been able to refit though because... .. this oil-cooler pipe is weeping, and there'd be no access with the manifold on.  Got the thermostat off and have flushed the cooling system, so making slow progress.  Next step - driveshaft.

Continuing to work on the GTV, slowly, and still not entirely sure why; perhaps it's like a sick animal I want to nurse back to health? Thermostat has failed open, this is the replacement.  About £30 and ECP had it in stock, currently fighting to remove the single-use hoseclips from the old one.  Discovered it's had a radiator quite recently, yet the coolant is mostly brown water.  Who does that? Engine is covered in oil, appears to be cam cover gasket but also suspect something is leaking under the cambelt cover.  Need to replace cambelt and balancer shaft belt as there's no history of either being done. Split intake hose not helping. I've given the frontpipe to a local exhaust fabricator to sort out.  Broken studs on cat now need sorting.  Awkward hub nut requires a thin-walled socket to remove it, which I've only been able to get from Amazon.  Everything is awkward on this car.

Ugh.  That flexi is causing me some right headaches, but it's one of 2 serious problems that'll prevent an MOT pass next month.  Other is a split CV gaiter, have got a replacement but weather has stopped play.