Good news cheapskate, bodging fans, I've fixed the little Peugot (again)(I hope). After it's recent MOT failure for a lack of ABS light, I've done bit more investigating and a bit more learning and narrowed down the source of our problem to the ABS pump. Brilliant, I hear you say, well done and all that, diagnosis is half the battle. Well, that's not quite the case, because a wheel sensor's £10 (which would have been my first guess) and an ABS pump module is closer to £500! and there's no way I'm spending £500 on a car that's only worth that to start with. Luckily, with a bit of digging through the bodgers favourite website (E Bay), I managed to find one with identical part numbers from a car breakers, for the princely sum of £30 delivered right to my door. Now, there's lot's of tales of doom on the internet, and plenty of naysayers, who will tell you that if it's not an identical part, or if it's from a 5 door and not a 3 door, or if the moons in the wrong place, it won't work, or it will be impossible to fit and subsequently you can't bleed the air out of it and all that jazz. But at £30 it's got to be worth a punt, and at the end of the day, what's the worst that's going to happen? It's broken now, so it's unlikely to get any more broken! Anyhow, it turned up courtesy of the postman, just as a got in on Friday afternoon. So, with a couple of hours daylight remaining, I donned by Thermals, Overalls, Bobble hat, and anything else that I could find to brave the arctic gale that seemed to be whistling around the house and set too. Helpfully, the Haynes book of how not to fix your car, says that the ABS module is a dealer only replacement, so that wasn't much help. But, with a careful bit of fiddling and a big bit of bar to undo some of the unions, it was out within about 30 minutes, and in less time than it takes to have a brew, the new one was in. Granted, I'd had to take the headlight out to do it, but that's just par for the course on most jobs. The big problem with these modules seems to be bleeding the air out of them, so with an unusual bit of pre planning on my part, I'd already got as much new brake fluid in it as I could before installing it and cracked off all the pipes to ensure that there was no air in there before plugging it in. And what do you know, plug it in, turn the ignition on and hey presto, the ABS light comes on, runs through it's test cycle and goes back out again, just like it should! Another half hour, dodging the rain showers whilst I fully bled it and put the front end back together again and job done. I've run it round the block for half an hour and run it through the start cycle a few times and all seems to be good. So fingers crossed that's that job sorted and all for the princely sum of £30 and half a litre of brake fluid. "The Emma's" going to whip it back up to the garage on Monday morning so they can redo the MOT and hopefully by Monday afternoon I'll have a nice new, shiny MOT certificate, in my dirty, grease stained fingers! I'm sure that you'll agree that's a bit better than the £500 for a new one, plus diagnosis, plus fitting etc, that it would have cost from the garage. Not only that but this time I know it's actually fixed and not just hidden from view. It does make me wonder if the last person got stung for the full repair cost whilst the cheeky monkeys just covered up the light and pocketed the cash though? You've got to be careful out there people, there's some unscrupulous people around and if your not careful they will have your pants down quicker than you can say "can you fix this for me"! Just in case you haven't already figured it out from the fact I'm wittering on about fixing cars, I've not actually got much to talk about this weekend. That's mainly because, unusually, I've been at home all weekend. I've been away for the last 3 weekends Audaxing and running and contrary to popular belief (and what I try to tell myself) occasionally, even I need a bit of a rest. I'm back on the bike next week and running the one after and then it's Christmas. I need to catch up on all the little jobs that need doing around the place too, more of which later, and pretend that I've actually got a life other than playing out, oh and a wife that I'm supposed to spend some time with. So, a weekend at home it's had to be. Not that I'm missing much, as I'm sat here now (Saturday 07:00) failing miserably to find the enthusiasm to go out for a run as it's sleeting outside! But, whilst I am wittering on about nothing in particular, how about these pictures from earlier in the week. Having dragged my sorry backside out of bed, well before 05:00 the other morning and ventured out into the cold, to run the 10 miles back to work (and I can assure you that the run in to work is worse than the run home. Not only have you got a full day to look forward to and an early start, but getting your legs moving at silly O'Clock's never much fun). I was lucky enough to be treated to the delights of running towards the rising sun, on what was a cold and frosty morning. With nothing but a head torch to light the way, limiting your vision to the few meters around you, and your breath, illuminated like a dragons flame, billowing around you, in the glow of the torch, it's a pretty special time to be out and about. The paths and roads are still quiet, too early even for the commuters, the night animals are making their way back home after their nights out. Deer and badgers crossing the road in front of you, caught momentarily in the beam of the torch, the daytime birds just starting to signal the return of the sun from their hedgerow hideaways and the sky slowly changing from jet black, to pink, to mauve and eventually to the clearest pale blue in front of you. Yes, it's not the easiest or the cheapest way to get to work, running shoes cost a kings ransom I can tell you. But, on a day like that, when the worlds still asleep, the sky's clear, there's no wind and your the king of your own destiny, it's probably the best way to get there and the best start to a day a man could wish for! To be honest there's not a great deal else to report from this weekend. I finally dragged myself out of the house and into the sleet on Saturday morning for an easy 10 mile run around one of my local trail routes and apart from getting a bit chilly it was good to get out of the house and into the fresh air. Saturday afternoon I wandered up to the Allotment for a couple of chilly hours to take the roof off of the fruit cage. I suspect that any snow accumulation on it would be enough to tear it to shreds, so for the sake of an hours work it makes sense to roll it back for the winter and secure it to the frame at the far end. Although there's still plenty of crops still to harvest (Cabbage, Sprouts, Parsnips, Leeks, Beetroot, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Kale and Chard) the birds don't seem to make much of an impact between now and March, so it's worth rolling back. Plus it gives the birds a chance to get in and hopefully eat some of the bugs that tend to still be knocking around. Whilst I was there I picked, Leeks, Beetroot, the last of the bell peppers and a couple of Long Peppers from the greenhouse and some potatoes, which all roasted up a treat for a tasty tea, along with a nice bit of Pork. It's a shame I've not got space for a bit of livestock, or we could be pretty much self sufficient. There's a couple of Butternut squash that need using up too, so I'll roast one of them in the week which I suspect will go down a treat with a bit of left over pork and a few Baked Beans (homemade of course) for an easy midweek dinner. Yummy! After Saturdays strong winds and sleet showers, Sunday dawned a bit calmer, but still a touch on the chilly side. Putting on my brave face, I ventured out on my bike for a few early morning miles, taking great care to avoid the frozen puddles and areas of black ice created by the cars driving through the puddles and then depositing the water back onto the icy road surface. With the sun shining strongly, it was a beautiful morning to be out, but by golly, was it cold. Even with all my winter gear on it wasn't long before first my fingers and then my toes went numb, making what should have been a pleasant day out into a bit of an ordeal. Not to be beaten though, I plodded my way around 60 miles of glorious Hampshire countryside, and I think that in the whole time I was out I only saw a handful of walkers, a couple of runners and 3 other cyclists, stupid enough to be out. If nothing else though, it makes coming home for a brew and a warm up all the more welcome! And finally! You might remember back in the mists of time that as part of Project Patio I made a Log Store.
Well, you'll be pleased to know that nearly a year later I've finally put a roof on it. I think that I commented at the time "I'll grab some roofing felt next time I'm at the Allotment and pop a roof on it" Apparently great things come to those that wait, or at least dry logs.
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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