Cam belt replaced

Well, the final 'must do' job has now been done. Had the cam/timing belt replaced yesterday. The car seems smoother than ever now. The cambelt fitted to the car was coming to the end of it's life, based on mileage so the car's now got a clean bill of health

New wheels fitted

Hopefully no more flat tyre every few days!

 

New wheels tomorrow

Off to collect some nice Audi A3 wheels for the car tomorrow. The current wheels are in pretty good condition but one of the tyres loses air. Priced up a new tyre then decided to keep an eye on eBay for some alloys. Nothing too flash but nice. Found some 6 spoke Audi alloys with good tyres fitted. If we're not snowed in, I'll get them tomorrow afternoon and take some pics once fitted

A couple of Pics of the whole car instead of bits of it for a change!

One knackered Lambda sensor

The Lambda fitted to the car is obviously an aftermarket one and not up to the job of being slung underneath a car in full contact with rain, snow, ice, etc... I  barely got the socket on when the sensor part fell off the nut securing it! This might have something to do with the intermittent Lambda fault!

Lambda sensor replaced

Well, that was a bitch of a job, but it's now done! The old lambda sensor was obviously a cheap, aftermarket part. The wiring had turned to dust and the sensor itself snapped off the nut that secures it to the exhaust after me barely touching it with the sensor socket on the end of my ratchet!!!

I cleared the code, let the car idle for a while then took it up the road. All seems OK so far so I just hope the damn fault stays away! The car is definitely smoother and feels more powerful - like it has done between episodes of coughing and farting! It's definitely smoother with the lambda plugged in than it was without one. The MPG figure has also started to creep up already!

I still need to refit the heat shield from above the cat, but that can be a job for another day! I'm knackered!

Clonking exhaust

When we have passengers in the back or drive over speed bumps, the rear end of the exhaust has been clonking on what sounded like the floor of the car.

I had a look at it a week or so ago and found that there was a badly fitted exhaust clamp banging on the rear crossmember when the suspension was compressed. I've taken off the old, rusty clamp and fitted a new one in a better position. There are no clearance issues now so job's a good'un!