327 replies to this topic

[DaveJH]

I've since had my replacement screen through in the post and fixed it successfully. However, my Dad rang the other day to say he'd tried the ignition system and it still appears not to be working. Oh and apparently my battery is dead.

If this car does ever see the road again I have been asked to be the driver for one of my best friend's wedding - in my mini! It will be amazing if I can get it sorted in time.

[lawrence]

hope she gets back on the road soon mate, sounds like youv had a rollercoaster of a time trying to get her fixed! good luck! lawrence

[DaveJH]

Small to-do list before the MOT retest on Tuesday or Wednesday... could this be the week my mini finally makes it back on the road..?

[DaveJH]

Finally got the MOT. Now I've run into a new problem (of course...). It seems my insurers took the money for my policy but didn't update the dvla database to declare my car as insured so I can't buy any tax! Going to try at the post office tomorrow morning and if it doesn't work it'll really put me out, I need to head back to university asap! Rang the insurers to ask what's going on and they said everything is fine from their end and they don't understand the problem.

[Boycie]

Congrats on the MoT, a major step forward!!!! The MID will update a day or so after the insurers have entered your details into the system... but that should only make a difference if you're taxing it online? If you have your insurance certificate/ cover note you should have no problem at all taxing it at the Post Office.
Have fun on the first drive out :)

[DaveJH]

Right, all sorted now but it was more hassle than I needed. It turns out the insurance company took it upon themselves to suspend my policy the day they started it..! Every time I rang to talk to them about it nobody pointed out it was suspended and everyone said it was fully insured and ready to go. This morning I asked them to really check because I'm definitely not coming up as insured and I couldn't use my insurance certificate at the PO because they had typo'd on the dates..! He finally realised the problem and reinstated my insurance as of this morning. Also, I'm getting a refund of around £230 from the suspended months. Now as long as no police caught me driving what I thought was an insured car to and from the MOT station yesterday then things are perhaps looking up a little!

Also, I drove to uni today - finally! Been waiting to take my car to uni for SO long. I'm a happy man :)

[ZEBERDEE]

Good to hear its going well for you ! I'v also had some nightmares along the way of my rebuild

[DaveJH]

Here's a couple of photos of Barney in Oxford (and one next to a large JCB)

[DaveJH]

As is typical of my luck recently, I broke down right in the middle of the severn bridge yesterday! Fan belt snapped (second one to go in around 200 miles), battery drained out, engine started to overheat so I slowed right down and tried to ease the car home (as I was only about 20 miles away by then) but on the middle of the bridge the battery gave out and the car died. Thankfully the water didn't blow the cover off the radiator so that should mean the engine didn't get too hot and no other damage was done but I need to find out what is eating up my fan belts! Got a mate coming to have a look at Barney tomorrow and see if we can work out what is wrong. Possibly the alternator or the water pump pulley is out of alignment or has dead bearings, I'm not sure. Very frustrating!

[DaveJH]

Turns out it had the wrong belt which is why it snapped. Stuck a new one on and everything is working fine thankfully. I'll be driving back to Oxford soon so we'll see how he fairs on the journey back. Meanwhile I still need a spare wheel!

[DaveJH]

In case anyone's interested I thought I'd put up some pictures of my new roof box up :)

First on the back of the recovery truck on Thursday:



Not where I wanted to end up! Nevermind, all sorted now.

[Boycie]

Looking good mate. The fan belt issues etc will be ironed out in time, the car has had major restoration work and been off the road for a fair amount of time; it takes a few months of daily usage to get the bugs out of the system :)

[DaveJH]

True, let's hope there aren't too many more bugs that put me onto more recovery trucks!

[bcjames]

Great to see you back on the road Dave. Love the look of the mini with the roofbox on top!

I work in Oxford quite a bit, I'll keep an eye out for you.

[DaveJH]

Took him out for a drive today and noticed a new problem has developed. It idles so low that it stalls, didn't do that before the fan belt snapped and the engine got a little hot. Any ideas?

See my thread about it here.

Edited by DaveJH, 08 April 2012 - 07:02 PM.