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Post by rhyds on Sept 25, 2023 22:33:56 GMT 1
I get mileage back, and frankly I prefer to use my own motor than go and pick up the pool car which usually looks like an explosion in a recycling bin and has no fuel in it at 7am...
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Post by valhalla on Sept 26, 2023 14:52:40 GMT 1
I get mileage back, and frankly I prefer to use my own motor than go and pick up the pool car which usually looks like an explosion in a recycling bin and has no fuel in it at 7am... I used to have the same problem at Landrover - honestly ! That was before I got my own Management hack, which suddenly made it possible to drop everything at a moment's notice and get somewhere remote for a good old firefight.
The best one was a pool-car to go down on a regular, weekly stay away with a big player in the South East. I didn't really want to go down there, but it was agreed, on my behalf, that I was the man to be posted into the "remote job from Hell" and be forced to live away from my home and wife during the week for months on end.
Anyway (I'm re-gathering my senses......the memory of that secondment was too painful.....) the pool-car I got was a 1.8 Freelander of some early vintage. It should have been retired before it left the production line, but now I had the "pleasure" of driving into work early on a Monday morning, so that I could pick this car up and then drive it down to the remote job. The pool-team would not just allocate me the car as if it was my own; it had to be collected no earlier than 6:30am on Monday, and be returned no later than 4:00pm Friday. Every week.
The first trip I drove it, I gave it the once-over in the car-park outside my offices on-site (at least I had access to fluids, etc. to service it, so I thought, from my own development team). This thing was shocking, never seen the inside of a Service bay in its short life, and was, as they say in the trade, "poorly presented". It had got more hits than the Beetles, but the incredible thing (in my mind, as an Engines Development Engineer) was the state of the engine bay. One instinctively knows when something is wrong, and this one was screaming from the rafters. Every fluid was low; oil, coolant, PAS, washer, the lot. Every fluid was mixed with something it shouldn't have been. No fluid looked like it had ever been renewed, let-alone topped-up. Every fluid was exuding from every system, even the brake reservoir had a weep from the base (clearly knocked by something or another).
The big thing for me (amongst a fair few "almost big things") was whether it was going to make the 115mile journey each way, or not. I used to get laughed-about at work, given the old rubbish I used to drive around in, but even my oldest car at the time (1963) would have knocked this thing into a cocked-hat for reliability. It had the look of "K-series head gasket failure" from the moment I lifted the lid. Beyond this, and despite it being a pool-car within a major car company, it was a death-trap.
I phoned the pool-team. No reply. I waited in the office, had a cup of tea, got to 7:30am, phoned the pool-team. No reply. Had another cup of tea, a good "ticking-off from the boss about still being in the office when he arrived (I explained the situation, said "As a professional Engineer, I'm not driving that thing out on the public roads until I have repaired it, or had someone repair it for me...." At 8:30am, pool-team turn-up. Tells me to "Just drive it, it's fine", even after I point-out that it's on its last legs with the HGF. They point-out that I don't get a say, this is a petrol engine, I'm a Diesel Engineer, what do I know?
Fluids go in, test-bed operators below my offices fill some spare-cans up for me (lots of pre-mixed coolant, lots of 10W/40, bit of DOT4) and then I finally get on my way. By the time I get to the destination, my prognosis was proved correct : Every time you went more than 60mph, the temp gauge creeped upwards into the red, and the smoke behind me was just visible in the low sunshine of the M25 Eastbound. During the week, I left this PoC in the car-park, walked the 1.5miles to the hotel and back each night. "Friday's going to be fun !!" I thought to myself.
Come Friday lunchtime, and having refilled the fluids as best as possible (some of my colleagues at the company had given me a lift out to a service station to fetch more pre-mix coolant, as I had already used more than a gallon getting down there on Monday morning, including stops all the way down the M40 and M25). The thing has already dropped a load of mayonnaise over the back-end of the car-park, around the back of some bushes, in the corner where all the late-comers had to park, about 1/2mile from the entrance to the offices. At this stage, I really felt good about the sort of company I worked-for. I wiped-up the frothing-mess from under the expansion tank and down the inside of the engine bay, as best as I could with some roller-towel, went back to the offices, phoned the pool-team.......no reply, they go home at 1:00pm these days. "Oh well, let's see how far we can flog this thing before it expires. Best stay on the bus-route and off the motorways. Let's leave everything valuable in the offices down here - I just need my PC bag and some money. Leave it by the side of the road, if I have to....." I sighed to my colleagues.
I drove that thing back all the way to Gaydon via the B-roads, stopping every 10miles to refill the coolant bottle and let the engine cool-down. It didn't miss a beat. That little K-series just hung in there, all the way to 8:00pm that night, which is how long it took me to get back, All the way back, I was thinking about best places to stop, best places to phone-from (no mobile, not me....), best places to jump on a train or bus, best places to weigh this thing in. The heater had no output at this stage (matrix blocked, no doubt) and there was a distinctive knocking on one cylinder, but that little car made it back. So symptomatic of the state of the British car industry at the time, it puffed and wheezed its way home. So symptomatic of British management at the time, that car was ready and waiting for me the next Monday morning, oblivious to the fact it was a) sitting in a puddle of mayonnaise, b) seized f***ing solid on the starter-motor
Yes, Folks. This was the company selling £80k Rangerovers. I felt so proud.
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remmington
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Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,971
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Dead as
Sept 26, 2023 15:16:08 GMT 1
Post by remmington on Sept 26, 2023 15:16:08 GMT 1
I have always lived about less than three miles from my workshop premises. So at least I have something to be grateful for - no long commutes - or being sent miles for silly jobs. I only about 1.25 miles from my current workshop - if I do have to pop in out of hours - I normally do it on foot and take the dogs.
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Post by rhyds on Sept 26, 2023 15:32:03 GMT 1
To be fair I've never had a case that bad, but the problem I have is being "the chap who knows about cars" on site is that the pool cars get neglected, and then I get given them to go somewhere and end up having to sort whatever random problems everyone else has ignored.
A classic was the time I went to grab our 2019 Focus diesel estate pool car, which is the nice one. Turns out it had a slow puncture, so I was asked to take the 2012 Megane 1.5 diesel with zero power instead. The problem with that was it had a headlamp out. Now the only other vehicle left on site I was licenced to drive was a Vivaro 9-seater minibus, only that had a headlamp out too! In that case I ended up changing the headlamp bulb myself
Another occasion was when I was lent the pool car for another site, a 2018 FIAT Tipo 1.4 petrol non turbo. Not only did this heap have no power at all, but it also picked up a slow puncture. When I got to site the tyre was getting low, so I decided to put the spare on. Problem was, this was 2023 and nobody had taken the rear wheels off in 5 years, and this site was on the coast. It took borrowing a builder's brick splitting hammer to get the rim off and even then it took a lot of violence to get the wheel to move!
Then of course you get the fun and games of loading and unloading said pool car, and dealing with whatever shite the last 2/3/4 operators have left you. Extra bonus when its empty coffee cups and dirty cutlery!
Also, there's the bonus of having a car that you know is serviced properly and know will do what you ask of it. No worrying if the last person bothered to refuel it (a big isuse when local fuel stations don't open before 8am and close by 6pm) or if they've been ignoring some serious mechanical noisemaking because "its not my car so I don't care".
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remmington
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Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,971
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Dead as
Sept 26, 2023 18:09:37 GMT 1
Post by remmington on Sept 26, 2023 18:09:37 GMT 1
To be fair I've never had a case that bad, but the problem I have is being "the chap who knows about cars" on site is that the pool cars get neglected, and then I get given them to go somewhere and end up having to sort whatever random problems everyone else has ignored. A classic was the time I went to grab our 2019 Focus diesel estate pool car, which is the nice one. Turns out it had a slow puncture, so I was asked to take the 2012 Megane 1.5 diesel with zero power instead. The problem with that was it had a headlamp out. Now the only other vehicle left on site I was licenced to drive was a Vivaro 9-seater minibus, only that had a headlamp out too! In that case I ended up changing the headlamp bulb myself Another occasion was when I was lent the pool car for another site, a 2018 FIAT Tipo 1.4 petrol non turbo. Not only did this heap have no power at all, but it also picked up a slow puncture. When I got to site the tyre was getting low, so I decided to put the spare on. Problem was, this was 2023 and nobody had taken the rear wheels off in 5 years, and this site was on the coast. It took borrowing a builder's brick splitting hammer to get the rim off and even then it took a lot of violence to get the wheel to move! Then of course you get the fun and games of loading and unloading said pool car, and dealing with whatever shite the last 2/3/4 operators have left you. Extra bonus when its empty coffee cups and dirty cutlery! Also, there's the bonus of having a car that you know is serviced properly and know will do what you ask of it. No worrying if the last person bothered to refuel it (a big isuse when local fuel stations don't open before 8am and close by 6pm) or if they've been ignoring some serious mechanical noisemaking because "its not my car so I don't care". It is unreal how tight wheels are on cars when newish - all that main dealer servicing - is no good when you want to get a road wheel off a 3yr to 5yr car... Big hammer and lumps of wood required....
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remmington
Apprentice
Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,971
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Dead as
Sept 26, 2023 18:10:09 GMT 1
Post by remmington on Sept 26, 2023 18:10:09 GMT 1
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Post by OldGit on Sept 26, 2023 18:20:44 GMT 1
Ford are the only manufacturers that stipulate 'wheels off' in their service schedule - every other service, which ties in nicely with a brake fluid change None of the others I've worked for require the wheels to be taken off at service, obviously they're off for repairs like brakes & tyres but given the cost of tyres at a dealer - any dealer, most people leave 'torquing the wheel bolts' to the tyre fitter... Even some of the service schedules that specify 'check wheel nut/bolt torque' just ends up with a filter spinner 'checking' with his torque wrench that it goes click - the number of arguments I've had regarding over-torque (and won!) over that one!.
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Dead as
Sept 26, 2023 18:26:44 GMT 1
Post by rhyds on Sept 26, 2023 18:26:44 GMT 1
In this case the bolts came off nice and easy, the problem was the alloy wheel corroded to the steel drum. Now normally I'd have just dumped it back on the ground with loose bolts, lifted the handbrake and reversed it a few times to break the electrolytic corrosion, but being a FIAT it had a pilot pin/stud so that wouldn't have worked.
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Post by valhalla on Sept 26, 2023 18:43:52 GMT 1
Ford are the only manufacturers that stipulate 'wheels off' in their service schedule - every other service, which ties in nicely with a brake fluid change None of the others I've worked for require the wheels to be taken off at service, obviously they're off for repairs like brakes & tyres but given the cost of tyres at a dealer - any dealer, most people leave 'torquing the wheel bolts' to the tyre fitter... Even some of the service schedules that specify 'check wheel nut/bolt torque' just ends up with a filter spinner 'checking' with his torque wrench that it goes click - the number of arguments I've had regarding over-torque (and won!) over that one!. It's what takes me longer (amongst other things) than "book time" on the services I do up here. If at all possible (locking wheel nut adapter permitting) I take all the wheels off at every service, wire-brush and grease the spigots and mounting faces. It's also an easier way to assess brake pads.
I have to admit, one or two of the recent services this year, the wheels have not been removed; these tend to be the cars I know I have done previous years, but one or two are new to me, and therefore missing their locking wheelnut key.
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Dead as
Sept 26, 2023 18:46:36 GMT 1
Post by valhalla on Sept 26, 2023 18:46:36 GMT 1
I have always lived about less than three miles from my workshop premises. So at least I have something to be grateful for - no long commutes - or being sent miles for silly jobs. I only about 1.25 miles from my current workshop - if I do have to pop in out of hours - I normally do it on foot and take the dogs. This has been the biggest advantage to moving here 16years ago; all commutes to the office can be done on foot (1.5miles maximum).
The commute to the workshop is even quicker. 20seconds by foot, faster on the ice......
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Dead as
Sept 26, 2023 19:31:54 GMT 1
Post by Joepublic on Sept 26, 2023 19:31:54 GMT 1
In this case the bolts came off nice and easy, the problem was the alloy wheel corroded to the steel drum. Now normally I'd have just dumped it back on the ground with loose bolts, lifted the handbrake and reversed it a few times to break the electrolytic corrosion, but being a FIAT it had a pilot pin/stud so that wouldn't have worked. I just drive in circles or figure of eight if on a car park
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Post by chippie on Sept 26, 2023 19:46:35 GMT 1
As we’re on about round things, Whose round is it? My glass is empty…
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Post by OldGit on Sept 26, 2023 20:35:56 GMT 1
Ford are the only manufacturers that stipulate 'wheels off' in their service schedule - every other service, which ties in nicely with a brake fluid change None of the others I've worked for require the wheels to be taken off at service, obviously they're off for repairs like brakes & tyres but given the cost of tyres at a dealer - any dealer, most people leave 'torquing the wheel bolts' to the tyre fitter... Even some of the service schedules that specify 'check wheel nut/bolt torque' just ends up with a filter spinner 'checking' with his torque wrench that it goes click - the number of arguments I've had regarding over-torque (and won!) over that one!. It's what takes me longer (amongst other things) than "book time" on the services I do up here. If at all possible (locking wheel nut adapter permitting) I take all the wheels off at every service, wire-brush and grease the spigots and mounting faces. It's also an easier way to assess brake pads.
I have to admit, one or two of the recent services this year, the wheels have not been removed; these tend to be the cars I know I have done previous years, but one or two are new to me, and therefore missing their locking wheelnut key. When I was self employed, I used to do a 'wheels off service' every time - mainly for my own benefit in 12 months time, it also allows you to get a better look at things (upsell!) and makes BFC's just that bit easier too - In the case of LR's & Fords, it gives you chance to check for 'swollen nuts'...
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Post by valhalla on Sept 26, 2023 21:22:41 GMT 1
When I was self employed, I used to do a 'wheels off service' every time - mainly for my own benefit in 12 months time, it also allows you to get a better look at things (upsell!) and makes BFC's just that bit easier too - In the case of LR's & Fords, it gives you chance to check for 'swollen nuts'... Almost everything I do, service or otherwise, I work on the basis, "You'll be jolly glad you greased it all up, and made it nicer to work-on, when it comes back to be fixed next time - or investigated further for the fix you didn't do right first time!"
It has helped me once or twice, but I do feel peeved if a car goes somewhere else the next time - lucky so-and-so's.......
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Dead as
Sept 27, 2023 22:03:25 GMT 1
Post by valhalla on Sept 27, 2023 22:03:25 GMT 1
If I'd known you were stuck for a Cisco console lead I'd have bunged the USB one that's still sealed up in my laptop bag in the post to you. We've a load of 887s at the office we've taken out of service, but as these were ISP supplied I've not done any config work on them, and haven't had the patience to re-learn cisco IOS to set them up. As for the draytek, funnily enough I've stuck a 2760 on this job I'm on, as it was the best balance for me between "cheap" and "has all the functions I need" to sit between a starlink dish and my site network. We're probably going to throw a Meraki MX67 on site once I get my boss to order it and our ISP runs its random number generator for a shipping date! I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this; the spec's say that the 2862Ln should be fine for a gigabit throughput, but nothing I do to this will unthrottle it above 180mbps. The Cisco ASA- box was straight up to 800mbps without trying, when it was still working. I thought I had found an issue last night, but it turned-out that I was wrong..... I thought I had missed a trick with the WAN lead from router to surge-protection unit upstream, but the flimsy-looking CAT6 lead that came with the fibre-modem was doing its job.
It wouldn't normally matter, right now, but I'm seeing a bit of contention between one or two of the PC's on my network, and there is a definite slow-down on the workshop computers when the NAS-server is busy during the day doing its sync'ing.
I had a chat to the ISP chappie this afternoon, whilst I was over there picking-up a VoIP interface box for a changeover tomorrow, and he reckons he might be able to help-out if I cannot get any further.
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