Headlamp alignment

 Last night circumstances meant I had to drive home in the dark.   But when I switched on the headlights I was surprised to see they both focused on the curb about 20 ft in front of the car.   So it was an interesting journey, luckily very short.   Apparently they don't test headlight alignment any more on the MOT.

Luckily I don't need to do anything complicated to align them, I just grab them with both hands and move them 😀  So last evening I parked the car in front of the garage and turned on the lights.

The masking tape shows the height of the centre of the headlamp so it was obviously much too low.

 So I moved them up so the beam was just under the centre.  I also added another piece of masking tape to show the centre line of the car and moved them so they were still biased to the left but not by so much.

 

And this was them on ful.l beam.  It looks OK but obviously I need to do a full road test.

But they have to better than before 

 

 

 

MOT time

 Pleased to report she passed the MOT last week.   As usual it took 2 attempts 😀  She failed the first time on 3 issues:

1.  The hazards were not working.   This would have been fine but actually they were working.  I tested them both before and after the test and they were working.   No idea why they didn't work for the tester, maybe he didn't press the rocker switch enough ?

2.  Windscreen wipers not covering screen and rubber worn out.   I could have argued this as the wiper blades are 10" long and reach the top of the screen so I can't fit any longer ones.   And the rubber passed last year and I haven't used them since.   But you don't argue with the MOT tester.

3.  Rear suspension bottom bolt loose.  True but only by a small amount and it was never dangerous as it had at least an inch of thread showing and was held in place with a lock nut.

4.   Screw in rear tyre.   True, and only advisory. 

Anyway,  after proving the hazards actually did work, tightening the bolt and fitting new wiper rubbers she sailed through the re-test.  Good for another year.

OIl & Filter Change

 Again, the lack of recent posts reflects how well the car is going.

The time for an oil & filter change has arrived.  In previous years I have regularly tried (and failed) to undo the filter, so have contracted the job out.  This year I was determined to do it myself.

 So the first thing to do was buy a proper tool.   Because of the location of the filter high up behind the radiator (I have a remote oil filter to avoid breaking it by bottoming out) the normal chain type was no good, so I went for one that I could operate from underneath, so bought this:

 

So with a new filter and 5 liters of 10/40 motor oil.  I tackled it.   And everything went well, albeit a bit 'messy'.    Since then I am seeing a small 'weep' from the drain plug so if it gets any worse I will buy a new gasket and redo it.   Otherwise next year 😆 

Starting problem solved

 Good day today as the car has been off the road for alomost a month.  The starting became intermittent and finally failed just before Xmas.  As I had replaced my fuel pump recently that was the first suspect but it seemed to be fine.  Took out one of the plugs and quickly proved there was no spark.  Checked all the HT leads and they seemed fine.  Then swapped the coil over with a spare one and she leapt into life.

So went put for a lunch meet today, 45 mins each way and she ran faultlessly.