Then refilled!
Today has been spent mostly dealing with the coolant system on an R56 MINI. I did actually prepare everything. The old hoses were removed on New Years Eve, with a fair bit of swearing and wondering why I don't (or didn't) own a set of hose clip pliers. A couple of hours removing the air filter box, coolant expansion tank, remaining coolant and finding bodywork hose clips on the floor the coolant system was cleared out.
The MINI was left in the workshop, and the hoses were ordered from the local BMW dealers. On the way back from the dealers, I thought it would be a wise idea to actually buy some hose clip pliers. Job done thanks to Halfords.
After picking up the replacement hoses today, and two 5 litre bottles of coolant, it was time to play rebuild the MINI. Well, with no help from the forums (yet), as the instructions I found only covered the R50 and R53 MINI engines, through a bit of trial and error, I finally managed to refit the hoses and started bleeding the system slowly. With the ignition on, the heater set to maximum heat and fan on setting one, the first stage of filling the coolant system was done, slowly mind you! The engine was started, and left for a few minutes (remembering to refit the coolant expansion tank cap), and no heat was coming out of the vents! Ok, I need to do the final bleed of the system. Engine off, twenty minutes of searching through the interwebs MINI forums and finally I found a picture of the sort of area where the thermostat bleed valve would be hiding. Yes, they do hide it well, behind some wiring, right on top of the thermostat, in a small gap you can just fit a long screw driver in!Slowly the screw was turned, and finally I heard the nice noise of hissing and then looked to see coolant coming out of the bleed screw! Success! Screw tightened up, coolant topped up to the required level and engine started....
Hot air finally came out of the vents, no leaks noticed from any hoses, so finally the job was completed. In total it took approximately 3 hours to complete. Not bad for someone when last confronted with a complete coolant system bleed, I owned an Alfa Romeo that just had a total loss coolant system!
The MINI is back on the road!
Showing posts with label alfa romeo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alfa romeo. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
A good day (so far)
This mornings commute was enjoyable! Yes, shocking I know! A commute to work which is enjoyable. Walton Bridge was its usual arsed self. Traffic backed up through Walton, but after a little dive down the back roads, I was across the bridge in 10 minutes (rather than sit in the queue and do nothing for 30 minutes!!). After listening to the lovely music coming from the GTV ICE unit, oh the joy, and singing my little head off, it was time for my morning wander around Tescos. Just before getting into the car park, a blue GTV was parked in the kerb, I decided to be a friendly brother in arms and tooted lots down the road. A wave from the driver of the other GTV, marvelous, what can go wrong today!
Tescos done, off to work. A little blat up the A30 and round the peri track then time to settle down to do some work. Work done and sorted by lunch time, two visits from Bob (who has now called himself Ikea Man), and a few attacks from the mad puppy and a dustpan brush (maybe she wants to clear up the mess downstairs).
A nice relaxing day at work, some Hi-Fi shopping completed, and a wander round Richer Sounds and Weybridge Hi-Fi arranged for Saturday. I know I'm going to spend too much money!
Tescos done, off to work. A little blat up the A30 and round the peri track then time to settle down to do some work. Work done and sorted by lunch time, two visits from Bob (who has now called himself Ikea Man), and a few attacks from the mad puppy and a dustpan brush (maybe she wants to clear up the mess downstairs).
A nice relaxing day at work, some Hi-Fi shopping completed, and a wander round Richer Sounds and Weybridge Hi-Fi arranged for Saturday. I know I'm going to spend too much money!
Monday, 15 September 2008
Sucked into WoW land
It's been a while since I posted on here. November 07, opps!
Well, what has happened in that time? I've become addicted to World of Warcraft, and last weekend I finally rolled my first character (or in other worlds I got my character from level 1 to the top level of 70). That cheered me up, as I have been stuck in that world of killing pixies and monsters for too long!
I still have my little Monster, and last December the fleet was added to with a 1997 Alfa Romeo GTV. Broken heater, tempremental passenger door, 6 months MOT, 6 months tax. It passed it's MOT in the summer, and then the radiator broke. It is still running though. The car is a wizard and also, I am now an offical petrol head, just by owning an Alfa! Excellent!
I've spent the last month doing some redecorating in my box of a room. About 20 bags of rubbish dumped, my garaged has been filled up with boxes of CDs, books and other stuff from my cupboard of doom (it hasn't been looked in since about 2001). I can now see the end. The walls have been papered and painted, skirting board, doors and frames all glossed and any holes filled in (not quite in that order). I'm just awaiting the arrival of my new bed, sofa and desk. Then that's another job completed. That's when the local authority will decide to pull down Cloud Towers!
Work is quiet at the moment. I've still got 20 days holiday to take, and it's nearly half way through September! I'm looking at the possibility of taking off the whole of December. That would be nice.
Now I have remembered my password, I'll be back to blogging about nothing, something or anything. It'll also kick start me into taking some pictures again.... Hopefully!
Ciao
Well, what has happened in that time? I've become addicted to World of Warcraft, and last weekend I finally rolled my first character (or in other worlds I got my character from level 1 to the top level of 70). That cheered me up, as I have been stuck in that world of killing pixies and monsters for too long!
I still have my little Monster, and last December the fleet was added to with a 1997 Alfa Romeo GTV. Broken heater, tempremental passenger door, 6 months MOT, 6 months tax. It passed it's MOT in the summer, and then the radiator broke. It is still running though. The car is a wizard and also, I am now an offical petrol head, just by owning an Alfa! Excellent!
I've spent the last month doing some redecorating in my box of a room. About 20 bags of rubbish dumped, my garaged has been filled up with boxes of CDs, books and other stuff from my cupboard of doom (it hasn't been looked in since about 2001). I can now see the end. The walls have been papered and painted, skirting board, doors and frames all glossed and any holes filled in (not quite in that order). I'm just awaiting the arrival of my new bed, sofa and desk. Then that's another job completed. That's when the local authority will decide to pull down Cloud Towers!
Work is quiet at the moment. I've still got 20 days holiday to take, and it's nearly half way through September! I'm looking at the possibility of taking off the whole of December. That would be nice.
Now I have remembered my password, I'll be back to blogging about nothing, something or anything. It'll also kick start me into taking some pictures again.... Hopefully!
Ciao
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)