My daily three cylinder Corsa jobby MOT is not far away so checking the front suspension as rears already sorted out. Pretty rusty but things seem fine, so I decided to power clean each side. I don’t have facilities it’s in the parking bay at side of my house. One side at a time up on the pavement Jack up wheel off spray degreaser, leave then wash off, spray with ACF 50 All this by dragging cable, hose from rear of my house, now not difficult in slightest but time consuming, I used to tackle this stuff with ease, but it’s the back and forward, up and down tires me out. How do others manage with little facilities?

Luckily enough no Mot for me to worry about for a good while yet, but I know what you mean just washing the car can be a pain as everything is round the back of the house. So I bought myself a cordless pressure washer that can pick up from a bucket.

Not the last word in water pressure, but still pretty good and definitely enough if you've some type of chemical cleaner as well. Usually I use the soap dispenser to get the cleaner on the car and then swap it out for the lance to rinse.

Bloody hell MOT was due a couple of months ago on my daily. Obviously I messed up the dates.

Good job you haven't been driving it around then!

Erm! I have been driving it…..

Probably on your way to the test centre.

Yes, I did drive it to the test centre

You were saying it was quite a circuitous route...

Indeed it was.

Never mind Jim your expected to be a bit gaga by the time you get to our age, make the coop your daily driver and you won't need to worry about MOTs in a few years!

Cheers Rob. Daily is now back with me and a ticket for another year. I put it with the local garage as I didn’t have a choice, which is not my usual place and low and behold there’s charges for adjusting washer jets £12.50, securing battery £6.50 as well as *sundries* all toll an extra £30.75. Still it’s back….

£30 not too bad but £12.50 for the washer jets what's the hrly rate? How long can you take? Still MOT won't feature on your cut backs! Probably much cheaper than a year's ticket on the coup, is it 25yrs before they become exempt?

40 years, a long way to go yet

My daily a wee 1.0 litre Corsa has started to blow in the exhaust, luckily it wasn’t picked up at MOT time, it would’ve cost a fortune. It’s blowing slightly from the rear, so it’s either a new rear box or a repair to the connection pipe. Not a big job but weather is not playing the game at the moment, it will even wait until next year if need be, hopefully a break in the weather will come.

Another story from the Highlands. Windscreen washers packed up recently in the daily turned out to be the jets, managed to unblock the rear but new ones were ordered for the front which I’m still waiting for. The washer bottle is in the front n/s arch behind the liner. Nothing actually difficult but time consuming and fiddly. I used to have a mobile mechanic and used him while I was working. The filter is like a long rubber grommet with fine holes, I had a blockage before and it looks like the mechanic instead of cleaning he just put a big hole in the rubber filter. Over the years gunge has built up and clogged the jets.

Wipers off and scuttle panel off to change the jets, been like this for days waiting for them. No jets to be had up here had to be ordered. Ah the joys.

Happy birthday Jim!

Happy Birthday Jim, hope you're having a chilled day with maybe a small tipple later tonight

Thanks chaps, aye, refreshments are part of ……in fact wife has just said open the fizz.

"Moderators!!"