My Wednesday Adventure
Ok so i booked my car in at Spikeys for this morning at 9.00am to diagnose my misfire. Heres where my adventure began. After leaving my house this morning i noticed the fuel was low in my car so i decided to go fuel up. Spikeys is only 20 miles away but i don't get much chance to play with my car so a nice £20 would get me there and back. I pulled into the local BP and picked the Ultimate and noticed that fuel was bloody expensive now, 1.49Per Ltr. ouch! turned over the engine and cough and splutter stall. WTF!! tried again with same result so i got out and pushed my car back the foot or so back to the pump. Id only put ultimate Diesel in the bloody thing. What a Pratt! Luckily Nissan was next door so i pushed the car there and they drained and flushed the system (£65). Back to BP and another £25 in the tank. Ok so off to Spikeys i went ETA, 12.00PM.
Upon arriving i almost missed the garage as i hadn't noticed the small sign outside but Spikey popped out to see me and directed me inside. He immediately started work giving my engine a good look over for any obvious issues, then he did a quick fault code check and all came back fine. OK nothing obvious there so we went out for a quick drive to replicate the misfire, he noticed the idle was at 1500 rpm and commented it should be at 1000rpm so was idling high.
Back at the garage i explained what we had already checked (leads and plugs) and mentioned the suggestions id had on the forum and at the rolling road event (distributor, coil, rotor arm). Spikey checked none of these and proceeded to follow his instincts and did a smoke test on the car. I wasn't expecting this as i thought we had already established the fault before i arrived. Ok i just watched and wondered. After a few minutes the problem became obvious, my Dump Valve was leaking and he quickly replaced this with his own from his personal car. A quick test drive proved the fault was now corrected and the car was now idling perfectly. WOW! i was impressed. i cant imagine many would have found a leaky dump valve before checking the ignition system first. The car now drove so much better, no misfire, no idle issues and pulled stronger than its ever done.
Spikey suggested another modification to the butterfly valves on the intake and said he could change the porting so that it went into my new dump valve like his did, this would simplify the system and produce a better sound from the wastegate. i said go for it, why not?
Whilst this was being done i mentioned that id considered relocating the Battery to the boot at some point to improve the handling and free up some more space under the bonnet for a nice intake system in the future. Like anyone who visits garages and isn't too technical i asked how much this would cost, £50 usually he said. OK its on the list to do. No probs i will do it after this was his reply, um ok (i'm not used to walking into a garage and being able to have something done on demand) this rocked. So off he went and did all three items and gave me his dump valve off his own car (for a small charge).
All the time i was there i was able to watch what was being done and see for myself whats involved with the process, to be honest i really enjoyed this as i've always been curious and usually i'm relegated to the waiting room with a poxy magazine and a 2-4 hour wait to think about the bill i'm going to be presented with at the end, usually not short of half a grand. At no point was Spiky clock watching and he seemed happy just working on the car. at about 3pm we both popped out to get some cable for the battery relocation, so i treated him to a Maccy D's. My experience was excellent and i really feel that although my way of explaining the day is long winded, he does deserve the credit in a proper write up. My car is now a million times better than it was, i found a fault that i never knew i had and i walked away with a bill lower than i was charged by a so called mate to change my alternator when it packed up. Overall 10/10 i will be definitely going back. my list of mods for the car has just grown and i now know who to call for the work to be undertaken. If anyone needs work doing in the north west i would whole heartedly recommend him to do the work.
Thanks for everything Spikey (Jonathan), an asset to the forum.
Mark.
