Shuffle & Ting

Having heard the beast roar into life yesterday, I decided to fix that flat tyre and move the car onto the drive where there would be more room to work on it later.  This wouldn't normally be a problem, but there are 2 things that might cause trouble.  Firstly, the car hasn't moved in 2 years.  This tends to lead to things getting seized up, especially brakes.  I had the forethought to leave the handbrake off, but the Volvo is blessed with both drums and discs at the rear, doubling the chance something getting locked on.  Second, I've got the top half of a Ford Transit van on my drive which needs moving before I can chuck the car on there.

Old pic - lots of wood added since then...

The first thing to do was to get the car moved out of the way, allowing me to put the boat in its place.


Out comes the trolley jack and tyre spanner.  I loosen the wheel bolts and go to slide the jack under the car, but it's too tall.  Or rather the car is sitting too low and the jack won't go under the sill to get to the jacking point.  So I cheat and find the front sub frame mounting point.  Looks strong enough to me...


Somehow, all the other tyres still hold pressure, including the spare, so I whack the spare on, drop the car and fire it up.  Into gear, I try to pull away and the car immediately stalls.  It feels like the handbrake is on.  Bugger.  At least one of the rear wheels is seized.  Not one to quit without putting some welly in, I fire it up again and give it some revs.  The front wheels sit there spinning on the block paved driveway, dragging the seized rear wheel slowly forward.  I make it to the other side of the drive with the wheel still seized, so I throw it into reverse and have a go the other way.  Bang!  Finally it frees up.  Phew!


A few laps of the driveway on & off the brakes leave me confident everything is working as it should, so I leave the car running & abandon it in the middle ready to move the boat...

One shifted boat, one exhausted Eddie

Now, anyone who's ever tried to pick up a Ford Transit probably knows how heavy they are.  What do you mean you've never tried?  Trust me, this thing's heavy!  I grab it by the transom and commence shoving.


Much huffing, puffing, effing and blinding later and the boat is in its new home, so I jump back in the car and shuffle it onto the drive.  I thought this would be a good time to check all the electrics, so I wind the windows down, open the sunroof, check the fan and all the lights.  All looks good.  Until I look at the dash...

In situ, finally

Fuel light on, that's fine.  There's about half a gallon in the tank, so I'm happy about that.  'Bulb blown' warning light is on, so I check all the lights again.  There are 3 sidelights out, but there's enough redundancy on Volvos to ensure I'm still legal, so I'm not worried about that.  It's the other warning light I'm worried about - the lambda light.  Balls.  Hopefully it's just not running right because of old fuel and having not been run in 2 years.  I'll fill it up with V-Power, a shot of fuel system cleaner and give it a can of 10 cake boost.  If the light doesn't go out then, it could be the O2 sensor (hopefully) or the cat...


So, chuffed that I've got everything moved into the right place, but slightly concerned about that lambda light, I call it a night.