By the 9th of September the Bentley was back from Bowlings sporting a refreshed cooling system. Given the work done and the price (see previous post) I was very pleased; well as pleased as you can be when you have to part with that much money.
People say you can't run a Bentley on a budget. Yes, you can. However, your budget has to be realistic. You can't run one on a Ford Fiesta budget but I believe that, subject to catastrophic failures, you can run one on a budget that would say, run a Jaguar. So long as you are not caught up in the "it must be Bentley" and happy to get replacement parts from the relevant manufacturer direct then things are not too bad.
A good example of this is the Arnage rear brakes. Price up a set of discs and pads from a specialist (Bentley) Rear discs are either £269 each or £185 depending on whether you want genuine or aftermarker. Pads are £153. So "genuine" will set you back around £691. Get a set of Brembo discs and pads for a BMW 7 Series (same items) the same kit will cost you about £231. There are other examples of this, you just have to do research, talk to those in the know and very soon you will have a list of equivalent parts that cost a fraction of the Bentley price. And let's face it, the Arnage I have is 20 years old. She deserves looking after but at some point without reasonably priced parts she'll just end up scrap. Oh and door mirrors? Audi A8. £20 as opposed to £233. Sure it's not aspheric, that'll cost a few quid extra, but I mean...
So I believe you can run one on a budget but it still won't be cheap. It means that you can have a beer with your beans on toast each night.
Now, it's early September and my son and I are supposed to be taking a ClassicGT car tour to the Circuit Des Remparts at Angouleme - that's France you know! Co-vid is having other plans. We ended up booking on for 2021 instead. But that left a long weekend free and what could we do. We have both done signifcant parts of the North Coast 500 in Scotland (a must do for any driving enthusiast) my son having done it more than once. We therefore decided to explore another country of the UK - Wales.
After the work was completed on Eris (for that is our Bentley's name) I felt that she was good for some sustained driving. The fan was a little noisy, but hey ho and I planned to take it back to Bowling's for a check over. However, it worked and that was the main thing.
We decided that day 1 would be a drive down the Wales/England border from Preston to Cardiff. Or a hotel just outside Cardiff. We would come in via Black Mountain Pass famed as the scenic driving roads for many a Top Gear programme. The following morning we would go back through the pass then turn south-west to hug the coast up through Cardigan Bay, ending the day in Anglesey and stopping over before doing several passes in the North Wales mountains and heading home. 8 hours or so each day of driving for three days. Problems? Only one. 17mpg. It hurts when you fill up so often!
The Bentley performed effortlessly and driving was a pleasure the whole time. To be fair I drove for maybe 3 hours. My son drove the rest. We listened to music, took in the scenery and my son marvelled at the car - he also liked the fact that heads turned wherever we went although he should be used to that growing up with a dad like me and some of the quirky cars I've had.
Black Mountain Pass, Wales. A driving road, especially when quiet... if you know what I mean.
Heading out... Son's first time out.
On the trip the odometer clocked over to 100,000, the tour took us 800 miles into a beautiful country and I look forward to visiting some of the places again in the not too distant, post-Covid future.
Following the return, the carnage on the front of the car was something to behold. It was like two armies of insects has come together on the Bentley to battle for supremacy, leaving their dead carpeting the bodywork in some sort of grotesque pop art rendition of the Somme. Cleaning time!
Now, because my son had driven most of the way I reckoned on him needing to wash the beast. No. He was nowhere to be found. Actually in fairness as a key worker he was back at work so it fell to me.
Previously I had used Shine Armor on the car which as I have mentioned previously is a waterless wash. I just could never bring myself to wash a car without first giving it a good rinse and sponge down. Maybe that's why I wasn't much take with the Shine Armor. We did find that it works brilliantly on my son's Alfa Romeo which has matt/satin paint.
After a bit of research I ordered some Turtlewax Hybrid Ceramic Coating. Oh boy, how good is that! I rinsed off the car, snow foamed and sponged and took my time removing the fallen from the front end. I then dried her off with the obligatory micro-fibre towel and then applied this Turtlewax stuff. It's insane how little you need. They recommend no more than two squirts per panel and that's about right. Anymore and you get residue issues. I'll be honest I wasn't holding out much hope but after completing the car she looked immaculate. Not only that but she stayed that way for quite a while, shrugging off dirt. I applied a second coat when washed her again a week or so later and it says that this is good for up to a year of protection. Well. Not a year, but this was September. I write this in March and it looks about due for another application. In the interim period I have just done a wash and go and it comes up like new. Love this product - Turtlewax, if you want to send me some free stuff for endorsing your product, then feel free!
I also around this time, used some "Leather Genie" on the interior. I bought this at the Classic Car Show in Earl's Court back in January, before lockdown. They do a great demo but to be honest, even following the instructions religiously, I was not that impressed with the results. They also left the seats shiny?! I went over the main parts of the interior again with Autoglym leather cleaner and balm with a much more acceptable finish.
The interior leather is good overall but there are age marks on the seats that I would like to get sorted, so I think I will take it to somewhere that specialises in reenergising leather and get the job done properly. At the end of September the mileage had reached 100,339.
She was purring apart from judder on heavy braking - suspecting a warped disc. Not bad enough to panic but something to keep an eye on.
So to bring us almost up to date, October and November were uneventful with no costs apart from fuel. December would be different as the figure ran to £20.50 for some replacement cabin filters. Available genuine from the original supplier these cost the aforementioned sum but to be fair are similar in price to ones offered by specialists. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to replace these, roughly three minutes per side. Especially handy was the fact that Josh of YouTube's Josh's World had done a video that helped enormously, link here [ASIDE - To be honest I just spent ten minutes watching something different after stumbling on Toyah & Roberts Sunday Lunch, Toyah is so...perfect. Look her up. You won't be disappointed].
Anyway back to the main theme. I decided to replace the cabin filters as they were VERY bad. They are often forgotten about and it's a shame because when they get clogged they can be a source of condensation in the car, so I am told. Certainly putting new filters in helped with a little condensation I had noticed in some weathers. The cabin filters are BMW part No. 64118391385.
It was also around this time that the turbo warning light kept coming on. It would come on and then go off, but each time it came on it stayed for longer and longer. Much like relatives at Christmas when you make the mistake of plying them with the nice Sherry and Creme de Menthe. This was hear to stay, at least until she went for a service. Being an OBD 1 car, a home reset is not an option.
So after doing that job we moved swiftly into 2021 and are fast coming up to date. January saw me spending £32 on two Pollen Filters which are accessed via the scuttle. These too were in poor shape and easy to replace. Again, look at Josh's World via the link above and you will find his video on replacing these. Pollen filters are Mann CUK2736-2. I got them from eBay but to be fair the specialists were charging much the same price but the eBay supplier could get them to me quicker.
One point of note with the pollen filters. You are supposed to replace the seals around the pollen filters each time. I managed to reuse the old ones which were fine, but I won't get away with it again. I have only found these for sale at specialists. However, it's thin foam with one side self-adhesive. I suspect with a cheap sheet of the stuff and a craft knife it will be the work of ten minutes to cut your own - I'll report on how I get on with this when I next change the filters.
I have already mentioned the door mirrors being Audi A8. Just a word of caution on this. I bought a pair. They were for the wrong Audi A8. I need to get some other ones. That's £18 from eBay. I am sure I'll find a use for them on something else. Maybe I'll buy an A8!
One other thing that has happened this year is that the SatNav has stopped popping up, or for that matter, going down. I do like it when you like something and it goes down on you. I suspect it needs wiring sorting but I can live with it up and do switch on the SatNav just for the fun of pretending I am back in the late 20th century with the latest technology. Oh and the driver's door window has stopped operating too. I need to pull the door card off and have a look as I suspect it's, AGAIN, a wire as the actuator motor clicks but nothing moves. Either way, I would expect either an easy fix or an expensive replacement. Hey ho.
So apart from the start of this month (as I write it's March 2021) when I replaced the auxiliary battery as it was never right and kept saying it was low on juice, we are more or less up to date. As I type she is at Bowling's for an annual service and after a video report from John she's also having all the bushes done along with a new turbo solenoid and brake discs. Ouch!
I am not looking forward to that bill and will let you know in the next post how she got on. MOT next week too... OMG!
