So, after June things seemed to be running well with the old girl. It's fair to say that if I catalogued every electrical issue then I would never stop typing. Suffice to say that the passenger rear window that was stuck, suddenly started working. It's been working ever since. I finally learnt how to use the memory seats (you have to be in Park) and every so often the car will bleep in a tone that seems to say "yes, another warning, just for you!"
When I bought the car it was clear that the standard fitment Pirellis fitted were very old (9 to 11 years) and whilst the tread was OK, they were not looking new and with a few sidewall cracks as noted on the MOT I decided to get some new boots.
Now, I have owned over 30 cars and it's safe to say that only one car has ever demanded being fitted with particular tyres, those cars being (and I have had four of them) MG TFs. I won't go into why here but if you ever get one of these highly underrated and fantastic machines, I have two words for you FIT TOYO PROXES, that's three words but I can't be bothered correcting myself.
Anyway, asking around on the various Facebook groups got me a LOT of opinion including one gentleman who, when I said I was considering Bridgestone Turanza T005s told me that Bridgestone didn't do those tyres and to be suspicious. A quick check indicated that they do indeed manufacture the right tyres but that they are Europe only and not directly available in the UK. No problem. That's what online shopping is for!
Many people will tell you that you have to spend £490 per tyre and fit original equipment. These are usually the same people that will not put anything other than Bentley parts on their car even though the cheaper version is the part in a non-Bentley box. The Bridgestones came in at £592 for four plus £40 to get them fitted by a local garage. No contest on price.
I do however, understand that many people rate Pirellis. I don't. I have always seen them as overpriced and under performing, so don't mind looking elsewhere. However, I do not buy cheaper tyres (false economy). However, good mid-price tyres are usually as good on performance and last at least as long as their more expensive cousins. Also looking at the ratings of the Bridgestones v Pirellis and it is quite clear that the Bridegstone is a better tyre. At £148 per tyre they are more than 3 times cheaper than the Pirellis. Not only that but my experience with Bridgestones on other cars told me that they would not be 3 times worse.
In the end they were fitted on the 28 July 2020 and to date (March 2021 as I write this) they are flawless. No noisier, wearing well; they do the job. Don't get sucked into the hype. That's my advice.
So after the tyres were fitted, the lovely part-lockdown summer came and everything was hunky dory for a while. Always something to do, like find a replacement near side front indicator as I noticed the surround on mine was broken and it stuck out slightly - just enough to bother me.
I sourced one from Flying Spares off a breaker that they had in. It was perfect and had been cleaned. I had to buy the whole assembly. It cost...wait for it.... £321! Yep, you heard right. No wonder these cars get written off for a minor bump if the indicators go for that much. Sadly I had little choice in shopping around, so went with it. I now had that to fit. However, little did I know that the end of August would bring some cost with it.
To cut a long story short I ended up driving through a major traffic jam. All was well but the temperature outside was about 26c and after an hour or more idling in traffic I suddenly see the needle swing red on the temperature gauge and the tell tale sign of steam rising up. Fortunately I was on an A road leading into Preston so I swung onto a residential street and parked up. It became clear that the old girl was not capable of keeping her cool in what I can only describe as reasonably hot summer weather. I got water, waited a while and managed to get home.
Now, once cooled and with the outside temperature a little cooler too she seemed be behaving herself. However, I decided to act. I called Ghost Motors and to their credit they said to get her recovered to them and they would attend to it. However, because of the distance and inconvenience I decided to forgo the warranty and pack her off to Bowling & Ryan once again.
John Bowling is quite simply a star. In essence they had the car for a week and got the radiator re-cored, a new viscous fan coupling, new hydraulic system cross pipe, because it was badly corroded and I got them to fit the indicator too. Oh, and the oil coupling pipe to the radiator too. This was completed on the 9 September 2020 and cost £1,038.48p. Fortunately the head gaskets had survived so that was a massive expense dodged.
On getting her back she was like a new car although the new fan "whooshed" far too often and I suspected that something needed adjusting. However, I could wait for that as my son and I was off on a roadtrip the following week, taking the Bentley down to South Wales and then back up the west coast to Port Merion and across back to home. Three days, two nights. It would be as good a test of the repairs as any. More about the trip in the next post.
For those interested in costs, the monthly costs since purchase are as follows:
May 20 - £120 - registration transfer fee, the plate itself cost £49 but I already had it.
Jun 20 - £89.95 - Radio swap and lighter sockets plus some new fuses.
Jul 20 - £634.96 - 4 Bridgstone Turanza T005 (255/50/18 106Y) plus four new centre caps.
Aug 20 - £321 - Second hand indicator.
Sep 20 - £1083.48 - Repair to cooling system and hydraulic pipe and a few incidentals.
And for subsequent months that I have yet to write about...
Oct 20 - Nothing
Nov 20 - Nothing
Dec 20 - £20.50 - Replacement cabin filters
Jan 21 - £32.00 - Replacement pollen filters
Feb 21 - Nothing
Mar 21 - £79.95 - Replacement accessories battery.
See future posts for more information on performance, fuel consumption and the like bringing us up to date with the annual service (and other bits) that are actually being done as I write this catch-up post.