Land Rover Huggles

Because we might need the extra seating on our trip to the west coast of Jutland next week I decided to re-install the rear seats last sunday. First I had to find the seats in the workshop. The 60% seat hasn't been in since before we were in England in 2008 and unfortunatly mice had gotten in under the under covering so I had to start with cleaning the foam, a job which I'd been putting off for quite some time now :o( but now its done. Then I had to find the bolts to hold the seats in place. I thought I'd 'lost' the single bolt for the 60% seat but eventully it found when looking through my toolbox for a 11mm spanner because I had to move the extra battery to give foot room.
In connection with putting in the seats I also cleaned the car inside from top to bottom so she is now ready for the journey.
Today I re-oiled the K&N filter, which I couldn't do when I was at Max' because I hadn't been able to find to cleaning set.
This evening we pack the car and leave after work tomorrow. Really looking forward to next week.

Finaly got around to spending some time on the car :)

I had dicided to take Huggles when we go on holiday, instead of her just standing around and rusting but before we could that I needed to change the front righthand side shock absorber as it was making clanking sounds, (which it has been doing for quite some time now).

Anyway I called Mad Max (Max Wollenberg) to see if I could borrow his car lift and if he could help me. This wasn't a problem. So 4 days after recieveing the parts I was on my way over to Max with 4  shocks, 4 springs, a box full of poly's, 7,5L 5W40, oil filter, rotor filter, diesel filter, air filter, steering damper, drop arm, pack set for steering box and 6 different oil filter tools.

We managed to change all the shocks and springs with thier respective poly's and the oil, (both filters) and the diesel filter. The air filter I gave to Max as it was part of the package but I didn't need it because of the K&N filter already installed. (just have to clean that this weekend).

I need to buy some more oil and check the level tomorrow.

I might also have to put the back seats in this weekend as I just found out I might have to drive Philip (my little brother) and Line around while we're at the summer house, I wonder if I can find the bolts?

Thursday I passed my driving test for heavy trailer towed by car (BE), this was a releif as I was abit worried because of the 'green driving' part of the test.

I had failed my first theory, I think I got stumped by the actual test as it wasn't like the ones I'd been doing for practice, (all of which I passed).

Now I'm waiting for the bill from the driving school :(

Today we had a workshop meet with the SLRK. Mad Max was kind enough to let us use his garage where he has a 4-piller car lift and his neighbor also let us use the garage across the street which he has for sale. So all-in-all 6 cars had something done to them during the day, which ranged from mounting a winch to a Discovery 2, changing an exhaust on a Series 2, Nano-coming several Discovery's to several odds jobs on a Discovery 1.
I did nothing on Huggles, even though an oil change is due and I think maybe the steering shock should be changed.
Max got his local ICA-store to sponsor lunch, (hot-dogs and soda) and the company supplying his work with work clothes to sponsor reflective vests for crossing the road from one workshop to the other.
It was a nice drive over to Max and back again, I opted for the scenic route, instead of taking the motorway.
After up-dating the Blog I should have lifted Huggles at Max' to clean some of the oil from the undercarriage, I'll have to ring him at a later date to arrange to go over and do this maybe also the oil change.
I also met Bob today. Bob is from Bristol and has a cabin here in Sweden with his wife. They travel over here every 2 - 3 months. Max said Bob is willing to lend his address out for purchases in the UK and bring the stuff with him when he comes over next. I will probably use this service to buy foam insulation, if he's OK with that.

Took Huggles to the yearly MOT (08-03-2013), but forgot to up-date the Blog. Anyway she passed with only a side lamp missing which I have to change but don't have to go back.
Unfortunately they had to rev the engine excessively to loosen the sot in the exhaust so they could take a proper reading. I thought I'd rev'd the engine a lot on the way over and driven her quite hard to do this but apparently not hard enough.

I finally got around to getting Huggles in the workshop to find out where the oil was leaking from. And with help of my "See Snake" it turned out that it was coming from the oil filter. The filter had come loose, so I tightened it back up and its been OK since. There is still a lot of oil spillage down the engine and all over the undercarriage, which I will try and clean off at a later date.

Yesterday we had a Land Rover meeting in Saxtorp. The yearly "Chili glögg treff", so I checked the oil level and coolant before starting the engine to warm up for 5 minutes. While waiting for Bettina, I noticed oil dripping underneath the car and it was a steady drip which had started after starting the engine.
So, what to do, drive anyway or take the ordinary car? I opted for the second, on point taking the risk when we have another car even though its not the same turning up in a Seat to a Land Rover meet.
Talking with Bengtson at the meet, he suggested I check the turbo hoses as they sometimes get damaged by the constant temperature changes.
The weather has been wet and boring here today so I haven't been out to look at it yet.I plan to build the garage to a useable state this year, I wish it was already finished.
Anyway we made it to the meet and had a good time. The chili glögg was quite hot but Bettina liked it and got a bottle home, thanks Göran.

Drove Huggles to the MOT today, everything just fine.

Ok, its a while since but we had Huggles to the workshop to for 160K service. Bettina drove her up while I worked on the house. She also picked her up again. Dave (Mechanic at Hörby) told us we needed to change the rear calipers as they were all rusted up. I had noticed a 'whistling' sound and thought it was the bearing that needed changing. As I'd changed the front bearing last winter, (poor Huggles was standing all winter without front wheels :o( and we had tons of snow here) I had decided to pay my way out of it, time was also a fact. Anyway I drove up to Dave the other week and while he was changing the calipers we talked about the black smoke Huggles has been emiting. I'd read it could be a poor mixture that produced this but Dave hadn't found anything when she was in, he thought I'd just been driving her to hard. When he asked if I had loss of power and I said yes, he popped the hood and had a look around, when he came to the turbo he noticed the arm connected to the flap had fallen off!! The gods alone know how and when this happened. We've had the black smoke since she came out of the workshop this spring and before she went in everything was fine. Anyway Dave put a new c-clip on and wow, I could feel the difference (35HP more) and no black smoke. VERY happy.

Today we had Huggles out in the woods around Knutstorp Race Track, Sweden. A company called Lanibil had arranged a day of fun, where we met up with other members of SLRK and could drive our cars around a track which was originally built by Volvo to test the XC90 but they found out that they couldn't use the track in autumn/winter as the XC90 couldn't cope with the hilly parts. So today (autumn and we've had alot of rain lately) we drove all types of Land Rover around including a Freelander, which did the whole track several times without incident. Also we had the chance to drive some road-book trips in all the new models and clay pigeon shooting, that was fun. All in all a very good day and a welcome break from house renovation. On our way home we washed the mud off and now Huggles looks like a dream ;o)

Tomorrow is back to the house 'project'