Dear Dorothy Dix...

[Ray Bell]

Oh yes, that's right, you'll need one that still has hearing so you can explain your problem to him...

[Bluebottle]

Current fault list for the 'Bottle household cars:-

Vincent Hurricane:-
The only current problem is a slow puncture on the left rear. Long-lived faults include the Kenlowe 'cooker knob' fan thermostat which broke about 8 years ago (last summer I finally got around to fitting a switch on the dash....)

Ford Granada:-
Stalls when the engine is not quite warm but otherwise O.K, apart from a slight steering noise.

Dutton Sierra:-
Intermittant loss of brake fluid from the resevoir (single circuit, no warning light- good game, good game....) and now the starter has become a non-inertia motor. Dut's not going anywhere for a while.....
Sorting the starter should be simple, just undo 3 bolts, slide it out, grease the bit on the end, re- fitting is the reverse of removal.....


but it's cold outside.....

oh, and the reversing lights don't work on all three cars.

[djb]

Bluebottle: it is always interesting with the cultural differences re:cars on this forum. As a Canadian, a Vincent Hurricane conjures up only images of a motorcycle and a rather sturdy WW11 fighter that saved the Battle of Britain behind the shadow of it's less numerous but more glamourous contemporary, the Spit....

ford Granada-no longer produced here, a rather square ugly Ford sedan sold in the 80's.

Dutton Sierra- ???? Dutton doesn't mean a thing and Sierra only goes so far as bringing up images of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California.

Once about five years ago, while in Europe visiting some of my wife's cousins, we saw the identical car to ours, a Nissan Axxess, but it was named a Nissan Prairie--the Prairies are the wide open wheat-filled areas of Canada in the middle of our country, so we got a laugh out of that.

cheers, djb

[Ray Bell]

The Prairie I know... wide open spaces indeed!

But the Dutton and the Vincent Hurricane, I'd like some enlightenment on those...

[Bluebottle]

Have a look at http://www.caburn.demon.co.uk for the Hurricane and http://www.duttonownersclub.co.uk for the Dutton.
They are both kits; Aly bought the Hurricane about 9 years ago from the chap who built it while I have owned the Dutton for around 6 years and am the 8th owner of it (I used to have a Dutton Melos- see the Dutton Owners Club site for that one as well...)
The Granada is a 1983 model, a Falcon to the Aussies! (but annoyingly only 2.3l)

[Ray Bell]

Some interesting cars, just a bit different from the usual, the Hurricane looks particularly good.

The Granada is not the same as the Falcon...

[djb]

bluebottle, that is a funny coincidence that I mentioned the Supermarine Spitfire, and it ends up that your car is a kit on a Triumph Spitfire! Not that much of a coincidence as the Hurricane name was surely chosen on purpose. It mentions in the site that their kits can be used on GT6's, haven't seen one of those since my teens probably, but they were great lookers they were, the rear slope of the hardtop was really sexy.
The Duttons have a Caterham look to them with their squared off edges.

As for your car thingees needing fixing, I seem to remember reading that you had a baby-bottle recently, and as someone with two small children, I imagine your "fiddling with cars" time has been reduced as a result...

djb

[Bluebottle]

Our granada looks like this Falcon http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~fulton/indexhd.htm
I only know about the similarity after Dan's coment when I gave him a lift one time-"I don't believe it- it's a Falcon!
"Car fiddling" time has been reduced a little with the arrival of Ellena, but it's more a point of not wanting to come inside, pick her up and get her covered in engine oil. Perhaps if I put baby oil in the cars.....

[Bluebottle]

....er, actually it dosn't look like that one at all, try again!....Our Granada looks like this Falcon (I hope!) But we're drifting off topic.....

[Ray Bell]

If you check the dimensions you're sure to find the Falcon is bigger... the URL quoted (with the picture of the current Falcon) includes these words:

"Ford Australia is the longest established and largest automotive manufacturer in Australia and the only such company that wholly designs as well as develops and builds a range of vehicles locally -- the Falcon/Fairmont/Fairlane/LTD range."

There was lots about that XD Falcon pictured above (1980 model...) that came straight from the previous models... undercarriage stuff... and that all had its genesis in American designs.

Not that it makes them any good...

[Bluebottle]

Ray, I concede that your anorak is bigger than mine, I only said "looks like..." so that our Aussie readers would share the horror expressed by Dan when I turned up in the thing! The website speaks of European influence rather than the car bein the same, but I'm not sad enough to look up dimensions!!


My Granada still looks like that Falcon, but it's a different size and colour.

better?

I've just remembered something.....

Back to Topic:-

It's loosing coolant, but I can't see a leek anywhere. It seems to loose roughly a pint (not a U.S. pint...) every 200 miles or thereabouts. Opening the cap on the expansion tank one is greated by the sound of air rushing into the tank.

Any ideas? could be a clogged rad?:confused:

[djb]

First of all, I aien't no mechanic nor a Dorothy Dix, but these thoughts popped up after seeing your question. Do you smell coolant smell when parked, when driving, when hot, cold? Did you recently get the coolant replaced, maybe there are air bubbles that are coming around and causing the sucking back in from the overflow tank. And the worst case check up-does the dipstick have any funny colour or smell to it?

Ray, does this seem like a lot of missing coolant/mileage?


Oh, and my wife the vet has told me that dogs will lap the stuff up and it only takes a spoonful or two to do them in (kidneys or something) so be careful if you have a pup or a toddler. She tells me that cats though are generally smart/picky enough not to do the same thing.

djb

[Bluebottle]

djb, don't worry , we don't have a dog and Little Bottle isn't a toddler yet- when She starts wandering around we will have to keep the cars out of the living room.
We're noy smelling any coolant, but my sense of smell isn't that good (useful with a little one around...) and the oil is clean (that was my first thought. The car is running warmer than normal but not overheating- quite useful in the winter weather!! The coolant hasn't been replaced in recent months so the air bubble theory could hold water (sorry for the pun!)
...and the drivers door window is stuck again (thankfully Aly managed to close it) which means I'll have to take the now somewhat battered trim panel off again and do battle with a fundamentally flawed design.....and it's cold outside.

[Ray Bell]

A pint of coolant in 200 miles? That's nothing...

If it was indeed the Falcon model you pictured, it would be missing three doorhands in 200 miles!

But now the serious stuff... have you driven further than 200 miles to see if it loses more than a pint?

I suspect that it is being checked cold, that it's lost what it does due to expansion, then the displaced fluid doesn't go back into the header tank from the expansion bottle for some reason... like too tight a fit in the radiator cap or something.

A pint of expansion would be pretty normal.

[Airhead]

Well I would agree with Ray - an Imperial pint per two hundred miles is nothing.

But the early '80's X series Fords were better cars than Ray would have you believe. I had a '84 Fairmont straight six, 4.1 litres of carby fed power that was a family car for eight years. Three kids. No respect for the vehicle and 290,000 klms later we parted company for a loss of 7,000 Australian Pasos.

I win.

Good cars indeed

[Bluebottle]

That sounds quite likely Ray- I'll have to check it when it's warm to confirm. The coolant level light is one of the few warning lights that still works- there is no oil light, just a pressure gauge, which is fine but but not as 'In Yer Face' as a big red light.... and an orange brake warning light which aparantly has been just lighting up when it feels like it since the first non-warranty service all those years ago. New cars are so reliable they're no fun!! But I'm going off the point again....
The Granny is not in everyday use at the moment, it's use is either short hops to the supermarket etc or long runs, most recently to Canbridge (200ish miles round trip) and I havn't checked it since, something for me to do later...Thanks for the suggestions chaps!

[Bluebottle]

The Granada is the first big car I've owned and I'm enjoying it more than I thought, I probably wouldn't have chosen to buy one but we needed something to tow a box trailer with, and Aly's Dad had kept the Granny in a garage for five years when he got his company car. He bought the Granada new in early 1984 (I think) and just didn't want to sell it. The only thing letting it down is the door trims- they just aren't made to be frequently removed to repair window motors!! It's done 120000 miles with no major problems.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by AMoffat
Well I would agree with Ray - an Imperial pint per two hundred miles is nothing.

But the early '80's X series Fords were better cars than Ray would have you believe. I had a '84 Fairmont straight six....

All I ask is "how many doorhandles?"

True enough, they weren't that bad, though I took a photo of a bootlid on one the other day that will have to be posted when it's processed!

It's not so much that the pint in 200 miles is lost, what's really relevant is if it goes on to lose more the next 200 or 1000 or whatever... the first pint will go in expansion, more than that is loss or consumption.

[djb]

Moffat, here in N.America, Dodge had cars like the Dart and Reliant that used an age-old tested straight 6 that didn't change much from the late 50's into the eighties, and while bodies here end up going to salt rust heaven, the straight sixes usually kept on going and going and going. An old friends' dad had a Dart like that with a "3 in the tree" column shifter when we were teenagers, and it was pretty old by the time we got to 16 and had licenses. I have a particularly good memory of my friend holding it in a really nice opposite lock slide with the throttle at around 60mph while heading up to the ski hill one early morning. There are things to be said for a simple tried and true engine package aren't there? (non-mechanical points are nice though).

Oh, and Bluebottle, the old "I didn't smell anything dear" when one hands off the baby with a need of a diaper change, is a handicap that many of us have temporarily been struck with......

[Arneal]

Dorthy Dix was a pen name for Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer. She was a Tennessee woman whose advice column was syndicated world wide. She passed away in 1951.

For a picture of Dorothy and some additional info:

http://library.apsu.edu/dix/dix.htm

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by me
....I took a photo of a bootlid on one the other day that will have to be posted when it's processed!

And thanks, Arneal, for the clarification on Dorothy Dix...

[djb]

Ray, if anyone spotted you, they would have thought you were a private detective....
I'm curious if living near the sea does a car in at the same rate as our salted winter roads do here. I suppose one could never really compare without visiting the other county-but then didn't you say that you have been to Canada? What's your take? Again, it strange how some cars obviously had poor thinking that went into the engineering of the bodies for where salty water can accumulate and munch away.

djb from a -10c Montreal

[Ray Bell]

Spot me? He threatened me... I had to talk my way out of that... told him the people in Queensland wouldn't believe it, and I also told him the numberplate was covered up by my mirror... I thought it was...

Anyway, there is a significant difference in the rusting process.

Our coastal areas with high humidity encourage rusting from within box sections, the condensation overnight ensures moisture is always trapped in there and it does the job.

Your salted roads tend to create rust from the outside, or from within place where the salt can be trapped when thrown up by the wheels...

No, I wanted to go to Canada, but never made it...

If I can observe, however, most cars seem to be more rust resistant these days.

[Bluebottle]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Spot me? He threatened me...

Some people eh?
I've never seen a Granada rust like that- maybe thats the difference between them and Falcons!(the lock on the boot lid looks different as well...)
Ours was treated with some anti-rust stuff when it was new, the only problem areas are the rear left wing (replaced after an accident about 10 years ago) and the front edge of the bonnet, where the metal is folded and welded whilst full of water.

Our Granada now has a squeek from the gearbox when it's in reverse (only when it's under power, not coasting) and the Dut's starter motor fault has cured itself but I think the distributor has been damaged as a result (spark goes in, nothing comes out, cap looks ok, new points may be called for, but it's dark, wet, cold and windy outside!)

[Ray Bell]

Is the little carbon thing still there in the distributor cap?

The tip of the rotor button clean, the bits in the cap too, not covered in green schmultz?

Dunno about that 'squeak' in reverse... or is it an auto? Slipping bands...?