Ella’s 1999 Vauxhall Corsa

Derek the Corsa has been rustproofed!

Dropped it off earlier in the week, and picked up tonight... looking rather like an old unmarked car, this was on collection



Lots of dimitrol everywhere





Then fitted wheeltrims and the new wheel arches



And the bulge in the side of the bumper got sorted



He even knocked the dent out of the tailgate as much as he could without cracking the paint

Got an old 1999 Vauxhall Corsa brochure





It’s not quite the right one, as this is edition 2... and the car was made in March... but was £3 instead of £15-20 as a lot of the other ones were priced

That's bad news, I cant remember on these heads if you have enough room down the sides of the springs to get those legs on?

If its just a small puff of smoke I would live with it, see if it gets any worse and then sort it!

I have now relinquished ownership of the Corsa

Ella has done a driving course, and then was poorly on the last day, so now has to wait for DVLA to give her another test date.
The instructor has said though she’d done an hour or so on the Friday, he’ll also give her another day when she gets a new test date.

In the mean time, she either carries on driving the Skoda (150ps diesel estate car) but it is quite different to the instructors car, so he advised her to drive the Corsa. Because of the insurance kerfuffle we’ve had to transfer it into her name and she’s got a month long provisional policy on it


I did manage to get hold of a Fischer c-box though which fits perfectly

Ok, it’s the hottest day of the year!

But Ella’s provisional insurance runs out tomorrow... then we going to wait a week and start again, to hopefully coincide with driving test.

So we drove over to the test town, which was lovely... windows down, sunroof open, Hangin’ out the passenger side of your daughters ride etc



But whilst driving round town, the temp gauge climbed a bit. So we stopped for a drink, we stopped at Halfords so we could check the fluids etc at the same time. All was good.
The first roundabout after driving off I got a hot antifreeze smell, couldn’t see anything, we pulled onto a dual carriageway and the temp went up a bit... but even though it was being cooled now it kept climbing. So we pulled over when safe and there was water everywhere

Filled the expansion tank and it blew out of a split hose.



We managed to remove the pipeclamp with a pair of pliers, cut the hose down and force it back on, luckily it was all warm and soft as the pipe is smaller than the end



We limped it 2 or 3 miles to Uncle Andrews and filled up, burped it etc... and then had a brew to let it cool down

Then drove home, windows down etc... but I was driving as Ella didn’t want to be in charge of breaking it

Fan wouldn’t run at Andrews, but was fine at home... so I’m guessing there is a different sensor for temp gauge and fan

Soooo.... need some new hoses, any recommendations for a Corsa B hose set, or should I just buy them indivually?

Not much to update,

Still going really well. Ella drove half way to Cardiff on Friday (but it was raining and got dark) and then all the way on Saturday



Spent the day in Cardiff, looking at the Uni... which is now her top choice in-spite of the rain



She got to drive through some floods!!



No real problems, the clutch really needs changing now, as there isn’t much feel (we have a new one in the boot but haven’t wanted to take it off of the road) but will have a look at that next weekend hopefully (weather permitting)
It still uses a bit of oil too, and smokes a bit after idling and then revving, but will keep an eye on that for a bit longer

Congratulations, no better feeling than getting home and tearing off the L plates

Great news, well done Ella!!

The insurance thing is just a joke, out in depths depths of Lincolnshire there is NO public transport so I don't know how they expect the teenagers to get to work/college etc!!