Current mood:	Accomplished
Current music:	Tsuki No Curse - Loveless

#Happy Birthday too mee...
And once again, I'm a year older than I was last year. Or, something. I wonder if I need a zimmer-frame yet. It's a little odd, because it's the first birthday away from my parents. Nonetheless, they're getting me a few presents, and so's ohajiki, but other than that there won't be much to it. Party on Sunday though. Hope Toni doesn't think I'm stealing people away from her boatrace party!

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For most of the weekend, I was underneath Tessa, giving her a good inspection and rub-down.

This all started because after her most recent service, I was told that her sump was ``corroded and leaking''. This worried me a little, but I wasn't in much of a position to do anything about it. Given I couldn't see any leaks on the ground beneath her, I assumed everything was fine.

When I finally got underneath her, I saw exactly what they meant: the sump had bits of metal flaking off, and had lots of lovely orange and red patches, and what looked like a patch of oil soaked into the rust. This seemed like bad news: if it really was leaking, and was properly corroded through, she could potentially dump all her oil in one go, when you least expect it. Bad news if you want to go anywhere, as oil is the only thing that stops the engine from welding itself together into one lump when it's running. And a new sump will set you back £150, not to mention labour and all the extra bits like gaskets and stuff.

Yes, that's right. Tessa is a car. Sometimes referred to as ``The Other Woman''. Heh. Specifically, she's a 1.4 Ford Escort, `96 P-Reg. So, she's coming up for 10 years old, and she's done about 82k miles. I picked her up for a song, and despite the money needed for the 80k service (and the dent in the bumper...) she's still worth it. But she doesn't like hot weather too much. Or cold weather. Good for motorway trips, but not so good for town driving.

Anyway, thanks to a few digital photos, Dad was able to diagnose the rust as just surface rust (thanks Dad!). The important thing was ``could you peel the surface rust off?''. Incidentally, don't bother trying to take useful images in the dark with a mobile phone. Even with some lighting to spare. Not if you want them to come out blurry, and with a funny exposure. Use a proper digital camera.

So, Sunday I drove her up onto the ramps, and had another inspection. The bits peeling off were just the paint, where rust had seeped beneath. The actual sump itself was solid, and none of the rust on it was flaking off. I started the cleanup with just a brush, which removed some of it. Then I graduated to using the plastic handle of the brush to remove some more of the rusted-under paint --- I didn't want anything too sharp or hard, lest it punctured the sump (which rules out screwdrivers). After a while, I felt confident the sump was solid enough to use sandpaper on - previously I was worried sandpapering might take away enough material to wear through.

Plenty of medium-grit sandpaper later, and the rusted-off paint has all been removed, and the whole thing was still nice and solid. As for the oil leak, there's some to be expected around the sump plug during an oil change, but the rest was most likely from the cam-shaft pulley oil seal. If you pushed it, you could see a little bulging of oil. The amount of leak is probably really tiny! It wasn't getting onto the cam-belt, and what is there will just drain down the side of the sump, so it'll probably do no harm. There is more oil on the other side of the sump, running down onto the gearbox. This may be the cam-shaft oil seal on that side. Or the sump gasket. Or, it may've been left-over grease. I've cleaned it up, but if it reappears, I'll know what's causing it. If it's the cam oil-seal on that side, that means either the engine or the gearbox has to come out :(

The last step was a couple of coats of Kurust applied to it, and when the weather becomes dry again, I'll paint on some Direct to Rust Paint. The Kurust is a very thin white liquid, smells like milk of magnesia, and turns blue on contact with the rust, turning it back to metal. You need a very tiny amount on a brush, as it goes a long way! I'll probably give the same treatment to the rest of the rust underneath, though for that I don't have to worry about going through the metal, and can use a harsh steel-wool drill bit. Just need a drill to go with it.

After all that, the sump should be good for another xx,000 miles. Hurrah!

For those thinking of doing this, it took me about 6 hours, including the inspection time, mainly due to being careful about the sump. For sanding an area on the sump, you want to stop when you see metal, lest you go through it. You can tell when you're done completely because the remaining paint doesn't flake off, and the paint's edge almost looks like it's blended with the metal surface, due to the sanding. And don't forget to wear a face-mask, well-fitted goggles, and rubber gloves, since:

1. The sanding will produce nasty dust that you really don't want to breathe in
2. Even touching the rust will get it to flake off and embed sharp bits of metal it in your eye, or up your nose. This is not comfortable.
3. The Kurust is a nasty chemical, which if you're working under a car, you don't really want to drip onto your face!

For supporting the car, you'll note I used ramps: these are well worth the £30-40, if you can get them to stay-put. I can't use them in the garage, since they move when you try to drive on them. I ended up wedging them into the gravel/dirt outside the house, and working on the car on the gravel. Not exactly sure if that's the safest way to do things, even with the wheels chocked, and the ramps supplemented with axle-stands (just in case!), but it seemed sufficiently stable. And it's quicker than a trolley-jack.

For being able to see under the car, I find a big florescent dual-tube lamp works really well, supplemented with an led lamp that you can strap to your head. The florescent lamp is especially handy, because you can run it off an internal battery.

I'll probably post some photos up later, for the benefit of those who are really interested.

ohajiki's feeling a little left out with me spending all this time on Tessa. But it's ok, because she's coming up soon, and I get to give her lots of TLC&A. Yay!