Only passing time...

December 2001

I moved back home and parked the car while I went away for a few weeks to the USA. The car was parked outside, due to lack of spare garage space, and there it sat until I returned four weeks later.

Februrary 2002

Having sat for four weeks (perhaps five), the only thing that had seized was the front brakes. The pads had rusted to the discs, and being on gravel didn't help matters - a push forwards meant that it just dug into the gravel, and the front wheels did not turn. We managed to free them eventually though, and soon all was well again.

March 2002

MOT time again! Luckily the only thing that needed doing was some welding.

Also around this time I noticed excessive oil consumption/leaking. I ordered a Rocker cover gasket and fitted it, and it seemed to solve the problem, but soon it was losing even more oil than before. I had to get this fixed, I took the car to a local garage and discovered that it was the mayflower oil seal, but more precisely my main engine bearings which had come back to haunt me... The garage in Leeds had told me of this problem but it had not really bothered me until now.

Summer 2002

I had to get the leak sorted out, and replacing the oil seal was the quickest fix so I went for it. I knew it would leak again but hopefully I would have enough money to replace the engine casing by then. (the only proper fix for this problem)

September 2002

I started to use the car for regular commuting, 10 miles there and 10 miles back. This was good - actually getting to use my Beetle on a regular basis!

Autumn 2002

In using the car regularly and putting on some milage, I discovered that I needed to maintain the car more than I had been doing. Water leaking in and collecting in the rear-passenger foot wells was becoming increasingly annoying, and probably the cause of all the corrosion down there. I also noted that the paintwork was rather bad around the right hand rear corner of the car, around the boot seal, and near the wing.