He's just left. He noticed one of the jubilee clips on a coolant pipe was very old and was causing a small leak of coolant. He thinks that this is what most of the leak on the floor was from. He refitted and tightened that and said to keep an eye on it and if needs be he can replace the clip.
He noticed some oil on the top of the transmission. He smelt it and said it was definitely gearbox oil. When he showed me the smell it made me realise, I think i've been smelling this in the car when it's been running for a while... I can't recall his exact wording as a lot of the technical terminology goes over my head. But when he had one of the shafts out, there wasn't much oil that came out of the gearbox. When he filled it up he's not sure if a little extra might've been put in which has caused it to leak. So I don't know at this point, it wasn't really the answer I was looking for and didn't put my mind at ease. I wasn't sure about getting a second opinion at this point.
I'm glad the coolant pipe is fixed, but the gearbox remains an issue. He said the rattle is quite bad. As the clutch has been done within the past 10k miles he doesn't think it would be the clutch release bearing which is what Chris at LMS and a friend of mine thought it might be. I had queried before about buying a used, low mileage gearbox on eBay. He said there's no real guarantees how good a condition it will be in, and it's a fairly long process to take one out and fit a new one. But a gearbox recon and a new clutch and clutch release bearing plus installation would probably cost me in excess of £1000.
So i'm not sure at this point - I'll admit, I started the day on a high thinking I'd been making real progress on the project, and now - well I feel extremely down in the dumps to be honest. J is off on holiday on Thursday and back on Monday. He said Wed/Thu he's not working and could work on the car for most of the day. Sort the lambda sensor, cold air induction, door cards and strut braces. He said he has plenty of clips for the door cards. So there's a positive, but the upcoming MOT, the leak and the rattle feel like big problems right now, with no visible solution.
I'm totally stuck with what to do at this point. J is off on Thursday, the other guy I have used before on my last Puma isn't back until next week from a holiday either. I wonder if I should ask a local garage to look at it and ask about the VSS and the oil breather? At this point I'm thinking the car will fail it's MOT on Thursday. It's idling isn't smooth, it regularly stalls if you don't put the revs on whilst it's stationary, when its going along it doesn't sound smooth at all. Whether this is the gearbox rattle or something else I've no idea. It sounds so unrefined it's almost like I'm driving a diesel. When I try to drive economically it hits the lower rev range where it starts kangerooing and juddering, the fuel economy is absolutely atrocious. I'm left thinking to myself what a whole waste of time and effort this entire project is starting to feel like. But this is my only car now - I've put in too much money to give up now. I just wish the excitement had lasted a little longer. When the car is driven hard it's smooth and a delight, but I can't afford to drive it in high revs and throw it around corners all the time otherwise the running costs and eventual wear and tear would be astronomical
I really feel stuck at this point guys. I know J wants to see this through with the additional work and get the car running well. I know he means well. Having no knowledge of the mechanics doesn't really help me. It just makes me worry about things that I have no way of fixing other than throwing money at the problem and hoping it gets fixed.
Bloody hell..
Ed