In the last post we detailed the range of work that Jenny needed doing to her. Joe the mechanic at Wimbledon Auto Centre has been putting in some massive shifts on our behalf – regularly working from 7 am to 11 pm in a monumental effort to enable us to set off first thing this morning.
Joe and his colleagues have:
- replaced all brake disks and pads
- replaced the shock absorbers
- found a significant oil leak leading to replacing a number of gaskets (a huge job)
- replaced the thermostat (that was degrading because it was under the oil leak causing a coolant leak and meaning that no accurate engine temperature reading was possible …)
- replaced the turbo (a faulty error light turned out not to be a faulty error light at all but, rather, symptomatic of an actual error with the turbo actuator)
- traced (and hopefully fixed) the error in the piece of technology sends on instructions from the windscreen wiper stalk and blower motor
The only thing that defeated him was replacing the suspension – and even that wasn’t Joe’s fault. The breaker’s yard that was providing a complete replacement suspension failed to deliver it on time. It was meant to arrive on Thursday (if we were lucky) but definitely by Friday. On Saturday afternoon we had our fingers crossed that it might just be delivered in time but no luck. Hopefully it will arrive on Monday and be installed by Tuesday afternoon in time for us to load up and leave on Wednesday.
We have not been idle, however.
On Friday night Daniel’s choir practice was cancelled and so instead he drove across London to collect 14 heavy duty stretcher / camp beds and large boxes of tourniquets. These need to get to Ukraine soon to save lives. On Saturday Daniel rented a van and drove out to Epsom to collect two large (and very heavy!) generators and three boxes of warm clothes from our wonderful partners at Surrey Stands for Ukraine. There is so much aid to send to Ukraine at the moment and we are having to prioritise those items we think are in greatest demand.
Surrey Stands for Ukraine is an amazing organisation, with c. 4000 sq ft of office space (provided free of charge) for aid collection, sorting, packing and distribution as well as classroom spaces for English lessons, a social centre for Ukrainian refugees and plenty else besides. It’s truly brilliant work by wonderfully committed volunteers.
Now let’s keep our fingers crossed that the suspension arrives soon …
In the meantime please do support us if you possibly can!
