Car maintenance
About two years ago we bought a Volvo 245. Whether you think its pretty or not, this car is a classic.
Beside being a classic, which may be nice in itself, its also very very spacious. And that's convenient when you're (still cough) renovating the house and like to go camping during holidays.
Another reason to buy this car (second hand of course, at the time already 201.000 Km on the odometer) was that it is a car that let's you do maintenance yourself. If you want to. Under the hood there's plenty of space around the engine block and all parts are big and reachable and there's not much electronics getting in your way. Great for getting your hands dirty.
Last short holiday's return trip was a bit of anxious ride. The temperature gauge wasn't in the comfort zone. It actually was reaching almost into the red zone. Does not make for a relaxed drive.
This weekend I took the plunge and replaced - myself - oil, oil filter, spark plugs. I checked and cleaned the air filter and most importantly decided to drain the cooling system, replaced the cooling liquid and also replaced the thermostat and cleaned the radiator.
Of course something needs to go wrong as well.
One of the hose connections on the radiator broke of. Just while I was filling the cooling system with new coolant. And since it was sunday afternoon by then, I could basically stop right there.
Yesterday I had to arrange for a new radiator. I ordered one at a more-or-less local car shop that does Volvo in particular. He returned my call with good news: he had a radiator in stock. So I picked it up - by bike of course.
So, yesterday evening I replaced the radiator. All connections were good to go now and I went for a test drive. The temperature gauge is happy now :-)