Tom's Sanitary towel

[Toms306]

So, this morning was weird...had planned on removing the hub and taking it over to Bash's to have the bearings pressed in and out.

Popped the centre cap off and went to loosen the hub nut...shit it's rounded immediately?...oh wait...no, it's just loose...

It's not the OE nut, looks fairly fresh, probably recently had a wheel bearing lol. But it was the worst hub nut I'd ever seen, loose in the socket and made with round corners... I couldn't torque it properly (presumably why he last person hadn't!) as it felt like it was gonna slip all the time, so swapped it for the nut that came with the new bearing and added a bit of threadlock as well. There's no stake or anything on these driveshafts to stop it coming right off! It seems alright now, doesn't knock and no play at all... I will say though, there definitely wasn't that much play in it when I checked the whole car about a month ago, there was a little play (felt like the start of a TRE failing tbh) but nothing like there was when it was on the ramp or this morning...keep thinking about 'what if' it'd come off now, I've been a bit daft in it recently too.



So, that was a quick fix...got an empty morning now lol, so moved onto that daft rear brake hose. Realised some fool had probably twisted the caliper when fitting it or the pads for MOT last year...how they refitted it like this I have no idea!



10 minutes later looked like this...



Think I've caught it in time tbh, it's only that thick sheath that's damaged really, the hose itself still seems ok on closer inspection. PS - I much prefer that handbrake cable to the 306 ones lol, came out much easier!

Will this exhaust blow cause any issues other than a potential MOT advisory? It's after the cat and lambda so shouldn't really be an issue in my mind? If it's gonna make a difference to power or mpg then I'll change it but won't bother if not.



Lastly, thought I'd check the spark plugs as I hadn't done so. The airbox feels like it's never been off for the plugs, ridiculously stiff in the mounts lol, not sure if they're all like that! Plugs are all OE Ford Motorcraft branded NGK Irridium so probably been there a while, but tbh tips look ok. However the outside end plugs looked really clean on the insulator, but the inner ones look awful! Water must be getting in there somehow, but it's dry atm which is odd. Not got funds to change the plugs atm but if I get any running issues that'll be first port of call I think!