Bugger

So, last night I stayed late. A patient arrived at 'just the wrong moment' (as they are wont to do, not that I minded, he was soooo cute (a baby, incidentally, before you think I've gone odd)); so I ended up leaving about 20 minutes late. When I got to Brick I was knackered, dead on my feet as it were, so when the car handled a little oddly I presumed I'd just run through my patch of oil from the leaking engine. It settled down fine and I was happily trundling down the motorway when suddenly I heard a *BANG*, presuming I'd hit a bit of debris I scanned the road hard checking for more...

...and then things went a bit weavey. Not terribly so, but not right... unfortuntely I was next to a set of roadworks with concrete barriers...

...having made it past them with the car definately handlying a little strangely, I pulled over and hopped out. The rear nearside tyre was flat, completely dead flat. I don't know if it came off the rim, or has a puncture... but it wasn't right. It was also dark, and cold, and I've no torch in Brick. So I stood there with my Neuro obs torch trying to get my pint-pump jack under the car. It does fine on Rebecca, but on Brick there's no where to put it. Eventually, cursing, I got back in Brick (still idling) and called the RAC. Thankfully, being as I was woman-alone parked on unlit-motorway next to woodland, they did the 'urgent assist' and I got help within 30 minutes.

Less fortunately I stopped the engine just before he arrived and Brick let-go his coolant again. He arrived to find the car suffused in a gentle glow from self-produced mist. I felt a right twit having to have my tyre changed for me; but I had a nice chat with the guy who seemed deeply concerned about brick's coolant leak. The tyre on the car is a rather dubious one, it's got enough tread but it's more than 10 years old. In fact, I suspect it dates from when the car was last in regular use.

So on the way to the engine place, I shall be stopping to get two new tyres.

Bah.

Still, it could have been a lot nastier....

Meh

So, Brick's at the engine place, who've now said that they won't do the crankshaft oil seal (I suspect that they wanted lots more money to do that), so if Brick's leaking from there then I'm stuck. He thought that the seal was replaceable from the back, but apparently he's remembered now that you have to take the crankshaft off to do that seal (which I knew, which is why I was impressed with the quote!); and he doesn't fancy that. I debated asking him how much he'd want, but I don't really want to spend that sort of money on the engine unless it's going for a full recondition.

And I'm not going to do that...

So I walked back, healthy soul that I am; stopping briefly at B&Q. The oil leak related puddle outside the house has been attacked with driveway cleaner, and I'm now waiting to see how improved it is (not very, I suspect). There's still a lot more driveway cleaner left, so I suspect I'll be having a go at the oil every few days for a while. It was somewhat like skating though, the road's really slippery outside. So that brings up my total of 'things I've cleaned this week' to the bathroom, the road, the inside of the car (a little). It's not exactly house-work, but hey.

I also had a look at that tyre and now have formed a hypothesis about what happened: got a nail (or somesuch) in the tyre; this gave me a slow puncture. Hence the tyre was a bit but not completely flat when I left work. Hence the slightly squiffy but not awful handling. Having got to the motorway, the increased speed / heat / pressure managed to force whatever it was back out (providing the bang of something hitting the underside of the car) and the tyre rapidly deflated.

Which all adds up to me needing a new tyre.

Pooh.

Anyway, I must now finish my tea and then set to on the tiling.