Small faults fixed ... major fault discovered

I had to cruise down to the south coast in the green beast this weekend so I felt it was time to rectify a couple of small faults. The rear windscreen has been making quite a racket at motorway speeds and a bit of investigation (i.e. pulling the seal off) showed that this was because it was the least-bonded bonded-windscreen around and was liable to be sucked out at any minute. As glass is structural and not to be messed with, I rang the local auto-glass company and they sent one of their 12 year olds round in a van to re-bond it.

We also decided - as we know a friendly young chap at the local garage who does this sort of thing for pocket money - that it was time to get the rear offside directional tyre pointing in the right direction, on the off-chance that we might coax an extra mile-an-hour (or, even better, mile-per-gallon) out of the barge.

While we were there, we asked a sympathetic mechanic for his view on the oil leak that has been troubling us and he confirmed our suspicions - the head gasket needs replacing before Staples to Naples or we will wind up stranded somewhere half-way up the Alps. A can of Wynn's Leak-Stop has staunched the flow for now but, since the choice is replace it ourselves or pay £850 for a garage to do it (there is nothing more expensive than a cheap Jaguar), we will be commencing a major engine overhaul just as soon as the weather catches up with the time of year. Great.

Matt