Metro Post Centenary Stages

After the early ending at the Centenary Stages we dropped the car off at HT Auto's so we could do a strip down and find out what was wrong.

When I got round there on Tuesday evening the engine was already out of the car and ready for us to get to work. We got the clutch out and opened up the bottom end and eventually we discovered the problem – the crankshaft big end bearing (apparently) was knackered and this had caused some scoring on the crankshaft itself. In addition the bolts that held the endplate where the timing gear is seated had worked loose and this was what we believe was causing the noise.

The cure to this has been a reground crankshaft and bearings and new timing gear and hopefully we’ll be able to get the engine back together and get some miles on it within the next few weeks.

Other upcoming tasks include looking at the wings and cutting some out to give us more room, fixing the petrol leak, welding some new plates underneath the car where the body is looking a bit dodgy, fitting the fly off handbrake and push button start and replacing the CV boot that was destroyed when we hit the pothole. I’ll also need to replace one of the wheels as it was also damaged by the impact with the pothole.