Passionate about Cars

Amongst other things, Steve tells the story of how driving a mini through a ford resulted in a new engine.

Andy: It's Friday 29th January, I'm at 1st Class Garage with Steven. Steven's just been playing - not dominos - that game where you have to move things around to make space with cars.

Steve: Well, it's almost like musical chairs with the cars, just shunting the cars around so that people can get in and out. And, yes, I mean, it's the same sort of problem wherever you go in the town. I don't know; I don't know what the answer to it is really.

Well, I do know the answer is not to fleece the motorists. That's basically all that's happening; it's all about money. I mean, if you go not too far from here there's, like, it's 11-hour meters. And if you go up and down those roads you'll find that most of those are standing empty because, of course, the cost of parking now. So we've got roads around here that has got not a lot of vehicles parked on them because they're now metered.

Whereas before the meters, obviously people used to park there, so all the cars that used to park there, where have they gone? You know, they've only moved them to another area. And this is the common practice: when they started zoning this town people used to park on the outskirts of the zones, so they moved the zones out. People park on the outskirts of those zones, so it is a little bit of a knock-on effect.

And the parking issues in this town, I mean, I could spend hours talking about it and I don't really want to go down that - because it does make the blood boil.

Andy: Have you had any nice, juicy run-ins with traffic wardens recently, Steve?

Steve: Just lately, no. I've got to say, in fairness, the guys we've had around here have been very understanding, because obviously we work with cars; we're in the town; parking is a problem. When people drop their cars off, you know, we then have to move vehicles around to accommodate them or we have to find somewhere that we can park them, you know, safely and legally.

So yes, parking is a little bit of an issue and we've had run-ins in the past with various wardens - I don't know what their, sort of, their actual job title is now, but...

Andy: Traffic enforcement officers, I think, something like that.

Steve: Oh, traffic enforcement...

Andy: Or parking enforcement officers. Something like that, I think.

Steve: Yes. That's a lovely term, isn't it? I mean, just directly outside the garage here we've got double yellow lines. We did ask if we could actually have, like, the white bar that they used to put across sunken pavements. Because this is a sunken pavement, or a crossover as they call it, which means that you - you know, that really other people - or people shouldn't really park there because we need access to it.

So we asked if we could have the white bar there because of cars being dropped off; it'll allow customers just to pull their cars up outside there without getting hassled. And one or two of the wardens in the past have really hassled us, you know, they don't appreciate that we have a job to do like they have a job to do. We've got to have a little bit of sense and just - it is, it's common sense really.

Andy: But on a bright note it's good news about the understanding wardens that you've encountered recently. We salute understanding wardens, don't we? Well, I do.

Steve: Absolutely, I'm all for it. Everybody has a job to do and I'm sure they hate to get abused, but there are ones out there that actually encourage abuse with the way they go about their job. You can understand why people do get wound-up and do, like, howl verbal abuse at them. I'm not condoning it - I can't condone it - but yes, you know, it'll make your blood boil, particularly if you're having a bit of a bad day and their lack of understanding is - it doesn't help matters. It's just fuel to the fire really, isn't it?

Andy: Now Steve, last time I spoke to you, which was in December, was

Steve talks about driving in wintery and snow conditions.

Andy: Hello everyone, itrsquo;s Passionate About Cars. We woke up this morning to thick snow, well, I mean, for Brighton, itrsquo;s thick snow, three inches and Irsquo;m sitting in the main lobby, the main area where customers come at First Class Garage and Steversquo;s manning the lobby. Are you short of staff this morning Steve?

Steve: Yes, Irsquo;m actually playing secretary as well today. The secretaryrsquo;s on two daysrsquo; holiday, shersquo;s back in on Monday, today being Friday. So Irsquo;m sort of manning the front desk as well as everything else. A general dogsbody, thatrsquo;s me.

Wersquo;ve had a fair bit of snow overnight. I live just on the outskirts in Woodingdean and as always out there it does tend to get a little bit worse. Wersquo;ve probably had about sort of five or six inches of snow settling on the ground overnight in Woodingdean which has made it difficult to get out.

Public transport, you know, buses not running. I came in from Woodingdean this morning and picked four women up on the way in actually this morning, like all walking to work along the Warren Road and it was still snowing quite heavily. It was a bit breezy out there and all the women said that itrsquo;s a bit of a first, they wouldnrsquo;t normally step into a motor with a stranger. So obviously I couldnrsquo;t sort of encourage people to do that but the conditions were such that, you know, itrsquo;s just Irsquo;m coming that way and Irsquo;ve got the benefit of a four wheel drive for the workshop so it just made sense rather than see them struggling on foot to work.

Andy: Did you see any good examples of interesting snow driving on the way Steve?

Steve: Yes, theyrsquo;re out there. The sort of people that are really not sure when it comes to these sort of conditions should stay at home. They ought never ever to get behind the wheel. If theyrsquo;re not sure about the conditions, stay away from the wheel.

One of the big problems you get is yoursquo;ve got four wheel drive vehicles out there that do find it a lot easier to get through these conditions but then yoursquo;ll always come across the person that doesnrsquo;t understand the conditions, will drive at 2, 3, 4mph and constantly get stuck. Because you just need to keep momentum going, you need to just let the engine take it and you see people, theyrsquo;ll get up to 5mph so theyrsquo;re dabbing the brakes. Not really the thing to do. So if yoursquo;re not really sure, obviously the best advice is to stay at home, stay out of the conditions and you donrsquo;t have to drive, again, stay out of the conditions.

Itrsquo;s only if you really have to drive then if you donrsquo;t have a lot of alternative but to venture out then obviously you donrsquo;t have much alternative, itrsquo;s as simple as that. Particularly if yoursquo;re living in the outer areas or if you know a neighbour whorsquo;s got a four wheel drive, you can cadge a lift with someone, then thatrsquo;s definitely the way to go.

But, yes, therersquo;s more forecast for the weekend and although itrsquo;s nice and blue sky and bright out there at the moment, it is still hovering around freezing. And Irsquo;ve noticed one of the big problems wersquo;ve got, where the snowrsquo;s packing down and because the temperatures are so low, wersquo;ve got a lot of solid ice forming underneath. So, until the gritters get out there, itrsquo;s not a good idea to be on the road in fairness.

Wersquo;ve had two of the guys from the workshop that live in the outer areas, havenrsquo;t made it in this morning. Theyrsquo;ve phoned in, canrsquo;t get in but likewise wersquo;ve had customers that again, whose cars are booked in, are not coming in. Not that wersquo;re expecting too many. We have had some come in and wersquo;ll continue to get people coming in with the non-start problems, the bad starting and then after the weekend wersquo;ll...

Steve talks about his personal challenges during our hiatus and shows us his new project, an RV

Andy: Hello everyone. Wersquo;re back with lsquo;Passionate About Carsrsquo; and with Steve. Alright Steve?

Steve: Yeah, hi Andy. Seems to have been a while doesnrsquo;t it?

Andy: Yeah, wersquo;ve been kind of off air ndash; sorry Steve you lead the way. Wersquo;re just going to the back. Wersquo;ve got an exciting project to talk about.

Itrsquo;s kind of my fault and I do apologise wersquo;ve been off air for a year, wersquo;re back now with a vengeance. And the exciting thing is wersquo;ve got a new website, which if yoursquo;re listening to this on the website yoursquo;ll know about because yoursquo;re on it. But if yoursquo;re listening to it on the feed, through iTunes or something like that take a look at passionate-about-cars.com. You donrsquo;t need the www but you can put it there if you want. Thatrsquo;s the new website for hosting this wonderful podcast.

Quite a lot of waterrsquo;s passed under the bridge the year wersquo;ve been off hasnrsquo;t it? Tell us whatrsquo;s been going on.

Steve: Yeah well apart from motor trade, I mean therersquo;s always an awful lot going on in the motor trade ndash; business wise therersquo;s been a fair bit going on.

And personally, I mean, as yoursquo;re aware Andy like I had a little bit of a scare a couple of months ago now, it was a heart attack actually. And it happened here at the garage and I think probably a lot of that will be down to stress of running a business, you know I mean some people might say diet and all this sort of thing like. But I used to smoke; Irsquo;m not a smoker now I gave that up quite a few years ago. Drink wise, no I used to drink years ago, you know in my sort of service days when quite a lot of us used to drink back then. But now therersquo;s really not an awful lot of alcohol passes the lips sohellip; So itrsquo;s not really down to that and the only thing I can put it down to is probably more the stress of running businesses, you know particularly in this day and age. Things get a little bit awkward from time to time.

Therersquo;s an awful lot of things to sort out and whether you like it or not you find yourself getting stressed out and it happens. And I guess it happens to most people that are running businesses as I say particularly at the moment because things are quite sort of tough out there for people.

The heart attack as I say happened here at work. Bit of a strange thing, wasnrsquo;t really what I expected, you know. When people talk about heart attacks the first thing you think about is chest pains. I didnrsquo;t really get chest pains. I had a little bit of what was seen to be a bit of indigestion and I know a lot of people have the same thing leading up to a heart attack. This was a little bit in the morning when I woke up.

One of the main things I noticed at that time, that morning was my shoulders ached, particularly my left shoulder. I put it down to being in the gym. The previous day Irsquo;d had a bit of a workout in the gym and thought may be Irsquo;d overdone it a little bit so I put it down to a little bit of sort of may be muscle strain or something like that. But obviously it wasnrsquo;t and I came into work just feeling a little bit out of sorts, couldnrsquo;t really put your finger on it. Just felt a bit under the weather.

By about sort of quarter past ten that morning I started to feel really nauseous and had to go to the loo in the garage and thought I was going to be bad but I wasnrsquo;t. I then just started sweating profusely. It was like someone threw a bucket of water over me. I was just totally soaked in sweat. Had to sit down and I felt really short of breath then, started struggling to breathe. And I guess I sort of suspected it was something to do with the heart at that time but I didnrsquo;t have the chest pains. So again I was like thinking like I gues...

A whirlwind of political commentary from Steve in this show, including motorist persecution, the toll increase at the Dartford Crossing, police doing speed checks on Brighton Seafront and how some banks are not passing on the 2% interest rate change. nbsp;Oh, and we discuss driver safety, K-Series Rover head gaskets, Nissan rear door handles, and some tips on preparing your car for winter such as tyres (tread and pressure), lights, screen wash and good old WD40 in your locks. Enjoy!

Steve talks about A class Mercedes starter motor problems, the Ford Galaxy phantom opening windows problem, his prize Cadillac loosing top gear and the indestructible Toyota Hilux.

Steve talks about scored brake discs, fabric skins on cars, Japanese cars coming into the UK and how wonderful speed cameras are - not.

Steve enthuses about the joy of two post ramps. What is a two post ramp you may well ask?

Ever tried parking in Brighton? Steve gives us a wonderful example of why the parking regulations in Brighton, UK are more like a type of Human Error tax.

Enjoy!

Steve tells us about how modern cars can behave very strangely when their controller units go wrong. We hear tales of a Vauxhall Vectra with a dead indicator switch and gauges, and a Kia Sedona with an accelerator pedal that refused to function, until a completely and apparently unrelated issue was resolved. Strange indeed.

Take one Vauxhall Calibre 16v 2 litre with a worn head gasket and add Steve Kennard and we have a vibrant tips and advice fest. Did you know, for example, that Rovers are prone to worn head gaskets? And don't forget to check your water levels!

Steve shows us a 1985 Mazda RX7 with a rust problem on the A-frames revealed when the windscreen needed replacing. Listen out for a few things to look out for when acquiring an older car.