a wheel at each corner

The gas struts in the Saab’s tailgate failed, oh, in December, I think. Or possibly November. It was mildly inconvenient, but not hugely so, and after a bit we got round to buying some replacements online. Then we realised we didn’t actually know how to fit them, so we bought a Haynes book of lies. And then we were a bit  nervous of doing it, and kept putting it off.

When I put the old treadmill up for sale, I blithely said “will deliver within 20 miles for petrol money”. And then we realised that it would be well nigh impossible to get the treadmill into the car without a third person (or a prehensile tail, or a trunk), as the tailgate had to be held up. So I phoned the local garage and asked if they could do it, and they said “of course, pop it round – it’ll only take a couple of minutes”. So we decided to pop it round late morning today, and have lunch on Newland Ave. We got in the  car, drove 25 yards up the road and realised it was making a sound it shouldn’t, and not driving as it should. Pulled in, and front off side tyre flat as a pancake. And as it had been filled less than 2 weeks before, that was a bit of a worry.

Pete footpumped enough air into it to get us to the garage on Prinny Ave, then he filled it with their airline, and checked all the others too. One was OK, but two others weren’t great. So we trundled down Springbank to the tyre man, who took them all off, and pronounced three out of four knackered. £207. thankyouverymuch. And when they’d fitted them, the car wouldn’t start. Dead as the proverbial dodo. Seems that the battery was pretty flat, and the five starts in ¼ mile was too much for it (outside the house, further up our street, garage for airline, parking at the tyre shop, and then (not) coming out of the workshop). The battery was completely dead. They jumpstarted it, and suggested we took the car for a long run, but I felt safer buying a new battery. Another £76. Sigh.

Then we drove to Richmond Street, where they realised that they couldn’t do the gas struts, because they had to take the roof lining out (I could have told them that), so it has to be booked in, and they couldn’t tell me how much because the boss wasn’t in, so I’ll have to phone them tomorrow.

We did finally get to Newland for lunch at about 2.15. Bacon sandwich and coffee, not really what I was hoping for 🙂