Oh I did th flame trap as almost my first task, lessened th oil leaks by about 90%,im undecided as to whether this is a leak or just residual leaked or spilled oil making its way down, there's been lots of degreasing and brake cleaner fluids slopping around in th engine bay, and previous owner was so tiny she could barely reach th filler neck, so possibly spilled almost as much as she poured into th engine. Th level doesn't seem to have dropped, but I might just whip th front end off and replace everything as a matter of course, can get it all properly clean at that point too. Hate an engine that looks like someone has knitted it a mohair jumper...

 

I assumed non functioning fuel gauges were a safety feature, stops owners having heart attacks when they work out consumption... Aye, its on th list, fuel gauge, odometer and speedometer all u/s, tho th fuel gauge did spring into life for about 15 seconds once.

 

hah all noted.... look at it this way at least it's not a Lucas electrical system! perhaps cleaning up all the ground points will help
things along.

 

I've also got a Reliant Scimitar, fibreglass body, bad earths are a way of life....

 

Well, after consuming an entire box of after eight mints, thus ruining th strings on my guitar with childlike sticky fingers, and many hours of poking around in th depths of my gauges, I've restored function to th fuel gauge, I can cope without a speedo for a while, tho I've also picked up a box of assorted capacitors from a local electronics repair guy, who's offered to do th job in return for a couple of bottles of rum, I'm going to have a stab at it first tho, exciting times, exciting times....

Th rum fuelled minty choc smeared testathon

....I've got th function i most wanted back....

 

Well, after th sort of struggle you half expect, seized sensor, recalcitrant exhaust, a dremel with a cutting disc, some hammers, a e foot breaker bar and lots of swearing, I finally got th new OEM sensor in place, remounted th exhaust and cat, fed th wire thru all th clips to th engine bay to discover th **** of a previous spanner chewer seems to have replaced th lambda connectors with this joyous pile. I'm tired, cold and wet, it's approaching midnight and it's raining and I'm working outside by torchlight, I'm tempted to just start hitting this with a hammer as no matter what I do, I can't seem to find a way to separate them, I've been up for 18 hours, I'm up again in 5 hrs time, and I need th car to be working.
I feel a cuppa is required before unthinking psychotic hammer wielding occurs....

Update, clip now separated without violence occurring, tho I'm still stuck with two different halves of a whole....

More tea.

 

Well, desperation crept in, as it was imperative that th purple barge was operating today, Friday, as I was intending on surprising th other half, I've been at my dads looking after him since he had a hip op in late November, so, as I didn't fancy buying another sensor for a later model, to fit th layer model type connector, I've spliced th snipped ends from th new sensor and th connector from th old one. We covered th 110 miles, laden with guitars and amps as well as tools (just in case) at a gentle canter, no issues, no lights 29 mpg and no codes on th OBD, I think we can notch that up as a win for th home team. Thanks for the input once again. John.