Exciting times here at HubNut, as the first collection caper of the year has been scheduled! Yes, I’ve managed to go very nearly two months without buying a car.

The ZX hasn’t done a fat lot wrong really, apart from throwing a wheel bearing on the drive home and needing the auxiliary belt tensioner replacing. But, as I suspected when I won the thing, it hasn’t taken me long to grow bored with its hideous efficiency – 55mpg really isn’t bad going for an ‘old’ diesel.

Before I identified the new car (more details on that later, I’m not ruining the surprise just yet!), I’d already ordered up fresh oil and filters for the ZX, as I had a feeling it was due a service. I’m planning to use the ZX to drive to wedding this weekend, so I thought it made sense to ensure it was in fine health. I’ve been experiencing fuel starvation, so I suspected that the fuel filter was far from healthy. I wasn’t wrong…

Yuck! Definitely needs a change.

I can’t really say the air filter was much better. Guess which is the old one!

Mucky!

The oil filter was also changed. The old one had specs of rust on it, so that may have been a little overdue too. The oil itself was black, but that’s expected with a diesel engine anyway. It does rather highlight their sooty nature…

Luckily, for this performance machine, I had appropriate oil.

Yeah baby. Performance oil! It’ll be 20mph faster now.

With a new oil filter in place, and fresh oil, it remained only for me to forget to prime the fuel system and wonder why it wouldn’t start. With priming achieved, it fired up and runs very nicely.

Mini-service complete!

By the way, how handy is my driveway? It slopes downhill, so if I put a car on ramps, it is actually pretty much level, but with excellent access to the underside. Lovely!

Anyway, a test drive was conducted, and the fuel starvation seems to have gone away. Which is nice. I’ve also booked it in for an MOT on Thursday, though as I type, someone has just agreed to buy it! I may have to cancel that. Perhaps I’ll try and do a better job of washing it instead…

Oh well. Might be using the Honda at the weekend then! It’s well overdue a long trip away.