The Journey
Begun with a 6 hour train journey, 2 of which the girlfriend spend in the virgin trains toilet with travel sickness
then a short cab ride we arrived at Greg's brother in laws house just before 11.00 am
The Car!
Looked absolutely beautiful! But I have to say I was abit disappointed at first, after all the add did say how over £6k has been spent getting the car perfect...
The bonnet has a small crack under the light, and either side where it closes there was some light damage where it had closed onto the body of the car.
There was also bad paint damage where the doors weren’t adjusted properly.
The engine
Fired up beautifully, not even a hint of a tap, though the fuel pump was screaming its nuts off, Greg said this was down to the MOT blokes running the car out of fuel and the pump had picked up a bit of crap and blocked it.
Couple of small things that I noticed is the RPM didn’t work, i pointed it out to Greg and after a small rev it sprung into life!
The mistake
Was when all the excitement overwhelmed me and I the thought of a test drive didn’t even cross my mind! Anyway, Handed over the cash and took the keys and went on our merry way….
The Real Journey!
Began when we was leaving Gregs Brother in laws, I pulled away very carefully and the engine was very reluctant to go any were! Soon as I accelerated it would cut out! I was getting quite emotional at this point, with my previous car doing the same thing on my journey home from collecting it.. and that car turned out to be problem after problem after problem!
I turned straight back round and explained what was happening to Greg and he assured my it was fine when he was driving back from the mot place, so I offered to take him for a drive, after about 10 minutes Greg asked to take over.
In the end Greg gave me back 150 pounds, and in Gregs defense he did seem very genuine about not knowing about the misfire, and he was also very apologetic,
I was extremely disappointed at this time, and quite emotional that id just forked out thousands of pounds and I though it was going to turn out like the previous car!
Never the less we set off on our way home!
We had to take an emergency trip to Halfords on the way home to purchase a couple of packets of cable ties as Greg had kindly replaced the battery but it was too small and I wasn’t convinced it was going to stay there, after all we had a 250 mile ahead of us, Also purchased some wire and insulation tape so I had power for my TomTom, not ideal, bit it was a quick fix and it worked,
Also purchased a 5 ltr petrol can, and some bolts as Greg lost the ones that hold the roof down.
Cost £30
Whilst securing the battery down properly I noticed a kink in the fuel hose which explained the squealing pump…The braided fuel line (12mm ID) had been kinked and was crushed,(pics to come) After repositioning the pipe and trying to un-kink the pipe it seemed to run much better.
So we set off from Halfords, I was much happier now the car seemed to come on boost properly, in first and second, how ever I was suspicious of fuel starvation as it seemed to hold back at higher speeds, so I took it very gently from there onwards.
The journey continued.
….on and on and on!
Due to fuel starvation I daren’t push it over 60-65 mph,
Never the less it was a fantastic car to drive even on such a long journey!
Petrol tank is ridiculously small though!
Rain!
Ahh panic! Horrible dark clouds and it just started to rain, so I pulled over at the side of the motorway and we put the hood up. We were prepared! Had already brought some nuts & bolts from Halfords For the roof!
Major panic! Rain and the roof had studs already fitted to it, so only nuts were required, not bolts, and the bolts we picked up were the wrong size!
We shot down to the next service station, and there was a choice of Little Chef or BP petrol station, obviously neither of these had any nuts!
Superhero AA man to the rescue! There was a very kind AA chap who had some nuts in his van! What a relief!!
Petrol stop #3
Was a little more eventful then I would have hoped,
I switched the ignition on and soon as I pushed the start button all the lights on the dash went off! Did this 3 times so decided to push the car out of the petrol station, and wiggled about at the wires, didn’t make any difference, so when the ignition came back on, we just gave it a little push and I jumped in and jump started her!
And off we went,
Almost home!
So I decided my new pride and joy deserved a clean as it looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned for months!
Finally Home!
And all I wanted to do was to take it out for another drive!
Instead I set about fixing the drivers side door handle as the linkage managed to pop out at one of our many petrol stops!
.
Other Bits,
RPM Gauge not coming on turns out to be the voltage is low(11v) until you rev it up to about 1500-2000 rpm and then the alternator kicks in and Voltage jumps straight upto 13v, that will be getting changed shortly!
This was the first of many parts to be changed on the car.
since changing the fuel pipe the pump is almost silent again!
Cost £5
The car has been hesitating intermittently and this came down to the Facet fuel pump which feeds the swirl pot/catch tank in the engine bay was shot (pics to come)
The new one arrived today so that will be on the car shortly, Hopefully this will fix the hesitation!
Cost £80 pounds
Manifold to head gasket was blowing by the time I got home, which wasn’t a biggy, so I ordered a new one, and in preparation for the new gasket I begun to removed the manifold,
Cost £20
At this time I also noticed that the exhaust pipe from the turbo to the back box had blown through the weld so whilst taking that off I managed to sheer one of the turbo bolts!
The manifolds not with a friend at the moment getting welded up and he is going to see if he can ‘easy-out’ the sheered bolt…. Fingers crossed!
Cost TBC!
I am going to try to keep this updated regularly with any progress on the car, any problems, and any modifications!
I will update sometime this weekend if I mange to get it all fixed up!
Lots of plans so watch this space
Don't judge Stylus's by your very unlucky problems . Just hope you didn't part with too much cash for it 
)
As I said my previous car was a real nightmare! I always expected there to be work to do on the Stylus, even if it was “perfect”
you must be dissapointed at having to do so much work to it, but it WILL be worth it in the end.