Morning Bill,

I found Miles D to be quite expensive and so I stopped taking my previous car, a 1982 Volvo GLT, to him and I took it to a regular garage with a good reputation for a number of years and that kept it in pretty good shape. I did some work myself as well.

But it has been a long time since I went to Miles D so I will give them another try this week.

Given my indifferent mechanic's skills I do wonder about taking on a car that has been inactive for four months and which a professional mechanic could not get fully running over that period of time. He changed the cylinder head and I can see that some of the anti-pollution gear has been closed off.

As I said we got it running briefly but the exhaust system is not connected and I am not enough of a mechanic to know whether the O2 sensor is impacting the general running or not. Perhaps I could have a read through the FAQ on using the OBD system and getting some kind of leadership there.

Off the top, will the OBD systme give me a readout when the car is not running? I could certainly arrange that fairly easily.

I only wish that Herring Gull Way was the Great White Way but I am more likely to get my wallet picked by a gull than to spend an evening watching great entertainment I am sorry to say.

Bob