1000th Bentley Spotting Post Fluid Consumption

Well today (or technically yesterday) was a big day.

The 1000th Bentley Spotting post, and the first road trip of 703kms in my 1989 Bentley Turbo R.

Read a blow by blow below in the live post.

Now to a summary of the fluid consumption for the day. Both for the Bentley and myself.

First fuel.

I filled the 105L tank up with 98RON and pressed the reset button on the odomotor. Fuel bill was AUD$138.46



Then in Holbrook I decided to top up again with 98.



That was after I have travelled 296 kms.



And I had used 45L of fuel to go that far, for a cost of AUD$71.16



Then I may have made a slightly inappropriate comment about the seemingly female nature of the wood grain on my glove box.



For examinations, gloves potentially should be used. I was driving by myself.

Then just outside of Melbourne I again stopped for fuel, just after Wallan (thank you GPS on iphone).



This time I had travelled 656kms.



And got to put in another 50L of fuel costing $78.11 to fill 'er up.



But on the way back to the car this is what I was confronted with. It was definitely an oh shit moment.



Yep, my Bentley had started to mark it's territory in a feline like fashion. Not the best.

So I grabbed the torch to investigate.(the video uploaded as the mirror image, it shows my left hand, but it is actually my right or whatever!)



I concluded that it was the coolant, but I could not find the source of the leak!



Then something special happened.

A guy comes up to me, and says what's the problem? I said I'm pretty sure it's a coolant leak.

He goes oh yeah, I rebuild one of these last month. My eyes lit up!

He then checked the fluid on the ground, and squeezed the main coolant hose from the radiator a few times.

I then gave him some back story - bought it about a month ago, boyhood dream car, just drove it from Canberra today, has had a leaky coolant issue when I first test drove the car etc.

Then I told him my uncle was a mechanic in Canberra and we were going to look after it together with the help of the Rolls-Royce owners club people.

He then slightly changed his tone and became much more friendly and asked for coolant. He also asked how was the temp gauge during the trip.

I told him that it was half way, and that's been normal all this month since I had had the car. He gave the idea that it should be a little less than this, but did not say it.

I got a 1L bottle from the boot, and he poured it in. It took it all, so I got my second bottle, and he tipped it all in up to the top.

I asked, so are you a mechanic and did you rebuild a Rolls-Royce? He said, yes he was and he rebuilt a Bentley Turbo R the same as this, that was in quite bad shape.



After he finished pouring in the second bottle, he said start it up.

I did, and there were no warning lights and the temp gauge moved up to the middle again.

We both looked under the car, and the leaking had stopped.

He asked how far I had to go, and I said about 50 km, and that I would get more coolant and keep a close eye on the temp gauge.

He said good, and started to turn to leave, I was just able to shake his hand and thank him, then he was off.

I did not even get his name - or tell him to check out Bentley Spotting!

I got 5L of coolant for the boot and set off for home.



I made it home safely and the temp gauge did not move from the centre position, standard behaviour all this month.



All in all I drove 703km today!



Then of cause, checked to see if there were any leaks again, and there was none at all. Interesting. I did get a reader comment saying "Probably the first time in a while that the hoses have been subject to sustained pressure....so no surprise if there is some leakage. Good way of testing everything!" I would have to agree!



Then for my fluid consumption? Well 2 600ml diet cokes, 500ml of water, and after 703kms I had a beer!



A big thanks goes out to the mechanic who helped me out, If you do ever read this, email me! I want to shout you a beer.

David - I did not quite make it 1000kms - but the last 50km I cared more about the temperature gauge than the odometer!