Use code AGINGWHEELS50 to get 50% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/3JBxZfN!

I'm pretty sure since it's a Robin, what you're supposed to do is push the Robin on its side, thereby making the cap the new highest point in the cooling system.

Your ex-Smart car also enjoys being warm, though I suspect it's just a wonky temp sensor. It screams at me until it randomly decides it's going to cool down and act normal.

Reliants were famous for air locks in the cooling system. The trick was to fill up with a funnel from the heater hose till it flowed clear without air bubbles & splurges coming out of the heater then quickly put the heater pipe back on.

When I was a kid, my dad's Robin caught fire. That was exhilarating. He managed to save it though. That Robin was our family car for about eight years. I remember that it seemed like every weekend he would be working on it, and facing the same struggles that you have here. Ah, the memories.

Ah, a Reliant Robin in it's natural habitat, not America but rather I mean by the side of the road.

Having owned a Bond Bug for 10 years I strongly recommend you put a metal bar at the back of the radiator mounts on the other side of the fiber glass and bolt through rather than use screwws. they just wont last.

As someone who's owned several vintage British cars, I feel I should say, the gauges are really there just to a general indication, not specific readings. You should NEVER rely on them. And, God protect you if you ever let the magic blue smoke escape!

The Robin should come with some emergency "JB-Weld" in the glove box.

This is like the most relatable channel when it comes to diy. Murphys law so ever present and just the general hassle. Can’t relate to those KZfaq channels where everything just slots into place and things work immediately.

In addition to all of its more obvious virtues, I can now see that the Robin also embodies what I believe the automotive industry refers to as a "packaging nightmare". This... does not entirely surprise me. :)

_Bob's Forest Survival Guide_

As a Brit I think it's more an "undocumented feature" and having the heating on all the time (which also stopped it totally overheating) was a good thing up north where they were most popular

How're you gonna make a cup of tea without ready access to boiling water?! You've ruined a key feature.

You need to check the block for sediment. There's a bleed screw on the back of the block below the exhaust manifold for cylinder number 4, near the bellhousing. Remove the bolt and if nothing comes out your block is bunged up. Shove a coat hanger wire in it vigorously until all manner of junk falls out. Then bleed by filling through the hose for the heater core

Thermostat housings. There is normally a recess machined into the housing where the t-stat is supposed to live. I always use a very small drop of super glue to glue the t-stat into the housing and ensure the T-stat stays put during assembly. What you did was put the t-stat into the block, and put the gasket on top of that, almost ensuring the t-stat will be off center of the recess in the housing, causing it to crack when tightened.

Best Ad Integration I've seen in a while. It really doesn't take a lot to make them interesting to watch, and as a plus (to the advertiser), it makes them a little more memorable. As much as everyone hates ad's, I appreciate it when creators make them fun.

In this episode of Bob's survival guide, we see Rob fashion a microwave out of a squirrel, a length of rope, and a microwave.

But what happened to "BOLLOCKS" - that was the best bit 😁

Oh it’s a great day now, Aging Wheels has a new video!

I saw the factor commercial coming like a freight train and it still caught me off guard. One of the best commercials I have seen. thank you.

@agingwheels . Having owned three different Reliants , the overheating problem could be a build up of sludge at the back of the engine between the wet liners and the cylinder block casting , the heater hose came out of the block on the rear right hand side , a good place to put a high pressure hose and wash/flush it out .

I spent my first few years in the back of a Reliant Robin. It didnt like hills. My mum later got a very rare 4 wheeled Reliant Rebel which was fantastic. I didnt know anything about cars back then so I'm going with the word fantastic.

As I showered this morning I thought to myself "I haven't seen anything new from AgingWheels in a bit....I hope he posts something soon". Clearly you heard my shower-thoughts. I still love the Robin the best, and I still desperately want one.

I am totally ready for the new Bob's Forest Survival Guide channel... Watch as Bob journeys to ever stranger places in search of the next delicious Factor bush, dragging his LTM (Leafy Twiggy Microwave) behind him, all in hopes he finds the Sacred Hidden Golden Mythical Sublime Larapin Good Meal (or SHGMSLGM for short). Will he ever find it? Tune in next video for... *whispers* Bob's Forest Survival Guide....

I have very little interest in cars, but your delivery makes your stuff incredibly entertaining. Keep at it please, and feel free to investigate non car stuff.

Robert, I really like when your brilliantly thought-out ads are interrupted by nonsensical KZfaq ads for Temu Curve... it really emphasizes your professional production quality and how you always bring your videos to a deftly-written conclu

Your videos always remind me of how nice it is to watch, from my couch, someone else toil and curse like there is no tomorrow. I'm not quite sure yet if I'm jealous or lucky.

Good work, shame about the cracked thermo housing! However I'm not sure having the heater "On" will have been helping with the overheating.... If the heater valve is open , this lets some hot coolant bypass the radiator and flow through the heater core. If the heater fan is not working, no air is passing through the heater core, and the coolant comes out the other side just as hot as it went in, then gets pumped back into the engine. It will probably run cooler if you close the Heater Valve, (or if that's dodgy, just clamp one of the heater hoses.) This way all the coolant has to go through the main radiator which was getting some amount of air blown over it by the engine fan. (Factor don't deliver here, but I'll have a good look around to see if there's any growing wild. I think I've seen some of the empty shells blowing around on windy days)

That was the best high-effort advertisement I have ever seen! Also this was a fun video. Thanks!

As soon as I head “bob’s forest survival guide” you had my attention during that ad, it was pretty hilarious

I think a proper chemical flush and a high pressure water rinse of the cooling system might have been a good idea before removing the old radiator

You should patch those holes in the fiberglass in the "shroud" with some tape at least, to hopefully improve the airflow

Ugh. I feel your pain, brother. The problem is you used a gasket. The gasket is squishy and allowed you to tighten the bolt to the point of caddywhompus and crack the housing. Just use RTV, nothing else. The housing will bottom out on metal and tightening will not cause a condition of caddywhompusness.

I don't know why but your little ad for factor is actually pretty hilarious. People just you know do a typical ad but you damn bro you took it one step further and made it a joke. Congratulations! You actually almost sold a product to me* hand clap*

Depending on who owned it previous and how hard the water was in that area, the cooling channels in the engine block, especially the rear ones, often got blocked with limescale from the water, even if you did use antifreeze. It may be worth checking that issue (if you rebuild the engine at some point), and also, the thermostat housing shouldn't have cracked like it did unless you didn't seat the thermostat correctly and it's lip was sitting proud of the engine block seating part, which is normally identified when you seat the gasket around them. Also, between the heating matrix (the black box holding the fan) there should be a foam stuck to the box side to prevent air loss, but also to prevent fumes from entering the cabin. And if you ever mess with the carb system, there should be a tray under the carb, never discard it, it's there to prevent fuel overflow from the carb dripping on to the engine/exhaust and starting a fire. These were put on as a recall in the early models (many as a urgent recall) as many were catching fire due to being left 'choke' for too long at idle. To bleed the air out of the radiator quicker, put the front wheel up on a ramp. These are great cars!

Good place to start when addressing overheating before parts. Is to confirm proper ignition timing. This one setting can dramatically affect overheating. Doing the parts change first may mask the real problem.

Maybe it’s my genuinely diagnosed ADHD or my bad luck, but a lot of my projects end up like your Robin. The minute I tell my wife, foreman or boss, “I can have it done in “x” amount of time”, something happens and I miss my completion time exponentially.

I would suggest finding the little spigot on the rear of the head that you undo and then poke out all the silt and gubbins in there, you can also to aid bleeding buy a Caterham cooling bleed valve which takes the issues out of bleeding air locks which are common major causes of overheating. Forward and reverse flush will aid a lot of problems and don't forget your yearly Barr's stop leak and to use an all alloy antifreeze as normal stuff will munch the alloy over time. There were three thermostats because you would own two and come winter put in the higher one and come summer put in the cooler one usually around the time you swapped from winter coolant to summer stuff. Remember too to change your fuel pump to carb fuel hose every other year... most Reliant's die is due to perished fuel hose that will merrily drizzle petrol over hot engine and red hot exhaust... hour later a puddle of plastic and aluminium for the sake of a couple feet of decent fuel hose. I have toyed with making mine solid metal line putting in some coils to allow it to flex but zero danger of petrol shower badness lol

I guess you now know that you need to hand tighten those equally and carefully. That is true for thermostat housings that only have two bolts. I like my powered ratchet but I am very careful with it and typically hand torque everything. Never sure if it will over or under torque something. I know others just tighten everything with the powered ratchet and I suspect they have checked to see just how much it tightens things. Probably should do that myself. Anyway, good luck with all that. Always enjoy your videos.

More Aging Wheels content, doesn't get any better than that. Thanks for the video. 👍

Hey Robbert. Something an old mechanic told me to get for stuck bolts and other parts is Kroil creep oil. You dowse the part with it (or submerge it if you get the 5 gallon bucket of it) and you let it sit and occasionally spray more on the part. Depending on how stuck the part is it can take a couple of days but it will eventually get the part of bolts unstuck.

As a classic mini driver with the same issues I can tell you out of experience: simply check the fanblade monting direction (sucking/blowing). You would be surprised what a difference that makes! Also there might be fans with more blades available? Check the water pump. It might be gunked up! Ideas for an upgrade of the cooling system: Change the visco fan to an electric e.g. revotec (it seems the radiator has a hole for a sensor with an M14 insert?). You could use that for the ECU to control the fan.

Had no idea you and Hub Nut knew each other! Awesome to see! But also, in hindsight it makes perfect sense given you both like small, strange and slow European cars. Exactly the reason I love both your content!

Aw, so close! Hope this does the trick. 7/16" is pretty much 11mm by the way. I think these are an intriguing mix of imperial and Metric.

for burping air out of the cooling system, get a radiator funnel kit. Lisle has pn 24780, which should fit just about everything, and has risers, to get the funnel level above the heater core. You can then bleed the air out of the heater core, by disconnecting the hose from it, until coolant comes out. Then run the engine with the funnel attached to the radiator, until the thermostat cycles a few times, while watching the level in the funnel. Keep it topped off, then shut down the engine, let it cool, and then remove the funnel, and put the cap on. Also: the 75C thermostat is generally too low, and won't let the engine warm up enough to run correctly. It'll run well enough, but it's not ideal.

This was the first time I ever watch through a whole ad on KZfaq and laughed my ass off, good job! I think you should be number 1 for these companies to advertise on your channel.

My old 96 F-150 was leaking from the thermostat housing. After taking it off, replacing the thermostat and gasket, and reinstalling the housing... I cracked one of the ears off the housing and had to go buy a new one. After once again reinstalling the housing, it... cracked along one of the weld seams... and I had to go find *another* housing. Third time's the charm and everything worked great after that. Moral of the story is: Make sure the thermostat is properly centered inside the housing before tightening the bolts. If it's not sat in the little recess in the housing perfectly, you'll snap off those ears every time. At least yours is on top of the engine... the Ford 300 engine has it on the front of the head *vertically* so I had to get a bit creative on how I got everything to line up. (a little dab of sticky grease in the housing held the thermostat in place while I aligned the bolt holes.)

Man that ultrasonic cleaner sound at 10:24 scared the crap out of me. Didnt know they reproduced the sound on recordings so well. Thought my headphones were dying a horrible death 🤣

Fixing those holes on the air tunnel and making sure the heater core is sealed with the body would probably help with getting air passing through the radiator

And if you want better air flow to the radiator you can cut the panel of fiberglass out in front of the radiator under the car, then fit a wire mesh the air doesn't have to go in the scoop etc then

After watching enough of Mr. Bean, a sight of the blue three-wheeled Robin brings a smile to my face every time. This was no exception. Thank you.

My experience with thermostats is that lower temp thermostats don’t actually help over hearing, they’re more for how soon your heat will work at the expense of the engine not getting to temp as quick.

Cooling systems are temperamental at the best of times, even in modern cars. I had a Dacia Duster (1.6 petrol 4 cylinder Renault engine) at one point and decided to replace the thermostat. I went with a generic, but decent one i bought online. Car would boil over. I googled how to properly fit the thermostat and bleed the system. Car would boil over. I got a lower rated thermostat, car would boil over. I then bought a third thermostat straight from Renault, car would boil over. I once again tried bleeding the system the "proper" way (let it idle, rev it up, fiddle with bleed screws, turn off heater, turn on heater, let it idle again, something hugely complicated), car would boil over. I put all three thermostats in a saucepan and brought it to the boil. All three thermostats opened, no problem. I flushed the system. I checked the rad. Finally brought the car to my thrusted mechanic, because maybe the water pump had given up the ghost. Brought it there the evening before so he could start working on it the next day at 8 am. Got a phonecall at 9, car's fixed. No problems, no overheating. I asked him what on earth he did to get it to not overheat. Nothing. He undid the thermostat housing, removed thermostat, put in different thermostat, bled the cooling system, no problems. There is only one bleed screw on the whole system. The thermostat can only be fitted one way. There are absolutely no electric actuators. The whole system is as primitive as it can be. I talked to my mechanic and described exactly what I've been doing, he said he did the exact same thing. Car never overheated again.

You can bleed systems (slightly) easier with parts of the cooling circuit higher than the fill port by using some extension tube to raise the effective level of the fill port. Just need it to be watertight.

That Factor ad was one of the better done ads I've seen on here. It was so off the cuff that I was engaged the whole time.

Can't wait for the thrilling conclusion!

I usually fast forward past the in video adds, but yours are to funny to miss😂 great video

As someone who knows nothing about these things, what would happen if you left the heater core out and put a flat panel over that big hole? Would it force all the air down on to the radiator?

I've made a very serviceable repair of a thermostat cover using the low temperature aluminium "welding" rods that can be used with a regular propane torch. They do take a bit of practice to get good results though.

Love your "real world" videos instead of the slick "everything goes smoothly" vids. This project goes like some of mine do - a "10 minute job" takes 10 days instead as I order the wrong parts, break something and need to order a replacement, hidden issues, and modding the original mounting arrangement that sucked or screws that stripped, etc. The "3 screws are good enough" made me laugh - we've all been there.

Ahh the school of mechanicing to which I subscribe. The "that'll be fine" approach

Im turning 40 in a few days and my body is failing me in new and exciting ways. This morning I broke out in stress hives. That has never happened to me before. Chewing a couple Benadryl and seeing you posted this video is uh. Really getting me through it. Thank you. I love what you make and it’s always nice to see what you are up to.

The only channel where I do not skip over the advertisement part.

Thanks for the video, always enjoy watching!

I hate ads, but keep up the good work, because yours are the only ones I don't skip. You make them awesome!

Love the forest bit! Please be careful playing out in the woods! Poison Oak, Poison Ivy, and Poison Sumac can be hard to spot. All my interactions with have left me regretting playing unprotected in the forest.

Your ad spots are 100% the only ones on KZfaq I don't skip.

I love that you fix cars the way I fix my car - "So I ordered a new part to fix it" "Well, turns out that part didn't fix it"

I think this is the only channel that I watch all of the in video adds. Alway a good time. Glad you found a curent bush to plug in you forest microwave.

Oddly heating issues can be the ignition system too. Fixed my sister's car with new plugs, coils, and a temp sensor (started there obviously).

All the sounds during disassembly were exactly the sounds I thought taking apart a Reliant Robin would make Thank you for this validation

This is the only channel of all the ones I follow where I actually watch the promos. We’ll done sir.

This is how ads are supposed to be made. I've skipped so many Factor ads I can't count 'em, but I watched this whole one just because of the thought and effort put into actually making it interesting to watch and not just straight up read from the "corporate approved message" script.

Probably the only channel where I actually enjoy watching the ads. 😆

The ad bit in the forest made me almost fall off my chair laughing! Well done! LOL

My day is complete, an Aging Wheels video! Leafy twiggy microwave and all

Ok that Factor ad was right up there with Jayz2cents ifixit one. I appreciate that the Robins radiator was held in much like my old bathroom exhaust fan (hopes, dreams, and the attic exhaust vent tube).

Lovely video as always! And tip for mounting stuff in/on bad fiberglass; drywall anchor! Remember to predrill an allmost to big core hole so the fiber won't crack. Not a good solution but cheap and effective.

Your sponsors should pay you a million dollars per video, because I gladely watched through the whole commercial! 😂

I had a 78 Robin van - in all the time I owned it it ran hot according to the gauge - never overheated! Remember on fiberglass cars the electrics are never great!

Factor is lucky. You are the only channel that can insert an ad that I actually watch.

You may already know about it since you work on cars more than I do, there's a 1 minute cure gasket maker called "The Right Stuff". It's grey and comes in a small pressure pack can. You apply it, put your parts together and you're good to go; virtually no cure time. It's oil resistant and high temp, I've used it on my car's oil sump since my car's sump is one of those that come from factory with sealant not a gasket and I can attest that the stuff does what it claims. Ain't cheap but it's a time saver.

If you haven't already thought of it (being captain obvious here), might I suggest adding some nutserts with washers in the holes where the heater box mounts? You know, do what Reliant should have?

Whatever Factor75 is paying you, it should be way more. Best Advertisement i`ve seen in Ages....

I used to own a Reliant Rebel where the air filter was held on by willpower. In the end it fell off and jammed neatly between the radiator and the radiator fan. I mended the radiator with some epoxy and a piece off the bottom of my jeans which was the only cloth I had with me. It worked! Happy days 🙂

it was such a pleasure to meet you at OpenSauce! Keep up the great videos.

Anxiously awaiting updates and hoping you are well, safe, and enjoying summer with your kiddo.

Thank you for making the ad content fun to watch. 🙂

That was probably the best AD I have ever seen. And I really like the looks of that Robin. This is going to sound weird, but for some reason, to me it looks cool in an oddball sort of way. The projects you are willing to take on takes a lot of courage. LOL. You must have a very understanding better half. Take care and God Bless, Paul from Florida.

I had an old skoda estelle 120 and I always made sure the thermostat opened at the approximate temperature by checking with a thermometer just a chance worth trying but love the videos 👍 👌 😎

Congratulations for the sponsored segment. It was really creative and funny. I didn't skip it even though it is a product I can't even buy as I don't live in the US.

I love watching your videos man. They go by so quick because they're so entertaining😅

Dude, your sponsorship game is next level! It's getting close to being an equal reason to watch an episode as the actual intended content. That's a Fact(or).

I LOVE NEW VIDEOS NO MATTER WHAT IT IS! I JUST LOVE YOUR EDITING STYLE!!!

best ad read i’ve ever seen, hands down

Thank you for making the ad so hilarious!

Thank you for this moment of Zen, just as I'm starting to relax after work

Best sponsorship segment ever. I usually find them so annoying and all the channels have the same stuff at the same time, but this was fun 🙂

Overheating is a standard feature with Reliants. I've had a few and they all overheated. My last one was a rare Fox 4 wheel van. That one had enough room just behind the bumper to fit a much larger rad than standard. That finally fixed the overheating.