A bit of a status update, the AC in the Daihatsu got regassed and hold pressure nicely, and is nice and cool while on the move. It loses cooling sat in traffic as I don't think it has a fan for the AC radiator thing but its not a massive hardship. 

I had a busy weekend with my brother's help. First we changed the rear flexi pipes, rear brake pads and slider pins on the Mercedes to try and sort out the rubbing noise that appears after 5-10 minutes from the back brakes at low speed. While the flexis were overdue and the pads were a bit old, so replacement was a good thing - the noise remains. I'm a bit of a loss as to what it is now. We've replaced both flexis, pads, one caliper and the other moves freely so I'm a bit confused. It takes 5-10 miles for the noise to start and sounds exactly like a brake binding at low speed. Above 20mph its inaudible, and it comes and goes with application of the foot brake. Its like the calipers aren't releasing properly. Fuel economy seems largely unaffected, I get 32mpg from 60/40 urban/motorway driving which seems about right based on others, but it isn't half irritating. Its gone through 2 MOTs like this so maybe I just need to turn the radio up?

We also sorted out replacing the cambelt, tensioners and water pump on the Skoda which was the only outstanding job left to do on it. As the previous owner said when I bought it a few months ago, the belt isn't original as it has tippex timing marks on the pulleys but there is no indication of when it was last done. I can now sleep soundly knowing I've changed it all and there is a sticker in the door jamb as evidence. The job mostly went ok, I destroyed 2 1/2" > 3/8" adapters trying to get the crank pulley bolt off, and had to go to a motor factors for a 21mm 12-point 1/2" drive socket in the end, but we got there. Also, the tensioner on the little belt that goes between the exhaust and intake cams snapped off (which I'm angry about as it was a full Gates powergrip kit, not a rubbish one) so we had to refit the old one as it was impossible to tension the belt with the allen key hole snapped. Otherwise it all went to plan and started and runs fine. Its a bit of a faff of a job, certainly compared with the (only) other cambelt job I've done which was on a 4AFE engine'd Toyota Celica a few years ago and was a complete piece of cake in comparison. 

Anyway, all done now. A mostly productive weekend