[ilmiont]

I'm giving up. Too much is at stake as I'm going away on Saturday. Conversely the oil has done 7,000 miles and I'm planning to do up to 3,000 miles over the next fortnight, if the petrol shortage eases. Oil is now a darkening brown on the dipstick. It's 5W-30 topped-up with about 1.5l of 0W-30. Unfortunately I think I'm just going to have to call it a day and take her as she is then sort this mess out once I'm home and not really needing the car. I thought this would be a simple pre-holiday service! Not got the spark plugs in either, oh well, on the up, she is running fine so I'll try to focus on that.

Got the bigger torque wrench on it - feeling like I'm starting to abuse things - and that's clicking at 70nm. No sign the plug will budge and the head's getting really mauled. Tried tapping it, and tapping the end of a wrench with a rubber mallet - nothing.

Very frustrating. Madness like this is why I wanted to start doing my own work in the first place, now thwarted at the first attempt having spent an extra £50 this week on twist sockets, wrenches, genuine drain plug and next day delivery and taken an afternoon off work hoping it would make a difference.

Now I'm off to work out whether a DIY sump replacement would be doable!