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1994 Rover 414SLi - Fin.


vulgalour

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What... what is Michael Winner doing?

Faking whiplash or being a cunt, you decide ;)

 

 

(Back story: He got to do the Esure adverts back then because he was a friend of owner Peter Wood. He phoned him up and said how shit the previous adverts were and insisted he could do much better. Wood sacked the ad agency and Winner got the gig.)

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When it comes to insurance I think we can all agree:  URGH!

 

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Today was the big deep clean before the bad weather really sets in.  I've been really, really short on spare time lately so it was a relief the weather was so pleasant for once when I was actually free for a few hours.  Engine bay has stayed very clean since I last did that, so all I did in there was vacuum out the copious amounts of seeds and leaves the Silver Birch trees are shedding all over everything.

 

37430751955_ca31d44e93_b.jpg20170924-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

36578197984_09f2222161_b.jpg20170924-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

37258789382_1679f326f4_b.jpg20170924-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

37241267786_36e54652ed_b.jpg20170924-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

37430749955_ce1eca2aab_b.jpg20170924-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I really want to get the paint sorted out professionally.  What I've done myself is fine, it's just not to the standard I want it and since I want something a little bit special on the roof I'm going to branching out beyond what I have the set up to DIY.  I've looked into vinyl wraps for a quick solution and honestly, I'm not sold on them.  Vinyl wraps are too short-lived and expensive compared to actually just getting the car painted nicely and I dislike the way things like door shuts are often left in the original colour.

 

Over the next few months I'm hoping to strip down and rebuild the best of the doors on the car and the spare set I've got so I have no more scratched glass or car park dings and generally try and get the whole thing looking its absolute best.  It will also give me something to actually put in here since it's not a car that really asks for anything so there's rarely anything to report.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Esure and Sheila's Wheels are the same company, too - they share offices. Does that explain why Sheilas Wheels ads were awful too?

 

I'm surprised Sheilas Wheels are still going since the insurance sexism thing got put to bed.

Elephant, too. And others, you can tell from their identical websites with just a different coloured theme.

 

On more than one occasion, Sheila's Wheels have provided me with a cheaper quote than their less sexist brands, despite my complete lack of vagina and ovaries.

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It would also be worth knowing that your credit rating will affect your premium. I did some research on this (as I've not got a great credit history) and it does push the prices up - apparently they (the insurers) run credit checks from time to time on people and go from there. Don't quote me on this though, pardon the pun!

Only just spotted this, but I can confirm that they do. Run a quote through one of the comparison sites and if you check your credit history with someone like Expedian afterwards, you'll see loads of credit searches from various companies.

 

I've got quite a good credit history AFAIK, and out of interest I did a comparison quote on the same make/model of car using a made up name, similar DoB and an address on the same road as me - that quote came in considerably higher than the quote that I had received using my real details despite everything else on the risk profile being identical, which backs up what you're saying as presumably the made up name will fail when a credit check is run against it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I track my fuel economy partly because I'm a nerd like that and partly as an early warning system and the result on the last fuel-up has me a little concerned.

Fuel up before last has been very similar to the last one. Slightly more fast road driving, slightly less traffic and slightly warmer temperatures which returned 39mpg

The last fuel up returned only 26mpg

That's quite a drop. I've double checked my figures and they're correct. The car isn't misbehaving, I haven't changed anything between fuel ups, tyre pressures are maintained the same, that sort of thing. It's just a bit alarming to see such a drastic different in numbers when there hasn't been a drastic change in the car or my driving habits.

Hopefully this is just an anomoly. If not, any suggestions on what to keep an eye on?

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Hopefully just an anomaly as you say, but it might be worth checking the brakes to make sure nothing is binding - first symptom is often excessive fuel consumption.

 

PS, Den liked your car - he actually said it looked nice and that he'd not seen one for a while. That's a real compliment because he normally doesn't have time for anything designed since the early sixties!

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High praise indeed!

 

I've not been having issues with the brakes that I've seen, no excessive heat or brake dust or weirdness when braking.  I've not noticed any fuel leaks or wetness on fuel components either, which was my other consideration.  I'll keep an eye on things, it's the first issue it's thrown at me of any sort in months.

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Only just spotted this, but I can confirm that they do. Run a quote through one of the comparison sites and if you check your credit history with someone like Expedian afterwards, you'll see loads of credit searches from various companies.

 

I've got quite a good credit history AFAIK, and out of interest I did a comparison quote on the same make/model of car using a made up name, similar DoB and an address on the same road as me - that quote came in considerably higher than the quote that I had received using my real details despite everything else on the risk profile being identical, which backs up what you're saying as presumably the made up name will fail when a credit check is run against it.

Can i Vote Anthony to be member of the year please? For some long time i have been car less,primarily because of insurance(or what i percieved to be high insurance) classic cars are too expensive for me now,and shite that was cheap but not classic insurable i couldnt get half reasonable quotes on.Now,ive always entered a fake email,mob number and a name like "mr alan asshat" etc,to avoid spam,i just tried it with my actual name,and got quotes of £300 where before cheapest was around 800! So,two things,thankyou Anthony,and i need to do some shoppping,might even have my own collection fred!

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Finally got access to Mike's ramp today and got to see whether or not the new parts I'd bought were correct.  The last 2 MoTs it's been a struggle to get the car to pass emissions and I knew the catalytic converter needed replacing.  I'd bought the parts ages ago to do the job, I just haven't been able to get stuff together to get the job done and doing it on the drive on my back while possible, was certainly not desireable.  I was on the verge of paying someone to do the job for me when everything fell into place and half an hour spent today saw it done.

 

Up on the trusty old lift...

26540219109_014ae97559_b.jpg20171110-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Then the old part could be removed.  Five bolts that, surprisingly, undid fairly easily once the initial torque was beaten by the breaker bar.  No silly business with bolts sheering or the like.  It was clear that the smaller gasket was well past its sell by date. having corroded away in places and showing some signs of blowing through.

26540218629_425dffc81d_b.jpg20171110-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

It took me a while to find the right part for my car and I ended up with a Klarius branded item.  It fits well enough and installation was pretty easy with two of us and the ramp.

37598190094_936d9bdc6e_b.jpg20171110-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

It has made some small differences.  The car is actually less noisy now, one of the irritating drone/buzzes is gone so I guess that must have been the old part causing that.  Gear change is also better, seemingly, with the car less prone to snatchy gear changes or worse, stalling unexpectedly when setting off.  I'm wondering if the latter is an actual improvement or just coincidence at this point, I've only driven the car a few miles.  Happy it's now done, at any rate, and that should see me okay for emissions at the next MoT, I hope.

 

There's a few bits and bobs for me to work through, all of them really superficial items.  I do feel very much like the money I've invested in this car has been returned with reliable service and an easy car to live with that isn't  monstrously boring.  It wants little more than ordinary servicing and cleaning to keep it in really good shape now as far as I can tell.  I'd like to get things like the interior light door switches working reliably rather than when they feel like it (probably mucky contacts) and things like that, but honestly that's about as bad as the problems are now so they're not really problems at all.

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Agreed.  Tourer for me, if I were replacing/supplementing this with another R8.  If I'd known how good a fit these are for me when I bought it I'd've held out for a Tourer, I do miss having an estate car of my own.  That said, if I'm holding out for an estate it would be a BX in petrol flavour.  Barring disaster, I can't see me parting ways with this one, it's just too good at doing what I want without boring me.

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  • 1 month later...

As tradition dictates, my daily driver is now littered with tinsel.

24209877827_d46ebce998_b.jpg20171215-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The new thing is me trying to use the camera for updates a bit more, so this here is a microblog from the Potatocam where you can hear and watch me prattle on aimlessly.

 

Apart from the fogging up, the camera doesn't seem willing to pick up the other two issues which are a judder on the return sweep of the wipers which appears to be worn mechanism rather than a wiper issue, and the top of the driver's door frame which doesn't sit flush with the rear door and has wind noise at higher speeds.  I suspect the fogging up and door alignment are related, even though the inside of the car is never damp to the touch.

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these chaps seem to do a jolly good product- the ones from them are as good if not better than the named ones that cost 3-4 times as much- and the hybrid blades have a style that mixes modern and old

https://www.wiperblades.co.uk/hybrid-windscreen-wiper-blades/

 

they sell pairs for the cost of a single!

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Just back from the first very long drive in a while, 300ish mile round trip to Lincolnshire.  Before I set off I did what I could with the driver's door frame and have improved the fit a little, needs more effort yet, but there's much less wind noise at speed.  The heaters are insanely hot once you've been on the motorway for a few miles, I wished it had been colder outside to compensate!  The new cat is very definitely a big improvement on noise in the cabin, anything over 55mph was really tiring before, now the car will happily bomb along at 65-70mph and you aren't being driven made by a droning exhaust.

 

Handling-wise, now that it is happier at higher speeds, I found it has the same trait as my Mk2 Polo at 70mph and above in that it goes extremely light on the front end which isn't a pleasant experience.  I rarely drive that fast anyway so I'll deal with it by just sticking to the comfortable zone of 60-65mph where the car is most settled and the various at-speed noises the least bothersome.  I imagine some sort of splitter on the front would help keep it planted a bit better.  Economy-wise it returned almost 42mpg over the 300ish miles without me trying to eco-drive which is very respectable.  Economy is another reason for sticking under 70mph, once you get up there you can watch it drinking fuel.

 

The friend I was visiting may have a spare power steering pump that can be rebuilt if needed to replace my tired one which would deal with that minor intermittent niggle of the steering weight varying sometimes.  Other than that the car is using no fluids and seems in really fine fettle.  I was a little stiff getting out of the car after a 2.5 hour drive without a break (that's quite a long drive for me), but didn't have any of the back pain other cars have given me and a quick stretch was all I needed to feel comfortable again.  It is a very easy car to live with for the most part, I'm very happy with it at the moment.

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Noel:  I don't like those blades.  The old fashioned ones I've got on were a tenner for a pair and they're still really good and quiet.  I suspect the passenger side (the one that isn't juddering) is probably ready to replace now, it can be a bit smeary sometimes when there's a lot of motorway grime on the screen.  The wipers on the car must be a year or two old now, I was expecting to get six months out of them  a stop gap until I could afford better but I think I'll just buy the same again since they've been so good.  Best of all, I can just get them from the local autofactor so I don't have to wait for delivery.

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