NorthernMonkey

Welcome along 👍

Couldn’t work out why the cig packet had a picture of a Spaniel’s head on it until I zoomed in! 🤨

Was on the M60 last year heading to Costco when I spotted a bright light on the hard shoulder in the distance. There wasn’t much traffic so I slowed down and stopped level with it so the Mrs could open her door and lean out to investigate…it was a cordless LED work lamp. Obviously there wasn’t a charger but the one for my iZettle machine works perfectly. It’s still in daily use and lasts a week or so on one overnight charge.

Lee mentioned the EML which had cropped up earlier but had since cleared itself. This actually reappeared at Newport Pagnell services on a coffee stop but had no perceptible effect on the driving and was basically ignored by Mrs NM who by this point had thrown the XC90 keys at me and positioned herself in DiDi, as it’s since been christened by myself due to its colour. Work it out. One very strange issue appeared when investigating the light yesterday afternoon…it refuses point blank to communicate with my various scanners, ranging from a basic obd reader to a top end Autel clone tablet. In the end, I dug out my old SnapOn Solus pro with the loose identity keys and it found it straight away! Doing a bit of digging reveals that this era of Bini has two different lines of communication between the port and the various ecus. Most readers these data use a dedicated data bus line which on this car appears to be corrupted, but there’s also a standard can bus high and low which the Snap on will connect through quite happily, so that’ll merit further investigation. In the meantime, the eml appears to be down to an intermittent misfire on cylinder one… Swapping plugs and leads around made zero difference so a new coil pack has been delivered by my factors this afternoon for £22 and will be changed in due course as Claire is working from home tomorrow so I stand a fighting chance of getting my hands on it in the morning…by the time I got up today, it had disappeared from the driveway whereas her Volvo was still where we left it last night post Aldi…

Welcome to the latest arrival… Got up on Sunday morning at whatever time it was thanks to the clocks going back and whilst stood on the patio supervising the Springers, took a quick look at the forum. Hmm. A Bini convertible. A very cheap one at that. By the time the dogs have sussed out the overnight wildlife movements around the trailer, a message has been sent. Despite owning a succession of Beetle convertibles, Mrs NM has always considered trying out a Bini ragtop as they are equally ‘funky’ enough in her opinion. I’ve tried many times with many different soft top Audis, BMWs and MBs but nothing has been deemed suitable and we’ve always ended up with another Beetle, but this piqued her interest enough to be pestering me every five minutes on Sunday morning as to whether or not a reply had been received. Several hours later, once @groovylee had woken up, we were on the M6 heading south. It wasn’t until we’d exchanged details on WhatsApp that we both realised we’d had previous dealing’s earlier in the year! Anyway, we arrived in deepest Buckinghamshire (I think) around teatime and were back home watching the F1 by 22.30 with a can of Elvis Juice (not a euphemism, google it) So what have we got? Basically a very late mark one Bini with the best of both worlds, a tritec engine and a later gearbox that actually works…the combination that many would argue BMW should have stuck with rather than the notoriously reliable* Prince engine from those great bunch of lads in Hams hall, Birmingham (no, not THAT great bunch of lads) Up on the ramp for a quick look and all is good… The front subframe will benefit from a wire brush and a coating of Lanolin but that’s purely a preventative maintenance type of job…it’s absolutely solid. The test advisories mentioned a bit of wear on the front tyres and a minor oil leak but that’s extreme arse covering…the rubber still has a good 3mm right on the inner edge whereas the rest is around 5mm and the oil leak is just a bit road dirt around the bottom of the sump area…neither would merit a mention from my tester tbh. Did I mention it’s also got a bloody sunroof mode?! 😂

It’s been replaced by ‘BONUS10’ for 10% off. Not quite as good but still a bargain.

My latest order has just arrived, 42 hrs after purchase. The FedEx driver looked a bit pissed off this morning in the pouring rain and wind 😂

Just ordered another 60ltrs of C3 and 20ltrs of Ford ECO for £170 including VAT. Just too cheap at that price! 😂

Get a piece of 6x3 ply and place in the living room on top of 4 barrels. New coffee table for the good lady and lots of cheap oil. Everyone’s a winner. You’re welcome. Check back in for tomorrow’s top AS tip.

Mine arrived this morning…less than half the price of my usual supplier. Might order some more if the offer is still running.

Just ordered 60lts of 5w30 C3 for £130 inc VAT so about £105 once the VATs claimed back. That’ll do 👍👍

Don't see why not for a few days as it's this weekend.

Maybe a little late to the party, @eddyramrod, but I’ve got a spares X350 on the back of the truck currently and it’s got a few new rear suspension bits on it. If there’s anything you need to get yours back on the road as cheaply as possible, let me know. Yours for the price of postage unless anyone can shitely them up from Colne BB8 to Eddieland 🙂👍

Just worked out the flight number and where it landed. This’ll be a good one…. 👍👍👍

What had them in a flap is the fact that last weeks tester not only missed this but fucked up entering the emissions data and tested the wrong bloody axle for the hand brake. If you can tidy the weld up a bit, I’ll guarantee they’ll bend over backwards next week to get it tested for you.

So, theyve now found corrosion worthy of a fail that didn't warrant an advisory two weeks ago? Time to find a new test station I think...

The inlet pipe I had was about 4 inches long and disintegrated as soon as it was touched so that was left off, and the exhaust I had was just about long enough to reach the sill so was fastened there for the moment. A longer inlet, air filter and exhaust silencer are all on order so will be fitted and tweaked in due course. Everything else heater wise is ok so that will ultimately stay where it is. Next was the window. Cutting disc was put into action and sparks were produced. Lots of them. Then followed a bit of tidying up with the air grinder and a flap disc Which left us with this At this point, it was 21.00 on Wednesday night and we were due to head off on Friday. Cue checking the fitting kit to find one small tube of adhesive. I’ve watched my mate, a windscreen fitter, enough times to know that the best installations use significantly more adhesive than I possessed. First thing Thursday, Gizz (Cheapa windscreens based in Burnley if anyone wants any glass around here) turned up in his van, took the piss for ten minutes regarding my finishing trim cutting skills, then got his fancy powered gun out, applied three times as much adhesive than I had and stuck the sod on properly. That is going nowhere.

Having had a very relaxing couple of days, we are now sat at Stirling services with a Greggs coffee (haven’t built a kitchen yet) on a slow meander back south. May head into the steamy flesh pot of Blackpool later for fish and chips…home is where you drive it, innit?! 😂 The next thrilling update will include heater exhaust positioning and window installation!

Good? Prepare to be disappointed…

Only the finest Chinese 5kw (allegedly) here. They’re a cracking bunch of lads, you know… In all seriousness, they’re all identical and no doubt made in the same factory somewhere as a clone of the Eberspacher ones. It’s not the quietest thing but it pumps out an incredible amount of heat for negligible fuel consumption. I’m going to get another to install in the office for Winter…it’ll be a lot cheaper than the calor gas space heater.

I should point out that what you’re seeing here is very much a temporary fix to make it habitable for this weekend…in due course and once we work out what we need and what we don’t, it’ll be largely stripped back to bare metal and rebuilt properly.

So, where were we? First job…heating. Cut a hole in the floor underneath the bed for a steel mounting plate… then the van can go up in the air and this can be fitted which leads to this. Accessed the fuel tank through the convenient hatch in the cab floor for the fuel pick up pipe to be installed Some people remove the sender unit and drill it but quite a few builders just undo the breather pipe and install the pick up in the top of it. This seems a far easier option as long as you’re careful to bend the steel pipe so it doesn’t foul the float…

Fast forward 8 months to a couple of weeks ago and I was reminded by the good lady that we’d arranged to head back up to the highlands at the start of September to meet up with @The Moog and a few other friends in our ‘camper van’ that we’d been building for the last three years and was still parked outside the unit and full of car parts, a T5 engine, four sets of wheels etc etc. You get the idea… More to follow once I’ve charged my phone and collated some more pictures. Teaser…I’m currently laid here looking out over the shores of Loch Tay

As some of you may remember, just before lockdown I purchased this from @cobblers It had a couple of minor mechanical issues as well as a mere flesh wound to the offside rear… After the fitting of a set of new tyres, a windscreen and a genuine leak off pipe set from the local PSA dealers, it was pressed into service as a garage tool and assisted in a workshop move as well as clearing my late dad’s flat and various other van type duties. After a while, it made it into my workshop… where this was employed… …which resulted in this… Not perfect, I know but slightly better aesthetically.

I’ve had a chat with HMC to clear a couple of issues up and he’s agreed to his thread being reinstated. Welcome back @HMC