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**First post for years alert** Fcuking hell Stuart!! 250bhp?!? ...As you were

Here's my Mk1 Megane daily: I still see plenty of R and S reg Scenics around. But other once common cars I hardly see any more: Nissan Almera (remember the advert being on all the time when it was new...) Old shape Peugeot 106 - I passed my test in one Any non-sporty Saxo Any Saabs Fiat Cinquecento Fiat Coupe Ford Puma/Cougar Ford Maverick/Nissan Terano Vauxhall Frontera Early Galaxy/Sharan/Alhambra Early Espace - the 90s school run bread and butter Old shape Range Rovers Bedford Rascal Citroen C15s are thinning out... Or is it that all the once common cars are hidden by the hordes of Audis, VWs, Mercedes, Binis, Land/Range Rovers etc.?

Let the suspension do the work. Whack in high first, jack up, place the axle stands under the subframe, drop suspension to lowest setting so it lowers itself onto the stands. When done and wheels are back on etc. start the car and whack the suspension in high first. Once the car's fully raised, jack up, remove the stands then lower slowly to the ground off the jack. As the car's in 'high' it won't try and trap the jack. Mark.

Hi Matt, I've just been looking through some old photos, and found a couple I took of your Bug at Aircool Day, Duxford, and the H van rally in Melplash, both 2003 Mark

Hi there - welcome and good luck with your new VDP! I'm wondering whether or not I ought to tell Chris Salter I know of an LNA for sale........ DIdn't you have an import Beetle a while back? Cheers, Mark.

I was brought home from hospital in a Simca 1100 Estate

Retrofit the setup from a Mk2 BX 16V/TZD? or a CX? Might be worth talking to Rob Moss. He's equipped one of his GSAs with plip central locking. With a "pip" sound and flashing indicators an' everything... Mark

I know a certain C Salter (who's been looking for a 14 for years) is bidding on this... Mark.

Here's mine: Great for just being able to chuck your keys &c on the roof. Super work with the Chryslerr, Boobydoo M.

Hi Wuvvum, the white one belongs to my friend Chris - I had a ride in it a couple of weekends ago when we went up the A1(M) to collect my GSA from Chevronics. I took pics on the day but haven't had time to post them. Not every day you see a 16 and a GSA Break in convoy Chris has an account on here but so far he only lurks. I'm seeing him tomorrow so I plan to tell him about the Alpine for sale on here Mark

We had exactly the same problem with our K reg Clio. We took it to the dealer and their solution was... to tape it up with that black tape like the Clio above. Is it entirely different to a BX for example, which has drain tubes (that get blocked)? Mark.

I too found this cringeworthy and almost utterly predictable, the only thing that made me smile was the firing off of tin cans and tennis balls in the 'improved' cricket match. Was I the only one looking out for the Allegro's lap time on the whiteboard? Glad to see it didn't get trashed. It wasn't required, which was a blessing. All 3 waxed lyrical about their cars at the end.. made me wonder why they buggered them up. Got a hint of remorse from JC and JM when they'd fecked their cars with the mountain tyres.. like 'what have I done..?'

Fantastic Allegro Alex, in one of my favourite BL colours too. I can only re-echo the praise on this thread. Enjoy it! Must encourage my tat owning friend Chris to buy another Allegro. I've driven three that he owned (2 saloons - one early, one late, and a 1750 twin carb estate, but all are long gone now). I'd like one, but I rate my chances of owning one currently as rather small... Mark.

C'mon show us a pic of the new lightz in the boot. The original thing was a piece of crap and was always iffy, even after cleaning up all the contacts etc. I really ought to wire one in the GSA when I get it back. Being "Special" pov spec, it didn't get one as standard. Once I had one of those stick on LED push activated LED lamps you can get from IKEA mounted on the boot wall, but that fell off after a while. Mark.

Another thought - I also never got a chance to check the accelerator pump diaphragm/operation in case there was a problem with not enough fuel being supplied under sudden heavy load.... I didn't ever test the fuel pump... I found the other thing that instantly improved the cold start was when I changed the coolant a couple of years back- obviously making sure it is properly bled is important because the coolant hoses that supply hot coolant to the autochoke waxstat are at the highest point in the system, above the height of the radiator. I was going to try bleeding it again to see if that helped, this time using an improvised header tank (2L coke bottle with the bottom cut off and shoved into the rad filler with blutack as a seal, then filled to the top with coolant) to help force any air out better. Mark.

Ah okay - well I did have a terrible phase with the BX when it was really bad with misfiring under load, especially on hills. Then once we were travelling back on the A3 from Portsmouth, tried overtaking a lorry on an uphill stretch and the car cut out completely - had to get out of the manoeuvre, hazards, coast onto hard shoulder, wouldn't restart. Lucy wasn't amused! It turned out when I investigated back at home the autochoke mechanism was sticking, ergo the car was dying because of an over-rich mixture on load. (EDIT: because the choke flap wasn't opening fully, restricted by this sticking mechanism) Take a look at that carbie extract from the Haynes Solex/Weber manual I sent you. You'll see if you remove the black box on the side of the carb there's a thin spring loaded rod that's part of the pull down mechanism. When you start the engine from cold, a vacuum acts on a diaphragm in the chamber on the back of the carb (a squared off black box, with a vacuum pipe pushed on the top), which pulls the rod, which starts the opening of the choke flap (otherwise the engine dies quickly with an over-rich mixture)... a process which is continued by the waxstat which is gradually heated by the coolant. Anyway I found that the pull-down rod was seriously lacking in lubricant, so I sprayed it with WD40 and cleaned it up, followed by a dose of spray grease, and if you grasp the rod with some needle nosed pliers, you can gently move it back and forth (if you take the elbow off the carb, you can see how this action affects the choke flap). This was a miraculous (and free!) cure and the car was instantly much better! I used to do the above procedure regularly afterwards as part of routine maintenance... but it's possible it's got gummed up! Other possibility of course is inadequate pull-down vacuum (check the little pipe and the diaphragm in the chamber). Also as I have said, the vacuum advance capsule could be faulty (i.e. split diaphragm) - I think if you pull off the hose at the carb end you can do a "suck test" on it... I think there's info on BXClub somewhere on that. Let me know what you find! I did tend to find the car rewarded gentle driving, which avoided the misfire, but of course on the steepest hills, you need to push the accelerator further so you enter the "misfire zone"... I had terrible trouble with it cutting out in winter when it wasn't yet warmed up, which I cured by readjusting the timing - it was too retarded. Something like 5 degrees BTDC. The manual states it should be 10 degrees BTDC, but I always found it pinked too much, even on 98 RON, so I would retard it slightly until I could get full acceleration in 2nd/3rd gear (testing with the advance hose removed) without pinking... so it was more like roughly 8-9 degrees BTDC. I was convinced though that there was some other issue behind the fact I had to do this slight retardation.. i.e. that this was to alleviate an underlying problem. The timing also influences how good/bad it is at cold starts. I increased the cold "fast idle" setting to try and alleviate things - hence the high revs you might have noticed until it warms up... One of those things where you need the carb off to set it properly as it's measured as the opening gap at 20 degrees C of the primary throttle butterfly (detailed in the PDF I sent you). Like I said on BXProject, I wanted to use Colortune on it (didn't get round to buying the right adapter for it as it comes with the 14mm attachment as standard - no good for BX) to finetune the mixture, get a tacho to set the idle properly, get it on a rolling road to test mixture/timing advance etc. under load. And of course I was meaning to rebuild the spare carb and set it up to spec etc..... Let me know how you get on! Mark.

Love it! Mark.

What's up wi t'BX Rich? Mark.

I'd say uh-uh to Safrane Auto... Omega 2.5 diesel auto Estate sounds like a good weapon. Like this (which is a manual) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2002-52-Vauxh ... 0944206315 Mark.

XM I never had the time/energy/money to got to the bottom of the hesitation/misfiring under load although I was able to improve things, and yeah, it definitely likes 97/98 RON. But there's some issue with vacuum advance or... something. Mark.

Hi Rich, The BX gave me the jitters on fast roads in cross-winds. Also passing arctics on the motorway, it got thrown around. Generally I thought it was more unstable than it should be - and put it down to the handling not being entirely "right" due to the wear somewhere in the steering as I've described to you, affecting the tracking characteristics. You'll see in the history that I had the wheel alignment checked and adjusted twice in recent years - most recently after a wheel bearing change - so that should be alright. I never got the opportunity/dosh to investigate further - and as I say, two garages last year didn't find any issue to report etc. I drove it very gingerly in the snow last year... In comparison, the Megane feels a lot tighter and confidence-inducing - although it does need a slight tracking adjustment as the steering wheel's not quite straight at "straight-ahead". Mark.

I was going to say.. what does he expect having not serviced it for 5 years. I've just paid £332 for my GSA's MOT work. New driveshaft inner gaiter, broken wire in rear light unit sorted, also happened to need a new battery and the positive lead clamp was knackered, so a new cable. £110 labour + £19 for the gaiter (includes removing the driveshaft) £23.50 labour on the wiring fix £15 for the battery cable +20% VAT £72 all in for the battery + fitting £55 for the MOT test. And that's with no other servicing... Mark.

Can't find a pic of your BX Ian, but guessing it doesn't have a sunroof? I would check under the washer fluid bottles for holes and detritus in the bulkhead drain. I had holes in this area in my BX and through the holes you could see the carpet. Just got a call from the garage to say the battery in the GSA is borked and it needs a new one fitted. Another £72 then I did tell them to unhook the battery if the car wasn't being moved for a while... but I guess all the starting up and moving around has done for it - it won't hold a charge and it's been on the charger all afternoon apparently. Need to trace and fix the pesky off-key drain!!! Mark.

Now on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190609050211 Mark.

Not sure about "print your own tax disc" - but I would really like the ability to buy tax for a short amount of time. Or PAYG tax. I feel the current system is inconvenient (for shiters in particular), and stuck in the Neanderthal age. Mark.