davehedgehog31

What a thread title.

I just don't like this particular Volvo 😉 It's a tricky one, there's nothing particularly eccentric about the Lexus. It's more just that everything is relatively new and bits are very expensive so I'm a lot more nervous about bursting anything! The workshop manual is really good and has kept me right so far.

Cheers for the pointers. I think I had actually used Amayama in the past for some bits for the RX. The delivery times are the only real drawback, looks like when you buy they just source the parts from a supplier locally and then post them on. On the rust proofing front, I have decided I'm going to go with the Corrolan stuff again for undercoating this, ordered some more at lunchtime. It's pretty rustic and you can smell the sheep-y origin of the Lanolin, the bright yellow colour of it is a bit stark and it does make any future maintenance jobs a bit grubby. It has however lasted really well on the Kangoo and I'd rather be able to use the car over winter without worrying about it dissolving. Have seen how quickly Japanese cars can deteriorate on salty Scottish roads. Kangoo application last year; Lanolin products are popular at the minute, Lanoguard seem to be the biggest player. My understanding is that their stuff is a bit more user friendly, you can spray it on with a standard trigger spray bottle but is in turn less hard wearing. The Corrolan stuff is very thick and needs warmed up beforehand and blown on with an air compressor but forms a gloopy layer once applied and not easily washed off by road spray. Could be removed with a pressure hose or thinners if required. A plus for Corrolan is that it's pretty cost effective. There are two separate products. "Active", which is a thinner cavity wax product that can be sprayed out of the bendy nozzle into any box sections, sills, door bottoms etc and "Pure" which is the heavy duty undercoating product for floors, arches etc. 5L tubs are £40-50. I used around 1L of the "Active" and 3L of the "Pure" to do the Kangoo, but could definitely have got away with less of the latter, I put it on far too thick in places. The main thing I like is that although not totally opaque, it can't entirely hide any developing rust like the rubbery underseal products of old. I'll try and document the process a bit for anyone interested. Fabia will be getting the same treatment too. The Volvo can fuck off. Brought to you by the Lanolin marketing board.

Second item on the list for the GS was the front grille shutter. Has the same gadget as a lot of newfangled motors where it opens and closes shutters over the radiators to alter air flow and warm up or cool down quicker. The slats were sat open, so I could hardly care less but it displays a persistent warning on the dash at all times. To get at the actuator motor the car's face needs to come off. Similarly to the rear bumper, this was made much easier with the workshop manual as there's about a million clips which are hard to see. Managed not to burst anything. Eventually we're left in Mad Max configuration; And with one extracted grille shutter mechanism. The actuator motor is in the centre of it and is just a little plastic box with two rotating metal tabs and an electric motor inside that turns them. It looks like it has been heat sealed together in some way. I suspect water has got in past the seals of the rotating parts at some stage and soaked the internals. I could probably have opened it up and had a go at fixing it, but given how much of a ball ache it was to get at, I've opted to replace. They seem a relatively common issue. There's no third party replacement and the only one for sale on eBay is £270. The dealer is seemingly twice this price, utterly outrageous. I found one on from Japan on a site called Amayama for £117 delivered, although I await to see if I'll be scanted for import taxes and charges. I also took the front brakes apart. I had been getting juddering through the pedal under moderate braking and it had been noted on the previous MOT. I'm not convinced however that it's constant but couldn't tell you what conditions it particularly appears in. For a big auto car it's actually not that severe on the brakes as there's quite a strong regen effect and you can shift down through the "virtual" gear rations with the little flappy paddles. One theory online on judder like this that isn't always repeatable is pad deposits on the discs. FWIW, the pads that are in it produce huge amounts of brake dust. Ordinarily I'd just stick a new set of discs and pads in, but given the discs are £600 a pair I'm somewhat* reluctant. There is a lip on them but they're well within thickness spec, so I've asked about having them machined. If I can't get them machined then I think I'll give the surfaces a thorough clean up and put a new set of pads in to see if it improves matters any. As documented elsewhere, an alternative is to fit the smaller callipers and smaller (normally priced) discs which came fitted to non F-Sport or Premier models but I've really struggled to find the callipers at a reasonable price second hand. Have to say, this is a slow burn, I'm getting half an hour here and there to work on it and it's going to sit in bits for longer than I'd like. I think next I'm going to get the back brakes stripped off and then crack on with removing the rest of the plastic undertrays etc, cleaning and then setting to it with the Lanolin stuff. There lies another quandary though....

If the work on the Fabia was easy, cost effective and quick then the most recent jobs on the Lexus GS450H would be the antidote to that. The weight, complexity and relative value of the fucker makes everything a bit more nerve wracking for your mildly incompetent driveway mechanic. It has a bit of a list to be cracking on with; Front grille shutter inop Blind spot monitoring inop - Techstream says OSR sensor. Brakes tired all round Clean up, treat any surface rust and protect with lanolin rust proofing stuff. I am armed with Techstream which is the Toyota dealer diagnostics software and also have the full workshop manual. Both are probably pretty essential. I shunted it onto four jack stands. I knocked up some sill adapters from wood and got it lifted. Pretty nerve wracking, but have it securely in place now. Will be adding some additional safeguards before going underneath. It's hard to know where to start, but both bumpers will need to come off for the BSM sensor and grille shutters respectively along with all other plastic body linings to do a proper job of the rust proofing. I've previously used the Lanolin stuff to good effect on the Kangoo and have a compressor and the gun to spray it on and into cavities. The car is ten years old but has only spent two winters up in Scotland, now seems a good time to get ahead of it. I've seen first hand how quickly Japanese stuff can go downhill on the salt here. Rear bumper came off I even used masking tape on the panel edges to protect the paint when undoing the clips. This is the type of thing where the workshop manual gives the location of all fixings, I'd definitely have burst something without it. The BSM sensors sit at the corners of the rear bumper. The fault code stored indicates an internal malfunction with the sensor, I decided to play parts darts and put on a second hand replacement. I cleared off the code in Techstream and it didn't come back whereas it had previously, but won't know if it's properly fixed until it all goes back together I suppose. Next up would be the front end....

I had put my name down for Shitefest 23 in Wales at some stage in the distant past and found it rapidly approaching. The weather forecast looked absolutely fucking dismal and I didn't fancy two nights in my mouldy Tesco value tent. I'm a man with a Kangoo with a recent test and new timing belt, so a plan was hatched. This would likely only be used once this year, so a real budget build. All materials cost roughly £50 so there are inevitable compromises. I am useless at this kind of thing and was limited to a jigsaw and drill driver as far as woodworking tools go. On the Monday of Shitefest week I headed to the Peoples Republic of Falkirk to pick up a hacked up foam sofabed mattress which @juularkindly donated to the cause. Calling at B&Q en route for a big sheet of ply. They'll cut it up in the shop for you which was handy, the 2.4 long sheet would never have went in the van otherwise. I had a bit of an idea for a single bed setup. The load bay was a bit too short, so knew I'd require some kind of extension. Started off by building a base from two bits of ply; Measured and cut a piece for the upper bit too. Clamped both together and drilled holes through both pieces to make sure the upright legs lined up. Measured up and cut a load of uprights. The timber from the frame came from a kids swing... I ordered one about 18 months back and they sent (most of) two and never asked for it back, spoils of war and all that. Attached to the base. Put the top on and screwed down to complete the sandwich. Added some additional wood for bracing. If doing a second iteration I'd plan this better. Slung that lot in the van and knocked up a removable extension piece. This makes it into a 190cm (I think) bed. The insulation on the sides is from an aborted attempt to insulate and ply line it quite some time ago. Should finish that off really. The foam @juular gave me was in the wrong shapes, so I hacked it up with a bread knife and used some contact adhesive to glue it back together, it's basically a permanent bond. Some soft furnishings went in. I attached some old curtains on a bungee cord and put some velcro tape round the outside to keep it against the edges of the van for the purposes of privacy and keeping out the light. A selection of animal cushions were added which I think really tie the decor together. You'll see here the party piece. I added a couple of drawer runners and some spare ply to make a little retractable table for cooking etc on, it proved very handy actually, even in the dire weather. Some plastic boxes that roughly fitted underneath were added and secured using some screw in eyes and bungee cords. State of the art leisure battery setup. Two old car batteries of questionable heritage ratchet strapped to an anchor and a 12v crocodile clip socket. I plugged these both into the smart charger before leaving and they managed to keep my 12v cool box cool and charge my phone the full weekend. Added some insect nets, although the weather would mean these were very much not needed. The day of Shitefest arrived, I dropped my lad at my parents and met @AnnoyingPentium at Abington, we then proceeded to drive South in some pretty hideous conditions. The Kangoo decided to shed it's NSF inner arch liner near Carlisle, I have no idea why it chose then. Otherwise it was great. The AC is ice cold and it's very comfy, it's short gearing, lack of cruise and boomy interior count against it, but I've had far worse vehicles for distance work. I had a really comfy sleep on the Saturday after scuttling somewhere in the region of 12 of my 16 cans. I was grateful to nurse my hangover in the comfort of the Kangoo. The table was used when weather permitted and overall the setup was great. The bed was actually very, very comfy. I set off quite sharp with @Supernaut and we made great time up the road with no unexpected interruptions. Overall, I really enjoyed the trip and will try to get away somewhere else on my own for a night or two before the weather turns.

Very well. Fabia has been doing as Fabia does, uneventful miles. The two front tyres were a bit close to the bone. I treated it to four new Goodyear Vector All Seasons jobbies and retained the rear two as spares. Change out of £290 and they came out to my house to fit them. Put it in for an alignment, a bit silly as I knew there was a recently appeared clonk from the front end. They informed me my bottom ball joint on the passenger side was away and refunded my appointment. Fair play to Hellfrauds Irvine. When it comes to everyday "appliance" type cars there is a lot to be said for going for the most common car/platform possible. Parts are easily available and cost washers, there's a wealth of knowledge online and if you do decide to farm anything off to a garage they don't look at you like you landed from the moon. I can think of a lot more interesting, obscure, engaging or comfortable things to run, but as AN CAR the Fabia fits the bill perfectly. Case in point, a decent brand ball joint was £8 and a pair of Febi drop links £14. The patient; This was a real piece of piss. Ball joint is just bolted into the wishbone. Two of the bolts sheared off, but that was no issue. Had the old one off and new one on in about half an hour including jacking the car up. Other side looked healthy so left well alone. One drop link suspect so just chucked both on. One bolt required use of angle grinder but no bother. Knock be gone and just needs the alignment done now for a full bill of health. It will also be getting the Lanolin rust proofing treatment before winter, should be a pretty formidable WBOD between that and it's skinny all season tyres. Soon to click over 100k miles and a ton of life in it yet.

In addition to the above fleet, Miss Hedgehog has a 2010 Volvo C30 D5. I am not a fan of this fine vehicle. To recap, it was making a hideous noise from the auxiliary belt region. It has a setup with two aux belts. One is driven from the crank pulley and drives the AC pump, another belt is then driven off the AC pump and turns the alternator. So two belts, two tensioners. Upon inspection the lower belt was flapping about like mad in typical bad tensioner style, replaced both tensioners and both belts and it was still the same. In the process of doing so, one of the Gates tensioners sheared off the part of the casting that you put the Torx T50 bit in to take the tension off and install the belt. A prolonged argument and ebay case followed with Car Parts in Motion before they'd actually refund it, another seller for the cunts list. Some googling turned up a few posts of people experiencing similar symptoms due to a bad alternator clutch. It has some kind of smart charging alternator which can vary the demand from the alternator to improve fuel economy fractionally. A good idea at the time perhaps, less so at 13/14 years old. I bought a new used alternator from eBay with a good clutch and set about replacing it. Access was great*; Eventually I managed to extract the thing, it was like a jumbo jet out a pigeons arse. Required removing the thermostat housing, various air hoses and moving the front bumper and radiator over a bit to get it out. A fucking PITA. By this point, working methodically and keeping things tidy had gone out of the window. My coolant from Amazon arrived in tip top condition. Fortunately I got a full refund for it and it had only shed about half a litre so I still had plenty. After getting it back together and finally managing to get the thermostat housing sealed up it was taken an inaugural run. Noise is gone, thank fuck. I don't like it very much. They're such a sharp design and have aged very well, but the driving experience just doesn't tally up. The steering is lifeless, the gearbox is a bit crap (auto) and it's all just a bit vague. It can make decent progress, but definitely isn't a drivers car. Various other things annoy me, the column stalks are horrible, the interior is drab in spite of red carpets and it just feels like a less practical MK2 Focus. The engine has been shoehorned in, it's merely ok on fuel and isn't really that fast. I can't help feeling the 2.0 Peugeot diesel in 136bhp tune would be a better option all round if it had came attached to a decent autobox. Still, the seats are comfy and it has cruise.

I've tended to post photo heavy updates in the News 24 thread occasionally. Since I last updated here it's been all change. Out; Subaru Outback Rover 45 Lexus LS400 In and out; Ford StreetKa In; Fabia Estate Lexus GS450H No change; Renault Kangoo Generally speaking I've been getting a lot more done car wise, life continues to be very busy and I don't get a great deal of tinkering time, but I've upgraded my facilities and have a large, lit and dry carport which has made a big difference in productivity in the limited time I do get. It's nice being able to get on with stuff in any weather and means I can leave stuff out overnight etc. Three cars is definitely my optimum fleet size and I'm doing well at keeping on top of what I have, rather than constantly acquiring new stuff. Got a bit of a backlog of updates to get through, so a few photo heavy posts to come over the next day or two. There's been a tonne of work in the interim lost to the News 24 thread, but will try and keep here updated instead in future.

What juice is that colour?

A Renault Megane cabriolet? Can I read to you from Top Gear magazine?

A VW Scirocco, MK3 Golf Convertible or a Chrysler Crossfire.

How many tickets are there?

Think it was mentioned previously but there's a bodge/fix for these. If you can suffer this lad then this video shows how.

Miss Hedgehog has this, it's a 2010 Volvo C30 D5 Auto. It's the 2.4 litre 5 cylinder diesel. It makes a nice racket in that clattery 5 cylinder diesel way, or it would if you could have heard it over an absolutely horrific noise from the auxiliary belt area. I like to take as little to do with the arsehole as possible (car for avoidance of doubt), but it really sounded awful and had visions of it letting go and wrapping itself in the crank pulley and fragging the thing. I think someone has been here before... Not sure what they thought coating the fucker in grease would achieve; It has a strange setup with two auxiliary belts and two tensioners. One is driven off the crank pulley and drives the AC compressor, the other is in turn driven off the AC compressor and drives the alternator. I was thinking because big engine and smol car that access would be shit but it was actually OK. The upper/rear one was a bit foutery but not too bad. The bearing on the non greased one sounds absolutely fucked, so hopefully that was our culprit. Just waiting on replacements arriving. It also had a warning on the dash for "engine service required" and a stored code to do with swirl flaps. They are actuated by a stepper motor which is linked to the swirl flap mechanism with a plastic rod/arm doo-dah made of the same plastic used in Volvo instrument binnacles presumably. The joint on the swirl flap end wears and the arm pops off, seemingly a common issue. I effected an ingenious* and factory standard* engineering solution by sanding the arm down thin, then drilling a hole in the plastic ball part and securing the arm with a tiny cable tie. It's actually a nice car. A little bit of a leggy example but it wears it pretty well. I like that it's a reasonably small car but with big car engine and gearbox. Seats are very comfy, it's pretty quiet and has cruise control so you could cover big miles in it. Good on fuel too for what it is. It's not as engaging to drive as you'd think looking at it and given that I think there's some MK2 Focus in it. Steering is light but pretty lifeless and it's definitely set up for comfort, suits me but it does betray it's looks (and red carpets) a little.

That looks class, good work. How are you getting on with the Z4? It came up on my photo memories from this time last year, I do miss it a bit!

When one has become accustomed to the refinements and modern conveniences of the Ghia model one simply cannot travel in anything less.

What in the name of drive by shooting is that?

You mad bastard. That looks howling but hopefully the neglect is only skin deep, it looks like it will be very satisfying to bring back to its former glory.

Sounds like a sensible decision was reached. Better than the alternative of buying it to be polite. The right cars at the right time are a lot of fun, but they can be burdensome things and can end up a bit of a weight on your mind.

Childcare has been secured and day off work on the Friday authorised so I am a YES for both nights camping. Only question remaining is which car. Lexus - Comfy, economical, fast but not very shite. Kangoo - Useful load area for shelter, potentially sleeping. A/C inop at present. Fabia - Most economical, working A/C.

I'm really short on time for the car hobby, but made steady enough progress on a couple of things. The StreetKa went last week. I really liked it, found as always though that four cars was too much to keep on top of, must stick to three.... The Fabia stereo sounded absolutely awful. Had a look and the factory speakers were absolutely burst, barely any foam left on either of them. I bought a kit from eBay with some Clarion speakers and the plastic adapter rings for them. This job was a bit more of a dick than it should be, had to drill the rivets out the current speakers then the new ones helpfully didn't come with any fixings. The mounting holes are deeply recessed so couldn't use a rivet. In the end I effected a surprisingly good engineering solution, I tapped some threads into the back of the plastic mounting rings and secured them with a bolt threaded in from behind. Old; New More befitting of the fancypants Android Auto head unit which I also finally connected the DAB antenna up to; The Lexarse went to Knockhill; On the Kangoo front it went for it's MOT last month. I gave it a wash and quick once over before it went in, only thing I noticed was a missing outer CV boot clip on the NSF, gave it a quick clean up and re-secured. Got an almost clean pass and the tester commented that it was a really tidy van. It's only done 3000-ish miles since the significant lot of work it had for test last year. As an aside, I sprayed the "Corrolan" lanolin rust proofing wax stuff on in October and it still has a really good film of it everywhere despite having been driven in all conditions. It does make working on it a bit messy and there's still a bit of a whiff of sheep on a hot day but it's probably worthwhile. Worth mentioning I think I used about twice as much as I really needed to... Will do the Skoda next and then aim to do a really tidy job on the Lexus with it before the winter hits. It was due a timing belt. I ordered a finest* quality kit with water pump from eBay and set about it. This is how it started and it ended with every tool in my shed littered on the floor round about it; When I initially got it stripped down and resting on the crank timing pin the cam pin wouldn't fit, it looked about two teeth off. It has a two part cam pulley so I rotated the engine until I could get the cam timing pin in then slackened the outer part of the cam pulley, inserted the crank pin and turned the engine onto it so it was all lined up against both pins. There should be 19 tooth gaps between the marks on the cam and fuel pump pulleys and we had 21. New belt eventually went on and this is how it should look with the 19 tooth gaps between the two notches. Please ignore judicious use of paint markers variously. Overall the actual process for changing the belt was easy enough but the access was very tight so was a case of continually raising and lowering the engine small bits at a time. I think it was probably made worse by it having optional air conditioning so the compressor and pipes got in the road. Definitely a job for one of those fancy electric ratchets. Could frequently only get a couple of teeth of a swing of a ratchet on some bolts. A nervous first start was successful and have done a fair few miles in it since so declaring it a success. Feeling quite positive about the fleet overall. The Kangoo and Fabia are very well sorted, Lexus continues to be lovely albeit with a couple of small niggles to sort. Just need to remain steadfast in buying NO MORE CARS.

Consider my jimmies suitably rustled.

Happy to help