Shirley Knott

Loving this thread! As @Shep Shepherd once explained to me, RWD Volvo's get under your skin... I still genuinely regret selling my old 940, there's just something special/wholesome about them. Props for changing the clutch on your drive, impressive stuff.

Good craic re resolving the misfire , nice when things are simple/quick to sort. This doesn't seem to have caused too much trouble for a vehicle of that age so far... Just about every car I've ever bought has spent the first few months metaphorically shooting me with shit- I see it like taking on a rescue dog, they may have had troubled lives and suffered unknown abuse in previous homes, with love and care they come right in the end.

Back after four months of radio silence with an un-remarkable update about fitting new brakes to the Golf over the weekend. First rate tools assembled, and also Comline discs and pads for a bargain price of £40 delivered from Ebay! They're actually made in the UK and are decent quality IME, every bit as good as the Pagid set that ECP wanted £85 for... I fitted a set of their (Comline's) brakes to my brother's Corsa last year as an experiment- He's still alive and the brakes still work well and look good, Comline braking equipment is now officially Shirley Knot approved. Up in the air and wheels off, looks like that brake change wasn't a minute too soon... All back together in a jiffy... I've got a bit of a fetish for new brake hardwear visible through an alloy (I should see/talk to someone about that) Also, behold what is perhaps one of the only Mk4 Golf's left in Britain without rusty front wings... All in all that's been it. No new cars and all of the existing fleet are pretty much plodding on and causing very little bother.

Neatly a month sans updates. Wagwan?

^If it's down the back of things then that's almost certainly the CAS o-ring (The part the learned chap above has linked) Feel the wiring that comes from the back of the cam angle sensor, if it's wet with oil then that's definitely what that's all about.

Oily plugs on these is almost always indicative of a leaking can cover gasket IME- Very common and can result in pronounced missfiring. Footnote: Only use genuine Mazda gaskets here unless you fancy doing it again in short order.

Can't beat a Golf estate, shame about the rust. IIRC they started galvanising them from Mk4 onwards so this one just missed out.

Never great IME. I've driven a few Lupo's/Arosa's and they pretty much all felt a bit wooly TBH. The Porsche looks amazing BTW, very envious of that!

I may have told this story here before... I had one of the first 1996 Ka's as my first car. It was bought from my old man who'd got it from 'Motorpoint' as they used to sell them en masse at about a year old for circa £5000. By the time I bought it mine it was 5 years old, my dad was sufficiently enamoured with the the one he'd sold me that he went out and bought another identical one to replace it . Embarrassingly we both had matching Ka's, (This used to upset me a great deal) On the whole all went well apart from the winter when for reasons that are inexplicable both of our heater valves failed simultaneously meaning the cars refused to blow warm air into the cabin- We were both too mean to take either car to a garage and so spent the whole winter taking out a hot water bottle to position on the dash to demist/melt the ice whenever the cars were needed. Shamefully I was an apprentice at Leyland Daf at the time and yet still somehow lacked the nous to work out that this was a quick and easy part to replace. We spent the whole winter driving around like that. To make matters worse, at 5 or 6 years old my drivers side door seal leaked like a sieve to the extent that the carpets of my car were so rotten that many passengers used to physically wretch at the smell when getting in. That winter because of the lack of heaters my water logged footwells froze solid, all the while I drove round merrily, but wrapped up well, with a hot water bottle on the dash with hope the problem would fix itself and all would come right in the end. Utter misery. Aside from that and having to (Pay a grown up to) replace a coil pack it was lots of fun. In the end I chopped the Ka in for an MX5 when I met my wife, I had to fight to get £200 trade in value on it. MOT history shows that six months later it failed it's MOT catastrophically and never saw the road again. It was eight years old. Driving a Ka made me a better person and with support from friends and family I got through it. TLDR: 11.8/10- Definitely would.

Yup. Very early car indeed. Well played, the early ones are the best IMO, enjoy!

Well bought, always great to see more 940's on the forum!

Well bought, I thought I recognised this form @motorpunk's thread back in the MX5nutz days- I had an '89 in SilverStone on a G reg at that time too. You'll be able to tell if it's a properly early one if there's only one hole in the slam panel, IIRC they changed to 2 holes about 6 months into production.

Shit, just spotted you're in the very South West, while I'm in the Very North east. Must try harder, I could do well but need to apply myself better and concentrate. Seriously, it sounds grim but the dash bits come out very easily on these- Get stuck in man!

Noooooo. Don't do it! Also, I hadn't spotted the advert- Any chance of a PM?

I always wanted an Exocet, properly loving this thread! I panicked slightly when you mentioned removing the pulleys, and then realised on a K reg (also perhaps 1.8?) that the SNC issue is't a worry here... Also, your donor car has had Mk2 seats fitted at some point by the look. Those ones are the best seats of the whole MX5 range for tall folks (Early Mk2 seats)- I'm 6,2" and they made roadster ownership possible for me as they sit you a whopping 2-3 inches lower than any of the other options, the heated leather ones being the worst offenders for height. As you're pretty local, give me a nudge if you need a hand with anything help or tool wise. I can't promise anything, but if I can oil the wheels of progress give me a nudge.