Shirley Knott

Honestly, I'm questioning my position re not having one MX5 due to practicality concerns meanwhile you've basically got three (Ok, one's an Exocet) You're going to have to stop chain buying them or there'll be none left for anyone else!

Amazing! Basically, from what I've gathered you now own three cars, all of which are either MX5's or derived from MX5's? Back in the MX5Nutz days you'd have broken the internet with stats like that.

Thanks, the roffle Golf's main appeal is it cost £25, can't go wrong, or can you...? You're right re brakes, I've had more bother in the last year than the last ten combined, it's all down to lack of use due to lockdown IMO. Three 'M's, machinery must move!

More boring Golf shite I'm afraid. After my roffle win the drive now looks like some kind micro of Mk4 enthusiasts convention... His and hers. Meh, worse things happen at sea. The Golf SDI- Fine as always. Running reliably, no problems. The Golf Gti, not so much. It's been struggling recently with some hard starts involving long cranking and then eventually firing after 5 or 6 seconds. It only does this on the odd occasion , but it's pretty unnerving and also difficult to diagnose as no codes and pretty infrequent so without having live data at the ready

What an update. It looks and sounds like you're living the dream. Also- Refreshing to hear that the fleet reduction is going terribly, you only live once man. Re welding, my hat's well and truly doffed as that's a skill I've never really learned. Loving the fact that your response to struggling to find anyone prepared to do it was to learn how and then do it yourself. Ultimate man points and cataclysmic autoshite status for that as far as I'm concerned!

It's lovely that you've taken the time to share your insight here, but given the modern subforum caters to "Vehicles under about 10 years old" and Phase 3 V70's started production in 2007, your point is nul and void. Do you have anything useful to say? That was pretty much my understanding too, although I had read that the Phase 2 cars were to all intents and purposes designed by Volvo with very little Ford involvement? As you say, the Phase 3 cars are based on the Mondeo platform and use a large number of Ford parts. I wouldn't like to speculate whether that's for the better

This is a question that I've always pondered too so keenly awaiting replies. I've always worked on the understanding that that the older V70's were the last of the 'proper' Volvo's, although people also said that about 940's when I had one of those, so who knows... I suppose the real question is what impact, if any, Ford's involvement has had in the later (P3 onward) cars build quality etc. As an aside, re low mileage P2 cars going for £3-4k, I've seen little evidence of that around here! Perhaps there are regional differences? My 2001 2.4 na has just clicked over 93k, and if someone

Long time sans updates here- Wagwan @Broadsword?

Most likely the thermostat, they're designed to fail in the 'open' position, but it makes sense to pop a new CTS in at the same time whilst you've got the coolant drained.

Aw man, I was always struck by how much you loved that Picasso, so much so I thought you'd keep it forever. I'm thinking it must have taken something properly delicious to have turned your head...

Nope you're not alone! Even doing most of the work myself, I've actually spent multiple times the purchase price on repairs for all three current fleet members... That actually sounds dreadful, but the reality is I'm in for less than £1k for each car so it's not too bad. Technically speaking any repairs that amount to more than the value of a car would be classed as 'un-economical' in the eyes of the masses, but then with this mindset cars at the bottom of their depreciation curve would end up scrapped because they needed new tyres etc... Madness. I tend to think objectively ab

Right Some more fettling completed today First up a new CV boot was fitted to the V70 via cone (I'd spotted the boot was knackered while fitting a new ABS ring a fortnight ago) It's the first time I've used one of these boot cone jobbies and whilst some brute force was required to get the new boot over the cone, I must admit to being quite impressed. Not having to separate the CV joint brought me deep joy... New boot on, reversed and ready, beautiful! Just a case of putting it all back together at this stage.... Once the Volvo was r

Define good.... No timing belt history/brakes rusted badly and hub threads stripped out/blowing exhaust/smashed air filter housing/broken dipstick/broken armrest/ripped seat/leaking radiator/inoperative coolant gauge? It's a good shell and a decent starting point as a fixer upper, I wouldn't argue with that... Thanks for the kind words though! Honestly- You'll be able to get a seat from a breaker for a pittance. They're very easy to change Meanwhile- Post a picture of the part you need- I'll be stripping the old seat down to use the foam/harvest spares for other projects

Work on the the Roffle Golf continues. We've had this for just over a fortnight now, Mrs Knott has been using it for daily duties without mishaps, it seems to be alright on the whole and worthy of investing some time/energy on- So here we go. This week the timing belt and waterpump were changed using a Gates kit. The job was farmed out to a local Garage I use. I did the belts on the Volvo's myself, but decided as a treat I'd pay someone else to do this one and as the whole thing came in at just under £200 it seemed worth it. Paying someone else to work on my cars gives me a bit of an

Work continues on the Roffle Golf The brakes are rusty all round as the car's been stood for a bit (3 years by the MOT history). They gained an advisory on the car's most recent MOT and the tester wasn't wrong... Comline discs are the choice of champions- I must have fitted 5 sets of these to my own fleet and family cars over the last year... Unfortunately at this point disaster struck. It quickly became apparent that BOTH caliper pin threads in the NS hub were stripped. Only one thing for it- The hub was drilled out and caliper pin repair