Shirley Knott

The new steed looks lovely! With LPG frugality it's perhaps the best of both worlds in terms of frugality vs comfort, very interesting.

No worries. FWIW I always give him a call and check prices first but he's usually the best option locally.

Correct, way too dear there! I use the factor at Shiney Row (Just off the roundabout) Decent banter and he seems to undercut everyone else (including ECP) massively, An impressive array of parts in stock and what he hasn't got he can have within the hour usually. Would strongly recommend. Meh, I suspect as much but at £14 for a pair the price was right. Euro wanted nearly double that for Moog or StarLine as mentioned and I don't think they're particularly special either from a quality perspective TBH.

Some C1 one based tinkering took place this morning, basically it's been knocking like a trooper recently and I'd narrowed it down to two things. Firstly was a back end knock which was simple to diagnose, the exhaust was knocking off the underside of the car. Up on ramps and a stiffer exhaust hanger sorted that one easily... Next up was a front passenger side knock, predictably a broken drop link was the root of the evil... My local factor sorted the job with these Fahren replacements. I've seen Fahren stuff available before but never used it, my factor recons it's German and therefore brilliant. One thing's for sure, at £14 they undercut ECP by a tenner for the Moog or StarLine options that they had on offer... Amazingly the passenger side, and luckily the one that was causing the racket came off no bother and within literally 20 minutes a replacement had been fitted... Fortunes changed quickly after moving to the drivers side and both nuts immediately rounded off. At this point I decided on the basis that I was nursing a weapons grade hangover and as the drop link itself looked fine the drivers side could FRO, I'm not proud but it wasn't broken and I couldn't face getting the hacksaw and dremmel out. Having now undergone an extensive road test the little C1 is quiet and knock free. I've spent the tenner saved on the drop links on a kebab which I'm now eating whilst feeling smug.

I'm impressed by your perseverance, lesser mortals (Including me) would have well and truly sacked this off and be sulking in a corner by now.

Ouch, that must have been a difficult pill to swallow mate. At least it gave it's life so countless others could live on using it's parts, I always feel there's something noble about that. Just like what Jesus done, albeit in an automotive format I suppose

I purposefully avoided automatic cars when I was hunting for a V70 last month, and granted having now bought a manual one I don't have gearbox issues but I do have a host of other esoteric running quirks and cosmetic challenges. The moral of the story is that if it's not one thing it's something else and that's the circle, the circle of chod. Meanwhile, this thread was before my time. What ever happened to your old S80 @Jim Bell?

Well done on the pass, you deserved some good luck after the recent troubles!

What more could anyone want from a car? 10p per mile is always my aim for a tank full on the VAG 1.9 engine, not difficult to achieve with a Golf sized shell so 175 miles on £15 should be pretty much business as usual for a Fabia.

Yes, the Pela is certainly a tool that I've had my moneys worth out of but it does take 10-15 minutes to empty a good sized sump so not exactly rapid either. I've got a set of Irwin bolt removers that would almost certainly have that plug out if the mood took me, but the fact it took 5.6 to fill and capacity is 5.8 tells me it pretty much got it all out. I'm afraid that sump plug is likely to stay put.

Another couple of hours tinkering this morning as part of the drive to bring the fleet up to speed before winter kicks in. I started by dealing with the sill on the Golf that had been damaged by the drooping door before it was re-aligned (See page 13).... First up, rust rubbed back and treated with Kurust... Followed by a coat of Bonda rust primer... Meanwhile I thought I'd give the V70 an oil change, Shell fully synth and a genuine filter because I care... Got to the sump plug and... Oh shit.... Pela pump it is then. Capacity on these is meant to be 5.8 litres and it took circa 5.6 to get the dipstick back to the right place, so clearly the vacuum extraction method did a fairly decent job. On to the filter, I've bought this *professional tool from Ebay to help remove the housing.... It actually worked really well... Weirdly it's been one of the most rewarding oil changes I've ever done. The oil in there didn't look bad but I suspect the previous owner had lobbed the cheapest 10W40 available in as it's so much quieter and smoother now, the difference really is night and day.

For me this has to be the best collection thread of the year so far, and there've been a few! Trials, tribulations and then a happy ending in which failure is turned into glory. This one had it all. This whole fiasco strikes me as being a proper *brass ring-piece job, I certainly wouldn't have had the guts to even attempt it. Glad to see everyone's home safe and sound

I've never seen one go like that either to be honest, maybe as the coil broke a twisting motion ensued as the tension was released sliding over? I'm clutching at straws really but that would be my best guess. At least as you say pretty much everything's cheap for them and you've already got pads and discs. Probably well worth getting the back tyre checked before stumping up the cash for a new one, on a steel rim it could quite easily be fixed with a simple re-seal/new valve.

This week the Golf's been off the road for some repairs in preparation for winter giving the Volvo a chance to prove itself as a daily. The good news is that other than some idle wobbling until warmed up it's performed well covering nearly 200 miles on a mix of school runs and backwards and forwards to work. Words cannot express the extreme joy felt in my heart that the car I've bought can actually be used as a car and seemingly be relied upon. RE work on the Golf, last winter I was experiencing some hard starts so I had at it and did the glow plugs. First job, engine cover off... Unfortunately the process for the SDI Golfs is a bit more involved than on TDI models, this whole intake and throttle body gubbins needs to come off... Some impressive clag was found in the manifold.... There's a big part off me that wanted to whip it off and blast it out and I'd love to claim that's what I did but I'd be lying. Not ideal but still plenty of breathing space left in the pipework soy hey ho.. Old plugs out... And new ones in... I'll have to wait for some cold weather the see how the new glow plugs perform. Meanwhile I gave the throttle body a quick polish in situ on the V70 to see I could resolve the dicky idle I've been getting until the car's warmed up. Proper gear for the job... Slightly grubby but not too bad really... And back together with a new band clamp to replace the rusty one that was on originally... The results? Underwhelming frankly. The idle wobble persists but as it's only for the first 5 minutes it's not a major problem. I can only assume it's temperature related as after five minutes of running the idle is rock steady. Next step coolant temperature sensor perhaps.

Fuck That's pretty scary but as you say at least it didn't happen at motorway speeds. Frustratingly IIRC those Vredesteins had loads of tread left too.