Shirley Knott

20 hours ago, bear-in-the-air said:

Out of curiosity, how long have the rear discs been on it?

I actually posted about it on this thread at the time of fitting, so thats an easy one to answer.

21st of September 2019.

I had a day off yesterday, so a couple of minor jobs were completed on the remaining fleet.

V70 

This one passed its MOT with a clean sheet last week, but meanwhile has been cruising around struggling to raise the temperature guage above 30% - Not good for a PCV system already infamous for gunking up.  A stuck thermostat was my diagnosis.  A very simple job on pre 2003 P2 cars thankfully. 

Old vs new (NOS calorstat branded item sourced via Ebay for £12)

The original was Volvo branded, so in all likelihood had been in situ for 23 years. New stat installed, now the temperature gauge is pinned in the middle so job jobbed.

Clio

Next up, squealing brakes on the Clio, in spite of the recent clean up and new pads. Remedied this time by a further strip and clean, chamfering the new pads slightly and installing a new fitting kit (£7) to hopefully allow the pads to move more freely.

I followed this up by replacing the miss matched wheel trims (Different on opposing sides) with a set of spokey looking jobbies from ECP (£13.50)

Old.

New.

As you can see, these give the car much more of an aggressive edge and highlight the 1.2 8v Clios racing heritage,  hopefully firmly establishing my status of the 'cock sportif' of our street.

Total spend for the day, £32.50. Satisfaction gained - Moderate.

38 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Gawd, things did not go well last year!

The house was actually sold 3, yes 3 times. Every time it fell through.

First time was a nice family who really wanted it, but in the end pulled out because of an arse hole developer on some land next door. He submitted a ludicrous planning proposal (which got rejected!) but the people buying our house read the objections and decided they didn’t want to get involved with what was happening. It’s a bit of a long running feud with this developer, he’s a grade A prick who’s exceptionally unpleasant and greedy. I mean they all are, but he’s particularly bad.

Second time was an odd woman and her husband who seemed keen. They submitted an offer, we accepted and the rest of the selling process started. It got so far then ground to a halt. After a lot of messing around it turned out they had put an offer on another house at the same time and were playing each off against the other then settling on the one that got them more and completed first! So that went to hell.

Third time it sold almost immediately as it went back on the market. It was a divorced lady and her new partner. Both loved the house, but the bulk of the money was coming from her ex husband who was buying her out of her old house. Things again ground to a halt… it eventually turned out that this money was inexplicably in Belgium for some reason and he couldn’t get it transferred over due to money laundering regulations! So that went in the crapper too!

Basically we spent almost the entire year getting ready for something that never happened. Most of our stuff is packed up in boxes waiting to go. 
The property market in England is an absolute shambles tbh. It needs a major overhaul and there needs to be penalties for people who arse about (like our buyer 2!). As it is they did that and caused the chain to fail and then pulled the plug and walked off into the sunset. We and the rest of our chain lost houses and sales and it cost us all money. 
We all know nothing will change though because this happening just means someone somewhere is making more money from these things being done twice (or more!). Rip off Britain. Again.

 

So, nothing happened over Xmas. The market pretty much dies from December onwards. But the house is still on the market. 
Last weekend we got some viewings again, yesterday we had three viewings. One of yesterdays was a lovely family who absolutely loved the place and offered the asking price within an hour of viewing it! 
So it is, again, now provisionally sold. On Monday the whole process starts again. 
With a bit of luck it’ll work out this time. It also is fantastic timing as it means if it all goes through ok we’ll be moving in the spring time which is ideal!

And just to prove how bad the property market is in this cuntry, in the last 3 years, this house has technically been sold 7 times!! Each time it’s fallen through! That’s either incredibly bad luck or something is wrong in the system.

Anyway, fingers crossed 🤞 

They recon property sales are up there with divorce and bereavement as one of the top three stressful life events.

Certainly our experience has never been good. It's almost always a shit show throughout it seems 🙄 

Hopefully things pan out for you this time eh!

3 months without an update here- Did the Volvo prevail and enable the house move?

Wagwan @danthecapriman?

Not much going on here over the last 3 months. The Clio had some new front pads, and the V70 got an oil and filter change in October. It then spent the festive period hauling Christmad trees around and generally being used as the family van.

I've been looking after my brothers cars as usual (Both Mk1 diesel Octavias, the blue one us a VE ALH 90 TDI, and the silver one an SDI in AQM flavour)

Basically, aside from an indicator that lost its lense, and an upgrade to Osram Nightbreakers on one of them, they've needed nothing.

This one's now approaching 220k miles, illustrating the terrible VAG build quality and reliability that it used to be trendy on here to talk about!

Meanwhile,  today I set about the annual adjustments to the Volvo's handbrake system in preparation for MOT next week.

These are a major week point for the P2 platform across the board, and despite the annual battle to set it up as best as I can, I never escape without and advisory for it.

9 minutes ago, Shep Shepherd said:

I'm not sure what type it is, as the labels on it have had their print removed by carb cleaner 😄

I should be able to get a new replacement from eBay cheaply enough, as they're common to a lot of cars from the 1980s and 1990s. I had a go at cleaning the existing one, but I've not attempted to start the car since doing so several weeks ago, so I don't know if there's any improvement.

Good to see you back man 🙂

Basically you and @danthecaprimangot me through the early/fledgling stages of Volvo ownership way back when I was fairly new around here.

Interestingly (Or not) I actually served 3 years of an apprenticeship for Leyland Daf... Seems a long time ago now, but their trucks were well thought of at the time.  IIRC the 95XF was the bees knees/biggest one they did at the time.

Aye, that's properly miniscule TBF. Makes you wonder how much filtering can actually be going on really.

Yep, quite fond of these.

I served 3.5 years of a 4 year heavy goods fitting apprenticeship for Leyland Daf (Left without getting my papers 😑) and we used to service and look after these as well as selling them new.

I worked on the LDV's and the Daf 45's pretty much exclusively for a good period of time before I was allowed anywhere near the 7.5 ton stuff or anything bigger.

An interesting story is that we used to park them in the workshop over the weekend, and the rear brakes/handbrake would somehow lock up even in that short period of time.... It used to be my job the bray the rear wheels with a hammer on Monday morning to free them off and get them reversed off the pits!

20 hours ago, egg said:

i10 headlight bulb gone, I think partial bumper removal required to replace! Not had to do one before.

Nope- Just a but if trim around the slam panel and then remove the headlight.

Not a big job at all.

EDIT- If I'd bothered to read further down the thread I'd have spotted you'd already done it. Doh!

Those drop links look pretty similar to those found on the Aygo/C1/107 trio.

When I did our old one (C1) I literally unbolted my vice from the bench, took it over to the car and used it to pull the ARB and the wishbone together so I could get the nuts on the ends of the drop links!

Commiserations on the fail, but either way that doesn't look like a bad little list really.

Busy day yesterday applying 'Lanoblack' rust treatment. In the past I've always used petroleum based stuff.... Only time will tell how good the sheep  based alternatives are eh.

Ita gone on OK at least- I'll let the pics do the talking....

After this I met with Aautoshite brethren @catsinthewelder @Schaefft and @loserone It was only a brief one, but it was interesting  to meet you all and good to see some  French cars (Not something Im usually into TBH, but Im starting to see the appeal)

TBH I've not really seen any change.

We've just insured the V70 for the year (Starting on 01/09) for £142 via Adrian Flux, that's only on 5k per annum though.

24 minutes ago, loserone said:

Could you be arsed to organise a pint with @catsinthewelder next week? Happy to float on down the river for a couple of hours 

Sounds decent.

Honestly,  the less I have do the more likely I am to do it if that makes sense?

Also, since I've 'made it' and moved to the *outskirts of Durham I've pretty much concluded it's God's country. I will only leave under extreme duress. 

Just had a casual glance and by my observations the nearest point to me within the 'Twixfest' is around a two hour round drive away.

Much as I'm keen to touch grass with my AS brethren and keep up camaraderie,  I've reached a stage in life whereby I'm lazy as fuck and I'm in a position whereby I  recognise/accept that.

Kind offers, so cheers lads. Attendance is unlikely if Im honest though. 

May well do that TBH!

No EML are present at the moment, but honestly, how long can that last?

I'm fairly certain it's the port itself that's goosed on ours, none of the pins seem loose, but the port doesn't feel that secure. It's definitely got power going to it but that's about it.

Some interesting shenanigans going on here, bravo!

Daft question, does your Clio speak to OBD2 readers?

We've just taken on a ropey 2008 Mk2 Campus and whilst it powers them up, literally NONE of my devices will connect with it 😑 

1 hour ago, AxWomble said:

Nothing like a bit of cheap maintenance to get a simple car up to a good spec. It’ll serve you well if you keep this up! 

You've probably tempted fate there!

If habitually running sub £1k cars for the last 20 years has taught me anything, its that once stuff reaches this age, ANYTHING can happen.

Fingers crossed,  this one seems OK so far....

I'd noticed the Clio temperature was up and down, so today a new thermostat was the first port of call.

At £13 for a Dayco unit, it's daft not to...

The thermostat lives here (Hole on side of block where the old one came from)....

Access is great and in less than 20 minutes a new 'stat was fitted....

This worked a treat- Temperature is now locked in at 4 bars after a couple of miles warming up, and the onboard MPG average has jumped up from mid 30's to mid 40's. Result.

FINALLY got the timing belt done on the Clio last night.

The crank pulley nut buzzed right out with my corded Silverline impact gun of excellence (Praise the lord and the baby Jesus)

All in all the operation went smoothly.  Waterpump was checked and found not to be leaking so was left as is. I have another one on hand should troubles arise in future.

Total cost for the kit was £35, so bit of a no brainer. The cars only done 60k, but it's nearly 15 years old and the stuff that came off was clearly original and badly worn.

Alternator belt was replaced at the same time as it was coming off anyway and only cost £7 so daft not to.

And then this morning I changed the gearbox oil. The old oil looked fairly bad, so again, a decent bit of preventative maintenance. 

I've no idea RE carbs, and to be honest they baffle me.

I know a guy (Retired mechanic in his late seventies) who would have worked on these and other mainstream carb engined stuff day in day out.... I'm fairly certain from past experience he'll be happy to chat about the finer points of tuning/adjustments to TEDIOUS lengths. If you'd like a number, PM me and I'll send it across. 

Those seats are special 😍 

Japanese stuff of this era was probably the peak of automotive design, just the right balance between modern features/reliability whilst not being too complex.

I see your plugs and I'll raise you with this one I removed from a 2009 Clio yesterday!

For me, your old ones look fine and probably not actually that old either.

Pretty frustrating evening here- Literally about a third of the way through a timing belt change, sump supported/jacked up, alternator swung forward, engine mount removed.... and.... wait for it.... I don't have an 18mm socket in 1/2" inch impact flavour.

Very little chance of removing the crank pulley bolt with 3/8 stuff and a 12" breaker.  Ive furiously re-assembled everything and reversed it out of the workshop.

Current status- Sat sulking with a single malt whilst ordering sockets from Ebay.

Just changed the plugs on this before setting about making tea.

@320touring, (with relief) I can report there're no special tools required. I assume the 8v cars are easier than their posher 16v brethren.... That being said, the ones that were in there were pretty difficult to get out, perhaps original?? Great resistance and some arse clenching whilst getting them to initially move, and also whilst winding them sloooooowly out.

Old vs new....

Weirdly, the plugs my factor sold me were NGK BKR5EK, which turned out to be an exact match with the ones that came out.

10 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Much smoother than a 107 with 4 cylinders instead of 3.

That's it.

They actually feel another step up the ladder towards being a 'proper' car from a C1/Aygo/107 (Although they're also great, but in different ways).

If the Clio offered £20  tax rather than £180 and a chain engine, thus avoiding belt charges it would win hands down.