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warch

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Everything posted by warch

  1. I’m another disciple of Bangernomics (recently acquired myself a fresh copy, just for nostalgia). I love cheap old cars, there’s something utterly relaxing about them. They needn’t be on their last mechanical legs, plus new cars can have wear or fault related costs too. I think doing one’s own spannering is a useful skill when owning shite, it massively reduces the cost of ownership and places you much further from the uneconomical repair threshold.
  2. Unfortunately the housing looks like this; and is also recessed quite a long way so assuming you could get the strap to grab there isn’t much room to turn it.
  3. What tool should I have used? I did have the correct six sided filter removal socket and it wouldn’t even grip because the torque required was excessive
  4. My justification for grumpiness. Mrs W owns a Qashqai, a newer one than mine (which is her old one). Unlike mine it doesn’t have the good old bombproof Nissan 1.6, which is sort of 70s easy to work on, but a microscopic 1.2 turbo. Which I decided needed an oil change, because it’s a turbo and Mrs warch was adamant that the oil was changed only 2 years ago. My annoyance began with the undertray which had been removed previously by someone who’d broken loads of the clips. Removal of the tray revealed something of a rust trap with much of the subframe looking worryingly scabby for an 8 year old car and much worse than my car which is twice as old but hasn’t got an undertray. The engine itself resembles something like a motorbike. The teeny little sump is drained via a plug with a square key (betraying its French origins) which I didn’t have. I did have a spare 3/8” drive adapter though from which I cunningly fashioned a bit. The oil was diesel black and obviously well past it’s best. The next issue was the filter. This is located directly underneath the engine next to the sump and features one of those plastic housings you unscrew with a big socket (27mm in this case). Could I move it? Not even a bit, not even with the correct tool, kindly lent by the lads in the yard next door. According to the manual this was tightened to 25nm of torque but that was clearly bollocks. Either this had never been removed before or had been rattled on. Eventually after subsequent phases of regret, anger, disillusionment, indecision and despondency I decided the fucking thing was coming off so I butchered it with a cold chisel which still wouldn’t start it and the then drilled a hole in the top inserted a screwdriver and tried to turn it. The thing eventually gave with the screwdriver bending like Beckham (allegedly) and the sound of tortured plastic. Happily I managed to obtain a spare housing, less happily it cost nearly 30 quid. I much prefer spin on filters they’re much less troublesome.
  5. Frankly terrifying looking Land Rover based recoilless gun. Not absolutely sure but I think this an Australian Army one (though I'm happy to be corrected).
  6. 1998 was a good year (Goodyear?) for tyres though, I wish I’d laid down a few when I’d had the chance.
  7. Just remembered my uncle apparently bought an old Landrover in the 60s which had had the firewall repaired. Using concrete.
  8. Bonus point for Team Bunglebus!
  9. Major Malaysian tyre manufacturer apparently. I'm hoping to do a pub quiz one day where one of the rounds is Tyre manufacturers of the World. Which of the following is not a genuine brand of tyres? Is it A. Roadstone, B. Joyroad, C. Fate or D. Ladyboy?
  10. Wasn’t there also telling the unsuspecting that the oil pressure light illuminating was a means of letting you know the engine was warm? Not technically a lie but still…
  11. warch

    Bus Shite

    I love it’s happy expression.
  12. My brother once bought a mk2 Golf with a recently repaired head gasket. Still seemed to be overheating/misfiring/mixing the oil and water almost as if it still had an issue. On further examination three of the head bolts at one end had snapped and been cunningly glued back together using epoxy resin. I remember reading about a similar wheeze in Bike magazine where someone discovered that a previous owner of a bike they’d just purchased had stripped the threads on the handlebar retaining bolts and then ingeniously superglued them back into place.
  13. My wedding conveyance 9 years ago this week. I just drove to my wedding in this and left with my new lady wife in a posh (to me) Aldi, leaving my best man to drive this back. Of course like many old cars this had a few foibles that I’d forgotten to impart to my chum so he couldn’t get the effing ungrateful bastarding thing to start afterwards.
  14. I absolutely love this. I like tractors anyway but I especially like small and compact tractors and also unconventional and systems tractors. This hits a real sweet spot between those.
  15. Old engines seem to be fine with what often looks like apocalyptic engine wear, i.e. grey sludge in the filters. Provided it works ok, doesn't make any untoward mechanical doom noises and isn't down on power or oil pressure then I wouldn't worry. As previously pointed out, tractors especially can go for decades with the same pair of filters due to sporadic or non existent servicing, but still be ok. Speaking of unclear instructions, my dad once asked one of his undergardeners to service a tractor and then fill it up. Taking him at his word the thing was apparently filled with oil right up to the valve train. Luckily it wasn't actually started before someone spotted this.
  16. A lot of pre 1980 cars won't be taxed or Mot'ed now so it is difficult to assess whether they're still on the road or rusting in a shed somewhere.
  17. Speaking of fashions in van design what happened to sliding front doors on vans?
  18. Not the only ones… I am a Lamborghini, I am!
  19. La Ferrari Dependende Petitrosso
  20. Iirc* this was a badge engineering exercise by Maranello who, lacking a small fibreglass three wheeler in their range during the early 80s approached Reliant to provide one.
  21. It'll be perfectly in keeping with our current test captain (also a kiwi by birth) and our outgoing white ball captain who is from the quaint old English town of Dublin.
  22. Yep, same as the 106. Used to be an issue for early adherents to the Max Power scene, because most big rimz innit only came in various 4 or 5 stud patterns.
  23. I think I saw the red one in Ludlow on Saturday.
  24. Aren't you about to sprog St J? Old cars have a way of knowing, so they can break down and use all the spare time/money you know longer have. My Golf did an ECU (1200quid) around the time my eldest was born and a turbo (1200 quid again) when her little sister was born. The bastard. Toyota fasteners do seem a bit 'snappy'.
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