r.welfare

Ordered 5L of Classic 10W40 on Sunday, delivered today, so quick enough for me.  Frustratingly they’re out of stock on my preferred ‘kit’ of VAG long life oil, oil filter and air filter for my Touran which would be a screaming deal (just over 17 quid) with the current discount code.

One in, for high days and holidays, shits and giggles (2,000 miles in 6 months).  Boring Touran continues to do the bulk of the work, 65k miles in 5 years and rolled over 200k this morning.

I’m never scared of miles if a car has been looked after.  In these times of ‘adjusted’ prices even with the leg I’d assumed much more than £2k when I clocked it was a 14 plate.  Cleaning it up will be rewarding - if you like that sort of thing!

On 9/27/2023 at 8:15 AM, Split_Pin said:

A question for the hive mind - how do you get on with the seat adjustment and reaching the accelerator pedal?

My wife is not especially short and has never had a problem with any other car but in my SLK the seat does not slide forward enough for her to be able to reach it. Although I can reach it fine the pedal is inordinately far away and with the seat slid half way my leg is still almost fully outstretched (I am about 5' 10"). 

Same height and I must admit the seat is a lot further forward on its runners than halfway for me to be comfortable with the clutch throw.  I do have the seat on its lowest setting though.  Your legs do go straight out which feels very odd coming from the MPV I drive normally.  Assume your seats are manual and not electric?  
 

The height adjuster does seem to tilt the seat forward quite a bit so maybe a cheap secondhand pair of fabric seats would be the way forward?  Not sure if yours are heated (mine aren’t) but the leather ones tend to take a beating on the bolsters anyway.

That blue is the best colour IMHO.  And under £600 is sensational value.

The 230 feels plenty rapid for me, but then again my other points of reference are a 105bhp Touran diesel and a Qashqai 1.6, so most things feel like a rocket in comparison.

Had a weird one last night - car was locked up on the drive and the indicators started flashing double speed.  I left it unlocked in the end.  Googling indicates the Ni-Cad battery in the alarm sounder is dying, so I’ve disconnected it for now.

Apologies, I forgot the apostrophe.

Not investigated mine intimately for rust but what I can see looks ok, topside and underside - there’s definitely some Glenn Miller in the front wings where it’s had a blowover at some point.  Polishes up nice though.

What I learned today is that it’s not a good idea to drop the roof when it’s covered in standing water from overnight rain, and you’re sitting in it.  The incontinent look isn’t a fetching one.  A good blast up the bypass got car and driver dry again fairly quickly.  The supercharger whine is addictive and it’s easy to get the traction control light flashing when shifting into 2nd, wet or dry.  As I’m no helmsman I’ve not turned the traction control off yet.

@HMC 405’s, blimey that’s going back a bit!  I think I sold the last one in 2010.

Just how many of these things do the Autoshite collective currently own?  Got to be over half a dozen.  Why are they so popular, apart from the fact they are cheap?

Here’s mine that I purchased from @DaveDorson at the beginning of May.  2001 facelift 230 manual, 150k miles and like @Rod/b it’s resplendent in dog dick red.  A fiscally prudent way to have my midlife crisis.

Dave had done a fair bit sorting ball joints, brakes and tyres so it drives really well.  Steering is a bit inert compared to an MX-5 but that’s to be expected given it’s a cut-down C Class, and the gearchange is horrible (but I appreciate manuals are rare).  

I’m dailying it at the moment (and have done about 1500 miles so far) and it goes like a stabbed rat when you prod it yet will do 35mpg with restraint.  

Since buying it I’ve serviced it (oil filter £3, air filter £7, spark plugs £10 a set etc), replaced the belts, replaced the bonnet with a non-rusty one, repaired the bootlid rust (badly), replaced a rear wheel and tyre because the original was buckled ( my fault, Dave did warn me), repainted the mirrors (badly), and patched up the torn driver’s seat (badly).  

Next job is to reactivate the air conditioning - I’ve a new condenser and receiver dryer to fit when I have some spare time.  I’ll flush the coolant while I’m at it.

The only real fault it has is water leaks onto the seats directly beneath the windscreen header and roof join, although I discovered some drain holes in the A pillars which were clogged with dirt so hopefully that’s sorted.  But if anyone else has suffered and solved this, let me know.

Over to the other (current and former) owners!

You really don’t.  It’s desperately slow and thirsty, I don’t think I bettered 28mpg day to day.  I can get 50mpg under the same conditions in my 1.9TDI Touran.

Also it broke in a number of unamusing and expensive ways, which defeated the point of choosing the engine/gearbox/spec combo offering the lowest probability of doing so.  That said, I sold it to a bloke up the road 5 years ago and he’s still running it, which tells me he’s ultimately benefitted from my drained wallet.

Loping is a great way to describe how these drive on an open road.  I had a 2-litre petrol (normally aspirated) which taught me a lot about conserving momentum.  

I’ve a Touran the same age (good car), where is yours rusty?  Mine is only scabby on the tailgate where the handle and number plate lights are.

22 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Is the tall bloke with Jimmy and Jackie, John Whitmore?

Yes, it looks like the late Sir John to me.

GM H-body; Chevrolet Monza, Buick Skyhawk, Oldsmobile Starfire or Pontiac Sunbird from 1975-1980.  The squared-off chrome edge on the rear side window is unusual.

Wonderful.  I owned one of these 15 years ago.  They are deceptively rapid.  Briefly donning my anorak, I can see rear head restraints which means yours is an ‘87 model year.

17 hours ago, Brodders said:

With an equally appearing Mk2 Cavalier further down

Really pleased to see this, as I owned this Cavalier for a few months in 2007 (I did a double-take when seeing the registration on the Hubnut video).  Bought for £100 from the 97 year old original owner to save it from being scrapped, I put a pair of front wings on it (paint match looks better than I remember so maybe they’ve been done again!) and had the inners welded up.

Of the 30-odd cars I’ve owned I think this is the only one that survives (it’s possible the ‘78 Opel Rekord I sold to a guy in Belfast still lives too), which I never would have put money on at the time.

https://api.flickr.com/photos/43761783@N03/6354589635/

I spent a fair bit of back-to-back wheel time in both flavours of 1.4 petrol about 15 years ago (my wife had the 16v, my mother in law the OHV) and the old plodder was nicer in day to day driving.  The 16v went well but only if you wound it right up; there was bugger-all low down torque.

Do they have any obvious faults at this advanced age?  I hardly see them day to day, but I assume that’s natural attrition at work.

Ah, memories.  I learned to drive in my mum’s when they were new.  Frisbee the rubber dash mat, it’s a pain in the arse sliding off in hard cornering.

I had a ‘78 Rekord that colour. Opel were turning out good looking designs back then.

Drop him an eBay message to say if it all falls through to let you know.  Has worked for me in the past.

I’m no great mechanic but it was ok.  The rearmost ones each side are the hardest as there’s not much clearance against the inner wings.  There’s just a lot of engine in the bay.  I changed a headlight at the same time and that was a faff.

The engine note makes it all worthwhile

13 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Right, where are the plugs? 

Oh, boxer engine innit. They're on the side. Only accessible from underneath. Bollocks to that. 

You can do them topside using a socket set with a universal joint if you take the airbox and battery out.  You’ll still remove some of the skin off your knuckles though.

13 hours ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

 

This is a spitter of one owned by rarely-seen-now shiter @r.welfare a few years back!!! I think his was an injection one though so probably not the same one. (Valuable information for you there, well worth posting)

Good memory, same colour, I reckon that was a good 14 years ago!  (EDIT: it was, bought Sep ‘05, sold Apr ‘06).  It was a time of low scrap value so I paid Shadow money for it.  Quite the sleeper with the Astra GTE engine.  Got scrapped after I sold it.

On my slightly later one (59 plate), if you flick the wiper switch down a few seconds after removing the key, the wipers park in the vertical position.  Worth a try?

I hope TEH SHADOW is back on form with another Suzuki Wagon R