JakeT

The bearings are pressed into the rear hub and the driveshaft passes through them. Once corroded in it can be quite the sad job. That’s kind of you to say. It’s off to FoTU (with me in it) soonish.

What a shit time of it. It’s always bloody annoying. Glad the handbrake shoe didn’t come adrift and lock the rear wheel. Which happened to me on a shite 318ti some years ago. For fitting a new backing plate, it’s easiest to cut the plate and slip it on. Else you have to remove the rear hub, and go through the pain of getting the rear driveshaft and bearing out.

Working for an American finance tech firm, they love putting pressure on people. Today, there was a lot of that, and it put me in a miserable mood. I decided to go for a drive, and ended up having one of those memorable drives. Good for the soul, and reminds me why cars are so great. I had a sit, being away from it all was excellent. Being in the North Wessex downs it is easy to take the great scenery for granted. Watching the rain coming down, and basking in the sun was excellent.

I’m probably the worst when it comes to living with faults. I will spend countless hours and large sums fixing issues that many would just live with. A few examples: Buying a load of used parking sensors so they worked Spending a lot of time and money to fix a leaking AC condenser and evaporator Fitting a new clutch to a fiesta as it was juddering badly, only to sell it 12,000 miles later. Replacing niggly little trim bits when they break or get worn Buying Michelin tyres (sorry, I have an obsession with Bibendum) I am not good at bangernomics.

In completely unrelated* matters, I had a very productive day at work. Can’t think why at all… Well done on having things back up though. Great efforts.

New viscous fan coupling for my E36 320i. Being a Non-AC model it has just a belt driven fan, and it wasn’t making the usual roar that they do upon startup. Seeing as summer is just about here (supposedly), and ‘show season too’, I Purchased a new Sachs one from C3, and nipped the fan out. Yep… that’s pretty nasty. That black goo should be inside, and make the fan clutch in when warm. New unit for comparison… Fan bolted back up and ready to go in… I did this between work bits, Fan and shroud refitted, and took it for a test drive. Fan works correctly as it should. These cars sound like a bus on a cold start, and it does again. Then the fan quiets down after 30 seconds or so.

Absolutely. Useful to thumb through when doing a job and the hands are too grubby for the phone. Of course it’s usually void of just the information that one needs.

Thanks all for reminding me it’s insurance seasons for my daily. It’s a 2005 BMW 330i touring, probably worth £3,500 in these days. One declared modification. Suspension (A Bilstein kit). Bought it in June 2019. I do usually around 15,000 miles per year. Commuting and drive it in Europe. I’m a 27 year old male with 10 years NCB. Last year flux quoted me £518, with NCB protection, and their ‘FlexDrive’ cover which extends driving other cars to be fully comprehensive cover. This year, £590. Or a ~12% increase. Like others have said, it’s just life currently. I couldn’t get close on the comparison sites, so looks like I am renewing. Could be worse. My E36 is on a dedicated classic policy, I think 2,000 miles, breakdown cover, and costs around £200 per year. I last renewed in February, so fingers crossed it’s not too bad come renewal time.

Recently, I went on holiday. (Hooray). Took the stena line overnight from Harwich to Hoek Van Holland. The Amsterdam, Hamburg, Aarhus, Copenhagen, Malmö, Hanover, Ghent, and finally the Chunnel home. I’ll spare too many boring details, but show the shite spotted on the trip. E30 and a DS boarding the boat. Already off to a good start. Drove at speed, as is customary in Germany. Stops me speeding on the road here. Nearing 200k but will still pull to the limiter at 155. https://jtongue.com/images/Images/IMG_0195.MOV Hamburg is the home of old taxis it seems. W124, S124, and a W126! Surprisingly exciting. Got stopped by undercover customs in Germany. They were pleasant enough. Old Volvo spot, weathered and all the better for it. Why do additional lights look so right? I want a V70. A meet of old American stuff in Copenhagen. One that made me squeal. A Lupo 3L! Not a lupo with a big engine, more a Lupo that would do 3L/100km. Lots of trick upgrades. A Porsche. Not shite, but I have a big thing for Pre-euro plates. This Porsche wearing ‘old’ German plates. Germany changed to their current style in 1994, but owners could choose old style plates until 1999, when they were no longer allowed. Means this Porsche has been owned since 1999, probably before.

Same. FoTU is booked, Radwood depends on timings as I seem to be attending loads of weddings this year. I’ll probably potter down to a few of the local classic shows too. They’re usually at pubs and an okay way to while away a Saturday morning.

Sad end for this one.

I did the same. Came out of the golf, Into a stopgap fiesta, and then into this. Agreed, been a great unit. I have a remote for it too. Children I’d imagine. Great tune, and reminds me of playing the original Ridge Racer game.

Funnily enough, so do I. A Kenwood one I had a few years ago for a Golf GTi. Pulled it out before sale as the car was ruined. Even matches the interior illumination nicely and dims when the lights go on.

I agree. Fortunately this wasn’t subject to some of the truly insane pricing that’s happened recently. Love a ti, too. Fun little cars and were very cheap for a long time. Bought a high mileage one from a colleague a few years ago for £100. It was quite tidy, and with a new rear exhaust section and handbrake adjusted went through the test nicely and sold for £850.

New brake hoses on ‘the old bus’ as it’s know today. It’s 30 years old in a few weeks, and the hoses weren’t looking too great. I dropped a caliper and a hose caught it last year, which damaged one. Having been laid up over winter I thought I should do them, and have got a weekend without distraction. The boss has gone skiing for a week, and due to work commitments I couldn’t make it. I’d been putting this job off for a while as usually for me brake hose replacements end in tears (and snapped hard line). Weirdly there’s six hoses on these. The rear have two each. Unless it’s a late car then it has one long hose. Anywho: Up on stands at the rear and a quick look over the undercarriage. I’m still very pleased with how rot-free this car is. Garaged and not been a daily driver all it’s life. This jacking point is the nearside rear. Usually they get grotty easily now due to salt and rubbish in the gutter. Trailing arm pockets are good too, which cause issues on these cars (and E46s). Rear short line done, usually these can be a real pig but everything came apart brilliantly. … And the line to the caliper from a funny S-piece of hard line. Bled up with a cheap pressure bleeder from eBay. I have an Eezibleed but messing around with a spare tyre can be a pain. Pumping this up is nice and easy, and means I can do this job without a helper. Being in such a good mood as the job had gone so easily, I also remembered I have a steam cleaner. So I cleaned the rear Inner arches. The steam loosened the dirt nice and easily without putting any muddy water on the garage floor. I’m sure a few pounds of Berkshire has been liberated from the arches. Unsurprisingly what was left in my bucket can only be described as… Before After Then I had lunch. And did the fronts. But I forgot to take any pictures. The fronts were easy though, and bled up nicely too. Finally, the test drive. We’ve had some good rains this week, which have taken the salt off of the roads. They also dried up nicely in time for a drive. Didn’t roll into anything, so good news. Pedal feels less ‘wooden’ now, too which is nice. Next job will be fuel hoses, but they looked in a better state than the brake hoses. Final pic, to prove I did drive it, and didn’t restyle the front bodywork.

Strangely selling the really cheap stuff I’ve been good with. I sold a BMW 328ci where the subframe mounts had failed, it needed a service, MOT and back tyres. £500 on Facebook marketplace. Chap sent me a non refundable £100 deposit within 15 mins of the ad going live, and collected it and paid the balance a few days later. Other stuff goes up for bidding on eBay with no reserve. I describe how it’s fucked and take pictures. Person bids, comes and pays, and takes it away. I’ve always had positive feedback, and never had the house burnt down thankfully. A chap loved a fiesta I sold him even though it failed an MOT on extensive rot two weeks later. It was £200, though. The worst one I had was selling a BMW 330d. It was a 2004 ‘sport’ model with a manual gearbox, with some choice extras. I bought it as I thought it would be good for my usage. Then realised I hated it, so tried to sell it. So many chancers they wanted a ‘well fast’ car were all over it. All sorts of stupid questions, and nobody could understand that I just didn’t like it. In the month I’d fitted two new thermostats, wiper blades and fixed the non functioning stability control, and added some mats out of a scrapper I’d sent off. A group came to buy it, joy of joys. Fortunately they were decent enough ‘enthusiasts’. That said, it never made it through another MOT… After that I decided I will run what I have until it’s fucked and send it over the bridge. I think someone here said it best. It’s like the old family dog, when it’s getting on a bit. Yes, you could sell it to someone on the local sink estate and it’s not your problem, or do the decent thing and let it die gracefully.

Phwoar bloody fantastic, well done. looks a great colour. The mk1 RAV4 is my favourite of them, and make a great poor-weather car. My mum had a red 3dr manual GX from new in 1996 to 2003. She loved it, and it was supremely reliable. She was also super pleased as it was her first car with air conditioning.

Ah, makes sense. Thank you. I suppose turning the museum into a charity stops any VC types liberating some of the valuable stuff for the bottom line, too. I did Gift-Aid my entry fee, which I hope helps them too. Good to know. Thank you.

Ooo, Trabi World! I was in Berlin just before Christmas, and visited too. I also saw this sad looking Sierra, In very AS fashion. My weekend has started in a different manner to usual. My mum rang me to say she’s hit a pothole and it’s punctured her tyre. Off to rescue from me as she’d still be waiting for the fourth emergency service now. In a double annoyance, it’s dented the wheel, and in spite of it going to the supplying fiat dealership every year since new, the sodding spare tyre had 7PSI in it. Better than flat, but not much better. Four miles back to home before it looked quite poorly. The correct 41 PSI are now in it. Finally, she nipped off to a local tyre fitters for a pair of new front tyres. The saving grace is that both fronts were quite worn. She requested Michelins, and they said they had Continentals and Fulda all seasons. She for some reason agreed to the Fulda tyres, so has Fulda all seasons on the front and Michelins on the back. I am not super pleased with that, as the cost isn’t an issue, and it’s done well on Michelins from new. I suppose we’ll see how they go, though. Finally to top it all off, one of my friends wife had gone to visit family, and my good lady was out watching the netball, so we were both at a loose end. Visited the Haynes Motor Museum. On the whole, enjoyable. But why no manuals!? My thoughts was that they should have some reprints of some old ones in the shop to buy, but alas. Nice day out though.

Usually I get introduced as someone that likes cars, and people will ask me: ‘Whats your favourite car?’ ‘Depends on the day. It’s usually old and rubbish, though.’ ‘What car should I buy?’ ‘You don’t care what I think, but get a Honda, or Toyota. Oh, you want an Audi Sports? Get that then.’ ‘Can you look at why my 1.6 TDi Polo needs an EGR valve? And the garage says the turbo is on the way out too.’ ‘Sorry, but no. I only work on my own cars or friends that have an interest too.’ The latter being after lots of examples of ‘ever since you…’ I ask not to be introduced as someone that likes cars, now. Unless they own something like a Senator 24v.

I’m also not a big cover fan. A light one if the car goes in the garage. I also feel guilty leaving something that isn’t used a lot outdoors all winter. My old bus (A 1993 320i) has been garaged from new, and not used as a daily. Fortunately there’s no corrosion underneath, and I plan to keep it that way. Means it stays in the garage all winter usually. That’s also when I can get jobs done as I don’t need to use it, and can deal with it being in bits for some time.

My grandfather bought a 1.2 Mk7 Golf a few years ago after writing his Volvo V50 off. He got it ex-demo. He has it serviced regularly and nothing has gone wrong. It’s 50 shades of silver now, due to his bodywork repairs, mind.

This one’s a manual, when I bought it I was doing 25,000 miles a year and I get scared of high mileage autos breaking.

Did a trip to Belgium over the weekend, for Spa activities and to start off the (enjoyable) process of stocking up on goodies for Christmas. We took my 2005 330i. On 188,000 miles now It’s definitely in shite territory on mileage. Final scores. Fuel economy is Impressive from a ~260HP, 24 valve six that’s not in the first flush of youth. One fuel stop was needed, 508 miles covered and 59.7 litres added. Funicular from the hotel to thermal spa. Very novel, even if the hotel is a little costly. Most of the spots were while on the move, including an Opel Ascona. Did see the real hallmark of a French speaking region, though. Finally, the current Bavarian MoronWagen outside Franchimont castle. The old one, in 2019. still missed. It has a couple more trips to do, and then it’s service time. If the ports hold up, we’re also off to Berlin in it before Christmas too.

My neck of the woods. It’s a pain to cross sometimes and causes a good bit of traffic. If you pay by card they charge £1 and give you 40p change back! It’s also the smoothest bit of road locally, just the bridge. At the top of the hill is where Castrol have their R&D facility. Lots of test mules seen entering and leaving , often at night when putting miles on oils.