mercedade

Grump because my wife phoned and said that some cunt had bumped the A4 in Tesco car park this morning and fucked off.


Not anything like as bad as I was expecting, barely noticeable on fact and it's certainly not the first time this bumper has been bumped anyway. Just as well its an old car.
All sorted:

Still looks decent:

The reason she knew someone had bumped the car is because someone else left a note on the windscreen giving the make, model, colour and reg plate of the car that bumped into mine, which was very good of them. I was going to call the police and leave it at that but considering there's no damage done then I'm just going to forget about it.

Ha ha, I left out the other sister thing today as being too fantastical. She's started another miracle diet, I think it's one of those where you have like 800 calories a day in packet soup etc, and starve yourself thin. While giving them £70 a week for food* supplies.
So it's day 3, are we by any chance going near Staniforths? Well no, wasn't planning on it. Why?
Surprise, we are going there, her diet needs a fuck off cream cake. But it's ok, the diet is based on ketones as well as 800 calories, so cakes are in.

Bloody hell, that's my old MG!! By eck its changed a bit, was a totally original rubber bumper one with original deck chair seats! I sold it for a grand to guy in Hull during lock down. I still have the heritage certificate somewhere. I'll have to get some tickets in the hope if winning the shite thing  back!! 

Missing my Mum and Dad massively at the moment but have to go back up to their house next month to sort more stuff to get it up for sale.
Am I mad in thinking of taking the Senator? It has done the journey many times in the past but has only done 500 miles since it’s recommissioning. It’s the only car I have that both my parents have been in, so I’m probably being over sentimental. It won’t be my last visit to the house, as I’ll need to go with a van to take furniture. 
 
So, is it too risky to take the Senny, or how many of you are willing to help if it goes tits up on route?
I would, of course, post photos of the journeys progress🙂

So firstly the car is great. I'm mega happy with it. Like any old car they give shenanigans. Especially old German Premium cars. Not least I do tend to go hunting for issues and finding stuff.
What is there to do?
 - Airbag light is on. I took a gamble buying this thinking it was just a loose seat connector. Having read the codes I don't think it is. There is errors relating to the "Satellite B Pillar" module and no communications. Googling says there is a module that lives in the footwell for the airbag system. We can all guess what happens to modules that live in convertible footwells. Go go BMW. Second hand modules can be coded in but you need BMW INPA. I don't have that, so I'll probably have to read and tool up. 
Need to fix the airbag system as the light is on and it'll fail it's MOT unless sorted.
 - Sticking steering. TADIS. Made worse by having the heater on full. Apparently you can replace the grease or something to help sort it. Need to do further reading. Doesn't stop it being used as a car though.
 - Heater fan temperamental. Anything above 50% on the climate control puts the fans on full. Then after a minute or two it cuts out. Wait a bit and it cuts back in. Not very useful for roof down motoring. Hoping it's the Hedgehog fan resistor module. Need to buy one and find out how to replace it in the car. Hopefully not a massive dash out job or something stupid. 
 - After a spirited drive off the motorway, I managed to now make the rear right brakes squeal. There is a light squeal when driving, more sometimes turning and louder when braking. Sometimes goes away. Presumably either sticky caliper or sliders. A strip down and clean up job. Had to do the same thing on the Golf too.
 - Wipers don't park at the bottom. Work absolutely fine but it looks like it's had a new windscreen in its past. Whoever did it I don't think put the wiper arms back in the right place. It's an easy enough job to just reposition them.
That's it really. A few cosmetic things I could do like replace the scratched near side wing but tbh I can't be bothered just yet. Just want to drop the roof and go for drives! 
Main thing is to fix the heater fan/fan resistor and the airbag system so the light goes out to pass another MOT in June. Caliper is just a Sunday afternoon/evening job. Steering is annoying but I'm going to leave for now as it's still usable as is. 

Making good progress and half way.
Heater fan stopped working below half at Stratford area. Now at Birmingham Frankley services to get my glasses out of the boot. Heater fan coming in and out randomly when set to full now. Iirc these are based on E46 and I remember they have a hedgehog something that causes issues? Just some old car fun.
Anyway roof is staying down for now as 18C. Pushing on. 
 

Washed and now time to go!
 

Mike Brewer isn't all that bad.  I don't get why people dislike him so much, certainly he has a TV persona which can grate a bit, but in interviews, he seems to come across as normal and a bit humble.  It could all be acting as far as I know.
Ah, is that my coat?  Thank you, here is my membership card...

Blocking a live lane in anticipation of a merge point further up the road should result in an instant driving ban.

The 1994-98 Ford Scorpio is quite stylish.

only yours *runs

Great to see that still exists!  From long ago:

lad is 22 now and sadly uninterested in cars/motorbikes.
 

Hiflys are back in stock if you want a reasonably priced set of tyres for the P6. 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204153372379
 

It’s on. It took 225 degrees, 20 minutes and hammer and brick chisel BUT ITS ON. 
 

 
and it’s fitted. 
 

OK so I'm halfway through removing the Maestro head (for what is possibly the fifth time). 
As others have commented on this thread:
It could be warped head (even though it was freshly skimmed), bad valve sealing or yet another bad gasket. Either way the cylinder compressions are all sub-par so I'm going to revert back to old head for the sake of having a running car. 
I contacted Rimmer Bros about my genuine Rover gasket ordered in Feb, got a less than helpful reply. Twats. 
Anyway once it's off it may be more apparent what's wrong, I'll go back to SC Porting and ask for their advice. 
Curiouser and curiouser. And fucking annoying. 

Back in the yard now. 1030 miles over the weekend with the trailer. I’ve still got 20 miles to get back home but I’m leaving everything as it is until tomorrow and I’ll just take one of the vans home for tonight. 
 

Loaded and turned round now. 
 

I turned it round on the trailer for weight distribution but it caused another issue that I thought might happen.
The wind got under the pop up roof and lifted the rear end of it. I had to stop on the hard shoulder and lower it again and even though I thought I’d locked it down it came up again within a couple of miles.
I managed to get a couple of small camloc straps tied round the inside roof mechanism and through seatbelt buckle which kept it in place the rest of the way back. 
Will have a good look round it next week and decide on my next move. 
if I keep it then I’ve some better seats to replace what I think are Rover SD1 ones. 
There are many more jobs that need doing first but it’s always nice to change something to make you feel a bit better, 

Due to limited access on the road where I collected from, we had to drive it on to the trailer. I’ve stopped and turned it round before heading up the M5 just to make sure we don’t have the tail wagging the dog scenario. 
 I have also adopted a sitting tenant….,

Loaded and about to head north. 
 

This one's a v6 tdi 3 litre  and 300bhp so no slouch for such weighty things, still do 46mpg and £180 per year to tax.  

I hadn’t thought ahead to post so 1st journey already commenced. 
I’ve got the trailer on, a few podcasts downloaded and off south today. 
 
Vehicle 1 is 200 miles from home in one direction and vehicle 2 is 325 miles from home in the other. 
Plan is to get the first one back into the warehouse at work by mid afternoon today then an early start tomorrow for part 2. 
 
Breakfast was Shreddies and a brew with 2.  - Loo count is 0 but might have to keep legs crossed and I don’t like leaving car and trailer unattended at the services after losing a trailer before when only running in for 2 minutes once. 
 
Left home 7am, came the A46 route to get on M5 so cut a few miles off but return journey will stay on M5 to M42 and M6. 
 
Will update when I remember as I go along. 
I had offers to accompany me but sometimes I just like to do my own thing after having to deal with many people in the week. 
 
Start mileage and the rig. 

Ordered a replacement gas pedal for the BMW for 18 quid. It's probably the throttle body that's the actual issue but its worth a shot.
In Celsior news, the car finally received fresh brake fluid, pads, hoses and wear sensors this weekend. I've also done a few other minor jobs while in there and unfortunately revealed a little more carelessness by the bodyshop. Let the wrenching commence!
Front brakes first. I actually didnt end up using the caliper piston rebuild kits on the left, the pistons were still sliding back in nice and smoothly.

Well, I think we can say I got my money's worth out of those pads. I don't know when these got changed the last time but it certainly been a while considering the car didn't do that many miles in the last 15 years.

The loose wire in the left photo is the wear indicator sensor btw, for some reason whoever replaced the pads didn't know how to or didn't bother installing it again. This is also what I originally expected to be a cut ABS sensor wire a few years back btw, the sensor plugs into the wiring loom of the ABS sensor, bit of an odd design on early Celsiors.

Can't say these are the worst pads I've seen but we haven't had a look at the rear ones yet.

Quick look underneath to see where the minor exhaust leak is coming from. Like the exhaust shop said, one of the exhaust temp sensors is blowing, they tried to goop it up but no luck. Unfortunately impossible to buy now, not sure if it could get welded? I've also had a look at the O2 sensors and tried to measure their resistance. Well, it seems like there is infinite resistance which of course isn't right, it should be somewhere between 5.1-6.3 ohms at around room temperature. I unplugged them to see if it would make any difference to the way the car runs. It doesn't so new sensors it is!

The 135 quid Maxpeedingrods which I only bought to get the car through the MOT are holding up surprisingly well. I've greased them up before installing them so everything is still moving nicely. Unfortunately I just remembered while writing this that I should have put some fresh grease on them... I also found the source for my very noticeable front suspension clunking. I originally blamed the coilovers but its actually the front swaybar bushes that are so worn out that the swaybar can freely move from left to right. So new swaybar bushes are added to the shopping list. I've also fixed the messed up passenger side bumper corner I accidently caught on a wall. No photos yet but some hot air, a tactical ziptie and reinstalling a bumper bracket did wonders.
The rear is next. Working on an incline lifting a rear weel driven car is always fun.

If you are wondering why Im using different brands for pads and hoses compared to the front, so do I. I think they just ended up reducing the combined shipping costs when I ordered them from Rockauto like 2 years ago. Motul RBF600 is probably some of the best brake fluid you can get if pedal feel matters to you.

Yeah, I think its about time to replace those pads...

The disc is getting very thin as well so rear discs are added to the shopping list...

Certainly cutting it thin with these. The rears actually had the wear sensors properly in place, replacing this one finally got rid of the last (permanent) dash warning light. Unfortunately the passenger side rear caliper piston was really struggling getting pushed back in so I might need a new caliper there. I'm not sure how much extra I paid for the Bosch pads compared to the Beck/Arnley ones but they were certainly much more neatly packed and actually came with a sachet of brake grease. I used copper grease on the sliders for the front calipers instead.
About the bodyshop's carelessness mentioned further above:

The rear trailing arm bolt is completely loose, the nut was never tightened after the sill got welded there. Mistakes can happen but I'm really starting to get the feeling that things were just slapped together in the end to rush the car out the door. Something like this is pretty dangerous. I had to replace the nut (with a Mercedes one no less) as it wouldn't properly tighten anymore, I'll have to have another look the next time its on a lift though.

While having the wheels off I finally had a chance to raise the rear coilovers by 20mm to level out the car a bit better. I don't think its perfect yet but lowering the front should result in a nicely balanced stance.

Let me know what you think! The rear discs, swaybar bushes and O2 sensors will hopefully be the last few bits to make it mechanically solid. Being 32 years old now it'll probably always need something but any MOT relevant work should near with these 3 things soon.
Some bonus content, the Cadillac is finally moving again and received a wash. That immediately revealed the various paint defects it has, the photos are hiding them remarkably well fortunately!

Another big blue landyacht that will receive some more attention this summer.

Today was a Welding day! and i have done the small section at the back of the sill shown on the previous post with the last photo. 

A Fabricated a new Lip for the little box section where the trailing arm bolts into and got it welded up. 

 
Next up was the little piece that is welded from the Reinforcing plate inside the box section to the lip. 

Once that was alll welded and ground flat, i then worked on getting the inner sill panel that goes over this box section. I did a few modifications to the panel i made to make it fit right adding some release cuts at the top so i can bend it into the shape it needs to be. 

I got that all welded in and flattened the welds down. I also did the plug welds around the lip of the box section. 

All Grinded Flat:

Thats it all Zinc Primed and protected!