Steve79

I’m literally about a 3min drive from your house. Welcome to have ago in my grand marquis and Buick roadmaster if you want

Think it very slightly helps the mpg that it's got the vvti on it.

Seems pretty eager to rev and make a pleasing sound when you hit the loud pedal.

Not much to report on the Lexus apart from it being an absolutely cracking motaah. MPG is bad as expected but no worse than any other V6 SUV of the era. Been seeing around 25-28mpg on a run which seems to be the norm. 

@NorthernMonkey mentioned that thermostat might be a bit lazy as the gauge doesn't quite get to halfway but it looks like the stats fitted to these open at 82 degrees so it just may be normal.

The car had also been listed as non ulez complient which I thought was a bit odd since the MK2 RX300 are Euro4. 

I gave the ulez helpline a call on Friday last week to have a chat with them to see what they thought.

Clearly they thought I was right as when i checked today this is what it shows

Ha! Screw you Bristol City Council 🤣

Yeah that what I enjoyed about it. Think it may have been lowered by one of the many owners ago

Much prefer what he left with me 🤣

Solenoids Neil reckons. Drops into limp when hot. Had the fluid changed but to no avail. Was on the original fluid.

As some of you will have seen, @NorthernMonkey willingly relieved me of my E46 330ci Convertible this morning and is currently back 'upt north'. 

Prior to this I had a BMW X3 which I loved and shouldn't have got rid of but impulses got the better of me. I've been needing a "sensible" daily for a while now as sailing the Buick is painful on the wallet.

I was discussing my need of a new daily with Neil @NorthernMonkey and he mentioned he had this which he was looking to move on and we worked out a deal.

If it looks familiar it's because it's been on the forum before. It's a Lexus RX300 SE-L which he had bought from @Neil clark with buggered airbag suspension on one side.

The bags had pin holes in them and new lexus items are £1500 a corner. So it's had the compressor and bags removed and coil springs fitted from an SE. 

@NorthernMonkey was kind enough to give it a service, new brakes and MOT before driving it down here this morning.

It's a fantastic car and soo comfortable. Got a nice exhaust note when booting it as well.

Only one pic at the moment as it's currently lashing it down but am very happy

Pleasure to meet you and the missus Neil. 

Glad the BMW is performing well

Ive felt the need for something more sensible as a daily runner and while the Buick performs this task admirably, 15mpg round town hurts a bit. I need something with a few more mpg's to lessen the pain. 

I found something which fits the bill whcih I'll be making a short trip to collect later today.

Updates to follow

58 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

1969 Rover 3500

If only 🤣

On 02/12/2023 at 19:46, Schaefft said:

Seeing snow covered shitboxes getting beaten down a frozen country lane reminds me of David's Farm. Despite all the justified controversy that was the original (Candian) shite channel.

I loved that channel right up till I found out what he had done 🤬

I'm currently in Barcelona and the lack of chod is very depressing. Plenty of Astra H's but as all Vauxhall's are shit I refuse to take any photos of them.

However here are some of the scant few cars that have been worth a pic

Electric Piaggio Porter which the city utilises everywhere

The multipla and twingo were absolutely battered to fuck which made them all the more endearing as pretty much every car in Barcelona that I saw was from within the last ten years.

The absolute pick if the bunch were the last two

Firstly 

The only Seat Marbella I saw the whole time we were here. In GLX flavour and was pretty much mint. I did also see a non UK Suzuki Jimmy made by Santana with the 1.5 DCI Clio engine fitted but forgot to photo it.

My top fav was this ugly bastard

Kia Opirus which was absolutely amazing. Acres of pleather and faux walnut. Think it's fitted with the same 3.0 V6 Mitsi Sigma engine as the Hyundai XG30. 

Actually looked really nicely finished in person and definitely would like to score one of these. Only LHD though. Apparently the USA got these with a 280bhp 3.8 V6 😲

Just had a lovely chat in Exeter Morrisons with a bloke in his 80's doing his weekly shop in his Maxi 2 1750L as you do. 

It's his daily driver and is in really nice fettle and also has a Maxi MK1 as well

17 hours ago, grogee said:

Where I'm from, we call them an Opel Mental. 

That seat is the velouriest velour I've ever seen, well done. 

In the velour stakes I'll see your manta and raise you a grand marquis 

But @sutty2006 already knows this 🤣

On 5/16/2023 at 9:24 AM, Steve79 said:

MOT time for this one today 😬😬😬

Shameless plug for my mates MOT station

Pleased to announce success for another years legal motoring 

MOT time for this one today 😬😬😬

Shameless plug for my mates MOT station

On the subject of fuel, on the way best home from a customer yesterday I popped into Costco at Avonmouth to fill up with fuel.

Ive never paid attention to what grade diesel they use but having had a look, its premium  diesel. Apparently they take it un-additised from the refinery and then put their own additives in on-site, so supposedly equivalent or shell v-power/BP ultimate.

I thought I was probably saving around 8p per litre compared with the cheapest "normal" filling station at 163.9. 

Based on the current lowest price for premium diesel from shell or BP in Bristol at 180.9, I'm currently saving 25p per litre so £25 per tank.

Van also seems happier on premium and better mpg.

I have got an android phone boroscope which I'm going to use to see if I can spot if it's coming from the filler pipe or if not I might take the back seat out just to check the pump seal. If i get time.

The o/s rear wheel and splash guard are going to have to come off for leak checks which I really haven't got time for at the moment since I went self employed.

It's getting dispatches to my mechanic mate who can tackle these jobs.

So, after sorting the keys and running the tank very low, it was off to the garage to get some petrol.

Got to about £45 when I noticed liquid was splashing down from underneath the car, just in front of the o/s rear wheel. Promptly stopped filling up, paid and went home. 

It now absolutely reeks of fuel when you get in the car but seems to disappear when driving. It's not leaking any more though.

Any ideas what it could be? I'm thinking filler neck, neck clamp or pump seal under rear seat.

Put £15 in the other day and didn't have this problem.

Swapped this 

for this a few weeks ago.

It the 330ci m-sport that i got from @95 quid Peugeotwho got it from @chris667who got it from @HMC.

Currently has 156k on the clock and drives lovely.

Got a list of job needing doing such as new front discs and pads, etc. I forgot how nice these are to drive. Bit of a step up from the E46 compact I had.

So all sorted now. Managed to get the key back together to a point where the buttons no longer worked but the key would start the car.

I gave AG a call from AG's car key who came out the next day. 

This guy is probably the nicest bloke you'll ever meet. VERY well trained (goes on at least a couple of courses a month) and spent a long time getting the BMW sorted.

Dashboard under steering column had to come out to remove the immobiliser which then went onto the test bench in the van (got a whole workstation with office chair, the lot) to have the chip read. 

The keys are made in Turkey and youll get a few which don't like to code. After much persistence he finally managed to get 2x remote keys programmed successfully and cut which work perfectly.

 It took 2.5hrs to do in 3c temp and I was freezing  but he was happy for me to watch what he was doing as I was fascinated.

he charged me £100 for the first key and £80 for the second and It then mentionned that my Berlingo flip key was no longer flipping.

Totally unexpected but he said give it here and then proceeded swap the guts of mine into a new case and cut me a new blade for absolutely NOTHING. I gave him £20 though as I didn't want to take the piss.

Overall, very happy. He's based in Bradley Stoke in Bristol but pretty much will travel anywhere in the southwest.

I've attached his details just in case anyone wishes to use him

Back to the 330ci. 

I've had a few e46's but never with the 3-litre inline 6 petrol. It can be a totally animal if you want it to be and is very quick but also a pussy cat which is happy to pootle along getting 35-40mpg on the motorway.

The only think I'm not particularly inove with its the aftermarket EONON android touch screen headunit that's currently fitted. It's a bit temperamental and sometimes doesn't like to boot without you pressing reset first.

It's a bit laggy but I've done a system reset uninstalled some stuff and it now seems a bit happier.

Just a question for the previous owners on here. Does it have dab+ fitted? The is a little black box on top the dash by the drivers steering wheel and am not sure if that's the aerial. It's not screen mounted.

Leak looks to be coming from washer bottle as Keith mentionned so I'll sort that shortly...

After the autolocksmith comes tomorrow to cut and recode a new key for £120 as this one is fucking fucked mate.

It's intermittently been working and the case has been silconed together so someone has obviously been in there in the past. I gently opened it up and the -ve battery terminal on the fob fell out because the solder joint had cracked.

Ah well

Apologies

No it was this one

https://autoshite.com/topic/28945-the-green-lean-machine-1974-ford-ltd-leaving-the-ggg/

On 5/2/2022 at 12:36 PM, Justwatching said:

Driver's side reverse light socket was shot. Wired in a new one easy enough.

And that's where my winning streak ended.

Found the reason for water ingress into the boot.

Can't find a new seal, and it wouldn't help anyway if I did. Think I'm going to paint it up and pretend I never saw it consider my options.  

Ordered a new master cylinder but the old one is really fighting me (surprise*). It's had the last of my WD40, for whatever good that does. Only the rear brake line fitting has come loose, and even that is trying to twist the line with it. The front fitting is threatening to round and the nuts on the servo aren't moving at all. Think I'll try fire next. 

Didn't that ltd used to belong to @Junkman