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robinmasters

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Everything posted by robinmasters

  1. Next up (yes, I've been watching a lot of Doug Demuro), replacement wifely transport. Bought from someone I strongly suspect is a home trader, with a suspect MOT. Somehow driving 800 miles has reduced the wear on the rear axle swivel pins. Viewed in the dark, shonky MOT, home trader pretending he isn't (only got the new keeper supplement for the V5, 'I bought it off a mate who was struggling for money'). A recipe for success. Its a Citroen Xsara 2.0 HDi. It's flippin' lovely. Obviously being a Xsara it's only the 90bhp, but it's a little car, so it goes ok. It's got those wheels; Citroens own torque thrusts. When I viewed, in the dark, it was fine. When I collected it the next day, the central locking was bouncing. Wiring to the drivers door, so quickly fixed. Also has giffer repairs; *high quality door mirror bodge: Replacement (in the right colour!), £25. Wife likes it, isn't complicated enough to give me the fear, and it's a nice colour. Also, correctly veloured (washed out flash photo):
  2. Righto, time for an update on the 'fleet'* (*two cars, no three). When I got the 406 there were a handful of issues with it which the seller (Bramz7 formerly of this parish) was totally upfront about. Firstly, the rear drop links were making a noise; I think he supplied me with the replacement parts. Anyway, those were changed in short order because the noise really was very noticeable, and irritating. They didn't fight too much. Knob. Fell apart on the drive home from collection. Replaced. Stereo didn't work. Bramz7 thought it needed a code. Turned out it was just defaulting to weird settings of the balance and fader, which I changed, to discover that the speakers were fooked. The nearside rear light lens was filthy, on the inside. Turned out it was full of water. Removed, cleaned, and a drain hole drilled. This car has obviously been giffer-owned at some point. The boot was filed with crap under the floor. Bits of carpet offcut, what appeared to be pieces of fabric from some plaid trousers, bits of tarpaulin, and some rubbish. There was an amazing parking sensor fitted. It had a display fitted in the ski-hatch, so you still had to turn round and hold the passenger seat when reversing. MAGIC. It didn't work, possibly because the wiring was hanging down below the bumper, but I do have a suspicion that the wiring was fitted like that. Final score of shit removed from boot: Second giffer modification. Under the drivers seat a small length of metal had been bolted on to a plate under the seat, with some wire rope bolted onto the other end. Not attached to anything, no idea what this may have been for. Very soon after purchase the indicator stalk made a cracking sound and stopped making the indicators work. It was a mechanical problem with the self-cancelling mechanism I think, but given the cost and availability of a replacement I didn't investigate. Also because of the tiny components with springs-not worth the aggro. Appalling paint job on the door mirror: A replacement did come with the car, but it's an S2 mirror and not 100% interchangable, so I've left this as is; it works fine. Another item that came with the car were new running strips. The ones on the car has been 'repaired' with electrical tape, and some if the clips were missing. The new ones look so much better. Other than that it's been a great 'an car'. It's got electric windows all round, and electric sunroof, the stereo is fairly capable, it's an un-killable XUD, it's comfortable, and it hasn't FTP'd (yet). It's just sooooo boring. I've always thought of 406s as boring Xantias, but up until very recently there has been a disproportionate demand for them, leading to values above what I think they're worth. It was never intended to be a long-term car, just a temporary replacement whilst the Xantia was fixed, but the Xantia's been off the road since last June; it's back now, and having driven the 406 after the Xantia, my earlier 'boring Xantia' comment stands. It's not as comfortable, not as fast, not as interesting. Went through the last MOT needing front brake hoses, a ball joint nut tightening, and a bulb. That being the case it's on it's way out. Might be a roffle, I suspect this might be a popular one. EDIT: Forgot to mention, the stereo is FROM TEH FUTURE. 'But where does the tape go?' (repeat of the knob-shot) - the blank part above the buttons is a MOTORISED door.
  3. Maybe the SVM have a rival family trying to get in on their turf.
  4. We used to spray lighter fluid on each other (mainly on our probably polyester school trousers) then setting light to it. How none of us ended up Kreugered I'll never know.
  5. Went into that London the other week. Only thought about the ULEZ charge when I was already in it. Got a fine. Fair enough. The fine was for driving in the ULEZ area at 00:03, on 17/04. The return journey. I got a second fine today for 18:45 on 16/04, on my way in. Bastards.
  6. Is this any good to anyone? Yours for the cost of postage, or free to collect from Folkestone, Kent.
  7. Another day, another car leaves. Not forever this time. Hopefully.
  8. The less said about this one the better. No collection thread, because the poo count was impossibly time consuming. Fine when I left, then in the words of Mickey Flannigan, the world fell out of my arse. On the train. At the same time as I was Exoricist sick. It's a 407 2.0 HDi. All the toys; leather, electric seats, dual zone climate control, cruise, (non-working) sat-nav, auto folding mirrors, auto dimming rear view mirror, 6-speed, rear sun blinds, etc etc. So far, sounds like exactly the sort of thing that would give me the fear, I should have realised it wasn't for me, but it was for the wife, so I blocked so that out. I discovered today (from the recovery bloke's paperwork) that's it's actually a 407 'Bellagio'. Had I known that before purchase, I may have changed my mind-pretentions beyond my simple needs. Anyway, no real problems with it. 237k, but still faily tight, and it has had the timing belt and clutch done 70k ago. Until the brakes went. Changed the master cylinder and servo for a used £25 part, still leaking. By this time my wife had lost all confidence in it, so it has to go. I've lost all enthusiasm, given that I had very little in the first place what with it being an OMGmodern which everyone knows are impossible to repair at home (obviously not true, but that idea is always nagging in the back of my mind with anything this 'new'). One pic: A more forum-friendly replacement has already been obtained. Details to follow. NB: One note-worthy feature of the car-the external boot release button is hidden; it's the hole in the middle of the '0' in the 407 badge. Pretty cool.
  9. There was a story in the local news within the last week about an overgrown house in Ramsgate; the front garden had a van (Renault Trafic), boat, and 'luxury car' (unspecified) parked in it, but only the back doors of the van could be seen. Its been like that since at least 2009. It reminded me that there is another abandoned Renault Trafic very close by (I've checked, it's about 2 1/2 miles). Which has also been there since at least 2009. The top two pictures are of the house in the news report, the bottom two are down the road from Thanet ambulance station. Are any of your other readers aware of two (or more) same model vehicles abandoned in close proximity?
  10. First proper sunny weekend has brought out a load of bellends. Do these people hibernate in the winter?
  11. I just Googled "spat flaps". The results were all to do with aftermarket mud flaps.
  12. Haven't you ever watched Top Gear? All roads in Murica are straight, so far less tyre wear. You've probably not owned an Alfa either 🙄
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