Dead_E23

My eponymous BMW's 35 year old ZF4HP22 gearbox has the same wonderful feature - you must not rev in engine in Park or neutral else the front clutch pack wears out. The E23 was years ahead of its time.

That publicity shot was taken 5 minutes walk from the importer's offices. The green cupolas behind now mark a Wetherspoon's - hurrah! (When the picture was taken they marked a derelict building that was home to 1000000 pigeons)

I'd most likely buy another biggish Halfords kit if I lost mine, because they include useful stuff apart from sockets - like a selection of torx and female torx (E - type) sockets, which are handy on newer cars. Also, ratchet spanners, and 1/4 inch drive stuff that I'd probably not have bought otherwise.

I have a cunning trick, which is to read it before I open the lid.

The importers were based in Tunbridge Wells, and also brought Mazda, FSO and Seat into the country. I am surprised it is not a place of pilgrimage, especially as the water from the Chalybeate spring in the nearby Pantiles is a cure for rust.

I wrote 'other way up'; the absence of the Halfords logo wasn't sufficient to stop me scattering sockets all over the drive.

My set (which I think is the 150 piece, but quite old) has 6 sided impact sockets for the half inch 17 and 19mm, and all the deep sockets are 6 sided too. I think those are the ones I use most often (to the extent the black coating is wearing off the impact sockets), which is possibly why it had never struck me that the 12 sided sockets were a problem. I haven't had any problems with the blow moulded case either, unless you count opening it upside down so all the sockets fall out.

My Mum used to find my V70 very easy to get in and out of due to the wide opening doors and the soft seats made journeys easier on her arthritis. Also, the huge boot was superb for stuff like zimmer frames and all the other accoutrements of old age. I hope phase 2 V70s are still cheap as chips when I am in my dotage.

Where's that Horatio off CSI when you need him? "Enhancio!"

Renault Caravelle

I suspect Kiltox is correct; the apparent ubiqity of 0.7 probably just reflects the crappy places my weekly routine takes me to. I knew there would be some deep meaning to it!

I reckon if there were valvetrain issues like njgleeds describes you would be able to hear the camshaft lobes beating a tattoo on the lifters, and were you to listen along the length of the valve cover using a long screwdriver as a stethoscope you would be able to identify which cylinder had the problem. Before getting into extensive dismantling, I would whip the glowplugs out to see if any of them look different to the others. Mine had a brownish deposit on them like the nose of a spark plug would. I reckon a cylinder that really wasn't running right might have a wet or sooty looking glowplug. If you were to buy one of the really slender USB borescopes off Ebay (like wot I did), you could inspect the tops of your pistons whilst the glowplugs were out by slipping it down the hole (I think I put mine in the injector holes, so you might need to measure first). As far as I could see, my pistons appeared to have melted to the extent that they'd lost the nice clearly defined cavity in the crown and I suspect the was the result of excessive DPF regeneration.

I've just noticed that petrol prices often end with .7 - until a week or so ago, I was paying 116.7, then whilst I was in the middle of filling up i was annoyed to notice that the Sainsbury's pump was priced at 122.7, and subsequently noticed Asda were charging 120.7. Anyone know if there's any significance to the .7 and why all the garages seem to do it? Is it just psychological like prices ending in 99p, in that it doesn't look much more than .5, but seems much less than .9, or is there more to it (e.g there being some obscure tax thing that makes it worthwhile)?

I spent ages and ££ fiddling with the handbrake on mine, replacing most of the mechanism from front to back, but the problem seems to be that Volvo deleted the adjuster to replace it with a metal strut (shaped like a stretched H). Replace it with one of these adjusters from an XC70 and you will soon have a working handbrake. (I used the one for an 850, but I reckon they're all the same judging from the ebay listings).

Another thoughtful feature of these that I miss is the springy plastic parking ticket holder in the driver's corner of the windscreen that prevents pay and display tickets blowing into the passenger footwell as you close the door, like they always fucking do.

Doubt that - when you most need it, chances are it'll be because you've come to a very abrupt stop on a public road.

Only 1dB(A) difference between those two at Costco - and a small matter of £425. I have an ancient 'Elektrum-Becker' belt driven compressor with a tank of about 50 litres and in any kind of a confined space it is intolerably loud. However, put it out in the open air and the sound is much less objectionable. If I was intending to use it a lot, I would build it a little outdoor enclosure out of sterling board, which is cheap, and heavy so should attenuate the racket a lot. With a bit of shed felt to keep the rain out it should be quite durable too. I'm not using the compressor enough at the moment to bother building anything because I suspect that the tank is corroded inside; when I can be bothered I'll unscrew the big bung in the end and have a look what's going on in there.

Try listening to that injector by using a bit of pipe as a stethoscope. Doesn't look too bad to me though. When you've got the undertray off, it might be worth examining the turbo pipe that comes under the engine for leaks, such as might result from being clouted on a speed bump or similar. I took the pipe off mine to see if it was full of oil when I was attempting to find why it was using it; I remember it was an annoyingly fiddly job, but dropping the exhaust looked much harder and the inlet side was so clean I convinced myself I didn't need to. I also had a look at the turbo oil feed pipe to make sure it wasn't blocked and getting that to seal again was a right ordeal. ETA: EGR might be a good call - not difficult to remove either!

I think the one I was looking at must have been this one for £274. 14CFM and 130psi sounds alright to me!

Are you a member of Costco? They sometimes have quite big (150 litre) compressors for sale and I remember thinking they weren't overly expensive.

It'll be interesting to hear whether deleting the codes has returned it to full power (it used to on mine) and which of them reappear after a drive. Did you discover the screen that shows how many times it has seen each code and when? VIDA even contains the workshop manuals; it's rather an impressive bit of software.

Any maroon coloured car was difficult to sell in the bit of Kent where I grew up, because the council bin lorries used to be that colour. My car trading chum used to call it 'dustcart red' and hard to sell cars were know as 'landmarks', especially those on other traders lots.

Leave it to soak in diesel for a few days and then try it.

Typically, that video was posted whilst I was out digging around in my shed for mine! I found a newer one that I don't even remember buying. Push and twist is how it works too, but you shouldn't need a vice. It's not a tool I use very frequently, tbh. I think I bought it so it was there if I ever needed to unscrew the door hinges on my Land Rover, but I can't imagine using it for many other things.

I have one like that somewhere - not seen it for ages. I have a dim recollection that you have to pull the black bit out and twist it or something, then a different set of grooves engages with the peg that turns them.