Lord Sterling's fleet of failure - Air-con, rads and spots.

19,615 · April 3

34 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

OMG WHAT A HEAP

daf oof

wafel - hopefully doing that next week

atonium mmmmmmmm

vectra slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggg

what was the deal with the lancia

fanks mo

34 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

13,090 · April 3

On 03/04/2025 at 20:40, hairnet said:

what was the deal with the lancia

fanks mo

Bleeeeeerrrrrrb Aaargh! 💨

Not DAF, Autobianchi Bianchina.

Lancia was hit up the backside. I'm guessing it's being taken somewhere? I was just passing by and took a quick pic as there was another car behind me.

13,090 · April 19

Today, instead of being lazy at home. I decided to take a trip to Wolverhampton to buy some alloys for the Vectra. Unfortunately, the place was closed. No worries, let's move on to Telford.

For weeks now I've had a spare alloy and a Vauxhall OEM spec "letterbox" back box rolling about my boot. I was bored of hauling these around.

After a few failed attempts at finding some open tyre places, I happened upon a small place I remember using sometime back. I scored 5 correct-sized replacement tyres and had the backbox fitted on all for under £200.

The feels a bit better, though it needs tracking, and the backbox actually sounds quite a but fruitier than the old one. I still have the old backbox as there wasn't anything wrong with it, I just wanted a corrected spec one that looks great.

Next on the list is to get the leaking oil and coolant sorted.

13,090 · April 19

Also, the Jag got some lambswool mats:

Plus I picked up a few bits from the same seller. All in for £40

April 19

On 03/04/2025 at 19:54, Lord Sterling said:

Tony robinson?

13,090 · April 19

Just now, 666jjp said:

Tony robinson?

No. Looks a but like him but certainly not him.

3,487 · April 19

Looks much better with the back-box, glad you managed to source one! When I sold the car 4 years ago it still had the original "letterbox" style. Would be interesting to know where that ended up in the interim!

13,090 · April 19

28 minutes ago, MrGTI6 said:

Looks much better with the back-box, glad you managed to source one! When I sold the car 4 years ago it still had the original "letterbox" style. Would be interesting to know where that ended up in the interim!

It was this and a picture of a very similar one that was on eBay that spurred me on to get it sorted. I'm aware the original exhaust had apparently rotted out but I bet the backbox was still OK but either chucked away anyway or sold on.

I have an Irmscher double 'D' backbox that's also sitting about, but thay will be a back-up in case anything should happen to this one.

I've even got a correct coloured tailgate with tinted glass, rear bumper and lights to tidy up the back end, but that will be done later on in the year.

The most urgent thing it needs next is to stop the oil and coolant from leaking. The coolantnis leaking badly, I noticed a puddle under the front bumper on the drivers side when I parked it up earlier on.

13,659 · April 19

the vectra estate is the most handsome of the models

6,899 · April 19

2 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

It was this and a picture of a very similar one that was on eBay that spurred me on to get it sorted. I'm aware the original exhaust had apparently rotted out but I bet the backbox was still OK but either chucked away anyway or sold on.

I have an Irmscher double 'D' backbox that's also sitting about, but thay will be a back-up in case anything should happen to this one.

I've even got a correct coloured tailgate with tinted glass, rear bumper and lights to tidy up the back end, but that will be done later on in the year.

The most urgent thing it needs next is to stop the oil and coolant from leaking. The coolantnis leaking badly, I noticed a puddle under the front bumper on the drivers side when I parked it up earlier on.

It was collapsed internally and very badly welded.

Replace the header tank cap. Do nothing else until you have done that. Nothing

13,090 · April 19

2 minutes ago, red5 said:

It was collapsed internally and very badly welded.

Replace the header tank cap. Do nothing else until you have done that. Nothing

Thanks, will do. Would you happen to know anywhere I can get one new?

I'll still get it booked in to sort out the oil leakage as it's ongoing (but sort of free oil changes).

6,899 · April 19

Just now, Lord Sterling said:

Thanks, will do. Would you happen to know anywhere I can get one new?

I'll still get it booked in to sort out the oil leakage as it's ongoing (but sort of free oil changes).

New old stock preferably. Get the number off it Mo starting 9....

I (my mate) put rocker gaskets on it. Probably the back one for a leak.

Actually no, probably the upper sump to block gasket.

13,090 · April 27

Browsing on my phone, I spotted some photos of cars I'd taken pics of and I don't appear to have posted them here, or at least in this thread. So here we go:

I can't disclose the location of where the Passat and Rovers are due to being asked not to. I am in touch with the owner and there is a chance I may approach him about the red Mk1 Sterling.

When I last dropped the Jag off for the scraping noise issue to be resolved, I was waiting for a Taxi (as everytime I walked from garage to the local town, I used to fall ill) I heard this BMW being driven quite enthusiastically up and down the industrial estate. It sounded glorious but that was until I found it was a diesel. Still, these seem to still be cheap enough, even for a petrol version.

Also whilst awaiting for Taxi, a random Rover 800 Vitesse just happens to pass, within a few feet of a Rover 800 enthusiast. Do I attract these cars or something?

Belongs to a local (non-Scottish) Volvo licker.

WANT :shock: - a mate of mine had an identical one. Why didn't I have one when they were cheap?

"Ah oui, euuuhhhh, du vin, du pain, un Citroën ceeeh-quinze (C15), plus vite q'un Aston Martin sur le routes Francais, non?" 😅

A pair of 70s Vauxhalls, comes free with a 'zapata' moustache, thick sideboards, flares and a bad haircut.

You sure you got enough Jags there?

I miss mine 😢

I believe the chap who owns this, used to, for many years, have an early white Laguna estate. He did driveway repairs and had various bits of decaying tat on his driveway. He literally lived at the end of Mum_Sterling's road.

I vaguely remember posting this. Have the same photo again.

Something a bit odd about this Focus. Its silver and the plate clearly has "NC51 KRO" on it. It's not on DVLA record, yet NC51 KRD comes back to a Blue Focus that hasn't seen tax or MoT since 2020. I wonder what the story is with this one? Its parked there for a while given the moss around it.

Here used to be (and often still is) an '08' reg Focus. This Vectra estate appeared, then disappeared for a while only to appear here. It is apparently a 2.0 LS DTi, another pic I have shows it wearing SRi alloys like on mine. I'd love to see it out and about. Good to see another Y-reg Vectra estate around and about.

Speaking of Vectras:

This again within about couple of miles of the above estate. This one is the desirable* GSi and usually in the company of a modern Audi, BMW and some 4x4 thingy or van. The owner did once end up following me for along one road, I gave him the thumbs up and his female passenger seemed quite surprised to see another of these Vectra things about.

Yep, seems like my car is in good company then.

Love me a W140 S-class. Must get myself one at some point.

Again, one of my fave/dream cars. I have driven a couple of them. The 520i I drove many years ago was really lovely.

Locally registered Mondeo 4x4.

Fiat 131 spotted in Walsall. Surely this is one of us?

Spotted before I bought my current Jag.

Spurred on by seeing this on a video of some geezer who goes around spotting cars, I decided to come and take a look myself. I think it's disappeared since but this Escort did live literally around the corner from me. Again, locally registered.

This Jag is apparently for sale and is literally again, around the corner from where I live. It's been here maybe 3 to 4 years. I do remember when this overgrown area was used for parking and a Mondeo estate used to park where the Jag is now.

Spotted this by the tyre/exhaust place I used to have the tyres and exhaust done on the Vectra.

2,930 · April 27

Out of all the cars you posted there I would like to get…

8 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

This Jag is apparently for sale and is literally again, around the corner from where I live. It's been here maybe 3 to 4 years. I do remember when this overgrown area was used for parking and a Mondeo estate used to park where the Jag is now.

A Jag parked in an overgrown grass / hedge. I saw a photo and thought”this is really nice, it’s shame it’s sitting like that and needs saving.” Even worse, I’d spend money much better spent elsewhere doing it.

There’s something seriously wrong with my head. 🤦‍♂️

13,090 · April 27

31 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Out of all the cars you posted there I would like to get…

A Jag parked in an overgrown grass / hedge. I saw a photo and thought”this is really nice, it’s shame it’s sitting like that and needs saving.” Even worse, I’d spend money much better spent elsewhere doing it.

There’s something seriously wrong with my head. 🤦‍♂️

Nope, nothing wrong there. You're absolutely right, it does need saving. I don't think the underside is all that bad as it has really only been there about 3 or 4 years at the most. It may well have been in the garages you see in the background until the building was condemned and cleared out. It's still there, crumbling away (the building that is, not the Jag, although that still there and probably beginning to crumble too)

6,556 · April 27

I seem to recall the v6 having some heat exchanger thing the valley of the v that is prone to leaking?

Not sure though. It's been a while.

13,090 · Thursday at 16:38

Its been an expensive month. But finally! (?) It is summer and I now have actual working air-conditioning. I mean, it's taken me a good 20 years of my life to get to a point where I can afford to chuck a few hundred quid to get a new condenser.

I know this sounds repetitive; but I've literally had 2 cars in my life where the air-con has worked out the box. That was the BMW and the Zafira. Every other car has never, ever been a simple case of topping up the gas. It's always been holed condensers (how?), unobtainium pipes that cost ££££s! Incompetent mechanics, or in the case of the Peugeot, plastic directional flaps which require dash removal to do a proper job.

The Vectra still requires air-con work. Those is likely to be after summer now.

It has, however had a new radiator:

And with that, the front bumper has been fitted back on properly.

13,090 · Thursday at 16:52

Some spots:

Same parking area, different days so probably the same owner:

I've been trying to get this Metro for ages, I finally found the time to do it:

This is near where @Sloth in a bowlspotted all of those old BMWs near where he lives in Birmingham, I wasn't driving but my mate did a good job of slowing down for me to get some photos: