Porsche 924 white

[inconsistant]

Turbo pickers? There was a 924 one recently I think, set at Brands Hatch.

 

The bloke with the white Martini pictured last month yesterday went along and pretented to buy it for a track day car, because like all these do up & flog progs, its not a documentary.

[gm]

Great to see so much love for the 924, there's a row of five of these in my local breakers (a very sad sight), give me a shout if there's anything you need tracking down parts wise.

 

Here's another old family photo of my uncles 924 turbo - the chap is a lifelong porsche fan who currently has some kind of super fancy 997 but (interesting fact) has had the same number plate on every car he has ever owned - the plate itself doesn't mean anything but it's a nice part of the ownership ritual for him swapping it over.

 

 

I wonder if it's still on the road ? A turbo 924 with the Pascha interior must be some sort of holy grail in the porsche world ? It went like shit off a shovel, I remember that much anyway !

 

When I had my 944, the parts guy down at the OPC was thrilled when I used to go in to pick up bits and pieces, he would spend ages making sure I ordered the right bits and gave me owners club discount

[MrDuke]

Wasn't there some kind of mental 'homologation special' 924 as well? I doubt they ever officially sold them in the UK though.

[inconsistant]

A turbo 924 with the Pascha interior must be some sort of holy grail in the porsche world ? 

 

Funnely nuff a lot of 924 turbos have the Pascha interior, and a lot of them seem to be black/white. Having a normal n/a 924 with Pascha is much more unusual, and having Pascha seats AND doors even more so. 

 

The scrappies sounds interesting. Where abouts are you?

[inconsistant]

Wasn't there some kind of mental 'homologation special' 924 as well? I doubt they ever officially sold them in the UK though.

 

There was the 924 Carrera GT and the GTS which had the big arches and then the GTR, built as holomonogamanamy special so they could race them at Lemans. The GTR had 375 horsepower, which you have to admit is pretty good for a van engine.

 

 

^^ Carerra GT  vv Carrera GTS

 

[Tayne]

Won its class at Le Mans two years in a row.

[gm]

The scrappies sounds interesting. Where abouts are you?

Here you go :

 

SCB (sports* car breakers)

Newbridge

Edinburgh

 

They are all pretty knackered to be honest, I'm sure some bits are saveable but the scottish weather hasn't been kind.

[Pillock]

Awww bugger, I think I drove past the 924 meet at Donington that you were at, I was in a bit of a hurry to get home and couldn't justify stopping.

Not that I'd have recognised you, or the car. But still, it looked really nice and I just drove past.

[inconsistant]

It's happening at the Cov Transport Museum this year. Might pop up there, it's apparently a good museum.

If you're in the area come along, you'll recognise me from my avatar pic... I'm the bloke with the meaty clowns face.

[Pillock]

Yeah, Coventry Transport Museum is a cracking day and quite autoshitey - exhibits include various Peugeot and Talbot models, some pub-landlord Jags as well as the nicer ones in the Jag sponsored area, there'a a ThurstSSC bit and whatnot. I mustard mitt I kind of skipped over the vintage stuff with shiny brass horns and intricate leatherwork and hung my nose over a red Acclaim for ages. Oh, and it's also my favourite entry cost of zero pounds and no pence.

 

I might pop down, because of all the Porsches the 924 wins the award for "most likely to find way into garage" for cost, and underdog reasons. Nearest I got was owning a couple of seats - neither Pascha but one had an interesting wooly-blanket retrim - which I lost in a messy divorce. If I make it I shall try not to eat your face.

[stuboy]

Turbo pickers? There was a 924 one recently I think, set at Brands Hatch.

 

The bloke with the white Martini pictured last month yesterday went along and pretented to buy it for a track day car, because like all these do up & flog progs, its not a documentary.

oh wonder who bought it..

[inconsistant]

June 2014

 

 

First up this month I have a shocking bodge to share. Remember that battery tray hole from a couple of months ago at the weekend? Well I decided I'd do something about it, but not a proper welded patch over it primed and sprayed to look good and protect it so that it lasts for ages, oh no that can wait until next year this year. This is all about keeping the water out, starting now.

I'll let the pictures tell the story:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

----------------------------

 

The rear glass hatch has been sticky all winter and the right side always needed a bit of persuading to open. I've not bothered with using the remote boot release (this is a 924 lux, and it was part of the lux package, along with such niceties and headlamp washers) as it never really opened it, even though it operates fine. What I mean is that the motor runs OK and all of the remote mechanism works find, it's just the pins & latches that are stopping it opening.

I recently (about the middle of last week earlier in the year put a new hatch seal on and that made the hatch pop up when I drove. I got around this for a while, including the trip to the 924 Donington meet yesterday last month, by putting the old boot seal back on. So I ordered new pins to replace the old worn hatch pins, thinking that this, along with taking the latches off and giving them a jolly good clean and lube, would sort the hatch pop and I could put the new seal back on. But did it work PLACE BETS NOW!!!!!

 

Old hatch pins:

 

 

New hatch pins:

 

 

Right latch:

 

 

Rubber seal out:

 

 

Latch out:

 

 

Securing plate out:

 

 

Left latch, very rusty securing plate:

 

 

Can you spot the overspray?:

 

 

To give you an idea of the problem, during a 4 mile trip it popped up about 8 times. I put the old seal back on for the return journey but it still popped, although only a couple of times. I was determined to sort it, and so was my Brother in Law, who the previous day had driven his family the 650 odd miles from Alness to Surrey in a Mk1 Yaris with 160,000 miles on the clock, so he felt pretty invincible... but tired. Here's a summary of what we did:

* New hatch pins
* New boot seal
* Dismantled/removed catches that pins go into, cleared out crap, cleaned with petrol/toothbrush and wiped down with rag.
* Lubricated latch 'claws' with vaseline
* Cleaned out drainage holes
* With him closing the boot outside, refitted and aligned the catches from inside the boot so they go straight into the catch holes rather than dragging on the side of the holes above the 'claws'
* Removed the 'hatch pin fixing block' from the hatch and cleaned up, replaced
* Adjusted the depth of each pin using the locking nut, so the 'claws' hold the hatch against the body without excess play.

 

After all of this, the hatch opened cleanly and evenly on turning the key, and closed positively. The remote release worked too on the first press.

 

Aligning pins with latches from inside the boot with a helpful Highlanders hand pushing the hatch down:

 

 

Latches after cleaning and lubricating:

 

 

The hatch popped within about 50 feet of the house. We had spent the best part of a day on it and made it worse. Yay.

We had a bright idea that it might be the remote boot release triggering by itself, so we took out the fuse (no9 from the aux fuse box) and crossed our fingers, but it still popped before the end of the road.

I was so confident that the hatch was previously popping up because the right side was mis-aligned and the pin was dragging on the catch hole and not being gripped by the claws, but it's all cleaned and adjusted and still does it. Verdict: New latches ordered, £26ea+vat

 

----------------------------

 

Trolley jack & axle stands... Machine Mart had a vat free weekend around about this time so I got these:

 

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/cax-3tbc-3-ton-axle-stands?da=1&TC=SRC-axle%2520stands

 

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/clarke-ctj2250lp-2-25-tonne-low-profile-trolle?da=1&TC=RV-020113070

 

So far they've been fine. Would recommend.

 

----------------------------

 

Inside the spare wheel well at the back of the boot there's usually a build ID sheet for the car that, if you can decipher the codes, tells you all about the car. 

 

 

So far I've found out that L90E is Alpine White, and I have the following options fitted:

 

AY6  ???
BI7  ???
C40  ???
526  Cloth door panels
533  Alarm system
567  Windshield green graduated tint
651  Electric windows
666  Without lacquer preservation and chrome preservation

 

Shrug.

 

 

 

I must try to make these updates more brief, I haven't had an early night for the last week because they're taking so long to do. Good fun though going back over the last year and a half of ownership, a lot more has happened than I thought.

Should be up to date by the end of next week. See you next month tomorrow...

[inconsistant]

July 2014

Not much to report this month. My new Heckklappenschloss arrived.

 

 

 

Next to an old one:

 

 

Fitted nice and easy because I'd worked out all of the alignment issues while re-fitting the old ones. Went out for a drive and…

the hatch stayed down, and hasn't popped up since. Hurrah!

 

 

 

It worked out to be quite a pricey thing to sort because I had to buy new pins and latches and securing plates, but definitely worth it. A boot that doesn't rattle, that opens when you want it to and not when you don't, and that doesn't leak fumes into the passenger compartment… it's made a massive difference to how enjoyable the car is to use.
We can now use this car for fun family trips out, so it's become a genuine useable 2nd car rather than just something for me to go out in alone.

 

That's all for this month. See you next month tomorrow!

[inconsistant]

August  2014

Yes, already! The summer months are flying by...

This month I had a go at sorting out the headlights that pop up, but don’t fully pop down. They’re becoming quite lethargic and it spoils the ‘cool middle aged gent turning up in low slung sports car’ image a bit if after parking and turning off the lights I have to get out and push the headlights down by hand.

 

When they get stuck on the way down the motor is still whirring (you can just hear it in the vid) so I assumed it’s something physical stopping them retracting fully. I cleaned and lubricated the joints and bearings along the mechanism but that didn't make much difference. I also checked the motor and relay connections to make sure they were getting enough power and all seemed to be OK.

I then noticed that the motor moved quite a bit on it's mounting bracket as the headlights went through the up/down cycle, so I loosened off the bracket and moved it a few times until the movement was minimised and then re tightened.

And guess what?:

 

 

A very satisfying job done.

 

--------------------------------

 

I was up in the loft and came across (in the biblical sense) my old What Car? mags from the 80s. I found the Porsche price list that covered March 1985 and here it is presented for your perusal:

 

 

 

That's all, see you next month tomorrow.

[garethj]

I think the performance data is a bit off, the road test is from 1977 when the cars were 4 speed.

 

Good work on the headlights!

[inconsistant]

September 2014

 

The reg plates have been annoying me for some time. I realise there are other more pressing issues with the car that probably ought to be dealt with, but sometimes it's nice to do something simple and straightforward for a quick win. Two things bothered me about the plates: they had been drilled slightly wrong, so they bowed outwards rather than sitting flat with the bodywork, and I don't like the bit along the bottom that said 'Dans Motorcycles' because I don't know Dan or his Motorcycles, and I don't want them on my car. I also didn't like how the front plates had been fixed too high into the bumper recess. OK, three things.

 

 

 

I got some sortofserck font ones made up and took a bit of time positioning them. Because it's important.

I'm not 100% sure about them, but they do look sharp and little things like this all add up to make the car look a bit less shabby. I definitely prefer them to the old ones though and I like not being a rolling advert for Dan's Motorcycles. 

 

 

 

I also fitted 924 Owners Club and Ace Cafe stickers I'd had in the glove box since the spring. Again, quick win!

 

 

 

---------------------

 

Earlier in the year I'd been taking to Karl about his 924 racing and he'd suggested to come along and watch him. He said he would be racing at Brands Hatch in September and as I hadn't been to Brands for years I said I'd go along. The Mrs even expressed interest, so we made a family day out of it. I grew up near Brands Hatch and my best mate & I used to cycle over there as teenagers in the 80s to see loads of rallycross, truck racing, touring cars and the F1 Grand Prix when it used to be held there. We used to know where the holes in the fence were and locked up our bikes and snuck in through the woods to the circuit.

 

Anyway, closer to the day it became apparent that Karl's racing was going to be part of a 'Porsche Festival' organised by Porsche GB Owners Club, or whatever they call themselves. If you turned up in a Porsche you got in for free, which is my favourite ticket price. I suspect someone somewhere missed a ' *but not 924s' off of the booking form, but it was too late as half a dozen of us had booked and decided to turn up in convoy.

 

Even at 8am the place was crawling with expensive looking 911s and Boxsters and it felt a bit like going to a big family get together and being the poor relative everyone ignores because they aren't like the rest of the family, you know, the one who flunked college, got in with the wrong crowd and generally spent their live underachieving. As we drove in I was quite surprised that they didn't send us over to the back field to park in the muddy bit, in fact the organisers did the complete opposite and they directed us to the bit of grass right next to the start finish line. Honestly, out of the whole of Brands you couldn't ask for a better spot. 

 

 

 

 

We was well prominent, like.

 

 

Classy 924 line up until some nob parked one of those bloody Carrera GTs next to us. Tut.

 

 

The really surprising thing, which made the day quite enjoyable indeed, was just how much genuine interest there was in the 924. I heard only positive comments about them all day, even from proper important Porsche people from the GB Porsche Club. I think something might be slowly changing with the 924, there seems to be a bit of love for them that's perhaps been missing. Even in the year I've had mine I've noticed that there are fewer MOTed examples for sale at under a grand. I don't think enough of the bad ones have been scrapped to reduce supply below demand for them, but there are definitely more people that want to get one to look after rather than run into the ground or do up for a track day weapon mate. Early ones that haven't been buggered about with are definitely creating much interest. Mine is a late one. It's March 1985 (30 years old in 10 days) so they only sold them for about another 6 months until the 924 was replaced with the 924S that had the proper Porsche 2.5 engine. You'd struggle to find a n/a 924 with MOT for £500 now, and only a few years ago that was about the going rate for a decent runner.

 

 

I had a walk around the Porsche parking and I'm sure you can imagine it was almost entirely expensive looking 911/Boxsters to the point of extreme boredom.

 

 

There was the very occasional bit of interest in the shape of a 914 or 928 but it was quite literally one or two out of hundreds and hundreds. I took some photos of the most chodly ones, which I put in my Chod Bothering thread here:

 

 

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/14237-chod-bothering-now-with-added-brooklands-new-years-day-bothering/?p=634001

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/14237-chod-bothering-now-with-added-brooklands-new-years-day-bothering/?p=672373

 

Here's some highlights:

 

 

 

 

Anyway, it was a great day, the racing was brilliant, and it's always better when you've got someone to cheer on.

 

 

They rolled out a load of historic Porsches for a hoon around the circuit at lunchtime, including a 356, 550, 904, and new 918 thingy and some Lemans ones from the 80s. It was pretty impressive, and although I'm not really into motorsport or supercars and find the whole worship of speed, power and expensive cars thing a bit tedious, the noises some of them made on the way past did make me a bit tingly.

 

Wandering around the Paddock and being able to see the cars, preparation and repair was nice too, as it made the racing feel accessible and immediate, which I like a lot.

 

 

 

A nice* end to the day was when two Boxsters rammed each other at speed coming around Paddock bend and came sliding down the hill towards us and into the gravel trap, which got my son and nephew more excited than anything else that day, and it was a day full of excitement. In car vid from off youtube:

 

 

Damage:

 

 

 

 

I conclude that Boxsters look better as hardtops than convertibles. We had to leave before the end of the day and missed the chance to do a lap of the circuit. Oh well, maybe next year if we get invited back.

 

That's all, see you next month tomorrow!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 

 

Here's some highlights:

 

IMG_0387.JPG

 

 

 

 

Oooof!  1974 G Series 2.7 911S in Golf yellow - Uber rare. 175 bhp on K-Jet.  Stunning.

[inconsistant]

October 2014

 

Not much happened this month. I got hold of a replacement windscreen trim and some clips and fitted it. The trim is NLA but the clips are available. They're £4 each and I need 5 just for the side trim. So I got hold of some decent used ones.

 

Removed the remains of the old clips:

 

 

 

 

Popped the replacement clips on:

 

 

Pushed the trim and replacement rubber seal into place:

 

 

--------------------------------------

 

I also got hold of a What Car? from December 1978 when they did their first group test of the Porsche 924.

Here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for November, see you next month.

[inconsistant]

November 2014

 

Moving swiftly on a month... I went up to Birmingham to visit the NEC Classic Car Show. What I like about my 924 is that I haven't used it for 3 weeks and on the Friday evening I checked the oil, water and tyres, filled up with petrol and drove 150 miles to Birmingham and it didn't miss a beat.

Having said that, just as I pulled away I found out the sunroof had been up to its old trick of letting water through the seal, which I found out about by having 3 weeks of rainwater poured down my neck soaking my back and shirt. Fortunately the excellent heater made sure I had just about dried out by the time I got to Brum.

I helped out on the 924 Owners Club stand, which meant I got into the show with an exhibitors pass, and although I spent a fair bit of the day on the stand I did get to have a good look around and take some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best bit about an exhibitors pass is that you don't get chucked out with the public at closing time, so I managed to have a look around and get plenty of photos without Joe Public walking in front of the camera. However, the lighting is so horrible in the NEC that all my photos came out a bit blurred with an odd orangey hue, no matter what setting I had it on.

 

I thought I'd put pix of the show on my Chod Bothering thread, but it looks like I didn't.

 

I bumped into Autoshitist and flogger of the finest scaleshite, Mr Lobster. Unfortunately this was just as we were being chucked out, but from our brief chat he seems like a thoroughly decent chap, and far less lobster like than I had been lead to believe.

The drive home on Sunday was uneventful, other than a litre of water disappearing from the coolant bottle by the time I got home. It must be going somewhere, I wonder where? Also 35mpg, which is nice.

[scruff]

I properly love these, great thread!! 

[inconsistant]

December 2014

 

It's pouring with rain outside so I can't do any of my outdoor chores, and Mrs Inconsistant is ill in bed upstairs so I can do any of my noisy drilly indoor jobs either, so I'm going to crack on with bringing this thread up to date while I watch a cheeky bit of 'pussy on the tellybox. Roger Moore is easily the best Bond and Octopussy is one of my faves.

 

After the sunroof emptied itself down my neck a couple of weeks ago memories of last winter's sunroof grief came flooding back.  From advice on here I put lots of talc around the seal in the spring and it kept the rain out over the summer and autumn, but something more weatherproof was needed for the winter rain so I decided to gaffer tape over the gap all the way around. This worked a treat and has also meant less condensation in the car over the winter too.

 

 

-------------------------

 

Over the last year I've had an intermittently screeching heater fan, but until recently it was possible to stop it making noise by turning it on to high speed for a bit then back off, but recently it's been almost constant, because the fan runs in the background all the time even when not turned on. This has made driving a lot less fun.

Someone on the 924 Owners Club forum posted asking if anyone had a replacement fan motor because his was screeching, which made me think this was what I needed to do to sort mine. Advice was to lubricate the fan motor bearings with oil as they dry out over time. I did this and it immediately stopped the screeching, and hasn't done since.

On early 924s access to the fan motor is from inside the cabin by removing the dashboard. Later ones access the fan motor by unclipping a plastic cover (the black bit in the middle by the wipers) via the engine bay. Two screws and a wiggle.

This made me very happy to have a later model.

 

 

-------------------------

 

I've got a steering vibration that starts at 70mph (obviously I don't know at what speed it stops, but let's guess about 85mph) so I went to my local (trusted) tyre place because I though the front wheels might need balancing. Tyre bloke jacked the front up and showed me that both sides have play and said I needed to replace 'both track rod ends and bottom ball joints'.
I did a bit of looking into it to find out what these track rod end things were and what they did and thought this was something I could do myself.

 

 

It turns out that there are two different types of track rod ends for 924s, depending on whether it's an early or a late model 924. Here are the two types. Can you tell which ones I need?

 

 

Yep, the ones that are more than twice the price of the others, that's the ones I need. Someone told me that a place called 'Mister Auto' were doing the ones I need for £18 each, so I ordered a pair a week before Christmas in the hope of doing the job while I was off work at the start of Jan. I added a rad cap for £5 to make my order eligible for free delivery. The rad cap was delivered the next day. It had no rubber seal on the underside and has proved to be useless in use. I waited for the TREs to come, and then after about 10 days I got this email:

 

 

...which meant I was back to square one and wouldn't be able to replace them during my time off. I asked what the problem was and they said that when I ordered them the website hadn't been updated yet that week so it was showing that they had stock when they didn't. I went back onto their website and they were still showing stock. Idiots. So I went to my trusted supplier Frazerpart, paid about £30 each including delivery, and they arrived within about a week, as Max had promised. I shan't be using Mister Auto again. Ever. Idiots.

 

-----------------------------

 

In other mechanical news the coolant loss is slowly getting worse, and there's rusty water pissing out from somewhere because there's rusty water marks all over the front of the engine and the drivers wheel arch area.

 

 

 

 

That's going to need looking into pretty sharpish. I'll be OK for the New Years Day Brooklands Gathering though I reckon because that's only about 20-30 miles away, and it's losing about a litre per 50 miles.

 

That's all for December, and for 2014. It's been quite a fun year overall. Only a couple more months and we're up to date.

 

See you in January 2015 tomorrow...

[inconsistant]

January 2015

Happy New Year!
No hangover because of a sober New Years Eve due to recovering from some sort of cold/flu/bug type illness so up early and away in the 924 heading to the Brooklands New Years Day Gathering. Bit shivery and flu like but excellent heater helping to make me feel warm and toasty. Met up with a few other 924ists and we headed in together. Last years event was really, really wet but still had a lot of cars turn up. This year was outstandingly good. One of the marshals reckoned they had counted about 1100 classics into the grounds, and I’m not surprised because there were cars absolutely everywhere. I’ve posted a selection of my many photos on my Chod Bothering thread here:

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/14237-chod-bothering-now-with-added-brooklands-new-years-day-bothering/?p=684439

What made it a really good day is the variety and juxtaposition of cars. My favourite was the Ferrari f40 parked opposite a really nicely looked after beige Lada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were a number of pre-booked one make car clubs parked in rows on what was originally the start finish straight which leads up to the banking, and compared to the rest of the cars this was the least interesting bit. It feels to me that when several similar cars are parked together it diminishes rather than reinforced the interestingness of the car. We parked our 924s in a line and I’m not sure this shows them in their best light. There’s definitely something to be said for a haphazard and random arrangement of interesting cars. My thoughts on this need more investigation.

I bumped into Meshking and his family, and he seems like a thoroughly nice bloke for an Autoshitist.

In the queue to get in to Brooklands the 924 started overheating. It’s never done this before, the temp gauge shows a well behaved cooling system. I turned off the engine when stationary to try to keep the temperature from rising, but on the 3rd or 4th time it wouldn't start, so I got out to have a look under the bonnet and saw it had also spilt coolant on the road. With a bit of help (breaking down in the company of owners club members has got to be the best place to break down!) and some pushing with a well positioned downhill gradient it started, and I just about managed to park up ok.
I had the new coolant cap on from Mister-Auto Idiots, so I replaced it with the old one that worked OK and topped up the coolant before I left. I was a bit unsure but it started ok and I headed off nice and calmly keeping a beady eye on the temperature gauge for early signs of trouble before I got onto the M25. All seemed OK for the first few miles, and then as I pulled up at a red light on a busy dual carriageway crossroads junction it cut out and wouldn't start again. Fortunately the gradient fairy was on my side so I pushed it across two lanes and bumped it half onto the pavement and phoned the breakdown people to sort out assistance and/or recovery.
One of the questions the operator asked was if I was in a position of danger. I was sort of half on the carriageway on a fairly busy junction across a short bit of dual carriageway, and thinking that answering yes might get me some sort of priority attention I described my position accurately and was surprised when the operator said that I should call The Police on 999 and ask them to send someone to tow me to a place of safety, and I should then call them back with my new location and I they would send someone out to assistance and/or recovery me.



I called The Police and they said they would send someone, but because it was New Year's Day they were busy clearing up the fallout from the previous night, but they would send someone asap, and someone would be with me definitely in less than an hour. I waited in the cold as I watched the afternoon slowly get darker while any remaining heat in the car, then the radio, and finally the hazards slowly faded to nothing. I called The Police back and told them I'd been waiting an hour for them, and the nice Policeman told me that they didn't have anyone to send out and that I should call back the Breakdown Company and let them know this. Thanks for that The Police. While I was waiting for you in a dangerous location I could have been waiting less time for assistance and/or recovery in a dangerous location. So I called Breakdown Company back to tell them what The Police had told me, and the Breakdown Company said they'd send someone asap, which would be an hour. Lovely stuff.
It was now dark, and I had no hazards or other lights at all, so I decided that even while recovering from being ill, being outside in the cold was preferable to being in the car. I went for a little walk around because I was getting cold and bored, and I had an hour to kill. Although I broke down about half a mile from the A3 I was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so I was surprised to find the Cobham Hilton Hotel just up the road along a lengthy driveway through woodlands. As I strolled up it through the well kept grounds I reckoned I was probably the only person ever to walk up the drive and arrived at the Hotel on foot. My plan was to find some sumpatheric kitchen/bar staff and tell them my sob story and try to get a sympathy cuppa out of them. But it was much easier than that to get a culpa here, because like just about everywhere nowadays there was a Costa Coffee in the hotel lobby, so I bought a take away tea to take back to the car. I was shocked when the Costa tea pourer told me it was £2.40p. For a take away tea ffs? I was even more surprised when she chased after me as I left the hotel because I’d misheard her and not given her enough money, and that it was actually £3.40. I hoped it was the most awesome cuppa for that money. It wasn’t, obviously. I strolled back to the car thinking that, with my luck, I’d probably end up dropping the tea before it cooled down enough for me to drink it. I didn’t, fortunately.

When the recovery bloke arrived he put a charge pack on the battery and got the car to start pretty much immediately, which made me feel a bit stupid. I had to convince him that the battery was fine, but I don’t think he believed me until he got me to put lights & heater on and saw the volts plummet. My alternator was officially buggered, which meant that I would get recovered home in his lovely warm cab, which was good news having broken down 2 and a half hours ago.








So my mechanical job for January was to remove the alternator, get it refurbished and refit it. This job took a cup of tea, a bourbon biscuit and all of January to complete.







I finally got to use my Axle stands:



And I found a brilliant back street alternator refurbishment specialist, who was also doing up a Packard and a Mustang:





He showed me around his other lock ups, where he had, in various stated of disassembly, a Triumph Vitesse, a late 60s Mini Cooper S, a Mk2 Jag, MGB, Beetle, and his pride and joy, a lovely, roadworthy but very dusty Daimler Dart SP250. Didn't feel comfortable taking pix so you'll have to use your imagination.

---------------------------------------

The recovery bloke, while it was running, had a look over it. He told me that he suspected early signs of head gasket failure, based on taking the rocker cover off and seeing mayo, but also what I'd described about what happened earlier. He noted that on his paperwork along with failed alternator, as the reason for breakdown.

I reckon there can't be a collection of people on the planet who have more experience and expertise on OMFGHGF than the Autoshite membership, so I'm interested to know what you chaps think.

Here's details of the circumstances that he thinks might be HGF:
Gradual coolant loss over the last few hundred miles (but could be split hose/rad)
Temp gauge showed too hot just before dumping coolant on road
Temp OK once car restarted later that afternoon, until alternator failure.

With alternator repaired and back on the car and warmed up:
coolant looks like milky coffee,


dipstick looks like milky coffee, and up quite high, ie half way up the dipstick,


exhaust running clear, ie no steam at all coming from exhaust,


Haven’t done a smell check on coolant,
coolant same colour as normal, ie rusty brown water.

So what do you reckon? The mechanic is coming round this monday (actual real time, not catching up time) to do a pressure test etc to confirm, but I'm interested in your thoughts.

See you next month, which is actually this month.

[brickwall]

Looks like runny toffee that will turn to mayo soon. Looks like oil plus water  plus pressure. HG on the way to buggery.

[Parky]

Seconded. Good excuse to decoke the head, flush the block properly and change cambelt while you are there.

 

I wouldn't use Mister Auto for the bits though.......

[brickwall]

Yeah, if you're going in you might as well do the other jobs. Make sure the flush gets it all out.

[mat_the_cat]

There were a number of pre-booked one make car clubs parked in rows on what was originally the start finish straight which leads up to the banking, and compared to the rest of the cars this was the least interesting bit. It feels to me that when several similar cars are parked together it diminishes rather than reinforced the interestingness of the car.

 

Never really thought about this before but I reckon you're right. Once you've seen a couple of the same models, what else different is there to see?

[OwdChina]

Water pump probably dodgy too, see if you can rock the pulley at all.

Second thoughts, just replace it.

[Jim Bell]

Enjoyable read. Very moreish. I was meant to be asleep an hour ago but read this instead.

I'm never buying a porch.

[garethj]

Water pump and cambelt were done when I owned it.

 

Otherwise, that looks a lot like a head gasket gone

[messerschmitt owner]

I'm pretty sure this is not hgf - I think it more likely that you have popped ten spoonfuls of Nescafe and half a pint of cream plus water down there when you refilled it.

 

GLWFI