Six Cylinders Motoring Notes - An open air picnic in mid September!

1,462 · February 6

New month, new Vauxhall! Although my wife looked at it and said

“you don’t own that one do you?”

37,968 · February 6

DVLA Broken again!

Today I got the V5C for my spares Discovery and dutifully went online to SORN it.

It came up as you do not need this service because it is already on SORN.

Using the DVLA vehicle checker it says it was UNTAXED from the 1-2-2025

It is all your fault @LightBulbFun

27,167 · February 6

Quick get dez on the case to get £50 for you from them 😂

21,171 · February 6

29 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

DVLA Broken again!

Today I got the V5C for my spares Discovery and dutifully went online to SORN it.

It came up as you do not need this service because it is already on SORN.

Using the DVLA vehicle checker it says it was UNTAXED from the 1-2-2025

It is all your fault @LightBulbFun

Had this issue several times, guess you have to wait a few days to confirm what's up.

37,968 · February 7

It is a good news day!

Today we collected the Mazda 323 GLX Mrs6C bought in December from my favourite garage who have done the work to get it serviced and MOTed.

It has had a:

Full exhaust

2 x Tyres

Front flex brake pipes

Front number plate fitted

Oil and filter change

General check over

Refitted wheel arch liners

Refitted trim and hub caps

MOT

All did not quite go to plan today. The fuel gauge was at the top of the wide empty marker so I decided to not chance my arm and went into a petrol station not far from where I set off. It has a floor mounted fuel flap release and no matter how many times I pulled and tugged on it the fuel door would not open. I banged on the fuel flap and looked in the boot for a release but nothing. So I drove home with the fuel light on. When I got home I thought I would just check if I could find a way to open the fuel door but it opened straight up with the first pull. I then drove to our local Tesco and it opened fine. 8.23 gallons to full, I wonder how much I had left as I can’t find a fuel capacity for it.

One thing that caught me out was the fuel hose illustration on the gauge was on the right while the fuel cap is on the left.

All is now well and it is a very pleasant car to drive.

19,896 · February 7

oof

15,957 · February 7

41 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

One thing that caught me out was the fuel hose illustration on the gauge was on the right while the fuel cap is on the left.

Not come across that before - have the clocks been changed before?

37,968 · February 7

29 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Not come across that before - have the clocks been changed before?

While the illustration of fuel hose on the gauge usually indicates which side the fuel filler is, there are a few cars that is not the case such as our C15 van.

24,884 · February 7

Oooh I like that 323 very much!

21,539 · February 7

42 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

While the illustration of fuel hose on the gauge usually indicates which side the fuel filler is, there are a few cars that is not the case such as our C15 van.

interesting! I thought was a little arrow that told you what side the filler was on? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_gauge#Moylan_arrow

but if the fuel hose position is another indicator then dont worry its not accurate on my car either! handle is shown on the right but the fuel tank itself is on the left side of the car, although you fill it up from the access hatch in front of you, not sure what the symbol for that would be :mrgreen: an Arrow pointing forwards? LOL

along similar lines do old Land Rovers just have a Dymo label that states "Your sitting on it"? :mrgreen:

24,318 · February 7

36 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

interesting! I thought was a little arrow that told you what side the filler was on? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_gauge#Moylan_arrow

but if the fuel hose position is another indicator then dont worry its not accurate on my car either! handle is shown on the right but the fuel tank itself is on the left side of the car, although you fill it up from the access hatch in front of you, not sure what the symbol for that would be an Arrow pointing forwards? LOL

along similar lines do old Land Rovers just have a Dymo label that states "Your sitting on it"?

I have never had a car with an arrow. I think all my cars have had the filler on the driver’s side.

37,968 · February 7

37 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

interesting! I thought was a little arrow that told you what side the filler was on? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_gauge#Moylan_arrow

I have looked at a number of my cars past and present and the only ones I can find arrows for the fuel cap side are the 2004 and 216 Range Rovers.

9,863 · February 7

4 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

I have never had a car with an arrow. I think all my cars have had the filler on the driver’s side.

Did the old XJ Jags with the twin saddle tanks have two arrows ;-)
Nothing here has an arrow, be bloody useful if they did though as I often get it wrong (effing Binis)

8,730 · February 7

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

While the illustration of fuel hose on the gauge usually indicates which side the fuel filler is, there are a few cars that is not the case such as our C15 van.

Same in the foes modern jazz, the hose onto the right on the image but there’s a handle little arrow next to it to point you to the passenger side for topping up its thimble sized tank.

37,968 · February 7

@EyesWeldedShut

"Did the old XJ Jags with the twin saddle tanks have two arrows ;-) "

Yes Twin tanks on XJ's 1968-1992.

Series 1 had a row of rocker switches that shows a painted white square when pressed, far right is for which fuel tank, pump and which tank the gauge reads. There is a filler cap for each tank on that side of the car.

Series 2 had a row of soft touch push switch and the fuel one is on the left with arrows that light up, but hard to see. Like the Series1 the button selects which tank, pump what the gauge reads. Again there was a filler cap for each tank on that side of the car.

Series 3 I think was a similar system but we don't have one to show the detail.

24,318 · February 7

Ah, so a s3 is needed. My favourite really growing up with the equalizer and minder

63,532 · February 7

S3 same as S2 from memory (it's been a while).

37,968 · February 7

42 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Ah, so a s3 is needed. My favourite really growing up with the equalizer and minder

The injection on the S3 4.2 certainly restored the sparkle after the S2 was strangled by emission equipment.

I have a friend who is interested in buy a very good S3 at the moment and if he gets one I will be able to do a compare and contrast.

15,957 · February 7

S1 had proper switches!

9,694 · February 7

10 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

S1 had proper switches!

They are nice, certainly, but these on the Mk10 are even better...

9,751 · February 7

4 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

I wonder how much I had left as I can’t find a fuel capacity for it.

45 litres = 9.9 gallons

April 1986 brochure

37,968 · February 7

15 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

45 litres = 9.9 gallons

April 1986 brochure

Thanks that means I had 1.6 gallons left in the tank.

15,957 · February 7

46 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

They are nice, certainly, but these on the Mk10 are even better...

I am ashamed at you, reposting such porn! 🤣

My early years were defined by playing with proper switches such as those.

37,968 · February 8

Last time I tried to use our Lancia Gamma it ran terribly. I have bought spark plugs, HT leads, distributor cap, rotor arm and coil. Today I arranged for a local mobile Mech to fit the parts. The only problem was his and my spark plug sockets would not fit into the cylinder head, the outer diameter is just a bit too big. I went home to get an old fashion box spark plug spanner, but all I could find was the extra long one for the recessed plugs on the Citroen DS which is far too long because it is a boxer engine. The answer was to saw the bit off that was in the way, but I need a new spark plug spanner for the DS now.

While I was away getting the spark plug spanner the mech fitted everything but the spark plugs and restarted the car, he said it run better but not well. Fitting the new spark plugs made it run well, but I did not take it out because the roads were so dirty a short test drive would have left the white car filthy. I am pretty sure it is now it is ready for it's next outing when the weather improves.

7,393 · February 8

i'm beginning to wonder if the pipe on the fuel gauge thing is an urban myth

28,742 · February 8

4 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Last time I tried to use our Lancia Gamma it ran terribly. I have bought spark plugs, HT leads, distributor cap, rotor arm and coil. Today I arranged for a local mobile Mech to fit the parts. The only problem was his and my spark plug sockets would not fit into the cylinder head, the outer diameter is just a bit too big. I went home to get an old fashion box spark plug spanner, but all I could find was the extra long one for the recessed plugs on the Citroen DS which is far too long because it is a boxer engine. The answer was to saw the bit off that was in the way, but I need a new spark plug spanner for the DS now.

While I was away getting the spark plug spanner the mech fitted everything but the spark plugs and restarted the car, he said it run better but not well. Fitting the new spark plugs made it run well, but I did not take it out because the roads were so dirty a short test drive would have left the white car filthy. I am pretty sure it is now it is ready for it's next outing when the weather improves.

Great to hear it's running well again. Wonder if it was something as simple as fouled plugs?

37,968 · February 8

34 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

i'm beginning to wonder if the pipe on the fuel gauge thing is an urban myth

I think you could be right.

Very few of my cars have ever been left hand fill. The most notable is the Volvo 740/940 and while left fill the hose illustration on the fuel gauge is on the right.

The C15 with left fill, but right illustration could easily be said to parts sharing with the Visa car that is right fill.

My 2016 Range Rovers does has an arrow in the fuel gauge pointing to the filler side.

37,968 · February 8

20 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Great to hear it's running well again. Wonder if it was something as simple as fouled plugs?

Yes the plugs were fouled and sooty due to moving it it around in storage without a run.

However it had the wrong coil on it that was obviously quite old, standard not electronic ignition coil that is factory standard on a Gamma.

The HT leads had also become hard and brittle with age.

19,896 · February 9

old italian cars oof

44,624 · February 9

The fuel gauge thing is a definite myth. Our Charade has a little arrow to show which side the flap is, which is the opposite side to the fuel pump diagram itself.

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