Six Cylinders Motoring Notes

[Tadhg Tiogar]

^^

Pasteis de nata!???

[hairnet]

here chrissy chrissy

https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1690850881.htm/

[hairnet]

https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1594560515.htm/

fk paris tho

the other one i was looking at was 200 euro

[Six-cylinder]

Lost Property

Found in the VP1500 today? 

@Catsinthewelder is it yours?

@Beko1987 is it yours?

[Andyrew]

Not mine, my one has sparkles and ponys on it . . .

[Six-cylinder]

Today Mrs6C came out with me as spotter, yes spotter we were looking for the lost AX wheel trim. The good new is we found it but the bad news was the plastic ring with metal band that pushes into the wheel is still lost.

This gave the VP1500 a chance for a run out and while it took quite a bit of cranking to start it from cold, it ran very nicely and restarted easily several times while running errands.

I hope I did not get caught by Quicksilver's stasi police this time!

[beko1987]

Nope, not mine, I never leave mine anywhere 

[Andyrew]

Photobombed with Some hot eco4 Astra action aswell (that spoiler is specific to the eco4) 

Good job finding the wheel trim too!

 

[Six-cylinder]

Only found half the wheel trim so can't refit it.

Have Mr Hubnuts video when it had 4 wheel trims!

 

[Slowsilver]

5 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

This gave the VP1500 a chance for a run out and while it took quite a bit of cranking to start it from cold, it ran very nicely and restarted easily several times while running errands.

Funny you should mention this. The one small problem with the Maxi is the length of time it needs to be cranked for before it will start when it has been left unused for more than two or three days.
It always starts eventually but takes 30 seconds or more of continuous cranking before it will fire. After it has started once it will restart straight away, even if left long enough to need the choke again, or even the next morning.
It has a fairly new battery but I am concerned that when the weather gets colder and it is left for say a week there may not be enough charge in the battery to crank it for this length of time.
Fortunately it lives in a garage with power, so I bought a trickle charger to leave connected to it just in case.
Maybe this is a common problem with the E series engines but so far I have been unable to find any reference to it elsewhere.
 

[Zelandeth]

My Skoda was always bad for that.  Figured out it was because the fuel was draining back to the tank - always had planned to put a none return valve in the line (guessing the one built into the pump is a bit weak), but it never made it to the top of the to do list.  If I manually primed it and filled the float bowl with the handle on the pump she would fire instantly.

 

The carb sits on top of the exhaust manifold in that too so on a warm day or after a fast run it would boil the fuel in the carb off pretty quickly too (guessing the additional volatility of modern fuel doesn't help there) which might make a cold start harder too if the lines *and* the float bowl are empty.

If there's fuel in the bowl it will usually start on that and run long enough to prime things, likewise if there's fuel waiting in the line to refill an empty bowl...but if they're both dry it will take a fair bit of cranking before she will go.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Zelandeth
bloody autocorrect

[Noel Tidybeard]

our old 1500 super needed one good crank with full choke then would start on second crank

ax wheel trim- the black ring isn't still in the wheel is it- i have seen that on psa dustbin lids before

[Essex V6]

I have had the same issue with my 3.0S Capri for the last few years. Leave it for any longer than a couple of days and it takes heaps of cranking to fire up. Restarts immediately thereafter

[SiC]

Does the VP + Maxi have a mechanical fuel pump? Can certainly imagine them requiring a fair bit of cranking to get fuel back up. I know the electric fuel pump on my MGB helps it going within 10 seconds, even if it's been sat a long time. 

[catsinthewelder]

Guilty ?

Smallest one is looking forward to the next FoD meet even more ?

[Six-cylinder]

4 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

Guilty ?

Smallest one is looking forward to the next FoD meet even more ?

PM me your address and I will post it back.

[Six-cylinder]

9 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

ax wheel trim- the black ring isn't still in the wheel is it- i have seen that on psa dustbin lids before

I have checked the wheel and it is not there.

Does anybody have a PSA 13 inch fitting ring they can sell me?

[Slowsilver]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

Does the VP + Maxi have a mechanical fuel pump? Can certainly imagine them requiring a fair bit of cranking to get fuel back up. I know the electric fuel pump on my MGB helps it going within 10 seconds, even if it's been sat a long time. 

Yes they do. I thought this might be the problem as all the BL stuff I have owned with electric fuel pumps has started promptly even after standing for a long time. The valves in the pump should prevent the fuel from leaking back but I thought they could be a bit leaky so I fitted a new fuel pump but no improvement. Even if they were they would only drain the feed pipe to the carb, not the float chamber.
I took the top off the float chamber after it had been standing for a week and it was about half full, which I think should be enough to start it, although I topped it up from a fuel can anyway but it still took the same amount of cranking time to start.
 

[Six-cylinder]

@catsinthewelder is trying to repair the Jingling ATV's broken engine casing that connects to gearbox, his chosen method of repair is to plant the gearbox and wait for the casing to grow. He assures me that the secret of success is watering with EP80 oil!

[dean36014]

Chris, did you have any experience with Texalarms back in your Citroen days? I've just removed the system from my zx as I get getting random alarms going off. It seemed a shame to remove it as it had an immobiliser function too. I was quite surprised to find it piggy backed into the citroen wiring using the correct plugs. They are two little dip switches on the side of the control box that I have no idea what they do and wondered if you remembered the system at all?

[Six-cylinder]

1 hour ago, dean36014 said:

Chris, did you have any experience with Texalarms back in your Citroen days? I've just removed the system from my zx as I get getting random alarms going off. It seemed a shame to remove it as it had an immobiliser function too. I was quite surprised to find it piggy backed into the citroen wiring using the correct plugs. They are two little dip switches on the side of the control box that I have no idea what they do and wondered if you remembered the system at all?

Sorry I don't remember any Texalarms although I was selling Citroens when your car was born.

[dean36014]

Looking in to it a  bit it seems they were dealer fit alarms. They seem to be the company that made Cobra alarms.

[Six-cylinder]

I remember Tex alarms from when I was selling Motor parts, but that was the early 1980s.

[Six-cylinder]

It's Friday so shopping, AX is my favourite shopping car but next to the other shopping cars it just keeps shrinking!

[Ben_O]

I can't believe how much smaller the ax is to the 107 next to it!

[Six-cylinder]

4 minutes ago, Ben_O said:

I can't believe how much smaller the ax is to the 107 next to it!

And the Zoe made the 107 look small.

[quicksilver]

On 10/19/2019 at 6:05 PM, Six-cylinder said:

Today Mrs6C came out with me as spotter, yes spotter we were looking for the lost AX wheel trim. The good new is we found it but the bad news was the plastic ring with metal band that pushes into the wheel is still lost.

This gave the VP1500 a chance for a run out and while it took quite a bit of cranking to start it from cold, it ran very nicely and restarted easily several times while running errands.

I hope I did not get caught by Quicksilver's stasi police this time!

No posh Allegros seen on Saturday. I think I saw the AX again on Sunday though as it whizzed past while I was getting off the bus. That little car seems to be getting plenty of use - I guess it's ideal as a town car.

[Six-cylinder]

.

[Six-cylinder]

What a wet miserable day, the only car related thing I have to report is the postman has bought the brake return springs I ordered for Mrs6C's Invacar. They has only taken 16 days to travel from China, seems good to me.

[Zelandeth]

That is quite an eye opener seeing the 107 next to the AX...107 never felt big when I owned mine, though it was like a bloody TARDIS.  Never figured out how they managed to fit so much space into such a relatively small footprint...still reckon that they're really cleverly packaged motors. 
 

If I was looking for a daily modern runaround I'd definitely have another one without a second of hesitation.  Especially the generation after that where they had addressed pretty much all the shortcomings I found with mine.  Mostly the seats weren't comfortable, the gearchange felt like it was made by Fisher Price and there was an annoying flat spot at 4500rpm on full throttle.  The Auto I had as a rental (2015 I think) very much felt like the same car - but far more grown up.  Sadly lost the big glowing bit of dash around the heater controls which I thought looked really nicely different on the earlier cars.