83C's Shite-esque Fleet: Let’s all stand in a hot field.

31,871 · May 2

What's @HMC selling this week?

10,007 · May 2

P1 at Exeter St Davids right?

44,887 · May 2

11 minutes ago, loserone said:

What's @HMC selling this week?

Not guilty (this week)

9,533 · May 2

The last stop:

9,533 · May 2

Things moved quickly after that last post.

I got here:

And collected this:

From a small dealer nearby.

I thought I’d do an update at the petrol station, but I’ve just got back to Shropshire and I haven’t actually stopped for fuel yet.

Its an S211 E320 CDI, the later 3.0 V6 and I have to say I’m pretty happy with it, 45+ mpg on the motorway and it didn’t really drop much from that on the A-roads. Working A/C is a huge bonus too.

9,533 · May 5

So, S211 ownership beckons. I blame @Talbot for this, because he recommended one in my what car thread.

Now here I have to admit to a bit of a mistake. I did a bit of research and saw that the OM642 3.0 V6 replaced the OM648 3.2 straight 6 with the facelift in 2006, so intending to avoid the SBC issues I went for a car fitted with the OM642. Saw this one and thought being a 55 plate it would be an early facelift.

Er, no:

SBC unit is the alloy block in the bottom left corner. Bugger.

Anyway, it seems to be all working fine at the moment.

Interior is a nice place to be, comfortable and quiet. Just what I need for a regular commute.

Anyone, maybe @Snake Charmer have any idea what this plug is for?

The only cosmetic issue is this rear bumper damage:

According to a VIN decoder the colour is Cubanite silver, so whilst it’s not an urgent priority I’ll keep an eye out for a replacement.

3,043 · May 5

Looks to me like a trickle charging connector but as it is close to the cigarette lighter socket may be to power something a previous owner used. Does the car have Comand Navigation? May have been for a Satnav.

Check for voltage with the ignition off as l'm sure the cigarette lighter socket fuse can repositioned to power on with ignition off, that might indicate a charging connector.

3,043 · May 12

How are you getting on with the car?

9,533 · May 12

46 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

How are you getting on with the car?

It’s going well so far, just switch on and go. Fuel economy seems pretty reasonable too. It’s not quite as good as an L322 at providing a magic carpet ride over rough roads but it’s really not far off. The price of course is that it’s not particularly sharp in terms of handling. No doubt the 16” alloys and 225/55 tyres are largely responsible, but as much as I’d like to stick a set of 17s or 18s on the whole point of the car is to be comfortable and absorb shitty roads, so the 16s are staying. Somehow the S211 doesn’t look as daft on smaller alloys as the E61 or F11 5s do.

9,533 · May 14

Now that the green L322 is gone I need to get the blue one back into service.

First order of business is to get the suspension sorted. This car has had various air suspension niggles ever since I’ve owned it, and the fact that it has taken so long to sort is largely down to my own laziness and the fact that the car still worked. Late last year I replaced the complete front struts and the air compressor which definitely helped, the front bags were so shot that they killed the old compressor trying to keep up with the loss of air. There has been an air leak from the rear for a while, most noticeable when the car is shut down with a hiss that drops to nothing about 5secs after the engine is switched off. I’d bought new rear bags in anticipation of needing to replace them because the old ones are the originals (or at least branded Land Rover) and I assumed likely to be just as shot as the fronts. So today I jacked up the o/s/r and went looking for the leak. First surprise was the rear bags being alright, the airbag was still pressurised and no leaks evident. I ran it, heard the leak as I shut the engine down and stuck my head back in the arch quickly which revealed the leak noise wasn’t coming from the airbag. A few more repeats of that and I managed to pinpoint the leak:

The blue line goes directly from the compressor to the reservoir, and it’s been rubbing on the bit of subframe enough that it’s worn through and made a pinhole where the dark bit is. Some gorilla tape and a bit of silicone hose later:

It’s a temporary fix but for the purposes of dealing with the air suspension issues it’ll do. Ran the car again, heard the compressor kick in, shut the car off and no air leak sound. Next step was to clear any fault codes, but here I ran into an issue:

Hmm. This fault has been a constant pain in the arse, so it seems I’ve still got some work to do. However there are no longer any codes for air pressure being insufficient so that’s a plus. Online wisdom says that C1A13-64 is usually caused by the air compressor exhaust being blocked, but I’ve replaced the compressor and drilled the sintered filter. Not sure yet what the next stop will be, I need to do a bit more research as to what might trigger this. Definitely open to suggestions.

I also decided to start tackling the interior, the passenger side sun visor has never been right and had an annoying habit of dropping free over bumps because the plastic around the hinge was broken:

Easy to see why this might be annoying when the passenger had this view:

Replacement took 5 mins to fit:

9,533 · June 25

Last week I managed to rip the front bumper off the VXR8 whilst reversing out of a parking space - I didn’t realise the kerbstones under the bumper were slightly raised compared to the paving behind so when I reversed the kerb acted like a barb and pulled the bumper off. Luckily the slam panel fixings held firm, but the wing to bumper mounts weren’t so fortunate.

The o/s/f is the worst, because the bumper didn’t pull out of the bolts - instead it snapped clean along the edge, leaving the remains attached:

Just to make life even more joyful* the H12 hex head bolts that hold the bumper on (with equally overspecced 22mm nuts on the inside of the wing) are rusted solid - the wing would have folded in before they let go, even with a rattle gun on them. I foresee a session with the angry grinder and finger sander tomorrow, and a trip to the local fixings place for some stainless steel alternatives.

The only upside is that while the bumper is off I can do a job I’ve been putting off for a while - replacing the headlamps with a good pair I bought over a year ago.

I’ve also started reassembly of the L322 with a view to taking it for MoT at the end of next week, just a CV boot to fix and get to the bottom of why the battery keeps dying.

1,629 · June 26

Liked for the repairing, not the initial kerb damage.....

Plastic weld the remaining pieces from inside?

Is the VXR8 in hefty use or a rarely used toy for blasting about sometimes? May have missed that...... sorry

9,533 · June 26

9 minutes ago, Back_For_More said:

Liked for the repairing, not the initial kerb damage.....

Plastic weld the remaining pieces from inside?

Is the VXR8 in hefty use or a rarely used toy for blasting about sometimes? May have missed that...... sorry

Very much an occasional toy, doesn’t go out at all during winter so I think I’ll try and bodge this bumper back together for the remaining few months and then see if a local bodyshop can fix it properly over winter.

9,533 · July 3

Today I decided to spend some quality time with my grinder, to remove the old wing-bumper mounting bolts from the VXR8 and try to get the bumper back on. Old bolts removed:

Rinse and repeat for the other side, remount the front bumper and this is the result:

Spot the difference:

With the top flange completely missing on the offside, there’s no avoiding the ugly gap between the wing and bumper. The mounts are in poor shape on the nearside but it’s ok from 10ft away.

On the upside, the new headlights have now been fitted and they look so much better than the old misted and faded units that were there before.

In other fleet news the Range Rover is in for MoT at the end of next week, I’m looking forward to having that back.