83C's Shite-esque Fleet: Oh Ship!

[83C]

About time I updated the fleet. 

 

Departures:

 

The Range Rover departed in early September, with a suspected slipped liner in the block. 

 

The Mercedes Sprinter has just been sold as its use was dwindling to just 3-4 days/nights a month. 

 

The old E61 525d is still lingering but is for sale so should be gone soon. 

 

The following has passed through:

 

 

The infamous badger-avoiding Micra. Bought, crashed & scrapped within a week. I was genuinely gutted about it, the little Micra was a cracking motor. 

 

It was eventually followed by:

 

 

The forum bike Xantia. Lovely old motor, drove as a Citroen should. Passed on to holbeck of this parish because of an unexpected vet's bill. 

 

Current fleet:

 

The F10 525d gained a new set of wheels:

 

 

When I went out looking for a new modern I'd set myself a few specifications that I really wanted, as well as a few that were optional. The 18" M-Sport wheels were on the 'optional' list as I figured they would be easy to find a set of and add later. Looks much better than the 17" wheels that were there previously and they haven't ruined the ride quality. 

 

The Triumph has been recovered from its long term storage, and I need to get it running again. A session with the 2.5 litre jump pack confirmed the battery really is shot:

 

 

A new battery is on the shopping list.

 

The Tiger hasn't done owt for months, I really need to take it for a run at some point. 

 

And finally, yesterday the fleet grew by one. I had a bit of an unexpected financial gift so I thought I'd spend it on something sensible. Something with 5 cylinders, a turbo and a reputation for absolute, rock solid reliability*.

 

More details later....

 

*This last bit may be wishful thinking.

[83C]

5 pot turbo donkey:

 

 

Yes, I've bought a Disco 2. 

 

Issues: 

The three amigos are on intermittently.

SRS lamp lit. 

Front bumper held together on n/s corner with duck tape. 

Sunroofs leak.

Short MoT. 

 

On the upside, according to the receipts it had a new head gasket 12,000 miles ago, and in the last couple of years a new radiator, new injector loom, rear spring conversion, new windscreen, new discs & pads, recon gearbox, and a few other bits. MoT history doesn't detail much in the way of welding either. 

 

First thing I did when going to look at it was to get underneath with a screwdriver, the rear chassis legs are pleasantly straight - no bulging or rot holes. It drives well, if a bit wayward with regard to the steering - I think it might need new track rod ends. It also has some sort of diesel tuning box fitted apparently, though it doesn't feel much quicker than other TD5s that I've driven. I might take that off and see what happens. The three amigos have been an issue before, which apparently was the ABS valve block, though they did also note a plug out of the wiring loom was loose. Fingers crossed its a simple fix - I suspect the tuning box might have a part to play in it as its mentioned several times in the receipts. 

 

I'll try and sort some proper pictures tomorrow, but overall I'm pleased with it. I don't like being without a Land Rover of some sort (the 90 is currently stored in boxes awaiting regeneration), and Defender/Series prices are just going stupid. Therefore a Disco 2 is the next best thing.....

[red5]

td5's are win. 

 

Check the maf - should read up to 600 on live data - most crappy ones read 400 odd - no go/feels flat.

[Noel Tidybeard]

wibbly-wobbly td5 noise is for winnahs

[red5]

Ah, the missed opportunity that could have been the td6..

[Broadsword]

That Disco looks pretty nice. Well bought! I'm in the P38 camp at the moment since we picked one up with real suspension in December, but would like to drive a Disco just to see what the difference is, particularly TD5 vs BMW M51. Some of the electrical issues on these things are interesting*, but at least our P38 has kept going along nicely.

[83C]

I've found some old fleet pictures:

 

First up, a pinkish Corsa:

 

 

I had this in 2009 briefly. 

 

In 2010 I bought a house and set about dumping half of it down the tip, so I needed a self propelled skip:

 

 

 

It was a great little van, served its purpose well even though it was probably well overloaded 50% of the time.

 

This Fronterror came and went, but it did have the 2.8 Isuzu lump:

 

 

A brace of W124s came and went, this is the second one:

 

 

This was fun to bazz around in, someone had even gone to the extent of fitting sticky Toyo tyres and EBC Greenstuff pads:

 

 

That'll do for now, I'm trying to dig out all my old photos so more to come.

[83C]

A few more from the archives:

 

Some of the 2011 motors, starting with a 406 HDi 90 that I acquired in very late 2010.

 

 

A 300Tdi 3-dr Disco, which was fun until it slipped its cambelt:

 

 

The X300 XJ6 was fun, especially as it had the 4.0 engine. Drank fuel like a big Jag should too...

 

 

2012 coming next once I can get the uploader to work. 

 

Current fleet news - Disco is gone, Triumph is gone. Transit and ZZR in.

 

 

 

[loserone]

Jeez those 406s are pretty

[83C]

Into 2012 with a V6 Barge:

 

 

This was followed by a poorly MG ZR. The owner had recently moved to Cornwall and wasn't familiar with the concept of cornish hedges - when a car came the other way on a narrow country road he stuck the front corner into what he thought was leaves and twigs, only to find it was actually mostly made of granite. 

 

 

Luckily a mate of mine was breaking MGs so after a quick trip to his for spares:

 

 

New bumper, bootlid (old one had damaged paint) front offside wing, washer bottle and a few other bits.

 

One of my 'Wish I hadn't sold that...' cars:

 

 

Fitted with a Nissan D23 diesel from a Serena, which suited the Series very well.

 

This 45 came and went:

 

 

And this turned up:

 

 

I was buying cars and doing quick strips (easily sellable stuff like lights, interiors, batteries, wheels etc) and weighing the rest. The Transit drove back from Alfreton to Cornwall, worked well all the time I had it and even kept me fit via the manual winch. It was swapped for this in 2013:

 

 

Back to 2012, this C240 estate came and went:

 

 

And continuing the estate theme:

 

 

That'll do for now.

[83C]

More historyshite:

 

This 90 turned up - I still have it, in a couple of boxes...

 

 

This Mondeo was bought leaking fuel like a bastard - new high pressure injector rail seals and it was sorted. Had heated and cooled seats - they were fantastic!

 

 

This Honda 125 came and went. I happened to be passing the owner's house on the way back to the depot so I loaded it onto the bus and strapped it to the luggage rack:

 

 

By October the 90 looked like this:

 

 

More soon....

 

 

[83C]

As noted a few days ago, this E39 525d landed at my small corner of Cornwall:

 

 

Body wise it isn't brilliant, there are bashes and scrapes on most of the panels. However, I'm not that bothered (if replacement panels in the correct Steelblau come up cheap then I might replace them) as it's to be used as a dog/beach/tow car. 

 

The MoT runs until the end of July, it needs:

 

• Auxiliary belts doing as a matter of urgency - one of them is hanging half off the pulleys and fraying. 
• Indicator lens on N/S wing replacing.
• Several bulbs replacing.
• A damn good service - it smokes a little during hard acceleration, I suspect the air filter is pretty old. 
• A replacement BMW roundel on the bonnet - old one is MIA. 
• A pair of rear tyres - I might fit some genuine 17s if a set comes up at the right price to tighten the handling up a bit. Style 66's would be ideal, or Style 32s.
• A couple of bushes on the rear replacing.

 

The back end does sink over the course of a day or so, but not fast enough for me to worry about it come MoT time. Otherwise it drives well, the gearbox is smooth with no clunks or bangs, the a/c works and the interior is cream-ish cow with arse-warmers in the front. The seller even threw in the proper BMW boot tray.

 

BMW torch still in place and still working:

 

 

The worst of the damage:

 

 

Back end has been scraped and wobbed:

 

 

Overall, it should ,make a good companion for the F10.

 

[83C]

Started digging through the layers of plastic under the bonnet of the E39:

 

 

It’s leaking oil from the rocker cover, so another item on the list to do.

 

Can the aux belts be done with the fan shroud in place, or does the rad & shroud have to be lifted out?

 

Not quite as it should be:

 

[83C]

I woke up this afternoon and decided to swear at a large, dirty bavarian. 

Post viscous fan removal. The nut that holds the viscous fan to the shaft from the water pump was a pain in the arse, requiring the attentions of a big adjustable, industrial quantities of swearing and a liberal dose of WD40 before it yielded. 

The reason for removal - long serpentine belt is a bit buggered:

Short belt looks ok but they'll both be replaced. The only other thing that is giving me a bit of concern is the tensioner for the short belt:

I levered it out of the way to slack off the old belt, but it didn't return to its original position. Are these sprung?

There is an oil leak from the area around the EGR/oil filter housing that needs cleaning up too. The whole of the under bonnet area will get a deep clean, new oil and air filters and possibly a new fan shroud if I can find a cheap one - there is a chunk missing from the current one and it might as well be replaced while its easy to do so.

[83C]

In other news a distinctly non-German car should be landing in the next week or two, its green and needs an alternator. 

I don't really need it but I've wanted to own one for a while. 

Yesterday I took the HyperBus for a quick run to blow away the cobwebs:

[83C]

Not the expected Green Thing alluded to earlier in the thread, but I'm very happy with it none the less:

Collected this from Bewdley as mentioned in the news thread after a public transport failure. Need a new bonnet badge for it though. 

[83C]

Fleet update:

The Frontera has gone to a new owner, and as an extra precaution against buying anything else 4-wheeled I've cancelled both the spare car insurance and van insurance policies that I had. 

The 525d went in for a service which has highlighted a couple of minor jobs that need doing, nothing major though. 

I really do have to be good now, so apart from the occasional roffle I'm pretty much out of the shite game for a while. Of course I still have the Tiger but that is SORN at the moment due to time constraints. There will be a new machine landing around the end of next week but it's for commuting on because I can't park my car at work. More next week.

On an entirely different subject I saw this in a car park in Falmouth last week - I want:

Next year if things go well I'd like an older smoll commercial, and something like this would be perfect. Anyone happen to know much about how older Mercedes commercials are viewed/valued in Germany?

[83C]

Not mine, but the intention is to get it roadworthy for the relative that owns it:

Grandad bought this car new in 2003, declared that he didn’t much like it and then set about driving it into the ground with no servicing whatsoever. The Swift had the last laugh because it has currently outlived him by 10 years. It had its first service in 2010, and has been on the road sporadically until quite recently. It’s a boggo 1.0, the daft alloys we’re added 7-8 years ago for reasons that I’ve not yet managed to ascertain. It was SORNed on the expiry of its last MoT, and has sat on the driveway ever since. 

The battery is totally flat, so first job was to whip that off and stick it on charge. To be honest I’m budgeting for a new one but they’re only £40. 

Under the bonnet there was plenty of grime, so out came the spray bottle of TFR, a brush and the hosepipe. Come up pretty well so far, needs doing again in certain areas. The 1.0 3-pot is quite a rorty little lump but even in the smoll Swift engine bay looks a bit lost and undersized. The sort of engine you’d take out and put by the fire at night with a nice tartan blanket to keep it cosy.

Jobs to do:

Get running - charge/replace battery should be the only issue here. 

Carpet repair - the floor pan carpet has split between the drivers heel plate and where the carpet goes up the side of the inner sill, exposing the wiring loom. Not sure what to do here yet, if I can find a good carpet I’ll strip the seats out and replace the whole thing.

Pre-MoT - it’s such a simple machine there shouldn’t be anything wrong with it, plus the mileage will help (sub-45k). Tyres are my only concern, and might be a good excuse to go back to standard steelies if I can find a set. 

MoT and drive.

It’ll probably be a bit of a slow burn despite looking an easy project, but it will be satisfying to see it on the road again.

[Stanky]

That generation of Swift are brilliant cars, we had a 1.3 GLS which I bought thinking it had done 80k miles, but closer examination of the service history revealed it had gone round the 5 digit odometer once already and was knocking on 200k by the time we sold it. It was a cracking car, very rapid for what it was - 90 was easily achievable if you weren't paying attention and it was brilliant fun to chuck about. They also look like they should have been made in about 1983, but were still on that shape up to about 2003 I think?

I don't recall it even being particularly rusty?

[83C]

Fred update.

Swift has a knackered battery but the owner doesn’t want anything doing at the moment. On hold.

Fiesta in, shortly to be out again.

And steaming slowly into view like a massive green turd is this:

I have need of a van. This came up in Plymouth. One owner, 128k miles. 

It drove ok around town, bit sluggish I thought but not terrible. So I handed over my hard earned.

Got on the A38 to Exeter. Oh fuck. It was absolutely gutless. According to the door badges it’s a 90bhp model, it felt like it had 9bhp. I wasn’t expecting rocket ship performance but the ability to hold 50mph uphill would have been nice. Strong headwinds required skills more normally associated with the master of a sailing ship, certainly the speed (or lack of it) would be familiar.

And then it coughed, and cut out.

Fuck sakes.

Restarted and ran, drove to Exeter. Parked up and got pissed. Jumped in this morning, it took a fair old bit of cranking before it fired, then it ran ok for the 85 miles back to Cornwall. 2 miles from home it coughed for a second, but didn’t cut out.

Don’t know what to do now. It doesn’t smoke, it doesn’t seem to be leaking fuel, but it is absolutely gutless. I need it for hauling a house load of stuff to Shropshire over the next 6 months, as well as other tat hauling duties, but steep hills knock it down to 30mph unladen (having hit the bottom at 65ish). Even gentle gradients take the wind out of its sails, holding 50mph just doesn’t happen unless the road is dead flat.

Allegedly it’s had a new throttle assembly, and a replacement fuel pump of late. It’s my first experience of the 2.4 Duratorq, the engine itself is nice and quiet, just gutless.

Think it might be a trip to a diesel specialist on Monday.

[jumpingjehovahs]

Handsome things those little Swifts. I wonder if that Transit is ex-John Lewis, I used to run about in one very similar when I worked there.


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[Saabnut]

The 2.4 Duratorque is a punchy little motor and it should go well, Something definitely amiss. First 2 checks for me would be the fuel filter (a visual would do me, does it look old, but a new one would be best) and then try slacking off the exhaust downpipe and see if it goes better (if more noisily). Possibility it is partially blocked, for a van that age that is low mileage, has it all been short stop/start journeys?

[Mally]

We had a 125 that flew. 90's are slow in relation but should still be reasonable empty.

IIRC the diesel filter and air filter have green/red indicators on them.

[Mally]

Just checked., I have an HBOL.  2000 to 2006.

If you wish to pm me your address, it's yours.

 

 

[83C]

That’s much appreciated, I’ll drop you a message in a bit.

Done some engine bay poking about.

Injectors look dry and clean. 

Allegedly the pump had been replaced. I don’t think so, no recent witness marks on bolts or screw heads. There is some oily wet around this side of the engine. 

The sudden cutting out worries me, it’s like the ignition is being switched off. 

Thanks for the suggestions so far folks.

[Mally]

Is it my eyes, or is there something dangling on the bottom pulley?

 

[83C]

Your eyes I think. Just been down the jetwash with it, nothing hanging that I can see. 

Tried to give the van an Italian tuneup, it slogs along ok on flat roads and will rev right through the range, just very slowly. If it weren’t for the total inability to climb hills I’d just accept it.

[LightBulbFun]

I have 0 experience with diesel engines, but its not down on power because the timing is slightly out or something?

I know @richardthestag solved a similar (but much less severe) issue by adjusting the fuel timing IIRC? on project southpaw  

[320touring]

Sluggish diesels are usually caused by at least one a handful of things.

Simplest to most involved:

Fuel filter blocked.

Air filter blocked.

Boost leak from the pipework.

Air in the fuel - damages fuel pipe/loose union etc

Turbo wastewater actuator stuck open (no boost).

Fuel Pump timing.

Fuel pump leaking from one of its gaskets/seals.

This is based on my experience, and not exhaustive, but may be worth working though them as a starter for 10?

 

 

 

[83C]

6 hours ago, 320touring said:

Sluggish diesels are usually caused by at least one a handful of things.

Simplest to most involved:

Fuel filter blocked.

Air filter blocked.

Boost leak from the pipework.

Air in the fuel - damages fuel pipe/loose union etc

Turbo wastewater actuator stuck open (no boost).

Fuel Pump timing.

Fuel pump leaking from one of its gaskets/seals.

This is based on my experience, and not exhaustive, but may be worth working though them as a starter for 10?

That’s the plan for tomorrow pretty much. 

I don’t think it’s fuel pump timing based on the lack of smoke, and I can’t hear a boost leak.

Fuel filter is a Unipart item so not the original but doubt it’s been changed in a while. Might pop to ECP and get one and just change it to eliminate that as an issue. I’ll pull the air filter first though.