Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Maserati Coupe - Reaching new Liability Heights

[Schaefft]

As seen over in the Southern collection thread another addition from one of Italy's most passionate automobile makers has joined the fleet, a late Alfa 156 Sportwagon. It's joining the Alfa 166 Super with the Busso V6 everyone likes to rave about (it sounds great tbf), however this 156 has its own tune that isn't all that much worse, despite being a deceasel.

That's because its got Alfa's rather quirky Commonrail (apparently the first ever in a production car) 20 Valve 5-cylinder, and I have to admit that even at the nearly 170k miles this is showing on the odometer its still sounding great and pulls like any of the V8s I own, its incredible really.

It might need some engine mounts soon though. At least I won't have to worry about the timing belt anytime soon:

The 2.4 20V was actually Alfa's top of the line model in the UK after the facelift, no RHD Bussos made from that point onwards. It's got such an incredible amount of torque in all gears at all speeds that I cannot imagine it making stock power, its proper rapid while doing over 60mpg on the motorway.

Its quite interesting being able to compare this to the bigger 166 (granted mine is a pre-facelift). Its the 166 that was originally supposed to come out before the 156 until Alfa decided that the more mainstream car of the two was apparently the more urgent project, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Alfa was financially struggling in the early 90s and needed a hot new product to turn their luck around. As we all know the 156 was just that, European Car of the Year and everything. Its still a gorgeous piece of design and being an estate (although styled to more look like a sleek shootingbreak before anyone else did) it adds a little bit of rarity as well in my mind.

Hidden doorhandles to imitate coupe looks started right here with the 156 as well. Apparently the estate has less boot space than the saloon, no clue how that's possible but the roof cutout to allow for a larger tailgate opening is quite a clever bit of design that I never noticed before, so is the integrated spoiler:

Plenty of space in here, the rear seat naturally folds down, the load cover is exactly what you'd expect. The rear strut towers intrude quite a bit into the cargo space, something that BMW resolved in a much more clever way in the E39.

You do get some hidden storage though:

6-disc changer, lets see what we got in there then:

My CD collection gets more extensive with every car purchase. At least I now know that it plays CD-RWs.

Complete toolkit, always a good sign. Spare wheel is a steelie.

Back on the outside. The Facelift was styled by Giugiaro, they did a great job I think. Apparently the Veloce badge is supposed to be there. I'm not the biggest fan of these thin spoke wheels considering the great designs you could get for the 156 but they won't go anywhere anytime soon, decent tires on it as well.

I didn't know what the interior looked like until I saw the car in person. I'm a fan of unusual colors and having another blue leather interior (the Celsior is the other car) was a positive surprise. The driver seat bolster has seen better days but everything else has held up fairly well. It just needs a proper clean really.

Wood steering wheel badly needed here. Aside from that the only thing I'm missing is cruise control, might be able to retrofit it fairly easily (haven't investigated yet). A/C blows cold, what more do you want from a sub-£600 car? No soft-touch sticky insanity like in the 166 here either, in general the interior design seems much more coherent and better thought out, another indicator that this is the newer design despite being launched before the 166.

Even came with what could be the original floor mats. And a boot release in a location that's easy to reach, imagine that.

So there we are then. I'll see if I can start cleaning it up a bit over the next few days. Not everything is perfect and I already got a growing list of things that would need doing to make it all look properly good again. But all that will hinge on the rust situation underneath which certainly won't be pretty when you look at the MOT history.

With such a great engine, great looks and a mountain of receipts for work that has been done over the last few years I think this one is worth saving though. 156s aren't getting any more common at this point after all. We'll see what things look like on the weekend hopefully.

[bramz7]

Very glad this has remained within the forum,.it remains the best 156 I've had of the seven (!!) I've had so far.

It was between this and the Marea when it came to selling up, I think I kept the right one but I can feel that 156 itch creeping back..at least it's the same (shorter) platform. 

[Schaefft]

1 minute ago, bramz7 said:

Very glad this has remained within the forum,.it remains the best 156 I've had of the seven (!!) I've had so far.

It was between this and the Marea when it came to selling up, I think I kept the right one but I can feel that 156 itch creeping back..at least it's the same (shorter) platform. 

It really seems to be a good one. If you don't mind I'd like to send you a pm to get a little bit more info about the previous owner. Always interesting to rebuild the history of a car.

In other news, I picked up a replacement side terminal battery for the Deville on the way back from Bath. Unfortunately that didn't fix the shifting issues (automatic shift into 3rd is basically like shifting into neutral). Checked the fluid which looks good but it was completely overfilled (I don't think I ever topped up the fluid). Pumped out a liter of ATF to see if it makes any difference, unfortunately no. Considering that this issue showed up very suddenly it can only be a shift solenoid problem (or gummed up channel/valve) so I'm going to order the parts needed to replace it soon. If anyone else has another theory before I take it all apart please let me know!

It does look good in the Tesco carpark though:

[Dave_Q]

I had one very similar, a pre-facelift, agree with everything you say about the engine, and the interior just being a nice place to be. 

Shame they couldn't make them not rust, those rear floorpans are made of wafer-thin metal and are an absolute pain in the arse to weld when they go.

[Schaefft]

On 02/07/2024 at 08:16, Dave_Q said:

I had one very similar, a pre-facelift, agree with everything you say about the engine, and the interior just being a nice place to be. 

Shame they couldn't make them not rust, those rear floorpans are made of wafer-thin metal and are an absolute pain in the arse to weld when they go.

I've had a look underneath, it actually doesn't look that bad at all (immediately jinxed myself), one of the strut towers has some crustiness I dont want to poke too much before the MOT though.

Gave the car a wash today, its been a while since the last time.

Mandatory foam photo:

That's better:

Wheels and interior maybe tomorrow but 2 hours spent well right there, must be worth at least 5 quid more now😂

[Schaefft]

Finally had some time to look through the history file, which covers almost 20 years of serious commitment of a single owner keeping the Sportwagon on the road. It's quite impressive really, even at a time when these were near worthless (still aren't all that valuable) he kept throwing money at whatever needing doing according to his Alfa specialist, sometimes twice or even 3 times a year.

The bill of sale reveals that he bought the car from Hylton Worcester (long wiped from the face of the earth by the looks of it, theres only a BBC radio studio at the address) at 17 months old for around 13 grand, thats quite the discount compared to MSRP considering the first owner before him only covered about 3k miles in it. Trade in: a V6 Cougar!

Being the 2nd owner that annual mileage changed pretty quickly, the miles were piled on fairly quickly, fortunately he kept up with the services, too:

Funnily enough even Alfa Romeo didn't expect the 156 to survive beyond 132k miles so the service book had to be extended:

And even that doesn't cover all of them as he kept going all the way into last year. It would take hours to cover the entire service history so here are just the most interesting expenses:

An ECU upgrade! I'm not sure what said upgrade entails but it would finally explain the impressive grunt the car has. Might have to reach out to NJS (whos name seems vaguely familiar for some reason) to see what that would gain the 2.4 JTD in power.

Rebuilt turbo 30k miles ago, I'll take that as a positive.

All springs and shock absorbers 15k miles ago. In general the 156 seems go through suspension parts like crazy, eating control arms at probably twice the rate of its German equivalents (which are already kinda bad compared to a Lexus).

Last timing belt less than 15k miles/4 years ago, the 3rd timing belt change over the car's life.

Another set of front springs a year ago. There was another front spring replaced between the two dates above... Also the most recent piece of welding work.

A/C recharged a few years ago, which means its holding charge permanently as it is still blowing nice and cold.

There's absolute stacks of service history all the way to more or less exactly a year ago. After seeing this mentioned by HMC in his thread it seemed pretty clear to me that this must be a good one. It may need a few bits and pieces here and there to be a solid longterm keeper but years of commitment by Mr. Evans really has paid off in my mind. Here it is at the owner's address a few months before it was picked up by bramz.

I really hope that Golf estate isn't its replacement. I'm actually surprised he let it go for what must have been pretty little money. Part of the reason might be some crustiness on one of the shock towers. None of that is unfixable though so fingers crossed we won't find too many other things to worry about come Saturday.

[bramz7]

The impressive history made me loathe to put a cheap battery in the engine bay, hence the shiny big Bosch, and the Bosch aero wipers (soz, they're good wipers for anyone who thinks otherwise), I couldn't let it get cheap parts after a lifetime of not! 

I won it on eBay for £620. It felt like I'd mugged him but they're really hard to value and I think the high mileage scared people. Their loss!

[Schaefft]

5 minutes ago, bramz7 said:

The impressive history made me loathe to put a cheap battery in the engine bay, hence the shiny big Bosch, and the Bosch aero wipers (soz, they're good wipers for anyone who thinks otherwise), I couldn't let it get cheap parts after a lifetime of not! 

I won it on eBay for £620. It felt like I'd mugged him but they're really hard to value and I think the high mileage scared people. Their loss!

620 quid is criminal but then again thats what they usually do on ebay, here's another one for not that much more which seemed like an absolute bargain:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395314019450?itmmeta=01J1ZT2NPJ8465EKYDQ79GGAKW&hash=item5c0a8d3c7a:g:GzsAAOSw4mJmDRdx&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4PzHc02%2FFzOJQluMVnJbULzz3DdVX1cb1ehC5TXb1lq1%2BOo2p6HBx1r7Mstm%2Fj4UUGLZBKhevOZwrFTfMjBO2CNAAKH1CXoRLQzzDdm1j1H%2FNIYXrL571kov81TdmPmwqXOOBLO7d4dGXZ%2B5%2B%2FsR35b2KtvNQui19bIXJC7QLw5vJLhMmhzAzbV%2BDWpyNBvdeZe%2FaNdtTduAblMk7qRKF%2FxFv4sHCSBrrpySKAbwh%2FDmIke2%2BepH1w0UguwfWvvBUXVdt9kW62s4jesUpkvmnzdbLEx%2BwkVLWmkBGPwK5x9S|tkp%3ABk9SR7zbivqPZA

I'll reach out to the previous owner to see if he has any extra info about the ECU upgrade, the one above claims some pretty impressive numbers.

[IronStar]

On 01/07/2024 at 23:29, Schaefft said:

Apparently the estate has less boot space than the saloon, no clue how that's possible but the roof cutout to allow for a larger tailgate opening is quite a clever bit of design that I never noticed before, so is the integrated spoiler:

Warning: Alfa geekout

It really doesn't. Contemporary car journos were a bit* dishonest. That myth is coming from the usable space under that luggage cover being smaller than the usable area of the saloon. Roll back or remove the cover though, and it's, obviously, much more spacious. 

This is a consequence of an estate having the same basic bodyshell as the saloon, with the estate hatch being grafted on the back. The start of the hatch is at the exact length where the saloon car's roof is ending. Supposedly Alfa didn't even consider making an estate when they were designing 156, but were forced by FIAT management, as it was the hot body type of the day, so they just grafted some windows and a hatch and called it a day. 

The final result looks amazing, but has a high boot lip, odd V-shaped opening, and hatch door fouling the cargo space as it's not flat up but sloped inwards. The estates commonly suffer from the rear camber being toe-in as the rear suspension is shared between the estate and saloon as well. Overloading the estate's not-all-that-great carrying capacity, already compromised by having more weight on the rear because of the body shape, results in bent rear struts. The insult to injury is that bit of rear struts is not adjustable, so you can't fix the camber with an alignment, but you need new struts.

Amazing cars, but not all that great in being estates. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I'm enjoying mine. There's nothing quite like it that I've ever had or driven. If I had to pick between selling it and my 159, 159 would go, despite my 156 being much leggier than my 159. 

[JakeT]

All of the above makes total sense. I was wandering around Rijeka in Croatia today and saw a 156 saloon with the 2.4JTD. It sounded like a police car siren indicating turbo failure was imminent, and the nearside rear wheel had a lot of camber on.

 

this looks a total buy though, that’s had an owner that was in it for the long run.

[Schaefft]

Some great insight there @IronStar, I didn't notice but the bodyshell indeed is mostly saloon with a roof extension crafted on, yet it turned out very successfully visually.

We've had a look underneath yesterday. The previous MOT welding could be better (and will get improved eventually, as usual whoever did the work was just lazy and bodged it, noone takes pride in their work anymore), however it would be anything but impossible to get it through a test next month with very little work needed (slight leak from a CV boot), suspension wise everything is rock solid and corrosion isn't all that much of a problem in the areas that are visible, surprising considering this Alfa has seen 19 winters. That means theres little stopping me from starting to gather some parts for it now, a set of badges is badly needed.

After a week and over 800 miles in the 156 it's time for it to go into storage for a little while though. The next few weeks will be very busy for me, preparing multiple cars for their MOT and the Cadillac for a trip to Germany and Paris at the end of the month. With insurance premiums still rising I wouldn't want to to insure and tax yet another car long-term, none of this will be an issue once we move to our new property though (slow progress there, still waiting for the sellers to submit their documents).

One of those cars is the Corona which needs a washer pump and sticky caliper sorting. The Alfa has taken it's space for now. Really hoping that having more space will mean that these two Auroras (and my 528i in between them) will finally receive some attention.

I've mentioned the Cadillac. Ideally I'd want to sort all of its issues before the trip. The plan is to take it to Fotu24, then straight after that take the ferry from Harwich to the hook of Holland and from there to a mate of mine near Duesseldorf who's just as obsessed as me where a new windshield for the Deville is waiting. I'd then leave the car there for a week and take the train home (where the 523i Touring is waiting with a fresh TUV). After a week there we'd take the train back to collect the Cadillac and take it to Paris for the Olympic games, after which I'd take the ferry back to the UK.

That's quite the trip for a car that currently only has 2 forward gears, no A/C and is spreading its axle grease all over the undercarriage. Parts to sort all these issues arrived on Friday and will tomorrow so lets make a start:

Since the forecast said rain in the afternoon I planned to just do the boot today. Should be easy enough, right...? First things first, two bolts that hold the strut to the knuckle, which came off surprisingly easy.

Next step, remove 34mm hub nut. Turns out I don't have any 34mm sockets, so quick trip to Halfrauds in style:

Having just been behind the wheel of a brand new Ypsilon in Sicily recently this was a welcome spot, I completely forgot that this gen was still sold as Chrysler in the UK and shows how long they built them:

One 34mm impact socket richer, over 10 quid poorer. Devilles (and therefore Sevilles, fwd Fleetwoods and probably Eldorados as well as pretty much anything else GM big and fwd) used the same front suspension design from the mid-80s all the way to the 2000s so hopefully it will come in handy again in the future.

No photos of this step but the hub nut came off surprisingly easily with the impact as well. A few blows with a sledge hammer and the axle was sliding out the hub eventually. The other end didn't cooperate quite as much so I cut the boot instead:

The transmission side of an axle, nothing too surprising there. Despite the leak there was plenty of clean grease left.

To get the boot on the axle needs to be disassembled, snap ring on the top and bottom need to go first:

Aside from a missing socket things have been going surprisingly easily. Until I slid the axle back in and tried to pull the new silicon boot over the transmission end. Well, turns on that grease absolutely everywhere, a very tight fitting boot and a complete lack of grooves or anything really to hold the boot in place is a recipe for an absolute shitshow. I've easily spent an hour somehow trying to pull the boot over a rubber seal and somehow get the metal clamp or a bunch of zipties around it before it would slip straight off again. My patience was long gone by the time the new boot started to tear, half of the estate probably heard my opinion of the design of it all and the person responsible for it. Desperate times require desperate measures so I eventually took the stapler and put an end to it all after having to remove the axle several times:

The staples were just about enough to hold the boot in place so I could get some zipties around it to seal properly. In fact I don't even care if it doesn't seal properly, its one of those jobs I never wanna do again. Rockauto sells some dodgy looking quick fit boots where you glue two halves together form a tight seal, I'd rather replace one of those once every year than attempt this again.

The zipties plus staples should keep it on there for a while. I've cut the excess tails and put a regular heavy duty hose clamp on the axle end and spun the wheel around a few times. There's still sufficient play in the boot even with axle extended and the wheels hanging down, it should make it to Germany and back.

If the weather plays along I'll drop the transmission pan and valve body over the next few evening to replace the 2-3 shift solenoid and give the transmission a service, fingers crossed thats whats preventing the gearbox from shifting into 3rd instead of neutral. Naturally no drain plug so another mess about to happen.

[Mrs6C]

There are a few tips in this Cadillac forum thread, to help avoid a mess... 

https://www.cadillacforums.com/threads/transmission-shift-solenoids.33408/I

I hope the new solenoid/s will resolve the issue. Good luck! 

[2flags]

Ah, don't you just love how manufactures do everything in their power to make servicing simple? Sometimes, I too think that slow roasting over an open fire is too good for them!

[jmsguzzi]

Glad that Alfa is now close to home, I know you usually keep hold of your cars but if you do come to move the 156 on do let me know.

[yes oui si]

Interesting to see that Cadillac are doing a nice normal bolt-on strut at the front... Do you happen to know if all K-body(?) cars are like that? What kind of setup do they have at the rear - seperate spring and shock? 

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, yes oui si said:

Interesting to see that Cadillac are doing a nice normal bolt-on strut at the front... Do you happen to know if all K-body(?) cars are like that? What kind of setup do they have at the rear - seperate spring and shock? 

It does have adaptable dampers but in reality thats just one more electrical connector for an internal motor that moves a valve, beyond that its all standard steel springs and dampers. I think they have rear height regulation but that doesn't add much complexity either as its all integrated into the damper. And yeah, a quick search tells me that K-cars (and therefore pretty much anything fwd Mopar up to the Imperial I assume) was McPherson strut in the front and beam axle in the back.

Something I forgot to mention yesterday: I've reached out to the long term owner of the Alfa through Ebay. The "ECU Upgrade" was not for improving engine output but to map out the EGR which naturally was a common issue. Since I doubt that this has any effect on torque numbers the 20 Valve JTD 5-cylinder really must be pulling so well from standard, very impressive. I can't imagine what its like with the tune!

[wuvvum]

A lot of people swear about split CV boots but I've never had any issues with them.  The one I put on the Renault 6 a couple of years ago is still going strong - in fact it looks like it's going to fail due to perishing before the glued join comes apart.  At least one I've fitted in the past (to the Rover 200) passed two successive MOTs without issue.

[Schaefft]

3 hours ago, wuvvum said:

A lot of people swear about split CV boots but I've never had any issues with them.  The one I put on the Renault 6 a couple of years ago is still going strong - in fact it looks like it's going to fail due to perishing before the glued join comes apart.  At least one I've fitted in the past (to the Rover 200) passed two successive MOTs without issue.

That's good enough for me, next one I'll be doing will be one of those then!

Today's grocery hauler, surrounded by concentrated blandness:

Just imagine what you could have had for the price of that miserable Eco Sport.

[Split_Pin]

There are 2 Z3s within 1/4 mile of me. 2 seaters haven't worked for me before but I'm trying to think positive as I really like them!

[Schaefft]

On 08/07/2024 at 22:44, Split_Pin said:

There are 2 Z3s within 1/4 mile of me. 2 seaters haven't worked for me before but I'm trying to think positive as I really like them!

As I've mentioned before they are seriously undervalued but then that applies to the much newer Z4 as well. Can't go wrong with a facelift in the right color with the right engine. It's not a long distance cruiser (soft top just doesn't isolate you from the wind noise enough) but it's a simple, cheap to own great looking BMW roadster that people still seem to think is decent money.

People probably think exactly the opposite when seeing the Corona. We've had a look around the village that will hopefully soon be our new home today, the local petrol station has quite a bit of retro charm.

The pub a few minutes down the road is a popular car meet destination, certainly looks promising.

Sporty Mondeo parked outside:

[Schaefft]

Sorted the last few things out at my better half's grandma's house today which will be sold soon (only took over 2 years). Being a slightly weathered Victorian town house the Jag didn't look out of place outside.

As you can imagine, quite a few throwbacks to a different time can be found inside (just like in the XJ!). How about the local used car classifieds from 1959?

Anyone in the market for a like-new Morris Minor or Austin A40?

We didn't take much but the boot of an XJ can hold quite a few treasures* fortunately.

Parked next to an LS430 on our way back. I know the Jag sits lower than normal but damn.

[Schaefft]

After yesterday's downpour (and maybe before?) the Corona formed a swimming pool in its driverside footwell. I haven't had a chance yet to check where its coming from, nowhere obvious so probably from the firewall or sunroof drains. Will have to check that tomorrow as we are back to the Cadillac tonight.

As previously mentioned, the car suddenly lost 3rd and 4th gear from one day to the other. Since that indicates an electrical problem (or some absolutely catastrophic sudden failure of an essential component) I wasn't too worried about it. Turns out shift solenoid failure isn't all that uncommon in the 4T80E. Lets find out why.

Here are the parts we need. Filter kit that comes with the pan gasket (the old one is reusable though, might as well change it considering its approaching 30 years of service) and the shift solenoid kit, part # 24211355, which includes two identical solenoids for 1-2 and 3-4, part # 24207662, as well as a new filter, a bracket and bolt. It'll become very clear in a moment why GM thought those might be needed...

The underside of a '96 Deville, and any Northstar powered FWD Cadillac in fact. That's certainly a big tranny pan right there.

It's safe to say that this is gonna be a mess no matter what. Get the biggest container you can find to catch the ATF. It's probably easiest to slowly drain it from the front like I've done here:

Pan off, we reveal the valve body. Nothing out of order at a first glance. In an ideal world you'd now just slide the shift solenoids out, push the new ones in a be done with it, but this is GM. We'll have to drop the entire valve body assembly and take it apart.

Having a closer look one of the bolts (center left) already started to back itself out. I'm not sure if anybody has been in here before but I doubt it.

The solendoids in place. I think you can already tell that something isn't quite right... I was actually pretty happy to see this.

If you ever wondered what that 4T80E looks like without valve body, take a look. You need to disconnect 3 electrical connectors (2 solenoids and 1 additional connector next to them) and the mechanical shift linkage held in by a simple metal clip, it's pretty clear once you are in there.

The million different bolts were a different story, I ended up needing a cardboard template to know which bolt ends up where. You can't just take them all out in one go either as you'd risk splitting the valve body open while dropping it. Good thing I found a useful series of YT videos when I couldn't figure out whats still keeping it in place. Should anyone find this thread in 5 years time wanting to do this job and wonder which bolts those are, the 2nd video in the series above mentions them but I've marked them in this photo as well:

The valve body assembly seen from the top. The little plate in the upper left corner had to be removed to drop the valve body. Unfortunately we need to take it all apart to reach the solenoid clips. The bolts holding it all together have various lengths so once again make a template to understand where they'll go back later.

The assembly actually consists of two larger parts. Here's what it looks like with the bigger of the two removed. There are 4 metal balls inside, do not lose them as the transmission will be worthless without them. I've placed them exactly where they need to sit during reassembly here, they have fairly obvious indentations they are supposed to sit in:

Here's the actuator portion of the valve body removed, there are 4 more metal balls which need to sit in these exact locations once reassembled (the empty slot there is covered by the larger portion above):

Finally we get to the point where we fix the issue we took all of this apart for:

As you can tell, the plastic casing of one solenoid (bottom) is cracked. This was caused by the little black square right above it which is the top of a filter element sitting between the two solenoids. Apparently its quite common for it to push out with enough force to destroy the solenoids. You can also see one of the clips holding the solenoids inside the valve body. You can only pull it out once the valve body is disassembled. I'm not sure why GM chose to design it that way but here we are.

With both solenoids replaced we can put the valve body back together. Make sure that the balls stay in exactly the place they are supposed to be when lowering the piece onto the lower valve body. Remember the bracket and bolt from the kit? I've circled them in the photo above, they now hold the filter in place without it ever hitting the solenoids. This fix was actually introduced on all these transmissions from the factory from around MY98 onwards.

Valve body reassembled. As you can tell from the photos above, my working conditions are second to none. I've been extremely careful to not introduce any dirt to any of the components though.

The magnet in the pan had some sludge on it but thats to be expected. The ATF was generally quite clean, in line with the 77k miles the odometer shows. Once again, I don't think it ever received a service before.

Valve body back in the transmission and everything reassembled, just missing the filter here. I cleaned everything once again, including the pan and mating surfaces. And there we go, all done with new solenoids, filters and gaskets:

And new ATF. I chose Dexron VI instead of III, they are supposed to be fully compatible (despite the former being more yellow than red) and nowadays what GM uses themselves when doing gearbox services. Liqui Moly because quality.

Filling up the transmission requires the air intake to come out, excellent design right there.

With all the above completed I've run the car up and down the motorway (and to Tesco) for the first time since doing the axle  and am happy to announce that the transmission shifts perfectly through all gears again, maybe even a little smoother than before! Big success!

With this out of the way there's very little stopping me from going on the big roadtrip starting Friday next week now. I've noticed the tracking being completely out however, so had a quick look at that:

Yeah, with the steeringwheel straight that doesn't look good.

These are the only two bolts on the front suspension I've had to loosen when removing the axle. You can tell by the original bolt marks that there's apparently enough adjustment there to signicantly affect toe in and camber, which surprised me to be honest. I've matched the alignment to the marks now, first time around still wasn't perfect so I've redone it, didn't test drive it another time but there isn't much else I can do right now without an alignment machine unfortunately.

I'll see if I can get the A/C pressure-tested over the next few days, cold air will be badly needed once we leave the UK. I might still replace the oil pressure sensor as well. It's a pita to reach and the oil still looks good so it'll really depend on my mood over the next few days. Its great to see that both the axle boot and shift solenoids fixes were successful though (so far anyway), its a big step towards making the car mechanically sound so fingers crossed nothing else pops up.

[mercedade]

Amazing work, brilliant write up too

[Schaefft]

Thanks, much appreciated! I'm hoping that this will be useful to somebody someday!

Getting the A/C charged might be more complicated than expected. Not because it's any different from the standard procedure, it's also using R134a as most other 90s/00s cars do. It's that Halfords outright refuse to have a look at the car, and garages probably wouldn't be honest/bothered enough to properly pressure test the system before filling it (which won't be cheap because the system needs over 900g of refrigerant when empty). If anyone here's knows a reputable place that does a/c service in the Newcastle area, let me know!

[Schaefft]

Found someone operating out of his (very nice) house who had no issue having a look at the Cadillac's A/C. It's one of those cars that hasn't received any attention there in years so it's perfectly possible that the system is leak free. He did a pressure test which didn't reveal any issues, naturally there is never a guarantee but he seemed quite confident and generally very genuine so we pulled a vacuum and filled the system.

70 quid later we got nice cold A/C in the Cadillac. If this actually stays that way I'm a very happy customer, it would be one more thing crossed off the list.

Cadillac vs. the inlaw's driveway. They aren't car people at all (contrary to the neighbors on both side) so I'm sure they are starting to wonder about whats regularly showing up in their street recently.

[Schaefft]

What's better than owning one Jaguar XJ?

Owning two ofcourse*! After years of trying to sell this XJ for very fair money Mr. @Rave made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I was somewhat tempted by it long before, fast forward a few years I've completely given up on maintaining good relations with the neighbors so here we go!

What we got here is a very early X300 4.0 Sport in absolutely gorgeous Torquoise metallic. I was always somewhat intrigued by this color which was offered on the XJ Sport and XJR in the first few model years, but damn does it look great seeing it in person. I originally intended this to be a short-term parts donor for the green 3.2 next to it, but I'm starting to have my doubts whether that would be fair towards what is a safeable and fairly rare spec X300!

Obviously the Jag has it's issues (the photos hide them very well, also sorry for the crappy quality, lens is on its way out) that prevented it to go through another test a few years back. There's still a big hole in the driver side floor/sill area and the clearcoat is gone on roof, hood, rear arch (received a respray before which is naturally now failing), with plenty of rust bubbling everywhere and in between. However, if you weren't looking for good cosmetics and wanted to keep this going for a few years longer there isn't really all that much that would be stopping you, at a first glance anyway. Lets take a closer look at what arrived yesterday then:

Rear bumper brackets are gone, apparently a common issue and bolt-on part.

Clearcoat gone in many places, however some of the paint defects would come out with a polish.

Getting a little green around a few areas, too:

Both front wings will be rotten but most of this is just dirt that would come off with a good wash. Well, I couldn't help myself and gave it all a good rinse:

And come on, what's not to love here? Even on a cloudy day like yesterday you could tell how great this car could look with a bit of TLC put back into it. The photos don't quite bring across how beautiful this shade of turquoise can be in different lighting:

The interior is in good shape, too:

I originally intended to swap it over into my 3.2. However, with this Sport being an earlier model without glovebox and much of the wood laquer not in the best shape (while mine is near perfect) I might just take the sport seats. In general however I feel this car is too nice to end up as a parts donor. I know it's not worth much even fixed up and realistically I could extract more value out of it by breaking it. Maybe there is a chance to rehome it and keep it on the road though, its running and driving perfectly fine and anything it'd need at 119k miles is easily obtainable still.

With more cars already lined up there is a little bit of urgency with this one. I'll see if I can gauge any interest online to see whether someone would take it on as a whole for recommissioning. Alternatively I'll strip it of anything useful and sell the rest to anyone trying to keep their own car on the road. There might even be a last hurrah for it on the oval. If any of our resident X300 owners need anything, let me know now.

[Schaefft]

Currently on holidays in Germany so not much progress, or is there?

After 3 visits in the last year the 523i Touring is now up for sale, should anyone here for some reason be interested in a German registered E39 with very long TÜV that's solid but a little tatty on the outside let me know!

I even managed to get some improvements done while here, it's now got the rail cover trim for the driver seat and all floor mat fasteners replaced. The light switch coating sometimes goes weird on them so I replaced them as well. Just imagine this being a solid color again:

In bigger news, after over 4.5 years the German abandoned Oldsmobile Aurora (collection thread here) has finally been collected and left the seller's yard! The original plan was to get everything the car needed sorted by the seller so it would be ready for an inspection and could be driven back to the UK eventually.

Well, this was in January 2020 and we all know what happened just a few weeks later. Both myself and the seller (large business owner) were distracted by lockdowns and other commitments, the original issue was a faulty ignition switch iirc and dead fuel pump but after several attempts to get it sorted (replacing the ignition switch, another dead brand new pump out of the box, other issues with sparkplug wires) and me usually having very little time when I'm there twice a year (usually without proper tools) little progress was made. A collection attempt last October resulted in a crash involving the transport person 2 minutes from the collection point so plenty of things have gone wrong since I bought it.

Well, it's now dumped in front of my parent's house, waiting to be collected, hopefully by myself towards the end of the year once I got a trailer and the space to store it. It naturally has suffered in those 4 years (and I still don't know whether the engine and gearbox are fine) but with them being as rare as they are it's worth the effort I think, even if it's just a donor for my other two Auroras waiting in the UK. UK- reg in case overly keen German police men want to fine me for parking a non-registered car on public spaces despite this being private land.

That's not all though. We took the Cadillac to Germany to get the windshield replaced after all. I got the confirmation yesterday that everything went well, hopefully some positive news here later.

[Schaefft]

And there we go, Cadillac collected, with a replacement windshield that's in great condition despite 25 years of age. As you can tell below, the old one was heated and destroyed itself by overheating at some point:

Now all sorted, albeit not cheap as not handled through insurance. Did some final assembly in the Aldi carpark, too.

Here's the car that donated it, a later '98 Deville of a friend that was vandalized and lived in by what apparently turned out to be terrorism suspects lol.

Not much left of it, shame as it was a nice example before.

Anyway, this is our last full day in Germany, we'll leave for Paris tomorrow.  The Cadillac is in good company tonight.

A/C still blowing cold as well!

[Schaefft]

Not much to report other than the Cadillac having made it to Paris. There's no need for it here after all though, even fairly far outside of town public transport is working fairly reliably. So have some Paris quirky/tourist/old money shite instead:

[Spottedlaurel]

The Volvo 240 is something of a surprise to see, and thumbs up for the Carina E too - you've found things there that I haven't seen down here in the countryside.