Schaefft's (transatlantic) Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Shite in the Big Apple

[Schaefft]

Almost forgot to post this one, the only moment I had both of them parked next to each other. You'd think that two similar age, segment and origin cars would offer the same ownership experience. In reality these two cars have very different personalities thanks to their design inside and out and driving characteristics.

Hopefully the much larger drive of the new house will allow me to do these kind of side by side comparisons more often.

[Split_Pin]

Sorry you didn't need to sell the A8 in the end, you did seem quite sad to see it go yesterday 😕

Rest assured it has gone to a good home. It has been a dream car of mine since the D3 was launched. 

I did a circuit of the nearby streets before meeting you yesterday to warm up (wearing shorts was a bad idea) and I took a tour of your fine collection! 

[Schaefft]

1 minute ago, Split_Pin said:

Sorry you didn't need to sell the A8 in the end, you did seem quite sad to see it go yesterday 😕

Rest assured it has gone to a good home. It has been a dream car of mine since the D3 was launched. 

I did a circuit of the nearby streets before meeting you yesterday to warm up (wearing shorts was a bad idea) and I took a tour of your fine collection! 

Knowing its not out of reach certainly makes a difference, hence the decent shiter discounts people usually get on here. I'd definitely have it back in a few months when all the hassle is over!

And well, now that winter is over I can hopefully find the time to properly clean and drive all of them again. 5 months of barely seeing a bucket of water makes the neighborhood look a kinda run down now😂

[Schaefft]

First real big trip for the Celsior tomorrow.

I literally just came back from Birmingham last weekend to pick up some parts for the E38 and E39. Naturally someone posted an LS400 they are breaking on FB just a few days later and it's got both the exterior and interior color of my Celsior, which is a very rare thing to happen nowadays really. And it's in... Birmingham!

I'll probably buy the front seats and rear bumper, plus possibly the bonnet if they are in decent shape. Its impossible to tell from the photos.

Coincidentally I also got a message from Scaryoldcortina yesterday that someone has an abandoned Toyota Celsior (!) they are looking to get offers on, in Gateshead of all places! So naturally I headed over there after work yesterday to have a look.

Unfortunately it's not in the right colors and too far gone to ever look decent again. It blows my mind that of the handful of 1st gen Celsiors that must be left in this country one is just rotting away minutes from my house. It could be a decent parts donor for some Celsior specific bits but I don't need all that much from a pre-fl car either. Would have been an easy decision if it had the right colors.

Should anyone be interested in a very rough example of a very cool rare car let me know. The odometer only shows 140k km (definitely more accurate than mine) and being a high spec it comes with the Japanese market electronic suspension (not air suspension) as well. Might even still work!

[Spottedlaurel]

Good luck on the trip!

Seeing yours looking so good is giving me the enthusiasm I need to persevere with mine! Just hope it gets through next week's MoT OK....

Are they Mk4 wheels on yours?

[Schaefft]

49 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Good luck on the trip!

Seeing yours looking so good is giving me the enthusiasm I need to persevere with mine! Just hope it gets through next week's MoT OK....

Are they Mk4 wheels on yours?

It looks much better in the photos but hopefully I can fix a few of it's cosmetic flaws with some of the parts I'll get today.

And yes, I got them for free after buying them with a stash of other parts. Even the tires were in good shape. I think they suit it well, just need one more wheel to replace the one that has the paint flaking off of it.

[Schaefft]

And we are back! 500 miles and the Celsior took it like a champ! Check engine light now comes on randomly so I'll have to blink out the codes to see what's up. Aside from that it drives very well, with a few known electrical issues and a brake service left to sort out.

The rear bumper wasn't any better than mine so this will need to stay on for now. I took the bonnet though, it'll probably need painting as well but isn't dented and might clean up alright. With both cars having received plenty of poor paintwork before I think getting a perfect match is impossible without an entire respray, something we noticed only after swapping them. The seats look great though and should be a major improvement to mine. I definitely made the most out of the space the car offered 😂 

Plenty of other small bits in the boot that will hopefully make a difference when I get a chance to fit them, it's crazy how many parts aren't interchangeable between similar year cars despite them looking identical at a first glance. I'll probably end up getting my mirror from Japan...

[Schaefft]

Good news! Fairly expected ones to be fair. The ULEZ refugee E38 passed another MOT, same advisories as before and 222 miles later, 6 miles more than the year before... With so many other cars around it doesn't see all that much action, the only long trip its done last year was taking family to Cragside in Summer and it's not seeing the roads outside the estate at all during the salty season (which is basically half a year now it seems). A quick trip into town to have some Chinese dinner (it was great) was enough to confirm everything is still spot on.

Why do these look so goooood?! I might replace the rear lower control arms eventually to get those two points off the advisory list, no clue where they still found a seeping powersteering hose. With the replacement rear bumper and plenty of other parts for preventative maintanance and cosmetics in the boot I'm hoping to have another wave of improvements done on it over the next few months.

[jmsguzzi]

I'll drive it for you! 😍

[Schaefft]

Some disappointing news on the house side. It was all pretty much set in stone, we were only waiting for a bank statement that would proof we had the deposit in place for the estate agent to agree on the sale. Well, for whatever inexplicable reason my better half and her dad thought it would be a wise idea to have this sent via Post when they sorted it (I thought its easier to just have it all in a single account, hers), before a bank holiday weekend. Naturally the expected happened, Royal mail fucked up and didn't deliver, viewings happened on the long weekend, the previously motivated seller got a significantly better offer and we are out. I intervened and told gf/father in law to call the bank asap when the letter still wasn't here on Tuesday, we promptly got an email copy instead but even that would have cost us tens of thousands (!) of pounds in the end. Just another lesson to be learned, if something is important sort it yourself and never ever rely on anybody else. In 99 out of 100 cases people simply don't think or will fuck it up. Unfortunately a lesson I learn over and over and over again.

I don't think we'll get the opportunity we had there again but maybe the next one will at least offer a little more garage space. I also have more time to revive the other cars that will need to move eventually, so there's that...

Anyway, after picking up the parts for the Celsior last week I managed to make a little progress. I tried to clean the new bonnet but the dirt is so deeply ingrained that I'll have to get the polisher out next. I've also transferred the dual washer pipes exclusive to the Celsior over to the new bonnet, I still don't know why Toyota decided to go with two different setups for something as simple as washer pipes. Many different clips that were previously missing are back on the car and I finally managed to have a look at the lazy blower motor (yes it's somewhere behind all that wiring):

Fortunately there's just enough space to undo 3 bolts and drop it out from the bottom. At first I thought the transistor controlling the motor (there's also a separate more common resistor) at high speeds would be at fault so I rigged up its replacement. It became increasingly clear that it cannot be the source of the somewhat erratic motor speed though, especially when the motor works differently well depending on its position.

In the end I think the carbon brushes are just worn out, another indicator that the car will have significantly more miles than indicated. I tried to clean it all with brake cleaner and made an attempt at greasing the bearings. It's not seized up (like the W140 blower motor was) or fouling against anything so it can only really be the contact points of the carbon brushes being close to gone. I can press up on the motor shaft when it's installed and it suddenly goes twice as fast. It just doesn't get the voltage it needs anymore.

Anyhow, another drive into the countryside yesterday. Despite the remaining jobs it really is a great driver now. Here it is assuming it's Street Fighter position:

Almost. Hopefully a replacement blower motor will sort the airflow, I'll have to reach out to the local old school auto electrician to diagnose the radio and I might have a go at raising the coilovers in the back. Maybe even the A/C system could hold some pressure?

In the right lighting you could almost forget about it's cosmetic flaws, with some paint this could be a great looking car from any distance!

[loserone]

oh man, I'm sorry to hear about being gazumped.  Hope it's not cost too much so far and that you find somewhere with an attached garage / forecourt etc.

[Dabooka]

All I can say is the missus and I lost out on our ‘ideal’ home a few years ago which changed our plans and now sees us in a house we are far far happier about.  It’ll all work out in the end (like missing out on the ideal bargain motor, another one always comes along). Incidentally when we sold our house (to a pal as it turned out) the move was set for the Tuesday and we got it moved on the Friday; they declined the £60 quid fee for the faster payment and we had to wait three extra days. For sixty fucking quid.

And that Celsior is 🔥

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

oh man, I'm sorry to hear about being gazumped.  Hope it's not cost too much so far and that you find somewhere with an attached garage / forecourt etc.

 

59 minutes ago, Dabooka said:

All I can say is the missus and I lost out on our ‘ideal’ home a few years ago which changed our plans and now sees us in a house we are far far happier about.  It’ll all work out in the end (like missing out on the ideal bargain motor, another one always comes along). Incidentally when we sold our house (to a pal as it turned out) the move was set fore the Tuesday and we got it moved on the Friday; they declined the £60 quid fee for the faster payment and we had to wait three extra days. For sixty fucking quid.

And that Celsior is 🔥

Thanks guys, I'm hoping for the next one to come around eventually. The letter hasn't arrived to this day, very unusual for Royal Mail but maybe a sign why it wasn't meant to be. It's a huge bummer right now but might be for the better long term as long as we aren't overpaying for whatever comes next. Thats not easy in this market despite everything currently going on.

[yes oui si]

That's awful @Schaefft, but as you said there are other houses with differing potential despite the weird market.

This place has been up for a couple of months now. Nice wee bungalow, Ulgham ('Uffim' if you aren't local) is a great little village about 3 miles from the a1 just north of Morpeth, big parcel of land as well. 

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/66750133/

The map is wrong on the listing, it's actually the house in the middle here:

So that paddock has access from the lane behind, huge potential for a nice workshop and plenty of parking. 

[Split_Pin]

Ah I'm sorry to hear about the house

Celsior is looking splendid though.

[Schaefft]

7 hours ago, yes oui si said:

That's awful @Schaefft, but as you said there are other houses with differing potential despite the weird market.

This place has been up for a couple of months now. Nice wee bungalow, Ulgham ('Uffim' if you aren't local) is a great little village about 3 miles from the a1 just north of Morpeth, big parcel of land as well. 

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/66750133/

The map is wrong on the listing, it's actually the house in the middle here:

So that paddock has access from the lane behind, huge potential for a nice workshop and plenty of parking. 

That's actually not too far from a house in Longhirst we were looking at in July last year. That was the only other place where I felt like you were getting a decent house, outside space and location for a fair asking price. Naturally people went mental and outbid each other so far beyond the original asking price that we gave up eventually. On a house that probably needed 50k of renovations soon. There's still too many people with too much money to burn and overpay. If I compare prices of what is supposed to be one of the cheapest areas of the country with those of other comparable houses anywhere around the world I'm just shaking my head. We are quickly approaching 700-800k USD and this is not London, Tokyo or Toronto. The value just isn't there.

[yes oui si]

10 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

That's actually not too far from a house in Longhirst we were looking at in July last year. That was the only other place where I felt like you were getting a decent house, outside space and location for a fair asking price. Naturally people went mental and outbid each other so far beyond the original asking price that we gave up eventually. On a house that probably needed 50k of renovations soon. There's still too many people with too much money to burn and overpay. If I compare prices of what is supposed to be one of the cheapest areas of the country with those of other comparable houses anywhere around the world I'm just shaking my head. We are quickly approaching 700-800k USD and this is not London, Tokyo or Toronto. The value just isn't there.

Anything commutable to Newcastle is ridiculous money unfortunately 😕

[Split_Pin]

A bit further afield but I don't think gazumping is possible with the way things work in Scotland? 

My friend Michael stayed in the Borders for a while before moving to Wooler and its lovely there. I don't know what prices are like though and that might all be too far away anyway.

[yes oui si]

5 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

A bit further afield but I don't think gazumping is possible with the way things work in Scotland? 

My friend Michael stayed in the Borders for a while before moving to Wooler and its lovely there. I don't know what prices are like though and that might all be too far away anyway.

Does he like banjos? 

[yes oui si]

Jokes aside, it's hard to find a bad place to be West of the 697.

[loserone]

8 hours ago, yes oui si said:

Anything commutable to Newcastle is ridiculous money unfortunately 😕

Ahem.  

 

I'm staying quiet.  As Paddy MacAloon says, county Durham is horrible, don't visit, don't move here.

 

(Unless you're having kids, the schools could do with the numbers)

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, yes oui si said:

Does he like banjos? 

They never settled there and after a couple of years moved to St Andrews which is where they both met and went to Uni. They've never looked back.

[Schaefft]

9 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

A bit further afield but I don't think gazumping is possible with the way things work in Scotland? 

My friend Michael stayed in the Borders for a while before moving to Wooler and its lovely there. I don't know what prices are like though and that might all be too far away anyway.

Borders is just a little too remote although prices are a little more sensible there for sure! Don't really wanna live across the border either since income tax would go up significantly with the slightly different tax bands.

Took the Celsior to Alnwick today. Leaving the car park an elderly man approached me, he seemed quite happy to see the car. Waiting at the exit he came over to my window, quite enthusiastically claiming that I drive one of the best built cars to have ever existed. Hearing this of course made my day, it's not a given that the Celsior/LS400 is being recognized by anybody really, especially someone who would have any kind of real enthusiasm for it. I've let him know that the car only recently returned to the road after over 10 years which seemed to make his day in return. He quickly mentioned that his dad once bought a Bentley when he was 35 and continued to own it for 30 years. I sure hope he didn't confuse mine with one!😂

I had the chance to blink out the CEL codes as well. Results are both upstream o2 sensors and knock sensor #2... O2 sensors wouldn't surprise meas they are probably ancient, however the knock sensors were replaced when I changed the starter and I really don't want to take that intake manifold off again only to find it's perfectly fine. The real trouble is that some people got O2 sensor codes due to faulty ECU capacitors as well. I had mine already replaced but there's no guarantee that it all just worked. With the CEL light coming on relatively randomly, although usually under hard acceleration (it's usually gone when the ignition is turned off but can come back relatively quickly sometimes), it's not all that easy to find out what exactly could trigger it either. I've replaced the MAF just to see if it makes any difference at all and will try to read the resistance of the o2 sensors when I get a chance. That still leaves the knock sensor code though. The engine runs perfectly and I'm using E5 so I don't think there's actually a problem, it's more likely the non-OEM sensor is junk. Good thing I kept the originals, bad thing I'd only know if things are good or bad with everything reassembled...

I also started working on the bonnet paint after getting back home. With so many scratches on it it needs some serious wet sanding. Fortunately the ingrained dirt comes off very easily as a side effect. Here's what it looked like before:

I took some 600 grid and worked the worst scratches by hand. I need some new 1500/3000 grid sanding pads for my DA polisher though so this is what the bonnet will look like for a few days 😂

[sdkrc]

On 07/04/2024 at 13:01, Split_Pin said:

A bit further afield but I don't think gazumping is possible with the way things work in Scotland? 

I was gazumped in Scotland a few weeks before the agreed move in date and after we had signed the missives for selling our old place. Came close to leaving us homeless. 

It's shit but something @Schaefft and Mrs Schaefft loves will come along eventually. £50k's worth of work to get the gaff up to scratch sounds like a headache nicely avoided.

Cracking read catching up on your fleet Schaefft.  Celsior/LS400s seem to attract a lot of retired Alan Partridge types who talk bollocks. My favourite comment so far has been 'nice Mercedes!'

I have the exact same set of error codes on my LS and have been driving in limp mode for a long time, I'm fairly convinced it's a leak on the exhaust/cats. The flanges where they join love a bit of rust.

[Schaefft]

56 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

I was gazumped in Scotland a few weeks before the agreed move in date and after we had signed the missives for selling our old place. Came close to leaving us homeless. 

It's shit but something @Schaefft and Mrs Schaefft loves will come along eventually. £50k's worth of work to get the gaff up to scratch sounds like a headache nicely avoided.

Cracking read catching up on your fleet Schaefft.  Celsior/LS400s seem to attract a lot of retired Alan Partridge types who talk bollocks. My favourite comment so far has been 'nice Mercedes!'

I have the exact same set of error codes on my LS and have been driving in limp mode for a long time, I'm fairly convinced it's a leak on the exhaust/cats. The flanges where they join love a bit of rust.

The last one actually didn't seem to need any work at all (didn't get to the point where we'd schedule a proper survey) but pretty much everything else we viewed in the 12 months before did, if not signifcantly more. It's as if people only see the general location and plot size and go wild, ignoring everything else (or maybe they try to haggle the price down long after the seller agreed to an offer).

Do you get a code for a knock sensor? My exhaust just got welded but still seems to have a tiny leak through one of the post-cat temperature sensors. The first gen JDM Celsiors never had O2 sensors after the cat so I don't think it would affect the upstream ones, no cat temp warning either. Always a possibility of an exhaust manifold gasket giving up but I'd be somewhat surprised by that.

Quick bit of after-work progress then. The driver lower sill covers were scratched up beyond saving so I used the chance a week ago to pick up up a pair for 30 quid. The new ones aren't perfect either but can at least be polished to look decent again:

This also gave me a chance to inspect the welding work done on the sill in the back, it all looks nice and solid now:

Unfortunately they didn't actually drill the holes needed to reattach the sills again properly... In general the way they reattached it all was a bit of a mess. Naturally most of the clips were broken/missing, often unavoidable but something I would have gladly dealt with myself if needed without having them flap around underneath the car.

I found a bunch of Toyota clips that were perfect for what was needed. I'm actually not too keen on drilling holes into my freshly welded sills so I might go the double sided tape route on the back. Few more scuffs to polish out on that side but another job crossed off the list.

[sdkrc]

My memory is a little hazy, they're not the same error codes as yours. I do have knock sensor codes though, Juular had some good input on my thread though:

21 - main oxygen sensor left bank

52 - #1 knock sensor signal

55 - #2 knock sensor signal

[Schaefft]

35 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

My memory is a little hazy, they're not the same error codes as yours. I do have knock sensor codes though, Juular had some good input on my thread though:

21 - main oxygen sensor left bank

52 - #1 knock sensor signal

55 - #2 knock sensor signal

Ok, mine are 21, 28 (upstream o2 sensors left/right) and 55 knock sensor 2. I'll have a look, thanks!

[Schaefft]

Quick use of the few rays of sunshine tonight. I've already installed the replacement passenger seat shortly after I picked them up a week ago. The driver seat was next today. LS400 seats seem to have a common failure point where the axle that connects both backrest hinges slides out of the spline shaft on the center console facing side, mine had the same problem. It was also pretty worn from what is definitely not 128k km or miles so out it went:

As usually now was the time to clean up all the filth you wouldn't be able to reach otherwise:

Much better. Here's the before and after for the seat:

Also much better! Both replacement seats come with the added bonus of being heated, something that was a common option in the UK (front and back!) but one my Celsior never had. I already replaced the backseat with a heated one previously and happen to have a spare center console ashtray that also has the heated seat buttons integrated. The whole wiring loom for them isn't pre-installed from the factory though and I doubt that I'll ever get the chance to retrofit it, remembering the ordeal on the E39 years back its not gonna happen anytime soon. Nice to know I got the option now though.

If anyone needs the old driver seat or actually rather decent old passenger seat, let me know. Might be a nice office chair for someone!

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

Shaefft - loving the thread and very sorry about the house..................but as others have said, it's happened for a reason ...............and keep in touch with that agent.  just because they've had a better offer doesn't mean it'll exchange necessarily.  You can ask them if the other buyers need a mortgage/survey etc etc and keep on at them (if the house means that much).  It doesn't mean anything until they actually exchange contracts..............right up until that point it can go pear-shaped.  By chasing it up too you show the vendors you're motivated (and the agent too).  

Moider away - the agent might actually pick the phone up to you if he remembers your keen and continued interest in the house.  You never know.  

And keep looking.............also - ask agents if they have any houses that are coming up for sale (particulars being prepared) and if they have anything that they know of that might be for sale but isn't yet.   You never know what'll come out of the conversation.

And ring agents regularly (don't email) - things change week to week.  

Good luck

 

[Schaefft]

On 09/04/2024 at 21:39, Oi_Oi_Savaloy said:

Shaefft - loving the thread and very sorry about the house..................but as others have said, it's happened for a reason ...............and keep in touch with that agent.  just because they've had a better offer doesn't mean it'll exchange necessarily.  You can ask them if the other buyers need a mortgage/survey etc etc and keep on at them (if the house means that much).  It doesn't mean anything until they actually exchange contracts..............right up until that point it can go pear-shaped.  By chasing it up too you show the vendors you're motivated (and the agent too).  

Moider away - the agent might actually pick the phone up to you if he remembers your keen and continued interest in the house.  You never know.  

And keep looking.............also - ask agents if they have any houses that are coming up for sale (particulars being prepared) and if they have anything that they know of that might be for sale but isn't yet.   You never know what'll come out of the conversation.

And ring agents regularly (don't email) - things change week to week.  

Good luck

 

Thanks for the advice, I'm still hoping to get a call back from the agent eventually because the sale did end up falling through (way too early for that at the moment though). The property was rare enough with the combination of price, seller's motivation, location and curb appeal that I can't imagine anything similar coming up anytime soon. We've been looking for over a year by now after all and our set of requirements are quite specific. But we'll see.

Quick update on the Celsior today. The new driver seat triggered a seatbelt warning after putting it in the car. Turns out even the seatbelt buckle is slightly different on the Celsior, it has 4 wires coming from it while the UK LS400 one only has two (which are used for the nighttime illumation of the buckle on both cars). The wiring loom of the seat is identical, it's really only the loom of the buckle thats different, very odd but an easy fix.

I finished (for now) polishing the bonnet as well. I could keep going forever to get it all perfect but a) I got enough after like 5 hours and b) my Halfords polisher died once and for all. That means it might be time soon to finally get a better polisher with more power that should hopefully speed things up significantly.

600 grid wetsanding to get the worst scratches out first:

1500 and 3000 grid discs next (thats where you really need to be careful to not burn through the clearcoat. In hindsight I didn't have to be nearly as careful as I was, the super close-up results probably would have been better.

Done. These photos were actually before I spent another 2 hours today polishing the paint further, daylight wont show all the fine scratches that would become very visible under streetlights.

It's probably still not perfect but the difference is like night and day. The before photo below was after me cleaning the hell out of the bonnet, including using the claybar that normally removes everything. I ended up having to sand the dirt off of it.

So yeah, there's the proof that you can polish a turd as long as there's some clearcoat left on it. The problem really is that damage over such a large area takes absolute ages to remove. A better polisher might make a difference but as of right now it would take days to really cover the entire car. It might save you a respray though.

Depending on when I get a replacement polisher I might have a go at saving the paint on the front bumper. Its mainly scuffs that should mostly come out. The rear bumper received such a piss poor respray at some point that there's little hope in rectifying that though. Next update is hopefully me figuring out what O2 sensors I need to order and finally doing a brake flush. I might even change the ancient pads and/or hoses.