HMC- New Alfa 156 2.4 20v JTD SPORTWAGON

[NorthernMonkey]

3 hours ago, HMC said:

Goodbye Rover P6!

You kept that quiet, @LightBulbFun!!

[LightBulbFun]

21 minutes ago, NorthernMonkey said:

You kept that quiet, @LightBulbFun!!

Hah I wish! but sadly not

not unless I have unknowingly been doing a deal in my sleep and deleting the evidence afterwards LOL

*goes to check the dead end*

[puddlethumper]

Crikey!! I can't keep up.

[HMC]

Im sure the shiters will reveal themselves in due course

[Dick Longbridge]

Has the baby Austin survived the cull?

[wuvvum]

4 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Has the baby Austin survived the cull?

The baby Austin went over a week ago, there's been at least 15 changes since then.  Keep up at the back!

[Dick Longbridge]

16 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

The baby Austin went over a week ago, there's been at least 15 changes since then.  Keep up at the back!

Where's it gone?!

[HMC]

22 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Where's it gone?!

It went to tiverton to keep another company. I had a very decent offer from a member of the devon austin 7 club. He must have been about 65-70 - he turned up, jumped in and powered off, in a manner of speaking.

[gadgetgricey]

22 hours ago, wuvvum said:

 Keep up at the back!

In his defence even @HMCstopped changing his signature a while back as was taking too much admin time to keep up to date,  or the Avensis was his 2000th car.

 

[HMC]

Dropped the most original minor ive ever owned off at my mate steves, hes always wanted a decent one.

 

That mk10 he bought in 2005 for £1500. I would have said its worth xxxx now, but its looking a bit ropey now, and theres some nasty rot under that vinyl roof. He’s looking to sell that gt6, at around £8k its a bit too much for me, i bought a really nice mk1 gt6 off him about 8 years ago for 4.5k and im struggling to see the values they currently achieve; although was tempted to strike a deal with the morris and cash his way.

He has so many small chassis triumph bits over years of breaking them, his garden and sheds are an aladdins cave. He also owns the s type that i bought off him, and sold back to him, a decade or so ago. It looks a little sad these days, and the clutch is seized, and the wood is peeling and mouldy. Its a 3.4 but had a 3.8 transplant - actually originally out of an e type but with a twin carb head, and a taller rear diff. Its a 64 so has the moss box, which was quite pleasant to use despite its reputation. I went up to visit my parents in it once (a 700 mile round trip)  it would happily sit at 85-95 all day with the engine at something like 2700 rpm. With no pas and that moss box it was a physical but fun car to drive.

 

[HMC]

DOY news-

Its currently being used as a mobile skip to store wood and plasterboard during a house rennovation; such is the fate of large, cheap luxobarges?

The heating has always been jammed on hot, and twatting the duo valves, and working the temperature selectors repeatedly was to no avail, although the passenger side did cool down breifly after i hit the duovalve with the jack. That procedure is definitely not covered in the owners handbook.

Ive ordered a second hand replacment. This w140 debuted the “rest” function on benz saloons; hence it also contains a coolant pump to push the warm coolant into the heater matrix when the car is off.  So its a bit more complex than just a thermostatically controlled heater valve; its a minature water pump as well.

Anyway thats on its way, as is the headlamp switch which was broken and wouldnt do half the jobs it was supposed to. So by the weekend i hope i can operate the foglamps and set the cabin temperature to less than a furnace. All good news for the new AS buyer when i sell it after 5 minutes for breaking money…

[Schaefft]

I want this despite already having one. I'm sure it already sold to another shiter since this post was made.

[lesapandre]

4 hours ago, HMC said:

DOY news-

Its currently being used as a mobile skip to store wood and plasterboard during a house rennovation; such is the fate of large, cheap luxobarges?

The heating has always been jammed on hot, and twatting the duo valves, and working the temperature selectors repeatedly was to no avail, although the passenger side did cool down breifly after i hit the duovalve with the jack. That procedure is definitely not covered in the owners handbook.

Ive ordered a second hand replacment. This w140 debuted the “rest” function on benz saloons; hence it also contains a coolant pump to push the warm coolant into the heater matrix when the car is off.  So its a bit more complex than just a thermostatically controlled heater valve; its a minature water pump as well.

Anyway thats on its way, as is the headlamp switch which was broken and wouldnt do half the jobs it was supposed to. So by the weekend i hope i can operate the foglamps and set the cabin temperature to less than a furnace. All good news for the new AS buyer when i sell it after 5 minutes for breaking money…

The duo-valves module are a common fail. It should swap out without too much drama. Just hope any 2nd-hand item functions...

I've never tried taking the valves apart - may be possible too. 👍

[grogee]

13 hours ago, HMC said:

good news for the new AS buyer when i sell it after 5 minutes for breaking money…

<books Megabus to Tavistock>

[HMC]

DOY news:

Its currently looking even more like a beached whale, dragging its ass about as its full of plasterboard and wood bound for the tip tomorrow….

One eye on the mot next month, i replaced the switch for the lights. It was broken internally and wouldnt allow the rear fog lights to be switched on.

Ive also taken delivery of the auxillary coolant pump/ heater valve that im hoping to fit tomorrow so i can have cool air in the car if i want to!

 

[HMC]

Disclaimer: this is not a “nice” car - a lot of  is broken, the leather seats are all scuffed up,  and its down as “salvaged” on the v5.  So using a luxury car as a mobile skip isnt as reckless as it appears.

That all sounds awful, but it does mean its carefree motoring. In the jag i think about where to park; in DOY just park wherever.

[dome]

7 minutes ago, HMC said:

Disclaimer: this is not a “nice” car - a lot of  is broken, the leather seats are all scuffed up,  and its down as “salvaged” on the v5.  So using a luxury car as a mobile skip isnt as reckless as it appears.

That all sounds awful, but it does mean its carefree motoring. In the jag i think about where to park; in DOY just park wherever.

And I bet no-one dares fuck with you wherever you park it. I think it's because this is a bit shabby that I love it so much! 

I may* be hitting F5 on the Shite for sale forum, just in case...

[Jenson Velcro]

Blimey, I wouldn’t have expected you to still have the Merc by next month let alone put it through an MOT.

[HMC]

3 minutes ago, Jenson Velcro said:

Blimey, I wouldn’t have expected you to still have the Merc by next month let alone put it through an MOT.

Probably true! 😂

[EyesWeldedShut]

Does the LPG work? I may* be interested

 

[HMC]

Had a really productive spurt on the w140 today.

Finished fitting the new headlamp switch, and set to sorting the duovalves (as the ventillation system was permenantly stuck on hot) Nicht gut!!!

My diagnosis was made as if i hit the existing duovalves with the jack it affected the cabin temperature, so made an educated guess the fault lay there. I have previously revived others by cycling between hot and cold and tapping the valves. no dice this time. Von nix kommt nix (slang)

I used a merc breaker on e bay ive used before (no point buying another broken one so using a trusted source is handy) and thanks to the mb parts numbers he was able to confirm it was the right bit. Alles in ordnernung.

A erm, DUO of duovalves, earlier.

After a bit of minor surgery, including swapping the redundant stub seal over, i put everything back together

You can see bits of the LPG install there too. Anyway after putting it together i tested it and it was working brilliantly but- the passenger side temp control was changing the drivers side, and vice versa. Verrukt!!!

I had replicated the plumbing as was but either that was wrong (the former owner presumably had been messing with it?) or possibly the electrics on the dash console had been messed with and put together wrong. I went to see if i could swap the connectors over, left to right , right to left but the loom wasnt long enough so presumably they were correctly sided. I then swapped the 2 lower outlet stub hoses over (the opposite way round to how it had been) and that sorted it. Immer besser!

TL:DR- the heating system is now working properly, and it seemed to had been both broken and bodged.

[HMC]

Eagle eyed shiters may have noticed id put a for sale thread up for DOY and then deleted it. It was crunch time as the mot is out on the 18th and it was a question of selling or mot’ing it. 

Id spotted a nice looking b5 passat estate v6 tdi manual for £not much locally, with a long mot. Despite my best efforts to buy it (it was such a decent price there was no point haggling) but turned out it wasnt possible. I wonder if the seller hand been forced to put a for sale ad up by a spouse but didnt actually want to sell it. Or something like that.

Anyway ive also sold the jag and so this bloated benz saloon is now my only car and due for its mot test in a weeks time…

[HMC]

Theres a lot of old mot advisories for rust; im hoping the tester was a bit trigger happy and its not like the bismarck underneath- we will find out in a week! 

[hairnet]

have the kids asked where the holiday car went

 

[wuvvum]

I should think by now the kids are used to coming home from school to find a completely different fleet outside the house to what was there in the morning.

[HMC]

DOY news

The fan speed was all over the shop and would randomly stop, i decided the regulator was malfuntioning; and bought a repro resistor/ regulator. 

It seemed to fix it but today the fan was happying whizzing away and the vents were also doing wierd stuff. Im beginning to think that the control panel isnt quite right. £70 ish second hand. 

This benz still has a malfunctioning fuel sender as well, so although its being progressively sorted, quite a lot was broken when i bought it. 

I had the novelty of filling with LPG; turns out its a 60L tank and it cost under £60 to fill. 

 

[HMC]

I had lined up a replacement for DOY through facebook, but ended up being scammed for £100 . You live and learn.

Also at this time i offered the whale to 2 shiters that had expressed interest in it, but were not in a position to take it on.

All of the above means by default ive still got it; its in for its mot tomorrow. I predict a fail.  After spending out on new tyres and now an mot ill be in the position if it oweing me too much, which pragmatically means im going to stick with it- for now.

Good bits? the tyres. The parking brake. Umm, the glass? clutching at straws.

Bad bits? the drivers seatbelt sometimes is slow to retract, and sticks. The SRS light seems to have been wired up to cycle with the ignition but in such a way as to not be properly in sync with its purpose. Maybe some sort of defeat device? Rust is noted in the mot advisories. The front bumper is damaged from its life as a wannabe lowrider previous life. Is that a sharp projection i see? There seems to be an oil leak; im going to power wash the underside and hope. much of this is probably down to the testers discretion. We will see!

[gadgetgricey]

Sure it will fly through. 
Sorry re the £100. Anything that can be done.
Name/Shame seller on FB??

 

[Schaefft]

Definitely would take it on but I can only process one shiter rescue mission at a time, and I'm on holidays😅. However, let's see if it's still around in 3 weeks time.

[Sunny Jim]

Re. driver's seatbelt. Have you tried some silicon spray on it? Pull all of the belt out, wipe off any obvious dirt then give it a liberal spraying before wiping any excess off as it retracts. I've improved a few that way. Furniture polish, back to black and trim cleaner all work too.