🚨L1's 🇫🇷 shenanigans. Flooring, kitchen, express cambelt.

[Flat4]

Glad mine already has one!

[loserone]

A few pictures from today

 

 

Hopefully I will update with some more progress before this time next year.

[Tickman]

Is it a reasonably straight forward job putting the heart of the little pug into the big pug?

[loserone]

It would be, but the EW sits at a steeper angle than the TU did. So either Andy will have to fabricate a new engine mount to hold the engine at the right angle, OR the whole front subframe will be swapped over. In which case it's less of an engine swap and more of a hybrid car.

 

It has been done before, but most of the EW10 conversions have been 205s not 405s. Still, it means there's plenty of room left.

[Tickman]

Look forward to the next update on it at some point in the future

[loserone]

Minor updates from the worlds dullest fleet. 

 

* Leaf continues leafing.  I think I may be getting through the second set of front tyres.  It really is racking the miles up, Mrs_L1 is out in it today, six different stops and about 50 miles, two kids in the back and the double buggy fits in the boot.  It's still mildly satisfying taking it to Sainsbury's and getting free fuel whilst we shop.  The base model stereo is great for bluetooth and I just stream Radio Paradise of 6music to work and back.

 

* Legacy is getting a bit of a wheel bearing type rough noise.  Need to get that checked out before I go to Scotland for the monthly supper, or indeed the South of France.

 

* MG is still HGF, MOT expired, sitting my my lockup until the queue at Scary's dies down a bit.

 

* 405 is the same, only in Scary's yard.

 

I want a motorbike..

[loserone]

Got two punctures last night, an array of nails.

One tyre was totally flat, and the only way I could tell was the TSC coming on round corners at 60.  There is NO steering feel whatsoever.

The tyres have 3mm left, wondering when they were fitted.

[loserone]

Continuing the punctures theme, today we suffered a blowout at 130 (kph).

We're nearly back from Toulon seeing TontonTdB getting married, 2200 miles in 47 and a bit hours of driving at just a fraction shy of 30MPG.   Car has been cool, comfortable and incredibly spacious.  We're four up, camping, and brought a huge wooden chest with us as part of TdB's inheritance.  

 

Boot emptied alongside the Route National, wheel was swapped by the time the Gendermeries arrived in a swarm less than 5 minutes after stopping.  All very jolly despite my beam adjusters having gone astray they seemed to be impressed that Mrs L1 handled the kids and repackaging the boot contents whilst I got the wheel changed PDQ. 

Tomorrow's problem is to get an appropriate tyre ordered despite utterly hopeless grasp of the language.  I can buy pain and vin, but a Uniroyal rainsport 3 215/50 r17 91y, ideally over the phone to save a 50km trip to order it? The other rear tyre doesn't seem to be much worn, and probably only has 5k on it anyway..

I think this trip has made us rethink the purpose of the big family car, and despite its utter brilliance this will be sold and replaced with a POMPE BOSCH PSA estate, probably a pretty clean one if I can find such a thing.

[loserone]

Oh, one day record: 770 miles, arriving in Toulon at 2am in 29c heat. Yes, that's with two kids under three on board, so regular stops to get them out of the seats are essential.

There's a picture somewhere of the dashboard showing 39.5C as we left Carcassonne yesterday afternoon.  AC and cruise control are amazing.

[Flat4]

Crikey what caused the blow out???? Tyre wasn't old, was it? In fairness tho, that could have happened on any car.

[djim]

Does that look normal for a blow out? Looks like the tyre failed in a few places simultaneously and there is a pronounced wear line half way up the tyre wall. Could it have been running on low pressure for a while before it failed?

Disclaimer: I know less than fuck all about tyres and I've never seen a blow out, but I did drive an audi a4 a significant distance on a low pressure tyre due to the complete lack of 'feel' through the steering and the side walls were getting mullered. 

[loserone]

Yeah, it seems likely that it must have been running low, though I couldn't feel it and all the others are spot on.  Hot day, soft rubber, long drives every day for a week.  I reckon I caught something but could be wrong.

 

Anyway, all sorted as of this morning, and less than 1mm of tread depth difference.

[loserone]

Reet, a little update.

On 6/3/2019 at 10:22 PM, loserone said:

I think this trip has made us rethink the purpose of the big family car, and despite its utter brilliance this will be sold and replaced with a POMPE BOSCH PSA estate, probably a pretty clean one if I can find such a thing.

Yeah, about that.

Subaru did 3030 faultless miles at just shy of 30MPG.  The long runs were better than that, but we did about 600 miles of town driving too, for the wedding and for camping in Brittany. 

I was totally out of love with it when we left, particularly that it costs so much to run (wheelbearings this time) but it was brilliant, and fast, and comfortable.

Somehow I bought a beige car, and upon deciding it wasn't for me, Mrs L1 bought it from me. 

I may have an SP30 coming as a result of enjoying it today.

[Jimbob McGregor]

That’s just lovely. We’ve got a 7 seat 307SW just waiting for me to do a solid flywheel conversion and DPF delete, but I don’t know if it can compete with my Partner for usefulness/character (I like the headroom of the Partner but also the panoramic roof in the 307. Have old 205 turbo diesel to get on the road for older Peugeot action and a Bosch pump/injectors so I can dispose of used fluids/used veg oil etc for a cheap way of getting out of the wilds of Weardale. 

Your 305 is a nice amalgamation of most of the above qualities.

[loserone]

Not bad!

Really can't decide with this currently.  It's brilliant, but maybe fancier than we need as a modern daily.  

If someone wanted to offer three and a half, I could be tempted to part with it..

[Kiltox]

If it just gets on with the family car grind and your only complaint is running costs why change it?

How much do you reckon it costs a year to keep it on the road?

[loserone]

Is Mrs L1 reading this?

If not, a bit over a grand.

[Kiltox]

Hundred quid a month sounds bargainous to me - you could easily get through that with a shitter you end up changing every 5 mins. 

[loserone]

To be honest, I wouldn't think about changing it, but because I use the Leaf for my commute, she ends up using it for work / politics / playgroup / everything, which means 22MPG and town driving, which is exactly what it hates.  And it's had nearly all the wheel bearings now, a stainless exhaust would solve everything*

[Kiltox]

Isn’t town driving what the Leaf loves? Or do you have a shitty commute too?

[loserone]

Yeah, I spend 20 minutes each way sitting in Newcastle rush hour

[loserone]

Some days it would really make sense for me to use the Subaru (or more likely, the MGF, for it's superior fuel economy) and leave the LEAF behind.  Depends on the day though, and often I've left for work before she's up to tell me she's got stuff all over the county.

[loserone]

Ooh, it's about time for an update in here.

305 is being a pain in the arse.

I tried to buy a replacement fuel filter, which looks like one of those screw on types a bit like an oil filter.  I did some cross checking, validated it with some renowned internet experts, then discovered I've bought the wrong filters and have damaged the soft aluminium filter housing in trying to unscrew something which doesn't actually unscrew.

Here's the original housing and filter

As you can see it's been attacked by a chain-type oil filter tool

 

Here's a nice new filter

So I started unscrewing the filter which doesn't unscrew, because it's actually got a long bolt through the middle of it.  Bit rancid inside:

But the biggest problem is that I've done this getting it off.

So it can never be used again.

@Lacquer Peel very kindly sent me / Mrs L1 a new housing which fits the filters I bought.  I've plummed this in and filled it up with diesel, and I've also tried Scary's advice of covering the seals in vaseline to try and get it to seal, but although it will now run for a minute or two, it soon cuts out sounding like there's air in the fuel.  In the meantime there's just this fancy looking in-line filter in place which obviously has no water catcher so I'm reluctant to drive it very far.

Still, the roof rack makes filling it up easy

And this morning I've found a NOS housing for the original filter type on ebay, so I have bought that and hope it'll sort it out.

Oh , and I've bought it a new wing, which is a phase 1 one, so is missing the indicator/repeater hole and might be a slightly different shape at the front.

 

[loserone]

Whilst that's been going on, I've had the ongoing saga of the MGF, which suffered HGF symptoms as well as 50x the permitted CO2 output during it's MOT test.  I bought it a lockup to live in until Scaryoldcortina had room, then it moved onto his ramp and was dismantled.

 

After a bit I got bored, so I sold him it and bought a 205CJ

 

This was a half arsed attempt at getting a toy which I could take the kids out in.  But it only has lap belts in the back, and getting car seats which can be fitted with lap belts is tricky and expensive.  So I sold it on here for a loss after two weeks.  I did manage 1400 miles in it though.

[loserone]

I now have a classic policy for the 305 and my toy, and moving the 205CJ on meant there was a space.

 

Can't be having that.  Especially since I'm obviously having a bit of a peugeot thing at the minute.

 

@Jim Bell then had the misfortune of buying a nice 405 as a run around whilst his s70 wasn't broken, and have the runaround break on him.  Fairly spectacularly.

He then had the added misfortune of having some internet mate who would take full advantage and buy it off him for a song, before getting scaryoldcortina to swap out the entire thermostat housing from my long term 405 estate which is still awaiting a new engine.

 

The 405 is quite lovely.

My kids quite like it too, with it's quiet and supple ride, and bonus reading materials.

[loserone]

List of things to fix.

• It needs some antifreeze in; 200 miles since getting repaired with no leaks so far
• it pulls to the right, and needs some tyres that aren't ditchfinders which are worn on one side only
• driver's mirror is held in place by a plastic curtain hook
• driver's headlight needs replacing (I have stock of these)
• it's too long for the lockup when the trailer is in there, and the trailer no longer fits in the garage now the 305 is in there.  I need somewhere to keep the trailer, really.

[loserone]

Or a 205, which fits in the lockup.  And the 405 is insured to keep in the back lane now, so I may as well get a 205. 

 

Right?

[loserone]

Reckon it's a LHD light? That'd be a bugger.

[loserone]

[Lacquer Peel]

What makes you think it's an LHD light? It's hard to tell on the phone.