🚨L1's 🇫🇷 shenanigans. En Ecosse 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Lacquer Peel]

Handsome Legacy not the uggers newer one. Nice!

[loserone]

Yeah, bit nervous about the wheels / suspension having a negative effect on the ride quality, but quite looking forward to a 3.0 flat six, 240bhp and AWD.  

 

I did say I felt the NA Impreza was underpowered, and I didn't want a turbo!

[Liggle]

Lovely motor the 3.0 legacy, I'd quite like one at some point but manuals are few and far between!

[loserone]

Yeah, hopefully I've lucked out snagging this one. Wouldn't have minded the auto tbh, but this way I'll remember what my left leg is for

[320touring]

Looks nice, good luck with it!

 

Good to see leaf recovery and charging played out simply:)

[cort16]

Ooh very nice .

[loserone]

Sadly the legacy through the EML on before I handed over any money, checking with a reader turned out p2089 'left bank camshaft actuator sensor'

 

I walked..  Waste of 300 miles, but not a waste of my 3.5k.

 

On the plus side, it was lovely, the ride was good, it drove well, it sounded ace.

[320touring]

Cock..

[Liggle]

Thats a shame!

[Jazoli]

Why didn't you knock £500 off your offer and sort it? the sensors are only £70 or so.

 

Still its your money

[loserone]

Aye, if it's a sensor and not a worn out timing chain tensioner or something else..

[twosmoke300]

Aye, if it's a sensor and not a worn out timing chain tensioner or something else..

Exactly what I was going to say . Most cam sensor faults are anything but the sensor itself . Esp on modern stuff with vvt

[loserone]

Thanks to W²  for reminding me that this thread exists.

 

El_one's fleet summary:

 

Leaf

•  has now completed 4000 miles.
• We took it to Manchester via Leeds for a week.  It was fine, except for needing to charge four times in each direction
• And one of the charge points being out of order (Scotch Corner) for a week.  
• This last point meant a ride home in the cab of a flatbed for the whole family, making a 7 hour journey from Manchester to Durham.

That's basically it, because..

 

K11C

 

Still fucked.

 

Still RX300 hunting.

[somewhatfoolish]

I was informed that in the (unlikely) event of me getting an electric company car I would not be allowed to plug it in at work as that would be seen as supplied "fuel" with HMRC issues.

 

I think that is rubbish, but I have yet to find a definitive answer.

Either point out to HMRC that most public chargers are free (here in scotchland anyway) or get your employer to invoice you for the kWh. It'll be pennies compared to filling with pez/dizzle.

[AMC Rebel]

I was informed that in the (unlikely) event of me getting an electric company car I would not be allowed to plug it in at work as that would be seen as supplied "fuel" with HMRC issues.

 

I think that is rubbish, but I have yet to find a definitive answer.

 

Not true any more

https://fleetworld.co.uk/budget-2017-no-bik-for-charging-at-work/

[loserone]

I should probably update this thread as I've bought a spec B and spent a grand on it already.

 

Not regretting it yet!

[tonedepear]

This is excellent! 

 

Excellent thread L1, and excellent link to thread J69. Kudos all round.

 

I dropped in to ask what sort of dimensions the battery and motor are, assuming they're easy to get to - but all my questions are answered in this thread: http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/re-using-complete-leaf-drive-system-151458.html#/topics/151458

[loserone]

Where was I?  Ah yes, I'd just not bought a potential basketcase and was concentrating on shopping for an RX300, on the grounds that it should be comfortable, with a good ride, decent visibility, and a reasonable amount of poke.

 

Sadly, every one I looked at was £6k, fucked, or both. I can remember sitting in a travelodge somewhere bouncing eBay links to Tonedepear and Scaryoldcortina, particularly one which had an EML on but was only £1200.

 

Then KinkerSaab came in with this beast: http://autoshite.com/topic/31061-legacy-30-spec-b-manual-est/

 

It was pretty much everything I wanted, less the ride, high up driving position, auto, toyota build quality etc.  I HAD to have it.  So after a bit of discussion, I paid a bank account number I hoped was KS's parents some a lot of money over the internet, taxed and insured it, and bought a train ticket to go and collect.  Of course *that's* the moment that Austen decided that he needed to make an early appearance, so the collection was cancelled.  (Mrs_L1 will attest that she was done and dusted by the time the train was due, but I didn't fancy my chances with that one).  Then I sat, thinking that I didn't know KS's name, or where he lived, or worked, or really anything about him.  And I'd just sent his parents a load of money.  Thankfully, W² told me that he'd once bought a Mercedes from him, and although the car was left unattended at the station, he did get a car and it was as described.  And then it snowed.

 

It snowed so hard that we had to instruct our midwives not to travel up to see us, because we needed them to be not stuck in a snow drift.

 

It snowed so hard that the leaf couldn't get to the allotment to deal with the chickens, and the 6KM return trip was taking me three hours that I could have really done with being at home with my days-old son and his 16 month old big brother.

 

And eventually I won a mercedes in a raffle, and I'd already donated the ticket to WilsonWilson.  Permission was granted to re-try for a train journey, and what happens next is already documented as a double collection, even if relatively uneventful, and I finally picked up the car I'd owned for a couple of weeks.  And KS does exist!

 

I've taken a bit of getting used to the Legacy; it's narrower than the Leaf, with much more precise steering and an utterly appalling ride.  And the brakes started to make an awful noise.

 

After 1000 miles of putting up with this, I dragged it to Scary's Yard, where two snapped coil springs, a seized calliper slider and a slantily worn disc were diagnosed.  A pair of springs and some discs and pads were ordered, and I avoided driving the car much.

 

A week or so later, the steering wheel stayed still as the car turned to the right.  And then left.  And on looking underneath, the track rod was bent to 90 degrees.  AWESOME! I limped up the hill to Scary's yard, where the car sat.

 

And sat.

 

And sat.

 

Turns out, the motor factor who ordered the springs were told that spec B springs are custom made.  And that there was but one in the UK.  The other needed to be made.  After a few weeks and a couple of emergency borrows of some of Scary's fleet when two cars were required, we located a pair of springs at Import Car Parts, which, being only in West Auckland (winners of the first World Cup - my only football trivia fact) was an afternoon collection and an antiques shop trawl away.  HUZZAH! 

 

Some gems from the work:

• One of the top nuts on one of the shocks was cross threaded.  But still all the way on.
• Once chiselled off, it turned out to be M14x1.5, obviously
• Access to the trackrod, which was seized in the rack, was limited enough to require manufacture of a custom tool.
• Some of the caliper slider bolts were regular 16mm heads.  Some were.. Something else.

Anyway, eventually the car was sorted and able to go back on the road.  And it's driving really well, I'm totally sold on it! The ride is much, much better with two more coils in each spring, and on a decent run I can reach the heady heights of 27MPG.  Ideal for taking a family of four camping, as I discovered last weekend.

 

I've now bought some 17" Subaru XV wheels, which are otherwise the same fitment (I hope) and should enable me to buy some tyres with actual rubber on them - and for less than £160 a corner.  They do look a bit flash though.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to give some updates on the rest of the fleet at some point - at the minute though, I've sold the inside of one for nearly what I paid for it, and it's now sitting next to another which has been sitting there nearly a year  

[Guest Hooli]

Double hex bolts, those are great with 12 sided sockets as you can get a lot of torque into them before they slip.

[loserone]

Test fitting the new wheels.

 

 

They clear the brakes!

 

Door sticker says I can put 215/50R17s on these, rather than the 215/45R18s which should be on there now (it actually rides on 225/45R18s..)

[loserone]

Still a bit unsure on the design of these, they're off an XV (and were £51 for the lot, basically new), but here's an Outback with them on.

 

[loserone]

[loserone]

One mile's worth of thoughts; ride is much, much improved.  It's positively comfortable.  The tyres look pretty beastly too.  Little bit more roll when hanging off roundabouts, as I suppose could be expected.  Feels nice!

[Lacquer Peel]

I like it on the XV wheels, it looks more purposeful.

[loserone]

Better picture from emptier car park on leaving work:

[loserone]

And with the old wheels now listed on ebay, all we have to do is cross our fingers for a mentalist.

[djim]

Looks great on the new wheels!

[Noel Tidybeard]

the XV wheels look better on the darkrer colour of yours than the JRG one

[loserone]

And with the old wheels now listed on ebay, all we have to do is cross our fingers for a mentalist.

 

Not really a mentalist.  £43 for four 18" wheels and tyres is a bit disappointing, but the chap is coming from past Glasgae for them.

[loserone]

Mini spec B update: 12 months test with no defects recorded. 26mpg recently.

 

Mini leaf update: 8k miles with no issues not caused by reversing into parked Audis.