The new news 24 thread

[dollywobbler]

Oh, I did experiment with the little jump pack and found that it's capable of starting the (batteryless) 218 on its own, so the fact that it wasn't helping much in getting the Picasso going appears to have been more due to the massive current draw of a 2-litre HDI rather than any defect in the jump pack itself.

My little pack will start a two litre petrol, but is not interested in starting a diesel at all. The vastly higher compression ratio just makes it say no. Need a decompression lever! Or a bigger jump pack...

[alcyonecorporation]

 

 

960 is still doing its thing. Took it to London to cover a car show for work. Visited the Ace on the way back. Again.

Paid £18 for a two hour stay in a car park - which was more interesting than the show TBH. London is so* great**.

 

Nearly got the Volvo stuck around a couple of the entrance ramps. The M&S tyres on it may as well be made from Devla Kirwan's face for all the grip they give.

It's still doing 27 mpg to a tank, the exhaust is split farting like a good 'un and the heater fan has stopped working. Will be investigating in due course.

[reb]

If I paid someone to wash it, it'd be a significant increase in the total cost of the car!

Cheap car washes are pants anyway. Last time they managed to leave *water soluble* sticker residue on my roof. Just good enough to say I'm keeping the car "clean and tidy" for work, but actually it leaves it pretty manky.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[worldofceri]

Been on the look out for a fuel pump relay for the Saab in the hopes of curing my non-starting issue.  They are NLA new and used ones are listed at around €100.  So against my better judgement I messaged a BREAKING SAAB TURBO U R BIDDING ON A WHEELNUT style Ebayer and took a punt at £15.

 

He said he posted it on Thursday and it ain't here yet.  Hmmm...

[cort1977]

Managed to sell Mercedes wagon to a family from San Antonio last night.   Bloke had driven about 3 hours with four kids and an enormous German Shepherd to buy a not that amazing W210.   He may have been slightly mad but I was happy with his first offer and shook hands there and then.

 

Overall not too painful an experience, didn't get offered any comedy part-exchanges and took the AS approved advice of ignoring the 'wats your lowest price' types and a good buyer came along in the end.

[seth]

I posted this photo in the 'one shite picture' thread yesterday and someone (sorry, name/post was lost in today's forum hiccup) suggested it'd make a good calendar shot if it I had a landscape rather than portrait version.  Which I didn't.

 

 

But that was OK because I was able to relive the moment this afternoon.

 

[anonymous user]

Don't tell me, Breadvan has bought another Lotus and all the electricity has escaped again

[holbeck]

I spied the Lotus (at a distance) at Stoneleigh.

[Timewaster]

Who is jumping who?

[seth]

The Lotus has been bought by a friend.  It had been owned by the same gentleman since the early '80s who has recently given up driving due to old age.  It has some excellent 'giffer' details.  It's had a little fettling and an MOT in a North Wales garage since purchase a few weeks ago and on Sunday was driven down to London via Stoneleigh with no problem other than the battery not holding charge.  It spent the night at Seth_Manor rather than risk heading straight across town yesterday after what had already been quite a long day.

[seth]

Who is jumping who?

 

The one with the superior 16V twin cam engine is providing the electricity.

[Cavcraft]

Zafira heater was cold despite tem gauge reading steady, checked level in reservoir and it was empty. Thinking the worst I topped it up and watched the tank, only to find the top (small) pipe had come adrift, I think due to a previous bodge. Easily fixed, so a good result really. 

[wuvvum]

This afternoon (having booked a half day off work) I drove the Transit down to sunny Chelmsford to begin a new life with purplebargeken of this parish.

 

Then Ken gave me a lift to Leigh-sur-Mer to pick up this.

 

 

It's, um, not the best van I've ever owned.  It goes OK, although the clutch is quite heavy, and it's not as gutless as I'd feared (2.1 NA diesel) - it's actually almost sprightly off the line, although accelerating up the uphill slip road onto the A14 was a bit of a chore.  It also seems to be reasonably good on juice for a van - a lot better than the Transit, certainly.

 

The main problem with it is that it has major steering issues, which weren't mentioned in the listing.  There is a massive amount of play - around quarter of a turn.  It's weird though as it doesn't feel loose in the same way that a worn-out steering box feels loose, and even when it's in the "play" zone the wheel still has some effect on the steering - enough for lane changes and gentle dual carriageway curves.  Anything sharper though and turning the wheel has no more effect - until it reaches the end of the play zone and starts steering normally.  It really is most odd and I've never experienced anything quite like it before.  It's driveable as it is (I drove it 115 miles home without crashing) but I wouldn't fancy tackling a windy B road or a gusting crosswind - even roundabouts have to be taken with a degree of circumspection,

 

I'm going to get it up on the ramps at the weekend and see if I can see where the problem is - I might see if I can rope my neighbour in to turn the steering while I shine a light at the gubbins underneath to see if I can spot anything obvious.  It's not the end of the world as the van was that cheap that even if I end up just using it as storage for a while I'm unlikely to lose too much on it, but I'm slightly annoyed that it wasn't mentioned - it's that bad that it would have been obvious to anyone who drove the van.

[cort16]

I fitted the new fuel pump and electronic ignition to the Cortina tonight. Of course it doesn't start and the batteries I have are hopelessly flat. I did jump it off the juke and and connected one of these spark detectors that goes between the ht lead and spark plug but alas no spark.

I think I need to go to the scrappies and get a couple of second hand batteries.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Put the C Class on Gumtree earlier today. MOT expired on Friday and it's running really rough misfiring and smells really rich. All of which I put in the ad. Along with close ups of pogweaseled bodywork and gaffer taped bumper.

I've had about 20 responses from my ad at £225 which I thought wildly optomistic and it's just gone spluttering off down the M1 on the first leg of its journey to Ghana. I took £200 for it , which covers the cost of the 307 I bought off Solid61 on Saturday- result !

 

I'm a bit concerned that when I've finished with a car it's only fit for exile to foreign parts , e61 went to Lithuania, W211 Albania , now this to Africa.

 

This experience also made me realise that we're in a bargain shite bubble here, we almost expect cars for nothing or at least next to nothing and forget their real worth to civilians.

[cort1977]

Shite in U.K. Is fantastically cheap, for comparison I just sold a rusty 2001 w210 for $2800.

[dean36014]

Why do I do it? Another roadtrip coming up to Byfleet to buy another knackered old dandy trailer tent. It came up Ebay for 50 or best offer and i idly chucked an offer of 20 quid in at work last night. Woke up this morning to find the offer had been accepted. I've nowhere to put it, and no need for it as its different model to my one. I'm going to wipe the Ebay app from my phone!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182460385478?_trksid=p2057872.m2748.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT 

[wuvvum]

I just sold a rusty w210

Is there any other kind?

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Is there any other kind?

The fact that Cort1977 lives in Texas doesn't bode well for those in damp, salt laden roaded Britain.

[trigger]

I've got 4 cars already, I'm still hanging on for this Ital van that I'm meant to be getting any time soon (don't ask...) but someone on my FB group is selling a Rover 620Ti that he's took in as a part ex for £500 (delivered) and I'm now thinking about it. It a old boy owned local car with 72k, it's been of the road 18 months but just had a new water pump and cambelt before hand and has no mot.

 

My thoughts were to buy it for Shitefest and Roffle it off for what it owes me afterwards but i don't have much space and I'll probably have to take out a new insurance policy to get it on the road, but being the Ti means the turbo T-series 197bhp and 0-60 in 7 secs engine so it be good fun for a bit. I can't decide of it's worth the work or not?

 

 

 

 

 

[dollywobbler]

DO IT! These Rover 600s never* go wrong.

 

I'm not saying Autoshite is a bad influence on me, but I genuinely sent an email to someone today where I accidentally type Shitefest instead of Japfest...

[BorniteIdentity]

NEXT STOP: The Moon.

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/25326-memoirs-from-the-hard-shoulder-the-borniteidentity-fleet/?p=1171451

[Matt]

One year and one week after some dishonest such-and-such knocked my mirror I finally got a replacement in the right colour. Can you believe that? It took me a year to find a mirror painted blue for a bloody Suzuki Swift and that's with email alerts from eBay telling me whenever a blue Suzuki Swift mirror or whenever a Suzuki Swift for breaking came up.

 

Blue Is The New Black by MattLikesCars, on Flickr

[xtriple]

I found a bubble in the back (alloy) door today while polishing slobber off the side of the car. I was upset... mind you, it was smaller than a pin-head and the 'repair' is actually bigger and more noticeable so not sure if I've improved things or not? But at least not a bubble...

[Spottedlaurel]

I've got 4 cars already, I'm still hanging on for this Ital van that I'm meant to be getting any time soon (don't ask...) but someone on my FB group is selling a Rover 620Ti that he's took in as a part ex for £500 (delivered) and I'm now thinking about it. It a old boy owned local car with 72k, it's been of the road 18 months but just had a new water pump and cambelt before hand and has no mot.

 

My thoughts were to buy it for Shitefest and Roffle it off for what it owes me afterwards but i don't have much space and I'll probably have to take out a new insurance policy to get it on the road, but being the Ti means the turbo T-series 197bhp and 0-60 in 7 secs engine so it be good fun for a bit. I can't decide of it's worth the work or not?

 

Buy it and bring it along to the next RAF Marham track weekend (end of April).

[Eddie Honda]

I've got 4 cars already

Rover 620Ti

£500 (delivered)

I'm now thinking about it.

 

Slippery slope Trig. Slippery slope...

[Skizzer]

Trig, you know fine well that nobody on here is going to tell you not to buy that Rover 600.  

 

 

Meanwhile, I've just heard my XJ-S is back in one piece, can move under its own power again and as a major bonus now has working air-con.  It needs a shakedown and I've asked them to do a couple of other jobs so it may or may not come home at the weekend - but soon, anyway.

[trigger]

Slippery slope Trig. Slippery slope...

 

I think I've slipped off that slope already!

[dollywobbler]

Seriously though, a tidy Ti is likely to cause mass excitement amongs Rover pervs. I'd go as far as to say that's an absolute barg. 

[trigger]

Do you think?, That's what I'm trying to weigh up, the prices just don't seem to be there yet, yes on the face of it £500 for a 200bhp car with low mileage and no rust on the arches does seem cheap but it's been sitting for 18 months, possibly outside and it doesn't have a mot. I could get lucky and have it fly though or then it might fail miserably after sitting on damp grass that long and cripple me.

 

By all accounts the only reason it was parked up was because the old boy who's in his late 70's decided that it was too fast for him and had use of another car instead, he's now traded it in against a diesel estate. He chap selling it collects it later in the week so I might still go and have a look. I'd only be buying it to sell back on or ROFFLE it for something like £12 a ticket so i need to make sure it's worth it.

 

I've got a few more poor photos.