The new news 24 thread

[PhilA]

2 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

About 6.4 innit?  Based on the 6.6 in my old LTD being 400ci.

6.4 yes. However it manages to do 33mpg (uk) at 65 along the flat.

Mash the loud pedal into the carpet and that drops to about 1, maybe 2.

 

Phil

[chaseracer]

15 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Been to 2 socially distanced birthday bbqs this evening. Just got home. 19 plate Prius taxi brought us back with 128k on the clock.

 

is this a record?

No...

?

[Split_Pin]

The 75 has been sitting for a week so was pressed into family car service this weekend and I can't stress enough how lovely it is to drive.

Takeaway ice cream in the countryside yesterday in the middle of torrential rain and then to my folks today to sit in their garden room.

Very enjoyable!

[Zelandeth]

Wanted to try to sort the misaligned exhaust tips on the Jag.  They had managed to utterly nweld themselves to the tailpipes...figured battling them off with the silencers off the car would be easier...I wanted to repack the join between them and the mid section anyway as it was blowing there slightly on both sides.

Of course it would have been rude to not do a test to see how things were without those rear silencers on wouldn't it.  I really wanted to give her a bit more of a voice as the system on it reduces noise out the back to zero.  Don't want to replicate a chavved up Corsa, but for goodness sake... it's a V12 you should be able to hear it sing.

Um...those rear silencers are getting replaced with something with rather less in the way of silencing.  Sounds bloody lovely.  Maybe *slightly* more in your face than ideal, so probably not just straight pipes, we'll see what the local stainless specialists say (if they're open anyway).

I also want to tweak things a bit back there to try to stop the nearside pipe touching the underside of the car.  Hopefully this might be the opportunity to do that.

[dollywobbler]

9 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Wanted to try to sort the misaligned exhaust tips on the Jag.  They had managed to utterly nweld themselves to the tailpipes...figured battling them off with the silencers off the car would be easier...I wanted to repack the join between them and the mid section anyway as it was blowing there slightly on both sides.

Of course it would have been rude to not do a test to see how things were without those rear silencers on wouldn't it.  I really wanted to give her a bit more of a voice as the system on it reduces noise out the back to zero.  Don't want to replicate a chavved up Corsa, but for goodness sake... it's a V12 you should be able to hear it sing.

Um...those rear silencers are getting replaced with something with rather less in the way of silencing.  Sounds bloody lovely.  Maybe *slightly* more in your face than ideal, so probably not just straight pipes, we'll see what the local stainless specialists say (if they're open anyway).

I also want to tweak things a bit back there to try to stop the nearside pipe touching the underside of the car.  Hopefully this might be the opportunity to do that.

Rear silencer deletes on executive cars are definitely the way to go. Mason the Lexus sounded amazing with straight-through rear section, but was a long way from over-bearing.

[Borsuq]

I think the Polonez has decided that it hates me and it wanted to kill me today. Took it for a decently long spin, 100 miles or so, and just as I was about to head back towards my city, the engine decided to die just as I was joining a reasonably busy A road, on an intersection that's right behind a hill. I'm really glad it was a Sunday and therefore traffic was fairly minimal, because it could have ended really badly. I was literally stopped across both lanes of the main road for what felt like eternity as the car was struggling to restart and then hold its revs. I've noticed that it now seems to struggle when even a medium amount of throttle is applied from idle revs (also, the idle is too high to begin with, ~1200 instead of ~900 revs, but I knew about that), which is a bit odd for a fuel injected car.

I guess no more driving until I can investigate, because bloody hell that was scary. Hopefully it's just a dodgy stepper motor, or something that'll be fixed when I change the fuel filter.

[Supernaut]

14 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

Rear silencer deletes on executive cars are definitely the way to go. Mason the Lexus sounded amazing with straight-through rear section, but was a long way from over-bearing.

Went well round Knockhill, too.

[Zelandeth]

Looking closer, no wonder I could never get the tips to match...one is a good 1 1/2" longer than the other...

[mitsisigma01]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Wanted to try to sort the misaligned exhaust tips on the Jag.  They had managed to utterly nweld themselves to the tailpipes...figured battling them off with the silencers off the car would be easier...I wanted to repack the join between them and the mid section anyway as it was blowing there slightly on both sides.

Of course it would have been rude to not do a test to see how things were without those rear silencers on wouldn't it.  I really wanted to give her a bit more of a voice as the system on it reduces noise out the back to zero.  Don't want to replicate a chavved up Corsa, but for goodness sake... it's a V12 you should be able to hear it sing.

Um...those rear silencers are getting replaced with something with rather less in the way of silencing.  Sounds bloody lovely.  Maybe *slightly* more in your face than ideal, so probably not just straight pipes, we'll see what the local stainless specialists say (if they're open anyway).

I also want to tweak things a bit back there to try to stop the nearside pipe touching the underside of the car.  Hopefully this might be the opportunity to do that.

Where's the video without the silencers ?

[PhilA]

4 minutes ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Where's the video without the silencers ?

This

 

Please have the video done and ready before you cause us all to start chewing on the edge of the table waiting in anticipation.

 

Phil

[Speedy]

18 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Been to 2 socially distanced birthday bbqs this evening. Just got home. 19 plate Prius taxi brought us back with 128k on the clock.

 

is this a record?

Must have been shared and driven back-to-back. No way one person could do 128k in 15ish months, surely?

[chaseracer]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Jag... less in the way of silencing... probably not just straight pipes...

Zel.  Two words:

Side.  Pipes.

Thank me later ?

[Zelandeth]

59 minutes ago, PhilA said:

This

 

Please have the video done and ready before you cause us all to start chewing on the edge of the table waiting in anticipation.

 

Phil

I had planned to, but got dragged into making dinner the moment I got in the door!

 

 

Of course there was video, I know I'd have been excommunicated if there wasn't.

[stuboy]

Been to see my friend in sittingbourne, gave the mondeo a long run out .. came away with some 2.0 cans for my fil, a mondeo picture for my wall, and hes sold the mk1 citrine mondeo, due to go in July.

 

EGG if u need anything from garry I'd ask soon as once buyer takes the car and any bits he wants, the left overs will be chucked .

[cort16]

19 hours ago, PhilA said:

6.4 yes. However it manages to do 33mpg (uk) at 65 along the flat.

Mash the loud pedal into the carpet and that drops to about 1, maybe 2.

 

Phil

Does it have cylinder decactivation?

[HMC]

Did an oil change on the fiesta 1.25. I bought some 5w30 to the ford spec; apparently these are fussy about their oil- (am I the first owner / service administrator to do this on this car and does it make a difference anyway?) but I went along with it FWIW.

later in the week and had to go up to Bristol for my job. I misstimed it having not driven far of months and had to make up time shall we say. Despite being a 22 year old fiesta not far from the end of its life it felt good at speed, it didn’t blow up despite being caned up the m5 and is quicker than you expect it to be. 
 

Rather pointlessly I have spent out on a cheap set of the correct ford wheel trims for a ghia to replace these (ka trims?) 

To cap the week off I saw this parked by my house yesterday. It’s still got its period Vauxhall font plates, yum!

 

Check out the ‘zorst

[HMC]

Later I saw it’s elderly owner getting into it and  made a conscious decision not to strike up convo/ leave a note. Willpower at last?

[RobT]

For a brief moment you were cured.  It never lasts, we all know the feeling!

[Bren]

Reassembly of the SD1 continues -

I have got all the headlights working - the underbonnet lights, despite not looking original, have never worked. Cleaning the connections made no difference.

I cheated by connectind the lights connectors ( behind the end of the bonnet) to my battery charger. They work.

But not from the cars own supply. I began checking the connections behind the n/s headlight. I managed to find 12 v at a bullet connector which feeds the lights - so I have a wire or connector issue.

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, chaseracer said:

Zel.  Two words:

Side.  Pipes.

Thank me later ?

Sadly given the lack of ground clearance or generally any cubic nanometre of space anywhere on this car I think that would be really difficult to engineer. 

The exhaust on this runs very nearly above the height of the floorpan for most of its length, with the main silencers right in front of the rear axle...sure it could be done...but it would mean basically making a whole new system...and I'd rather not be throwing four figure sums of money at what is absolutely a luxury.  Plus the cutouts in the rear valance would look odd without anything in them.

Already have a side pipe (ridiculous one at that) on the van at least, though I do wish it was on my side.

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, cort16 said:

Does it have cylinder decactivation?

Thankfully yes. De-selecting that changes it to about two-thirds of the average economy.

Phil

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Speedy said:

Must have been shared and driven back-to-back. No way one person could do 128k in 15ish months, surely?

When I first knew the cab trade they were using Ovlov 145's like you see Piouses now. Some were Hackneys, shared as the plates here cost around £30k then! So, obs interstellar mileages resulted. 

[wuvvum]

Didn't get as much done today as I would have liked, primarily because every time I tried to get on with anything it'd start belting it down with rain.  I had to go out and get a headlight bulb for the 75, as the offside dipped bulb blew last night.  They're a right fiddly twat to fit even with the access hatch - that poxy spring clip is a bastard,

I thought I might start investigating the Innocenti's subframe.  Greatly to my surprise, all of the bolts (the five subframe mounting bolts, the bolt that holds the lower arm onto the subframe and the anti-roll bar retaining nut) cracked off easily.  Even the lock washer on the lower arm bolt bent back without a fight.  Whether this means they'll all come all the way undone without a fight remains to be seen, but it's a good start.  If we get a dry weekend with not too many distractions I think I should be able to get it swapped over.  I also wire brushed and Kurusted the inner sills / edge of the floorpans - I'll give the offside a spray of underseal next time I have the car up on the ramps, the nearside will need to wait until the hole at the back is patched up.  I've also finally reached the conclusion that the exhaust centre section is beyond help, so I'm going to order a new one, which won't be particularly cheap - the joys of owning a car which is the only example of its type in the country.

I took the Renault 6 for a quick spin as it hadn't been out for a while.  The lights were playing up again - the nearside indicators stopped flashing whenever I braked.  Last time this happened I "cured" it by wiggling the earth wire for the nearside rear light unit - this time I thought I'd better do the job properly, so I got under the car and found the earth was in fact two bits of wire which I'd twisted together as a temporary bodge when fitting the lights a few years back, then never got round to sorting properly.  So the manky ends of the two wires were cut off, the insulation stripped back and they were joined together with a proper connector - hopefully that'll avoid the issue arising again.  I do still need to look at the offside front brake caliper though as it's still sticking on a bit when I brake hard - a swift twat with a rubber mallet frees it off so it's not sticking badly, but it's an annoyance.  Last time I tried having a look (a couple of years ago  now) I gave up because I couldn't get the caliper off the disc due to the lip which had worn round the edge of the disc.  I now own a large enough G-clamp to (hopefully) persuade the pads far enough apart to clear the disc, and I can then grease whatever needs greasing (and also check that the discs aren't wearing too thin).

[stuboy]

Had been putting off tidying up boot of the car, so bought some reduced basket from tesco.. hopefully i can cure the habit of just lobbing it in and shutting the boot..lol

[mitsisigma01]

Anyone would think you had a Laguna with the amount of tools you carry ?

[richardmorris]

[Ghosty]

Dad came to me this morning and asked if I'd go on a collection mission for him. His long term friend and occasional colleague is selling one of his cars, and doesn't have time to sell it - could I retrieve it and do it up to sell on his behalf?

The thing is, it's a similar value to the C30, won't be much worse on fuel, far more likely to go up in value, and practicality is less important now I have the 205. 

If I like how it drives I might buy it and sell the C30 because absurdly, the C30 is twice as much to insure. 

[mitsisigma01]

Intrigued already, just get it bought anyway, whether it's sensible or financially beneficial is irrelevant ?

[bunglebus]

Mate asked me to help with some spanner twirling the other day - Ashtray now has a nice new exhaust (under £100, Formula 1 wanted £300+) and a set of lowering springs.

We were somewhat hot and sweaty after struggling with bolts that hadn't been undone in ever

 

20200626_151225 by RS, on Flickr

 

Wetter weather last night at least provided me with this

 

20200628_202323 by RS, on Flickr

[HMC]

3 hours ago, richardmorris said:

I don’t know much about these but the overall proportions and high profile tyres (and in the context of all the other stock they have) make me think that is not a fake snake.

I freely admit to utter confusion with these as some are “genuine” but were made on unused chassis numbers in more recent times. Surely anything not contemporaneous, no matter who made it is a “replica”? “Continuation” seems the word aka expensive and made by the modern equivalent of the manufacturer, or someone who has special permission etc.

Whenever, whenever it was made I bet it made a great noise!