The new news 24 thread

[Ghosty]

 

High praise. 

[Ghosty]

The sedan has been in for some paintwork. It came back on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday morning I fitted new discs and pads to the front, as braking had gone a bit vague lately. Discs were on offer from ECP so cost a tenner and Blue Print (Febi) pads were £15. While fitting them I found a loose CV boot held on with a cable tie... that has a proper clip on it now. Saturday afternoon I wandered off to Kettering to meet up with some mates at a Premier Inn and subsequently off to Japfest. Had a belter of a weekend, hopefully I can make the most of the season. I truly love this car, finding it last year was simply fait accomplis.  Car has performed flawlessly but I vaguely suspect the rear suspension is coming up on renewal as there's a bit of a clunk from the rear top mounts when it goes over bumps (four up with luggage admittedly). 

A mate took this pic. 

I'm hoping to enter it to the show and shine at the northern Mimms Honda Day meet next month. FOTU concours would be nice but I don't think it's up to that. 

 

[dome]

17 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Out of gas and flapwheels to be able to finish this off.  Got the trailing edge of the arch and the end of the sill to finish.  Amazed at how little distortion I ended up with in the panel since there's two really long butt welds to put a fillet in above the repair panel because I managed to cock up the initial fitting.  If this were restoration, this wouldn't be good enough because the profiles aren't correct at the sill-to-arch bit due to the repair panel being really wrong in that area and me not having the skills to make it right.  Fortunately, this is just repair, so it just needs to not be rusty.

Shouldn't need a lot of filler to finish off, though I'm not expecting a perfect finish on any of this.  I am amazed that the city X sticker didn't burn away, must have controlled my panel heat pretty well to pull that one off.

12 year old me is very jealous of your rear wash wipe and digital clock. My folks had a City with no X on it in the same colour. E930 DOS.

Why I can remember that reg and not where I put something 5 minutes ago is a source of constant wonder to me.

[vulgalour]

Took a gamble on a speedo cable for an 1800 Princess fitting the 1700 Princess because I couldn't see BL changing the instruments and the gearbox.  Paid off.  Still a rotten job to do and I've managed to gouge my forehead on the dashboard so the mandatory blood sacrifice has been made.  Hopefully this one lasts, a spare has been ordered just in case it doesn't.

[grogee]

2 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Took a gamble on a speedo cable for an 1800 Princess fitting the 1700 Princess because I couldn't see BL changing the instruments and the gearbox.  Paid off.  Still a rotten job to do and I've managed to gouge my forehead on the dashboard so the mandatory blood sacrifice has been made.  Hopefully this one lasts, a spare has been ordered just in case it doesn't.

This was the meeting at which the instrument update for the 1800 Princess was discussed. 

After a brief* strike, they decided to carry over the 1700 instruments unchanged. 

[Ghosty]

Wait, that Micra you're wasting your life on is CVT? 


Christ.

[Fumbler]

7 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Wait, that Micra you're wasting your life on is CVT? 


Christ.

You didn't know? I'd have left the high idle bollocks be if it were a manual.

[Fumbler]

53 minutes ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

The loom over the throttle position sensor was exposed, and when wet/damp would send the sensor intermittent or off, hence the high idle.  Wrapped it up with insulation tape, and even after a car wash no more problems.

Pic before for reference.  

Would I be better swapping the insulation tape for something more specialised? 90% sure this was the issue as the random high idle I've been having for over a year now is exactly the same RPM as when you disconnect this plug and switch into D.  So it appears least to me that the car was loosing connection to this plug randomly when driving (or I think in wet/damp conditions)

 

Pot it in epoxy or something.

[SiC]

Put 240v and finally kill it off completely

[Fumbler]

1 minute ago, SiC said:

Put 240v and finally kill it off completely

Not enough. I suggest getting a microwave transformer.

[SiC]

15 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Wait, that Micra you're wasting your life on is CVT? 


Christ.

To be fair, you have to give him some points for being so dedicated in trying to keep the damn thing on the road!

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

The loom over the throttle position sensor was exposed, and when wet/damp would send the sensor intermittent or off, hence the high idle.  Wrapped it up with insulation tape, and even after a car wash no more problems.

Pic before for reference.  

Would I be better swapping the insulation tape for something more specialised? 90% sure this was the issue as the random high idle I've been having for over a year now is exactly the same RPM as when you disconnect this plug and switch into D.  So it appears least to me that the car was loosing connection to this plug randomly when driving (or I think in wet/damp conditions)

 

Use hot glue. Layer it up and wait a few secs between layers so it doesn't just run off, then lick your fingers wet, man up and mould the glue nicely before it hardens! 

It removes more easily than epoxy if needed, I do similar with hoover repair bodging, if it doesn't work it all picks off OK and you sigh and then get the epoxy out... 

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 08/04/2022 at 11:05, grogee said:

This is probably old news to the BL lickers among you, but I've just learned there was a Portuguese-assembled Morris Ital (badged Marina there) with a 37bhp 1.5 B-series diesel. 

Imagine that. Whatever you are driving today, and no matter how badly it is behaving, it isn't going to be as arse-clenchingly awful as a diesel Ital.

Massive amounts of want from this quarter, of course. 

that would be the same as Maurice Marina could have- i remember hearing one many years ago and thinking diesel marina?

[Fumbler]

18 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

that would be the same as Maurice Marina could have- i remember hearing one many years ago and thinking diesel marina?

I remember posting an ad for a Maltese diesel Marina on the tat thread. Same B-series boat anchor chugging away under the bonnet.

[GMcD]

Got out of shopping commitments (yay!) to wait in for a delivery. So I replaced the disks on the red MX-5 this evening. 

The disks on it were put on very recently. They have no lip, but they were starting to pit and try as I might I could not clean the face of them off. 

£48 for "quality" unipart branded discs. Will see how I get on.

[paulplom]

Off to Peterbogghorror to collect a free tower scaffold from a trusted wobber and former shiter.

Three and a half hours each way in the ex kiltox shitroen relay. I've brought Morty on his first road trip. Look at him, he can hardly contain his excitement.

[ETCHY]

8 hours ago, SiC said:

To be fair, you have to give him some points for being so dedicated in trying to keep the damn thing on the road!

CVT Micra's are lovely cars we had a K11  for years.

[SiC]

2 hours ago, ETCHY said:

CVT Micra's are lovely cars we had a K11  for years.

That one hasn't been so lovely going by the fuel injection system issues it's constantly had..

[barefoot]

I've said it before & I'll say it again...

[Split_Pin]

75 performed very well on the trip down to Manchester although it returned a less than optimal 38mpg in free flowing traffic. Hopefully I can restore this back to 40 on the return leg on Saturday. 

[RoverFolkUs]

10 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

75 performed very well on the trip down to Manchester although it returned a less than optimal 38mpg in free flowing traffic. Hopefully I can restore this back to 40 on the return leg on Saturday. 

I forget if yours is manual or automatic, but I was under the impression the manual diesel 75's could comfortably get 45-50mpg combined and upto 60mpg on a run? 

[richardmorris]

Topless for an essential pre Easter trip to  Laithwaites. Old chap getting into a burgundy 75tourer in Sunningdale waved.

[SiC]

I've never mentioned this and always tried to avoid photos of it (for obvious reasons), but the only thing stopping someone breaking into my garage is this tiny bit of spring loaded metal. A good thump on either door would get it open. Always has been a concern.


I've been putting off changing the doors as the cost of doing so, is as much as buying another car/rotten wreck...
But it got to the point where one door is jammed and the other kept falling off its rollers. So I finally bit the bullet and had this installed today.

(Just need to convince the neighbours they need to change theirs now)

The other big thing is without the pillar in the way, it makes getting a car in and out so much easier. Makes a massive difference and hopefully also mean I can get two cars in.


Also why I've had the big push to get the Dolomite back on four wheels as access to the front was needed. With the old doors, I had it as close as it could go to the front for maximum access at the back.


It's definitely the best thing I've bought in a while and should have done it much sooner. Not got bored of doing this yet either.

[Split_Pin]

4 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I forget if yours is manual or automatic, but I was under the impression the manual diesel 75's could comfortably get 45-50mpg combined and upto 60mpg on a run? 

Yes my manuals would easily do 45mpg but mine is an auto with a remap so 40 is the target!

[paulplom]

I got 34mpg over 400 miles today in a mwb citroen relay with roof rack. Fully loaded on the way back too.

It is limited to 70mph though which is 2.5k revs in 6th. Were you tanking it? A remap doesn't usually affect economy.

[RoverFolkUs]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Yes my manuals would easily do 45mpg but mine is an auto with a remap so 40 is the target!

That makes perfect sense, I'd be very happy with 38-40 from something like that being an Auto. 

I just about scrape 40mpg in a 1.6 petrol manual Focus that's less than 100bhp!

[RoverFolkUs]

Quelle surprise... 

The new family bike Xsara Picasso has electrical faults

I'm currently storing it off the road so that I can sort everything out and service it etc, basically give it the obligatory new ownership once-over. 

It's had a new battery recently from the previous owner. Last started it up on Sunday and it was fine. This afternoon I unlocked it and for some reason the CD player was playing music (🤔) switched it off and thought nothing of it, but despite me repeatedly switching the interior lights off, they still kept coming back on. 

Putting the key in the ignition, on the second turn the wipers come on very slowly and there are various weird noises and interior lights flashing on and off. Tried to start it and nothing at all. Starter doesn't even click

Removed the battery and brought it indoors to test it. Showing 10.8 volts, so it has a serious battery drain somewhere.

It's currently sat outside trickle charging 

Fantastique! Don't you just love French cars...! 

[stuboy]

Took carb apart again on the mighty moped, de varnished some bits and put on, though I waiting on new fuel pipe couldn't resist starting it up..

 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, SiC said:

I've never mentioned this and always tried to avoid photos of it (for obvious reasons), but the only thing stopping someone breaking into my garage is this tiny bit of spring loaded metal. A good thump on either door would get it open. Always has been a concern.


I've been putting off changing the doors as the cost of doing so, is as much as buying another car/rotten wreck...
But it got to the point where one door is jammed and the other kept falling off its rollers. So I finally bit the bullet and had this installed today.

(Just need to convince the neighbours they need to change theirs now)

The other big thing is without the pillar in the way, it makes getting a car in and out so much easier. Makes a massive difference and hopefully also mean I can get two cars in.


Also why I've had the big push to get the Dolomite back on four wheels as access to the front was needed. With the old doors, I had it as close as it could go to the front for maximum access at the back.


It's definitely the best thing I've bought in a while and should have done it much sooner. Not got bored of doing this yet either.

Is that a Garador? We had one fitted after they spashed ads in our local rags for weeks on end on offer* at £895 for a single. Very pleased with it so far. Local specialists (known to me though his wife's family) wanted nearly that for an up-and-over, and about £1700 for an auto one.

[Barry Cade]

Spotted this sad wèe thing today. Wanted to take it home but Mrs Cade absolutely hates them.. I may go back tomorrow 😆