The new news 24 thread

[wuvvum]

Got the replacement exhaust section fitted to the Merc at lunchtime today, bit of buggering about but not too bad of a job in the end.  There still seems to be a very slight blow from somewhere though - I think I can hear it and there's still the occasional faint whiff of fumes in the cabin, albeit a lot less than before - so I'll have to get it up on the ramps at some point and have a look.

One thing I did notice - presumably there's supposed to be a bolt through this bracket (the hole next to the torx bolt) to support the cat?  It's missing and judging by the rust in the thread it's been AWOL for some time - I wonder whether that might have been what led to the pipe splitting in the first place...

[Split_Pin]

Between me and my new robin pal (he seems to be full time now), we checked the red A4's master cylinder under the pedal (dry, apparently a very fiddly job) and the slave (dry, nearside of the gearbox, access looks good from underneath).

So I'm going with either a dodgy sensor or pad wear as I vaguely recall the fluid level has never been up to max since I bought the car.

Robin rewarded with crumbled up oatcake, me a mince pie.

[reb]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Robin rewarded with crumbled up oatcake

I don't remember receiving this reward

[Lord Sterling]

Today I changed the passenger side dipped beam bulb  on the Jag after I spotted it was out.

I have spare bulbs and sauntered over to the Vectra to recover them, the bukb from the Jag (and the Vectra) are 2 prong bulbs, thankfully I had one spare but I bought a pack of 2 blue tinted bulbs from a charity shop for a couple of quid and these are 3 pronged bulbs so don't fit the Jag or Vectra. Anyone in need of 3-pronged headlight bulbs? Got a pack of 2 and one that is spare in a pack I have so 3 altogether.

[RobT]

Nu shite.

 

The Xedos is now with @bramz7 and this is my new daily.  Had it for almost a month now and within days it'd picked up a puncture.  Thankfully it was repairable so that saved me 90 odd quid on a new all season. 2003 2 litre automatic, so the ideal ULEZ beater.  The thought of getting anything newer was giving me a nose bleed, so hopefully this will do us for a few years.  The ride seems a bit bouncy and there's a few grumbles from the front, so it'll need some suspension work at some point.  All I ask at the moment is it just works.  The increased height over the Xedos is welcome, as Mrs T was having trouble with the low down seating position.  Plus I was getting increasingly annoyed with SUV headlights constantly up my chuff.  Less bother in this, and the auto dimming rear view mirror is a welcome win.  I think the wiper mechanism needs new bushes (now bought) as they slop about when in operation.  I'll take a look over the festive period as it'll drive me nuts if I don't fix them soon.

Dog approves.

 

The Super Tourers before the Xedos left.

 

[bunglebus]

Didn't know where else to put this. Custom '63 Mini built in the 70s and featured in Hot Car, thought to be long dead but alive and well in Colorado. Owner has brought it back to the UK several times and seems to tour far and wide in it

https://maximummini.blogspot.com/search?q=sedanca&fbclid=IwY2xjawHI0xpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUbQ__z5Aa_OybQWt5FL0EWptgun1-mu4MJmFjjTg6lDznmhuR79Si9UIw_aem_TWxozbpNP48dLrjFRkPKlQ&m=1

[ruffgeezer]

Got a bit bored yesterday after the early shift, so after walking the mutts,  I made a start on replacing the Partner's front discs and pads.

In a rare moment of actual momentum, I now have the timing belt and water pump stripped off.  I should have enough time and light this evening to clean it up and rebuild it.

 

[lesapandre]

In France ATM. Never far from an old car. This of one of two Porsche touring as a pair. Very noisy.

Folk do seem to use their old cars out here. Currently about 1°C brrrrrr.

[worldofceri]

On 02/12/2024 at 17:30, Lankytim said:

I’ve seen a hard top at the side of a motorway before, I imagine they fall off cars on the back of “Shiply” recovery trucks doing the job for £25.

Yep. Literally happened to me; In the early days so it was a Shiply job as well.

Think I’ve told this story before, but I had a job to collect a 1946ish Rover. It was an old boy’s project but he’d never got chance to finish it. I spent ages tying everything down as there was lots of loose parts, plus every door had to be secured as there was no latches fitted, plus the bonnet boot lid etc. The chap’s widow, bless her, helped me push it out of the garden into the back alley and I eventually set off through the suburbs of Birmingham. A quarter of a mile from the motorway I thought I’d take the chance to stop and make sure nothing was working loose. As I pulled up a car drew alongside:

”Oi M8, did you know you lost half of the roof back there?”

“ I certainly didn’t but thanks for telling me!”

Turns out it had a canvas roof insert on a timber frame. It was just sat in the roof aperture and not screwed down at all; I hadn’t even noticed it, let alone thought to secure it. It had just flipped right out.

I retraced my steps and found it lying in the road on the corner of a junction. Luckily it seemed no-one had run over it and it survived unscathed.

[auntiemaryscanary]

Works Xmas do, modern crazy* golf type. Nice atmosphere...

However this is one of the obstacles is this

Shame it's marooned.

[MrGTI6]

Found out this evening that my newly-acquired Mini Cooper has a rev-matching feature. 

When shifting up or down, it holds the revs exactly where they need to be for whichever gear is selected, and when you release the clutch you end up with a seamlessly smooth change every time. 

Particularly useful with down-shifts; no need to blip the throttle, just drop it down a gear or 3, dump the clutch, and you don't feel a thing! 

Finally, a modern car feature that's designed with mechanical sympathy in mind! Genuinely impressed with it! 

[brownnova]

Why was I lay on the drive, wearing a dressing gown and holding a hair drier at 6.30am?

 

Hang on… that’s not where I left you?!?

 Looks like I didn’t pull the handbrake up far enough (it was on) , and with the cooling discs it had released enough for the car to roll down my drive and crash into the hedge. Lucky thing was that I usually park it facing the 9000 so had my wife not nicked my usual spot both my Saabs would have been bent.

So why the hair dryer? The plastic bumper got bent. Bit of heat action saw it bent back into place and now you’d never know… unless you looked really closely! 

[IronStar]

^this is why I never ever park cars out of gear. Handbrakes fail, gearboxes much less often.

[richardmorris]

4 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Why was I lay on the drive, wearing a dressing gown and holding a hair drier at 6.30am?

 

Hang on… that’s not where I left you?!?

 Looks like I didn’t pull the handbrake up far enough (it was on) , and with the cooling discs it had released enough for the car to roll down my drive and crash into the hedge. Lucky thing was that I usually park it facing the 9000 so had my wife not nicked my usual spot both my Saabs would have been bent.

So why the hair dryer? The plastic bumper got bent. Bit of heat action saw it bent back into place and now you’d never know… unless you looked really closely! 

I thought you had to leave Saabs in reverse before you could remove the key?

[brownnova]

Just now, richardmorris said:

I thought you had to leave Saabs in reverse before you could remove the key?

Older ones yes, not the GM ones. 

[brownnova]

3 minutes ago, IronStar said:

^this is why I never ever park cars out of gear. Handbrakes fail, gearboxes much less often.

This is the learning point from this incident! 

[reb]

5 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Older ones yes, not the GM ones. 

I'm sure I've been in a GM saab that had that feature

[wuvvum]

The first gen 9-3s I believe you had to have in reverse to take the key out.  Second gen not so.

[brownnova]

I could be wrong… it has happened before! 

[High Jetter]

Hang on, y so early tho?

[richardmorris]

6 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Hang on, y so early tho?

School day. I’m up and out 7am mostly.

[dome]

2 hours ago, MrGTI6 said:

Found out this evening that my newly-acquired Mini Cooper has a rev-matching feature. 

When shifting up or down, it holds the revs exactly where they need to be for whichever gear is selected, and when you release the clutch you end up with a seamlessly smooth change every time. 

Particularly useful with down-shifts; no need to blip the throttle, just drop it down a gear or 3, dump the clutch, and you don't feel a thing! 

Finally, a modern car feature that's designed with mechanical sympathy in mind! Genuinely impressed with it! 

Sads. No need to heel and toe any more 

[High Jetter]

38 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

School day. I’m up and out 7am mostly.

Wasn't you, tho?

[richardmorris]

1 minute ago, High Jetter said:

Wasn't you, tho?

No but still most people get up early to go to work. Such is life.

[High Jetter]

1 minute ago, richardmorris said:

No but still most people get up early to go to work. Such is life.

Yea but 6:30 and not yet dressed tho?😀

[brownnova]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Yea but 6:30 and not yet dressed tho?😀

Can’t get my suit dirty lying on the floor! 🤣

[tooSavvy]

2 hours ago, brownnova said:

This is the learning point from this incident! 

AVAS [of course] is in P or I can't extract the key... I heave the handbrake, out of habit = clean on the MOT with constant usage....

🚙💨

[SiC]

My neighbour messaged me at a anti-social 9:30am, waking me up, asking if I wanted to go to a local car meet. Anyway I dragged myself out of bed and went down with him to have a look at a few varied cars. Started at 9am, we didn't get there till 11am and most had gone by then. Missed all the supercars which is a bit of a shame. Apparently a Mclaren Senna (700k or something) often turns up to the meets and occasionally a F40. Anyway I didn't see any of them but I had a good browse around the older stuff that had turned up.

This van was signwritten and looked to be a daily business driver for them.

 

A very nice E30 M3

 

Up the hill this went as I turned around after taking that photo

 

 

Not a real one (registered in 2011 apparently) but still cool.

 

Not sure what was in this but I reckon it was pretty beefy underneath. Lotus badges all over it so presumably something Lotus powered.

 

This Talbot (?) was mintola.

Proper AMG version I believe. Far cooler than that boring Escort in the background imo.

I love the shabbyness of this. Pretty sure I know the owner. Reminds me I need to push on with my Midget

Rare to see these nowadays especially not absolutely mint. 

Another boring Escort. Loads of these things about.

Yes a boring VW camper van but wait and read whats inside...

Pretty cool restomod imo. Especially keeping a flat engine in. Much more interesting build than the usual air cooled Porsche lumps.

Modern Porsche but a GT4 is pretty exotic. 

There were more cars but these are the ones that caught my interest. Has spurred me on a bit to get my two projects (especially the Midget) back started again.

[lesapandre]

Interesting mods to that XJS - they could just be giffer eccentricities or mean there is something more significant going on under the skin.

[chadders]

The Subaru campers go back 15 years or so, there's quite a few on the camper forums I frequent. Needless to say there are mixed views on them, if you want a lot more power it's cheaper and easier than the normal tuning routes and turbocharging is very dodgy by what I've seen.

If I did a lot of long motorway journeys I'd consider one but it still wouldn't help with the sensitivity to crosswinds or the wake of other vehicles.

https://fellowsspeedshop.com/