The new news 24 thread

[HMC]

i have just become the custodian of a well used 1998 e39 528i touring.

[Tayne]

Providing you avoid 'Mingebag Blue' 2 door ones you should be ok

 

£30900 on the original invoice but Orient Blue was a no-cost option.

The £300 Tracker was a waste of money as the dealer never registered or activated it.

 

 

 

At this juncture I will announce i have just become the custodian of a well used 1998 e39 528i touring.

 

You are ChinaTom and I claim my five pounds.

[ashmicro]

I like these very much. I had a 530d SE as a company car and it was proper. Pretty quick, comfy, well equipped and looked great. Also felt very well made.

[dollywobbler]

What's with all the Beemer love?! Though I saw an E39 for sale today for £600 and it did make me double-take...

 

Anyway. I collect my new BX tomorrow. My wife can't complain about it as she's just spent more on a pair of shoes. (albeit very good shoes, that she'll keep for years and which can be rebuilt when bits wear out. And which won't rust. Or leak vital fluids over the driveway...)

[Station]

I had a 2000 BMW 330Ci as a company car in 2001 and I loved it, I didn't know much about whether it handled well, but felt solid and reliable, deffo have another, now they're about 999 quid.

[Cavcraft]

Providing you avoid 'Mingebag Blue' 2 door ones you should be ok

 

£30900 on the original invoice but Orient Blue was a no-cost option.

The £300 Tracker was a waste of money as the dealer never registered or activated it.

 

 

Take it that means you cannot register it now? They're supposed to be really good and assume they make the insurance a bit cheaper?

[Lord Sterling]

RIGHT! Well, the Rover decided to start blowing through its (rather old) exhaust again. It was taken to have the manifold resealed a few weeks ago. Then a wekk before my holiday it decided to blow, queue the Sterling finding back up in the ramps in my mates garage, and again, one of the bolts deciding to snap off so out with the blow torch it was again. What was also found was that the backbox was starting to blow too, that was pasted up and the manifold was again resealed so hopefully I've got a quieter exhaust system, for now... A new backbox and new seals on the parts of the exhaust should see thing improve though.

 

At the same time I decided to smash on another expnasion tank, the one I previously put it in decided to start leaking, again. This is the forth time I've had to replace it. The next time this one goes, and it most probably will go, it will be replaced with a Volvo 850 tank, apparently someone has done before this with good results.

[Station]

MR2 passed the MOT today with one advisory - OSR anti roll bar slight play - I replaced most of the ball joints, and this morning replaced with a new steering rack with new boots and paintjob.

Merc E220 has been awesome with 50 miles to 10 quid of 'urban/extra urban' driving (expected less, it's a big car with a large engine), I also got stuck in the week and ended up sleeping in it over night in the massive boot with my top end on the folded down seat part - sleep at 10pm, waking at 7am. The rear is completely flat so no bumps sticking into you.

[catsinthewelder]

Ms C informed me last night that the exhaust had fallen off my "beloved car" and bless her she'd collected it and put it in the boot.

 

Good news was that it was the same as the one that fell off the last BX, which I kept when I scrapped it.

 

Bad news was that it wasn't quite the 5 minute job to change that I was expecting, The VW had a flat battery so I spent about 2 hours crawling under the car while it was parked on the street with hammers and mole-grips trying to get rusted together exhaust bits seperated. Got there in the end though and it only took 5 minutes to slot it all back together

[Tayne]

Providing you avoid 'Mingebag Blue' 2 door ones you should be ok

 

£30900 on the original invoice but Orient Blue was a no-cost option.

The £300 Tracker was a waste of money as the dealer never registered or activated it.

 

 

Take it that means you cannot register it now? They're supposed to be really good and assume they make the insurance a bit cheaper?

 

I phoned tracker with all the details from the original paperwork, as it was nearly 10 years old and absent from their files they wanted to do a "technical check" on the car (minimum charge £150+vat) plus the same again for a year's subscription. As it would likely exceed that minimum charge to re-activate the 10 year old kit they offered me a half price deal on a new installation for the same money.

 

I didn't take them up in it as spending £360 to knock a few pennies off my £370 insurance premium didn't seem to make sense.

 

Also, if the car did get nicked and was then tracked and chased down by jonno and Bazza from road wars I wouldn't want it back after the flange/nugget/valve who lifted it had redlined it constantly and bounced it off parked cars whilst trying to get away from 5-o.

[dollywobbler]

I will shortly be clambering aboard my neighbour's OMG HGF Freelander for the trek to the East Midlands to collect my latest purchase. Which apparently has an LHM leak. Potential disaster both ways!

[cort16]

OMG LHM HGF KAOS!

It sounds like an interesting journey. Make sure you've got sandwiches.

[ashmicro]

Take some K Seal and a gallon of water, Ian. And some welding gear. And solder. And wiring. Maybe - get the train?

 

Good Luck!

[cort16]

^

[dollywobbler]

Oh. Disappointing. I can see the neighbour's husband checking the levels on their Forester WRC SCARY TURBO MONSTER. So much for HGF KAOS. The suspension is rock hard on it. I may take a cushion. See y'all later!

[vulgalour]

New job has me genuinely wanting to learn Polish, and while I've thought about learning another language in the past, I've never had a reasonable excuse. Add to this a desire to go on a crazy roadtrip with my brother to Poland to buy something odd and shite and I think there may be a plan forming, allbeit a long winded one containing a lot of the letters C and Z.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Let's start with the basics:

 

"w szczebrzeszynie chrzÄ…szcz brzmi w trzcinie"

[vulgalour]

Help me Google Translate! You're my only hope!

 

GT: in Szczebrzeszyn is the cane beetle *audio noises too*

 

Well, that sounds easy enough to pick up in an afternoon then.*

 

 

 

 

 

*trying to learn Polish may not have been my brightest idea to date.

[Lord Sterling]

Well, today myself and my mate Brad went down to Somerset to collect an 3.5 SD1 Vanden Plas. Its a B-reg with a big-bore exhaust which apprently was custom made. Made the car sound nice too

 

The reason for me tagging along was so we could drive down in one car and come back with 2. This was my transport for the day:

 

 

Its a 2.5 OMFG!!! KV6 Sterling. What a great car, lovely, smooth, comfortable and pretty responsive, what let it down was the cheap exhaust which was starting to blow and made it sound like a lawn mower whilst accelerating. This lovely Coupe also made me realise how terrible my Sterling really is

 

I've got some serious hankering for a KV6 Coupe, I have the money, know the risks and am prepared to put in some work and money, but lack of space, the extra cost of a garage I dont really need and my reluctance to sell any of my stock is really putting a downer on this idea

 

Anyhow, this is the SD1:

 

The car was great, pretty much original, almost 'TheDoctor' in condition, it had been in storage for a long time so most of the paintwork was original and there seemed to be no signs of rust. With the Big Bore exhaust it sounded beautiful.

 

After collection we headed up the M5 only stopping for petrol and a bite to eat somewhere in Cheltenham. I never drove the SD1 as it is heading to a private collector.

 

It was a great day, seeing a good friend and driving some lovely cars. Thanks Brad!

 

-----------------------

 

OTHA NEWZ:

 

Received some bits for the Micra on Friday, a pair of fogs and a rear ashtray. I fitted in the ashtray only to find the colour differs slightly, I kind of suspected this as the Grey colouring on early K11 plastics were darker than the facelift Micras:

 

Original rear ashtray that I eventually broke:

 

Replacement:

 

Oh well, you live 'n learn

 

Next I thought I'd try the fog lights, they are early fog lights from an early Micra SR or something. I tried to remove the bolts from the bumper grille but it just wasnt happening:

 

 

All I managed to do was shear off a couple of bolts. I packed up and went inside.

 

A couple of weeks ago I tried to fit some rear panels to the Micra as higher-spec models differ.

 

Original:

 

Replacement:

 

It fitted correctly and looked great, but I couldnt for the life of me remove the seatbelt, there was one bolt stuck on tight that just wouldnt move, I needed to remove it to thread the old panel out and thread it into the new panel. I gave up, replaced the original and went in the house.

 

Sigh

[HMC]

^ nice number on that 800! Is that one of Brads, Mo?

[Lord Sterling]

^ nice number on that 800! Is that one of Brads, Mo?

 

It is indeed. What a car man. I wish I had the space, there are a couple of similar Coupes for sale somewhere.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Both those Rovers are just marvellous.

 

I now have a surprisingly effective heater in the Sprite. The water tap was seized open, so no action required there and the motor was just not earthing so I don't know why the PO disconnected it. The vents were full of battery acid powder and dirt but after a quick clean the whole system is working rather well.

[Shep Shepherd]

That SD1 is simply marvellous

[RobT]

^ nice number on that 800! Is that one of Brads, Mo?

 

It is indeed. What a car man. I wish I had the space, there are a couple of similar Coupes for sale somewhere.

 

I've only met him once but what a hero, all those Rover 800s he's got Once I'm shot of the Renault I'm hoping to dip my toe in the wonderful world of KV6 headgasket failure!

[dollywobbler]

The To Do list is growing. Bluebird needs a thermostat, which I'm noticing now it's getting colder. New BX needs strut return pipes. No wonder it was losing LHM! Think I've sourced one of the knocks - seems to be coming from one of the track rods. Not sure how big a problem this is yet (it's the rack end, not the hub end).

[Richard]

I've not done a BX one but the track rods I've done have been a piece of piss. I got home one evening at 4:30, replaced a track rod on the C5 and had it in for a retest by 4:45.

 

Turn the steering so the rod is fully out, unscrew the track rod end (I chose not to bother removing the TRE from the hub- or even taking the wheel off), release the boot and slide it off- it's an idea to count the turns but you'll be wanting to have the tracking set anyway. The C5 had no locking device but you'll probably find the BX has three tabs to bend back. Unscrew the track rod using the flats if you can, or Stilsons etc. And that's it, put the new one in and put it all back together.

[dollywobbler]

Lovely. Thanks. Online shopping tonight then!

[cobblers]

I'm a fucking idiot and put off getting my tracking done for too long. I'd noticed a "little bit" of wear on the inside but kept putting the job off.

I did a couple of 350 mile trips over the last few weeks - took the front drivers wheel off to find my 1500 mile old 18" tyre worn down to the bloody cords on the inside.

 

I've just spent £80 on tracking and a pair of part worns that don't even appear to have any kind of manufacturer on them.

[ashmicro]

Just scored a full set of Apec discs and pads for the Jaaaag for £65 all in . Job for the weekend. It doesn't even need discs, but at that price, it's getting them.

[Lord Sterling]

Hmmm. I received an e-mail through Flickr today from a production company who want to use the photos of my 825 Sterling in thier 'new web series for Car & Driver about the best, worst, and most memorable cars of all time'

 

I replied to the e-mail asking exactly in which category will my car feature? I kind of get a feeling that my car will feature in the 'worst' category if I give permission