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Father Ted

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today I watched an Audi driver hammering on the window of the car in front of him because it did not move up 6 inches to let him turn off left ...out of the traffic jam

 

 

in Tesco , the arse behind me could not wait for a separator to become available and forced his way past me with a " scuse me " and a dirty look to grab one ... ..only 2 lots of shopping before his got counted out .. and being Tesco that was a while ....

 

 

sad sods

Must admit I lost my shit earlier in Wiltshire. I'd been waiting to turn right out of a junction FOR EVER. A tractor caused an obstruction further up the road, so I thought someone might let me out, seeing as they were having to slow anyway. Not a bit of it. The classic 'eyes front' approach where people in need become invisible. I could see a gap one way, that wasn't going to last long so I'm afraid I just nailed it and waved off the unsurprising horn blast in the end.

 

I wasn't even in an Audi.

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This evening I purchased another van.

 

post-190-0-81355400-1552691016_thumb.jpg

 

It's another Sevel Sud van, in Fiat flavour this time.  It has rust issues underneath, as they all do, and it has but two days' MOT left, but it was cheeeeeeap.  It also has the 2.3 JTD engine, which is one of the few engine options I'd not experienced before in a Sevel van.  It's in a different league to the 2.0, and noticeably pokier than the 2.2 HDI in the PSA versions.  In fact it gives little away to the 2.8 JTD in terms of acceleration - the 2.8 does pull harder, but the 2.3 revs higher so gears can be held for longer, which largely compensates for the power deficit.

 

It also has a nice smooth gearbox which doesn't crunch or jump out of gear, which is a rarity on these (although the later gearboxes were a bit better than the earlier versions).  The gearing is a bit odd, with the first four gears being rather low, then a big gap from 4th to 5th, but the engine copes with it OK and the long 5th means it's only doing about 2,300rpm at 60, which is perfectly civilised enough.  It doesn't seem to be too bad on fuel either, despite a not particularly leisurely drive home - although I did have a bit of a tail wind I think.

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Van you say?

 

post-4673-0-92682200-1552727802_thumb.jpeg

 

Just dragged the sprinter Mk1 airport taxi re imagined as a camper out onto the street. It has an OM601 2.3 non turbo with 78bhp. It’s sooo slow, presume this is normal, has anyone any experience? Obv it’s not going to be speedy but it feels like you have to drive flat out just to maintain road speed and not become a mobile road block on hills...

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I didn’t get the memo... I fired mine up for the first time in about 3 or 4 months LAST Saturday.

 

Third time lucky which isn’t bad considering it usually takes three goes if it’s been stood a couple of weeks...

 

Some remedial work to do on the roof before it’s ready fir trips. But it’s a) a bit windy today and b ) the rugby’s on later so I might leave that for today...

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Van you say?

 

8711ABE8-535A-4304-85D4-42A627F42E65.jpeg

 

Just dragged the sprinter Mk1 airport taxi re imagined as a camper out onto the street. It has an OM601 2.3 non turbo with 78bhp. It’s sooo slow, presume this is normal, has anyone any experience? Obv it’s not going to be speedy but it feels like you have to drive flat out just to maintain road speed and not become a mobile road block on hills...

This is the om601 motor I think? It's the 4cyl 8v version of what I have in the Merc.

 

From my reading there seems to be a few things you can do - in order of difficulty:

 

1. Drive it like a petrol - they are high revving for dervs and don't really do anything useful until past 3k rpm

 

2. Change the fuel filters - mine is now much more drivable, with better acceleration once moving - the old filters were clogged to fuck.

 

3. Make sure it gets up to temperature - thermostat and coolant change needs doing if the temp gauge doesn't get above 60 degrees.Do a service whilst you are at it.

 

4. It's possible to alter the pump timing ( Merc seem to suggest 1 degree per 100k miles to account for wear. I reckon my Merc would take 3 degrees). There are guides on line for how to do this, I have yet to try, and be warned, it could cause problems if not done correctly.

 

5. You can increase the fuelling on the pump, and alter the fuelling rack rate so that you get more fuel for longer. Again guides are available, but it does mean taking the back off the pump - and the van not being running til it is all back together. It's another job I am considering for mine.

 

6. Fit a later Merc turbo diesel engine - the om604/5/6 engines with boost would pep it right up.

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One of the Pumas wouldn't start the other day. Remote locking wasn't working, so opened door with key, car wouldn't go. Changed (fob) battery for known good one, got advice on how to re-set the remote, nothing doing. Asked my mate who does mobile key replacements and coding, he said to try the re-set sequence.

Still nothing, so put the jump pack on car (was convinced it wasn't car battery, but thought I'd try it). The alarm sounded, the remote worked and the car started.  

 

Verdict: bell end  :-D

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Van you say?

 

attachicon.gif8711ABE8-535A-4304-85D4-42A627F42E65.jpeg

 

Just dragged the sprinter Mk1 airport taxi re imagined as a camper out onto the street. It has an OM601 2.3 non turbo with 78bhp. It’s sooo slow, presume this is normal, has anyone any experience? Obv it’s not going to be speedy but it feels like you have to drive flat out just to maintain road speed and not become a mobile road block on hills...

 

Are they the same old lump as in the old 308D type vans? 

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I've been bathing in brake fluid again. I wonder if I'll ever get these stupid Nubira rear brakes to work properly. Here's hoping.

 

So the rear left brake was making ugly sounds again. My earlier attempt at replacing the pitted caliper piston last summer ended in failure due to a non-fitting replacement part. I had acquired a known good piston now, so away we go, yet again.

 

The Daewoo Nubira/Gentra, a.k.a. Buick (Excelle), Chevrolet (Lacetti/Optra/Optra5/Estate/Nubira), Suzuki (Forenza/Reno), Holden (Viva) and what have you..

post-26677-0-92103100-1552744846_thumb.jpg

 

One of the slide pins was stuck. This was a new development of affairs. Cleaned and going back again.

post-26677-0-59206100-1552744895_thumb.jpg

 

The pitted old piston, which I'd tried to clean and reuse last summer with poor results.

post-26677-0-05175900-1552744899_thumb.jpg

 

New piston in place. The new rubber boot just didn't want to sit nice in the groove. It'll seal, I'm sure*

post-26677-0-30042300-1552744892_thumb.jpg

 

A bleed and new set of pads later it's back to working order. Meanwhile, the left rear brake has started binding in the Trajet. Wonderful.

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I had its VW-badged cousin - a MWB LT28 with the 75bhp SDI engine - and that was very similar, needed caning to even get close to keeping up with traffic. The only upside was that being a 5-pot engine it did sound rather nice when being thrashed.

Good, hopefully a service may help a bit but it sounds like that’s what they are like. With a long enough stretch of my local MIRA I had it up to 75 on the sat nav, eventually!

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Mike had time to lend a hand.  Even with a scaffold bar, me on the footbrake, and all Mike's strength neither front hub nut will budge.  They're both FAR too tight.  Going to see if a local garage can get them off with the big gun and then retorqued to the correct setting so we can do the wheel bearing and CV boot replacement at home.  They're on that tight that with me on the foot brake and all Mike's strength on the scaffold bar you can hear the brakes beginning to let go.  Someone has dogged these up WAY too tight.

 

 

post-17940-0-00431800-1552755539_thumb.jpg

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I've discovered a Vel satis 3 litre diesel automatic for sale locally me at 699. How quick would this bankrupt me? It's done 88k from new. What, other than the autobox obviously should I be looking for as problems? It's got a full mot. I should I see if bramz still has his Volvo estate for sale?

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Bottom corner of imps Jag wing has made a bid for freedom.

 

1e01740c1248f6b36b8b499a44ef83e8.jpg

 

Also, nicked a battery charger off my dad and got the Galaxy fired up again to collect a double bed for the sprogs room.

 

Woman complimented me on the Galaxy ‘Can’t go wrong with a Galaxy, we loved ours, etc’.

 

She was oblivious to the whiff coming from the driver’s rear brake as that side seems to be binding a bit.

 

Much heat in the wheel but too we tot poke about again today.

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I've discovered a Vel satis 3 litre diesel automatic for sale locally me at 699. How quick would this bankrupt me? It's done 88k from new. What, other than the autobox obviously should I be looking for as problems? It's got a full mot. I should I see if bramz still has his Volvo estate for sale?

Same engine as used shortly in the Saab 9-5 and Vectra C. Pretty spectacular how many problems they can have. No one will want to work on it either.

 

If it's working and at a throw away price you can afford, it'd be a worth a laugh.

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That 3-litre V6 diesel engine is thunderously shit.  Gearboxes can poo themselves but aren't as bad as Renault's in-house efforts, however the rest of the electrics can and do go haywire on a regular basis.

 

If you have a masochistic streak and can afford to lose £699, then by all means go for it.

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Romania gets another metre of motorway! :-)

 

It was ruled illegal though as it didn't have a construction permit...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47582694

 

I can't say I'm vastly surprised to learn the roads are dangerous. They all drive like maniacs and make the M25 look like a gentle amble in the park. That said, I think the closest we came to actually dying on the Romania trip was in Serbia...

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Twice within a couple of KMs just before the Bosnian border.

 

I think the first was a Iveco van overtaking a lorry on a bend then shortly afterwards a Renault 4 had broken down on another bend and we had a scary 3 cars on 2 lanes moment when an oncoming car didn't see it until the last moment.

 

Closest I came to dying was that layby in Romania with the abandoned aeroplanes.  It was really peaceful and quiet and I stepped away from the car as Ian was filming and was very nearly hit by a black 4x4 full of heavies that had entered the layby at about 70mph.  They were rather unhappy so we made a sharp exit.

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The very same I think. Bit of a crossover of the new body but the most gutless of the pre- cdi generation emgines

 

Bullet proof/reliable/totally gutless.

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Tackled the rusty rear arches on the Audi today. Thankfully it was all surface rust only.

 

Offside:

 

post-3238-0-94425700-1552818956_thumb.jpg

 

 

post-3238-0-08898900-1552819053_thumb.jpg

 

Nearside:

 

post-3238-0-69538500-1552819111_thumb.jpg

 

Got my trusty bandfile out

 

 

post-3238-0-38840500-1552819175_thumb.jpg

 

Down to bare metal:

 

post-3238-0-46767700-1552819280_thumb.jpg

 

Vactan on and wait for it to dry:

 

 

post-3238-0-76038500-1552819371_thumb.jpg

 

 

Ten quid ebay touch up bottle is a good match. I'll add another coat when I come back later today.

post-3238-0-13651700-1552819432_thumb.jpg

 

Still a ten footer but looks better than the rust.

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