The new news 24 thread

[dollywobbler]

GSA has sprung a minor LHM leak. It looks like I really need to get under the car to investigate, but has left me realising how perilous it is to rely on a 34-year old hydropneumatic Citroen as my only car. 

So, I'm pondering trying to find an MOT garage and getting the Matiz or 2CV out of storage. Which one to choose? I reckon both stand a fair chance of a pass.

[SiC]

2 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

So, I'm pondering trying to find an MOT garage and getting the Matiz or 2CV out of storage. Which one to choose? I reckon both stand a fair chance of a pass.

If it was me, 2CV. Easier and cheaper to fix if it breaks and easier parts support. Also summer is almost upon us. 

Matiz may be 50:50 on an MOT from the lack of airbag light illuminating. Depends on your tester. 

[SiC]

Well the Boxster fitted in. Just...

Not a whole lot of room up front and even less at the door.

Proves that no matter how much space you have, it'll be filled in no time. ?

[stuboy]

Decided to strip and clean the carburetor was very dirty with calcified rubbish.. but runs better if bit smokey..

 

[HMC]

Was out getting some exercise and grabbed a quick pic. A sort of low level rural version of @RobT ‘s spots 
 

 

Also @Jim Bell Y THO?

[Zelandeth]

More garden work...yes we technically broke lockdown to do this as it involved walking five metres round the corner out of the garden gate.  If you think this was taking the piss like the one guy who felt the need to take photos of us, so be it.

To give an idea what was done today, you couldn't see the street light when we started, and it was the same height the full way along.

The hedge will be going entirely in the future and the fence moved back to just behind the trees.  We wanted to really thin it out though as we've had a lot of trouble with drug users using the space between the hedge and fence as a hiding place in the last year or so, so we've now removed the cover effectively and they'll need to find somewhere else.  Given kids also play in the area it felt necessary.

[Zelandeth]

52 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Decided to strip and clean the carburetor was very dirty with calcified rubbish.. but runs better if bit smokey...

 

 

I've only helped look after one moped which had an automatic oil injection system.  It regularly seemed to cause issues, especially in hot weather and if the bike wasn't used regularly.

We lost patience with it after about the third or fourth time we wound up having to remove large quantities of oil from the crankcase and switched to running on pre-mix.  While it probably smoked a bit more reliability was greatly improved.

Disclaimer: This was some Chinese thing that was so cheap that nobody even wanted to admit to having made it so there wasn't even a maker's mark on it anywhere...so Peugeot may know better what they're doing.

[Mr Lobster]

Twingo now has moderately effective brakes. Only moderately though as they are pathetically small to start with. An upgrade would be an idea but... meh.

Set of tyres and a service next I suppose.

[Crusty Sills]

Yesterday evening I decided to change the ATF on lady Sills Daily Mazda. 137k and I thought it was about time. 

Never done an auto before do obviously YouTube was my friend.

Filter and gasket ordered from eBay. As was ATF fluid from Westway lubricants, I asked them for an equivalent spec and they came up trumps. Excellent customer service. 

So to work! 

Air filter box out. 1st issue, turning rusted captives!!! Mole grips and ignorance worked a treat. 

Big hole created to get to little dipstick just behind the pipe on left. 

Under tray off. Last person to have it off thought it would fall off when going back on so bolts were done to F/T.  I know why it last came off but that's a rant for another day. 

 

Drained and my god it was grim. 

Next sump and filter. Amazingly the correct filter and gasket. 

A bit nervous removing it need a bit of force. Off and it's was pretty grubby. Cleaned and sealant cleaned off. Cleaned thoroughly and refitted. Measured what came out 4 litres and boom all fitted up and done. 3 hours but involved some issues and beer. 

Which is the new fluid? 

And this is sealed for life? 

And yes it is the Mazda 2.2 diesel that grenades itself!!!!

[Christine]

18 hours ago, SiC said:

Garage now ready for action. Still need to sort the benches but that shouldn't take too long. Boxster is in urgent need of fettling and taken priority over doing that.

The old shelf unit will be going and the mower possibly live in a shed outside in the future. Mower kinda gets in the way especially.

Just measuring up working area. Despite being a double garage and a little bit longer than the average standard (5.2m long), the Boxster will be a real tight squeeze in there. About 40cm working area in the front between the bumper and toolchest. Plan to go in at angle to help a bit and once the bumper is off and car jacked up, it should be improved.

I don't intend too much work to be done on the Boxster though and the classics are a good 40-80cm shorter thankfully. Still will be tight if I want to do an engine extraction, unless I poke the backend out.

However this working space is an order of magnitude better than I've ever had before. Plus plenty of room to the sides which is a luxury considering I was pressed against the wall at the old place. Also having a roof over your head is the most massive game changer for working on cars too.

Those removal guys have bent your welder ...workmate...and shelving ?

[barefoot]

On 5/2/2020 at 4:27 PM, barefoot said:

Bollocks. that worked for about ten minutes. I went to fire it up later this afternoon to confirm that all would be well in the morning and it fired up instantly, but simply wouldn't idle. The rev counter has also gone mentally over-enthusiastic and flys about wildly! I'm guessing that something very simple is broken, disconnected etc. I swapped the coil for a spare I have, cleaned under the distributor cap, and polished the end of the rotor arm. As expected, nothing made a sod of difference. Does anyone any idea what to look at next? It's a carb fed 1600 and it's not the end of the world, I'll just have to re-tax the 75 until I can get my man with the spanners out for a look some time in the next couple of months!

Chap across the road came & had a look at the Scarecrow with me, we could see nothing until I fired it up & he spotted the carb moving, creating the world's biggest fucking air-leak! A replacement bolt & some cable ties soon had everything fastened down securely again & the problem is solved but...

In a moment of madness, I taxed the 75 in case the VW wouldn't be fixed. I've not driven it, I've not moved it off the drive, I've not even started it. Is it possible to untax/SORN it again? I understand there's a 3 day hiatus thing when I can do nothing? The payment won't be taken until 19th, any advice will be welcomed. If the worst comes to the worst, it's only 25 quid or thereabouts, and I can use it a couple of times over the month.

[SiC]

Those removal guys have bent your welder ...workmate...and shelving

Damnit! The buggers!

[SiC]

It was raining outside and I was under a roof. Despite that, I still managed to get wet and water everywhere. 

Rad is pullef out and wasn't too much of a fight. Nothing* else damaged, which means I can just order the radiators.  Guides online said to cut pipes to make it easier but that would have been very unnecessary and those pipes aren't cheap. 

Also partially recorded a video for that YouTube thing. Except the battery ran out halfway. 

[Skizzer]

2 hours ago, Mr Lobster said:

Twingo now has moderately effective brakes. Only moderately though as they are pathetically small to start with. An upgrade would be an idea but... meh.

Set of tyres and a service next I suppose.

Great to have you back posting Mr L

[Parky]

Changed discs and pads on the daily Leon.  Amazingly I managed to get the correct parts from GSF.  

However despite all coming apart and going together easily, I haven’t got much of a brake pedal.  Performance seems a bit weaker than it was as well.  Do discs and pads need a couple of hundred miles to bed in or have I fucked something up?

Internet suggestions seem to think I have got air in the system but I can’t see how.  I pushed the calipers back using a home made tool and didn’t undo any brake nipples or anything like that so struggling to see how air might have got in.  Any thoughts?

[Mally]

They do need to bed in and the pedal may become firmer as they bed, providing it's safe to drive.

The pads are free to move I presume and not jammed/twisted at all.

[Parky]

Yeah, pads should be moving fine, sliders have brake grease aplenty and the other sections where pad and calipers meet have copper on.  

It is safe enough, I will give it a few days.  Wonder if maybe the new Bendix pads have some sort of glaze on them?  I did scrub them with brake cleaner but wonder if I should have roughed them up with sandpaper first?

If it doesn’t improve I will whip the calipers off again and have another looksie.  Or I might get them bled as it could probably do with new fluid

[Andyrew]

6 minutes ago, Parky said:

Changed discs and pads on the daily Leon.  Amazingly I managed to get the correct parts from GSF.  

However despite all coming apart and going together easily, I haven’t got much of a brake pedal.  Performance seems a bit weaker than it was as well.  Do discs and pads need a couple of hundred miles to bed in or have I fucked something up?

Internet suggestions seem to think I have got air in the system but I can’t see how.  I pushed the calipers back using a home made tool and didn’t undo any brake nipples or anything like that so struggling to see how air might have got in.  Any thoughts?

As in the pedal doesn't go down much? 

The bite will be a bit shit untill they bed in, 

Each brand will have a different bed in process, I tend to do the up to 50 firm brake down to not alot, accelerate again giving the brakes a min or two to recover then repeat.

There's many different ways to go about it but this works for me. 

[Parky]

Pedal doesn’t go down much, certainly no lower than previous but you are right, there isn’t a lot of bite there.  I did take it up to 50 and then whacked the anchors on and performance was ok, it certainly pulled up straight but didn’t have the instant sharpness it used to have.  Maybe the pads are harder/softer or it just needs bedding in as suggested.

[Skizzer]

If the pedal feels ok it sounds like they just need bedding in.

(Like I’m some kind of expert.)

[RobT]

^^W-Mr Expert-S.

[wuvvum]

Been for a bike ride up to the coast.  Not seen the sea in a month and a half, which feels strange when I normally see it a couple of times a week.  

Still very little traffic on the roads of North Norfolk, which is nice. 

[mitsisigma01]

2 hours ago, Parky said:

Changed discs and pads on the daily Leon.  Amazingly I managed to get the correct parts from GSF.  

However despite all coming apart and going together easily, I haven’t got much of a brake pedal.  Performance seems a bit weaker than it was as well.  Do discs and pads need a couple of hundred miles to bed in or have I fucked something up?

Internet suggestions seem to think I have got air in the system but I can’t see how.  I pushed the calipers back using a home made tool and didn’t undo any brake nipples or anything like that so struggling to see how air might have got in.  Any thoughts?

Did you clean the discs ???

[busmansholiday]

3 hours ago, barefoot said:

In a moment of madness, I taxed the 75 in case the VW wouldn't be fixed. I've not driven it, I've not moved it off the drive, I've not even started it. Is it possible to untax/SORN it again? I understand there's a 3 day hiatus thing when I can do nothing? The payment won't be taken until 19th, any advice will be welcomed. If the worst comes to the worst, it's only 25 quid or thereabouts, and I can use it a couple of times over the month.

You can SORN it straight away, it's SORN then taxing that you have to wait three days (or the PO).

Did it myself with the Camper, "may*" have actually moved it a few miles on Her Majesties Highway during the two hours it was taxed before I SORN'd it again.

 

[brownnova]

9 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

GSA has sprung a minor LHM leak. It looks like I really need to get under the car to investigate, but has left me realising how perilous it is to rely on a 34-year old hydropneumatic Citroen as my only car. 

So, I'm pondering trying to find an MOT garage and getting the Matiz or 2CV out of storage. Which one to choose? I reckon both stand a fair chance of a pass.

2CV clearly...

Because what’s better than having a 34 year old Citroen to rely on.... 

Having two 34 year old Citroens to rely on! 

[brownnova]

Talking of 2CVs... 

Mine got an oil change today. Needs a new air filter (which I thought I had for some reason but turns out I was wrong) and there’s a definite oil leak from the front of the engine somewhere, but I couldn’t work or where. I’ll monitor... 

As the MoT was extended on Friday I gave it a good checkover too. Underside is amazing no rust at all, suspension needs oiling, but the knife edges looked well greased. Couple of rubber boots starting to show early signs of perishing but ok for now.  All in all a very satisfactory checkover, went through the MoT checklist and could find no reasons not to keep using it until it’s new date in November. 

[wuvvum]

Well the 75 now has its shiny new exhaust fully fitted, and the V70 has an openable nearside rear door, so that's two jobs jobbed. 

The exhaust I bought came in two sections with a sleeve to join the two, rather than the single section of the original exhaust.  This made it a lot easier to handle for fitting purposes, but harder to judge the angles at which the bends in the pipe needed to sit - I didn't get it quite right on the centre section, so that is sitting about an inch too far to the offside and needed a bit of careful adjustment on the height with the aid of a scissor jack when joining the two halves together, but I've taken it for a drive and it doesn't knock on anything over bumps so I'm not going to worry too much about it.

The problems with the Volvo's central locking have been alluded to elsewhere.  I've essentially deactivated the central locking on both rear doors - they now lock using the plunger and unlock by pulling on the interior handle.  I rarely use the back doors anyway (the car usually has the back seats folded down) so as long as they open for the MOT that's all I'm worried about.  It still needs a tyre and the back box welding back on, but after that it should be nearly ready for a test.

The Scudo van is continuing its steady descent towards the scrapyard.  In addition to HGF it's now developed a fuel leak - diesel is pissing out from the fuel filter.  I'm not going to bother fixing it.  Ironically the van still starts first time every time, even when left for weeks, which is more than can be said for a lot of the fleet, but even so it has not been one of my better purchases.  When funds and travel restrictions permit I will be on the lookout for another van.

[Parky]

12 hours ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Did you clean the discs ???

Yes I made sure they were spotless but that said I did have a bit of a struggle with one of the pads not clipping in properly so may have got a smear of something on the back of the disc.  I will give them another wipe over to eliminate that possibility as a smear of copper on the disc isn’t going to help anyone. 

I will get the system bled ASAP anyway.  Realised the fluid was last changed in 2013 so massively overdue.  I planned to do it myself but by the time i have bought brake bleeding kids and faffed about getting the car in the air only to immediately break a nipple I thought I would let someone else have that pleasure. It’s not expensive and there is a very good local firm I use for odds and sods so it will give them something to do.

[Shirley Knott]

15 hours ago, Parky said:

Pedal doesn’t go down much, certainly no lower than previous but you are right, there isn’t a lot of bite there.  I did take it up to 50 and then whacked the anchors on and performance was ok, it certainly pulled up straight but didn’t have the instant sharpness it used to have.  Maybe the pads are harder/softer or it just needs bedding in as suggested.

This has pretty much been my experience every time I've done discs/pads- they always feel poor/ineffective for a while until they get used to each other.

Obviously brakes are important and I haven't directly tested yours but from your description that doesn't sound sinister or unusual.

[Skizzer]

16 minutes ago, Parky said:

the fluid was last changed in 2013

Ah, right. Yes ?