The new news 24 thread

[wuvvum]

Undid one of the rear flexis on the Innocenti earlier.  Ordinarily with a flexi detached from its wheel cylinder and left to hang down and with a full master cylinder reservoir, one would (I assume) expect to see a steady drip of brake fluid from the end of the flexi, rather than the half-arsed few drops (and then nothing more) that I actually got.  So that does suggest a blocked flexi - now all I need to do is work out what the car shares its brake hoses with - it definitely isn't standard Mini as it's a banjo fitting onto the wheel cylinder.

The drum is also binding somewhat so that'll need looking at as well - to my surprise the two drum retaining screws actually came undone, I was expecting to have to drill them out.

[Ghosty]

7 hours ago, trigger said:

I'm off to view a potential new car for Mrs Trigger tomorrow morning but if I'm honest I don't know a lot about them. 

It's this 1983 Golf Cabriolet, apparently its a GLi but with a 1.8 GTi engine from factory? Is that right? What do I need to look out for? I'm told it has no rust, it's had a new hood and is currently at a garage having a ew exhaust and fuel sender fitted. 

I've found a old advert from 7 years when it was sold by the last owner. 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1983-mk1-golf-8-gli-low-mileage-lagos-736746641

It's up for £3500, is that about right? 

 

That's fuffing cool, and the price sounds immensely fair. 

[beko1987]

18 hours ago, Fumbler said:

I forgot how long editing stuff took. This may take a while!

Ooh another resolve user! Hello 👋

[Soundwave]

Not really "news" since I did it a couple of weeks ago, but I successfully completed my first ever cambelt/water pump DIY job!

It was on my MX5 - I've been waiting a couple of weeks before declaring it "fixed", just in case. But it's holding its coolant, running up to temp with no issues, heating works, fan is kicking in at the right time... I'm still basking in the warm glow of a bit of spannering that actually went right!

[Spurious]

12 hours ago, Yoss said:

Can't have too many 10mm spanners. Keep one in every glove box*. 10,11 and 13mm spanners and a couple of screwdrivers as a very basic set in the glove box will get you going again in most situations, at least if you drive cars like mine. 

 

*except the Triumph of course which is AF not metric. I carry more tools in that than your average garage. And half a spare car. 

I find if I'm taking an old car on holiday I start out with that idea, surely I just need a couple of bits. Which ends with, "it's a big car, I can squeeze in the 1/2' set and the 3/8th set and may as well bring the small hydraulic jack, you never know..." 😁

[NorfolkNWeigh]

13 hours ago, trigger said:

I'm off to view a potential new car for Mrs Trigger tomorrow morning but if I'm honest I don't know a lot about them. 

It's this 1983 Golf Cabriolet, apparently its a GLi but with a 1.8 GTi engine from factory? Is that right? What do I need to look out for? I'm told it has no rust, it's had a new hood and is currently at a garage having a ew exhaust and fuel sender fitted. 

I've found a old advert from 7 years when it was sold by the last owner. 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1983-mk1-golf-8-gli-low-mileage-lagos-736746641

It's up for £3500, is that about right? 

 

Re the GLi /GTi  thing. The engine in all GLis is the same as GTis , VW just didn’t badge the convertibles as GTi much the same as early Escort cab.s we’re  not XR3i, rather 1.6i. Probably an insurance thing.

I had a hire one for a couple months in 1984 and loved it, even new it creaked and rattled a bit if you abused it( I was 20, it was a rental) but it was still drove better than my new  XR3i when that finally got delivered.

Bought a Clipper a couple of years ago that never ran right because of a shit carb, obviously not an issue with this.

 

[Spurious]

14 hours ago, trigger said:

I'm off to view a potential new car for Mrs Trigger tomorrow morning but if I'm honest I don't know a lot about them. 

It's this 1983 Golf Cabriolet, apparently its a GLi but with a 1.8 GTi engine from factory? Is that right? What do I need to look out for? I'm told it has no rust, it's had a new hood and is currently at a garage having a ew exhaust and fuel sender fitted. 

I've found a old advert from 7 years when it was sold by the last owner. 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1983-mk1-golf-8-gli-low-mileage-lagos-736746641

It's up for £3500, is that about right? 

 

It's yellow and it's got a Wolfsburg steering wheel. And the price looks alright considering VW scene tax. 

[New POD]

Given that South Africa is full of 5 door versions which they made until quite recently, I'm guessing parts availability won't be too bad 

[Spurious]

13 minutes ago, New POD said:

Given that South Africa is full of 5 door versions which they made until quite recently, I'm guessing parts availability won't be too bad 

VW tradition for obscure parts is also available. They are pricy however, I think a lot of them would be new old stock parts that VW had lying around. 

[Bazfr69]

15 hours ago, trigger said:

I'm off to view a potential new car for Mrs Trigger tomorrow morning but if I'm honest I don't know a lot about them. 

It's this 1983 Golf Cabriolet, apparently its a GLi but with a 1.8 GTi engine from factory? Is that right? What do I need to look out for? I'm told it has no rust, it's had a new hood and is currently at a garage having a ew exhaust and fuel sender fitted. 

I've found a old advert from 7 years when it was sold by the last owner. 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1983-mk1-golf-8-gli-low-mileage-lagos-736746641

It's up for £3500, is that about right? 

 

It’s a bargain at that price imo. 

[barefoot]

The steering isn't heavy on my Scirocco and that don't have PAS either. I wouldn't swear to it, but I don't think the wheel is correct, that's from a base or very early model surely? The posher models should be more like this...

Bloody good fun tho'

[LightBulbFun]

Just now, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

The shitbox Micra is not perfect on it's idling but is at least not flipping dangerous anymore after todays tinkering.  

My love for the car dwindles fast, but regardless I'm trawling the net now for a Mikuni throttlebody since Daytona Spares who claim to have them in stock, simply do not.   

I do hope your able to solve the issues with the Micra

its sad to see that you have fallen out with it, as you and it seemed to get along so well otherwise!

I have enjoyed reading how you stuck with it over time when it was playing ball  

[barefoot]

We had a similar issue at work with a Renault Master equipped with a bizarre robotised manual gearbox. It would never change gear when you expected it to, it would slur the changes instead of changing ratios smartly & I once even managed to stall the bloody thing. Finally it would do nothing, not even start so we had it recovered to a garage who about a week later found a bad earth to the gearbox and all the running issues were solved in one fell swoop. 

[3VOM]

Cabbys - http://cabby-info.com/

There should be a what to look for on there IIRC.

[Split_Pin]

Had a trip to Luss in the Audi today. An enjoyable day but the exhaust has had it from front to back. Its barking away on the motorway and it's really annoying now. They're absolutely unobtainable and the only option is a custom stainless system at £600 or so which is out of the question.  I can get an exhaust for any of the rest of my fleet for under £100 from ebay.

I'm going to park it up for a bit, enjoy the Cavalier and get the Mini through its MOT next month, before I decide what I'm doing with it.

[richardmorris]

My dad has just called to say he’s had the fiat serviced and the steering bushes I bought fitted. They (allitalia in wrexham) had loads of nice cars in including a lovely lancia Fulvia up on the ramp. Fresh from southern Italy with no rust! Anyway they checked for coolant leaks and tightened a few jubilee clips. All pipes and rad ok. Only things that they suggest to do is the engine mounts at some point. £ per mile over the last couple of years is well over £10 now!

[dozeydustman]

Looking at an car Saturday for stepdaughter. 
 

An collection caper is planned for Sunday.

If purchase goes ahead on Saturday, an cheap roffle may occur next week.

[jonathan_dyane]

The head gasket has gone on my wife’s X-Trail. I have started dismantling it. Today my shitty day at work has been complimented by the head gasket going on my Saab leaving no operational cars.

Naturally I rectified this in the time honoured Autoshite manner by buying another shit car, a Saab convertible with a roof that doesn’t open, ideal for the summer.

TLDR: who was it who converted a Saab with a busted roof to manual operation?

[Jazoli]

3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Had a trip to Luss in the Audi today. An enjoyable day but the exhaust has had it from front to back. Its barking away on the motorway and it's really annoying now. They're absolutely unobtainable and the only option is a custom stainless system at £600 or so which is out of the question.  I can get an exhaust for any of the rest of my fleet for under £100 from ebay.

I'm going to park it up for a bit, enjoy the Cavalier and get the Mini through its MOT next month, before I decide what I'm doing with it.

Can you not just get a mild steel one made up? It should be a lot less than 600 and will still last for years, shame to lose the use of a cabrio at this time of year.

[omegod]

3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Had a trip to Luss in the Audi today. An enjoyable day but the exhaust has had it from front to back. Its barking away on the motorway and it's really annoying now. They're absolutely unobtainable and the only option is a custom stainless system at £600 or so which is out of the question.  I can get an exhaust for any of the rest of my fleet for under £100 from ebay.

I'm going to park it up for a bit, enjoy the Cavalier and get the Mini through its MOT next month, before I decide what I'm doing with it.

I guarantee some tightwad has found a way around this, someone always does and it usually involves butchering a slightly different system, keep looking ! 

[trigger]

Thanks for the cabby advice guys, I went to view the car this morning, it was at a garage friend of the sellers awaiting a new exhaust and a fuel/temp gauge repair. It has been sat a while and had a flat tyre so looked a bit sad for itself but it fire up OK if sounding like a tractor, it was very tidy with no signs of rust and bone dry inside. 

It needs a couple of tyres, a good polish and clean and a service as it's not been used much for 7 years and the suspension it's stupidly low on adjustable coilovers but we shook on £3250 which I felt was fair. 

I spoke to the previous lady owner too who said she wish she could afford to buy it back, she's the one who lowered it all and fitted the wank number plates, it will be putting back to standard again! 

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, Jazoli said:

Can you not just get a mild steel one made up? It should be a lot less than 600 and will still last for years, shame to lose the use of a cabrio at this time of year.

That would be ideal. I've asked about and places near me are either not taking on any new work or are only interested in fitting £££s systems to Golf Rs . It'll bite them on the arse next year though (when the Audi will probably still not be moving!).

I'm not all that bothered right now really, the 75 is great to drive and I'm fair into my Cavaliers at the moment too! It would just have been nice to have a cheap ebay solution however I've known since I got the car that new exhausts are not available and mine was deteriorating. 

[clayts450]

A week or so ago the Rover 620 threw up an EML. No discernible impact on the performance of the beast, but a PITA nonetheless. Pre-OBD, so Ronda in their infinite wisdom stuck a 2 pin diagnostic socket near the passenger A-pillar which can be shorted with a paperclip so the EML flashes a certain number of times when ignition switched on. Yeah, didn't work, just flashed the SRS light instead (which means the SRS system works, somewhat reassuringly).

However, looking at the list of fault codes a fair few of them related to exhaust shenanigans, and I suspected my MoT GunGum bodge had failed. I was right. Wanged another load of GunGum bodgeitfix on, EML never to be seen again. £50 for a replacement middle pipe, so on my to do list sometime soon.

I think I have also solved the perennial driver door inside handle not opening the door issue, but I'm not holding my breath (cue, going back to winding the window down to let myself out in 3,2,1....)

Took it for a run today and noticed a bit of wheel wobble action going on, esp when braking. Pondered whether some of the wheel nuts were loose - checked all on driver's side - fine, checked first one on pass side. Ouch - that's fucking red hot, burned my thumb and forefinger. Just to make sure I hadn't imagined it, I tried the next nut as well - yeah, still fucking red hot. Double mofo ouch. Even the plastic wheel trim was red hot. My guess is a sticking caliper.

After the footie, stripped it down, and the guide pins looked very suspect, so gave them a clean up, re-greased them, put it all back together again. Will go for a trundle soon to see if that has solved it. 

 

[Zelandeth]

30 minutes ago, trigger said:

Thanks for the cabby advice guys, I went to view the car this morning, it was at a garage friend of the sellers awaiting a new exhaust and a fuel/temp gauge repair. It has been sat a while and had a flat tyre so looked a bit sad for itself but it fire up OK if sounding like a tractor, it was very tidy with no signs of rust and bone dry inside. 

It needs a couple of tyres, a good polish and clean and a service as it's not been used much for 7 years and the suspension it's stupidly low on adjustable coilovers but we shook on £3250 which I felt was fair. 

I spoke to the previous lady owner too who said she wish she could afford to buy it back, she's the one who lowered it all and fitted the wank number plates, it will be putting back to standard again! 

Bargain of the year right there!

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Looking at an car Saturday for stepdaughter

Seems a fair swop 🤣

[holbeck]

10 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

That would be ideal. I've asked about and places near me are either not taking on any new work or are only interested in fitting £££s systems to Golf Rs . It'll bite them on the arse next year though (when the Audi will probably still not be moving!).

I'm not all that bothered right now really, the 75 is great to drive and I'm fair into my Cavaliers at the moment too! It would just have been nice to have a cheap ebay solution however I've known since I got the car that new exhausts are not available and mine was deteriorating. 

When I had mine I found the same.  My research found plenty of German web forums moaning about the same too. I managed to find a middle section on Ebay. The rear section is as near as dammit the same as the 2.0 exhaust which is (or was) available. 

[Split_Pin]

Cheers man, good to know about the middle section, I have seen a few on ebay which say they fit the 1.8. They're not that expensive so worth a shot. I can get a front section up to the down pipe no problem too, which is where its blowing worst.

[stuboy]

Some may think them as sad or petty , but I'm very happy with my new number plate, 

[Split_Pin]

Nothing wrong with a personal plate, I've got one on the Audi and I really like it. 

[TheOtherStu]

I love me a wanker plate. About to buy a second.

@stuboy you'll probably appreciate this one too