The new news 24 thread

[SiC]

Colleague at work today asked me the fateful question "Why don't you just buy one nice car?". I replied with "Why would I want to do that for?"

"Because it might work!" was the reply. The easy retort was "Well your Golf GTi was a fair bit more and has been having an engine rebuild after it blew up cruising on the motorway"...

He likened my car buying like someone running a sanctuary for injured and ill goats. Except instead of making the sick goats better, I just buy more goats. 🤨

[Tadhg Tiogar]

31 minutes ago, SiC said:

.......He likened my car buying like someone running a sanctuary for injured and ill goats. Except instead of making the sick goats better, I just buy more goats. 🤨

Goats are the whole basis that underpins AS.

[richardmorris]

[wuvvum]

What an odd-looking thing.

[Zelandeth]

Well while Hermes have lost the parts I was waiting for for the Jag, at least Mercedes got the couple of little bits I was waiting for in exactly when they said they would.

The washer is an oddball size (or at least doesn't match anything I can find either in the relevant box or listed in stock in the usual suspects locally).  Yes I could just have got some paper in and made the gasket, but for £2.40 for the pair I just couldn't be bothered with the faff!

Hopefully I'll be able to get it back together this afternoon.  Just wish I didn't have to take the flipping alternator off to change that washer (it's the outer oil seal for the timing chain tensioner).  If there was about 1/2" more room I could get away with it!

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

What an odd-looking thing.

His hairline is definitely receding in quite a dramatic way, but there's no need to be so unkind.

[Spottedlaurel]

15 hours ago, SiC said:

The passenger side has a CD Changer! Unfortunately the head unit isn't connected to it anymore either. I bet this has never been used either. Did anyone ever use a CD Changer?

I can't say about Skoda owners, but I did and still do. The LS400 has one in the boot, I listened to something on it on the way into work a little while ago but it wasn't a long enough journey to move onto the next disc.

When I bought it last year I removed the previous owner's CD collection and handed them back to him. It's fair to say there wasn't much overlap between the tastes of a former Tory councillor in his 80s and mine.

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

What an odd-looking thing.

A phantom II boat-tailed speedster. Probably Indian market originally.

[davehedgehog31]

A tale of two collection capers, part one. 

Not myself buying the car this time but my brother. Found on an owners club forum for ACTUAL MONEY. 8 years old, sub 100k and full main dealer history meant it should be fairly uneventful. 

These events took place last Thursday and Friday. 

Basingstoke was the destination. Leg one;

On to Waterloo for a train to Basingstoke;

It was a hideously muggy day, but we made it to our lodgings at the Premier Inn in Basingstoke around 12:30am. 

After a Greggs breakfast we met the chap and a distressing amount of reddies were digitally exchanged. We set off North towards the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, where we see the steed for the first time;

It's a Lexus GS450H premier. A 3.5 V6 twinned with a Hybrid drive system. It goes like the hammers of fuck and is ridiculously serene and comfortable.

Really enjoyed our visit to the museum;

\

Venturing North ocne more;

The spot of the trip at Warrington Mcdonalds;

The rest of the trip was as uneventful as you'd expect. CVT witchcraft seeing 1k RPM @ 80mph on a private test track. 

Got home about midnight, feeling not too bad for 425 miles in a day.

[Split_Pin]

Lovely. Built in Schrieber sideboard too!

[Zelandeth]

Balls...these sealing washers should be the same size.

I *really* am developing a truly special level of hatred for this timing chain tensioner.

[davehedgehog31]

A tale of two collections, part two. 

Idly browsing Gumtree at the beginning of last week, I stumbled across a highly desirable piece of Autoshite. "Posted four minutes ago....". The location was sub-optimal. Redhill in Surrey. Two stops from Gatwick though...

A deposit was sent and a flight booked, all arranged for Saturday evening. A very excited wait ensued.

Set off about 5m on Saturday. Mode of transport one, a little Mercedes Sprinter based bus into Town;

Step two, the Glasgow Airport "Express";

I hate this bus. Nine fucking quid for a single journey to the airport from Buchanan Bus station. You can dress it up with nice upholstery all you want but it's £9 for a one way 7 mile bus journey is ridiculous. 

At least it's a scenic trip;

Anyway, it got there. I was on the 19:50 flight to Gatwick which was pretty painless. Toy train to South Terminal at Gatwick and onto a train to Redhill. 

Met the seller at home in Redhill and picked the car up, lodgings were booked in Milton Keynes to do the M25 portion during night hours. Here we see my purchase outside my salubrious overnight stop for the first time.

It's a 2001 Citroen Synergie 2.0 TD in SX trim. It's done 160k. Was purchased off a nice French couple who were really sad to see it go. It's a nice honest car that wears its miles quite well, don't think it's had a stint as a works van at any point! 

The sills have had a tickle at last MOT and one of the doors has a suspicious tidemark, there are dents here and there. There are plenty receipts though,the interior is in nice order and even the A/C works. 

Decided to make a bit of a holiday of it. Got a cheap return from MK to London on the Sunday morning and done a tourist.

Room with a view;

Tourist;

Spot of the trip, outside Euston Station;

Monday started with a visit to Crich Tramway which I thought was great, three different trams on the go all day. Highly recommended.  The editor has gone a bit haywire, so see video at the end. 

The steed in daylight;

It got home no problem. It even had just under 3/4 of a tank in it when collected and made it home absolutely no bother despite having A/C running whole time. Cruising between 62 and 70 variously. Seems to be very decent on fuel.

It's a comfy car, the two armrests are well positioned and the driving position pretty conventional. Not a great deal of room for clutch foot resting and no cruise being the only drawbacks. Far more refined than I'd thought. 

Some all important interior money shots;

You'll notice it has fancy seats from the Executive model in the back row. They're really nice and have twin armrests. There are various slots in the floor so you can arrange the seats in a myriad of different ways. I think I'll remove the middle three and bring the rear two forward to create an executive four seater. They can them tumble forward to allow for load lugging. 

I rarely need to carry more than a couple of passengers. The large load area is more useful. 

It's not had a timing belt since 2009 from the look of things, so I think I'll put it in for it's MOT and if all OK stump up for that. It does leave me with five on fleet (although MX-5 will almost certainly not be here past the next week). Will have to decide if it can stay as part of a group of four, or if something will need moved on.

With this collection trip, I believe that takes my collection mileage for October to approximately 2000 miles. Inverness, Basingstoke and Redhill. 

Tram as promised;

[Yoss]

16 hours ago, SiC said:

Bonus picture of the Dealer sticker on the back. I believe this is somewhere near Lymington, Southampton area.


 

At that point they were on the edge of the very small village of Sway in the middle of the New Forest. They've since moved to the relative metropolis of Brockenhurst, still in the middle of the New Forest. 

[wuvvum]

49 minutes ago, davehedgehog31 said:

Tourist;

Hmm.  Looks like London Bridge has been hit with the lowering stick since I was last there...

[NigeT]

Old man's heap of a Rover now had ABS light on permanently. Primitive diagnostics (bridge terminal near passenger footwell with paperclip and count flashes on dash) flagged pressure in ABS unit which I'm sure has had it. New Honda unit seems to be nearly £2k. Car's worth £400 at most. Given the heap's doing almost no miles & won't end up anywhere other than the scrappie or here with all faults disclosed, it was dash cluster out time and you can guess the rest. Whilst I was at it I got the handbrake working for first time in ages - springs removed from the self adjusting mechanisms, followed by most of a can of WD-40 and vigorous freeing up with a 17mm spanner. Brakes got a mini-bleed as well and a job well done to compensate for the necessary bodgery to keep Rover on the roads.   

[Spottedlaurel]

1 hour ago, davehedgehog31 said:

 

It's a Lexus GS450H premier. A 3.5 V6 twinned with a Hybrid drive system. It goes like the hammers of fuck and is ridiculously serene and comfortable.

Nice. I was distracted by one when I was looking for my RX. I think they have a similar engine to mine, but they're faster and more economical. The main thing that put me off was the lack of practicality, as they don't have a folding rear seat.

[Zelandeth]

Okay, admitting defeat for today.  Which is really pissing me off.  Mercedes should have been out for a road test by now, but I've been foiled by a sodding washer.

Inner diameter appears to be 28mm, outer 34.  It's aluminium and we'll mangled - the fact it was covered in instant gasket goop tells me that someone had been in there before...have to wonder if that may explain the issues with top end oil starvation...

According to the Mercedes parts diagram it doesn't exist... though every photo I can see online of the actual setup show it.  There definitely needs to be something in there or you run out of threads before closing the gap between the block and the tensioner outer cap.

Will have another look for one when I'm at an actual computer later...so far searching for the part online Google is only matching up "Mercedes" and "Timing chain" while ignoring the model details and words "oil seal."

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Some random fella's just after knocking on the door, asking who services the CX. Never seen him before. Sez he has a S1 Pallas, C-matic, "with some electrical problems"....

I gave him the details of Garages Dubois-Loizou, and he went away happy, but not before leaving his own contact details - he's a bodywork and paint man.

Knocking on a stranger's door because there's a CX parked out is what people do. Apparently.

*shrugs, nonplussed*

[richardmorris]

3 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Some random fella's just after knocking on the door, asking who services the CX. Never seen him before. Sez he has a S1 Pallas, C-matic, "with some electrical problems"....

I gave him the details of Garages Dubois-Loizou, and he went away happy, but not before leaving his own contact details - he's a bodywork and paint man.

Knocking on a stranger's door because there's a CX parked out is what people do. Apparently.

*shrugs, nonplussed*

Weirdos can meet and make like souls too.

[stuboy]

Popped a poorly ambulance to garage, and outside mot place opposite was this frilly merc...ouchy

[dome]

This should probably be in the grin thread... 

I decided to have a look at the hungover purchase Megane tonight. As bought the clutch was on the floor. I decided to check the pipework to see if there was anything obvious.

Battery off and, with a not insignificant amount of fucking about including removing the ECU and airbox, the battery tray was removed revealing the gearbox.

This uses plastic pipework to the slave cylinder inside the box. There should be 3 R clips holding the little plastic bleed nipple holder thingy which is located at the gearbox end-1 on the gearbox end and 2 at the other end. The idea is you pull up the inner one of the 2 R clips and pull the pipe out. It gets stopped by the other R clip and opens up the bleed port. 

Except, I was missing the R clip from the gearbox end which had allowed all the fluid to piss out. 

I ended up using one of my 2 R clips on the gearbox end and the other initially on the outer slot so I could bleed it. This didn't take too long and bugger me if I didn't have a working clutch pedal now!

I then pushed the pipe back in and moved the R clip to the inside slot, sealing off the bleed nipple.

Here it is ready to go 

I reassembled the battery tray/ECU/airbox I'd removed and stuck the battery back on it.

Here goes...

Shite video buy yes, we have a working clutch now. A quick test drive ensued and all gears engaged fine👍

I think I'll put the lottery on this week...

[Angrydicky]

4 hours ago, NigeT said:

Old man's heap of a Rover now had ABS light on permanently. Primitive diagnostics (bridge terminal near passenger footwell with paperclip and count flashes on dash) flagged pressure in ABS unit which I'm sure has had it. New Honda unit seems to be nearly £2k. Car's worth £400 at most. Given the heap's doing almost no miles & won't end up anywhere other than the scrappie or here with all faults disclosed, it was dash cluster out time and you can guess the rest. Whilst I was at it I got the handbrake working for first time in ages - springs removed from the self adjusting mechanisms, followed by most of a can of WD-40 and vigorous freeing up with a 17mm spanner. Brakes got a mini-bleed as well and a job well done to compensate for the necessary bodgery to keep Rover on the roads.   

Any pictures of the Rover? It looks like a 600 and I like these.

[NigeT]

7 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Any pictures of the Rover? It looks like a 600 and I like these.

FYI old thread and pics. Is looking quite a bit rougher now though amazingly I didn't need to do much more than fit a pair of drop links for last MOT. Even more amazingly there's still no structural rot to be seen anywhere underneath. I reckon these cars had better rustproofing than anything else from their era. Will soon be breaking all cambelt roulette records too! 

 

[Angrydicky]

Nice. Love the prefacelift beige interior with the nicer early wood too. I remember reading the thread now you mention it, although I thought it was long gone. Great to see your dad is still getting use out of it

[Split_Pin]

I think I'm of an age now where I feel able to say that a car with proper chairs is everything now. I like that interior arrangement no end. Well bought @davehedgehog31

6 hours ago, davehedgehog31 said:

or if something will need moved on

[NigeT]

3 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Nice. Love the prefacelift beige interior with the nicer early wood too. I remember reading the thread now you mention it, although I thought it was long gone. Great to see your dad is still getting use out of it

Cheers. Most of the wood veneer is now peeling but the fabric's just about intact albeit rankstained. He's nudging 82 and after such a long (largely neglectful) relationship & being a creature of habit I can't see him getting involved with anything else. Ergo my keeping it on the road for him for the occasional local excursion. Engine still without a hint of misfire despite ancient plugs.   

[artdjones]

38 minutes ago, dome said:

This should probably be in the grin thread... 

I decided to have a look at the hungover purchase Megane tonight. As bought the clutch was in the floor. I decided to check the pipework to see if there was anything obvious.

Battery off and, with a not insignificant amount of fucking about including removing the ECU and airbox, the battery tray was removed revealing the gearbox.

This uses plastic pipework to the slave cylinder inside the box. There should be 3 R clips holding the little plastic bleed nipple holder thingy which is located at the gearbox end-1 on the gearbox end and 2 at the other end. The idea is you pull up the inner one of the 2 R clips and pull the pipe out. It gets stopped by the other R clip and opens up the bleed port. 

Except, I was missing the R clip from the gearbox end which had allowed all the fluid to piss out. 

I ended up using one of my 2 R clips on the gearbox end and the other initially on the outer slot so I could bleed it. This didn't take too long and bugger me if I didn't have a working clutch pedal now!

I then pushed the pipe back in and moved the R clip to the inside slot, sealing off the bleed nipple.

Here it is ready to go 

I reassembled the battery tray/ECU/airbox I'd removed and stuck the battery back on it.

Here goes...

 

Shite video buy yes, we have a working clutch now. A quick test drive ensued and all gears engaged fine👍

I think I'll put the lottery on this week...

They do seem to have very durable clutches. I'm fairly sure mine is on its original clutch/DMF at 170k miles 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Weirdos can meet and make like souls too.

I wasn't over-impressed when he said the CX's paint could do with attention. I'm quite content with it as it is, thanks.

[doobietoo]

On 9/20/2021 at 10:18 AM, loserone said:

All the codes were cleared here too, I can't recall any of them reoccurring either (maybe the usual HDI pre-post heater one).  Is the manual switch still on the fuel filler cap for dosing Eloys? That's a proper Burgess Microswitch one made in the factory on the team valley where my dad worked, if you ever remove it let me know and I'll pay the postage

 

It is a great car with a fantastic interior, but I must admit I'm pleased to not have that engine in the fleet anymore.  A 2.0 HDI one would be a great asset, I feel unfinished business with them as Mrs L1 declared it uncomfortable (whilst 6 months pregnant) and I think I actually prefer them to the 405 as a daily.  Only getting 31MPG to the south of france and back was a bit pants though.

 

If you're confident with the engine and the turbo, is a remap on the cards?

regen still occurs so I guess it is.. tbh it really does not need any more power, it will sit at 80 on cruise up our local steep hill with my tools in the boot and 200kg of glue on the back seat and pulls really well almost regardless of the conditions. 

Did you actually check the petrol/ mileage or go by the in car mpg as it actually under reads by around 7mpg...it will show 33mpg but is actually doing 40. I am guessing because of the fault with the tank sender... 

one of the advantages of a 70 litre tank and 40mpg is not needing to fill up for almost 3 weeks therefore completely avoiding the fuel 'crisis'.. 

[Barry Cade]

This picture that was in the paper today gives me the willy's on so many levels...