The new news 24 thread

[High Jetter]

The handle is confusing me, it's designed to be carried about. I think you'd have elf n saftee popping up if you started chucking sandbags from a hot air balloon!

[Six-cylinder]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

The handle is confusing me, it's designed to be carried about. I think you'd have elf n saftee popping up if you started chucking sandbags from a hot air balloon!

Yes probably.

How about some thing to do with Pheasant shooting as we have that happening around us?

[fatharris]

That's how my day is going, too many duggas through these uggas.



Guess I need to buy some more tools

[Bren]

Discovered a page on facebook called spares or repair cars. Some interesting german tat for sale.

[wuvvum]

Wheel removal has been achieved without causing the premature demise of any members of religious orders or juvenile felids. 

Still a long way to go yet obvs.

[wuvvum]

Aaand it's broken.  Ball joint retaining bolt has rounded off.  I've found my bolt removers but needless to say the size I need is the only one that's missing from the set.  Also the pinch bolt is thus far showing zero interest in coming undone, although at least its head has had the decency to retain its hexagonal shape.

I can feel an embarrassing call to the garage coming on on Monday morning.  If it were any other car it'd be a call to the scrapman followed by a call to the Dacia dealer, but I'm still rather fond of the Rover despite this setback, and it's the first major issue it's had in 3 1/2 years of ownership so I really can't complain too much.

[wuvvum]

Status update: the pinch bolt has now rounded off as well.  I do at least have a bolt remover in that size, which I have hammered on and which is so far gripping very well - I still can't shift the bolt though, even heaving on a 2' breaker bar (it's a shame it's not the offside, I could jump up and down on the bar then).  

I went to Wilco to see if they had any bolt removers in stock, but the only set they had was nearly 30 quid and I was fucked if I was paying that when I only need one size - that's nearly a gallon of diesel at current prices.  The other alternative was a 1/2" socket, to be hammered over the bolt in traditional Autoshite fashion, but they didn't have any of those either.  So I'm no further towards getting the ball joint bolt undone.  I have however managed to find my 12 volt ugga dugga gun which a mate gave me years ago - I've never actually used it so I don't know if it works or not, but I'm going to give it a go tomorrow on the pinch bolt - although I don't actually have any impact sockets big enough to go over the bolt remover so I'm going to have to hope that a normal socket is up to the job.

I've put the spare wheel on for now - it' a 15" wheel with a smaller tyre as well so it just about went on OK with a bit of levering.

[Rust Collector]

I had to go and pay for something today.

I’m quite excited to get it home next week.

[wuvvum]

Zapo!  Fantastic.

[RoverFolkUs]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Aaand it's broken.  Ball joint retaining bolt has rounded off.  I've found my bolt removers but needless to say the size I need is the only one that's missing from the set.  Also the pinch bolt is thus far showing zero interest in coming undone, although at least its head has had the decency to retain its hexagonal shape.

I can feel an embarrassing call to the garage coming on on Monday morning.  If it were any other car it'd be a call to the scrapman followed by a call to the Dacia dealer, but I'm still rather fond of the Rover despite this setback, and it's the first major issue it's had in 3 1/2 years of ownership so I really can't complain too much.

 

2 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Status update: the pinch bolt has now rounded off as well.  I do at least have a bolt remover in that size, which I have hammered on and which is so far gripping very well - I still can't shift the bolt though, even heaving on a 2' breaker bar (it's a shame it's not the offside, I could jump up and down on the bar then).  

I went to Wilco to see if they had any bolt removers in stock, but the only set they had was nearly 30 quid and I was fucked if I was paying that when I only need one size - that's nearly a gallon of diesel at current prices.  The other alternative was a 1/2" socket, to be hammered over the bolt in traditional Autoshite fashion, but they didn't have any of those either.  So I'm no further towards getting the ball joint bolt undone.  I have however managed to find my 12 volt ugga dugga gun which a mate gave me years ago - I've never actually used it so I don't know if it works or not, but I'm going to give it a go tomorrow on the pinch bolt - although I don't actually have any impact sockets big enough to go over the bolt remover so I'm going to have to hope that a normal socket is up to the job.

Nothing more frustrating than being perfectly capable of tackling a job but being set back by lost/a lack of certain tools  

[RoverFolkUs]

4 hours ago, fatharris said:

That's how my day is going, too many duggas through these uggas.



Guess I need to buy some more tools

Time to invest in some impact friendly tools  Should* be impossible to break them!

[horriblemercedes]

30 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I had to go and pay for something today.

I’m quite excited to get it home next week.

Well, that's one way to show support in this war!

Seriously, looks great. How cool.

[richardmorris]

5 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Yes probably.

How about some thing to do with Pheasant shooting as we have that happening around us?

I thought you had to shoot the blighters, not bludgeon them to death with a heavy sack.

[richardmorris]

32 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

Well, that's one way to show support in this war!

Seriously, looks great. How cool.

We all have to help in our own way. Personally I’ve ordered a special mystery case of wine with all proceeds to the Ukraine Red Cross appeal.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

I had to go and pay for something today.

I’m quite excited to get it home next week.

Wtf did you find that? Top shiting! Did you get pics of the other chod there?

[Fumbler]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

I had to go and pay for something today.

I’m quite excited to get it home next week.

Oh look, a friend for the Yugo! Nice buyage.

[cort1977]

2 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

I had to go and pay for something today.

I’m quite excited to get it home next week.

Brilliant! I have dreams of driving one back from Lithuania which are never likely to come true so will have to live vicariously through your adventures.

[Wibble]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

I thought you had to shoot the blighters, not bludgeon them to death with a heavy sack.

I’ve seen these used for weighing down gazebos

[omegod]

6 hours ago, fatharris said:

That's how my day is going, too many duggas through these uggas.



Guess I need to buy some more tools

Halfords will swap them for new, been there done that several times 

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

I had to go and pay for something today.

I’m quite excited to get it home next week.

Oooh awesome! I remember when it first popped up for sale! 

very pleased to see someone on here managed to nab it! I look forward to seeing further adventures with it  

 

[Rust Collector]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Wtf did you find that? Top shiting! Did you get pics of the other chod there?

It got posted on here in the eBay tat thread last month, I accidentally saw it this month and thought I’d get in touch… turned out the bloke selling it was only 40 miles away and it was still there. Thought I should probably buy it lest I regret it. The other motor was a Subaru, I’ll get a pic up at some point - he had a Fiat 600 Multipla as well which was just beautiful.

2 hours ago, Fumbler said:

Oh look, a friend for the Yugo! Nice buyage.

Cheers mate, I thought they’d make nice stablemates, would be great to get them both to a show together at some point in the future.

[NorthernMonkey]

9 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Yes probably.

How about some thing to do with Pheasant shooting as we have that happening around us?

It looks like a training aid for gun dogs…you can chuck them into the undergrowth so your Spaniel can retrieve it.

[High Jetter]

Maybe, but I thought Spaniels were smarter than that.

[AnnoyingPentium]

7 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Maybe, but I thought Spaniels were smarter than that.

You haven't met mine then! 😆

[SiC]

With this current cold weather I am getting a bit fed up with the lukewarm heater in the A4. So decided to give the cooling system a good flush through. Not too many pictures as it was an arse of a job and I just wanted to get it over with.
The aux belt also was squealing and quite annoying - even if you could only really hear it outside, so I bought this Gates aux belt and pulley kit. For £66 shipped, I thought it was quite reasonably priced. Contains the belt, tensioner, idle pulley and alternator freewheel pulley.


Initially I hoped I could replace the belt without having to put the front into the service position. However I quickly realised that I could get the belt off but not the tensioner out if I didn't.
So off the front it came.


The bumper was straightforward but then I realised you're supposed to have a threaded rod for the front section to slide onto. I didn't have this, so I put a crash beam bolt back in a few threads and left it sat on that. I took the radiator out thinking it'd give me more access but the fan pack doesn't come out with it.
Cooling system was flushed and wasn't that bad. There was a small amount of gritty rubbish in the bottom of my bucket though.


I did get better access to the idler pulley bolts through the fan blades though.


Tensioner mounting bolt was a right arse to get to. Ended up disconnecting more cooling pipes (which are an arse to remove on VAG) to give room to get tools in.


My electric ratchet was a big time saver here to get this undone. Can whizz the bolt out rather than a couple of clicks on a ratchet every time.


With the idler pulley and tensioner replaced, I set upon the alternator freewheel pulley. Even with the special tools, I couldn't get it undone in the car. However this pulley was working perfectly fine, so I decided to leave it well alone.


Then the replacement belt went back on. Except I forgot to take a picture of the belt routing, so had to try figuring it out. Think I have it right.


The tensioner pulley was utterly shagged. It looked like dirt had got into the sealed bearing. Idler pulley was better but still graunchy. Well worth replacing them and I suspect didn't have too much left in them. The cambelt was done in 2013 but I suspect the tensioner wasn't replaced at the time.


While underneath I spotted the exhaust had a weird hole in it. Not quite sure how it got there and you couldn't really hear it when inside. Looks older than its MOT in Sept last year. There is a dent on the transmission tunnel too, so I can only presume it got beached on a rock or something.



I didn't fancy sleeving and welding this under the car, so I lobbed some exhaust paste over it. If this doesn't hold, I'll try one of those exhaust patches you can put on.


Sat on the drive idling for 10mins barely started moving the needle. Went for a drive to bleed the system and get it all up to temperature. The heater is not a furnace but at least it is now hot. Belts are silent now too, at least from what you can tell over the horrendous PD TDi clatter.

I did notice the needle dropping when sat stationary with the heater on full. Possibly the thermostat is starting to get a bit weak now. Or crap has jammed it open slightly. Maybe I'll get that changed in a few weeks with another flush through of the cooling system.


Working on the A4 reminds me why I have a Honda as our main modern car and why I usually chuck modern cars at a garage. Can't say I enjoyed doing these jobs too much. The post-job satisfaction is enough to have made it worthwhile exercise though.

There isn't much left to sort on it now. Maybe that oil pump shaft and cambelt sometime in the future if I decide to keep it. For now, it's a useful thing to have on the fleet and I do quite enjoy driving it.

Feels solid inside and to drive - usual VAG trait, even if you know the mechanicals are pretty fragile. The engine is poky enough to make A-road overtakes easy, practical and scruffy enough that I don't mind using it as a tip run car (Fabia was too nice inside for that). Seats are comfortable and the interior is mostly free of squeaks + rattles. I can quite easily get 45+mpg and even 50+mpg without even trying. My only criticism would be that it takes forever to warm up and usually I'm at the destination before the needle starts moving. A thermostat change may help here I guess. Will book it into a garage for that though.

[grogee]

Good work. Why are the hoses tricky on a VAG? I've not done one before. 

Where have they hidden the stat then, is it buried deep within the block somewhere?

Having not enough heating is really annoying and tricky in the winter. Think I may have opposite problem with my Saab and its sticky flaps, but it's on my jobs list.  

[Jenson Velcro]

Having just removed the front end on my MINI together with radiator, inlet manifold, alternator etc, etc to just change the water pump it does beg the question: Are all moderns packaged like this or are some designed to be worked on?

[Mally]

You need one of these for the exhaust hole.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322555589432?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item4b19cfb338:g:GTkAAOSwOMdZQott&amdata=enc%3AAQAGAAACoPYe5NmHp%2B2JMhMi7yxGiTJkPrKr5t53CooMSQt2orsSvhAqMt0wg86xg8aAkgjQJJxOYIFa18YJw1RremugMTrPT1sbTeGS1cyCEeIm05Pr1D8LmbzFK%2FBBn8Kp7mPHyf4pgUXp94LqouPsHUxKgygjMgQlG3jp%2B53c4OAZaCtfZLcfbAuOFIlQpmFtHVEhwdGgcG1Q6poaA639tjXTp1aQZJRMkiWk5EI5KF96fYsSavNK4g7KNq8%2F0HA%2BGhmk0oZxXGXAq9L6fNV6LrOyHsfQ%2BTx%2BiTuQr49Yl2ouV0FlXiRvFy0EE8SF7sf4vUWnIyRbnXByC9nGE9Mal2fQ9ff3PREa1Ubi2DPTF4ac3d%2BJYAlr6rX8O0KBZWYGa%2ByjYVvWTyAMmtG9ZFbNg3xRdbA7f3Qkjr2tFkteHCdKJYE%2Bx%2Fm8ZYA99e5IfGnrOZqbjpLKxNgJNfvq3vuw7U9y62POTKh%2B6khwuRZzAmSVz%2BnLEaVKZb4xkBQASw6%2BCeQ%2BV1kDQfF6mVl1DfTbG55MzG0FoRMYBRxJ8INXz7BXNur89pajU5TF7ZlhfeLIjtBIentO%2FjBpTm1jaFiJfEMcInIU8CCGjMOt8zSxwXSfE6BilBzMPvzaIW4njOQtfVhWksNZJ1waiygvbvnKJkVC5RRGJPmlmIQYPEocFhz4uv434xC8luNkgi67V06I2nriQvzyq89zStAGnGtLYRYzdVsJIups2NlDi7f8qSULx%2B8%2FWD0zrYmVVqvYBpjO9nqbRRL8n1sKyyv5fdQBo8eF%2FCWJM89tL49DpFl%2FVdE9r5JKJUcrNu4v3xbx9lcTEzuLCcR%2FGD0R2jrPsTRynEhKxvK8yvoqN%2BQG4NiD6ltsr92ppbAaCQ5RzKi3MOgs67xHCg%3D%3D|clp%3A2334524|tkp%3ABFBMjq6x6utf

[SiC]

28 minutes ago, grogee said:

Good work. Why are the hoses tricky on a VAG? I've not done one before. 

They use hard plastic hose pipes that clip in. I'm sure they make it much quicker in the factory and still ok when a few years old. But when the o-ring inevitably sticks to the plastic, I right war to walk them off.

The connector on the left is what is attached to the radiator. On the bottom hose, the rubber pipe is bonded to the other side. So you can't remove the pipe like on this Golf V part.

28 minutes ago, grogee said:

Where have they hidden the stat then, is it buried deep within the block somewhere?

Not sure on these. I know the 2.0TFSi thermostat is in a right awkward place on the transverse installations. My hands are cut up enough from yesterday that I don't fancy finding out anytime soon!

27 minutes ago, Jenson Velcro said:

Having just removed the front end on my MINI together with radiator, inlet manifold, alternator etc, etc to just change the water pump it does beg the question: Are all moderns packaged like this or are some designed to be worked on?

Seems popular on the German cars. At least having the front end off gives plenty of access when you do need to do stuff. Just a lot of labour to get there and fasteners that need to come out but which are exposed to the elements coming in from the front end. Some jobs on the Bini are actually easier and quicker to pull the whole engine out the front, allowing to get all the other known failure points to be done in one job.

[Lankytim]

We’ve had use of Dad’s 2007 Honda Jazz 1.4 CVT for the last month or so.  It’s recently been making an odd rattling noise on acceleration which disappears when the engine is hot, it’s also prone to misfiring when flooring it. It was due an oil service so while the oil was draining I removed the plugs for a quick look.

These things have 8 spark plugs, the rearmost ones being a bit awkward to get to but overall the job was quite enjoyable. Some of the plugs had furred up with one being almost white with fur, very odd and probably the source of the running issues. I didn’t have a new set of plugs to go in so I gapped them and cleaned them up with a brass wire brush and refitted. 

With fresh oil in complete with a new filter fitted I took it for a spin. The rattle is actually worse than before and it misfired a couple of times while pulling out onto a roundabout. The misfire seemed to have improved, perhaps a set of plugs will sort it but the rattle is perplexing. Google tells me these engines often rattle due to piston slap, valve clearances are also mentioned. Either way it’s nothing to worry about apparently.