The new news 24 thread

[walk]

Cor, that Dedra is lovely.

 

What do we say?

 

Day-Drah or Dead-Ra?

 

Potay-t, Potar-to

 

Well I was firmly corrected on this matter from a member of the Lancia Motor Club. The correct pronunciation is "Larnchia Deeeeedra". Or if you're in your local motor spares shop it's "the Tipo with a boot but not the Tempra!"

[vulgalour]

I say Deh-drah. I am not an authority on these things.

[PhilA]

Choose your own adventure:

You've just bought a car with a broken fuel gauge and tiny tank. You do not know how much petrol is in it, and the seller isn't sure either.

 

If you repair the fuel gauge, turn to page 58

If you brim it and keep an eye on the trip meter, turn to page 62

If you splash ten quid's worth in and then do sixty miles all the while thinking "it's okay, I just put petrol in it", turn to page 82

 

Page 82

The car splutters to a halt on a busy road. You have died, of stupidity.

 

My old man said that his would do about 198 miles with the ragtop on and 212 with the hard top, at an average of 50mph.

 

The latter was unfortunate because the trip from their house outside Bristol to the in-laws in Wallasey was 214 miles. He found out the hard way.

 

Apparently if you can find the big black Cooper drum air filters with the long trumpets that helps on fuel economy too. Adjusting the timing back on a rainy day he reckoned also. (Each click of the dial wheel on the distributor is 1/11 degree, from memory...)

 

I'll get me coat

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I'll get me coat

That is all helpful information! Especially as I haven't managed to fix the gauge. It's probably the sender

 

Have noticed that the fuel pump is much quieter with a full tank so I'll just fill up when it gets noisier.

[Guest]

Scored some parts for the 460 amid much cheapness.

 

Found two very good front wings with very minor surface rust (waxoyled from new), a slightly less grebbed OS door mirror, a door pull surround, and a numberplate lens, all for £20.

[PhilA]

I'll get me coat

That is all helpful information! Especially as I haven't managed to fix the gauge. It's probably the sender

 

Have noticed that the fuel pump is much quieter with a full tank so I'll just fill up when it gets noisier.

 

Ground to the tank may be the issue. Pick it up on axle stands, pull the wire off the sender and scratch it to a bit of body or axle metal with the ignition on. After a few seconds the fuel needle should begin to move. If it does, try scratch off the gunge on the body of the sender inside the ring of bolts. If the needle doesn't move, bad ground to the tank. Check the grounding wire.

 

And yes, the SU pumps hammer when they have less of a head or begin to draw air.

 

-Phil

[messerschmitt owner]

page 75 does involve a 5l can of petrol in the boot for such emergencies.

[Cavcraft]

Page 76 clearly states:

 

'container, usually metallic, for the conveyance of motor spirits. Said motor spirits should contain a admixture, adulteration, alloy, amalgam, amalgamation, assimilation, association, batter, blend, brew, combine, combo, commixture, composite, compound, concoction, confection, conglomeration, cross, crossing, dough, fusion, goulash, grab bag, hodgepodge, hybrid, hybridization, incorporation, infiltration, interfusion, jumble, mash, medley, merger, mingling, miscellany, mishmash, mix, mixed bag, mosaic, mélange, package, patchwork, potpourri, salmagundi, saturation, soup, stew, transfusion, union, variety of herbaceous plant lubrication and diesel. But mostly herbaceous plant lubrication'

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Have none of you ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure book?

 

On page 58 (repair the gauge) the car blows up. You have died.

On page 75 (5l in boot) the pirates discover you hidden in the chest and throw you out of the helicopter. You have died.

On page 76 you fall through a trapdoor in the emperor's tomb and are trapped in a hidden chamber without food. You have died.

 

 

Ground to the tank may be the issue. Pick it up on axle stands, pull the wire off the sender and scratch it to a bit of body or axle metal with the ignition on. After a few seconds the fuel needle should begin to move. If it does, try scratch off the gunge on the body of the sender inside the ring of bolts. If the needle doesn't move, bad ground to the tank. Check the grounding wire.

Thanks for this. Grounding the wire to the sender makes the gauge immediately plummet to empty (so that's all working). It earths off the tank fine too, so it's probably a duff sender.

[vulgalour]

Have none of you ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure book?

 

On page 58 (repair the gauge) the car blows up. You have died.

On page 75 (5l in boot) the pirates discover you hidden in the chest and throw you out of the helicopter. You have died.

On page 76 you fall through a trapdoor in the emperor's tomb and are trapped in a hidden chamber without food. You have died.

 

This is fantastically accurate. I used to love reading CYOA books, but it always seemed impossible to achieve anything other than an improbable death.

[meggersdog]

After a couple of months of trouble free motoring I decided to off Barry the Accent whilst he still had some value.The 1.3 engine coupled to an automatic gearbox worked well but was only returning about 30mpg.With two months tax and test I chucked him on to gumtree last Saturday afternoon for £295.00.I declined all the half price offers and sold it at 10.30pm that night.Yes I know I could have held out for more but to be driven away a few hours after advertising him was good enough for me and I did more than double my investment.

So here is Barry's replacement.

 

1.9 nat/asp xud.A stiff clutch pedal being just one of many little issues.Taxed and tested until the end of January and 122k miles,including BCA's extortionate buyers fees it was only a few quid more than what I got for the Hyundai and there was well over a quarter of a tank of diesel in it too.

[Shep Shepherd]

Drove our 'new' works vehicle for the first time today, a 1993 Land Rover Discovery 2.5TDi automatic with 150,000 miles on the clock, a decent stereo and working aircon:

 

 

Despite it needing a very small amount fettling for its MOT and the fact that the interior smells like someone has kept wolves in it, it's a pretty nice thing for its age (very little alloy oxidisation and GR9 paintwork) and goes really well. Although it's not the sort of vehicle I'd own, I can see why people like them

[Cavcraft]

After a couple of months of trouble free motoring I decided to off Barry the Accent whilst he still had some value.The 1.3 engine coupled to an automatic gearbox worked well but was only returning about 30mpg.With two months tax and test I chucked him on to gumtree last Saturday afternoon for £295.00.I declined all the half price offers and sold it at 10.30pm that night.Yes I know I could have held out for more but to be driven away a few hours after advertising him was good enough for me and I did more than double my investment.

So here is Barry's replacement.

 

1.9 nat/asp xud.A stiff clutch pedal being just one of many little issues.Taxed and tested until the end of January and 122k miles,including BCA's extortionate buyers fees it was only a few quid more than what I got for the Hyundai and there was well over a quarter of a tank of diesel in it too.

 

A Chester (area) registered 306, in n/a 5 door format AND it's an 'R' reg? You are a winner. Here's another 'R' reg n/a diesel, only in a far horribler colour and not locally registered

[stuboy]

built a sub box for 15inch sub out mdf, cost me £10.81 in total true pikeyness

[Cavcraft]

You should have said, I've got one here with amp that I'm seriously considering setting fire to.

 

Wrong amount of wheels, no engine sorry: Got out on the Giant today, managed about 12-14 miles including nailing it past a couple of knobs on some very expensive looking bikes up a steep hill. Not been out much recently and doing a charity ride next weekend so desperately need to get fit again.

After the half-arsed attempt to fit a hydraulic front brake to one of the mountain bikes it's going back to cable disc or rim brakes for a while.

 

I might, and only might, be getting the ex-Sporty Shite Cavalier back, but that's going to depend on the deal I get offered.

[stuboy]

trying to get a decent wattage amp

[Cavcraft]

God alone knows what this one pushes out, I'll find out and let you know. Pm me tomorrow if you don't mind, it'll remind me to look.

[stuboy]

God alone knows what this one pushes out, I'll find out and let you know. Pm me tomorrow if you don't mind, it'll remind me to look.

will do...

[rml2345]

Got fed up looking at the saggy headlining in my Volvo. I know they all do that... Well... Mostly and this one was no surprise but it does get more than a bit annoying when it keeps drooping onto the top of me head.

 

 

There it is part way through removing it from the car. A note for anyone else daft enough to contemplate doing this with a 740 saloon is that you have to dismantle pretty much all the interior trim from the bottom of the windows up and quite often it doesn't want to come apart.

 

 

Also, the backing board is shit. By the time I was finished however it looked like this;

 

 

Beige shag pile carpet for that classy* feeling. In my defence it was cheap (£15 for a 5'x13' roll) and should be harder wearing than the original stuff.

Was it worth all the hassle?

Well... No as I could probably have done a tidier job as the pictures flatter it a bit but at least it's tidy. Went for a spin in it this evening and it didn't fall off, so that's a bonus.

[Lankytim]

 

thats really nice...I miss mine

 

So glad to see it's being looked after. When I owned it I had to sort out stacks of little issues to get it to the standard of reliable daily driver, when I eventually got everything sorted I sold the thing! Such a useful motor... The wife called it "the Aardvark" on account of its long hooter and lovely side profile.

 

[PhilA]

I surprised myself by being happy to see the "Low Fuel" warning light come on.

 

But it was on the Renault, which means my repair to the circuit was worth dropping the tank off three times.

 

Hopefully it continues to work when it should.

 

-Phil

[wackywacerwill]

Today I had a niggling feeling that I was doing a wrong un in binin' off the pile of rust swept from under my nearside sill after screwdriver investigation. Even at the lowering prices it surely would of netted a pouch of burn on the next visit to the scales.

 

Curse the day I thought I was doing a good thing by bringing it off the road instead of just applying the time honored mot lash up. Oh now I laughed as the jacking point fell off in my hand.

[cort16]

I was at that Lakeland Museum today in the Lakedistrict. A few interesting cars and bikes but not a huge collection. There was a meet of the Rover 75 club out the back. I went for a look hoping their might be a 260 but it was just a bunch of V Reg 1.8 75's and KV6 ZT's. There was loads of them mind you but to me they're just too new to be interesting. You could walk around Morrison car park and see half a dozen 75's and ZT's. Odd!

[dollywobbler]

Have been at the CXM Rally this weekend near Milton Keynes. Full report to follow but t'was a good event, just bloody horrible to get to and return from. Got stuck in monster jams both directions due to accidents. To make matters worse, the clutch in the BX is both really heavy and knackered, so it judders like a juddery thing.

 

Hoping to start the BX revival this week with welding work. Then it's a clutch and cambelt, which should make it drive better and remove the threat of engine carnage respectively. However, the CXM Rally meant there were a lot of CXs, XMs and Xantias about the place. Temptation indeed. All the Xantias bar a couple seemed to be V6s, and most of those that weren't were Activas! One was both - specially built in RHD as we never got them. French electrics, a fuel slurping V6 and crazy-complicated suspension. What's not to love?

[sporty-shite]

 

I might, and only might, be getting the ex-Sporty Shite Cavalier back, but that's going to depend on the deal I get offered.

 

Sporty Shite likes this!

 

In other news, Mrs S, the junior Sportys and mysef went off for a little trip to Bedfordshire yesterday to collect my new semi-shite. On the way back, we stopped in Woburn to get some tea, and happened across the Woburn Village Festival, which included somoe fairground attractions and a lovely bit of food in a local pub. Cheered Mrs S and the kids up, which meant I didn't get in too much trouble for dragging her halfway across the country in pursuit of old chod.

 

Here is my one and only picture of said vehicle. A bit pink in places, and needs a bit of fettling, but altogether rather pleasant. Drove really well on the way home.

 

[Cavcraft]

Looks ok that, Chris, what lump is in it? Oddly enough I got offered one yesterday (a 2.9 with high miles apparantly) but haven't a clue about them

 

[sporty-shite]

It's only a 2.0 16V, Billy, but it wasn't dear. I don't know much about them, either, but I've always fancied one, so thought I'd give it a go.

 

That one you got offered looks nice. Are you having it? They do drive nicely, and feel pretty well put together, and I'd imagine that one would go pretty well.

[wuvvum]

I had a "failure to proceed" episode in the Renner Six today. I decided to take it for a run up to the coast as it was a nice day and the old crate hadn't been out for a while. Went for a wander along the beach, came back and it wouldn't start, or at least it flattened its battery before it managed to fire up (I think I'd got it rather warm on the run up - I'd been sitting at 60-65 when my normal cruising speed in the 6 is about 50 - it's so much quieter with the new exhaust that I didn't notice how quick I was going). So it's probably going to need a new battery - it should have been able to turn over for longer than it did.

 

Anyway, while I was sitting there wondering how long it would take the AA to get out there, a chap in an immaculate red '66 Mustang pulled up in front of me and got out to have a fag. I wandered over and asked him if by any chance he had any jump leads in his motor. He didn't, but he did produce a 13mm spanner, take his battery off and stick it on the Renault, which sure enough started right up after a bit of cranking. Once she was running it was a simple enough job to swap the batteries back over and I trundled off home, having lost about 5 minutes rather than the 90 or so it would have taken the AA to get there. I'm always a bit dubious about how drivers of "proper" classics are going to react to my tat, but this bloke was proper sound.

[Cavcraft]

It's only a 2.0 16V, Billy, but it wasn't dear. I don't know much about them, either, but I've always fancied one, so thought I'd give it a go.

 

That one you got offered looks nice. Are you having it? They do drive nicely, and feel pretty well put together, and I'd imagine that one would go pretty well.

 

I don't know to be honest. I wouldn't be keeping it if I did hence my reluctance as I reckon they're in that 'unloved/not quite recognised' category at the mo which menas potential PITA to offload, and having to use words like 'future classic' on the advert. {shudders}

[sporty-shite]

It's only a 2.0 16V, Billy, but it wasn't dear. I don't know much about them, either, but I've always fancied one, so thought I'd give it a go.

 

That one you got offered looks nice. Are you having it? They do drive nicely, and feel pretty well put together, and I'd imagine that one would go pretty well.

 

I don't know to be honest. I wouldn't be keeping it if I did hence my reluctance as I reckon they're in that 'unloved/not quite recognised' category at the mo which menas potential PITA to offload, and having to use words like 'future classic' on the advert. {shudders}

 

Anything will sell if it's cheap enough Noticed the pic was from swapz. What were they offering a deal on, the Cinq?