The new news 24 thread

[Richard]

I replaced the drums and shoes on the Punto earlier this year and the handbrake started sticking almost immediately. It turned out that the handbrake pivot on one of the new shoes was seized solid. Even when I managed to free it off the spring wasn't strong enough to return it reliably. Cheers GSF. A set of Ferodo shoes and a decent spring kit had everything working properly.

[twosmoke300]

Quite a few new shoes have stiff handbrake arms . Bit of grease and movement usually frees them off . It does on apec stuff anyway and I tend not to fit anything else

[Richard]

This set wasn't usable. I got the arm freed off eventually but the spring didn't even reach the "off" position.

[scaryoldcortina]

To add to the fun, the MGF appears to have sprung a water leak - I was driving to Norwich this evening and noticed the temp gauge had passed its usual one-notch-below-half position and was slowly heading northwards.  I pulled over into a layby and noticed a trail of water drops following the car in.  Looked underneath and water was dripping steadily from somewhere in the middle of the car (couldn't tell exactly where as there's an undertray and the water was coming off that).  I tipped the litre of water that I always carry in the boot of any K-series powered vehicle into the expansion tank, turned round and headed home - I then topped the system right up and it nommed about half a gallon, so it must have been dripping for a while.  I then took it for a 15-mile drive to check that there were no more serious issues, and it behaved perfectly, which was a relief - although I'm still going to have to investigate where the leak is coming from, which has added to my list of jobs to try and fit in over the weekend.  Strangely, even when the coolant level was low enough that the engine was running hotter than normal, the heater was still blowing warm - although I suppose on an F the heater matrix is closer to the rad than the engine is.

It's most likely to be the long steel pipes leaking, that's all there is under there and they rot for fun. Also, when topping up don't forget the three bleeders (rad, heater and engine) or trapped air will cause more leaks to happen.

[crapcarcollector]

Cheap trailer tent you say?

 

I might have something right up your street.....

 

 

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That picture is from a couple of years ago. I've always kept it undercover.

 

Suffered a bit of wind damage (bent poles on awning) so wants a good sort out

 

It's a good tent with good life in it but wants erecting and sorting out which I haven't done.

 

All usual stuff, 6 berth, pup tents, cooker, sink etc.

 

£100 from a shitter to be gone. Located in ST5

 

 

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[dean36014]

Definitely interested in the trailer tent, any make and model details so i can google. Is it wired for electrics?

[stuboy]

Mondeo gone off to be mot'd

[Kiltox]

Fucked Citroen C3 has landed.... got it out of economy mode easily enough but still no start. Waiting for the BSI to shut down so I can disconnect the battery again and check the awkward to get to maxi fuses

[catsinthewelder]

Finally got the cracked sump off the 405 this morning. It would have been an easy job on a car without air conditioning. As it was the alternator and everything around it had to come off too to get to the upper mounting bolts on the compressor.

 

 

[tooSavvy]

having a spot of lunch.... Lad at bar offers to pay his round with a 'newfangled' poly £5 note.

 

It has torn almost in two

 

 

Only been out a week... Kwalitee produkt, eh?

 

 

TS

[Kiltox]

having a spot of lunch.... Lad at bar offers to pay his round with a 'newfangled' poly £5 note.

 

It has torn almost in two

 

 

Only been out a week... Kwalitee produkt, eh?

 

 

TS

Probably due to the amount of people who go "oh you can't tear them" *rip*

[dave21478]

Fucked Citroen C3 has landed.... got it out of economy mode easily enough but still no start. Waiting for the BSI to shut down so I can disconnect the battery again and check the awkward to get to maxi fuses

Is it a spazz-tronic automated manual?

 

If so, ignition on and throw 12V onto the starter solenoid and see if it cranks.

When my C2 (basically the same car) wouldnt start it was the clutch actuator that had failed. With its computer unable to tell if the clutch was engaged or not it wouldnt let the engine start. 12v on the solenoid started the engine and it ran fine. Apparently a not-uncommon occurance.

[Kiltox]

Nah it's manual. Error codes in the BSI, think it's toast.

 

Going to chuck a used ECU, BSI and key set in it I think

[Asimo]

Happy afternoon de-rusting the n/s sill on the Connect.

Thank goodness for zinc coated steel! Rust minimal despite the thinnest paint ever.

Amazing stuff that Deox gel.

 

Hope the rain stays away until I can get some zinc primer on. Stonechip tomorrow.

[17-Coffees]

Been tasked with trying to help sell my brothers 307 diesel...

 

It's a face lift, 1.6 diesel with not much over 100,000 on the clock, and 10 months MOT.

How much are they worth? 

[Kiltox]

Been tasked with trying to help sell my brothers 307 diesel...

 

It's a face lift, 1.6 diesel with not much over 100,000 on the clock, and 10 months MOT.

How much are they worth?

What year?

[17-Coffees]

What year?

 

2005 if I remember correctly. 

 

Never paid attention to it other than the fact it's taking up space on the parents driveway which i could use to plonk something on my parents would rather have for them self's again. Likewise with my Civic Aerodeck. 

 

A quick look on the trusted* auction site shows prices are between £500 - £2000 by the looks of things...

[Kiltox]

Probably worth about £1300 or so if it runs OK, maybe £1500 on a good day if it's tidy

[Coprolalia]

May have found a new bit of storage so I can start tinkering/ working/ buying and storing some other shit cars. Cheap double garage with power and a yard, near my new rented terrace.

Waiting to hear back from vendor.

Fingers crossed.

[stuboy]

Its only gone and passed its mot... ive owned the beast 10 years and 12 days

[They_all_do_that_sir]

I had a mk1, fantastic car. Mega comfy. Yours has actual bumpers too, mine were 50% gaffer tape....

 

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[wuvvum]

The new brake pipe is now on the Rover.  It has taken me all afternoon and well into the evening (I've only just finished washing brake fluid out of my hair), apart from a brief break to pick up jonathan_dyane who had come to collect the Primera.

 

The first half hour or so was spent lying under the car trying to find alternative routings for the pipe.  After much deliberation I reached the conclusion that nope, short of doing half a lap of the car the only way to go was the original route, which meant dropping the fuel tank.  This on its own took over an hour, due primarily to the bolts having sat under the car being sprayed by muck and salt for the last 18 years and therefore being understandably reluctant to undo. 

 

With the fuel tank moved down and back I was able to see the whole of the existing brake pipe. and removing it was actually reasonably straightforward - both ends undid with a bit of persuasion and a long screwdriver was sufficient to persuade it out from its various plastic retaining clips.  I had to cut it into three bits in order to remove it from the car completely - top tip: when cutting through steel brake pipe with tin snips, keep your thumbs out of the way as it goes with quite a bang.

 

Refitting was almost the reversal of removal, although obviously I didn't have the luxury of cutting the new pipe into three bits to get it on, but fortunately copper is rather more flexible than steel.  I followed the original routing as closely as possible, even clipping the pipe into the original clips above the fuel tank where you can't even see it.  It took a while to get it fully fitted, but then it is a fiddly bastard of a job at the best of times.

 

Then it was time to put the fuel tank back where it belongs.  Inexplicably (to me at least), despite having undone (albeit under protest) a few hours earlier and having been saturated in GT85 in the meantime, the offside strap nut simply would not do back up.  After about an hour of fiddling and swearing (and putting the breaker bar on it which succeeded only in bending the bolt into a banana shape), I gave up and cheated, bringing the lock nut down to meet the main nut to make it look like it's tight.  Hey, it's on there, it can't fall off, and it doesn't feel loose, so it'll do for now - it was well after dark by this time.  If MOT man doesn't like it, I've found a new strap retaining bolt complete with nuts on ebay for 8 quid - which is a lot for a bolt but not much in the grand scheme of things.

 

I had a quick look at the bleed nipple on the drum, and it didn't look very hopeful.  When I drove the car down off the ramps the pedal felt fine, so I might not bother bleeding it.  To be fair, there was already brake fluid flowing from the new pipe by the time I tightened the union onto the flexi, and I didn't notice the flexi losing much in the way of fluid when I removed the old pipe, so there's probably not much air in the system anyway.

 

So that only leaves the handbrake, which I'm pretty sure is going to be another arsehole of a job.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

The new brake pipe is now on the Rover. It has taken me all afternoon and well into the evening (I've only just finished washing brake fluid out of my hair), apart from a brief break to pick up jonathan_dyane who had come to collect the Primera.

 

The first half hour or so was spent lying under the car trying to find alternative routings for the pipe. After much deliberation I reached the conclusion that nope, short of doing half a lap of the car the only way to go was the original route, which meant dropping the fuel tank. This on its own took over an hour, due primarily to the bolts having sat under the car being sprayed by muck and salt for the last 18 years and therefore being understandably reluctant to undo.

 

With the fuel tank moved down and back I was able to see the whole of the existing brake pipe. and removing it was actually reasonably straightforward - both ends undid with a bit of persuasion and a long screwdriver was sufficient to persuade it out from its various plastic retaining clips. I had to cut it into three bits in order to remove it from the car completely - top tip: when cutting through steel brake pipe with tin snips, keep your thumbs out of the way as it goes with quite a bang.

 

Refitting was almost the reversal of removal, although obviously I didn't have the luxury of cutting the new pipe into three bits to get it on, but fortunately copper is rather more flexible than steel. I followed the original routing as closely as possible, even clipping the pipe into the original clips above the fuel tank where you can't even see it. It took a while to get it fully fitted, but then it is a fiddly bastard of a job at the best of times.

 

Then it was time to put the fuel tank back where it belongs. Inexplicably (to me at least), despite having undone (albeit under protest) a few hours earlier and having been saturated in GT85 in the meantime, the offside strap nut simply would not do back up. After about an hour of fiddling and swearing (and putting the breaker bar on it which succeeded only in bending the bolt into a banana shape), I gave up and cheated, bringing the lock nut down to meet the main nut to make it look like it's tight. Hey, it's on there, it can't fall off, and it doesn't feel loose, so it'll do for now - it was well after dark by this time. If MOT man doesn't like it, I've found a new strap retaining bolt complete with nuts on ebay for 8 quid - which is a lot for a bolt but not much in the grand scheme of things.

 

I had a quick look at the bleed nipple on the drum, and it didn't look very hopeful. When I drove the car down off the ramps the pedal felt fine, so I might not bother bleeding it. To be fair, there was already brake fluid flowing from the new pipe by the time I tightened the union onto the flexi, and I didn't notice the flexi losing much in the way of fluid when I removed the old pipe, so there's probably not much air in the system anyway.

 

So that only leaves the handbrake, which I'm pretty sure is going to be another arsehole of a job.

This always boils my piss, every bloody car I've had to replace the brake line on has it routed above the tank in some daft shape. I've cheated once before and just cut the rotten bit out, flared the steel pipe and added a union to the good steel....not really the proper way of doing things but it passed an MOT like that

 

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[wuvvum]

This always boils my piss, every bloody car I've had to replace the brake line on has it routed above the tank in some daft shape. I've cheated once before and just cut the rotten bit out, flared the steel pipe and added a union to the good steel....not really the proper way of doing things but it passed an MOT like that

I did think about trying that, but the problem was that between where the rotten bit ended and where the pipe disappeared up over the tank, there wasn't anywhere with enough clearance to get the flaring doobery in.

[cort1977]

This always boils my piss, every bloody car I've had to replace the brake line on has it routed above the tank in some daft shape. I've cheated once before and just cut the rotten bit out, flared the steel pipe and added a union to the good steel....not really the proper way of doing things but it passed an MOT like that

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Is that bad practice then? Obviously it increases the number of potential failure points but the new unions will have the same chance of failure as any of the others so I wouldn't think it was a big deal. Did exactly that on a Mercedes self-levelling system recently.

[hairnet]

This always boils my piss, every bloody car I've had to replace the brake line on has it routed above the tank in some daft shape. I've cheated once before and just cut the rotten bit out, flared the steel pipe and added a union to the good steel....not really the proper way of doing things but it passed an MOT like that

 

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and if the ni lot pass it then it must be ok as they can be tuv strict

 

not rusty + secure = win

[plasticvandan]

Went to look at a Trabant Kombi this afternoon, absolutely loved it but think its a bit too salty for me

[vulgalour]

Trabants being salty is the fault of U2 isn't it?  Something to do with Prince Bono of Stupidboat-on-Thames having them in a music video back when those were a thing.

[plasticvandan]

Found a couple of holes,and the passengers door rotted out,hoped that would have dropped the price to my level,but no word yet.worth the test drive though!

[SiC]

A trabbi is most certainly on my bucket list of cars. When I first thought about one a couple years back, decent ones went for £800-1k. Now decent ones are starting to fetch £2k to £2.5k.

 

I better get onto it soon...

Watching with interest to see how you get on.