The new news 24 thread

[Mally]

 

 

EDIT: Apparently it's STILL pulling to the side...

 

There is a way but my lips are sealed after last time.

Try swopping the front wheels round though.

[Ghosty]

Alarm has been playing silly buggers apparently. Yay*.

 

Also the tracking issue is a leaking shock, because of course it is.

[Datsuncog]

There is a way but my lips are sealed after last time.

Try swopping the front wheels round though.

"last time"...? Intriguing!

 

Further diagnostics have apparently uncovered a shot bush on the n/s suspension assembly, so reckon it's quite likely that's our culprit... I'd neglected to mention that new rims and rubber had also been fitted, so I'm hoping it ain't the wheels!

[SiC]

Latest news on the TT is that the steering has gone quiet. Basically my mate panicking that it's broken before he sells it to me. It does tick when warm. Not sure what it is. A whole load of things on this engine like cam followers, injectors chain tensioners or EVAP canister valve. I suspect just the valve. Being Audi with it's heavy soundproofing it's unlikely you can hear it anyway inside.

 

My girlfriend had one of those TTs, a tool eater tfsi like yours.

 

Hateful thing to work on

Engine burnt oil

Lifeless to drive. Quick but no feel to it.

 

Enjoy!*

Ha yes. I don't really intend to do any work on it myself. If it has problems I'm hoping* I can throw it at my local friendly garage for them to fix.

 

Tbh, as bad as it sounds (especially as it's some people's dream cars), it's mostly going to be used as a city runaround. So hopefully the magneride suspension will soak up the bums and straight line speed on a DSG is essential* for the necessary* traffic light GP.

 

 

That won't be hard to do. Have you seen the price of minis?

Exactly. I'm paying under 5k for it, which doesn't buy much in the way of classic minis now.

 

 

Did someone say they want a Boxster. I am still thinking about selling mine but it's not cheap. The S is the one to go for as they have slightly less problems and regular use is better than low mileage. They do like to swollow cash though. Mine is 6k because I have replaced everything that usually goes wrong with them. I did the IMS bearing with an upgrade (the original was fine but I worry about these things) New clutch and flywheel (the clutch stinks if you slip it so I might be changine it again soon as I have never been happy with it since it went in) I fitted the upgraded rear main oil seal so it has no leaks now. All 4 bottom suspension arms and 2 wheel bearings. Then recently I had to do the MAF sensor and some vacuum hoses as it was running a little rough. It also had both of the pre cat o2 sensors as they flagged up an ageing fault code. Now come to think of it the Audi sounds much less of a liability than the Boxster and you actually have luggage space that you can use rather than the 2 super heated lockers the Boxster has. It is a Porsche though and a lot more fun than an Audi

I don't think that's a bad price at all. Very easy to spend more than that on one. I'd be all over it ... if it wasn't silver. Sorry I just can't face having a silver car again!

[drum]

You didn't say under 2 grand so it must be a good one.

[vulgalour]

 

Was nice to spend a brief bit of time at Castle Cleland today pulling the very last bits of use off that Rover on the right.  I'll do a proper thread update later when Flikr pulls itself back together.

 

MoT for the Princess tomorrow and, weirdly, I'm feeling absolutely no anxiety or confidence about it.  For some reason it's just a job to do, there's no emotional baggage attached.  Is this what normal people feel like when they take their normal cars for normal MoTs?

[MarvinsMom]

been and had another go at bleeding the brakes on the black mini....

 

its the third time we tried, and the third time we've failled.

 

bumhats...... same as before, lovely firm peddle after bleeding, and then almost no peddle afterwards. BUT it seems that our technique MAY be at fault. well having looked on Youtube anyway!

 

So, another attempt come the weekend, and then if that fails, we send it to someone who knows what they are doing. thing is, it three weeks to the day that i want to take the black mini to Lincoln big mini day.

 

but we have had a look at the non-functioning petrol gauge too. the sender seems fine, hooked up to the multimeter the resistance changes as the float moves, and trying a NOS gauge makes no difference, so we think its a wiring thing behind the binacle or on the way down to the tank. seems at sometime during the cars layup some charming little furry critter has been nibbling at the insulation. 

 

but as a working petrol gauge isn't i think something that is on the test, i may have to just live without it working. i'll just make sure that i've got some petrol with me in the boot.......

 

i guess that is progess of sorts!

[vulgalour]

What you need there is a fuel stick.

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Not sure what's happened here on the CX front but, after yesterday's flawless little run, I started it again today. Engine idled alright for a minute or so, suspension lifted, then engine just stopped. Several attempts to restart, but not firing.

 

Will have to recharge battery and try again later this week. Might give plugs a clean whilst I'm at it. May be going to Brodie's sooner than I'd planned.

[stuboy]

I'm 5ft 10in and 11.5 stone. One of the few advantages of being short is that you fit into most stuff. I kinda like the enclosed feel too.

 

 

i must be fat lad then T 5ft 10in and 15.13 stone...lol

 

shite news...

 

 

tried million times to get remote key to talk to the dam car ford galaxy, any ideas>?..

[andrew e]

Stuck 62 miles on my Audi today, which doesn’t sound impressive until I mention it’s done less than that in the last 3 years. I went for a drive that didn’t involve an MOT something that needs to be repeated

[wuvvum]

I've been looking for a larger second car for a few weeks now to replace my immaculate but too small Fiesta, a Focus 1.8TDCi has been top of the list but having viewed a few and watching them every day on da web most of them are either high miles, rough looking or too expensive then today a Focus 1.6 Zetec petrol came up for sale near Norwich, I only do about 4-5000 miles a year so a petrol isn't a bad option and i fancied taking the Rover for a drive so I took the 50 min drive to view it.

 

 

 

 

It was being sold by the brother of the Ford dealers next door where it was a traded in and he sells the best part ex's from his house, the car was spotless and looked really smart in Tango Red, 88000 miles but you wouldn't know, the trader was all over my Rover mind you!

 

It had gone through the garages workshops by his son who had put a new Gates cambelt kit on it and water pump, given it a full service, is putting a new MOT it and 3 months warranty, it was up for £1995 and I offered £1700, he laughed and said look you seem like a nice lad and I love your Rover so I'll do it at £1800! I'm well chuffed with that.

 

Now i need to sell my Fiesta, if anyone is interested it's a 2004 1.4 TDCi Zetec, genuine 35000 miles, my mum had it before me from 2008/6000 miles. It's mint apart from a small crease on the rear bumper and its had a new cambelt, front springs and full service history etc. £1650ono, which is fair for a low mileage TDCi in this condition plus its £30 a year road tax.

 

 

 

 

Not sure I've seen a Mk2 Focarse in that colour before.  Looks bloody tidy for an 06 plate.

[wuvvum]

Just put a join in the brake pipe. I did this on my merc for it's recentish MOT for exactly the same reasons as you've outlined. The MOT man spotted it and said "you cheat!". But it's fine for the MOT.

 

Use a tube nut on the old section of pipe with a single conical flare, then a tube bolt (standard end fitting) on the new bit with a fold-over flare as standard. The foldover flare then fits perfectly in the conical flare and you do the whole lot up tight until it stops leaking. I'll get a picture if it helps, and if you want the tube bolt/nut pair, I have a whole box full and will send you one in the post. Lots easier than changing an entire perfectly good pipe.

The only problem with that is that my cheapo brake pipe kit won't flare steel pipe properly*, and to buy a kit which does will be a lot more expensive than 13' of copper pipe. 

 

 

*Unless I'm not using my kit correctly, which is entirely possible.

[Talbot]

Today I discovered the limit of my own stupidity when it comes to overloading things and shrugging it off as "it'll be fine".

 

I've been using a rather knackered old camping trailer to shift all manner of shit around for the last couple of years. It's been utterly overloaded several times, and I have had to weld on a few extra bits of box section to fix where the original frame has either rusted out or I've overloaded it so badly it's collapsed. It also has larger heavier duty tyres on it to allow for the additional loading.

 

Designed for a mere 350kg originally, the modifications have meant I've been happily shoving up to about 500kg in it without worrying too much. The rate of wear on the tyres is a bit faster than I would have hoped, but it has been absolutely amazing and has shrugged off just about everything I've thrown at it. I may have lulled myself into a false sense of security.

 

Until this evening, when I was collecting 22 3' x 2' x 2" concrete slabs. Not all at once... I wasn't that stupid. I got 10 of them in the first load, and then went back for the second load of 12. Unfortunately, I really didn't realise how heavy they are. Turns out they are 60kg *each*. Bollocks. That means the first load was 600Kg of slabs, and the second load was about 750kg of slabs (there were a few offcuts too) and then I expected it to tow for about 20 miles at 50mph.

 

No surprise then that there was a fucking massive bang as the nearside wheel went from 60psi to 0psi in 0.001s. Shit. I have no spare wheel for the trailer. So what do you do? I shoved 8 of the slabs in the back of the car, leaving the rest at the side of the road (very large grass verge..) and towed the trailer home empty on it's bollocksed tyre. (trailer weighs about 30kg when empty). Halfway through that journey I get a "low hydraulic fluid" warning, and loose all power steering. Turns out the additional pressure needed by the rear hydraulic self-levelling suspension to hold the additional half-tonne of concrete I've just put over the rear axle was enough to blow the repair I did to the pump outlet pipe about a year ago, and hence it spat out all it's oil, leaving the rear suspension on it's arse and no PAS.

 

Fuckity fuck. Just get it all bloody home. Trailer off. Slabs out. Repair the hydraulic pump outlet pipe again, and fill up the hydraulic oil tank with rather murky looking LHM stolen from the Rofflewin Xantia. (same spec oil).

 

So the Merc drives again. The Xantia is about 1.5 Litres down on LHM, and there are 4-and-a-few-bits of staggeringly heavy paving slabs to be recovered from the side of the road tomorrow. And hope that the repair to the pump outlet pipe holds this time. And I need at least one new tyre and inner tube for the trailer. Possibly two as I'll bet the other tyre is ready to burst too.

 

What a Dickhead.

[Talbot]

The only problem with that is that my cheapo brake pipe kit won't flare steel pipe properly

Is it the type with a pair of "sticks" that clamp together over the pipe, a threaded "press" which hooks over the sticks, and a die that you put in the end of the tube to form the double flare?

 

If so, you just don't use the die. Use the clamp on the side with the chamfer, and just use the pointy end of the press to form a basic concave flare.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

The only problem with that is that my cheapo brake pipe kit won't flare steel pipe properly*, and to buy a kit which does will be a lot more expensive than 13' of copper pipe.

 

 

*Unless I'm not using my kit correctly, which is entirely possible.

A proper brake flaring tool was one of the best tool purchases I ever made. Five minutes into my first flare with it and I wouldnt have cared if it was three times what I'd paid, it makes a horrible job quite enjoyable.

 

I had one of those cheapy tools before, they aren't capable of giving a proper bubble or double flare without a lot of arsing around. And they won't touch steel pipes either

 

Sent from my F3211 using Tapatalk

[SRi05]

I've been looking for a larger second car for a few weeks now to replace my immaculate but too small Fiesta, a Focus 1.8TDCi has been top of the list but having viewed a few and watching them every day on da web most of them are either high miles, rough looking or too expensive then today a Focus 1.6 Zetec petrol came up for sale near Norwich, I only do about 4-5000 miles a year so a petrol isn't a bad option and i fancied taking the Rover for a drive so I took the 50 min drive to view it.

 

 

 

 

It was being sold by the brother of the Ford dealers next door where it was a traded in and he sells the best part ex's from his house, the car was spotless and looked really smart in Tango Red, 88000 miles but you wouldn't know, the trader was all over my Rover mind you!

 

It had gone through the garages workshops by his son who had put a new Gates cambelt kit on it and water pump, given it a full service, is putting a new MOT it and 3 months warranty, it was up for £1995 and I offered £1700, he laughed and said look you seem like a nice lad and I love your Rover so I'll do it at £1800! I'm well chuffed with that.

 

Now i need to sell my Fiesta, if anyone is interested it's a 2004 1.4 TDCi Zetec, genuine 35000 miles, my mum had it before me from 2008/6000 miles. It's mint apart from a small crease on the rear bumper and its had a new cambelt, front springs and full service history etc. £1650ono, which is fair for a low mileage TDCi in this condition plus its £30 a year road tax.

 

 

 

 

I had a focus in the exact same colour and spec in 1.6 auto flavour. It was a fantastically solid motor, far better than the equivalent astra of the year. But Holy fuck did it drink the gogo juice, that's what made me shift it in the end

[trigger]

I've just bite the bullet and ordered front and rear springs for my SD1 from Rimmer's whilst they have a sale on, I'm now worried that I've cocked up!

 

The back end on mine sits far to high and i hate it so I've bought some GRS143UR front springs which are uprated 30mm ones which give Vitesse height and rear springs GRS141low which are progressive rate 30mm Vitesse ones, from a afternoon of research I found these being right but now looking on a SD1 forum people are saying they can cause it ground out or the springs to drop out and I might have the wrong shocks which are causing the rear to lift too high! I'm completely confused now and nearly £200 down!

[purplebargeken]

I saw a blue Marina van today, in blue, much less spiffing than Trig's Ital though. It was still cool. 

 

Also purple Moggy Traveller in the local Halfords/retail park car park. It was driven by a young lad and his girlfriend looked happy sat in the passenger seat. The car was proper minty too.

[BorniteIdentity]

Today I discovered the limit of my own stupidity when it comes to overloading things and shrugging it off as "it'll be fine".

 

I've been using a rather knackered old camping trailer to shift all manner of shit around for the last couple of years. It's been utterly overloaded several times, and I have had to weld on a few extra bits of box section to fix where the original frame has either rusted out or I've overloaded it so badly it's collapsed. It also has larger heavier duty tyres on it to allow for the additional loading.

 

Designed for a mere 350kg originally, the modifications have meant I've been happily shoving up to about 500kg in it without worrying too much. The rate of wear on the tyres is a bit faster than I would have hoped, but it has been absolutely amazing and has shrugged off just about everything I've thrown at it. I may have lulled myself into a false sense of security.

 

Until this evening, when I was collecting 22 3' x 2' x 2" concrete slabs. Not all at once... I wasn't that stupid. I got 10 of them in the first load, and then went back for the second load of 12. Unfortunately, I really didn't realise how heavy they are. Turns out they are 60kg *each*. Bollocks. That means the first load was 600Kg of slabs, and the second load was about 750kg of slabs (there were a few offcuts too) and then I expected it to tow for about 20 miles at 50mph.

 

No surprise then that there was a fucking massive bang as the nearside wheel went from 60psi to 0psi in 0.001s. Shit. I have no spare wheel for the trailer. So what do you do? I shoved 8 of the slabs in the back of the car, leaving the rest at the side of the road (very large grass verge..) and towed the trailer home empty on it's bollocksed tyre. (trailer weighs about 30kg when empty). Halfway through that journey I get a "low hydraulic fluid" warning, and loose all power steering. Turns out the additional pressure needed by the rear hydraulic self-levelling suspension to hold the additional half-tonne of concrete I've just put over the rear axle was enough to blow the repair I did to the pump outlet pipe about a year ago, and hence it spat out all it's oil, leaving the rear suspension on it's arse and no PAS.

 

Fuckity fuck. Just get it all bloody home. Trailer off. Slabs out. Repair the hydraulic pump outlet pipe again, and fill up the hydraulic oil tank with rather murky looking LHM stolen from the Rofflewin Xantia. (same spec oil).

 

So the Merc drives again. The Xantia is about 1.5 Litres down on LHM, and there are 4-and-a-few-bits of staggeringly heavy paving slabs to be recovered from the side of the road tomorrow. And hope that the repair to the pump outlet pipe holds this time. And I need at least one new tyre and inner tube for the trailer. Possibly two as I'll bet the other tyre is ready to burst too.

 

What a Dickhead.

At least you didn’t leave the trailer in a lay-by, thinking you’d return to it the next day. Imagine what the ‘massiv’ would have said about that?(!)

 

I’ve no idea how much I ought to sling in my little trailer, but fear I’ve been over cooking it too. Thanks for the word from the wise, and hope you get it patched/bodged up soon.

[twosmoke300]

The only problem with that is that my cheapo brake pipe kit won't flare steel pipe properly*, and to buy a kit which does will be a lot more expensive than 13' of copper pipe.

 

 

*Unless I'm not using my kit correctly, which is entirely possible.

If the steel pipe keeps slipping back through the tool instead of flaring then degrease the inside of the tool well then put a small amount of valve grinding paste where the pipe goes . This can give enough grip to flare the pipe ok

[Talbot]

At least you didn’t leave the trailer in a lay-by, thinking you’d return to it the next day. Imagine what the ‘massiv’ would have said about that?(!)

That did occur to me while I was heaving the slabs from trailer to car at the side of the road! Difference here being I could not give two shits about the trailer. Both it and it's contents were free, so not *quite* in the same league.

 

I was somewhat scathing about mr Golf/trailer/ford model A, so maybe this was karma biting me in the arse. Or maybe I was just being a knob. I'm going to have a look at the exploded tyre today and see if there's any sign of the mode of failure, as my initial assumption was that it had overheated due to overloading, but when I checked the other side tyre (same pressure, same load) it was barely warm.. certainly no more than 40°c and nowhere near as warm as other tyres I've checked in the past.

[wuvvum]

I overloaded a trailer once.

 

 

[Talbot]

Always an issue with twin-axle trailers. Unless the towbar is at the right height, you can very easily overload one axle (usually the rear one) as it ends up taking the lions share of the load. Exactly the same as what happened to me with the trailer/Mk2 granada combo I had to abandon on the hard shoulder before now.

[Talbot]

I might have the wrong shocks which are causing the rear to lift too high!

Are they gas pressurised shocks which naturally sit at full extension and have to be compressed to fit? If so, yes they can cause a vehicle to ride higher than usual as some of the load is being taken by the damper. Usually makes 10-15mm difference, depends on the car.

 

If not, and they are standard oil-dampers which you can extend and compress by hand, and stay where you leave them, then they have absolutely no effect on vehicle ride height.

[trigger]

I couldn't tell what shocks they are, there's no way of telling. It would have originally been fitted with Nivomat self leveling shocks but they must have failed at some point and been replaced with a standard set up.

 

It sits 5 1/2" high and doesn't look right.

 

 

[bub2006]

That certainly has got a bit of a tilt going on. Has it got a tow bar? If it's been used for towing in the past then gas filled shocks as mentioned above would be used for such reasons?

[fordperv]

What's that you say trig

 

[320touring]

I'd remove one and test s per Talbot's suggestion.

 

Looks suspiciously like the gas shock holding the car up.

[trigger]

I've probably just spent £200 when I didn't need too!