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[Datsuncog]

^^^ Daihatsu of some description?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

 

*APPLAUDS* .....

 

 

^^^ Daihatsu of some description?

 

Daihatsu Applause?

[alcyonecorporation]

 

We'll see. Sitting on captain slow's drive for nearly a year being used as a part store/bin hasn't done it any favours.

 

The back box is AWFUL, but it was all [previous owner] had to work with at the time.

The wheels and tyres aren't nice, but they're legal. It's crusted over rather a lot, but still looks sort-of solid.

 

I shall ring the meggers of dog, and when he stops laughing, we'll see what it needs.

Will say now that I'm not willing to spend hundreds on it; I just don't have the money.

 

[Limited] plans involve an MoT, a new back box, a service, some derusting, and these:

 

[Ghosty]

wat

[vulgalour]

Have those tyres stopped squeaking?

[LabRat]

Well. Having walked the 4 miles across town to look at the bloody thing, you'll all be thrilled* to learn that the punto has behaved impeccably on the drive back.

 

Looks like it was a combination of very damp auxiliary belt and a howling clutch release bearing along with what looks like a bit of melted plastic bag on the cat thats caused the chaos.

 

Bloody fiats

 

Sent from my VKY-L09 using Tapatalk

[alcyonecorporation]

Have those tyres stopped squeaking?

I couldn't hear them over the squealing fan belt and fart cannon exhaust.

[SiC]

TT is in the garage tomorrow. I suspect and ultimately fear that it's one of those over engineered shocks that need replacing. A shock, not a strut, because they're shockingly expensive to replace.

 

...or it'll be a top mount and I'll wipe my forehead with relief.

 

I really don't know why I do this to myself. Should just have kept with the ever reliable Civic and avoided the idea of getting something different and more exciting/interesting. So instead of forgetting about the daily car and letting me focus on old crap, its giving me excitement. Except its giving me the wrong sort of "excitement".

 

Scores on the doors are...

 

£210 for the thermostat because 3 hours book time to fit. Genuine parts and coolant change while we're at it.

£530 fitted for the strut. Strut £350+VAT, but then all new bolts otherwise VAG/TPS won't honour any warranty unless all the mounting bolts associated with it are changed too. Also labour on top.

 

Hrrrrnghhhh. I've never spent this much on one job fixing any car that I've ever owned. Ever. Including clutch jobs.

 

I've just been spoilt by owning Japanese cars and has reminded me why I dislike German cars. Its only saving grace is that its a comfortable, nice place to sit and quick. I just hope that it doesn't decide to thank me by shitting its transmission. As my garage said, DSG in the trade stands for Doesn't Shift Gears...

[Kiltox]

Part ex it for a Mustang unfixed

[Cheggers]

The Skoda just passed it's MoT. No time to check or prep it, just dump it at the test station and see what happens.

 

Clean pass, one minor advisory.

 

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[dean36014]

I'm doing similar with the van of many miles tomorrow. Mot booked, lights will be checked and fingers crossed it's all good

[captain_70s]

Scores on the doors are...

 

£210 for the thermostat because 3 hours book time to fit. Genuine parts and coolant change while we're at it.

£530 fitted for the strut. Strut £350+VAT, but then all new bolts otherwise VAG/TPS won't honour any warranty unless all the mounting bolts associated with it are changed too. Also labour on top.

 

Hrrrrnghhhh. I've never spent this much on one job fixing any car that I've ever owned. Ever. Including clutch jobs.

 

I've just been spoilt by owning Japanese cars and has reminded me why I dislike German cars. Its only saving grace is that its a comfortable, nice place to sit and quick. I just hope that it doesn't decide to thank me by shitting its transmission. As my garage said, DSG in the trade stands for Doesn't Shift Gears...

But because its a German car it'll be so reliable you'll only have to shell out that sort of money three or four times a year!

[SiC]

Part ex it for a Mustang unfixed

Its so tempting. If I knew about the deal before I agreed on the TT, I'd probably would have done it to be honest.

 

I've cooled off on the Mustang idea for now though, because:

• Most crucially, it would almost certainly mean that I won't be able to buy old crap to fiddle with. Not sure I want to do that just yet.
• Getting a door ding or such like will be pretty heart wrenching.
• Got to get rid
• After years of no car finance, £335 p/m is quite hard to stomach. Even though loads of people do that and spend that, to put it in perspective, thats like every two months spending enough to buy a decent weekend holiday for two.
• The money would be far better saved away, to allow us to move house soon.
• Finally this sort of thing happens in Bristol. I live in a quiet area and unlikely to happen at home, but still.

  

• Don't get me wrong, I'd love a Mustang. But I don't know if I can stomach owning one around Bristol.

[Jim Bell]

Yeah that could be Tricky. It might suffer a Massive Attack.

 

Er,

 

Portishead.

[SiC]

But because its a German car it'll be so reliable you'll only have to shell out that sort of money three or four times a year!

I know right.

 

A combination of "What Possibly Could Go Wrong?" and "They can't all be that bad!" has got a better of me this time.

 

Thing is, this is a 10 year old example. What the hell will they be like when they're 15-20 years old after a few more owners?! Certainly the fancy dancy suspension parts aren't going to get any cheaper and will get rarer/NLA!

[dollywobbler]

 

We'll see. Sitting on captain slow's drive for nearly a year being used as a part store/bin hasn't done it any favours.

 

The back box is AWFUL, but it was all [previous owner] had to work with at the time.

The wheels and tyres aren't nice, but they're legal. It's crusted over rather a lot, but still looks sort-of solid.

 

I shall ring the meggers of dog, and when he stops laughing, we'll see what it needs.

Will say now that I'm not willing to spend hundreds on it; I just don't have the money.

 

[Limited] plans involve an MoT, a new back box, a service, some derusting, and these:

 

 

Depending on the degree of laughter, if it all goes a bit icky, do let me know...

[angle]

Finally this sort of thing happens in Bristol. I live in a quiet area and unlikely to happen at home, but still.

I live in Totterdown SiC, it was probably someone annoyed that Co-op had run out of quinoa...

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Update (for the interested* parties) on Lady Grumpius' superbASe Mk2 Focus.

 

Starter motor went on Saturday, AA had to bump start (we'd pulled over on the only layby for miles on a country road going over the Downs for a spot of lunch and the car wouldn't crank) because of the pitted-ness of the surface.  The garage we use is open Monday-Friday (more on them later) so we drove home and I followed her car (now running and praying she didn't stall) to the road outside the garage where she left it over Saturday and Sunday.

 

She phones the garage at 8AM and they say they're available.  She give them the keys, give the garage owner a lift down to the car and he takes it in.  A couple of hours later, he gives her a ring to say that the oil filter desperately needs doing (Lady Grumpius' service interval doesn't) and is in danger of splitting due to large amounts of rust.  She gets that changed too.

 

We go the garage, where they have a couple of lovely Alfa's and an old Mini Cooper around and the owner proceeds to spend five minutes explaining how the starter motor works and what was wrong with it, how they'd diagnosed it and what they did to fix it.  Showed us the oil filter too.  Owner shows us the broken starter motor (showing us broken parts is traditional with this garage and is why I love them so) and shows us that it's the copper braid (part of the winding) that connects the solenoid with the motor.  It had just disintegrated and he was surprised and hadn't seen that in a long time!  He then spent about ten minutes chatting to us about cars, why he doesn't really like moderns, his favourite Alfa (164 3.0, same as my partner's Dad's old Alfa - he's also an Alfa licker and has bought a few from said garage), DPF, EGRs, how surprised he was that he liked a Prius, Hydrogen cells, etc.

 

I've never had a better garage.  It's owned by two old school friends that've been in the trade for 30-odd years each and both own the place.  It's called Auto Britalia and it's in Dunkirk, just near Canterbury and right next to a high-end bodyshop.  I've always been impressed with them and they always use genuine parts when it matters, talk you over the car, advise you on various things and most importantly care about what they do.  They specialise in Alfas and TVRs but they'll fix anything and will give you accurate quotes.  They also phone you before they do anything - even minor stuff.

 

Great guys.  There are usually some interesting cars around there too.  Last time I went, there was an old GT40 that had been built from Ford parts (effectively as a knock down kit and then sanctioned by Ford) being picked up from the bodyshop next door.  Good fun.

[New POD]

BINI failed the MOT today

 

Daughter phoned me to tell me the news. I told her to put the mechanic on, and he agreed he'd attempt to fix it today.

 

Date tested 9 April 2018 Fail

 

Mileage 89,964 miles

MOT test number 4833 7673 3833

Test location unavailable until further notice

Reason(s) for failure

• Offside Front position lamp(s) not working (1.1.A.3b)
• Nearside Headlamp not working on dipped beam (1.7.5a)
• Nearside Rear Tyre has a lump, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (4.1.D.1b)
• Parking brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.7)

 

Not sure how much it's costing. I will pay the bill on Friday - Tyre was 54 squid, and Wesley at Pauls Tyres, walked up the industrial estate to the MOT place, took the offending wheel away whilst the BINI was on the ramp and then took it back later before they'd finished putting a new hand brake cable on.  He's got a matching one in stock which I'll get him to swap on Friday - the legal one at the back can go on the spare* wheel which has a dodgy looking runflat on.  

 

and later it  passed.  

 

Date tested 9 April 2018

Pass

Mileage 89,965 miles

MOT test number 4754 3344 4468

Test location unavailable until further notice

Expiry date 4 May 2019

 

 

*I say spare. It's a full size wheel which fills the boot, which I insist my daughter carries given that she drives 220 miles to Cardiff, because the idea of using tyre repair foam appals me. I guess when she moves back home in the summer, it can go in the back of the shed

[egg]

I've never had a better garage.  It's owned by two old school friends that've been in the trade for 30-odd years each and both own the place.  It's called Auto Britalia and it's in Dunkirk, just near Canterbury and right next to a high-end bodyshop.  I've always been impressed with them and they always use genuine parts when it matters, talk you over the car, advise you on various things and most importantly care about what they do.  They specialise in Alfas and TVRs but they'll fix anything and will give you accurate quotes.  Most importantly, they also phone you before they do anything - even minor stuff.

 

Thanks for the tip, always interested to find possible new chod fettlers. I have a couple of good ones (and a third ok for MOTs and basics), but availability can be an issue.  I see your guys worked at Motorway Sports Cars in Boughton before. 11 miles from my front door, so not beyond the pale.

 

Is their hourly rate top dollar?

[xtriple]

Squeeling fan belt. Lights, wipers, air con etc all on and the dollop squeels like a piggy. Not impressed seeing as it's just had £300 for new fan belts (there are 5 of them) plus labour.Anyway, it was quite disconcerting hearing yet another (and very new/strange) noise, people looking to see who can't maintain their car properly.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Thanks for the tip, always interested to find possible new chod fettlers. I have a couple of good ones (and a third ok for MOTs and basics), but availability can be an issue.  I see your guys worked at Motorway Sports Cars in Boughton before. 11 miles from my front door, so not beyond the pale.

 

Is their hourly rate top dollar?

 

I'm not sure what their hourly is, I suspect it's on the higher end but they've always done top work.  They farm out MOTs to another garage (not sure which one).  I've never felt over-charged and they justify any price by actually showing me the parts and explaining the issue.  Used to be called Mobitech as well at one stage?

 

For the new starter motor and oil filter including diagnosis and decent parts (not cheapest) it came to about £230.  Which seemed about right.

 

Who have you used in the past?  Always good to have more than one option if possible...!

[egg]

Broadway Garage in Herne Bay are very straight, run by Italian brothers, and owner runs around in a clean Rover 600: http://home.clara.net/mcaira/broadway/

 

There's an old boy at Chapel Garage (in his 70's) in Charles Street Herne Bay who has a 1961 Chevrolet Impala....(he's good for small jobs)

 

and BD Motors in Essex Street, Whitstable are ok, I use a guy who does 'private' work on the side out of that garage.

 

Heard some good things about Auto Check in Faversham http://autocheckfaversham.co.uk/

[puddlethumper]

Mr D Spares and bits has just delivered a Bosch injector pump, £60 from a scrappy nearish to him, and donated a steering column, steering lock and door lock to get my van back on the road. Beer tokens were gratefully passed.

 

      Cheers Tom

[captain_70s]

My neighbours seem to be hoarding dull, Germanic hatchbacks to counter my Triumph collection...

[wuvvum]

Owner shows us the broken starter motor (showing us broken parts is traditional with this garage and is why I love them so) and shows us that it's the copper braid (part of the winding) that connects the solenoid with the motor.  It had just disintegrated and he was surprised and hadn't seen that in a long time!

That's exactly what killed the starter on the Rover of Doom a year or so ago - gone all green and crumbled away to nothing.

[angle]

Scores on the doors are...

 

£210 for the thermostat because 3 hours book time to fit. Genuine parts and coolant change while we're at it.

£530 fitted for the strut. Strut £350+VAT, but then all new bolts otherwise VAG/TPS won't honour any warranty unless all the mounting bolts associated with it are changed too. Also labour on top.

 

Hrrrrnghhhh. I've never spent this much on one job fixing any car that I've ever owned. Ever. Including clutch jobs.

 

I've just been spoilt by owning Japanese cars and has reminded me why I dislike German cars. Its only saving grace is that its a comfortable, nice place to sit and quick. I just hope that it doesn't decide to thank me by shitting its transmission. As my garage said, DSG in the trade stands for Doesn't Shift Gears...

I was in there just now.

 

'We told Simon to grow up and get a sensible car'

 

EDIT: Like a Mustang

[dean36014]

The van of many miles failed its mot on handbrake. Just whipped the wheels off and to my shame the rear pads are down to virtually metal. Annoyingly Bx front pads are identical but don't have the little pip on the back to locate into the screw in piston. Never mind, discount code used and new pads from gsf for £12. Will fit them tomorrow and give everything a clean up and take it for its retest. Not a bad result really, fast pass on the emissions again too, not bad for 277k miles. 

[Steve79]

Scores on the doors are...£210 for the thermostat because 3 hours book time to fit. Genuine parts and coolant change while we're at it.£530 fitted for the strut. Strut £350+VAT, but then all new bolts otherwise VAG/TPS won't honour any warranty unless all the mounting bolts associated with it are changed too. Also labour on top.Hrrrrnghhhh. I've never spent this much on one job fixing any car that I've ever owned. Ever. Including clutch jobs.I've just been spoilt by owning Japanese cars and has reminded me why I dislike German cars. Its only saving grace is that its a comfortable, nice place to sit and quick. I just hope that it doesn't decide to thank me by shitting its transmission. As my garage said, DSG in the trade stands for Doesn't Shift Gears...

Better hope it doesn't shit it's gearbox. The old man has a 04 plate TT with the shit-tronic box which decided it would start surging forward like a rocket when the brake was released.

 

Was still under lloyds blackhorse warranty when it went. Trader didn't want to know so calls were made to lloyds. Trader was told in no uncertain terms to sort it or to find another warranty company. Box got removed and sent to a place in Bournemouth who specialises in tiptronic and dsg.

 

Two and a half large later at the traders expense the old man gets a terse phonecall to pick the car up proto.

 

He arrives and trader literally throws the keys at old man's feet saying don't ever f****** come back. Don't think he was too happy!

[stuboy]

Balls, gonna cost me £441 to get all bits sorted on the focus and years mot.

 

 

 

 

 

Crazly said yes.