The new news 24 thread

[Cavcraft]

Iphone car charger (anyone got any use for this?)

 

How much do you want for it please?

[ruffgeezer]

Cover the post, have it free?

[Mr Lobster]

Took the Toledo ('04 20VT) for MOT yesterday which it passed without so much as a single advisory.

 

I absolutely flippin' love this car. Its fast, comfy and reliable and just doesn't go wrong. At nine years old its still on its original exhaust and battery which is rather good I think.

 

Might well treat it to a proper clean this week.

[trigger]

Took the Alto in for it's MOT this morning...

 

 

And it passed!! The tester was very impressed with the car saying how tidy it was, It looks to have been ziebarted from new which has gone a long way to save it, the emissions were brilliant, he said it's better then most new cars, CO Limit 4.50 mines 0.16 and HC's limits are up to 1200, mine 96 ppm!

 

All in all a very pleasing morning.

[wuvvum]

Nice one Trig. My Innocenti always has comically low emissions readouts at MoT time - must be something about low-mileage Japanese 3-pots.

[cort16]

Good new Trigger. Have you decided if you're going to keep it or not?

[cort16]

Does anyone watch that new Wheeler Dealer thing where Mike Brewer goes around the world saying "'old out your 'and" buying and selling cars?

On the last 2 episodes he's ended up losing money, which means there's either going to be some setup where he suddenly makes 20 grand or the super car that they're giving away at the end of the show will turn out out to be a rusty 1986 Maserati Bi-turbo.

[Cavcraft]

Nice one, Trigger, that's brilliant. You deserve that MOT pass for all the effort you put into the car too.

 

Ruffgeezer: Yes please! Pm coming...

[garbaldy]

Does anyone watch that new Wheeler Dealer thing where Mike Brewer goes around the world saying "'old out your 'and" buying and selling cars?

On the last 2 episodes he's ended up losing money, which means there's either going to be some setup where he suddenly makes 20 grand or the super car that they're giving away at the end of the show will turn out out to be a rusty 1986 Maserati Bi-turbo.

 

 

ive been watching them and i have to say the only thing that annoys me is all this dollhairs talk, last time i checked my wallet it had pounds in it

im pretty sure though that he has only lost 2k on that yank with the wrong engine,

he started with 3k and even after the loss is at 9k or so after two episodes, nice work if you can get it

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Pulled the Mini into the garage and .... fixed the blowing manifold/downpipe joint .... Don't expect it to last long

 

Twenty one days, a new record!

 

Also it's reacted to a fresh tank of petrol by becoming undrivable - losing power, stuttering and hesitation. That'll be a rogue atom of dirt in the needle valve hopefully.

 

That's this weekend sorted then.

[plasticvandan]

dont know if this is how youve been doing it but the way i always used to do the pipe to fanimould joint on my minis and morris minors was to use a trolley jack under the pipe,raise it into position,with a smear of paste,then tighten the clamp up while the pipe was pushed hard against the manifold,never had them leak again

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

That's my method too. It's now been attempted by two garages and me with no success so I think it's time to start looking at all the mounts and steadies. Everything looks healthy but evidently there's a problem somewhere.

[plasticvandan]

from memory there is a crap saddle clamp and a good one,but no doubt you will have found this out already.

Some pattern pipes have a badly formed flange or its at a slightly different angle.

i feel your pain though as my first minor took about 5 attempts!

[dollywobbler]

That 'bastard' clamp is a pain in the arse. Seem to recall we had plenty of bother with that on our Mini. New clamp worked in the end.

 

I think I've decided to risk the BX for this weekend's mega-mile trip. I must have nudged a connector in such a way that it no longer leaks. I used it today and all is well, so it surely follows than another 200 miles will be fine...

[dean36014]

Been playing with the Rover, so far thanks to the excellent owners forum, i've fixed the non working electric mirrors with a wipe of thinners, stripped out the bulkhead to clean the dreaded plenum drain, which was already clear. Went to replace the pollen filter, to find its already been replaced. Jobs left are to find out why my rear seat won't latch in place and try some aircon cleaner as its a bit pongy! Actually I might go and have the aircon recharged and cleaned, £60 at Halfrauds might be money well spent if we get a summer this year.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

from memory there is a crap saddle clamp and a good one,but no doubt you will have found this out already.

Some pattern pipes have a badly formed flange or its at a slightly different angle.

i feel your pain though as my first minor took about 5 attempts!

 

I've got the late clamp with the single bolt, I might get one of the earlier two bolt types and try my luck with that.

 

edit: hang on, the Sprite has that type... wonder if I could get away with swapping them?

[dollywobbler]

Dean - there's a handy mod to improve the bonnet release cable too. As designed, it can come apart and leave you unable to open the bonnet. I carried out the mod on mine.

[plasticvandan]

Peter,sounds like you have the crap clamp,

the one i used was a two piece cast type

[dean36014]

I'll have to search for that dollywobbler!

[dollywobbler]

I think I've decided to risk the BX for this weekend's mega-mile trip. I must have nudged a connector in such a way that it no longer leaks. I used it today and all is well, so it surely follows than another 200 miles will be fine...

 

Cancel that. I used the BX to go and look at a Ford Puma for sale 12 miles away. Sadly the Puma was a bit of a neglected pup so I walked away at £450. A rare occurence.

 

When I got back, I could smell the LHM and indeed, the back end of the BX was looking like a green-screen version of the Niagara falls. Balls. Guess it'll be the Merc then!

[Lacquer Peel]

Reliable* Citroen hydraulics in action there.

[dollywobbler]

Reliable* Citroen hydraulics in action there.

 

To be fair, this is the first "I'd better not drive that" hydraulic leak I've ever had in tens of thousands of miles. I'd never claim that they're invincible, just not as bad as people make out. After all, normal cars suffer things like brake pipes failing, knackered shockers and cracked springs.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

What does LHM smell like? Is it closer to brake fluid or gear oil on the scale of automotive fluids?

[dollywobbler]

It's quite a sweet, pleasant smell. Far, far nicer than gearbox oil, which smells like the juice from satan's bum crack.

[Lacquer Peel]

Reliable* Citroen hydraulics in action there.

 

To be fair, this is the first "I'd better not drive that" hydraulic leak I've ever had in tens of thousands of miles. I'd never claim that they're invincible, just not as bad as people make out. After all, normal cars suffer things like brake pipes failing, knackered shockers and cracked springs.

 

Tongue in cheek there, I love hydropneumatics.

They'd be invincible if you could carry a roll of pipe and a (NLA) small flaring tool.

[Shep Shepherd]

Disassembled and reassembled the horn pushes on The Volvo's steering wheel today, which has made them work properly and has stopped the horns sounding at random, usually when making low-speed manoeuvres involving lots of steering wheel twirling, such as parking, something which has caused me no end of grief/embarrassment over the past few years

 

Fresh from that victory, I fitted a pair of high frequency disc-type horns to the car, replacing the ex-850 estate ones which had been on it for about four years; one of them stopped working properly about two years ago, and upon removing it, it turned out that it was full of water

 

Also managed to give the car's paintwork a polish (with Mer) for the first time this year, having done TV2's yesterday (for the first time since august 2011!). It's nice to have both cars clean and shiny at the same time:

 

 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

It's quite a sweet, pleasant smell. Far, far nicer than gearbox oil, which smells like the juice from satan's bum crack.

 

I quite like the smell of gear oil. It reminds me of museums with preserved machinery.

[Lord Sterling]

Off on Monday to pick up my D-reg Rover 820e. Its been on the sellers drive for a couple of months since I bought it and he's been very patient knowing the troubles I've been through recently. But of course its needs to go now so I'm going to be in limbo for the next few weeks in trying to find where to store it for the long term. I've secured so e short term driveway space for 2 weeks as my mate is having work done on his house.

 

It'll be great to actually see it in the metal for the first time as I've only got the ebay pics of it. Ideally I need some sort of small unit (ala Rob T) so will be on the lookout for something like this.

 

In the meantime, if anyone knows of a garage/undercover/secure storage around the West Midlands please let me know, I'm happy to pay reasonable rates.

[MrDuke]

Had my first taste of 'proper' towing today, hauling the box trailer across the island. I can't say I really derived any pleasure from the experience, at all, so it will only ever be used when absolutely necessary, and possibly not always then. I only cracked 50mph twice, both times downhill, although I was a bit unnerved by the front wheels not touching the ground (on the trailer, not the car...) - on a plus side, the trailer looked better than expected.

[dollywobbler]

Forgot to mention that thanks to Confused.com, I've discovered that a Ford Puma is (slightly) cheaper to insure than a Focus Turbo Diesel. In fact, a Citroen C5 Turbo Diesel (see? I did consider it Dean) also came out as cheaper to insure than a Focus Turbo Diesel. Only by a few quid, but still adds up. I did get a quote for the Focus from Direct Line, but it was horrific - several hundred quid compared to £170. Tesco for some reason refused to quote. Sod 'em. I don't like them anyway.