The new news 24 thread

[wuvvum]

The A4 passed its MOT retest today.  Ended up costing me rather more than anticipated though - the spring I'd ordered off eBay turned out to be the wrong one.  The garage rang me to let me know - obvs it was cheaper to have them order a spring and crack on with the retest than have them put the old spring back in, me order another one and take it back to them to fit, by which time the car would also need a full retest rather than just partial.  Still, the spring they ordered was rather a lot more expensive than the eBay cheapie I'd bought originally. 

So what with one thing and another my bargain eBay Audi now owes me over 400 quid - although that's still decent value for a B6 TDI with a year's test I reckon.  And it's still the most responsive diesel I've ever driven.  It's not a car I'm ever going to fall head over heels in love with though, competent though it is.

[Ghosty]

Concerto in garage and straight to work.

Cam cover off, airbox out, exhaust manifold off, power steering pump off, rad out, expansion tank out.
Tomorrow the cams, cambelt and inlet manifold come out, when that's done it's off with the head to assess the damage.

Not sure what the deal with the exhaust is, but new centre sections are £30 and I can get the correct twin exit backbox for £50 so one of those will be got in time.

Some fuckwit has managed to break two chunks out of the big end pulley when replacing a cambelt in the past...

[Ghosty]

Also, the valve clearances are massively off. Easy enough to sort though, I'll do them when I do the stem seals. 

[paulplom]

Is it not worth starting a thread @Ghosty?

[Ghosty]

Think I might later. I've had some interesting developments today. 

[andy18s]

18°c and blue skies on Tuesday 

Today has brought this

Down to well in into the minuses for the next few days as well,-10°c being forcast for Sat night

 

[Lord Sterling]

2nd new aerial arrived for the Vectra and it actually fits:

Suffice to say it was screwed in with some loctite added for that extra security. First one needs now to be returned.

As I was in the area yesterday I visited the supplying dealer:

No real reason, I pass by it often but never stop. Sadly they no longer carry or supply dealer stickers anymore. Non of their cars wore them. I guess dealer plates are enough these days.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

25 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

2nd new aerial arrived for the Vectra and it actually fits:

Suffice to say it was screwed in with some loctite added for that extra security.....

I fitted a similar one to the diesel Borat. The local automatic car wash subsequently made short work of it.

[Lord Sterling]

2 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I fitted a similar one to the diesel Borat. The local automatic car wash subsequently made short work of it.

This one is almost identical to the old one. Not sure if its bit shorter than the old one but I hate it when things are missing from the car.

I only get the car washed at an IMO car wash or a hand car wash outfit. If I'm barrassic like now, then I'll do it myself. But the old aerial held well in the IMO car washes so I hope this one will too.

[Eyersey1234]

@Lord Sterling whereabouts is that Vauxhall dealer? 

[Lord Sterling]

1 minute ago, Eyersey1234 said:

@Lord Sterling whereabouts is that Vauxhall dealer? 

A459 Dudley Road between Halesowen and Oldhill. 

[Eyersey1234]

Thanks @Lord Sterling

[egg]

Rear suspension creaky on the Mazda 323 after giving the arches/underside a pressure wash at the weekend, I've either dislodged something, washed some grease off that was keeping things sweet maybe? - or, perhaps a top mount is going as it's worse inside the car than out.

[64A60]

I has working Fuel Gauge. These are a sought after thing in Pre-Farina Cambridge circles but I was fortunate to be offered a whole Instrument Cluster taken out of an A50 in the 60's and stored in an attic since. The Temperature Gauge on these cars is arse about face, the needle starts at H and works its way up to N.

[Bren]

I spied a clean low mileage vectra for sale locally. I missed it by an hour - under a grand as well.

I was not actively looking for another car but this one shouted out to me. The passat needs a timing belt/water pump and could do with springs and dampers all round - if I did the suspension myself it would still cost me around £600 for it all to be done.

[RobT]

You're a glutton for punishment Bren...

[dean36014]

I've bought another Citroen c15 van! Sight unseen off eBay, collecting it on Sunday. Need to sell a car now, unless the van is a total rotter. Merc ç180 on lpg or an xm estate might be up for grabs.

[Craig the Princess]

Mrs the Princess Panda sprung a coolant leak on the way home yesterday. Replacement hose seems to be a Fiat only part and won't come until Wednesday so she'll need another car for Monday.

Allegro out to the rescue.

Push the purple one out the way and steal the battery from it.

Drive the green one onto the drive and wash it. The battery was a bit flat so whack it on the Woolworth charger. We'll use it a bit over the weekend to make sure it is ok.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

20 hours ago, 64A60 said:

....The Temperature Gauge on these cars is arse about face, the needle starts at H and works its way up to N.

H for Hardly any warmth?

C for Christ it's boiling?

[tommotech]

22 hours ago, 64A60 said:

I has working Fuel Gauge. These are a sought after thing in Pre-Farina Cambridge circles but I was fortunate to be offered a whole Instrument Cluster taken out of an A50 in the 60's and stored in an attic since. The Temperature Gauge on these cars is arse about face, the needle starts at H and works its way up to N.

Reverse polarity? Was it from Positive earth car or Negative earth, or did these always have Negative earth?

Does the fuel tank fill up as you are going along?

 

[HillmanImp]

Just taken the Legacy in to get the stereo code done and apparently theres an outstanding recall on it, so its getting booked in to get a new passenger airbag fitted. 

Didn't book it in today though, as I'm thinking I might have to investigate why its steaming up, as if theres anything thats behind the dash that needs sorting, I may as well do that at the same time whilst they're in there. 

https://youtu.be/G3OKixwUFS0

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Pela-pumping out the CX expansion tank. Taking feckin' ages for it all to be vacuumed out, but I can definitely see a foreign body in the bottom.

Extractor tool at the ready:

 

[richardmorris]

0Got the 2CV out at lunchtime to go and see my friend Harp's 1959 AZU 2CV Van.

It’s the very definition of do not paint. Sadly it does need work from the sparkly stick, but also a bonus pick from a couple of years ago with one of his other cars.

[anonymous user]

Today was dry I finally managed to fit the new window mechanism to the Mx5. As it has been standing for a couple of weeks I was pleased that it started, but less pleased that my pipe lagging/gaffer tape window filler has not been watertight. My careful dismantling proved a waste of time, as I  have lost the piece of plastic that covers the one screw in the door pull (I remember putting it safe) also when putting the tools away have lost a socket (yes it's the 10mm one), it literally disappeared as I was picking things up off the floor mat. I have given up looking for it for now. I did give the car a run out with the roof down and heater on full, to try to dry it out a bit. When I got home, after an hour or so, I did think it might have been a good idea to close and lock the front door. As it doesn't look any worse than usual I'm assuming I haven't been burgled.

[Lord Sterling]

Set off today in the Vectra to pop and do some shopping for me and the old lady who lets me use her driveway. As I set off the rear sounded a bit louder than usual, the tyre was flat and there was small bolt in it:

So thats £30 I didn't have to spare down the drain because the tyre decided to collect the bolt. ?

[Craig the Princess]

16 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Set off today in the Vectra to pop and do some shopping for me and the old lady who lets me use her driveway. As I set off the rear sounded a bit louder than usual, the tyre was flat and there was small bolt in it:

 

So thats £30 I didn't have to spare down the drain because the tyre decided to collect the bolt. ?

Is that the price of a tyre repair these days? The last one I got locally two years ago was £7

[richardmorris]

I also learned today that harp has sold his w126 s class 300, which was his daily driver, and pxd it for a vw golf thing. Apparently he’s tutoring golf full time now and 18mpg was eating into his income. But, he got £3300 in px for this car, and I know he paid £1600 for it 7years ago.

 

[richardmorris]

1 minute ago, Craig the Princess said:

Is that the price of a tyre repair these days? The last one I got locally two years ago was £7

I hope that’s the cost of a new tyre! I only seem to pick up bolts, nails and screws when the tyres are getting old. Last one ( touch wood) was 7 years ago.

[Lord Sterling]

18 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

21 minutes ago, Craig the Princess said:

Is that the price of a tyre repair these days? The last one I got locally two years ago was £7

I hope that’s the cost of a new tyre! I only seem to pick up bolts, nails and screws when the tyres are getting old. Last one ( touch wood) was 7 years ago.

£30 was the cost of a replacement tyre + fitting. I intend to get the both tyres replaced with identical tyres.

I tried a place local to me but as I had little time the chap was taking longer than I could afford so I left and found another place. The damage was too much to patch up and a replacement tyre was a better choice.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Coincidentally the diesel Borat had two new rear tyres (Roadstone brand, probably Chinese) yesterday, so that's £112 gone. N/S/R had been leaking considerably, whilst O/S/R had minimum tread left.