The new news 24 thread

[cort16]

I went up a hill in a yellow car

turbo whistling 

tyre spinning 

clutch slipping

 

[Split_Pin]

The engine must be in rude health if it can still spin the tyres with a slipping clutch!

[cort16]

its weird you really need to be lugging it in 4th at full throttle for it slip

[320touring]

34 minutes ago, cort16 said:

its weird you really need to be lugging it in 4th at full throttle for it slip

Needs MOAR BOOOOOST!

[Cord Fourteener]

It turns out, when your car won't start, and when, if it does, it runs as rough as a very tough thing, you should not panic and assume either the fuel pump relay you fitted new two years ago has packed in, the fuse blown or the new fuel pump had died but rather just check you actually have petrol.

Oops. Commenting for a friend*

After I put petrol in my 924 I discovered there is nothing wrong with the FPR. I mean my friend did*  with his 924*

[Pat Earrings]

Finally got around to fitting my Bluetooth/dab stereo. Bloody hell what a massive faff Japanese cars are. Took me almost 2 hours as the Lexus amp was extremely fiddly to get to and fit the bypass lead, along with setting up the stereo in the new cage and wiring the mic and aerial. Sounds so much better and finally I've got some Bluetooth music and dab to enjoy.

[stuboy]

took me nearly 2 hrs to arrange the insurance on the new mondeo, which cant start till friday as id added the old one to start then, all went well till the operative started putting me on hold to speak to his seniors, then he cocked it up and then got cut off, he didnt ring me back, so i restarted and rang back, got through to a nice lady who sorted it all out inc the fact the previous put value at 7.5k for christs sake.. so now both cars and my toygirl insured for 66 quid a month

[phil_lihp]

1 hour ago, cort16 said:

I went up a hill in a yellow car

turbo whistling 

tyre spinning 

clutch slipping

 

 

Can I join your mid-2000s hot hatch club? 

It's been up some hills today but nothing very scenic.  Mine also comes with turbo whistles and a shagged clutch, although it's allowed as it's on over 199,000 miles and counting.  It's having grumps for the first time in 18 months of ownership with hesitation and rough running when starting from cold, my generic ODBC says it's fine, no engine management light on and I have changed the aging coil packs for OEM-spec new ones which helped a bit but not much.

Might be the coil pack wires which are known to degrade but they looked OK to me, I scooshed them out with electrical contact cleaner when I changed the coils anyway.  Will try unplugging the MAF, next weekend's job is to finally get around to pulling the slightly pointless secondary air pump out and either bypassing it with a resistor in the plug or replacing the broken rivets that hold it together with bolts to stop the 45 seconds of loud, high-pitched whining which accompanies every cold start and has been getting progressively more loud and annoying in recent months.  Bit of a TADTS on the VAG 1.8T apparently, I love this car to bits but if it has a fault it's being a product of its time, far too many sensors, wires and things that go bong and beep.

[Coprolalia]

@phil_lihp, I have a £30 Chinese pattern secondary air pump arriving next week. Will let you know if it's any good. I heard replacing the rivets was a bit of an arse as it can all warp and expand.

Apparently the resistor mod works, but you have to map out the EML as otherwise it throws the P0441 (or summat) code for secondary air flow out of range.

[captain_70s]

On 7/26/2020 at 9:34 PM, trigger said:

 

Inca Yellow, O/D gearbox. WINRAR.

Pretty late example on a V reg too. The difference between my 1300 and 1850 was night and day, that'll be another kettle of fish compared to both of them... Watch the tail end on damp roads, I managed to put mine backwards through a fence with just 90bhp, I imagine 120bhp won't improve things in that regard. ?

[LightBulbFun]

14 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

WINRAR

LOL that made me laugh more then it should have  

hopefully its more than just a 30 day free trial in this case!

(tis very nice btw  )

[Ghosty]

14 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

hopefully its more than just a 30 day free trial in this case!

WinRAR trials last forever! 

(WinRAR is only on a 'trial' so if businesses need to buy a licence they can, as they can't use freeware for some reason - it's intended that casual users never buy a licence). 

[Borsuq]

Seat came out so I can take it to an upholstery shop. Unfortunately, going by the stuff on the floor, it seems like the sponge that makes up the base of the seat has started crumbling. I don't think there's a proper fix for that (other than getting a new seat base, which I can't find) so I'll have to live with a seat that's disappearing.

[barefoot]

A decent upholsterer should be able to re-stuff it for you.

[RayMK]

Yesterday was too wet to investigate the suspected fuel tank leak on the Reliant.  Today I had a closer look and the result is inconclusive.  Whereas two days ago the tank area had a strong smell of petrol and looked slightly wet with the stuff, today it all looked as dry as a bone and there was no trace of a smell or sight of a leak. I've cleaned the tank exterior  and the rear chassis cross member as best I could without putting the car on ramps and will have a look again tomorrow.  I may even get it out of the garage for a checkover and go for a drive if it co-operates.

The photos show the car slightly less blocked in - I moved my mobility scooter which was also piled high with tool boxes and spares for other cars. I need to go on a training course for 'How to keep garages tidy.'  The following photos show the tank before and after I had wiped it over with engine degreaser. 

 

[stuboy]

unexciting but rang up the AA to ensure they got my 10 emails i sent telling them im not renewing with them, they pestered wanted to requoate so i said dont bother its got a knackered engine.

[beko1987]

3 hours ago, RayMK said:

Yesterday was too wet to investigate the suspected fuel tank leak on the Reliant.  Today I had a closer look and the result is inconclusive.  Whereas two days ago the tank area had a strong smell of petrol and looked slightly wet with the stuff, today it all looked as dry as a bone and there was no trace of a smell or sight of a leak. I've cleaned the tank exterior  and the rear chassis cross member as best I could without putting the car on ramps and will have a look again tomorrow.  I may even get it out of the garage for a checkover and go for a drive if it co-operates.

The photos show the car slightly less blocked in - I moved my mobility scooter which was also piled high with tool boxes and spares for other cars. I need to go on a training course for 'How to keep garages tidy.'  The following photos show the tank before and after I had wiped it over with engine degreaser. 

 

How full of pez is it? Didn't expand in the heat we've had and dribble out of an air bleed or similar did it? 

Its obviously not too bad if its dry now! 

[RayMK]

43 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

How full of pez is it? Didn't expand in the heat we've had and dribble out of an air bleed or similar did it? 

Its obviously not too bad if its dry now! 

Similar climatic themes had crossed my mind.  The fuel gauge sender has never worked but I think the tank is about half full i.e. at least 2 gallons. I think the only breather is via the filler pipe and vent hole in the cap. Another possibility is that whatever was in there has completely evaporated. I have not started the car since 9th January this year. I have noticed on previous occasions after months of inactivity that the fuel looks brown, indicating that the mild steel tank is gradually being eaten away by internal corrosion. If I get round to checking and starting it tomorrow, I am anticipating carb jet blocking problems despite having fitted a fuel filter just before the fuel pump in the engine bay. Having a 60 years old transparent fuel line does have some advantages - I can see what is being drawn in to the fuel pump. Amazingly, whatever it's made of has not gone brittle or soft despite its age and ethanol soakage.  It is thin walled and very tough, unlike any plastic fuel tubing which is available today for lawn mowers or old motorcycles. 

[Borsuq]

21 hours ago, barefoot said:

A decent upholsterer should be able to re-stuff it for you.

We'll see how decent they are when I pick the seat up tomorrow.

[trigger]

The new toy arrived yesterday! I'm so happy to own it, I've wanted one for years but never thought I'd be able to afford one but a few thrifty deals with the Granada and Marina meant that I easily had enough money in the end. 

The previous owner ran it up to me from Potters bar and I dropped him off at the train station, can't say better than that. 

Unfortunately I can't really drive it yet as the clutch isn't engaging properly, the pedal isn't coming up enough and it won't go in gear with the engine running and when it is running the cars driving with your foot still on the clutch! It's pissing out DOT4 too so I'm expecting a hydraulic problem is the cause. 

Anyway spent some time removing the stickers and cleaning some bits up. 

It's had a absolute mint spent on it in the last 10 years, over £10k in receipts, it must have single handedly kept Rimmers in business! 

Apparently its had a full engine and gearbox rebuild and a body restoration so fingers crossed its a good one, it's only done 71000 miles. 1st owner of 2 years was a manager at Unipart and was owned by BL. I'm well excited!

 

 

[captain_70s]

2 hours ago, trigger said:

Unfortunately I can't really drive it yet as the clutch isn't engaging properly, the pedal isn't coming up enough and it won't go in gear with the engine running and when it is running the cars driving with your foot still on the clutch! It's pissing out DOT4 too so I'm expecting a hydraulic problem is the cause. 

Dolomite clutch hydraulics are a shit. I've never manged to get my 1300's to have a biting point that isn't only just above the floor, after a bleed I usually have to run without the carpet for a few weeks as it fouls the biting point...

In other news I bought some new rad hoses for the Doloshite from a Triumph specialist.

Cool. That's actually older than the 43 year old car it was intended for...

[wuvvum]

I thought that was some kind of sea slug at first glance.

[Pat Earrings]

Changed the spark plugs and pollen filter today. I've fitted a k&n air filter to this as well and to my annoyance..I found there was no air filter fitted in place! Not impressed. Spark plugs were in decent nick no issues but I'm a pedant so NGK iridium's fitted. Also spotted 2 breather hoses looking brittle and cracked, so they're on order from Lexus and I've taped the ends that were cracked up for the time being. A new PCV and grommet also on order as the old one looks past it and is dribbling a bit of oil. Once they're fitted this will run even smoother. Forgot how much better i find Japanese cars to work on than VAGs etc. Just the oil and filter to do with a new sump plug which I shall do tomorrow as I can't be arsed now ?

[Borsuq]

17 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

33 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

In other news I bought some new rad hoses for the Doloshite from a Triumph specialist.

 

 

18 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I thought that was some kind of sea slug at first glance.

I thought it was a dodgy sausage.

[vulgalour]

My not-too-fancy ICE ready to go in the Princess.  Goodmans speakers from, I suspect, the late 80s, and a little Sakura head unit with a QC sticker on the back dating it to March 1980, so just about the right era for the car.  Electric aerial a must too since the head unit has the wiring for it.  Probably going to need an amp, though that can be more modern since I'll be hiding it.

Next challenge is actually fitting the head unit since Princesses don't have DIN cages, they just have this weird proprietary sized hole which is super annoying to make anything work with.  The head unit is small enough that I can sink it right into the dash behind the radio blanking plate so I'm thinking of having a go at making a cradle that supports the radio inside the dash with the blanking plate hinged so it can be hidden away.  Going to require some head scratching to work out the best solution.  Thankfully the other half knows his way around car audio installs of this era so between us we should be able to make a nice job of this.

[anonymous user]

5 hours ago, Borsuq said:

We'll see how decent they are when I pick the seat up tomorrow.

If the upholsterer fails try a taxidermist

[richardmorris]

And now for something completely different.

[phil_lihp]

The Radiomobile MW/LW head unit in my Princess is just comically bad, it does pick up some stations but they're buried in static and interference from the engine bay - the single dash-mounted speaker probably isn't going to deliver stunning audio quality anyway regardless of what head unit I stuck in it though.  I've decided to leave it alone and I'll get something like this which can live on the parcel shelf:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Anker-SoundCore-24-Hour-Playtime-Bluetooth-Speaker/383627754995?epid=25020488268&hash=item5951fefdf3:g:j0YAAOSwKSRfB1HM

[anonymous user]

1 hour ago, phil_lihp said:

The Radiomobile MW/LW head unit in my Princess is just comically bad, it does pick up some stations but they're buried in static and interference from the engine bay - the single dash-mounted speaker probably isn't going to deliver stunning audio quality anyway regardless of what head unit I stuck in it though.  I've decided to leave it alone and I'll get something like this which can live on the parcel shelf:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Anker-SoundCore-24-Hour-Playtime-Bluetooth-Speaker/383627754995?epid=25020488268&hash=item5951fefdf3:g:j0YAAOSwKSRfB1HM

Will you be adding a W using red insulating tape?

[phil_lihp]

Hah, we use some of their IT kit at work, it's good stuff actually but yes there's been various threats to modify stuff with tippex...