The new news 24 thread

[Micrashed]

Holy Cow, those Chitty Rovers are incredibly cheap.

[trigger]

I can't see any car being a keeper for Dollybird unless it has a Citroen badge.

[dollywobbler]

Even that's no guarantee Trig! I've had over 20 Citroens. I think three at the most four have lasted longer than six months.

 

When you've got no firm requirement for what you actually want, it really is hard to pick any one car. 

[Angrydicky]

I think you should grab that silver Ambassador you posted pictures of!

[trigger]

Today my old man popped round and stripped the carb down on the Civic for me, we fitted new jets and cleaned it completely inside and finished by adding the new gaskets, the secondary choke was also stuck so cleaned that up too, man, what a difference it's made, the car really picks up now and and drives lovely, well chuffed!.

 

Also went and collected the Acclaim from the garage, that seems to be driving better now too after the head gasket rebuild but to say thanks for spending £250 on it's repear it's repayed me by blowing it's flasher relay, arse!.

 

I had to drive home 30 miles with no indicators just like a BMW owner, I'm guessing all 3 pin flasher units are pretty much the same?.

[Micrashed]

Came home from work, fitted new rear wiper blade, dropped the oil on the Micrashed into a washing up bowl...

fought a battle with the filter,

dented it,

crushed it,

twatted a screwdriver through it and managed to pull it off which was a relief because I really didnt relish trying to hacksaw the fucker off.

Refilled with oil 

Poured oil into old 5L tin

turned to talk to the cat stepped back and kicked 5L tin of black manky oil all over drive.

 

Swore.

[Bobthebeard]

Came home from work, fitted new rear wiper blade, dropped the oil on the Micrashed into a washing up bowl...

fought a battle with the filter,

dented it,

crushed it,

twatted a screwdriver through it and managed to pull it off which was a relief because I really didnt relish trying to hacksaw the fucker off.

Refilled with oil

Poured oil into old 5L tin

turned to talk to the cat stepped back and kicked 5L tin of black manky oil all over drive.

 

Swore.

Never take advice from a cat. They know very little about car maintenance and chaos often ensues if a cats' advice is heeded. Unless you need half a mouse, some sicked up fur or a dead woodlouse. In which case they can contribute quite well.

[nacho man]

ALL VAUXHALLS R NOT SHIT mutha terzza has got a company car a 63 plate disatra 2.0 16v dizzler so borrowed it to see a mate in sheffield I really really really liked it 100mph is 2000 something odd rpms and is whisper quiet. Mpg computer reckoned it did 47mpg as well, however has a button which says "info" I pressed to receive some "info" and it told me "no information available".

 

VERDICT= I need moar info 

[Bobthebeard]

ALL VAUXHALLS R NOT SHIT mutha terzza has got a company car a 63 plate disatra 2.0 16v dizzler so borrowed it to see a mate in sheffield I really really really liked it 100mph is 2000 something odd rpms and is whisper quiet. Mpg computer reckoned it did 47mpg as well, however has a button which says "info" I pressed to receive some "info" and it told me "no information available".

 

VERDICT= I need moar info

 

Try pressing the button again in ten years or so....

It will certainly have some "info" by then!

It won't be good news though......

[Lord Sterling]

My KV6 has been doing a couple of longish journeys over the past 6 days. Monday it went to Central London, then today, unexpectedly it was taken up to Alfreton. I'd really like to get the belts sorted. Anyone here ever changed belts on a KV6 before?

 

If not, anyone know any reputable Rover fettlers around the West Midlands who could probably do the job for me?

 

One thing is starting to boil my piss, I've really wanted to tidy the thing up for ages now, I've got most if the bits it needs but everytime I spy some free time, it gets bloody eaten up by everything else.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Try pressing the button again in ten years or so....

It will certainly have some "info" by then!

It won't be good news though......

 

[Negative Creep]

hopefully got someone coming to look at the 944 tomorrow. On that note, would this be a great* idea for a replacement?

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201309248941776/sort/locasc/usedcars/body-type/coupe/model/406/make/peugeot/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/page/1/postcode/pl74dy/radius/1500?logcode=p

[phil_lihp]

Our kayak club had a river trip today and the van that normally tows the trailer was unavailable, leaving them pretty stuck.  Fortunately, one member had recently bought a tow bar with a rusty Rover attached to it.

 

 

It did a sterling job transporting a heavily laden trailer and 4 people plus kit and has made me quite popular today.  I will say that in my limited towing experience, a heavy trailer with a light car is not much fun, before I picked up passengers the unsprung trailer was bouncing the back of the car up and down on rough roads.  To be expected though and extra weight in the car seemed to sort it out.

[trigger]

After my flasher relay blowing on the Acclaim yesterday I spent a little while this morning hunting for a replacement, Eventually a trip to Wilcos proved fruitful and I came home with a new relay, it was listed for Fiat's & Lancias on the rear but I was told it's the same and it looked aright, I plugged it in a bang, the fuse blew, arse.

 

I guess it's no good, So I now need to find the proper relay for it and a new 10 amp fuse plus I don't have a car for work in the morning, great.

[Barry Cade]

After my flasher relay blowing on the Acclaim yesterday I spent a little while this morning hunting for a replacement, Eventually a trip to Wilcos proved fruitful and I came home with a new relay, it was listed for Fiat's & Lancias on the rear but I was told it's the same and it looked aright, I plugged it in a bang, the fuse blew, arse.

 

I guess it's no good, So I now need to find the proper relay for it and a new 10 amp fuse plus I don't have a car for work in the morning, great.

Just stick an Audi badge on it.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Just stick a Honda badge on it.

 

EFA

[Shep Shepherd]

The Volvo survived its trip to Southampton and back without any problems whatsoever. Here it is checking out Cobham Services on the way home:

 

 

It was the oldest car in the car park by six years

[rml2345]

Not surprised that it made it Shep but congrats all the same.

Ye of little faith

[Shep Shepherd]

^

 

If anything, the 260-mile round trip has made the car run a lot better. The next long journey I intend to take it on is to the south-western Netherlands next month

[vulgalour]

The exhaust blow on the Princess is not where I thought it was.  Rather than the usual fanimold/downpipe join where it's a nuisance to resolve it appears to be blowing underneath the car near the back of the engine but I can't find it at all.  No soot marks, and I can't feel any exhaust puthering out of anywhere other than the end of the exhaust pipe where it should come out.  I'll have to get the car in the air at some point I guess and broggle around underneath with the engine running.

[dollywobbler]

The exhaust blow on the Princess is not where I thought it was.  Rather than the usual fanimold/downpipe join where it's a nuisance to resolve it appears to be blowing underneath the car near the back of the engine but I can't find it at all.  No soot marks, and I can't feel any exhaust puthering out of anywhere other than the end of the exhaust pipe where it should come out.  I'll have to get the car in the air at some point I guess and broggle around underneath with the engine running.

 

Tip 1. Shove your hand over the exhaust end (not when the engine has been running for a while as it'll be hot). That'll make the leak chuff a lot more.

 

Tip 2. A thin piece of tube (like windscreen washer piping) shoved in your ear becomes a great stethoscope, helping you pinpoint exactly where the leak is.

 

Tip 3. Tip Redex into the carburettor, then apply Tip 1. You'll be able to see where the leak is then! That's the theory, never actually tried this one...

[wuvvum]

The LNA passed its MoT this morning.  Which it should have done really, given that it failed before and I'd done all the failures (apart from the welding which I paid someone to do as I can't weld for toffee, and the CV boot which a mate helped me with as it was a bit of a bastard).  I'm always slightly apprehensive on a retest though, in case one of my repairs isn't up to scratch or something else has gone wrong since the original test.  Sadly it's probably going to have to wait until I next get paid before I can tax it, due to fine-related fun and frolics (see grumpy thread).

[Lukas]

Sold the Camry after 4 3/4 years of ownership to a nice medical doctor today. One car less to care for.

[Honey Badger]

The Accord coupe is in for a gearbox flush and service tomorrow, 10 liters of Exon 5w/40 Optima Vimax and 4 liters of Honda DW-1 transmission fluid means it's expensive before my mate has even got his spanners out!

 

The oil was quite cheap actually £47 for 10 liters of fully synthetic oil is quite decent I thought, especially with the free postage. The guy who owns the place was very helpful on the phone as well.

 

http://www.lubetechshop.co.uk

 

So the plan when I get it back tomorrow night is for a full on Italian tune up down the A14 to sunny huntingdon and back.

 

I'm thinking of chucking some Forte fuel treatment through the engine, is this worth it or is it just snake oil for gullible fools with newish cars?

[HMC]

The jag spent longer than expected having its rear vallence and arches sorted, mainly due to the massive amounts of filler and bodgery over several decades that needed un picking

Basically the Rear wings were literally bulging with filler, and the arches had long since lost their original profile over successive attacks with filler and tin cans etc

 

Cutting away all this also revealled further inner arch grot and very little holding the holding the fuel tank securing straps in place!

 

Inner arch repairs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Think he's managed a decent colour match considering the various shades of white the car wears when you look closely

 

A week after getting the Jag back from having the rear arches repaired properly I had a wedding id agreed to act as chauffeur for. Couple of days before in stop start traffic the switch failed on the fan and the car overheated in traffic. Que a hurried purchase of a kenlowe and fitting it the day before. The wedding itself went smoothly. This coming week another of the staff was getting married, and again, Id been asked to drive.

 

Saturday just gone i was left stranded on a busy roundabout when the 'reliable' fuel pump on the left side packed up. I switched to the opposite tank and as is its habit, the other pump stuck. I time honoured su fashion i had to scamble out and whack it with a spanner, this soon restored progress. Serves me right as the fuel pumps were overdue for some fettling. Spent saturday afternoon stripping and overhauling them. Sunday id planned to go on a simple test drive, but as i drove along at around 60mph the bonnet popped on its safety catch after it was shocked open over a deep ridge in the road. The catch then failed and seconds later i had a banana shaped bonnet snacking the windscreen and roof , which the tore off its mountings and diasppeared into a hedge!

 

After Id retrieved the bonnet and recovered from the shock i soon realised the bonnet was way too buckled to be remotely repairable and a replacement was the only realistic option. I had to let the Bride to be know that this particular s trpe wouldnt be driving her to the wedding, but we managed to sort things for her quickly and not too stressfully for her big day which is only 2 days or so away. Somehow the screen, which isnt laminated, hadnt let go and the whole thing was on a quiet lane and could have been much worse.

 

So A few steps forward and one back. Actually the previous bonnet was grotty in a few places and i may arrange to have a few e type louvres let in to it before spraying the second hand replacement a al the coombs racing mk 2 jags so some good has come of it in a way!

[dollywobbler]

Ouch. Bonnet loss is never nice! Lovely to hear about the de-rusting though. The S-Type is definitely the Autoshiters MkII. Which is odd, as it's far better than a MkII...

[meggersdog]

My KV6 has been doing a couple of longish journeys in the passed 6 days. Monday went to Central London, then today, unexpectedly went up to Alfreton. I'd really like to get the belts sorted. Anyone here ever changed belts on a KV6 before?

 

If not, anyone know any reputable Rover fettlers around the West Midlands who could probably do the job for me?

 

 

RoadworksUK did his belts a couple of years ago.Think there is a write up somewhere

[trigger]

What a bummer about the bonnet Mr Brook especially after all that paintwork you've just had done!, At least it didn't damage the screen and roof, that would have been annoying.

[wuvvum]

A brief crawl round under the Vectra today revealed that the exhaust blow which I thought was coming from the rear manifold is in fact coming from the short flexi pipe just aft of the manifold.  This is a good thing in a way, as it's a lot easier to get to than the manifold itself, but the complete replacement section is £182, which I'm not paying.  So I'm probably going to have to get one of those flexi repair sections and get my friendly local garage to weld it in for me. 

 

I also can't find a headlamp washer jet at a sensible price, so I'm probably just going to bodge in a random screenwash jet for the MoT - as long as water is squirting on the headlamp it should pass.  It'll probably fail on other stuff though - my guess is rear brakes and at least one front bush.  We shall see.

 

I then took the freshly-taxed Solara for a run out, for the first time in longer than I care to remember.  I did about 25 miles in it and it didn't break down or get hot - the fanbelt started squealing when I switched the headlights on, but then it is pretty ancient and I've been meaning to replace it for ages.  It still won't idle, or indeed run at all on a light throttle, but at least I know it's driveable still - I think the fact it was running like a bag'o'shite when I last tried to take it for a drive in the summer was because I was leaving the choke out for too long in an attempt to keep it idling, and it was flooding the engine.  I think the carb needs a thorough clean out - once I've got that sorted it should be ready to be put back into use - just in time for winter, when I don't use it because it'll rust and the heater's useless.

[cort16]

The s-type is lovely I bet the bonnet loss caused a severe bum clench.