The new news 24 thread

[Wilko220]

Motoring-related obituary at this link may be of interest to some here...

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/10393835/Tony-Divey.html

[Cavcraft]

Thanks. I had some excellent advice from Andy of this parish too today, it certainly does seem these MLs are absolute rubbish, so I'll skip the idea of buying one now.

[Lacquer Peel]

Hey Cavette, did anyone ever tell you, you have a horrible taste in cars?

Lots of love, LP.

[Partridge]

I agree with Lacquer Peel here. Why the actual hell would anybody want a Mercedes ML? They're as visually appealing as Andrew Lloyd Webber with Myxomatosis,  as desirable as piles and off-road they're as much use as a condom machine in Vatican.

I would rather have gay sex with Kenneth Clarke, and then baste my gentleman's parts with Pedigree Chum and walk naked in a pound of starved, rabid Alsatians than drive one of those.

 

But each to his own.

 

Edit: I have the music taste of a drug dealer, the dress sense of a football manager and the car taste of drug dealer, so can't comment.

[Jim Bergerac]

A mate of mine had a Mercedes ML new. It had an alarming tendency to cut out at speed and as they couldn't get to the bottom of it Mercedes had to crush it, or something like that. They belong to the list of cars so shit even I wouldn't.

[oman5]

I don't know what they are.  zero interest

[Wilko220]

I must admit, I had to do a Google search to check what they are.

 

They belong to the list of cars so shit even I wouldn't.

 

I don't know about anywhere else in the country but, around here, they all tend to be driven by kept women with more money than driving ability.

 

Exhibit one - spotted this morning:

 

[Partridge]

From a later one I think, but oh my God...

 

[hairnet]

billy wants one now

[Cavcraft]

Hey Cavette, did anyone ever tell you, you have a horrible taste in cars?

Lots of love, LP.

 

 

Nope, never.

 

xx

[wuvvum]

I spent an hour or so this afternoon de-Doomifying the Rover 400.  The tax ran out on Thursday, and as the MoT has been out for a little while and it would need some TLC to get through a test, I've decided to get shot of it, so that meant removing all the go faster bits.  The tuning box has been removed, the EGR valve un-blanked, the boost adjuster taken out and the K&N cone filter replaced with the original airbox.  I took it for a spin afterwards and it's like driving a completely different car.  Much quieter (that'll be the air filter), much softer power delivery.  It still goes like the clappers (albeit slightly less so) in the mid range, but is noticeably less responsive low down and not nearly as keen to hit the redline.

 

Once I've cleared the last year-and-a-bit's accumulation of crap out of it, it'll be going up for sale - I'm loath to just scrap it as it's still a nice old thing to drive, and the L-series seems to be in pretty good health.  If nothing else, maybe somebody will buy it for the engine to put in a Land Rover or something.

 

I also took the glovebox out of the Vectra to see if I could see why the heater blower isn't working.  I'm now more baffled than I was before.  I can't see any wires going into the motor at all.  There's a multiplug with two thick and two thin wires running into it hanging loose near the motor, but I can't see anywhere it might plug into.  There's also a load of cut wires under there, but I'm assuming that they were something to do with the blues'n'twos.  There's some kind of control unit (presumably speed control) mounted on the side of the motor, but that only has two thin wires running to it so there's no way the motor is getting its power from that.  It looks like I might have to remove the motor (which is doubtless going to be a complete arsehole of a job) to see what's what.  If the weather's nice tomorrow I might give it a go. 

 

I've also got the fun job of trying to stop the front exhaust flexi from blowing for long enough to get through an MoT.  I've never managed to stop a flexi from blowing before, although at the moment it is only a small blow on the Vectra - I might try saturating the area with Gun Gum and then clamping a beer can round it or something.  It's only a piddly little flexi bit so I don't think it can move around that much.

 

The screenwash problem on the Solara has been diagnosed as a voltage drop on the live feed - thanks to those who gave me pointers last weekend.  I've decided I really cannot be arsed to start stripping out the wiring loom to try and trace the fault, so for the time being I'm going to wire in a separate switch.

[vulgalour]

People within the Princess club have been enquiring as to whether or not I'd be willing to get some spares from that brown car I posted recently for which they will be willing to pay.  For some reason, this has given me the warm fuzzies.  I was going to head over on Monday, but my lift is not available so I'll have to do it Tuesday instead.  I'd take wonky Princess, but the one sided bump steer is pretty appalling even at low speeds as I discovered when I gave it a wee exercise around the estate yesterday.

[Lankytim]

Picked up this crock this morning.

 

 

 115BHP 1.9 diesel, 142k on the clock but drives well enough. No real issues apart from a lack of service history and a dodgy climate control which has been bypassed with a manual switch, may or may not be repairable.

Weirdly it has a full set of newish mud and snow tyres! It's fully loaded too, twin electric sunroofs, wow!!

 

It needs the cripple tax removing before I can get it on the road properly, which is a pain.

 

Do I like it? Yes, but give it a few months and ill tell you then!

 

Is there anybody who works for a fiat dealer on here who can give me some info on what work its had done in the dealer network?

[dollywobbler]

That looks great. In an odd way. Will be interested to see how you get on with it.

[vulgalour]

Those Multiplas look pretty stupid, always have, but I like them anyway probably because of rather than in spite of their styling quirkiness.  Inside, they look like a pleasant place to be and not at all like the usual MPV rubbish out there.

[Lankytim]

Theyre based on the Brava apparently, which makes sense, as it looks like a decapitated Brava with a greenhouse grafted on top. 

 

7 previous owners... does anybody here do cheap HPI checks?

[vulgalour]

Bravas and Bravos used to be everywhere.  The last one I can recall seeing was in Sheffield about 3 years ago and it was a rare sight even then.  Have they become endangered now?

[Lankytim]

Died out through low values. high price of scrap and general apathy. I never liked them but now they're rare....

[Wilko220]

I used to think this rear light arrangement looked so cool when the Brava was launched. Not sure what I was taking at the time...

 

[wuvvum]

I was asked to take a Brava that a mate had just bought for an MoT a little while back - he wasn't insured to take it himself.  It was a 51-plate 1.6 and had only done about 40K from new.  It was actually quite a pleasant little car to drive - gutless at low revs and the ride was a bit firm, but handled well and I liked the steering.  Somehow felt a lot lighter on its feet than the Marea (although the Mareas I've had have both been 5-pot versions, so maybe a touch nose-heavy).

 

The Multipla is one of those cars that I thought looked utterly stupid when it first came out, but which I now quite like.  Wonder if I'll be saying the same thing about the Nissan Juke in 10 years' time?

[catsinthewelder]

Those Multipla's look a damn sight less ugly than these new 500 large MPV efforts that have replaced them.  There's more than a bit of irony there name wise too.

 

Well bought I'd say.

 

 

News here is that I've finally got the exhaust sorted on the BX.  On these it's made up of a long downpipe, a shorter curved pipe up to the first silencer then a tailpipe with second silencer.  I'd previously replaced both of the boxes without too much drama but as the centre join was stuck fast I had to replace the two pipes at the same time.  I did it about ten days ago on a rainy morning and rushed things which didn't help.

 

The pipes were both bought cheaply from evilbay and didn't fit together too well but I wasn't expecting them to part company.  but they did while Ms C was doing the school run which meant I had to pick up one of the brats in the work van.

 

The next morning I had the car jacked up at 7am and murdered it together with an extra pipe clamp,  it held to do the school run but was noisy as fook so I dropped it again when I got back and patched it up with a bit of the old pipe.

 

This seemed like a pretty good mend so I was less than pleased when it came back two days later dragging down the road having split again.  High suspension got me to work to weld the pipes together in situ with the stick welder and today I finally had time to drop the pipe down and weld it properly (in the rain).  It's had 5 rods worth of weld on the joint now and seems pretty solid,  theres a tiny blow from somewhere (probably the joint with the silencer) but I'm just going to see what looks sooty in a few months as it's quiet enough not to bother me.

 

As I had dragged it into work I used the pressure washer on it too and it looks a bit better as a result.

[cort16]

[HMC]

Those multiplas are great. Ive been eyeing them up recently, such great value, and basically looking like a mid 90s concept car that escaped from the factory. Brilliant design IMO even if the styling is a bit marmite. I love them. Let us know what MPGs you end up with, i was looking at one of the petrols, which some say are nicer to drive but can be a bit thristy on the m way due to the gearing.

[Lord Sterling]

I've driven a few of those Multiplas. They are great and a hoot to drive. Well bought I say.

[cobblers]

Alright pop-pickers. I've been up at the painters today. He wasn't there, he was in Essex meeting a woman off the internet according to his daughter, who kindly let me in to his garage where I fitted the windows and door catches and suchlike so that he can flat and buff the van tomorrow, then put it back outside and somewhat lock it up.

 

The windows all fitted perfectly - I was very worried I might have welded an aperture in on the squint or something and all the work would have been for nothing. Finally, it's watertight (ish) again:

 

 

I also got to bolt on all the door catch furniture that I got re-plated through work, which pleased me greatly. I love stuff like this:

 

 

I'm just about to clean off the grilles and front splitter etc ready for a couple of coats of Impa bumper paint to bring them back up like new. I don't really like painting plastics if I can avoid it, but the splitter especially is hammered, and they are £150+ in decent condition.

 

Word to ya mutha.

[TimothyClaypole]

Flat battery on my Astra so I thought I'll whip it off and get it charged along with my spare that was also flat.

 

Snapped the nut for the retaining bracket off at first turn (not even using the full sized ratchet).

 

Took the plastic battery tray off and managed to drill through the stud left in it.

 

Then stepped up to a bigger drill bit which promptly heated the stud up and pulled the knurled holder it was stuck in out of the plastic tray due to it melting... doh.  Quality design. 

[Cavcraft]

Fair play that VW is looking really good, it'll be interesting to see it when you've put it all back together. I don't suppose it'll be cheap having it sprayed but it's one of those vehicles where I'd imagine it's money very well spent.

 

 

In other news I've just made what's pretty much a blind bid on another French car, same sort of era as my 306s I think. The bid has been cast on the basis of three pretty awful pictures (only one of which is the bodywork, and that's just a view of the front of the car) but the main point being the fuel pump is the right one. 

[cort16]

I've just stuck my I can't believe it's an Alpina on RR for sale. I hope it doesn't sell too quickly as my Merc through a wobbler and has had to  be dumped at the dealer this morning.

The Mercedes assist guy came out and put it on the diagnostics last night and apparantly (get this) tried to a software update on the exhaust system and it'd failed.

My mistake, I thought it was a car not something running fucking windows 8.

 

 

[alf892]

Well...........after an afternoon where my kinky sex plans (with wife btw) were thwarted by my daughter and boyfriend returning from the cinema very early I can report that autoglym metal polish can recondition really knackered headlamp lenses.......my repressed energy did mean I rubbed very hard though.

 

Also I did read on here that toothpaste is good for this so based on the above if you run out of toothpaste use metal polish. Double win

[cort16]

I rubbed the lights on that e39 down and had them relaquered. This is them just after I fitted them.