The new news 24 thread

[junkyarddog]

51 minutes ago, SRi05 said:

Can't be many of those shape Preludes left, I loved mine 

No,most were ruined with stupid mods,and driven into the ground.

This car is an extremely early one,registered on the 30th of September 1991,they were officially released on the 19th,very low chassis number,one of the first 300 built.

2.2VTEC.

 

[brownnova]

Did a collection mission yesterday… went in the Volvo, but came back with a baby rather than another car! 

Decided to keep us on our toes by arriving 10 days early! But all is well…  

[beko1987]

Oooh very nice, watch out for it puking it's head gasket all over you regularly, TADTS 👍

[grogee]

1 hour ago, brownnova said:

Did a collection mission yesterday… went in the Volvo, but came back with a baby rather than another car! 

Decided to keep us on our toes by arriving 10 days early! But all is well…  

Congratulations! 

[paulplom]

22 hours ago, paulplom said:

FTFY 😉

I really need to get it taken off. Mine's only limited to an indicated 70 which equates to 65mph on the sat nav.

It gets along great up to that speed then just stops. I had the custom out yesterday to take my son to footie. It hadn't ran since before Christmas but fired straight up. Considering it has the same engine as the relay it's completely different to drive. The gear ratios on the custom are miles apart and it's always in the wrong gear, either revving it's tits off or bogging down. The relay is much lower geared. 2.5k revs at 70mph in 6th while the custom is 1.7k at 70 in 6th. The custom is far nicer to drive other than the gearing. It's much more car like and you sit in it rather than on it. The steering is far more accurate and takes far less twirling lock to lock. It's got tons more toys too, it's not really like a van.

The relay is loads more agricultural and commercial. The doors slam shut and seem tinny. You sit on it when you're driving although the view out of it is much better. The steering wheel is too flat and the only adjustment is for rake. It has zero toys other than bluetooth and DAB. It feels much more hardy and suited too the job. It's also medium wheelbase and lengths of copper pipe now fit in the back so I've sacked off the roof rack. It also has a much more useful 1600kg payload compared to the custom's 900kg. I've got it booked into my mates garage to have all the body panel damage repaired in a fortnight for £2k. All done with 27k on the clock it'll stand me around £7k which for a 2016 van is very cheap indeed and about half what they go for.

[paulplom]

I'm waiting to take my private plate off the custom and I'm sacking it off to WBAV for about £10k. I owe about £6k on it so it'll give me some cash for the bank.

[wuvvum]

On 1/16/2022 at 8:40 AM, paulplom said:

FTFY 😉

Is the Tranny limited as well?  I was referring to the Maxus briefly owned by Kiltox, which was ex-Royal Mail and had a 75mph limiter fitted.  To be fair, that was the least of its problems.

[Dyslexic Viking]

While looking for pictures for the estate thread, I found a picture of one of the favorite cars I have owned. And the interior was brown so the perfect color combo.

[juular]

36 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

While looking for pictures for the estate thread, I found a picture of one of the favorite cars I have owned. And the interior was brown so the perfect color combo.

The colour, the shape, the snow. Nothing has ever looked so right!

[Angrydicky]

21 hours ago, LabRat said:

Took the mg out to the shops early and the gearbox is sounding more and more terminal, 2nd now crunches going in and out of gear and now 3rd has started too. The keydock decided to lose communication with the bcu too, which was fun*

Nothing like standing in a Tesco's car park with a load of scrotes watching and offering comments whilst you disconnect the battery and swear to really endear a car to you. I think we might be coming to the end with this particular car... 

That sounds like when my 600 had no fluid left in its clutch reservoir. Worth a look if you haven’t already, don’t know the setup on those but I’m assuming it’s a hydraulic clutch.

[paulplom]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Is the Tranny limited as well?  I was referring to the Maxus briefly owned by Kiltox, which was ex-Royal Mail and had a 75mph limiter fitted.  To be fair, that was the least of its problems.

The transit isn't limited no.

[LabRat]

1 hour ago, Angrydicky said:

That sounds like when my 600 had no fluid left in its clutch reservoir. Worth a look if you haven’t already, don’t know the setup on those but I’m assuming it’s a hydraulic clutch.

It's a hydraulic clutch fed off the brake master cylinder, unfortunately after much arguments with MG UK, it turns out the synchros in the box are gubbed.

After a 3 hour visit to the dealers and much negotiation on their part, they've agreed to give me a £2500 trade in on it as the chances of me getting a new box before the heat death of the universe are slim to non. (They checked the gearbox and replaced the oil at last service 4000 miles ago)

[Lankytim]

We are now "officially" a one car household. I sold the V70 to a mates dad on the weekend after he took a shine to it. I work nights and the wife works from home so there really isn't the need for a car each.  We're using her 2004 Fusion, which perhaps isn't the obvious choice for a family of four but so far things have worked out well. The wife loves it as she'll never have to scrape the windows in the morning again.  I have a tow bar ready to fit so I'll still be able to use the small trailer to take rubbish down the tip although I think I'll have to refrain from A framing. 

I put the word "officially" quotation marks, as of course I have some crunchy old chod tucked away, namely the Visa and the Volvo 145, neither of which are on the road. 

They'll be times when we could really do with two cars but I'm hoping we can plan around most of these but hopefully the Visa will be on the road this year, so any second car duties can be carried out by that. It'll be tax exempt soon which makes it even more attractive.

[Borsuq]

A letter just reminded me that I have to renew the insurance on the 126p for another year. First quote I got was for 368 zł, which according to Google is £68. Not too terrible but it’s just basic liability. Contacted my agent, hopefully he can do a little bit better.

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, paulplom said:

The transit isn't limited no.

That's a bonus.  With gearing like that I'd imagine it flies along.  65mph in the Relay must be frustrating - at least with a 75mph limiter (just over 80 on the clock) you have a bit in reserve if someone suddenly speeds up while you're overtaking them.

[paulplom]

The transit has been rolling roaded remapped and is 181.6bhp. It's a 155 standard but came in at 157 pre remap. It does the clock (120mph still going but I bottled it) loaded up and with the roof rack and pipe tubes.

It's less than 3k revs at 100mph.

That was in Germany working with the lads from Aufweidersen Pet of course.

[Fumbler]

I mentioned to my dad that the BX wants a topping up of water to get rid of the low coolant warning. Seems water is disappearing from the expansion tank somehow.

This was his suggestion

 

😳

 

[High Jetter]

51 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

Back in the day, I always found Bars Leaks worked better than Radweld. Neither would probably cure a leaking expansion tank though.

[richardmorris]

6 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Back in the day, I always found Bars Leaks worked better than Radweld. Neither would probably cure a leaking expansion tank though.

We had forte leak stop in the Xantia for years because of the usual heater matrix issues.

[stuboy]

1 hour ago, Fumbler said:

I mentioned to my dad that the BX wants a topping up of water to get rid of the low coolant warning. Seems water is disappearing from the expansion tank somehow.

This was his suggestion

 

😳

 

go old skool and crack in an egg white......

[richardmorris]

My dad has said that for the first time ever he has taken a car to a car wash ( he’s 79 this year). Full wash, wax and polish was £10. Charlie’s on pandy Lane wrexham ( well six polish guys anyway).

[JJ0063]

Went to that “V-Ate” Diner on the A17 Boston roundabout yesterday and on the way home I had a chavved up black mk4 golf covered in lime green stickers and HID headlights sat right up my arse the whole way back to Kings Lynn.

My biggest gripe since having the 335D is that everyone wants to race - I’m in my 30s having a leisurely drive home with the mrs FFS. 
 

Second I got onto the A47dual carriageway in kings lynn this mk4 golf comes flat out down the left hand side of me undertaking just after I passed a lorry. The look on his face was that as if he genuinely thought he’d ‘beaten’ me in his 1.4 petrol..

I just pulled in to my lane and dropped back from 75 odd where I’d overtaken… what a knob. 

[Crackers]

3 hours ago, Fumbler said:

Seems water is disappearing from the expansion tank somehow

[Fumbler]

7 minutes ago, Crackers said:

"THat's a LOt oF DaMAge!"
It's worth a try!

Stop light goes out once pressure is built so it's losing coolant somewhere within the system. I'll have a detailed* look at some point.

[wesacosa]

38 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

"THat's a LOt oF DaMAge!"
It's worth a try!

Stop light goes out once pressure is built so it's losing coolant somewhere within the system. I'll have a detailed* look at some point.

for non obvious leaks like that its worth getting something to pressurise the system when cold, you can knock something up fairly easily with a bicycle pump, some rubber hoses and a Schrader valve 

[Fumbler]

1 minute ago, wesacosa said:

for non obvious leaks like that its worth getting something to pressurise the system when cold, you can knock something up fairly easily with a bicycle pump, some rubber hoses and a Schrader valve 

Helps that I have most of that to hand. It seems like an easy enough test to do.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

well six polish guys anyway

Must be a good polish then!

[N19]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Must be a good polish then!

Reminds me of when I first saw a sign saying "POLISH SHOP". I did wonder why a whole shop could be dedicated to Mr Sheen.

[wuvvum]

I've been having a poke around my newly acquired Maxus over the last couple of days.  There were a couple of quick and easy fixes - the offside dipped beam had stopped working, so I fitted a replacement H4 I had in the kitchen drawer (bit of a fiddle as the battery is in the way but not the worst I've done) and the driver's side wiper blade had completely lost its rubber lip and so was doing very little - Roys of Wroxham supplied a replacement 22" blade for the princely sum of £2.79.  The passenger side blade could do with replacing as well, but I didn't want to go on too much of a spending spree - the driver's side blade is the important one.

The non-latching bonnet catch turned out not to be seized at all - it was stuck due to the fact that when the previous owner popped the bonnet to change the battery, the end of the cable sheath by the bonnet release had popped out of its guide and was sitting on the end of the guide, with the result that it was effectively shortening the cable to the point that the catch mechanism couldn't go back to its "closed" position.  So that was another easy fix - of course I found this out after I'd removed the whole mechanism from under the bonnet...

The van does have a bit of grot - it's the first Maxus I've owned with structural rust.  It's not too bad but it is going to need a patch on the rear of the offside sill before the next MOT.  Bodywork is a bit scruffy but not too banged about by Maxus standards, although the rear doors are going to need replacing at some point - the latch mechanism packed up so the previous owner cut holes in both doors and had been securing them with a padlock and chain through said holes.  Which is less than ideal.  The side loading door doesn't want to unlock for some reason, so I'm going to have to remove the plywood lining at some point and see if I can see what's going on there.

It has a few gadgets that previous Maxuseses I've owned didn't have - aircon for one (although I have no idea yet whether or not it does anything), and also a factory fit reversing siren with a button on the dash to turn it off.  It also has ABS, although the ABS light is on at the moment - that's going to need sorting for the next MOT, which could be interesting trying to find someone with a code reader that will talk to a Maxus.  It also has alloy wheels (the spare has a brand new tyre still with the label on it) and front fogs.  I didn't notice until I went to check the tyre pressures that it also has these amusing valve caps.

The one thing it still needs to be properly usable at this time of year (now that it has working headlights and wipers and a locking bonnet) is the heater blower sorting - that doesn't do owt on any of the speed settings, not sure if it's a wiring issue or the blower itself packed up.  Over the weekend I'll take the glovebox out and try running a live feed to the fan motor to see if that does anything.  The heater does get warm and at motorway speeds there's enough warm air trickling through to take the chill off, but it won't be a lot of use around town or for demisting.

 

In other news, I got the bus to Norwich on Sunday afternoon to retrieve the Daihatsu, and I spotted this parked up outside a carpet shop:

First one of these I've seen in the metal outside of London.  They're an ugly bugger, but as the last of the proper Bentleys (i.e. ones that don't have a VW engine) I quite like them - if my numbers ever come up I'd probably have one.

[somewhatfoolish]

They remind me of Chrysler 300s, not in a good way either.