The new news 24 thread

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, Jazoli said:

Yeah it's weird, cash only no PP or bank transfer, I bet its been quite lucrative over the years. 

Or he's been screwed over once too often by idiots issuing chargebacks.

[MorrisItalSLX]

21 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Aussie Ford Falcon XG Panel Van!

They’re getting rare here now, a local builder I know has one and keeps it tidy, he’s had it from nearly new.

They suffer from rust, much more than an equivalent Aussie car if the time. Mainly because it’s a 1970s Ford that kept being made in the 90s with minor updates, rather than develop commercial versions of the new Falcon they opted to facelift the existing commercials and run them alongside the new body style.

I checked the number plate on the dash but it’s from a Ford Ka(ck), not the Falcon.

[richardmorris]

6 hours ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

Aussie Ford Falcon XG Panel Van!

They’re getting rare here now, a local builder I know has one and keeps it tidy, he’s had it from nearly new.

They suffer from rust, much more than an equivalent Aussie car if the time. Mainly because it’s a 1970s Ford that kept being made in the 90s with minor updates, rather than develop commercial versions of the new Falcon they opted to facelift the existing commercials and run them alongside the new body style.

I checked the number plate on the dash but it’s from a Ford Ka(ck), not the Falcon.

Pretty sure the Ford Falcon was an N reg.

[richardmorris]

[Stanky]

53 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Happy birthday! 135/10 for the cake

[richardmorris]

37 minutes ago, Stanky said:

Happy birthday! 135/10 for the cake

Birthday is actually in the week, but convenient today. Mum made the cake- she says she won’t take commissions but has taken lots of pics for people to make their own. And the original...

[HMC]

another spot of this locally used wolseley. Really characterful.

[wuvvum]

Had a bit of a frustrating weekend on the fettling front, in that I spent a lot of time doing work on the cars but don't seem to have actually achieved much.

The first job of the weekend was to see if I could get the Rover's electric windows working properly.  I'd ascertained that the switch pack in the driver's door and its multiplug were fine, so the next stop was the multiplug in the driver's door shut.  The helpful chaps on the Rover 75 forum had given me details of which wires do what, so I set out full of optimism that I might finally get the problem sorted.  Except that you can't actually access the multiplug because the door is in the way.  I'd assumed you could get to it from inside the inner wing, but once I'd finally got the various rusty Philips screws holding the arch liner in place to come undone and pulled out the soundproofing, it became apparent that you can't access it from inside the inner wing at all.  

You also can't really access it from behind the dash - there's a hole that I can put half my hand through and I can touch the plug with the tips of my fingers, but there's no way I can get it unclipped even if I could see how the clips work (which I can't), and even if I did somehow manage to unclip it there's no way I'd get it back together again.  The only way to get at the plug properly, as far as I can see, is to take the door off, and that ain't happening.  So I still have non-working windows.

I finished cleaning out the carbs off the 164, put them all back together with new diaphragms and gaskets, and this afternoon I refitted them to the car.  Put everything back together, ran the jump leads across from the Mazda, turned the key and... it's still running like a bag of shit.  (It wouldn't fire at all to begin with, but that was because the dipstick had spun round and was shorting out against the LT wire to the distributor.)  So I think it must be ignition related - there's plenty of fuel getting through and the carbs all looked OK (they're Stromberg 175s so a fairly simple unit).  Problem is I'm not very good at diagnosing ignition-related faults, and I can't afford to start playing parts darts, especially with the price of old Volvo bits.  So I'm not sure where to go next.

I jacked the front of the Renault 6 up and took off the driver's side front wheel to see if I could get any grease into the brake caliper sliders in an attempt to stop the brake sticking on.  That turned out to be a non-starter as there was no gap anywhere to get the grease in between the moving parts.  They're a very odd design of caliper - the sliders aren't the usual pins, they're a sort of rail which is sandwiched between the two halves of the caliper and the whole thing is held together with clips and split pins.  Anyway, while I was in there I noticed that the pads are getting pretty low (the brake must have been sticking more than I thought as last time I checked there was loads of meat on the pads and the car hasn't done that many miles since then) so I'm going to have to change those, which is going to be fun - the HBOL says that the pins holding the caliper together need to be renewed every time it's taken apart, but I haven't found a source for new ones so they're going to end up getting reused I think.

I started to take the EGR pipework off the Doblo to see if I could clean the valve out (I've been driving around with it unplugged for the last few days which has cured the stuttering but has brought the EML on) - the pipe from valve to inlet manifold came off easily enough but the Allen bolts that hold the pipe from the exhaust on to the valve assembly are a right twat to get at and I couldn't undo them with the tools I had available.  So I've ordered a blanking plate off eBay and I'm just going to blank it off.  Stupid bloody things anyway.

I made some progress with the 107, but not as much as I'd hoped.  I ran it up to my mate's yesterday evening and we got the bit of welding done that it failed on, and we also made a brake pipe up for it.  I'd been hoping to get the pipe fitted today, but the bleed nipple on the rear drum sheared off so I now need to buy a new wheel cylinder before I can go any further (I could have fitted the pipe I suppose but without the ability to bleed it I ran the risk of leaving the car with no brakes).  This is annoying as it'll be the first actual expenditure on the car - everything else I've done to it so far has been done with bits I already had lying around.  I also discovered that the union where the original brake pipe joins to the flexi is essentially a blob of rust and has no chance of coming undone via conventional means, so I'm going to have to cut through the pipe and hammer a socket onto it, which is an added complication.  The front union cracked off easily enough though, which is a relief.  I've made a temporary plug for the front pipe to try and stop all the fluid draining out of the master cylinder while I piss about trying to get the rear union off - I took a spare male union and trowelled it full of JB Weld.  Hopefully that'll do the trick.

Anyway after the bleed nipple broke off I pretty much gave up on fixing anything else, so I cleared out the Laguna ready for its lucky* new owner to collect it next weekend.  The other job that had been on the list was to do an oil change on the XF, but the filter I ordered hadn't turned up so that's going to have to wait as well.

[tom13]

Joined the 107 gang. Kept seeing people rave about them on here and couldn't resist the cheapness of tax insurance etc. Anything I need to look out for? First task is a wheel bearing. Had a recent clutch which I have heard is a major weak point.

[Zelandeth]

8 minutes ago, tom13 said:

Joined the 107 gang. Kept seeing people rave about them on here and couldn't resist the cheapness of tax insurance etc. Anything I need to look out for? First task is a wheel bearing. Had a recent clutch which I have heard is a major weak point.

Clutches on the earlier cars were weak, a larger one was used after the first couple of years.

I've seen several with the clutch cable very poorly adjusted and a stupidly high pedal.  In my case this was because the dealer was adamant that it was self adjusting - it isn't!  Suffice to say once the warranty was out and I started doing my own servicing I found the adjuster and suddenly had a far nicer clutch.  Sadly the release bearing died about 12 months later, and I'm sure having spent nearly four years way out of adjustment contributed to that.  Given I've driven several all with a really high clutch it wouldn't surprise me if that was due to duff info in the dealer service guide or similar.

Had mine for 9 years, and only real things of note were the clutch as mentioned, one CV joint started to seize up, replacing the driveshaft was the easier solution there at something like £60 fitted by my local garage, a wheel bearing, radiator and AC condenser.  Radiator is a bit of a bugger as you have to remove the lower cross member to get it out and the bolts are made of cheese.  The exhaust was just at the point of needing done when I moved the car on.  The rear hanger always rots off way before the system itself dies, but it's simple enough to fabricate a replacement.  Beyond that it was just normal consumables.

For 9 years and 60K miles, a good chunk of that mileage being a daily commute into Oxford I'd say it did pretty well.

At this point rust is the main thing I'd be looking for.  There really wasn't much by way of substantial looking rustproofing on the underside.

[tom13]

6 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Clutches on the earlier cars were weak, a larger one was used after the first couple of years.

I've seen several with the clutch cable very poorly adjusted and a stupidly high pedal.  In my case this was because the dealer was adamant that it was self adjusting - it isn't!  Suffice to say once the warranty was out and I started doing my own servicing I found the adjuster and suddenly had a far nicer clutch.  Sadly the release bearing died about 12 months later, and I'm sure having spent nearly four years way out of adjustment contributed to that.  Given I've driven several all with a really high clutch it wouldn't surprise me if that was due to duff info in the dealer service guide or similar.

Had mine for 9 years, and only real things of note were the clutch as mentioned, one CV joint started to seize up, replacing the driveshaft was the easier solution there at something like £60 fitted by my local garage, a wheel bearing, radiator and AC condenser.  Radiator is a bit of a bugger as you have to remove the lower cross member to get it out and the bolts are made of cheese.  The exhaust was just at the point of needing done when I moved the car on.  The rear hanger always rots off way before the system itself dies, but it's simple enough to fabricate a replacement.  Beyond that it was just normal consumables.

For 9 years and 60K miles, a good chunk of that mileage being a daily commute into Oxford I'd say it did pretty well.

At this point rust is the main thing I'd be looking for.  There really wasn't much by way of substantial looking rustproofing on the underside.

Cheers. Exhaust has had some alterations. Its had a new backbox and the midbox replaced with a sleeve. I need to have a look at the hanger though as something funny is going on. Did you do the wheel bearing yourself?

[Split_Pin]

I won't lie by saying that I'm not even slightly nervous at putting my Saab's ECU through the UK postal system .

Next day Special Delivery Tracked should hopefully see it right!

 

[wuvvum]

It'll be reet.  I sent the Rover ECU through the post twice and it was fine.

[HMC]

Just watched Used Cars (1980) 

To film buff it’s a bit of commentary about America itself. I tend to watch it for the car overload.  It’s based around 2 competing used car lots and the more ramshackle of these is a great spotting ground for tired US tin.

This time round I did a spot of a 73 coupe de ville, (make model and year as huggy) which is shot at during a pirated commercial during a presidential address

 

Got me wondering if @danthecapriman has spotted his make model and year amongst the ranks of stuff for sale.

[danthecapriman]

7 minutes ago, HMC said:

Just watched Used Cars (1980) 

To film buff it’s a bit of commentary about America itself. I tend to watch it for the car overload.  It’s based around 2 competing uses car lots and the more ramshackle of these is a great sporting ground for tired US tin.

This time round I did a spot of a 73 coupe de ville, (make model and year as huggy) which is shot at during a pirated commercial during a presidential address

 

Got me wondering if @danthecapriman has spotted his make model and year amongst the ranks of stuff for sale.

I’ve never seen that, but I often go on YouTube and just search for stuff like Los Angeles 1970’s, New York 1980’s etc and watch all the old road and street filming. Usually packed with old Detroit iron!

 

[Tickman]

6 hours ago, tom13 said:

Cheers. Exhaust has had some alterations. Its had a new backbox and the midbox replaced with a sleeve. I need to have a look at the hanger though as something funny is going on. Did you do the wheel bearing yourself?

I've just done the front bearing on mine.

If you don't have a decent press then get someone else to press it out/in.

There is a good YouTube video on it that was easily findable.

If it is the rear then I have no idea!

 

[fatharris]

I finally bit the bullet last week and organised a mobile phone replacement under the insurance - after ignoring the cracked screen with weld spatter craters for about 18 months, I had an off on the bike which appeared to make the battery swell. The new one arrived (at £125 for the excess) on Tuesday and most of Wednesday was spent moving over all of my data and apps.

 

So naturally, I was overjoyed this evening, a mere five days later, when I pulled my house keys out, causing the phone to slip out of my pocket and fall, cracking the screen once again, rendering the entire fucking exercise pointless.

[Sunny Jim]

After a month of being mucked about by people on Marketplace and Gumtree (none it worth of the "Stupidest Message While Flogging a Shiter" thread - perhaps if we had a Most Banal or Most Tedious) I finally sold the BMW today.

A woman came and viewed it yesterday, the money was in my account this morning and I dropped it off this afternoon. Based on my sample of 23 responses from the two platforms here's my advice on screening them: manners! If someone bothers to be polite and say please and thank you whether by text or on the phone they're much more likely to turn up for a viewing when they say they will - or am I just getting old?

[Zelandeth]

8 hours ago, tom13 said:

Cheers. Exhaust has had some alterations. Its had a new backbox and the midbox replaced with a sleeve. I need to have a look at the hanger though as something funny is going on. Did you do the wheel bearing yourself?

There is only one exhaust box - cat is integrated in the manifold, then it's a dime straight drinking straw to the back box.  Hanger that rots off is the one right above the rear axle.

The rear bearings are integrated into the hub, so a four bolt job to change.  Fronts I believe require a press to remove/install so I farmed that out to a garage - the car being in daily commuting use at the time (not by me either) put paid to any potential for a DIY repair.  Wasn't expensive to have done though.

Do miss my one.

Was a great little car to be honest.  Yes a new car is expensive, but *knowing* what it was going to cost each month in advance made my life a lot simpler at the time.  Plus it Just Worked, which honestly was worth its weight in gold to me at the time!

Edit: Can't remember if I mentioned before, keep an eye on the oil level.  It seems to be something of a lottery as to which ones use oil and don't...mine never used a drop despite mostly being driven like I stole it (though it did get changed every six months irrespective of mileage, so not sure if that had a part to play) and the sump isn't huge.  

Know a few which do use a fair bit of oil and it doesn't seem to have any actual impact on anything beyond needing to be kept on top of.

[RoverFolkUs]

43 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

If someone bothers to be polite and say please and thank you whether by text or on the phone they're much more likely to turn up for a viewing when they say they will - or am I just getting old?

I'm quite frequently harping on about this, I think there's got to be some truth to it. 

It's probably how I ended bagging the Xsara Picasso. 9 months test, 30,000 miles, £600... In the current market! Advert had been on for 8 hours, but it was Facebook marketplace, which probably explains why it took the seller 8 hours to receive a coherent message

[adw1977]

Moskvich may be making a comeback, using the factory that Renault have decided to abandon. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-61461805?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=628283bb9f4dc855020394ac%26Russia revives classic Soviet car as Renault pulls out%262022-05-16T19%3A55%3A33.814Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:c1a64625-82fb-4058-8cea-e246431fa14d&pinned_post_asset_id=628283bb9f4dc855020394ac&pinned_post_type=share

One of the Soviet Union's best known car brands could be about to make a comeback, after car company Renault announced plans to transfer 100% of Renault Russia to the city of Moscow.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Renault's car factory in the city would be nationalised and repurposed to produce Moskvich cars, which were last produced over 20 years ago.

The Moskvich, which means Muscovite, was the first Soviet-produced car made for individual use, rolling off the production line in 1946.

Sobyanin said the move would "open a new page in the history of the Moskvich", adding that the plant would produce conventional cars to begin with, but could make electric cars in the future."

[Split_Pin]

Much like the original, but for different reasons, I can't imagine a single place in the world other than Russia that would touch one of those. Not even for ironic, 'Autoshite'reasons.

[paulplom]

19 hours ago, tom13 said:

Joined the 107 gang. Kept seeing people rave about them on here and couldn't resist the cheapness of tax insurance etc. Anything I need to look out for? First task is a wheel bearing. Had a recent clutch which I have heard is a major weak point.

Get it in the air and try and rust proof the cills. I must do my own at some point. I've seen a few badly patched. 

My clutch is also quite high but I'm used to it. I must look at adjusting it. If yours doesn't have a rev counter they're around £60 on ebay and are plug and play.

I love mine and it's driven flat out everywhere. Go kart handling too.

I had a full front to back exhaust fitted in mine yesterday for £230. I fitted new discs and pads last year. They were only £50 to buy iirc.

[loserone]

9 hours ago, adw1977 said:

Moskvich may be making a comeback, using the factory that Renault have decided to abandon. 

This article suggests that they will be selling the Duster with Lada badges.  And presumably still doing so in 30 years time.

 

 

[tom13]

2 hours ago, paulplom said:

Get it in the air and try and rust proof the cills. I must do my own at some point. I've seen a few badly patched. 

My clutch is also quite high but I'm used to it. I must look at adjusting it. If yours doesn't have a rev counter they're around £60 on ebay and are plug and play.

I love mine and it's driven flat out everywhere. Go kart handling too.

I had a full front to back exhaust fitted in mine yesterday for £230. I fitted new discs and pads last year. They were only £50 to buy iirc.

Mine has a bit of bubbling on the rear but it's not too bad yet will have to inspect. Mine has electric windows and a rev counter installed. Does this mean it was a slightly higher spec, or were they all electric windows?

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Alison is going to be £192 cheaper to insure according to the renewal letter. 

What a fucking result! 🙌🙌🙌

[BeEP]

6 hours ago, tom13 said:

Mine has a bit of bubbling on the rear but it's not too bad yet will have to inspect. Mine has electric windows and a rev counter installed. Does this mean it was a slightly higher spec, or were they all electric windows?

C1 Vibe (like mine) and 107 Urban Lite had manual windows (and no rev counter).  C1 Rhythm had both electric windows and rev counter but 107 Urban just electric windows, although as noted above it's easy to add the rev counter and many have done so.

[tom13]

14 minutes ago, BeEP said:

C1 Vibe (like mine) and 107 Urban Lite had manual windows (and no rev counter).  C1 Rhythm had both electric windows and rev counter but 107 Urban just electric windows, although as noted above it's easy to add the rev counter and many have done so.

Wealth of knowledge there. You have done your research.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, BeEP said:

C1 Vibe (like mine) and 107 Urban Lite had manual windows (and no rev counter).  C1 Rhythm had both electric windows and rev counter but 107 Urban just electric windows, although as noted above it's easy to add the rev counter and many have done so.

Verve was the 107 to have I reckon.  Electric windows, rev counter, alloy wheels, remote central locking, air con, several acronyms I can't remember and the metallic paint options at no extra cost.

As someone used to small cars like Metros etc that felt like a hell of a lot of kit on a small car at the time!

Worth noting that I bought mine on the strength of work having a trio of C1s as pool cars, and even in that role they turned out to be pretty much unkillable save for the well documented clutch issues on early cars.

[Bren]

19 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Much like the original, but for different reasons, I can't imagine a single place in the world other than Russia that would touch one of those. Not even for ironic, 'Autoshite'reasons.

I remember my dad teling me a tale from the 70's - a brand new barrelled past him.

On the pavement.

'Cos the brakes had failed.