The new news 24 thread

[Split_Pin]

My brother in law is a photographer, mainly for cycling magazines but he took a lot of great family photos over the weekend down in Stockton. I didn't realise he'd snapped the Saab. I wish I'd kept the mirrors out though!

A handsome beast for what I still think of as quite a modern car. I had a shot of a Hyundai Kona EV and a BMW 6 series twin turbo diesel, both of which were achingly fast but I'm not kidding myself when I say I prefer this to both of them. I suppose I 'get' the Saab thing after 8 months and 2 of the things!

[Steve79]

Don't let anyone tell you running American cars in the UK is impractical.

Both fit a standard drive fine

 

Now the Roadmaster has a full MOT I've been using it as a daily in preference to the X3. i brimmed the tank, did 100 miles and then brimmed it again. The result was just over 14mpg which I thought was a bit low but I'm pretty sure the driver's side rear brakes are dragging as the wheel gets hot. 

It doesn't help that the loon in me likes to bury the throttle to hear the V8. The exhaust is far too quiet for my liking so it'll be getting a new system soon.

[Schaefft]

Definitely should get much better mpg out of it, 20mpg US sounds more like it.

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Steve79 said:

 

Both fit a standard drive fine

 

 

Does it? 

Hmm... 🤔

[barefoot]

Fucksticks!

Double Fucksticks - Driveshaft has separated & flung the linkage rod off.

Recovered to garage where it was already booked in today for a gearbox mount to be replaced.

 

[JJ0063]

Sound it makes towards the end of them dropping, make sure your volume is up

[Steve79]

7 hours ago, Yoss said:

Does it? 

Hmm... 🤔

Ok let's not criticise my poor parking. Plenty of space to reverse to fit if we're nit picking

[Yoss]

19 minutes ago, Steve79 said:

Ok let's not criticise my poor parking. Plenty of space to reverse to fit if we're nit picking

Sorry, I like nitpicking. 

[High Jetter]

7 hours ago, JJ0063 said:

Sound it makes towards the end of them dropping, make sure your volume is up

Smashing. Y tho?

[High Jetter]

25 minutes ago, Steve79 said:

Ok let's not criticise my poor parking. Plenty of space to reverse to fit if we're nit picking

So you don't want it pointed out that is wasn't straight, then? 🤣

[SiC]

On 7/9/2022 at 7:19 PM, Gerrymcd said:

Unless it's a ballast feed or something?

Yeah Dolomites and Toledos have a bypass for the coil. 12v straight to the coil on starting. Once started then 12v through a resistor. Coil needs to be a ballast resistor coil.

Or connect the two up on the coil, removing the resistor and run a 12v coil. Ballast resistor could well be on the blink if original too.

The main battery feed to starter should be showing full battery voltage. Likewise don't forget the engine earths too. 

[Cord Fourteener]

12 hours ago, wesacosa said:

when I had it (circa 2003)

That's lovely! Glad it's still alive and well. 

[wesacosa]

33 minutes ago, Cord Fourteener said:

That's lovely! Glad it's still alive and well. 

yes it wasn't due to live past 60k /2003.  A bloke bought it for a kit car project but decided it was too nice and put it for sale in Loot for the princely sum of £325

[Steve79]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

So you don't want it pointed out that is wasn't straight, then? 🤣

My drive, i'll park it how I want

[High Jetter]

45 minutes ago, Steve79 said:

My drive, i'll park it how I want

Fair. Your choice, sir.

[wuvvum]

This evening after work I spent an hour trying and failing to get the headlights working on the 121.  I replaced both relays, but one of them doesn't seem to do anything at all and one has no live feed to the common terminal - I tried running a feed direct from the battery live but that didn't work either.  The positive coil terminal is showing 12v with the lights switched on, but obviously with no feed to the com it's not actually switching anything.  The other relay has 12v to the com but doesn't do anything whatever position the switch is in.

I think I'm going to give up and just wire in a separate 3-position switch with a permanent live from the battery.

[brownnova]

Highlights of the local car night! 

There were also a shed load of MX5s driven by what appeared to be teenagers (although I think that just means I’m old now), and at least 4 pimped Zafiras… 

[GMcD]

3 hours ago, SiC said:

Yeah Dolomites and Toledos have a bypass for the coil. 12v straight to the coil on starting. Once started then 12v through a resistor. Coil needs to be a ballast resistor coil.

Or connect the two up on the coil, removing the resistor and run a 12v coil. Ballast resistor could well be on the blink if original too.

The main battery feed to starter should be showing full battery voltage. Likewise don't forget the engine earths too. 

Cheers 👍. Works been crazy and to be honest I was fed up looking at it so I rolled it to the back of the garage and threw a (cat piss?) tarp over it to give it time to sit in the corner in the dark and think about why it's being a bastard.

I'm going to dig a little deeper again at the weekend. I suspect it's running a uprated coil. 

[J W Pepper]

40 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Highlights of the local car night! 

Lovely, a Series E Morris Eight.

I want it

[wuvvum]

On 7/11/2022 at 5:17 PM, Lankytim said:

I had two left, along with a single “blade” that’s used to scrape old glue from the glass. I’ve just chucked them in the post to you. 

Got them, thanks!  Will try fitting when it's a bit cooler out...

[barefoot]

On 7/12/2022 at 10:49 AM, barefoot said:

Fucksticks!

Double Fucksticks - Driveshaft has separated & flung the linkage rod off.

Recovered to garage where it was already booked in today for a gearbox mount to be replaced.

 

Update; the gariage have repaired / re-connected the drive shaft, but were struggling to even find, never mind get hold of the missing bit of gearbox linkage. It hadn't occurred to me that it was actually MIA, so I drove round again & there it was lying in the gutter. Bobbed over to Melbourne, the linkage was snapped back into place & he can now make a start on the gearbox mounting & the other oddments it was originally booked in for. I can now downgrade this post from fuck-sticks to arse- biscuits.

[Spurious]

I was at The Motorist on Sunday. Few interesting things there but the best was the Audi Quattro. Lovely. Otherwise the heat was baking and I didn't stay for long. 

[Back_For_More]

4 hours ago, Spurious said:

I had one of them in 94 and the then gf hated it..... I know which one I should've sided with! 

Lovely motors..... 

[Spurious]

7 minutes ago, Back_For_More said:

I had one of them in 94 and the then gf hated it..... I know which one I should've sided with! 

Lovely motors..... 

Bet you they were a lot cheaper in 1994.  Then again, it probably wasn't that old at the time. 

[wesacosa]

replica dealer plates made up for the XM by Prestige plates. really pleased with them 

[Split_Pin]

As I was moving the cars off the drive to power wash it, I thought the Saab looked good from this angle.

Horrible job but we got there in the end. Just a bit more brushing in of sharp sand required after it settled a bit.

The Fusion is not mine.

[Cord Fourteener]

I got towbarred!

Now i can use the Volvo as a daily and as my work car for my gardening for a little while. 

Awesome!

 

[Pat Earrings]

Having cast aside my annoyance at the windscreen crack to the E60 (new one scheduled for Saturday) I managed to source a proper space saver spare wheel and kit rather than the compressor stuff which never works. £80 and tbh, not bad considering I couldn’t see them cheaper elsewhere. 

[Split_Pin]

I changed the coolant on the 75 today.

It was fairly easy, just lower the undertray and take off the bottom hose.

I fucked up on the coolant though as I accidentally diluted stuff that I'd already mixed 50/50 but the pen I'd marked the bottle with had faded. As you can see I only had protection down to -7.

I figured after a short drive the coolant would need topping off so I could just use neat stuff.

I entered diagnostic mode to check the real engine running temperature.

The heaters stayed stone cold and the temperature rose to 95 which is not normal for this car. Shit. Suddenly though the heaters got hot and the temperature went down to 75 degrees. A further quick drive showed a steady 85 which is what I'd expect .

I topped it up with neat antifreeze once it had cooled for a couple of hours.

[artdjones]

Goodbye, Mégane. It doesn't look very damaged, but I fear it's going to be written off. Two headlights @ at least €250 each, probably a bumper at €4-500, plus all the various bits attached to it, slam panel as well, a foglamp, and the bonnet damaged and moved back and sideways an inch, and one wing damaged, also the washer bottle smashed, plus paint and labour. I'd like to see it back, but AXA write them off if the damage is more than 50%of the value. Which means write-off if it's going to cost more than 3k. So I'm not very hopeful.