The new news 24 thread

[PhilA]

43 minutes ago, SiC said:

 Frogeye Sprite 

Funny you mention that, my neighbor told me that he's just purchased one in North Carolina, and shall be collecting it soon.

A '61 with a later 1275 fitted, in Iris Blue. Should be quite nice. I told him that he's now been inducted into the Baby Blue Classic club. Ha 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

One of the pharmacists has a lime yellow one

Ewww, that sounds nasty!

[Lankytim]

Some more spots from today, including the black Reliant Regal that was at the Biddulph show. It’s a nippy little thing! 
 

EDIT Rialto, not Regal…

[junkyarddog]

My VW Golf had it's road worthiness test this morning at 9:30.

Happy to say it passed

[wuvvum]

Been doing some more tidying on the Maxus this weekend.  I finished undersealing the sills, and also tidied up the back doors with a lick of paint where needed, then painted the rear bumper in matt black.  I still need to touch up a few more bits of the white bodywork and even then it's never going to be perfect, but it should make it look a bit more respectable.  I've checked all the lights, fitted new wiper blades and refilled the screenwash, so it's as close to being ready for a test as it's going to get...

I also got the Spacy running.  I took the carb off last weekend, didn't get around to stripping it until Friday night though, it was actually fairly clean inside but the idle jet was blocked solid which might have had something to do with why it wasn't starting.  Cleared that out after soaking it overnight in carb cleaner, put everything back together and the bike would fire briefly but wouldn't run.  I actually seem to remember having the same problem last time I tried to start the bike which would have been last summer.  To check whether there was fuel getting to the float bowl I undid the drain screw, and a steady flow came out so there was plenty of petrol there.  Closed the screw, pressed the starter button again and the bike fired straight up.  Odd, but I wasn't going to complain.  Obviously the bike isn't MOT'd at the moment so I definitely didn't* put the bodywork back together and take it for a cheeky spin round the block.  Everything seemed to be working OK, although I did have to top the coolant up quite a bit which I haven't had to do before - maybe it's just evaporated in the heat of the summer.  Annoyingly the starter solenoid now seems to have packed up, after all the cranking yesterday - the only way I can start the bike now is to short across the terminals with a screwdriver.

Today was lovely and warm.  I went for a walk along the Bure Valley railway in the morning, then this afternoon I took the Mobylette and the 164 out for a spin up to the next village - in fact for both of them it was the longest run they'd had in many years, and both behaved absolutely fine.  I've sort of got the lights wired up on the Mobylette now - the sidelight switch doesn't seem to do anything but the rear light comes on when I switch on the headlights, so that's close enough.  I think it's the cheap Chinese switch pack I bought rather than my wiring.  Main and dipped beam work fine though.

I stuck the Carina up on the ramps this afternoon as there was an advisory for "underside corroded" on the MOT.  I think the tester was being a bit over-enthusiastic - there were a few smallish areas of surface rust on the floorpan and a little bit round the rear trailing arm mounts.  I'd bought half a litre of Hydrate 80 though so I grabbed a brush and splashed some onto the brown bits, which should hopefully keep them from getting any worse.

In fact the most interesting thing for me about this weekend is that over the course of the weekend I have driven / ridden every single vehicle I own, which is something that hasn't happened in a great many years - this is the first time that all the members of my fleet have been capable of moving under their own power at the same time for longer than I care to remember.  Obviously a lot of them still have issues, the Spacy and the van aren't road legal (although the van is still taxed) and I wouldn't trust the Spacy or the Volvo on a long run at the moment, but it's still nice to have a fully mobile fleet.

[Ohdearme]

The taxman in a first ever has advised I am owed £460 quid so there’s a strong chance I’ll get my arse in gear and finish fitting the parts cannon gear I ordered and then send it for an Mot to see what else it fails on and just write them a cheque.

 

[Cavcraft]

5 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Been doing some more tidying on the Maxus this weekend.  I finished undersealing the sills, and also tidied up the back doors with a lick of paint where needed, then painted the rear bumper in matt black.  I still need to touch up a few more bits of the white bodywork and even then it's never going to be perfect, but it should make it look a bit more respectable.  I've checked all the lights, fitted new wiper blades and refilled the screenwash, so it's as close to being ready for a test as it's going to get...

I also got the Spacy running.  I took the carb off last weekend, didn't get around to stripping it until Friday night though, it was actually fairly clean inside but the idle jet was blocked solid which might have had something to do with why it wasn't starting.  Cleared that out after soaking it overnight in carb cleaner, put everything back together and the bike would fire briefly but wouldn't run.  I actually seem to remember having the same problem last time I tried to start the bike which would have been last summer.  To check whether there was fuel getting to the float bowl I undid the drain screw, and a steady flow came out so there was plenty of petrol there.  Closed the screw, pressed the starter button again and the bike fired straight up.  Odd, but I wasn't going to complain.  Obviously the bike isn't MOT'd at the moment so I definitely didn't* put the bodywork back together and take it for a cheeky spin round the block.  Everything seemed to be working OK, although I did have to top the coolant up quite a bit which I haven't had to do before - maybe it's just evaporated in the heat of the summer.  Annoyingly the starter solenoid now seems to have packed up, after all the cranking yesterday - the only way I can start the bike now is to short across the terminals with a screwdriver.

Today was lovely and warm.  I went for a walk along the Bure Valley railway in the morning, then this afternoon I took the Mobylette and the 164 out for a spin up to the next village - in fact for both of them it was the longest run they'd had in many years, and both behaved absolutely fine.  I've sort of got the lights wired up on the Mobylette now - the sidelight switch doesn't seem to do anything but the rear light comes on when I switch on the headlights, so that's close enough.  I think it's the cheap Chinese switch pack I bought rather than my wiring.  Main and dipped beam work fine though.

I stuck the Carina up on the ramps this afternoon as there was an advisory for "underside corroded" on the MOT.  I think the tester was being a bit over-enthusiastic - there were a few smallish areas of surface rust on the floorpan and a little bit round the rear trailing arm mounts.  I'd bought half a litre of Hydrate 80 though so I grabbed a brush and splashed some onto the brown bits, which should hopefully keep them from getting any worse.

In fact the most interesting thing for me about this weekend is that over the course of the weekend I have driven / ridden every single vehicle I own, which is something that hasn't happened in a great many years - this is the first time that all the members of my fleet have been capable of moving under their own power at the same time for longer than I care to remember.  Obviously a lot of them still have issues, the Spacy and the van aren't road legal (although the van is still taxed) and I wouldn't trust the Spacy or the Volvo on a long run at the moment, but it's still nice to have a fully mobile fleet.

Riding and driving everything you own must be some achievement, haven't you still got loads of stuff?

[bobdisk]

13 hours ago, richardmorris said:

for anyone hoping to go to the kempton steam engine museum and car show on the 18th I’ve just heard that it is off as the Museum will be closed for mourning.

Yes, that's right,  got email from them. 

[wuvvum]

5 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

Riding and driving everything you own must be some achievement, haven't you still got loads of stuff?

Not quite as bad as I used to be - 9 cars (OK, 8 cars and a van) and two bikes.

[Cavcraft]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Not quite as bad as I used to be - 9 cars (OK, 8 cars and a van) and two bikes.

Christ, that seems a pretty low amount for you, chief!

[catsinthewelder]

I'd love to have all of mine mobile, camper and Disco haven't moved for ages and the only reason the 220 has moved since it's MOT ran out is Mo coming over to help me tow it out the way.

[brownnova]

17 hours ago, hairnet said:

enuff about the saab ffs

moar yank

No… have moar Saab!

Today I have owned it 5 years! By far the longest serving member of the fleet. It was only ever meant to be a 6 month stopgap! 

 

[Longbridge Apologist]

On 9/10/2022 at 3:53 PM, RoverFolkUs said:

Eek, 14 years and it's never had one. Mileage is on its side though I suppose. And 3k over wouldn't hurt it. I'm not sure if the fluid deteriorates with age, it probably does. And you're right that VW have always given very little clarity on the matter!

I get the feeling that's going to get expensive quite quickly. You're balls deep into the labour for the clutch pack and then they tell you the mechatronic has something wrong with it, dual mass is knackered etc. 

My fear would be that you spend £1700 on that work and then you are left with a mechatronic and/or dual mass that is ready to nuke itself. Or spend more ££££ on getting them done at the same time. 

Having said that, an Auto MK5 golf with 43k miles ought to be worth a few grand. It's probably worth it, just tread carefully with who does the work. 

Personally I'd say get an indy to give you a price to replace the entire box with a recon unit, or get them to have your current one completely overhauled by a specialist. 

I'm not sure getting a specialist to do effectively half the job is the best course of action 

Also lol at the £3.98 worth of sundries charges. Really boils my piss when places do that, you're spending £1700 with them FFS!

Same garage rang again today keen to update me and said they now think its a sealed for life unit, as it's a 7 Speed and it was rare for this era and lower capacity engine model to be fitted with one and not a 6 Speed. Doesn't inspire faith, does it?

Although it has knocked the estimate down to £1460. (Unless of course they do discover fork selector or mechatronic issues, in which case the bill will likely double...)

[Eyersey1234]

14 hours ago, junkyarddog said:

My VW Golf had it's road worthiness test this morning at 9:30.

Happy to say it passed

Chodtastic news

[GMcD]

Going to Italy later in the week for a holiday. 

I decided I should self-sacrifice to the weather gods first by undersealing the Mx-5. I am very quickly regretting it. I forgot how much of a pita it is. Thankful this thing is super clean underneath which makes it a worthwhile task. 

[SiC]

1 hour ago, Longbridge Apologist said:

7 Speed and it was rare for this era and lower capacity engine model

Does yours have the DQ200? Apart from the last few years in stuff like the later Golf R mk7.5 (but not early mk7.5), the 7spd DSG dry clutch boxes were for lower power engines. The dry clutches couldn't handle the higher powers and thus those vehicles kept the wet clutch boxes. Those wet clutch boxes in transverse installations was 6spd for ages (DQ250).

Does this garage specialise in DSG work? If not, might be worth finding one that does. 

[Matty]

16 hours ago, Crackers said:

Been thinking about selling both the MX5 and P6 recently to fund a nice luxury estate and release some spare cash. I'd probably take a loss on both, quite a big one on the P6 looking at where their values have gone lately. 

If anyone wants either of them...

Tentatively how much p6 mister?

(Obviously message me if you don't want to announce it) 👍

[HillmanImp]

On 9/9/2022 at 11:25 PM, HillmanImp said:

Jag is booked on at local specialist on Monday for a diagnostic etc to tell me what the griff is with it. 

Yesterday though the engine management light came on and I plugged in my £20 diagnostic jobbie and it said the egr flow was high. 

Not sure if this is a new issue or is maybe its the cause of its woes. It probably would fit the issues it has. 

I'd take it apart this weekend and give it a service with some 3 in one in case its stuck but I'm taking the lad out both days, so is still going to the Jag specialist to get looked at still in case its something else too. They can look at it with some proper Jag diagnostics and some sort of mechanical know how. 

I hope its fixable. I do genuinely quite like this car. Even if this one is bollox, I'd consider another but I do think/hope this one is actually salvageable. I've been smoking around in it all week and its been quite cool and I like the old man colour as I am old man these days. I'm completely sure I don't look like an absolute tool driving around in it blasting out Fantazia 92 at full volume wearing my Fila bucket hat. 

Jag staying in overnight for more in depth investigation. Worst case prognosis not good, not much in the way of conversation from them about best case prognosis. 

Will hopefully hear from them tomorrow. 

Watch this space. 

[wuvvum]

59 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Jag staying in overnight for more in depth investigation. Worst case prognosis not good, not much in the way of conversation from them about best case prognosis. 

That sounds mildly worrying...  Have they given any indication as to what they reckon it might be?  Would be nice if it turned out to be something as simple as the EGR, but then again if that was playing up before I would have thought my Delphi would have picked it up.

[wuvvum]

In other XF-related news, my neighbour has just bought one.  It's a 59-plate so pre-facelift but has the 3-litre diesel engine which has been remapped to 324bhp so it goes rather well.  It's a nice looking thing in metallic brown with a cream interior, and seems to have been very well looked after - he paid £4.5K for it but there's several times that in bills in the service history, and barely a mark on the bodywork.

[Lankytim]

Today I made the most of the nice weather and got the Laguna up in the air to change the auto box fluid. (Obv it rained as soon as I set everything up)

The procedure with these is pretty involved requiring the car to be totally level and the fluid to be drained via a drain plug, inside of which is an overflow pipe which is used to check the level, if the oil overflows then the level is too high. With the drain plug and overflow pipe removed the oil can be drained.

To get the level right the gearbox temp needs to be at 40degrees and checked via a Renault dealer plug in device, which of course I haven’t got so some guesstimation was involved.

Refilling involves removing lots of under bonnet items to get to the fill plug, which looked to be a job on its own.

The gearbox on these is a Nissan/Renault affair which is meant to take Renault Elf Elfmatic J6 fluid. Unfortunately it's pretty pricey and there's no aftermarket alternative, Renault apparently keeping the gearbox oilspec requirements a secret. Fortunately Nissan use the same gearbag and the official Nissan oil is Nissan Matic S which does have an aftermarket option that fulfils the specification. After talking to the guys at Westway oils I bought 5 litres of this stuff.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121852237241?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=wvial-CyTyu&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=vDPbX2K9TU2&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

With the Laguna up on ramps and levelled out with a jack under the tow bar the fluid was drained. To my surprise it looked to be fairly recent and still a nice red colour. Although these boxes hold 6 litres or so only 2 litres actually came out, which was pretty annoying after going to all this trouble in the rain. I thought about how I was going to replace the oil without dismantling half the engine bay as I literally couldn’t be arsed with it all, my tools and clothes being absolutely soaked by the rain.  I then had a bit of a brain wave and left the last few drops of oil to drain out  while I scurried away into the garage and adapted a V70 power steering pump with assorted hoses and a long bolt an turned it into a pretty nifty battery drill powered fluid transfer pump. A thin piece of silicone pipe was used at the end and was pushed into the drain plug hole, butting up to the refitted overflow pipe inside the gearbox. 
 

The whole contraption worked much better than I expected, pumping a couple of litres of fresh oil back into the box in just a few seconds and with such pressure that I could hear the jet hitting the inside of the box. I didn’t even spill any! 
 

The engine was run until warm and any excess fluid drained off. 

Now I’ve got a technique for refilling the auto box I might drive it for a few weeks before swapping another couple of litres until I get through the 5 litre tub of oil I have. Then again I might not bother as the drained oil looked pretty good anyway. 

edit, I've no idea why the last image is upside down, I've even flipped it on my phone and reuploaded it and it's still the wrong way up!

 

[HillmanImp]

23 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

That sounds mildly worrying...  Have they given any indication as to what they reckon it might be?  Would be nice if it turned out to be something as simple as the EGR, but then again if that was playing up before I would have thought my Delphi would have picked it up.

They think the rattle might be a worn piston. 

It doesn't smoke though other than when I picked it up, that cleared with the blast round the ring road. 

I did notice the oil was low though, wonder if its burning a bit? When did you last change it? 

It might not be that. They think one of the injectors isn't quite pulling its weight but is nothing to cause the rattle. Its not the aftermarket one, I think its the other one that was replaced recently. 

Will keep my fingers crossed and see what they say tomorrow. 

[wuvvum]

I changed the oil a couple of months ago - only filled it to around half way up the dipstick though, the dipstick is a bit crap when it comes to actually letting you see the level (especially with clean oil) and I didn't want to risk overfilling it. 

The rattle sounded camshafty to me rather than pistony, but I'm not an expert obvs (although that's what my local garage reckoned as well).  It'd be a bit unusual for a piston to be worn at that mileage though surely...

[HillmanImp]

11 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I changed the oil a couple of months ago - only filled it to around half way up the dipstick though, the dipstick is a bit crap when it comes to actually letting you see the level (especially with clean oil) and I didn't want to risk overfilling it. 

The rattle sounded camshafty to me rather than pistony, but I'm not an expert obvs (although that's what my local garage reckoned as well).  It'd be a bit unusual for a piston to be worn at that mileage though surely...

Yeah, hopefully its not that. I'd expect to see a fair bit of smoke if you can hear it? I don't know, never had owt like it before. 

I guess anything could've happened to the car in the past that might've caused it, if it is that. 

Will see what they say and how much they charge to tell me. 

[dollywobbler]

6 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

I'd love to have all of mine mobile, camper and Disco haven't moved for ages and the only reason the 220 has moved since it's MOT ran out is Mo coming over to help me tow it out the way.

I'm not doing much better. Four on the road out of ten, one utterly dead, one (2CV) pretty dead. Invacar and Fox far from happy mechanically (though both still driving). Apart from the GSA and Invacar (one outing), only the Berlingo and Fairmont have actually moved under their own steam in the past four months. I really need a clearout (Oltcits still for sale, Fox likely to be).

[Lankytim]

42 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Yeah, hopefully its not that. I'd expect to see a fair bit of smoke if you can hear it? I don't know, never had owt like it before. 

I guess anything could've happened to the car in the past that might've caused it, if it is that. 

Will see what they say and how much they charge to tell me. 

Are these engines prone to piston slap? The wife's Jazz has a weird rattle which I was fairly sure was a big end bearing, but somehow  it didn't sound right. Turns out it's piston slap and it's really common on this engine, some even rattling from new. The rattle goes away after a few miles when the engine has properly warmed up.  Apparently it's absolutely nothing to worry about and can be safely ignored. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

This is the first time I owned 4 cars at once and I have realized that since the Vivaro is now dead and needs a tow truck to the garage, 3 of 4 fleet members this year have needed a tow truck and the last one who hasn't needed it is because its broken and not in use. I wonder about my life choices at times.

[Rust Collector]

9 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

This is the first time I owned 4 cars at once and I have realized that since the Vivaro is now dead and needs a tow truck to the garage, 3 of 4 fleet members this year have needed a tow truck and the last one who hasn't needed it is because its broken and not in use. I wonder about my life choices at times.

Sounds like it's time to buy a sensible car. And by sensible car, I mean some tantalising piece of suspiciously priced chod that will definitely* be reliable in order that you can repair the rest of the fleet. And then when that car breaks shortly afterwards, it's time to buy another. And then another. And another... 😁

[Split_Pin]

I carried out an oil change on the Cavalier today as it was last done in March by the previous owner. The filter was bastard tight and its sandwiched between the wheel and the end of the engine. I'm definitely removing the wheel next time for better access.  I couldn't remember how I did it on previous Vauxhalls with this engine. Anyway all done and it's a part of the car I haven't seen before and it's in great condition.

However I noticed that where the Saab had been sitting it had made an even bigger oil mess than before. Bollocks!

Anyway, boshed it in the garage and whipped off the vacuum pump again.

The new seal I fitted looked fine but I split the pump as there is a seal between the 2 halves.

For anyone that cares what a vacuum pump looks like inside here you go:

New seal fitted.

I applied some Permatex to the mating face on the cylinder head to try and get it to seal.

All put back together again. I'll leave it sitting for a few days to make 100% sure the Permatex is dry.

[Yoss]

22 hours ago, Yoss said:

Prices couldn't keep going up. Even mediocre cars were fetching stupid prices. I used to collect Landcrabs simply because they were cheap. They were never glamorous, just good sturdy family saloons. But never that popular in classic car car circles which meant you could pick up decent ones for a few hundred. But I keep seeing them now for £8k. That's just ridiculous and has to come down. Not down to the prices of twenty years ago obviously but a lot less than £8k.

People who buy classic cars as an investment deserve to get burnt anyway. That's not what they're for. 

I may have spoken too soon. 

Get to fuck.