The new news 24 thread

7,482 · June 12, 2023

Mustang back on wheels and moving after protracted back brake work. Minor binding turned in to new calipers, discs and pads and while I was in there fitted new rear dampers. Threw a bucket of water over it last night and quite pleased with it.

18,826 · June 12, 2023

Just heard Tuffnells have gone bust. Shame, as my usual delivery guy was a good sort. Gonna cause issues for towbar deliveries!

30,883 · June 12, 2023

How can I have an intermittent major fluid leak?!?

Diagnosis paused as a thunderstorm just arrived pretty much as soon as I got home and could properly investigate.

It was dribbling out at a sufficient rate to be running out from under the car in the ten minutes or so I'd been in a shop though. Plus was noticed because I'd left a trail as I drove into the car park and into the space. Appeared to be coolant I'd say, no odour, not oily, but from the back of the engine bay. There are only two pipes there, both visible and apparently neither the culprit when I looked...

Got home, no drip apparent.

June 12, 2023

Good for another year, miraculously.

15,384 · June 12, 2023

I might be on the lookout for a family car for my brother. He has 3 kids and would prefer ULEZ as his mrs works in Greater London and drives to work. He sometimes goes into ULEZ proposed area for work but not every day. They have 2 cars (Focuses) but a full family weekend away/holiday takes both cars - one with the kids and one with the stuff! Need to chat with him, may px/swap the newer focus.

Oh, he's 6ft 9.

26,026 · June 12, 2023

19 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

I might be on the lookout for a family car for my brother. He has 3 kids and would prefer ULEZ as his mrs works in Greater London and drives to work. He sometimes goes into ULEZ proposed area for work but not every day. They have 2 cars (Focuses) but a full family weekend away/holiday takes both cars - one with the kids and one with the stuff! Need to chat with him, may px/swap the newer focus.

Oh, he's 6ft 9.

15,384 · June 12, 2023

Just now, richardmorris said:

Brother hates Mercs just as much as I do.

KILL IT WITH ALL OF THE FIRES.

16,127 · June 12, 2023

You only need one of these. Georg Kächer of Car Magazine fitted in. He was 6'7" and he said that the seat still wasn't fully back.

53,815 · June 12, 2023

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

How can I have an intermittent major fluid leak?!?

Diagnosis paused as a thunderstorm just arrived pretty much as soon as I got home and could properly investigate.

It was dribbling out at a sufficient rate to be running out from under the car in the ten minutes or so I'd been in a shop though. Plus was noticed because I'd left a trail as I drove into the car park and into the space. Appeared to be coolant I'd say, no odour, not oily, but from the back of the engine bay. There are only two pipes there, both visible and apparently neither the culprit when I looked...

Got home, no drip apparent.

If you're not losing any fluids when you check them, then could it be something like rain/car washing water that's got trapped in a box section or cavity somewhere and is taking a while to slosh out after a drive, giving the appearance of a leak that doesn't actually have anything to with the engine. A bit like how air con can make it look like you've got a bust radiator when in fact it's just having a little condensation moment.

26,026 · June 12, 2023

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

You only need one of these. Georg Kächer of Car Magazine fitted in. He was 6'7" and he said that the seat still wasn't fully back.

Gave my brother in law a lift in the x1/9 on Sunday down to wantage. He’s 6ft3. I think luggage and passengers is more of an issue.

66,450 · June 12, 2023

Well that was a waste of time and energy. Took the 75 to ATS today to get the aircon regassed and they reckon it's not holding pressure and they can't do the recharge. Which is odd as when I took it to my (generally pretty reliable) local garage a couple of weeks ago they said it was holding pressure OK.

So not sure what's happened there. I've now got to decide whether I'm going to fork out for an aircon specialist to find the leak and get it repaired, or whether I'm just going to forget it and use the Groupon voucher on the 206 (assuming that hasn't also got a massive leak in the system...).

30,883 · June 12, 2023

1 hour ago, vulgalour said:

If you're not losing any fluids when you check them, then could it be something like rain/car washing water that's got trapped in a box section or cavity somewhere and is taking a while to slosh out after a drive, giving the appearance of a leak that doesn't actually have anything to with the engine. A bit like how air con can make it look like you've got a bust radiator when in fact it's just having a little condensation moment.

That's kind of my thinking, though where the heck it came from to be dripping off the bottom of the bell housing I've no idea.

It's worthwhile keeping in mind that the cooling system on this holds nearly 15 litres of coolant...so it would have to lose quite a chunk for it to be really visible.

Though if it was coolant I'd have expected it to be hot enough to be steaming when it was dripping from the car - which it wasn't (this was after a 20 minute or so drive there in 27C weather, so should be pretty well up to temperature).

Further research needed - though I'm tending more towards "water having gathered somewhere odd" given that I've never seen a leak that significant get anything other than worse until there's nothing left to leak!

17,694 · June 12, 2023

sunroof/heater/plenum drains?

64,562 · June 13, 2023

Bloody hell, only taken 2.5 years, but I've fitted some OEM front mud-flaps to the ex @purplebargeken @Kiltox i10. I got them off eBay just after we got the car in September 2020, but today's the first day since I've felt like bothering 😆 😰

(yes, new tyres are needed, planned for the early autumn ahead of MOT)

18,266 · June 13, 2023

High street veggie reload. Gimme some'o'that chipshop gold.

I'm 1k miles in. I've spent £120 on fuel and I've got another 1500 miles worth behind my shed.

Loving my Rexton

9,407 · June 13, 2023

I'm really short on time for the car hobby, but made steady enough progress on a couple of things.

The StreetKa went last week. I really liked it, found as always though that four cars was too much to keep on top of, must stick to three....

The Fabia stereo sounded absolutely awful. Had a look and the factory speakers were absolutely burst, barely any foam left on either of them. I bought a kit from eBay with some Clarion speakers and the plastic adapter rings for them. This job was a bit more of a dick than it should be, had to drill the rivets out the current speakers then the new ones helpfully didn't come with any fixings. The mounting holes are deeply recessed so couldn't use a rivet. In the end I effected a surprisingly good engineering solution, I tapped some threads into the back of the plastic mounting rings and secured them with a bolt threaded in from behind.

Old;

New

More befitting of the fancypants Android Auto head unit which I also finally connected the DAB antenna up to;

The Lexarse went to Knockhill;

On the Kangoo front it went for it's MOT last month. I gave it a wash and quick once over before it went in, only thing I noticed was a missing outer CV boot clip on the NSF, gave it a quick clean up and re-secured. Got an almost clean pass and the tester commented that it was a really tidy van. It's only done 3000-ish miles since the significant lot of work it had for test last year.

As an aside, I sprayed the "Corrolan" lanolin rust proofing wax stuff on in October and it still has a really good film of it everywhere despite having been driven in all conditions. It does make working on it a bit messy and there's still a bit of a whiff of sheep on a hot day but it's probably worthwhile. Worth mentioning I think I used about twice as much as I really needed to... Will do the Skoda next and then aim to do a really tidy job on the Lexus with it before the winter hits.

It was due a timing belt. I ordered a finest* quality kit with water pump from eBay and set about it. This is how it started and it ended with every tool in my shed littered on the floor round about it;

When I initially got it stripped down and resting on the crank timing pin the cam pin wouldn't fit, it looked about two teeth off. It has a two part cam pulley so I rotated the engine until I could get the cam timing pin in then slackened the outer part of the cam pulley, inserted the crank pin and turned the engine onto it so it was all lined up against both pins. There should be 19 tooth gaps between the marks on the cam and fuel pump pulleys and we had 21.

New belt eventually went on and this is how it should look with the 19 tooth gaps between the two notches. Please ignore judicious use of paint markers variously.

Overall the actual process for changing the belt was easy enough but the access was very tight so was a case of continually raising and lowering the engine small bits at a time. I think it was probably made worse by it having optional air conditioning so the compressor and pipes got in the road. Definitely a job for one of those fancy electric ratchets. Could frequently only get a couple of teeth of a swing of a ratchet on some bolts.

A nervous first start was successful and have done a fair few miles in it since so declaring it a success.

Feeling quite positive about the fleet overall. The Kangoo and Fabia are very well sorted, Lexus continues to be lovely albeit with a couple of small niggles to sort. Just need to remain steadfast in buying NO MORE CARS.

6,389 · June 13, 2023

After a huge clear out recently my yard is starting to fill back up.

18,724 · June 13, 2023

Oooh. Green Lada..

18,724 · June 13, 2023

The i10. A worthy car. Never really hit it off in some ways.

18,930 · June 15, 2023

On 13/06/2023 at 12:18, purplebargeken said:

The i10. A worthy car. Never really hit it off in some ways.

Never seen anyone under 75 driving one. Seems to be your final car after the Jazz.

36,954 · June 15, 2023

I'd noticed that the TT had a fair few small abrasions down the passenger side where it looks like someone tried to remove something with a scouring pad . There was also a scuff on the drivers door.

I went over the whole car with my DA polisher which felt like heavy, shitty work in 27c heat, followed by a coat of good quality wax. Surprisingly, all those marks have gone and it looks great now. The drivers side pillar has had a dodgy touch in job with a rattle car in the past and the paint is porus as it's laden with dirt. That's a job for another day though.

Overall it looks great.

8,275 · June 15, 2023

Bought a new stablemate for the 164…

28,525 · June 15, 2023

Rolled over a milestone Tuesday night and had someone else in the car to take photos

🎊🥂🤞

6,389 · June 15, 2023

Need another clear out!

The Golf is going this Saturday and I'm going to let go of the tractor and 504 in the next couple of weeks.

23,365 · June 15, 2023

See what happens when the site is down... Honestly...

8,275 · June 15, 2023

8 hours ago, The Vicar said:

Bought a new stablemate for the 164…

Authentic* BMC ownership experience

28,407 · June 15, 2023

Today I had been mostly fucking around with a mates NCT failure 2008 Toyota Avensis.

He's a total numbnuts when it comes to cars.

This got a Fail dangerous on it's test,and mate rang me up,"did they put a sticker on the windscreen?" I asked,No came the reply can I drive it up yours?

Half an hour later he turns up........