The new news 24 thread

[Split_Pin]

9 hours ago, Broadsword said:

You know when things start bad, you work hard to correct, recover and then things just get worse. Well here is a tale just like that.

Recently picked up a 09 Saab TTiD to replace the Citroen C5 as a family wagon. Really nice, clean car with big service history. Drives lovely and does dog transport duties well. Picked up, drove back great. Really quick and comfy car with added boost gauge goodness. Problem no. 1 ah the starter motor is buggered. Oh well, there is always something. Replacing it was much harder than anticipated, but it got done. Nice. Up and runing again. Now I have to travel abroad, but I think it will be plain sailing from here. Next problem. Low oil pressure warning. At this point I'm starting to wonder how the seller hid these problems so well. I had a good poke around, but all the trouble is happening after the deal. Ok, turns out it's a known TTiD foible. Mildly irritating, not terminal and fixable. Ok, I'll fix that in the summer. I'm aborad now anyway. Next comes a phone call in a panic. The alarm keeps going off. Dogs are setting it off. The ultrasonics are too sensitive. Ok, there is a fix for that in the car settings. Aand relax. Another phone call. The key disintegrated, can't get it. Panic. Ok, the spare at least is kind of ok (they had to walk home). I will reshell the key. Annd relax. Then one more phone call this evening. I was told to sit down. The car is broken I'm told.

So it turns out our "friend" was really having a bad time and stalled several times, apparently in 5th gear. Now the car is making a banging at idle. Also for shits and giggles it's apparently trying to drive forward in neutral and with the clutch fully depressed, it is also trying to drive.

My mood. As such. It is currently low. I spent the whole Christmas fixing many things and sorting many more out becuase I knew I would have to spend a lot of time travelling this year. Now it seems everything is fucked. I can't outrun the nonsense. I like to think I can and pat myself on the back for it, but there is always a new and interesting fuckup to trump the previous one.

Do not ignore the low oil pressure warning. There is some kind of seal on the pick up pipe which becomes faulty, causes it to block and if you don't fix it now the engine will be starved of oil and scrap. There was a TTid for sale on here last year by @Imhotepwhich befell this exact fate.

Hope you get things sorted out.

[horriblemercedes]

9 hours ago, timolloyd said:

You have my sympathy.

Keep outrunning the nonces.

I must have missed that bit! 

[Broadsword]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Do not ignore the low oil pressure warning. There is some kind of seal on the pick up pipe which becomes faulty, causes it to block and if you don't fix it now the engine will be starved of oil and scrap. There was a TTid for sale on here last year by @Imhotepwhich befell this exact fate.

Hope you get things sorted out.

Fair point well made. I think I’ve just been completely had over by the seller on this one and the whole car might end up scrap. Just a crappy thing to happen replace one kind of broken Citroen with a now very broken Saab in January. The Saab was meant to be an upgrade. I actually still have the C5 but it failed the MOT on rear brake discs and pads along with a couple of brake lines. I know that sounds trivial but Google the horrors of of replacing rear brake discs on a Citroen C5 and you will have a clue. There is a reason why there are currently wheel spacers on the rear wheels. I bought it just as the problems were setting in and those callipers are pretty unlikely to come off..

Fortunately for the Saab I don’t think I’ll have to worry about the oil pickup seal issue. It won’t be going anywhere for a while.

[SiC]

1 hour ago, Broadsword said:

Fair point well made. I think I’ve just been completely had over by the seller on this one and the whole car might end up scrap. Just a crappy thing to happen replace one kind of broken Citroen with a now very broken Saab in January. The Saab was meant to be an upgrade. I actually still have the C5 but it failed the MOT on rear brake discs and pads along with a couple of brake lines. I know that sounds trivial but Google the horrors of of replacing rear brake discs on a Citroen C5 and you will have a clue. There is a reason why there are currently wheel spacers on the rear wheels. I bought it just as the problems were setting in and those callipers are pretty unlikely to come off..

Fortunately for the Saab I don’t think I’ll have to worry about the oil pickup seal issue. It won’t be going anywhere for a while.

I don't like to say but those twin turbo diesels are a liability. Alright when they came out and drove well, they just aren't as tough as the older 1.9TID 150. The other issue is that many parts are specific to the Saab TTID which many are NLA. Some are common to the Insignia as well I believe, but not all. It was an engine that came late in the Saab 9-3 lifecycle and was due to go in the generation after the 9-3NG. But that of course never happened. 

[grogee]

@Broadsword I feel your pain. My BMW 525i was kind of relentless in kicking me in the balls. I kind of got on top of it but couldn't shake the feeling it was going to keep giving me nice* surprises. So I offloaded it to A Normal in a semi-distress sale. I did MoT it before sale though so it wasn't a complete basket case.

I did get a bit fed up of 25mpg and not a huge amount of performance to go with it. It was quick enough I suppose, and very quiet, but my Saab 9-5 HOT was much quicker and better on fuel (and still automatic). 

I haven't had the pleasure* of Citroen C5 rear calipers. I'm assuming the anchor bolts seize up and round off...? Is it something that could be attacked with a decent set of cobalt drill bits? 

It really is a shit time of year to be rolling around under a car, yet I've been pretty busy this January and I'm considering getting my Maestro out tomorrow, ironically for front brake refurb. 

What would you get for scrap for the 9-3, and would that cover a set of Chinese/refurb/2nd hand rear calipers? 

Could the old ones be ground off with a grinder? 

I can't comment on the brake lines but the ones I've done were straightforward enough as long as the unions do as they're told. Again, right tools for the job - those slotted hex pipe spanners, none of your open-ended junk. 

Hang in there, it will get better, cut your losses with the Saab and get the Citroen firing again. 

[Zelandeth]

11 minutes ago, grogee said:

@Broadsword I feel your pain. My BMW 525i was kind of relentless in kicking me in the balls. I kind of got on top of it but couldn't shake the feeling it was going to keep giving me nice* surprises. So I offloaded it to A Normal in a semi-distress sale. I did MoT it before sale though so it wasn't a complete basket case.

I did get a bit fed up of 25mpg and not a huge amount of performance to go with it. It was quick enough I suppose, and very quiet, but my Saab 9-5 HOT was much quicker and better on fuel (and still automatic). 

I haven't had the pleasure* of Citroen C5 rear calipers. I'm assuming the anchor bolts seize up and round off...? Is it something that could be attacked with a decent set of cobalt drill bits? 

It really is a shit time of year to be rolling around under a car, yet I've been pretty busy this January and I'm considering getting my Maestro out tomorrow, ironically for front brake refurb. 

What would you get for scrap for the 9-3, and would that cover a set of Chinese/refurb/2nd hand rear calipers? 

Could the old ones be ground off with a grinder? 

I can't comment on the brake lines but the ones I've done were straightforward enough as long as the unions do as they're told. Again, right tools for the job - those slotted hex pipe spanners, none of your open-ended junk. 

Hang in there, it will get better, cut your losses with the Saab and get the Citroen firing again. 

Assuming it's the same issue as on the Xantia.  Axle beam is steel, caliper is cast ally.  Dissimilar metal corrosion starts between them and jacks the caliper out and bends the anchor bolt, which then snaps when you try to undo it.

It's a really annoying bit of design.

[HMC]

[artdjones]

11 hours ago, Broadsword said:

Fair point well made. I think I’ve just been completely had over by the seller on this one and the whole car might end up scrap. Just a crappy thing to happen replace one kind of broken Citroen with a now very broken Saab in January. The Saab was meant to be an upgrade. I actually still have the C5 but it failed the MOT on rear brake discs and pads along with a couple of brake lines. I know that sounds trivial but Google the horrors of of replacing rear brake discs on a Citroen C5 and you will have a clue. There is a reason why there are currently wheel spacers on the rear wheels. I bought it just as the problems were setting in and those callipers are pretty unlikely to come off..

Fortunately for the Saab I don’t think I’ll have to worry about the oil pickup seal issue. It won’t be going anywhere for a while.

What year C5 is it?

[Broadsword]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Assuming it's the same issue as on the Xantia.  Axle beam is steel, caliper is cast ally.  Dissimilar metal corrosion starts between them and jacks the caliper out and bends the anchor bolt, which then snaps when you try to undo it.

It's a really annoying bit of design.

This. The corrosion gets so bad that the brake caliper moves out and starts to touch the wheel. The brake pads also wear in to wedges. The bolts are high tensile and will snap, but will also be hard to drill out.

I don’t know which one is better to try and fix. I can’t buy another car. The Saab was £1400, so a big hit to scrap. Price of a new DMF and clutch kit will be high and the work will be hard. I could fix the oil pickup at the same time as removing the driveshafts give access to remove all the sump bolts. I don’t trust the Saab not to throw another surprise though. 
 

The Citroen has been more reliable. Weirdly I just had to replace the starter on that too. Synchro is damaged on 3rd though and the windscreen is cracked. Neither of those is a big issue though, but still.

[Broadsword]

3 minutes ago, artdjones said:

What year C5 is it?

2004 2.0 HDi estate

[stuboy]

On 26/01/2024 at 12:22, cobblers said:

It might come as a shock to some people on here, but it appears that the sun is publishing a load of bollocks again

for the truth i only ever read ...................

[Bren]

Car mechanics had a TTiD that was a PITA.

Contributor Mike Humble took it on after the series finished.

He spent money on it and ended up getting rid - the buyer intended to part it out.

I am finding out with my insignia that GM parts are not the bargain they were.

[artdjones]

46 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

2004 2.0 HDi estate

New calipers ( non exchange) o are fairly cheap on Autodoc, around £40 each, and they come with bolts, so although they can be a pain to change because of corrosion if you are trying to save the old ones they are very doable. The brakes are conventional ones with a  master cylinder and servo and the normal type of unions, so altogether not too daunting a job. The only thing that would need care is making sure that whatever is left of the caliper bolts has enough length to make removal from the suspension arms easy with some heat applied.

[EyesWeldedShut]

This morning's bit of fun* AutoShite discovery - pull door panel off to investigate 'loom problem' (no windey, windey and central locking). Discover all the components (minus window regulator) have been carefully* stored in there after repair by Fred Flintstone Mechanicals Ltd

Of course am missing a few nuts, bolts, clips etc etc

[mk2_craig]

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, mk2_craig said:

Heros, geniuses or madmen, maybe all 3, who knows! Whatever though, they will certainly be making very good money, but will they get the time to enjoy it, who knows!

[grogee]

4 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

This morning's bit of fun* AutoShite discovery - pull door panel off to investigate 'loom problem' (no windey, windey and central locking). Discover all the components (minus window regulator) have been carefully* stored in there after repair by Fred Flintstone Mechanicals Ltd

Of course am missing a few nuts, bolts, clips etc etc

I've had this pleasure* before, but I now feel quite smug in that my window holder-upper was a length of 2x4 and not a peasant's stick. 

I got it fixed with a £20 mech from Ebay although it was a Rennow so no silly cables like this one. 

[dome]

4 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

You can bet the owner runs that L322 as it's far better than the utter toss they've made since then💪

[vulgalour]

Helped Pat out with his Fiat Doblo which need a new door mirror after someone reversed into his van and smashed the original.  Not a terrible job, however it was pretty annoying that the way the interior trims were done means you have to remove the whole door card to get access to one mirror bolt and one of the wiring plugs (one for the heater element, one for the tweeter in the interior trim).  If the door card had been sculpted just slightly differently it wouldn't have to be removed.  You'd think a work van would have things like mirrors designed to be as easy as possible to replace since they're the most likely thing to get bashed off in use.  The manual remote adjuster stalks are rubbish too, for some reason they're flexible so you can't actually move them the full travel to properly adjust the mirror because the stalk bends before moving the mechanism.  Might as well have just left them as manual adjust mirrors where you push on the glass itself, which is what we ended up doing.

In other news, the Princess is rubbing the front driver's side tyre on the arch liner on full lock again now that I've actually refitted the arch liners.  It's always been this way, and it was worse when I first got the car because the front tyres were too big.  One thing that was surprising was I forgot how much difference to noise intrusion the arch liners make.  I think there are marginally more pros than cons to the liners so they can stay... a decision I shall no doubt regret later this year when they have to come out for some minor works to the bodywork behind them that I can't attend to just at the moment but that's a problem for future me.

[EyesWeldedShut]

6 hours ago, grogee said:

I've had this pleasure* before, but I now feel quite smug in that my window holder-upper was a length of 2x4 and not a peasant's stick. 

I got it fixed with a £20 mech from Ebay although it was a Rennow so no silly cables like this one. 

It gets better - there's that stick on the back end and a 26" piece of free polypipe to the front of the door - whoooo!

The entire inner skin with the missing regulator attached plus already wired up slides and so on is £35-ish on eBay for an Ali-Express option (£26 off a breaker for a pukka VW one) so it's not that much of a ballache. 
I do have to puzzle out how the central locking fits back together and then cross fingers that the locks will then work - it looks like all the actuators and connecting wires are present - just piled up inside the door

 

[wuvvum]

Went to the ACA classic auction yesterday.  Usual eclectic mix of cars for sale, although I refuse to buy anything from there since they introduced the £500 deposit for a bidder number - used to be a fiver pre-pandemic.  I got to see the ex-Bo11ox Zephyr in the metal, but my favourite car of the day was this little sweetie.

Ever so simple - it didn't even have a speedo, the only gauge was an ammeter.  Hand cranked wiper too.  Tiny little sidevalve engine with a Dynastart on the front.

I'd love something like this to putter around in, although I imagine it'd be fairly dreadful to drive any distance and my double-declutching skills are a tad rusty to say the least.

Today was rather nice weather-wise so I took the Getz up to the jet wash to wash off some of the salt and muck it's accumulated from being used as my daily for the last few months.  I gave the underside a good blast too - I'm going to poke my head under there at some point and make sure it's not going too rusty, I ran out of time for that today.  I gave the Ampera a wash too, but just a two-bucket wrong 'un.  It does look a lot better now though, and I can actually see out of the back window again.

Got the new TRE ball joint cover and retaining nut fitted to the Z4.  I gave up trying to refit the metal springy ring thing to the dust cover and just used cable ties instead.  Annoyingly when I was taking the wheel off the locking wheel bolt snapped off - it's protruding slightly from the hub but I expect it's going to be a bastard to get out.  I'm not going to bother for now - the wheel has four other bolts holding it on, and that's plenty - the Visa only has three.  I was also going to have  a crack at transferring the spring and top mount from the old strut onto the new shock ready to fit to the offside, but on examination the top mount bearing is utterly shagged so I'm going to have to buy a new one.  I'll probably buy a new spring as well for the sake of 18 quid - save buggering about trying to get the rusty retaining nut off the top of the old shock.

I pulled the cover off the Volvo intending to fire it up as it hasn't run for a while.  That didn't happen as the battery was flat, but on pulling off the cover I discovered that during one of the many thousands of storms we've had over the last couple of months, the cover or something attached to it has managed to put a load of scratches in the back half of the roof.

They're not deep but I doubt they'll T-Cut out.  I'm slightly annoyed by that - obviously the rest of the car has plenty of paintwork issues, but the roof was about the only place where the original paint was still half decent.  

I'd been hoping to fit the new bits to the Volvo this weekend as well, but the parcel from Skandix hasn't turned up yet (apparently it's been at my local DPD depot since Friday morning - if I'd known I would have popped over and got it, I can see the depot from my desk at work).

[JakeT]

As it’s known, ‘the old bus’ went straight through its MOT last week, and the insurance renewal for it was £30 down, so I had to buy something, as a result. I’m a sucker for period correct accessories, and spotting a genuine BMW OSRAM spare bulb kit, I came over all @LightBulbFun and it had to be bought.

How lean the number of models used to be…!

[goosey]

Woke up this morning to find a smashed up Ford Kuga outside my Hotel Bedroom window 

 

[barefoot]

This morning I have a courtesy car whose controls are so light, it's like playing a video game. 

[MJK 24]

Four New Cross Climate 2 tyres.

Seatbelts now rendered pointless.

 

[Split_Pin]

Potential replacement Saab found for my current Saab! It's a TTiD so £30 a year to tax. All the usual foibles have been sorted, rear arches are a bit bubbly but it is cheapish.

[crad]

changed a headlight bulb on my dad's mk4 mondeo this morning. why oh why do you have to remove the fucking thing to change a poxy bulb.

[richardmorris]

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 25/01/2024 at 10:43, adw1977 said:

Ford 4 speed automatics first appeared in the Sierra in 1984, they weren't put in the Granada until the Mark 3 was launched in 1985.

 

...but only on the 2.0 sierra

[wuvvum]

Been a lot of military plane movements around here recently.  On Monday a pair of F-35s came over the house so low that I could almost see the whites of the pilots' eyes.  Then just now an Airbus A400 came howling over on its left wingtip at no more than a couple of hundred feet.  Obviously stepping up preparations for WW3.