The new news 24 thread

[artdjones]

15 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Honda parts in general never seem to be cheap. When I had my Civic everything seemed to cost double what a comparable Ford/Vauxhall part would...

I noticed that even on Autodoc the cheapest DMF for a 1.6 diesel Civic was over €1k and only Exedy did them.

In other news, I went and checked this out for my nephew last night. A surprisingly nice feeling car to drive. A purchase was arranged, very necessary as a baby is arriving soon, and his wife's A3's DSG box has been stripped out for months awaiting parts. Either that, or the garage doesn't know what they are doing.

[Schaefft]

4 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Not yet a grin, but had probably my first drive of the LS400 this year and tootled over to the garage for an MoT:

Nothing too alarming there. Be interesting to see what options they come up with for tyres, mine is an early one with 15" wheels and it might be diffuclt to find some with the right speed/load rating but I'd really like to keep them as they're part of its charm (and also contribute to its smooth ride). BlackCircles lists the 16" wheels, which came in with the '93 on Mk2 model. Not sure my ex-Camry Sport 17" wheels would look quite right.....

Was a busy day at the garage with a few old cars there being readied for the season - E-Type, MGA, Stag and others.

Really not looking bad at all. I'd keep the original wheels as well, I have 16s from the facelift second gen on mine but the 15s suit yours very well, keeping the look of the original LS400.

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

Autodoc the cheapest DMF for a 1.6 diesel Civic was over €1k

HFM? They're €200 (ish) on the PSA 1.6 DV6 engines - is the Honda engine v.rare?

[wesacosa]

Why do I keep doing this to myself 

Avid readers may remember my Favorit dumped it's coolant on the way to the Enfield paegent last June through a split water pump hose. I hoped I'd turned it off on time but these engines are marginal on the HGs and this ones been on about 90k according to receipts. I refilled and bled it a couple of times and idled it for a bit and checked heater temperature, hose temperature and signs of overpressuring and all seems ok.  So plenty of time to do a few road tests and make sure all is ok?

Of course not, I parked it up and then remembered the MOT is due on Monday and the tax on Sunday so its maiden voyage since returning on a tow truck was an nice 50 mile round trip taking in such delights as the Blackwall tunnel, a13, m25 and Dartford crossing with the added threat of being unable to tax it if it failed or broke down before the MOT and no off-road parking without threatening my relationship with Ms W as the Panda took her parking space for 7 months last year in a similar situation

anyway, need not have worried, I took it pretty easy with heater on full blast and fan override switch on but made it there and back without a hitch and passed too.  I wasn't too worried about failing, I've changed pretty much all the bushes, dampers, wheel bearings , brakes, suspension mounts, fuel pipes etc over last few years, I'd repaired* the silencer pin holes with bean tin and gun gum and prodding of the scabby bits on the back ends of the sills and not resulted in holes, although I suspect they might not have too many more MOTs in them before they need some attention but hopefully a wire brush and underseal might do it

much relief 

Its a scruffy old thing with the wrong side of 100k on the clock and never really gets driven thanks to ULEZ scam but I still rather like it, especially after the faultless Monaco return trip, and suspect if I no longer have it nobody else would have it 

[doug]

Started up my old truck after it been sitting all winter. Started no problem. All I can see wrong with it is the tail lights are not working. Hope it's just a dodgy fuse.

Going to try and get it MOT exempt/historic on the 1st April. 

A wee pic of the fleet in team colours.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 28/03/2025 at 14:00, Lord Sterling said:

😲! That's where I am. Diegem to be exact.

If your free soon, let me know, we could probably do a quick AS Belgium meet up?

I'm a bit too far away this time. Next time however, I'm up for it!

 

[DoverShark]

SmolDovershark city bug has had a good clean up today. Red paint everywhere obviously. 
Black wheel trims are now in the sea

[richardmorris]

Bright but cold.

[Joey spud]

Boris has been undercover since November but with the improving weather and the clocks changing it seemed like a good time to wake him up from his hibernation.

And I have a better carb to fit that will hopefully get him running half decent.

 

[richardmorris]

Quick trip to the crematorium- chaced down a 1965 Mercedes 230sl on the dual carriage way.

[Sunny Jim]

Source of the latest coolant leak on the hearse discovered when I removed the fans.

What are the thoughts on attempting a bodge with this?

Let's zoom in

[SiC]

1 minute ago, Sunny Jim said:

Source of the latest coolant leak on the hearse discovered when I removed the fans.

What are the thoughts on attempting a bodge with this?

Let's zoom in

Might work but with that sort of leak quantity, if it fails again then you'll potentially toast the engine pretty quickly without realising. 

[lesapandre]

16 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

Source of the latest coolant leak on the hearse discovered when I removed the fans.

What are the thoughts on attempting a bodge with this?

Let's zoom in

It won't work. It's not good when it's heated. You get differential expansion and contraction - it also fails chemically. 

There may be ther metal putties that work. But not that.

[Zelandeth]

As SiC said.  Also if there's something degraded to the point that it's pinholed like that (which given where it is seems more likely than physical damage), it's very likely that it will just find the next weakest point in the rad and go there in a few minutes to couple of hundred miles.  At the very least I'd want to pull the radiator out and give it a proper inspection - but most likely it's going to be new rad time.  To be fair, plastic tanked rad it's probably just time anyway given they just don't seem to last forever.  Eventually the core to end tank seals will let go.  If you're lucky just by weeping slowly - or if you're not having one of the tanks just separate themselves from the core all at once.  Thus far that's only happened to me once, but it had left me with an inherent distrust for the damned things.  Looks like the core there is aluminium as well, so you can't even braze it up like on a proper brass and copper rad.

[Sunny Jim]

@SiC @lesapandre @Zelandeth Thanks all. That's three people whose advice I trust telling me I need a new rad. 👍

[stuboy]

Recon these like snake oil ..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285205775971?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=xoNf9V7pTIC&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=OBg5xkCOSsy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[SiC]

44 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Recon these like snake oil ..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285205775971?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=xoNf9V7pTIC&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=OBg5xkCOSsy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

On a naturally aspirated petrol? Yes. 

[HMC]

Im going around in probably the uk’s dirtiest quattorporte. Because IMO lots are trinkets that get brought out at the weekend and kept nice. Not this one 😂

[HMC]

3 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

Source of the latest coolant leak on the hearse discovered when I removed the fans.

What are the thoughts on attempting a bodge with this?

Let's zoom in

For some reason that phrase makes me immediately think of 

[comfortablynumb]

But what's the point in having a car if you're not going to use it @HMC? I've always said that the day one of mine stops doing what I need it to, it's leaving. That's probably why the range rover of too many wheels looks like a shed, constantly 😁

[Yoss]

5 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

Source of the latest coolant leak on the hearse discovered when I removed the fans.

What are the thoughts on attempting a bodge with this?

Let's zoom in

I bodged my Triumph radiator with this about three years ago. Still holding fine. 

[comfortablynumb]

How difficult would it be to fit a low coolant warning light to the system @Sunny Jim?

If it does catastrophically fail, you've got a bit more warning. Or will that cost the same as another rad?

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

I bodged my Triumph radiator with this about three years ago. Still holding fine. 

Big difference there is that I imagine a Triumph would have a proper brass/copper radiator core rather than aluminium.  

Getting stuff to stick properly to aluminium is a pain in the behind comparatively.

[SiC]

I've been trying to use the Z4 a bit more recently with the nice weather. At the moment the annual mileage looks to be at 3.5k and would be almost the lowest in it's history. Can't be having that! MOT is up in early June so some time left to rack some more on. 

I'm always find it outstanding how economical this thing is for a 6cyl. Admittedly this is from a mostly motorway journey but it's still better than my wife got from her MX5 MK3. 

For £1200/£1600 (purchase price/what this car owes me) I honestly can't think of a much better value convertible at the moment. Comfortable, nice 6cyl engine sounds, drives well, frugal with fuel, modern mod cons like cruise/air con/electric hood/etc and 178bhp gives reasonable performance. While I love my Spitfire, even a cheap tatty one is like nearly twice the amount and definitely not twice as good! I think about changing to something else but I struggle to justify changing the thing. 

Since going through the intake air leaks and replacing the MAF last year, the EML has stayed off. Likewise replacing the thermostat has cleared the other code it had. Plugging it in earlier and doing a quick scan had it showing absolutely no codes stored. Quite remarkable!

The only thing that could well be an issue for an MOT is the right headlight. I think the back cover is missing and water has got in. Apart from fogging up the insides, the reflectors look to have lost some of the chrome. Usually I'd bung a second hand unit on but the pre-LCI (pre facelift) halogen lights are really expensive and rare. Only one on eBay for £400 - a third of what I paid to buy the car originally. 😳

Interestingly the Xenon headlights are cheaper (like £100 or so) as there is many more of them. Presumably because it was a popular option at the time.

[Joey spud]

As I had to move the hands on it I cleaned and polished my clock today.

[stuboy]

10 minutes ago, SiC said:

I've been trying to use the Z4 a bit more recently with the nice weather. At the moment the annual mileage looks to be at 3.5k and would be almost the lowest in it's history. Can't be having that! MOT is up in early June so some time left to rack some more on. 

I'm always find it outstanding how economical this thing is for a 6cyl. Admittedly this is from a mostly motorway journey but it's still better than my wife got from her MX5 MK3. 

For £1200/£1600 (purchase price/what this car owes me) I honestly can't think of a much better value convertible at the moment. Comfortable, nice 6cyl engine sounds, drives well, frugal with fuel, modern mod cons like cruise/air con/electric hood/etc and 178bhp gives reasonable performance. While I love my Spitfire, even a cheap tatty one is like nearly twice the amount and definitely not twice as good! I think about changing to something else but I struggle to justify changing the thing. 

Since going through the intake air leaks and replacing the MAF last year, the EML has stayed off. Likewise replacing the thermostat has cleared the other code it had. Plugging it in earlier and doing a quick scan had it showing absolutely no codes stored. Quite remarkable!

The only thing that could well be an issue for an MOT is the right headlight. I think the back cover is missing and water has got in. Apart from fogging up the insides, the reflectors look to have lost some of the chrome. Usually I'd bung a second hand unit on but the pre-LCI (pre facelift) halogen lights are really expensive and rare. Only one on eBay for £400 - a third of what I paid to buy the car originally. 😳

Interestingly the Xenon headlights are cheaper (like £100 or so) as there is many more of them. Presumably because it was a popular option at the time.

i found an z4 locally and said ill get that as my midlife crisis................. swmbo said your not............. she said no to an mx5 tooooo

[SiC]

5 minutes ago, stuboy said:

i found an z4 locally and said ill get that as my midlife crisis................. swmbo said your not............. she said no to an mx5 tooooo

Do it! YOLO and all that. Especially when younger and more mobile than say retirement when most people's mobility is much less than it was.

[wuvvum]

Mixed success on the fettling front this weekend.  The world's slowest eBay Speedpak finally arrived from China with the replacement reversing camera for the Ampera inside.  Fitting it to the car was a faff - I had to back it up onto the ramps and take the undertray off again, and even then I was working blind and doing everything by feel.  It would have been a lot easier to fit the camera before I put the bumper back on the car, but I got fed up with waiting.

It took a fair bit of adjustment to get the camera to show what's behind the car rather than just the inside of the bumper, so it had to come off several times, but it's more or less there now.

It's the first time the car has had a working camera in my ownership - the original packed up some time ago.  It doesn't really need it as it has parking sensors front & rear, but I don't like when things don't work.

The £9 "untested" BMW sat nav DVD drive I bought from eBay also arrived, and was fitted to the Rover to replace the one in the car which had sadly passed away.  The replacement fired up straight away and even had a map disc in it, albeit one from 2008.  I did the firmware update (the software disc was still in the glovebox) and stuck a newer map disc in and it works fine now.  Unfortunately the most recent disc I have was stuck in the old drive, so I spent a fun hour or so last night taking that completely  to bits so I could get the disc out.  Got there in the end though, and I now have working nav again for the first time since September.

I was planning on having another go at changing the front strut on the Eos this weekend, but my mojo was dashed when I noticed that the spring on the other side has also now gone ping.  Fucking ungrateful pile of crap.  I almost Cartakebacked it there and then, but I'm going to give it a couple of days and decide whether I can be arsed with it or not.  I did try sticking a scissor jack on the strut to see if that would persuade it out of the hub, which was something that had been suggested on one of the VW forums, but that didn't do any good - the top of the hub is at an angle to the strut so the jack just slides down and ends up pushing against the brake back plate, which is no use at all.

The other job I'd been hoping to get done was changing the diff oil on the Merc, but the 14mm Allen bit I'd ordered for the task hasn't turned up yet.  I'm sure I had a 14mm Allen key somewhere which I bought for undoing a sump plug years ago, but I can't find it anywhere. 

So that's another job for next weekend.  I spent the time I'd allocated to that job clearing out the Visa instead, in preparation for its departure to its new home on Saturday.

[SiC]

3 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

 

I was planning on having another go at changing the front strut on the Eos this weekend, but my mojo was dashed when I noticed that the spring on the other side has also now gone ping.  Fucking ungrateful pile of crap.  I almost Cartakebacked it there and then, but I'm going to give it a couple of days and decide whether I can be arsed with it or not.  I did try sticking a scissor jack on the strut to see if that would persuade it out of the hub, which was something that had been suggested on one of the VW forums, but that didn't do any good - the top of the hub is at an angle to the strut so the jack just slides down and ends up pushing against the brake back plate, which is no use at all.

Isn't the EOS a 2.0TFSI? If so @NorthernMonkey might need it for a parts car to fix his Golf GTI. (Albeit he might have just ordered everything needed already now)

[davehedgehog31]

Gave the ex @wesacosa XM a pretty thorough wash this afternoon. It really is a pretty straight old thing and it would definitely be worth getting the paint on the roof and bonnet sorted.

I gave the outside a really thorough going over and although I didn't have time to polish it I did quickly put some wax on just for protections sake.

Really delighted with the car, I've long fancied an XM and thankfully this isn't a case of "never meet your heroes", it's as good as I'd hoped and this particular example is a credit to it's previous owner.