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[SiC]

5 series has metamorphosed into this. 

I did a swap with a colleague as he needed something bigger and more practical for a house move. Plus, despite him loving this age Alfas, he a bit too tall to fit in properly. He's currently looking at getting a classic Fiat 500 - not sure he'll really fit in that unless he has the roof open...

This is the GTV that I helped him get home after the previous owner bumped it after it cut out. The cut out was the throttle position sensor failing. My short term fix was increasing the RPM on the set screw on the throttle body to get him home. He then later replaced it with a good used - new is nla now. 
More here:

 

 

The front bonnet isn't replaced still but it's perfectly usable. Just needs a good second hand one finding, possibly painting and fitting. Either that or repairing with some fibreglass - being a fibre glass bonnet. 

Interior is in lovely condition though. No horrible smells and fantastic condition leather. It's definitely been nurtured and a lot of money spent on it. Including the air conditioning compressor. The owner before my colleague only didn't get the throttle position sensor replaced as they were NLA. His garage could get hold of a new one and didn't want to fit a second hand unit. So he kept driving until it cut out at some lights one day and he used the brakes too much, lost assistance and went into another car.
I don't believe he claimed on his insurance to save pushing up his costs, and I think this shouldn't have a write off marker either. Albeit I haven't double checked...

He also did the Cam Belt on this a few months ago. I helped him finish timing it up. Thought I had a picture somewhere but can't find it. Anyway these belt setups are pretty weak and need doing something ridiculous like every 36k miles or something like that. 

My plan is to drive it about a bit till my insurance is up later next month as a bit of cheap fun. Then flog on as I reduce my car count. Unless I fall in love and can get cheap classic car insurance on it.

[wuvvum]

I think the timing belt interval on those engines was originally set to 72K, but so many of them snapped their belts before that that Alfa reduced the interval to 36K.

[wuvvum]

Scores on the doors for the Rover after a ~500-mile trip to Manchester and back via Halesowen:

I think it's safe to say it's going to hit 200K this year...

It ran faultlessly as always, and it actually wasn't that bad of a drive - the traffic wasn't as bad as I'd feared given that it's the end of half term, and the sat nav took me on some spectacularly pretty Peak District back roads to avoid the queue for the roadworks on the A628.  Oh, and the aircon still works, which is a Brucie bonus - in fact it was a Godsend today, especially in slow-moving traffic.  Why it didn't work when I tried it a few months back I have no idea - maybe it was just having a moment.

One more thing - I've said this before but I'll say it again, I fucking hate the M6.

[Wibble]

6 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

One more thing - I've said this before but I'll say it again, I fucking hate the M6.

Yep, me too. Glad I don’t have to suffer it now, albeit for the wrong reasons. It’s a nightmare.

[flat4alfa]

On 15/05/2026 at 16:57, flat4alfa said:

Was driving along quite happily 

Earlier, had done 50 miles on the M25 at quite some pace

Stopped at some lights in a village, went to pull away and it coughed. I thought I'd just stalled it. Oaf.

Went to start it and there was a clang!

The crank pulley had fallen off, onto the road

Which was nice.

Now back up and running.

The inference engine did not interfere with itself.

New pulley and belt and away, yay!

Which is good, as it means I still get to own the thing; it’s been for 17 years now

It’s also covered over 200k 

Which is nice.

[Rustybullethole]

Not used the Citroen in about three weeks so dead pleased though not surprised when  it unlocked and started no drama. Drove up the hill thinking how i like this little carvan and it still brings me joy whilst being a useful donkey. 

Turned to drive down the steepest hill in the area and had to give way a few times to traffic coming up the hill as is the norm. We n the third give way it all the g a sudden wemt from all the brakes to none of the brakes. Pulled it up with a panic skid on the handbrake.

That will be the issue then. Line or cylinder. Am thinking line as it went all of a sudden.  

Edited May 31 by Rustybullethole

[sierraman]

Cheap enough if you are a trader etc? Poundland

[ruffgeezer]

1 hour ago, Rustybullethole said:

Not used the Citroen in about three weeks so dead pleased though not surprised when  it unlocked and started no drama. Drove up the hill thinking how i like this little carvan and it still brings me joy whilst being a useful donkey. 

Turned to drive down the steepest hill in the area and had to give way a few times to traffic coming up the hill as is the norm. We n the third give way it all the g a sudden wemt from all the brakes to none of the brakes. Pulled it up with a panic skid on the handbrake.

That will be the issue then. Line or cylinder then. Am thinking line as it went all of a sudden.  

When I sold our old one, I took it for it's mot prior to hand over and popped one of the rear cylinder on my way to the test station. 

[Rustybullethole]

25 minutes ago, ruffgeezer said:

When I sold our old one, I took it for it's mot prior to hand over and popped one of the rear cylinder on my way to the test station. 

Joy. Was correct on the line diagnosis. 

Holey moley 

I have some pipe and the flaring tool. Next mission, find the fuckers.

[ruffgeezer]

No stopping you now, then!

[lesapandre]

BBC website deep into the culture wars. It's just a business decision for ****s sake. Obviously not enough news atm 😂

Ferrari wanted to take on Chinese EVs with the Luce - then the backlash started

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l2y7j7454o

Anyway back in the real world I took the ex @Bradders59Citroen C1 out for a run. What excellent cars these little poppets are. Saw at least 10 similar - they are everywhere. 100% recommended if you are after a runabout.

[Bradders59]

I still miss the little thing. Half wish I had tried to sell you the Leaf instead. 😄

[Popsicle]

@auntiemaryscanary I didn't make the 500k miles in May, just 109 miles short, so near yet so far.....

I gave it a good go, according to the vans tracker nearly 9k miles covered in May.

I'm not booked out for anything on Monday, I'm sure something will pop up, it normally does and that should see the half million come round.

[auntiemaryscanary]

13 minutes ago, Popsicle said:

@auntiemaryscanary I didn't make the 500k miles in May, just 109 miles short, so near yet so far.....

I gave it a good go, according to the vans tracker nearly 9k miles covered in May.

I'm not booked out for anything on Monday, I'm sure something will pop up, it normally does and that should see the half million come round.

You could could have taken it round the block 109 times. 9k is still a lot of miles in a month to us mere mortals. Keep on Caddy-ing sir.

[Split_Pin]

A lovely drive up to rural Aberdeenshire this evening in the L322. Sunday night is the time to be out and about, even the roadworks in the A90 weren't busy.

Definitely a really nice part of the world.

Scores on the doors for the TD6:

Did still use £55 of diesel though. To be expected for something that weighs 2.5 tons and has the aerodynamics of Windsor Castle.

To be fair I've had it nearly a year and use it only for short and medium journeys and this is the first time I've ever noticed any thirst from it. Which is good going all things considered.

Its absolutely sublime with the cruise on 80% of the way, eats up the miles.

[Wibble]

Number two son is in the middles of his GSCEs at the moment. It’s been half term, he has been revising but also making his leaving shirt, for all to sign. Looks like an epitaph to me, but what do I know?

[High Jetter]

24 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Number two son is in the middles of his GSCEs at the moment. It’s been half term, he has been revising but also making his leaving shirt, for all to sign. Looks like an epitaph to me, but what do I know?

Lettering aside, who is FR EDDY? The girl looks ok.

[Wibble]

28 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Lettering aside, who is FR EDDY? The girl looks ok.

There are no spaces, so I don’t understand how you’ve read it like that. Freddy is my youngest son. The girl is a singer he loves, “Alana del rey” that we call Alana del doom, because her songs are so miserable.

He’s done that drawing of her, on his shirt, with a marker pen, I reckon he’s done alright

[Wibble]

28 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Lettering aside, who is FR EDDY? The girl looks ok.

There are no spaces, so I don’t understand how you’ve read it like that. Freddy is my youngest son. The girl is a singer he loves, “Alana del rey” that we call Alana del doom, because her songs are so miserable.

He’s done that drawing of her, on his shirt, with a marker pen, I reckon he’s done alright

[loserone]

3 minutes ago, Wibble said:

There are no spaces, so I don’t understand how you’ve read it like that.

He's getting old, bless his cotton socks

[High Jetter]

1 minute ago, Wibble said:

There are no spaces, so I don’t understand how you’ve read it like that. Freddy is my youngest son. The girl is a singer he loves, “Alana del rey” that we call Alana del doom, because her songs are so miserable.

He’s done that drawing of her, on his shirt, with a marker pen, I reckon he’s done alright

The R looks thin, and I now see the D's are too. Kerning?

The image of the girl is stunning. She can sing.

[High Jetter]

3 minutes ago, loserone said:

He's getting old, bless his cotton socks

Yea, Ovaltine please 😀

[Wibble]

14 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

The R looks thin, and I now see the D's are too. Kerning?

The image of the girl is stunning. She can sing.

I’m sorry he doesn’t meet your standards. I was quite impressed.

[wuvvum]

Bit of a fleet update - haven't got as much done as I would have liked as it's been too bloody hot a lot of the time.

Fitted a secondhand injector to the Toyota.  I fitted a brand new one last year but it was a Chinesium special from eBay (Denso no longer make new ones).  Fitting that confirmed that the fault was with the original injector, as the car ran on all four cylinders after it was fitted, but it was still a bit spluttery on cold start-up and I had a sneaking suspicion that my £8 Chinese injector wasn't made to quite the same tolerances as the OEM part...  So I bought a used Denso injector, and the difference was obvious as soon as I started the engine - it ran like new again, no spluttering and the idle was rock steady.  So that was £20 well spent.

Made a start on cutting the rot out of the Innocenti's sills in preparation for getting new metal welded in.

That's about as much as I could do without taking the doors off - I think the driver's door at least is going to have to come off as the rot goes right up to the bottom of the hinge so the repair is going to need the hinge to be out of the way.  I tried unscrewing the hinges to make sure they'd come off when needed - a Philips screwdriver made no impression on them at all, my impact driver got one loose but wouldn't touch the others, but the impact gun with a Philips bit shoved into a 8mm socket soon got them loose. 

I was also going to do the valve clearances but it was just too bloody hot for that, although I did spend a while degreasing and jet washing the area round the rocker cover so that when I do get around to taking it off I don't get a load of crap falling into the engine.

The Merc needed the offside indicator repeater sorting - it's built into the mirror and it was working very intermittently, so I thought I'd better sort it in advance of the MOT next week.  It turned out to be dodgy contacts caused by corrosion in the plug - I tried contact cleaner to start with which improved things a bit but it still wasn't great, so I took the mirror casing off again, rubbed the pins down with a tiny square of sandpaper and stuck a needle into the socket to try and clean that out.  That seems to have worked.

Last weekend I had a go at regassing the Merc's aircon using a tin of DIY refrigerant from eBay.  That worked in the sense that the aircon then kicked in and blew cold, but it wasn't quite enough to fill the system - the pressures were low, the low side was only showing about 15psi with the system running, and the static pressure was about 55psi - pressure in a R134a system should apparently be roughly equal to the ambient temperature in Fahrenheit, so should have been just over 70.  So I've added most of another can which has brought the readings up to more or less where they should be, and has also reduced the hissing noises from the system when switched on.  I know some people on here frown upon DIY regassing, to say the least, but it's worked, the aircon is cold, and to the best of my knowledge no nuns or kittens have met their demise as a direct result, so I'm calling that a win.

[Supernaut]

11 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

A lovely drive up to rural Aberdeenshire

I thought my spidey senses were tingling yesterday...

 

Anyway, I was at Crathes car show yesterday, but then me and my friend went out to Braemar just for the sake of it and saw these just casually roll up.

Forget the car show!

[Rustybullethole]

Brake line and flaring kit located. The flaring kit was fairly easy found as was down the back of the cabinet where it fell about three years ago.  Getting to that spot took some doing. Have wire brushed and lubricated the ferrels I am just having a coffee before i round the beejesus out of them. 

Loosing brakes is always slightly alarming though in the far to many to mention instances where its happened to me on the road  It's been possible to stop safely. On the track is another story! Public highway there should always be a margin for error.

[Rustybullethole]

LIvE  ACTIOnZ

[Rustybullethole]

Well that was more of a war than need be.

No rounding off thanks to proper brake spanner, a little knowledge and lots of luck. Ne end flared a treat, probably the best i've done. Clearly this is where I peaked, it soon petered off, rapidly.

Other end was a complete twat. Even careful working of the copper pipe had it cracking, many, many times over. When i thought it was good, it leaked, twice. Bastard. 

A step away was required. Came back with a fresh view, modded the flaring tool and got it first hit. 

Boomshack.

 

[wuvvum]

On 30/05/2026 at 22:09, wuvvum said:

Scores on the doors for the Rover after a ~500-mile trip to Manchester and back via Halesowen:

I think it's safe to say it's going to hit 200K this year...

It ran faultlessly as always, and it actually wasn't that bad of a drive - the traffic wasn't as bad as I'd feared given that it's the end of half term, and the sat nav took me on some spectacularly pretty Peak District back roads to avoid the queue for the roadworks on the A628.  Oh, and the aircon still works, which is a Brucie bonus - in fact it was a Godsend today, especially in slow-moving traffic.  Why it didn't work when I tried it a few months back I have no idea - maybe it was just having a moment.

One more thing - I've said this before but I'll say it again, I fucking hate the M6.

Couple more observations from this trip:

-Diesel prices seem to vary quite significantly across the country.  I filled up at my local Tesco at 1.81, which is the cheapest around here by quite a bit.  Up in Lincolnshire though it's down below 1.80, even at services on the A17 where it'd normally be a bit dearer.  The cheapest I could find in Halesowen was 1.86.

-I've realised that the layby on the A628 where I stopped for a piss was the same layby where I stopped for the same purpose on the way home from collecting the Ypsilon back in April 2021.  Small world!

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Couple more observations from this trip:

-Diesel prices seem to vary quite significantly across the country.  I filled up at my local Tesco at 1.81, which is the cheapest around here by quite a bit.  Up in Lincolnshire though it's down below 1.80, even at services on the A17 where it'd normally be a bit dearer.  The cheapest I could find in Halesowen was 1.86.

-I've realised that the layby on the A628 where I stopped for a piss was the same layby where I stopped for the same purpose on the way home from collecting the Ypsilon back in April 2021.  Small world!

I regularly boycott my local garage as they are always slow to respond to fuel price drops. Its 1.82 for diesel there but 1.78 just along the road. My son for some reason has become a bit of a sentinel for spotting and flagging the lower priced forecourts as we drive about.