The new news 24 thread

[Sigmund Fraud]

I iz in your reer view with my high beamz on.

After going on about how shit these are I just bought one, oops.

 

WHAT ? HERETIC !

 

I'm afraid you would need to surrender your AS membership card after this, a dodgy-looking man in a beige Sherpa will soon* turn up to collect it !

 

[ruffgeezer]

I think they all look like that, Dolly.

 

We had a diesel one of those in recently, 65k on the clock that had lunched it's turbo, they are a bit prone to that apparently!

 

 

Trig; don't worry, I've got the stripes thing sorted for you!

 

[cort16]

No swirl flaps or blown turbos for me only failed coil packs and random electrical faults.. Part of my reasoning is it should be easy to sell on* once I need to get shot of it.

[320touring]

No swirl flaps or blown turbos for me only failed coil packs and random electrical faults.. Part of my reasoning is it should be easy to sell on* once I need to get shot of it.

The m54 seem fairly robust, not a lot of love for petrol 5 series due to percieved OMGMPG. The old boy's e60 520i was ideal for a schlep to the German gp-gave 33mpg at 90ish over 2k miles.

 

Ok to work on so far too-although the castrol edge 5w-30 is steep (esp as nearly 7l is needed) Opie oils do a good deal on service packs.

 

That and runflats, tsk!

[Cavcraft]

I iz in your reer view with my high beamz on.

After going on about how shit these are I just bought one, oops. Last minute purchase on ebay, I got it at the right price (I think). Down side is it's a 520i, which is the 5th 520i I've owned.

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say they're a very nice looking car.

[gordonbennet]

Bloody nice big boot to stick a 100 litre LPG tank across the rear bulkhead mind, cheaper than Diesel running costs without the timing chain/turbo/vanos/fuck nose what more Diesel issues..

 

Sod me, i forgot the piss, sorry, swirl, flaps dropping into the Diesel and bolloxing it big time.

[spike60]

How much do LPG conversions cost? I would think it makes most sense on a car you're going to put a lot of miles on to recoup the initial cost. 

[gordonbennet]

The H6 Outback is costing £1350 to convert, but thats with an electric flashlube kit, and a carefully chosen geezer doing the job who is 100 miles away.

 

The Benz was converted over 4 years ago, Christ do we regret not doing it years before, its been nothing short of a complete success.

 

Payback on either of our gas guzzlers i reckon @ around £20k miles, probably more for more economical motors.

 

Things is 'payback' isn't the only consideration, well to me anyway, its gives me a stonking hard on every time i fill up and have deprived dick turpin of yet more of my hard earned in tax for him to piss up the wall and give to foreign dictators.

 

To give you an idea, my MB 320 does about 23mpg on petrol and about 21 on gas, currently paying 72ppl at Morrisons and the miles card is worth about 2ppl.

 

You know what some women are alleged to say about trying something and not going back, no tittering at the back you naughty boy, the same applies to LPG, once you've tried it you won't go back.

[Asimo]

Why do LPG converted cars retain all the petrol stuff?

If I had a conversion done, I would want that all gone. LPG is plenty available enough around here for supply to not be an issue.

Someone told me that the deal was "start on petrol, run on LPG". I can't see that is necessary, fork lift trucks are lpg only.

[Shep Shepherd]

Silver estates are for winners. Not that I've got one or owt.

 

 

Wentworths are a nice spec, though that looks like it's had a few upgrades; the seats appear to be from a mid-90s model.

 

I think that they are original, as early Wentworths were available with part leather seats in that style as an option, as were the other models in the 940 range. I've seen quite a few with such seats over the years. The Turbo model had them as standard

[Richard]

Because deleting the petrol bits would be extra work, you can't always get gas and you might want to return the car to standard when you sell. And our forklift is a bastard to start from cold.

[HillmanImp]

 the same applies to LPG, once you've tried it you won't go back.

 

Sorry, but I didn't like LPG. I don't think i would get it again. Its not that cheap anymore, it MPG is worse, its not common enough on forecourts*, it smells funny, takes up room in the boot and most of all its a bit gutless which with the cars I drive is going to be a pain.

 

I did like how it was really clean and you pretty much did not need to worry about oil changes though. After 6 months and severl thousand miles, the oil looked like new on the Audi when I changed it again.  

 

*the amount of times I was queuing up at a pump behind several other cars just to get to the single LPG pump despite there being several other free petrol & diseasiel pumps free is daft. Even if its only 3 minutes a week, thats over 2 and a half hours of my life a year sat doing nowt waiting for a pump. I would be happier paying double for the petrol and getting a better car with better MPG.

[The Moog]

Had an OMFG moment earlier when swapping wheels over from the Xsara and Xantia. I was working on hard packed earth when two jacks gave way. Luckily wheels were still on, i wasn't under the car and no damage was done apart from fucked jacks.

 

I don't go under the car unless on stands but still scared me.. Be safe kids

[vulgalour]

Think I've found out what the cause of the overfuelling on the red Princess' original carb was:  jammed float.  Took the base plate off and there was more of that strange sediment in there and the float wouldn't move at all.  Hope I'm off to a good start today and not a day of more problems.

[beko1987]

See you in the grumpy thread in a few hours then volksy!

[gordonbennet]

Why do LPG converted cars retain all the petrol stuff?

If I had a conversion done, I would want that all gone. LPG is plenty available enough around here for supply to not be an issue.

Someone told me that the deal was "start on petrol, run on LPG". I can't see that is necessary, fork lift trucks are lpg only.

 

All systems on cars start on petrol and click over to LPG when the temp is high enough, otherwise get freezing problems in the evaporator, on some vehicles with restricted space the standard fuel tank has been replaced with a smaller one in order to allow a bigger LPG tank.

A chap i sometimes see filling up in his Cherokee has such a small tank that he only gets 100 miles between fill ups, that would piss me right off, i've never run out of gas and i usually refill mine @ 250 to 300 miles.

 

What you say about going completely LPG makes sense though.

 

LPG isn't for everyone, some areas are good for supply, some are not, i tend not to fill up at normal service stations cos the price is too high.

http://www.filllpg.co.uk/ is the handiest site i know of showing you where to fill up cheapest.

 

I get what HillmanImp says, LPGing an already underpowered car would be an exercise in misery, i can tell the difference on the old Benz, its not quite as sparkling on the gas, but the old girl has more than enough oomph for my needs and still shows some modern metal the way.

 

Yes true i've lost some of the boot on the Benz, but still more than enough for my needs, the Outback is getting a 74 litre toroidal tank in the decent sized spare wheel well, so that means around 66ish litres in real capacity, its doing approx 26mpg on petrol so i expect 23 on gas (some other forum posts reckon that Subarus are more economical on gas but i take that with a pinch of salt) so still a decent enough range.

[HillmanImp]

The LPG on the audi did not start on petrol. It started fine on just gas. Just as well as the carb literally pissed fuel over the manifold and later on there was a hole in the bottom of the petrol tank where some scallys robbed what little archaic fuel was in it (try huffing that dickhead, you could get higher on marmalade).

 

Volksy who i sold it to was happy with the LPG. I think its just not my thang like. Might be a different experience with a different car.

[fordperv]

Trig I think pinstripes spoil the coke bottle shape, it looks gorgeous without the stripe, I am literally salivating at the pictures of it and my wantometer is in the red

[hairnet]

That 2CV thing also applies to vans. Anyone who's spent a lot of time travelling up/down the A5/A483 by Oswestry will know this. Basically you overtake a slow moving car doing about 45mph, then you come to a roundabout, can't accelerate at warp speed because you're ina  loaded van so car overtakes you then does 45mph again. You overtake them again and this process is repeated until you drive in the middle of the road to stop them, they get the work's number of your van, phone your boss and you get shouted at. 

 

Obviously you have to completely deny that you were making several one and two fingered 'suggestions' and shook your fist at them several times.

yer doing it wrong

 

foot flat and dont lift loaded or not.......

[vulgalour]

Still investigating the overfuelling issue which is now intermittent rather than immediate with the carb but I have managed to fire the car up and get it running which is something of an improvement.  Possible pump or remote tank issues to investigate with this one as it does have the larger 2.2 mechanical pump fitted.

[Cavcraft]

I had an LPG only GMC pickup and hated fuelling it up.

O see your point about cocking a snoop at the government etc due to the savings you can make, but you'll never beat veg oil IMHO.

[dollywobbler]

In October 2011, we began a major overhaul of the house. This included removing the garage ceiling, so the electric light fittings were also removed and stashed to one side, so we could fit them once the new ceiling is in place. That new ceiling went in over the winter of 2011. We've just refitted the lights. Yay! This is stage one of 'project reclaim the garage and workshop.' I was wondering why only the 2CV fits in the garage at the moment. I suspect it's because there is half a 2CV and half a BX stashed in there. Wings, doors, an engine, workshop manuals for a BX, boxes of random bits. It's chaos.

 

The workshop is even worse. There is a full set of 2CV doors, three bootlids (one of which was ruined in an accident eight years ago), half a 2CV engine, boxes of even more random bits, a full set of workshop manuals for a Renault 21 etc etc. I need a real sort out!

 

The scrap bootlid will make a good sign for Shitefest though...

[vulgalour]

FIXED IT!  Full report later, I can do other jobs now

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'm off to look at a Primera GT tonight thats up 4 sail on the blue forum. SHITE!

[cort16]

I'm taking a leaf from the award winning bollox old shite contract hire scheme and giving my mate the sd1 for a few months. I need the space, he needs a car and he looks after his stuff. He's already put Saturday aside for cleaning it, which is good cos it's currently covered in ants and seagull shite. He's also going to try to sell it for me with the promise that he'll get a cut of what ever he sells it for above a certain amount.

[cort16]

Those Primera's rust like absolute bastards have a good look behind the inner arch guards I've seen ones that just have acres of fresh air behind them.

[Honey Badger]

Just dropped the Outback in for an LPG conversion.

 

Got an early, lunchtime, finish from work yesterday, so did a quick change of the engine oil, and renewed the oil in both diffs, lovely little job in the sunshine, so easy to work on, proper bloody bolts all easy to et too.

ATF hadn't turned up so couldn't do the gearbox oil, never mind, conversion will be done by next weekend, so will do that on return, and stick a new set of Plutonium sparky plugs in it.

 

Is this somewhere local? I've been thinking about getting the coupe done seems as Wellingborough morrisons sell LPG now.

[gordonbennet]

Is this somewhere local? I've been thinking about getting the coupe done seems as Wellingborough morrisons sell LPG now.

 

Local as in Tenbury Wells, i had considered getting a quote from the bloke at Knebworth too, heard good reports about him but he no longer fits new systems, good converters are spread about pretty thinly, you could have a poke nose on http://www.lpgforum.co.uk/ for some pointers if you fancy.

Tenbury Wells chap is well recommended and has done a good number of Scoobs, proper down to earth geezer too.

I'll do an update in due course when its been running for a while.

 

I get my gas at Morrisons Welly, Corby indy site  near the steelworks used to be quite cheap and i will get it there if passing but its now the same price as Morrisons and with the miles card makes the latter cheaper and i pass through Welly every work day.

[Cavcraft]

Those Primeras are brilliant. Bit dull inside but they all seem to go some, even the 1.6 boggo models. 

 

 

That's the Corsa Sport just gone, hoping the C will be off soon too.

[cobblers]

Begrudgingly replaced the perfectly good looking clutch on my camper with a brand new one after having no better ideas as to how to make it go forward, thankfully it now does go forward quite well. Not sure exactly why, but it works so I won't stress over it, I guess the old one might have got oil on it or something.  After doing stacks of work, I decided to give it a run over the weekend to try and iron out any kinks before we go camping over the bank holiday.

 

It drove lovely, nice weather, wind in my hair through the drafty door seals and leccy windows that only go down, but there was a distinct smell of clutch or brakes. I guessed clutch "bedding in" or maybe the moly grease I'd used on the exhaust to get a particularly tight sleeve joint to fit and carried on like a jebend.

 

Pulled up at home after about 25 miles and 

 

FFS. You can't really see the smoke but there was a lot of smoke and some mild flames too, it was quite dramatic.

 

I kind of thought I might have had I had a caliper somewhere in my "stores", but all the stuff I own I've taken to VW shows and put up for sale, and I'm usually too drunk to remember what I've actually sold.

 

 

Thankfully the flying spaghetti monster was shining on me and I had one, and it only turned out to be a passenger one like what I needed. and it wasn't even hidden in a crate or even underneath anything heavy. I did cop for it on a patch of gearbox oil and ripped part of my arm off, but it's a price I'm willing to pay to not have to pay actual money prices for things. It looked a bit scruffy thought,

 

I wire brushed the shit out of the bleed nipple and stuff then spunked a load of penetrating oil on and it seemed to do the trick, same went for the flexy on the van, and it all bled up in one hit without me ending up needing a new master cylinder like what usually happens to me. The easybleed didn't even explode and shower the inside of the van with brake fluid (the reservoir is between the speedo and revcounter) when I forgot to let the air out of the spare tyre and went at it with 50psi instead of the 9 or something that they recommend.