The new news 24 thread

[cort16]

I've given my mate custody of my SD1 and he was coming to get it yesterday morning. I charged the battery up the night before, drop it in and it just cranked, splutter then cranked but no start.

Got spark, can see fuel in the filter but nothing. Took the fuel pipes off and....no fuel getting pumped through but can hear the pump. It was a bit low on pez so I lobbed a gallon in it (after pissing it all over my shoes) and it still wouldn't start. Also battery was getting a bit weak by this point so I took the risk of rolling it down the drive. Because the drive is at an angle I suspect the fuel was sitting at the back of the tank. and the pump was sooking air. The downside of this plan is if I can't start it the drive is way too steep to push it back up and it's stuck out on the road! I jumped it off the BMW and woosh it was away.

 

It took it for a spin and is the bastard not running totally sweet. The gearbox changes smoothly and it doesn't bog down anymore. It looks like it was the dashpots that was the problem after all.

 

Anyway he's spent all yesterday cleaning 3 years of garage crud out of it and polishing the life out of it. It'll be good for it to get some use and it gets it out my way. Problem is do I stil prefer it to the Cortina, which so far has been a crushing dissapointment?

[richardmorris]

Panzer wagon is back. Wiring to one of the coils was breaking down (original loom ). He's repaired this and recommends a partial loom section next time the plugs are changed. He wouldn't take any more than quoted for the headgasket either.

 

Also that 190 he's got has a 12v 3litre engine in it  - it goes quite well!

[gordonbennet]

Wow Richard, if i were you i'd do the lottery this week.

 

more often than not when that loom starts to break down the coils short out and the ecu gets spiked, you are one lucky dude, i had a horrible feeling when you mentioned 2 cyls had gone down, if you look on that site Carelect i linked above he notes the problem with our loom problems on the website.

 

I wouldn't leave it like that, presumably taped up, i'd get the short engine loom section renewed ASAP, mine was OK when the plugs were changed, seriously no sign of breaking down, within 6 months it was crumbling like Cheshire cheese.

 

Frpm memory the full loom which i needed was around £550 about 6 or so years ago, the short loom (£50ish) wasn't made available till about a year later...which is why i don't bother with the bloody lottery...oh and i was at the back of the soddin queue when they dished willies out too..

 

TBH your loom has lasted well, mine went at about 12 years old which appears to be the norm.

[richardmorris]

Thanks for the advice. He did say that it was relatively low mileage for the gasket to go like mine (89K), but thought my regular use (9,000 a year) after a period of inactivity could do it. He also mentioned that the scorpion alarms like mine were poor when he was fitting them in the 90s - often caused more trouble than help and I was better off without it. One of the reasons I thought (hoped!) the loom had been done was the age of the car, most of them seem to last about 10-12yrs like your experience. 

 

I will certainly get him to fit a short loom replacement sooner rather than later.

 

I'm theologically opposed to the lottery but will keep the fingers crossed for ernie to bring up my premium bonds:-)

[stuboy]

whilst on patrol got asked by excollege employee to help with an animal that couldnt get back on its feet, so we meet him and his missus and with a blanket we got sid back on his feet, here he is with his chums..

[cort16]

I've just seen the sd1 and its like a different car! Amazing what a bit of cleaning can do.

[cms206]

Went to a car boot sale this morning expecting to get nothing. Managed to pick up a Maisto Pug 309, Husky Citroen DS Safari, Whizzwheels S1 Jag XJ6 and two or three other bits and pieces for a quid, then topped it all by finding an unused wheel and tyre for the MIL's Matiz for a tenner.

GR8!

[Shep Shepherd]

Discovered today that 'Vitrail' transparent glass/plastic paint applied with a good paintbrush is great at restoring the red segments of Volvo 700/900 tail lights, as this picture demonstrates:

 

 

The lights are aftermarket ones which were fitted to The Volvo from 2005-2011, but they were replaced with another pair when the red segments faded to bright pink. Thus refurbished, they will go great on The Wentworth, the in situ tail lights of which are pretty crappy.

 

And what of The Wentworth, you ask? Well, I've been busy all weekend cleaning it up and replacing various bits with parts from my Shep Stash© which were either once fitted to The Volvo or were picked up at scrapyards during the last ten years. Although the car has a few issues, it's very sound and goes really well, especially when the turbocharger spools up. I promise that I'll start a thread about it when I'm less busy, but for now, here's a picture of it with The Volvo for you delectation:

 

[derskine]

Well, it's running again.

 

[Shep Shepherd]

^

 

Good stuff. Renault 18s are cool cars

[derskine]

Thanks - but I think most people outside autoshite/the renault owners club would disagree!

Unbelievable the number of people who don't know what it is at all though.

[Shep Shepherd]

Thanks - but I think most people outside autoshite/the renault owners club would disagree!

Unbelievable the number of people who don't know what it is at all though.

 

I think you're right, sadly. I base my experiences of the 18 on a 1985 'Deauville' special edition which a family member owned in the 1990s - that thing could really shift!

 

I reckon that very many people currently working at Renault dealers wouldn't even know what it is.

[HillmanImp]

I went and fitted a new choke cable to the GT6 today but no matter what I did, I could not pull it out (fnar fnar). It seems that one of the Jet heads on the carb is seized solid so I am assuming my normal position on the sofa drinking vino collapso instead of just dealing with it.

[Ghosty]

Going out for a drive is a lot more fun when the driver actually knows how to drive, will do the speed limit and doesn't have a gutless car (Mother Ghosty...), as I learned today sitting in one of Old Man's colleagues' Golf Bluemotion.

[wuvvum]

I sold the Beluga today, to an older chap who turned up in an immaculate 22,000-mile Rover 414SLi (R8 shape) in BRG metallic (with a trailer on the back obvs).  I got exactly what I paid for it, so will have to write off the cost of going to Kent to get the fugging thing and the battery that I nicked off the Spacy to start it, but it's my fault for assuming it was a four-stroke when I bid and not bothering to check.  The chap has rebuilt Suzuki GT380s in his time so should have a better chance than me of getting the thing running properly.

 

I took the "new" Honda scooter for a proper test run this afternoon - 25-mile round trip to a mate's and back.  It managed it fine and didn't miss a beat, although initial impressions are that it is a little on the thirsty side for such a small bike (although in its defense I was flat out pretty much all the way - A-roads and a strong headwind on the way back (which oddly was a side wind on the way up)).  It's actually surprisingly good on winding back roads - the suspension isn't particularly sophisticated but it doesn't seem to have the space-hopper tendencies of the 80cc version in bumpy corners, and it's so light that it can be thrown around with gay abandon despite the basic setup.  The flip side is that it also gets thrown around quite a bit by the wind - the Spacy is noticeably more stable.  Anyway, it looks like it's going to be up to the commute to work, so weather permitting I might pootle to the office on it next week.

 

On a less positive note, the battery in the Toyota has died.  It was getting tired but was coping fine when I was using the car every day.  Unfortunately leaving it standing for a week or so flattened the battery, and putting it on charge appears to have finished it off - it's now putting out 10.4 volts.  So that's two batteries I now need to buy - one for the Toyota and one for the Innocenti.  Bumhats.

[Lankytim]

I spent some time today faffing about with the XM. The hydractive suspension doesn't work and has been bypassed with an aftermarket piggy-back ECU which puts the suspension in soft mode. I've read that the problem is burned out diodes in the suspension ECU meaning the suspension is permanently in "hard" mode.

 

I have a few spare suspension ECU's from XM's that I've scrapped so dug out a known good one and connected it up. It's bolted to the engine ECU so I swapped the whole lot over. Started the thing up and although the sports suspension light doesn't light up with the ignition lights it does when the sports button is pressed. Apparently this means there's a stored fault on the ECU. Driving around I can't tell if the new ECU has fixed the issue or not, it's deffo not stuck in hard mode anyway.

 

The XM was parked up for an hour or so outside the inlaws and when I went back out the immobiliser had kicked in so I had to input the code....except it wouldn't work! bugger! After 20 mins of head scratching I realised that the engine ECU obviously had the immobiliser on it. A quick swap back to the original ECU and things were all sorted. It's a pity as it seemed to run much better on the donor ECU. I'f I can find the code for it I'll fit it again and see how things go.

[richardmorris]

Is the immobiliser keypad in front of the gearstick? Can you just pull the plug out of the back when the car's running? I think that's all you need to do to the similar xantia ones (but could be mistaken!).

[Richard]

You would have to get the engine running in the first place to do that.

[Ratdat]

Full story when I get back but so far I've been to Troyes which is a bit South East of Paris, to buy some awesome tat from a nice French fellow who spoke no English at all, which tested my limited French somewhat. Now after about 900 miles I'm over in the West near Montournais, chillin at my mate's gaff while I prepare for the long haul back up to Calais. It was all a bit short notice (when I left at midnight, I didn't even have an Euros) and I had to go about 35 hours without any kip but so far everything's gone well. Here's why I was in such a hurry...

 

 

 

[Cavcraft]

In far less exciting than Ratdat's news, our Corsa C has finally departed for pastures new. We had it two or three years and it helped my son learn to drive, so the missus was quite sad to see it go.

[stuboy]

not much.. but realising the rear wheels on work pug partner are looking wonkier

[dollywobbler]

I have mostly been tackling 2CV bodywork. Nice day for it!

[320touring]

painting white cars on sunny days is for Winnars!

[dollywobbler]

Typical. I get the paint on, wife puts out the washing, it clouds over and starts raining. Happily, I think the paint had dried and I'd soaked everything in anti-rot wax. 2CV is now back in the garage.

[richardmorris]

You would have to get the engine running in the first place to do that.

 

 

Yes, but you could get it running on the original ecu. Unplug the immobiliser keypad and then swap the ecus. Of course I could be wrong.

[vulgalour]

Troll weather: I see you're trying to stop your 2CV rusting there, it would be a shame if it rained just after you put fresh paint on all that exposed metal.

[320touring]

Typical. I get the paint on, wife puts out the washing, it clouds over and starts raining. Happily, I think the paint had dried and I'd soaked everything in anti-rot wax. 2CV is now back in the garage.

one of the few benefits of my unit- space thats mostly dry..

 

just the 130 mile round trip thats the killer

[richardmorris]

Having just finished polishing the merc, this happens.

[dollywobbler]

Ok. I got off lightly! By the way Richard, having picked up a copy of Citroenian yesterday (as I visited the stand-in editor) I feel very foolish! Hadn't realised that you were the two-horse columnist!

[Ghosty]

Today I've spotted an Pennsylvania registered Ford pickup driving around Macclesfield, and a New Zealand registered 1970s Land Cruiser went past while I was outside my house....

 

Oh, and a Dimma kitted 205, and a ragtop Fairlane...