The new news 24 thread

[Jazoli]

What's the appeal of that plate?  I can't make any sense of it.

 

Its my Dad's initials, sort of, I know its a cheap NI plate but it'd make a good birthday present for him to stick on his car and save him from having to buy something new just because his neighbour has, probably, or not

[Ghosty]

Daft as it sounds, is your reverse rake on the Audi due to having front springs on the back and vice versa?

 

Can't put the front springs on the rear as they're different shapes.

 

 

Is it not the springs that control the rideheight rather than  dampers? Reverse rake would suggest the rear springs are too soft?

 

 

Yeah, that's what we think too. Bought springs specifically for an A4 quattro, but this makes me start to wonder if they're for a FWD setup. Unfortunately I can't really comment on the softness due to the fucked shocks but from what little experience I have of sitting in the back of the A4 behind the driver (that's the side that works, don't usually sit there due to legroom issues), it's sort of bouncy but comfortable.

The front ride height didn't change at all despite changing the standard (-20mm? not sure) springs for -40mm either, which is odd. Does handle better though.

My theory (I'm clueless about sus tech) is that the fucked shock isn't actually doing anything/not holding pressure, so the car's pushing it down, where it's staying (it's OE and 81000 miles old). The previously fitted springs were too long and I'm wondering if that's relevant. But if that is true why is it equally low at both sides?

 

Shocks needed doing anyway and Bilsteins were hardly more expensive than ECP/Sachs ones so that's why we got them.

 

Seems like we're the first owner (the 5th!) to care about maintenance at all - first two owners were well-off Sheffield folk, followed by someone from Luton that drove it into something and bodged it back together with filler, rattle cans and self tappers, then fitted too tall rear springs for an MOT, and a garage owner from Denton that didn't do anything to it except replace the rear light clusters and add some questionable quattro stickers.

 

I guess that's Audis for you, though.

 

Is it not the springs that control the rideheight rather than  dampers? Reverse rake would suggest the rear springs are too soft?

 

[anonymous user]

Omg that's nice! Crystal green, one of my fav Ford colours of that era.

Is that a Lincoln hood ornament?! And if it is can I have it if you don't want it!?

Unless I'm mistaken, it's the one that they used to fit to the Mk4 Zodiac.

[Ghosty]

Yeah, wouldn't a Lincoln one be vertical?

[trigger]

I haven't a clue although i seem to recall someone once saying it was a Zodiac badge. Still nasty on a Mk5 though.

[Matt]

I want the barren spec

 

Amusingly refereed to as the 'UN spec' by one review I saw.

[danthecapriman]

Unless I'm mistaken, it's the one that they used to fit to the Mk4 Zodiac.

Yes I think your right. It's too small to be Lincoln/Mercury ornament.

 

 

Lincoln ornaments were indeed similar but vertical, the Mercury ones (like on mine) could be either way by the looks of it. Mines horizontally mounted like that one on the Cortina but some seem to be the other way around.

[For Fiats Sake]

The Renault has an electrical problem.  Quelle surprise!  Bit of an odd one.  Fitted the new headlight and I'd thought that the dimness of one bulb was down to the fact there was no silvering on the knackered old headlight bowl and no lens.  However, on fitting the new headlight one bulb remains really dim.  We've swapped the bulbs side to side and checked continuity on the bulbs and found that the bulb is not at fault.  What's even stranger is that when you put it on main beam, the dim bulb gets dimmer.  We've made sure there's a good earth for that light unit too and that hasn't made a jot of difference compared to a poor earth location.

 

Mike has done some tests and the bulb plug on the dim side does behave differently to the bright side with the voltage dropping from about 11 on sidelights and dipped beam to -1 on main beam (not even sure how that's possible, but I'm not a sparky).  Mike suspects there's a broken, chafed or shorting wire in the headlight circuit so he's unwrapping the loom to investigate further.

 

Any ideas welcome on this one, it's not something I've come across before.

I had the same thing on the panda, I just wired in a new pair of spots as I couldn't work it out.  I think it may be the stalk on the steering column that's faulty as I've ruled out the switch, wiring and managing to test it remains a mystery to me.

 

Have a picture of my newly clipped pooch:

[omegod]

Passed a lovely and super rare silver CX gti turbo near Liverpool docks, on trade plates and looked to be borked . I vowed to stop and help on my way back but someone had beat me to it, hoping it wasn't Lord Sterling    

[tooSavvy]

Classic Panda Lurvve...

 

Loving the neat Auto.

 

My 750L was a cracker AND much improved with 2 main mods :-

 

1. Dizzy [electroniq] liberated from a CLX Auto - it fitted straight on with existing wires + retiming

 

2. ARB from a Turbo Lancia - 100% non 'straight on!' @ wet mini roundabouts

 

 

It was a fantastic ride... LuvvEmm

 

 

TS

[254575]

Just bought a Vauxhall Sintra on eBay for £45!

 

MOT fail on a lot of exhaust related stuff, but worth a punt. Drives well apart from the noise!

 

Gr8 4 moving loads of stuff. / camping

[320touring]

OMG KULLECKSZUON

[skattrd]

Alfa 155?

[DVee8]

Astra service today.

Found that the pig tail of a rear spring had snapped,and disc's and pads all round for it's MOT next month.

[trigger]

It's been a busy car related day today, first job was to drop the Dolomite at the garage to have a new clutch fitted and a wheel bearing, I've supplied the parts and my mechanic has quoted £100 to do all the work which is very good. I should be getting it back tomorrow without this judderling clutch hopfully!

 

I then went to my dads so that we could go at look at this Mk5 Cortina, surprisingly he actually took his Mk1 out the garage and so we took that!.

 

 

Sadly the Cortina wasn't quite up to my standards, . The sills had years worth of patches and all the underseal was flaking off, the floor again was full of patches and underseal, there was holes drilled into the B posts and rear arches for these locks in the doors which looked nasty, the rear valance was full of filler as well was the boot floor.

 

Interior wasn't as nice in the flesh and the engine bay had been well tarted up and hand painted over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

His wife said he couldn't sell it for any less than £3800 which is far to much money, if it was £2800-3000 I'd probably had bought it back at nearly £4k there's no money left to sort the problems out.

 

I took the Astra to Harwich, my dads and then back home which was about 100 miles and it was fine other than a brief moment when it kept stalling, i think there's some shit in the carb still but it quickly cleared itself. I took some photos at the local Vauxhall garage on the way back.

 

 

 

[DVee8]

Jeeze how much bigger is a new-ish astra.

 

How much less glass.

[trigger]

I parked next to a new Corsa yesterday in my Dolomite and that drowned it!

[Heidel_Kakao]

[ruffgeezer]

Ahh, got a 20p stuck in the handbrake? A common fault that, Sir.

[320touring]

Alfa 155?

nup!

[catsinthewelder]

OMG KULLECKSZUON

 

E46?

[catsinthewelder]

A horrible scraping noise under braking was reported on Our Lasses Disco this week. I had some front pads in stock so spent Tuesday evening fitting them and swearing at the state of the pistons. A quick test drive confirmed that the noise was still present so when I got back I ordered in rear pads and a front rebuild kit (1 calipers worth should sort it).

 

Both were due to Land yesterday but I only got the pads so fitted them today. What a hopeless design, one of the pads had dropped down onto the disc surface and had been rubbing a groove through it, another had come loose and rotated through 90 degrees. Being as this one was putting the least stress on the hydraulic system it had worn down to the metal where the others were still 80% OK. Apparently this is normal, workarounds involve fitting 110 pads that engage in the normal way or welding a bead along the edge of the pad. I did neither as the Ferodo pads that I had bought were a much tighter fit than whatever they replaced but I did buy a proper fitting kit as the last person to work here used a bent bit of wire in place of a split pin and two of the springs were missing.

 

 

I was cheered up by Chris JVM turning up in his Gooner to drop off the spare key for the 405.

[hairnet]

It's been a busy car related day today, first job was to drop the Dolomite at the garage to have a new clutch fitted and a wheel bearing, I've supplied the parts and my mechanic has quoted £100 to do all the work which is very good. I should be getting it back tomorrow without this judderling clutch hopfully!

 

I then went to my dads so that we could go at look at this Mk5 Cortina, surprisingly he actually took his Mk1 out the garage and so we took that!.

 

 

Sadly the Cortina wasn't quite up to my standards, . The sills had years worth of patches and all the underseal was flaking off, the floor again was full of patches and underseal, there was holes drilled into the B posts and rear arches for these locks in the doors which looked nasty, the rear valance was full of filler as well was the boot floor.

 

Interior wasn't as nice in the flesh and the engine bay had been well tarted up and hand painted over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

His wife said he couldn't sell it for any less than £3800 which is far to much money, if it was £2800-3000 I'd probably had bought it back at nearly £4k there's no money left to sort the problems out.

 

I took the Astra to Harwich, my dads and then back home which was about 100 miles and it was fine other than a brief moment when it kept stalling, i think there's some shit in the carb still but it quickly cleared itself. I took some photos at the local Vauxhall garage on the way back.

 

 

 

keep meaing to do that with the visa at the citroen place but if im working i cba and the other saturdays im off doing bike shizz

[320touring]

E46?

Correctaru!

 

my brothergot it today, seems reasonable enough..

 

we picked it up with the 316 so It knew the script:)

 

needs a right guid clean

[trigger]

For £80 to fit the clutch (and another £20 to do the bearing it wasn't even worth hoping my tool box! In other news I've just washed and checked the Audi over ready it's new buyers 720 mile drive home to the Orkneys tomorrow. he's currently at Thurso waiting for the bus to Inverness. Hardcore.

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

That's the 2nd cortina I've seen with locks fitted to the bottoms of the doors. WTF is that all about?

Quite a common security mod in the 70's and 80's. Fords, had particularly shit locks, I had a Ford key for years that would open and start about 75% of Granadsa,Cortinas,Capris even mk1 Sierras.

Usually found on reps cars to protect samples etc, they were fitted to a Renault 16 I bought from my Dads work, there was one on each side of the tailgate on that too.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Yesterday, this happened;

 

I know 200,000 is , cliche alert, barely run in for a Merc Dizzler . But now I'm having anxious thoughts about it breaking and needing a new car for work.

These thoughts didn't stop me putting my foot down a bit on familiar roads At 03.30 morning though, still goes well enough for me to realise I was somewhere between a ban and prison on a bit of straight private A road.

Don't know if I'm trying to prove to myself if it's the car or me that's past it- idiot.

[Skizzer]

Well, I got one job done today - fitted some new gas struts to the XJ-S so the bonnet stays up on its own.  The 'new' Jaguar Heritage struts had the Austin Rover Group logo on them.

 

Look no hands! (Or broom handles) by Skizzer, on Flickr

 

My trusty broom handle is back in its cupboard.  Actually, second thoughts, I'll keep it in the boot.

[vulgalour]

Wow, how much brake dust build up is there on the front wheels of that BMW!  At first I thought it was a questionable respray.

[richardmorris]

Just got roped in to another wedding with the 2cv - original volunteer no 2 with a green 2cv has broken her foot. Volunteer no 3 has a yellow 2cv which the bride ( from hell?) doesn't like. Given that this is all free and gratis is she being picky? I don't mind doing the odd thing for petrol money, but I know that two classic cars for a wedding will be running into high hundreds commercially. What does she expect if one breaks down en-route?p

 

Edit: This is the 6th August, so if the 2 cv doesn't start the bride will have to do with my X1/9 !