Project Shirley Knott's Evil Web Of Shite - Volvo gets a clean sheet MOT, now on to wheel trims, thermostat and brakes revisited

[320touring]

Timing belt?

 

Cannae hide money😄

[Shirley Knott]

14 minutes ago, 320touring said:

Timing belt?

 

Cannae hide money😄

They're pretty reasonable TBF man....

[320touring]

Aye but it sounds like effort🤣

[AxWomble]

1 hour ago, Shirley Knott said:

Yeah, this one's actually surprisingly good from a corrosion standpoint, a bit of hidden gem really.... I'd actually set out to buy a C1/107/Aygo, but within our price range they were all invariably rotten or formally written off (Both in some instances). 

RE plugs, unsure at this stage... I'll confirm shortly though as they're on the 'to do' list along with timing belt and a few other bits.

These Clios are brilliant - we’ve got a friend with a very neglected 2007 1.2 that just will not give up. Never gives a moment’s trouble - she throws it at the mechanic once a year and says “get it through the MOT” and is handed a freshly serviced car and a bill of no more than £300. 
 

Cambelt isn’t difficult either - daft not to for that money

[artdjones]

Much smoother than a 107 with 4 cylinders instead of 3.

[Shirley Knott]

10 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Much smoother than a 107 with 4 cylinders instead of 3.

That's it.

They actually feel another step up the ladder towards being a 'proper' car from a C1/Aygo/107 (Although they're also great, but in different ways).

If the Clio offered £20  tax rather than £180 and a chain engine, thus avoiding belt charges it would win hands down.

 

[artdjones]

45 minutes ago, Shirley Knott said:

That's it.

They actually feel another step up the ladder towards being a 'proper' car from a C1/Aygo/107 (Although they're also great, but in different ways).

If the Clio offered £20  tax rather than £180 and a chain engine, thus avoiding belt charges it would win hands down.

 

If you do your own timing belt it's a couple of hours and £60 every five years. So not that bad. Another +1 for the Clio is the presence of an actual boot rather than a slot. 

The tax is annoying, but for £3 a week extra you're getting a real car. It's strange, I always preferred PSA stuff, but the last small cars they did that had appeal to me as much as a Clio were the 106s and Saxos. Although the 107/C1 are really Toyota anyway.

 

[Shirley Knott]

Just changed the plugs on this before setting about making tea.

@320touring, (with relief) I can report there're no special tools required. I assume the 8v cars are easier than their posher 16v brethren.... That being said, the ones that were in there were pretty difficult to get out, perhaps original?? Great resistance and some arse clenching whilst getting them to initially move, and also whilst winding them sloooooowly out.

Old vs new....

Weirdly, the plugs my factor sold me were NGK BKR5EK, which turned out to be an exact match with the ones that came out.

 

[Shirley Knott]

Pretty frustrating evening here- Literally about a third of the way through a timing belt change, sump supported/jacked up, alternator swung forward, engine mount removed.... and.... wait for it.... I don't have an 18mm socket in 1/2" inch impact flavour.

Very little chance of removing the crank pulley bolt with 3/8 stuff and a 12" breaker.  Ive furiously re-assembled everything and reversed it out of the workshop.

Current status- Sat sulking with a single malt whilst ordering sockets from Ebay.

 

 

[Shirley Knott]

FINALLY got the timing belt done on the Clio last night.

 

 

The crank pulley nut buzzed right out with my corded Silverline impact gun of excellence (Praise the lord and the baby Jesus)

 

 

All in all the operation went smoothly.  Waterpump was checked and found not to be leaking so was left as is. I have another one on hand should troubles arise in future.

 

 

 

 

 

Total cost for the kit was £35, so bit of a no brainer. The cars only done 60k, but it's nearly 15 years old and the stuff that came off was clearly original and badly worn.

 

 

Alternator belt was replaced at the same time as it was coming off anyway and only cost £7 so daft not to.

And then this morning I changed the gearbox oil. The old oil looked fairly bad, so again, a decent bit of preventative maintenance. 

 

 

 

[beko1987]

Nice! Do all that in 5 years time again with oil and filter every summer and it'll go on forever* 👍

[Shirley Knott]

I'd noticed the Clio temperature was up and down, so today a new thermostat was the first port of call.

At £13 for a Dayco unit, it's daft not to...

The thermostat lives here (Hole on side of block where the old one came from)....

Access is great and in less than 20 minutes a new 'stat was fitted....

This worked a treat- Temperature is now locked in at 4 bars after a couple of miles warming up, and the onboard MPG average has jumped up from mid 30's to mid 40's. Result.

 

 

[AxWomble]

Nothing like a bit of cheap maintenance to get a simple car up to a good spec. It’ll serve you well if you keep this up! 

[Shirley Knott]

1 hour ago, AxWomble said:

Nothing like a bit of cheap maintenance to get a simple car up to a good spec. It’ll serve you well if you keep this up! 

You've probably tempted fate there!

If habitually running sub £1k cars for the last 20 years has taught me anything, its that once stuff reaches this age, ANYTHING can happen.

Fingers crossed,  this one seems OK so far....

[Shirley Knott]

Busy day yesterday applying 'Lanoblack' rust treatment. In the past I've always used petroleum based stuff.... Only time will tell how good the sheep  based alternatives are eh.

Ita gone on OK at least- I'll let the pics do the talking....

 

After this I met with Aautoshite brethren @catsinthewelder @Schaefft and @loserone It was only a brief one, but it was interesting  to meet you all and good to see some  French cars (Not something Im usually into TBH, but Im starting to see the appeal)

[320touring]

@Shirley Knott this is what I mean about the 172/182 oil filter.

 

Your 1.2 

My 182 (on the left) and my E30 320i on the right

[Shirley Knott]

Aye, that's properly miniscule TBF. Makes you wonder how much filtering can actually be going on really.

[320touring]

2 minutes ago, Shirley Knott said:

Aye, that's properly miniscule TBF. Makes you wonder how much filtering can actually be going on really.

Too busy gaun lit fuck Tae bother filtering

[artdjones]

6 minutes ago, Shirley Knott said:

Aye, that's properly miniscule TBF. Makes you wonder how much filtering can actually be going on really.

They've been flat like that for many decades without getting a reputation for lubrication failure, so it seems to work.

[320touring]

Just now, artdjones said:

They've been flat like that for many decades without getting a reputation for lubrication failure, so it seems to work.

To be fair, most 182's don't manage between oil changes before breaking😁

[artdjones]

30 minutes ago, Shirley Knott said:

Aye, that's properly miniscule TBF. Makes you wonder how much filtering can actually be going on really.

You could also get Purflux LS946, which is basically the same filter but deeper.

[Shirley Knott]

Not much going on here over the last 3 months. The Clio had some new front pads, and the V70 got an oil and filter change in October. It then spent the festive period hauling Christmad trees around and generally being used as the family van.

I've been looking after my brothers cars as usual (Both Mk1 diesel Octavias, the blue one us a VE ALH 90 TDI, and the silver one an SDI in AQM flavour)

Basically, aside from an indicator that lost its lense, and an upgrade to Osram Nightbreakers on one of them, they've needed nothing.

This one's now approaching 220k miles, illustrating the terrible VAG build quality and reliability that it used to be trendy on here to talk about!

Meanwhile,  today I set about the annual adjustments to the Volvo's handbrake system in preparation for MOT next week.

These are a major week point for the P2 platform across the board, and despite the annual battle to set it up as best as I can, I never escape without and advisory for it.

 

 

[Shirley Knott]

I had a day off yesterday, so a couple of minor jobs were completed on the remaining fleet.

V70 

This one passed its MOT with a clean sheet last week, but meanwhile has been cruising around struggling to raise the temperature guage above 30% - Not good for a PCV system already infamous for gunking up.  A stuck thermostat was my diagnosis.  A very simple job on pre 2003 P2 cars thankfully. 

Old vs new (NOS calorstat branded item sourced via Ebay for £12)

The original was Volvo branded, so in all likelihood had been in situ for 23 years. New stat installed, now the temperature gauge is pinned in the middle so job jobbed.

Clio

Next up, squealing brakes on the Clio, in spite of the recent clean up and new pads. Remedied this time by a further strip and clean, chamfering the new pads slightly and installing a new fitting kit (£7) to hopefully allow the pads to move more freely.

I followed this up by replacing the miss matched wheel trims (Different on opposing sides) with a set of spokey looking jobbies from ECP (£13.50)

Old.

New.

As you can see, these give the car much more of an aggressive edge and highlight the 1.2 8v Clios racing heritage,  hopefully firmly establishing my status of the 'cock sportif' of our street.

Total spend for the day, £32.50. Satisfaction gained - Moderate.

[bear-in-the-air]

On 13/01/2024 at 18:46, Shirley Knott said:

Meanwhile,  today I set about the annual adjustments to the Volvo's handbrake system in preparation for MOT next week.

These are a major week point for the P2 platform across the board, and despite the annual battle to set it up as best as I can, I never escape without and advisory for it.

Out of curiosity, how long have the rear discs been on it?

[Shirley Knott]

20 hours ago, bear-in-the-air said:

Out of curiosity, how long have the rear discs been on it?

I actually posted about it on this thread at the time of fitting, so thats an easy one to answer.

21st of September 2019.

[bear-in-the-air]

Ah interesting! My theory for the perpetual fails was people running around with worn drums as I put fresh discs and shoes in 3 years ago and passed again with a tight tester and no advisory for it this year yet. But if you've had issues that long there's probably more to it.