Ask a Shiter

[mat_the_cat]

If you do the belt, get some photos as proof for the buyer (maybe with a recent newspaper) as anyone can buy a belt and *say* they've changed it...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I would defo do it if you can, even if it costs £250 and takes all weekend. Its the first thing any potential buyer is going to ask. Whether it will make a £250+ impact on the sale price is anyone's guess, but a lot of buyers will immediately switch off if they have to even think about it, so you will defo greatly increase your chances of a sale at whatever price.

[phil_lihp]

Agreed, won't necessarily add a lot of value but it will make it so much easier to sell - put it this way, if someone's trying to chose between yours and another similar one with the cambelt due or of unknown age, yours will be much more appealing.  It's scrubbed up well!  Did changing the track rod ends work?

[cort16]

I imagine it's a total bastard of a job. They suggest you change the spark plugs at the same time as having the engine out is the only easy way to change the plugs on the rear bank.

This must mean access is tight with the engine in. And Renault wonders why no-one bought them.

 

Alternatively just chop off the front end with a grinder and weld on that Princess front end Vulgangles got - Princesstime

[Asimo]

Transverse V engines are just wrong.

[alf892]

Mrs Alf was away most of last week and the week before leaving me alone with beer and ebay.

com.......

 

So I need to know the best place to insure a lhd drive car......tried Lancaster who I am with but they seemed a bit steep.

 

We'll I hope they were because if not I am in more trouble........

[worldofceri]

I think a lhd is going to be dearer than a similar rhd whoever you go with.

[alf892]

Agreed.....I was hoping someone on here who had found a firm who specialised in lhd.

[spike60]

I think Adrian Flux do a lot of specialist cars, they covered my Corvette LHD 1992 for £217 two years ago. I've seen folk bitching about AF but I had no complaints, but then I didn't claim either.

[saucedoctor]

Is MacDroitwich no more? I've just been getting "This page cannot be displayed" for a few days now.

[Jim Bergerac]

They've SCRAPPED IT.

 

Seriously, it will be back tonight: www.macdroitwich.com

[Noel Tidybeard]

I see at least 7 or 8 VOXULLS a week with the windscreen wipers parked half way up their travel when on the move, I thought it was just a Corsa and Ashtray thing but today saw an Agila and a Vivaro.

 

Is there some sort of OMG RATLUK STYLIN' reason or is the usual ALL VOXULS R...?

it seems to related to moderns have to have the wiper spindles hidden below bonnet for pedestrian safety- so to change the blades the wipers need to be positioned about vertical, to do this usually involves giving the wiper stalk a flick when key is switched off/removed the wipers will stay like this until operated in some way

[saucedoctor]

Cheers Sandie.

[barefoot]

My Scirocco has just passed its MOT with a broken headlamp lens.

It's got four lights the inner two are main beam and it's one of these which is broken.

There's a hole in it, a 1inch chunk of glass missing and it's filling up with water & going green.

I submitted it for test with a replacement & new screws etc.

When I queried it I was told, 'we thought it was a foglight'

Is this OK?

[DSdriver]

I need to drill an 8mm hole in a reinforced rubber pipe and I am not having a lot of success. My random test holes in a bit of offcut pipe have all, with great accuracy, managed to hit the wire reinforcing. I will only get one chance when it comes to doing the proper job. If I freeze the rubber to make it hard with some liquid nitrogen or something will it shatter into a million pieces like in the cartoons when I start drilling?

[Skizzer]

This may be a stupid answer, but would it help to start by drilling a very small diameter hole and then expand it to 8mm with successively larger bits, like you would if drilling into some sort of hard metal?  You'd be just as likely to hit the reinforcing, but more likely to get through it.

[DSdriver]

The problem with trying to make holes in rubber is that once you have a small hole the drill just pushes the rubber out of the way.

I have tried using a wood augur but that buggered itself on the wire.

I have tried using a hole punch but even with a club hammer it just bounces off.

I have tried putting the hole punch in a pillar drill at slow speed (using water as a lubricant) but that just made a mess. 

I tried cleaning the mess up with a stanley knife but now have a large hole in my hand.

[Skizzer]

Ah.  Bugger.

 

I'm sure someone will be along shortly with a more helpful suggestion.

[Minimad5]

You say hole punch, but have you tried a Wad punch ? (Dsdriver)

[DSdriver]

I hadn't but now I have and it just bounces off like the tube punch - and that's trying it near the end of the hose where I can get better support inside. Its tough old stuff.

 

My searches with google seem to think that freezing the rubber is the way to go - but how best to do it - I don't happen to have a walk in freezer in my tool kit. Not sure that an aerosol pipe freezer would have the oomph (the one I had wouldn't freeze a pipe so I binned it).

 

I shall experiment tomorrow with a soldering iron. Ah, no I won't my soldering iron is twenty miles away. Something else red hot then. Lets see if I can burn my hand as well as having a hole in it. Maybe I can cauterize the hole.

 

Keep the ideas coming chaps.

[myglaren]

Dry ice if you can get some locally?

[Des]

That hose, a small grinder bit in a dremel should help you lose more blood. 

[andy18s]

can you not just cut it and fit a T piece?

[DSdriver]

OK, stand down, I've cracked it. A T piece is not an option as it is an 8mm hole in a 45mm rubber pipe for a temp sensor.

But I have managed a fairly good hole with a flat ground (88deg) drill bit which cut the whole hole (I do love the english language) rather than drilling a smaller hole and then pushing the sides out which is what a pointy drill does to the rubber. I had to trim off the reinforcing wire with a pair of snips and then clean up with a round file. 

Thanks for all your ideas and a big fuck you to Vetus for just putting "drill an 8mm hole in the exhaust hose" in your instructions.

[skattrd]

Bidding activity from someone I appear to be bidding against on an ebay item, does this look like shill bidding or am I being paranoid?

 

[HillmanImp]

Bidding activity from someone I appear to be bidding against on an ebay item, does this look like shill bidding or am I being paranoid?

 

Capture.JPG

 

Yes, but is it still going to go for less than your budget? I know its kind of against the spirit of ebay but I had this many years ago buying a car and I lost, only to get a 2nd chance offer as the only other bidder suddenly retracted his 'bid' after they went over what I wanted to pay for the car. However I still got it at what I wanted to pay for it so was not all that fussed.

 

They could and should just put a reserve or higher starting bid on it but its the same end result isn't it.....

[skattrd]

Well, I didn't win the auction but was the next highest bidder, lets see if I get a second chance offer.

[drum]

I need a section of exhaust for the alfa. Should I buy a new cheap part for £40, or a used part at £20?

[DSdriver]

Just go to an exhaust centre and get the whole lot done. Doing it a bit at a time is never worth the hassle.

[AnthonyG]

I thought I saw a current model Fiat Scudo/Citroen Dispatch with Toyota badging - is this actually a real thing, and they have given up on the Hiace?