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Sir Snipes

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4 hours ago, beko1987 said:

During this week of searching I've decided that if I want auto and derv, I'll get a bora, octavia or audi and use VAG, they do seem very reliable*

Very interested in these Carisma's with the petrol engine doing 50mpg though, I only really said back to diesel because of the empeegee's

I recall the GDI (petrol direct injection) engines suffered some issues due to UK fuel and the sulphar(?) levels therein?

Same engine went into first gen S40s too, I think.

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Someone I worked with had a Mitsubishi gdi, and told me that gdi engines get gr9 mpg, but should only be run on premium fuel. Running them on std octane fuel can cause expensive problems with the fuel pump.

… this is hearsay so might not be true.

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3 hours ago, Snipes said:

I've read the 1.9 is a reasonably decent engine, it's all the "German shit bolted to it" that causes the problems. I can neither confirm nor deny this statement.

It is. I really rate the 1.9 (especially the 8v). As engines, they give little bother. They are at their best in the Grande Punto sporting, 130bhp flavour. They shift. Stick a tuning box on them and they are borderline scary quick with the torque.

Having worked on a few Grandes, The most commonly broken parts all over the car are stamped GM and also used on the Corsa. A lot of it is horrible quality. Especially the suspension. I've seen more resilient cheeses than the metals they picked.

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Fully describes my commute that does. 7 miles of maybe fast maybe slow B road, 11 miles of m40 then 4 more miles of B road... 

Are they that worthless though? Or am I buying at the utter bottom end of the market? @gnomeotand I were discussing this at length the other day and, with the example of the Ford focus, £400 gets you a fairly good, honest mk1. It also could get you a £400 next gen diesel with many miles... Which is a safer bet at that price point?

Saying all this I fully showed a cunt in a scirocco why not to fuck with a zx on the way home as he tried to race me onto the a40... Sounded utterly horrible at 5000rpm but I pulled away and stayed there! And lost him on some of the corners

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4 hours ago, Snipes said:

My most recent memory of Fiat was watching a lady cry when she was quoted over £2000 for a new Cat (genuine only, no patterns available). 

I take it that's the "Gotta come from Italy, mate" price?

I'm not sure what my local Fiat dealer parts department actually stocks, even the most generic of Fiat bits used on about every model in their ranges for the last decade, they never have them.... Service parts, fluids, bulbs, absolutely nada, All has to be ordered in from Italy apparently.

Yet the vauxhall dealer in town carries parts for Fiat that have never seen service in a single vauxhall product, Very odd.

As for cats, i find many cars will get through without them if they're not burning oil and have been recently serviced. All else fails, cut the thing out and weld in a cheap generic "sports cat". Job done.

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12 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

A non cat car won’t pass an mot cat test . Saab’s come pretty bloody close but I’ve not known a decatted or car with a failed car pass an ( legit) mot yet 

Even on diesels? Ignoring the requirement for one to be fitted, surely a cat doesn't make too much difference to the smoke levels?

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Here's the answer.

 

galshine2.thumb.jpg.8f15205522e8330eebd69105032a3b3c.jpg

 

A good few hundred miles last few weeks driving this. London/back, Liverpool/back, lots of local/semi local stuff. Aside from not having cruise control, and maybe the need for another 10/15 horses every now and then, it's everything you'd want in a  car and most important it like the veg.

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9 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

A non cat car won’t pass an mot cat test . Saab’s come pretty bloody close but I’ve not known a decatted or car with a failed car pass an ( legit) mot yet 

It's a diesel thread, but in general, not true. They can. I've known several. Including one i owned and one i built.

Hell, i'd go as far as saying my Cinquecento probably is one of them too. It only has a cheap universal sports cat, that's about 12 years old now and has been on a car that ran so rich on the last engine, it was spitting raw fuel out its exhaust and at another point, bellowing out blue and white smoke on the previous engine. There's little chance the cat in that has any emissions reducing properties left, and yet it can pass emissions. Relatively comfortably too.

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22 hours ago, Snipes said:

I recall the GDI (petrol direct injection) engines suffered some issues due to UK fuel and the sulphar(?) levels therein?

Same engine went into first gen S40s too, I think.

V40s and S40s had two 1.8 engines; the normal one was Volvo or Renault (can't recall), and the 1.8i was the Mitsu GDI which had more horses, and was much better on fuel but if driven granny-style for lengths of time coked up as GDI engines are prone to do.

I had one from about 100k to 130k and it was ace. Luck of the draw in terms of who has owned the car. I don't done think anything bar that posh gas decoking can save a coked GDI engine of that age/design.

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30 minutes ago, Mrcento said:

It's a diesel thread, but in general, not true. They can. I've known several. Including one i owned and one i built.

Hell, i'd go as far as saying my Cinquecento probably is one of them too. It only has a cheap universal sports cat, that's about 12 years old now and has been on a car that ran so rich on the last engine, it was spitting raw fuel out its exhaust and at another point, bellowing out blue and white smoke on the previous engine. There's little chance the cat in that has any emissions reducing properties left, and yet it can pass emissions. Relatively comfortably too.

Some of the older stuff like that has quite a high tolerance on the mot test if you go through the full test . ( iirc about 0.5 CO ) 

Newer stuff on the BET test with no cat - no chance 

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Diesel stuff always passes without a cat, no problems. 

But as mentioned above, the mot tester must at least be able to see a cat shaped item there or its an instant fail. 

Certainly had some petrol cars come close in the past without a cat but usually fail at some point in the test. 

Most dervs de-catted run a lot better even if more penguins may get killed..... 

 

 

 

Allegedly. 

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b82320bab7e04467b833e873eec0dbde.jpg

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201911124284065

This is petrol but has the advantages of being both cheap and nearby so I really ought to have a look and see if I can get on with the little 1.8. MOT history is odd though, it reportedly did about 8000 miles between tests but was getting advisories for worn tyres. Maybe the owner was buying knackered part worns or its mullering the tyres (not so unusual, though iirc they tended to do the rears, but shouldn't be so hard to fix).

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b9d548c970ae401db4e6e020afd16ec0.jpg

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201911074125899

This looks decent. Petrol 2.0 16v, manual gearbox & handbrake and it doesn't have the air of hopelessness that Vectra has. Not the nicest wheels they bolted to these but they are a reasonable size at least.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got the c4 through the test last week. £300 for the test, a pair of rear dampers and some dust boots on the front. Anyway I'll have to keep it for a little while to justify the outlay. In other news I got my mtb on the back with minimal fuss so I may not necessarily need a bigger car, though buying the same thing again is boring and I wouldn't want another mid-range "sx" pez 1600. A 2.0 vtr would be nice but they aren't too common.

Still fancy a late Goona 2 with the pez 2.0 and manual handbrake.

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