Rusty VW bothering …. Boxer fiddling

[Wibble]

15 minutes ago, MrBig said:

Does not booking work in your favour sometimes then?

Not really, it helps the buyer. If you book and don’t sell, it counts against them. If you don’t book and don’t sell, doesn’t affect their figures.

[rusty_vw_man]

New car located. It is not that close to me, but not in work tomorrow so time for a little adventure. 

My 8 year old has written me a list of things I will need:

looks about right….

Join me from 07:04 tomorrow as I go and collect the cheapest available version (in a particular colour that the family have agreed on) of a 12 year old car that’s somehow still the second most expensive car I have ever bought. 

According to the spec sheet it has all sorts of mod cons like a ‘fully carpeted boot’ and ‘two speed wipers’. Sounding quite luxurious….. 

[stuboy]

impressed 8 year old knows about top don, im slacking with my 8 year old

[Tayne]

“Charging wire”

Could this be an EV charging lead or a set of jumper cables…

12 years old (2013 or 2014?) says it’s unlikely to be an EV or PHEV.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Tayne said:

“Charging wire”

Could this be an EV charging lead or a set of jumper cables…

12 years old (2013 or 2014?) says it’s unlikely to be an EV or PHEV.

No, I read it as "charging wife". Verb, or maybe adjective?

[rusty_vw_man]

Charging wire (or wife!) is just for the phone, this is petrol powered*. Topdon featured heavily in the 8 year olds life over the last few weeks, it’s like an extra member of the family at the moment….

Breakfast of egg and mushroom sandwich and coffee sorted:

PC - 0. Regrets forming already for this vegetarian who had a curry for dinner, but time was not in my side. 

leg one - busy at the station this morning:

[EyesWeldedShut]

Looks as about as busy as down here in mid-Wales. Safe journey

[rusty_vw_man]

Crewe for a 36 minute wait. So bored I tried turning upside down:

PC - 1, almost came with free prostate exam thanks to wafer thin single sheet paper dispenser, the true enemy of the unwary traveller. Luckily this is not my first rodeo. 

New train is purple and nasty inside:

 

 

[rusty_vw_man]

Last public transport leg - on a bus. Sad face. 

just a short* walk at the other end and I’ll be there. 

Hope it’s okay, don’t much fancy doing this journey back again…. 

[rusty_vw_man]

Meet ‘The Donald’ - named by the missus after the second most orange thing on the planet….  The phone fails to capture the true orangeness of the car, its truly quite a thing:

12 years old, whopping 1l engine with no torque and max power output at 6000rpm. It’s like driving a go cart. £20 tax is fun, didn’t get a 6month option for some reason?! 

Initial impressions over the first 60 miles of the journey home, thewhoflungdungs on the front need changing for actual tyres and it’s got the faintest misfire at 3500 rpm but otherwise seems great. Seats are super comfy and the Bluetooth stereo works. Just the right level of basic inside. Missus is very excited as it feels like the spiritual successor to her old beetle. 

Now onwards - there’s quite a few miles left between me and my house. 

[Tickman]

I liked the massive clue, by naming the car, in the thread title.

[MrBig]

3 minutes ago, Tickman said:

I liked the massive clue, by naming the car, in the thread title.

Did not spot that at all!

[rusty_vw_man]

1 hour ago, Tickman said:

I liked the massive clue, by naming the car, in the thread title.

Seemed easiest somehow - it’s not the most exciting collection on here by a long way! 

I wasn’t expecting to be a massive fan of the car to be honest - I’ve always favoured a larger estate or van, but it was great fun to drive, above about 4000rpm the little engine comes to life and it’s generally much smoother and more comfortable than I was expecting. 

Further driving has highlighted it has a bit of a stutter at exactly 3500 rpm, which feels like something isn’t quite switching over (variable vale timing maybe?). If you’re running up the rev range it has a very tiny cough, then just carries on. Only issue is that 3500 rpm matches indicated 75mph in 5th so it’s a bit lumpy if you try and hold it there. Easy solution was limiting speed to 72mph - and of course I didn’t try as it would be naughty, but I’d assume* that 80+ would also solve the issue. It did improve over the duration of the trip as well, so wonder if an extended Italian tune up may be the best course of action! Wheels are a bit wobbly past 75 as well.

It managed 53mpg on a mixed A road run, which is the highest I have had in any vehicle. 

So far well impressed, hopefully it will just continue being a fun small car! 

[rusty_vw_man]

The Aygo has come with a free water feature in the boot. Irritating as it wasn’t there when I viewed the car after heavy rain, but possibly not surprising as it seems a common issue. 

Hopped in the boot and felt around, water seemed to be coming from the right light cluster, wiper and boot hatch handle so had a go:

Light cluster was leaking badly, could see it trickling in. 

Wiper washer is also quite tired:

 

What was a bit odd was the hatch handle has two screws, but the hatch has three holes:

plenty of water getting in there

 

Got it all sealed up with some non setting mastic stuff so hopefully I can get it back off if I need to. 

Car has been valeted by the garage, but they’d missed the sills and in the whee arches so washed them out. 

finally quick check of the engine, fluids all fine, plugs a bit tired looking so will get them replaced. 

Everything on the car is hilariously small, not used a socket bigger than  10mm yet, and even the battery looks like a toy:

[N Dentressangle]

The cheap and simple aspects really appeal about these kind of cars, but the way they're made to be essentially disposable less so.

Nice work getting more life out of it - a sympathetic, mechanically capable owner is what they need and rarely get, I imagine.

[rusty_vw_man]

10 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

The cheap and simple aspects really appeal about these kind of cars, but the way they're made to be essentially disposable less so.

Nice work getting more life out of it - a sympathetic, mechanically capable owner is what they need and rarely get, I imagine.

It’s 4 years older than the Citroen C3 Picasso its replaced and is as far as I can see a millionty times better made. It’s basic, but in a way I remember old cars being, the design and execution is surprisingly good and there’s more things made of metal in this. 

The rubber seals are clearly a weak point, and because everything is so basic there’s nothing to deflect any water that does want to come in. I suspect I have not been wholly successful yet in sealing so will just keep an eye and keep sealing up bits as they become an issue. 

Need to get it some protection underneath as they seem to have a tendency to rust, just debating my options. 

[rusty_vw_man]

Looking at a cheap runaround as mrs rusty won’t let me near the orange Aygo, it’s hers now! 

2 miles away there’s a car without an MOT, seller says ‘can’t see why it wouldn’t pass’ and ‘got no time to take it for a test’…. 

MOT history checker tells a subtly different story:

Not sure I fully support his assessment of how easy an MOT might be to obtain! 

[rusty_vw_man]

The day I have been waiting for has come - the C3 I flogged to WBAC has popped up for sale with Cinch, the car sales warehouse brand of Constellation group who own WBAC and BCA. 

They have painted the wheels black (they were kerbed to fuck) and removed the genuine mats (assume they were too grubby/worn) but that is all:

Hhmmm, I wonder how much the want for this piece of automotive shite:

HOW FUCKING MUCH?! 

I’m still well pleased at the amount the paid me for it, but it’s just not worth that much money surely? Partly because unless they’ve done some major mechanical work on it in the very short time they’ve had it, it doesn’t change gear if the revs are above about 3500rpm. 

No wonder second cars are so expensive, if one of the larger operators is hoovering up all the shite it can and flogging it on for top dollar.

[Wibble]

That will come back to haunt them and probably end up back at BCA once the next owner rejects it!

[rusty_vw_man]

Two weeks from now I have a ferry booked to Spain, so the long list of jobs I wrote last autumn for the motorhome that I then just filed as a ‘later job’ are more pressing now.  Most are dull and on the habitation side, but I have recently got a code reader so wanted to see if there were any lurking secrets. 

3 faults, one that the glow plug system is not working, one that the ECU can’t talk to anything and one that the injectors aren’t happy. 

The ECU code cleared, but the other two came straight back. Google suggests lack of calibration after new injector fitted could be the cause, so let’s see 

cylinders 2,3 and 4 are old and grubby, cylinder 1 injector is much newer and shinier (with a load of clag on the cover suggesting the old seal had failed). 

Some prodding of the new magic computer and it and the ECU spent a happy 5 minutes doing something that involved lots of different revs and better and worse sounding running, before announcing it was fixed. 

It idles much smoother now, and the live data shows very different injector readings to prior to doing it, so I’m going to call that fixed. Might be something in the whole electronics in vehicles nonsense….. 

Glow plug system needs more of a prod, it is starting well enough so  it can wait until the weather is a bit nicer! The whole lot seems to sit in a wet bit of the engine bay so it may just be that. 

Other issue is a leisure battery that has just been chilling disconnected in its locker has forgotten how to hold charge, only 5 months old. Suspect it’s been flat for long enough that it’s shagged but it is sitting on charge to see. Warranty enquiry made as I don’t think a disconnected battery that was fully charged should self discharge to 0.4v, but I could be wrong!