Xsara - £200, worn P bush OX9 3 MOT Sept 25 - Please save it from scrap 😱

[St.Jude]

23 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

I never wear white anything!

This man begs to differ!

[beko1987]

Flipping get in!

I've never changed brake hoses before... Guess I'll be learning that then!

Now to wait for the call to go fetch it and pay.

[Christine]

Oh yeah  me Fiat Punto van passed today too !!  No advisories at all!  

[brownnova]

I really need to get some cars in for MoT.... hopefully I can get the same result as you! 
 

Well done! 

[paulplom]

Great news. I reckon a clean, cared for car always has a big advantage.

My saab passed ffs. It had been hoovered and washed prior. It's all in the mind. If it looks shit the tester will think it's shit.

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, paulplom said:

Great news. I reckon a clean, cared for car always has a big advantage.

My saab passed ffs. It had been hoovered and washed prior. It's all in the mind. If it looks shit the tester will think it's shit.

Mine is spotless inside too, must be a good omen! 2 new front tyres were a sound buy as well, that would have got a 2nd or 3rd glance if I hadnt

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, Christine said:

Oh yeah  me Fiat Punto van passed today too !!  No advisories at all!  

Oooh posh! 

You watch both our cars have an ftp tomorrow... 

[Christine]

Mine smoked so bad i turned round and went back to the workshop.. Honestly , you couldn't see behind you ..but  .by the time i got back it wasn't as bad , so i turned round again and drove 10 miles to the test centre . It stalled at the traffic lights, but started again ok .  I left it at the test centre and walked home . I knew it would fail on emissions ...its stood in a field for a year ,the exhaust smelled awful..ithink the fuel had gone bad after a year .. Amazed when i got the call it had passed !  It feels really loose..but at 150k i guess it would ..It goes alright though and stops good !  I fitted in a new wishbone yesterday , thats cured the clutch judder !  Front  wheel was loose when i got home ...??

[beko1987]

This had smoke as an advisory and fail for a few years running... It's either fully sorted and fab or the bodge that was applied hasn't got long left. Guess I'll find out soon! 

I'd like to clean the egr valve out, that made a world of difference in the lagunii. It's buried at the back of the engine though... 

[Christine]

Mine has a dpf .... would / could it have been regenerating?  Its only idled since i had it to mess with .. ?

 

[St.Jude]

On 9/4/2020 at 1:01 PM, beko1987 said:

Flipping get in!

I've never changed brake hoses before... Guess I'll be learning that then!

Now to wait for the call to go fetch it and pay.

Not a hard job really, fairly simple. Just difficult given the length of time the hose will have been there connected to the brake line. So you will need copious amounts of penetration fluid and a proper brake line spanner.

[beko1987]

I thought I was a bit skinter than usual this month already, then the postman came and I remembered I'd been shopping. 

First to arrive was actually the most frivolous, but at £22 delivered it fills a big hole

Think there's some actual mechanical parts coming too soon, meh, whatever

[beko1987]

Closely followed by Royal Nail 

Bringing part extravagance and part vital (aux belt is properly perished and cracked, needs urgent thinking about) 

[beko1987]

DHL bringing up the rear with £32 worth of TOP_QUALITY parts

Can't remember what else I bought now. No idea when I'll get to fit them but I can do that when I'm poor, I can't buy the parts when I'm poor

[beko1987]

Was a bit warm today, and the kids wanted to play out the front with the other children, so I wanted to be out there anyway. 

So I got rhe cordless vacs out! I picked up a henry the other week which was full of shit, and rolled all over the boot spilling shit everywhere, and the rest of the car was tatty. 

The v11 has the better tools and on paper more power but the shark had more usable suction at the nozzle for a good go at it, and you can turn it fucking on and it stays on! Tools are shit though, the dusting brush from the shark did a better job than the v11s turbo head! I did find my micro set for the shark though

Which still wasn't brilliant

Both did OK, neither was as good as a corded vac but it'd get you by. 

I then had my radio out. I broke the dab aerial (male smb push fit) socket on it a while ago, so had it apart

And found it was a handy little flying lead

I went and got an old laptop WiFi antenna and tried a bodge, but it didn't work and now I need a new dab aerial too... Does anyone know the name of the board side connector? Identical to a laptop wifi/Bluetooth antennae cable. May be able to buy one and fix the dab again. Its done something as I get antenna error now on the screen on dab mode, but the wires are too tiny and shit for me to be able to sort them in situ

Equally it doesn't want to be hard wired in as it'll all need to be pulled out if I change cars and keep it all again

[320touring]

Good to see this getting some love!

I know it's not seen huge use recently, but I enjoy your brand of "two bucket bangernomics" where you improve the cars and keep them nice despite having to be thrifty.

Whereas I'm just tight😂

[beko1987]

Bless it, it has been neglected! Now the weather is looking better I'm eying up the pile of parts in the corner, but is there much point in fitting them until im doing miles again...

The outside is green as fuck though, I haven't washed it since whenever I documented the last wash in this thread! Involves going over to ma's though, and before they let me borrow the pressure washer they'll want their car doing...

[beko1987]

One of the rear tyres really isn't getting any better bless it, pretty much the entiore circumfrence of the outer tread block is now cracked.

Best bust out the money I've had tucked away since november last year! (less actually as I had a fair bit of coin in Paypal I'd forgotten about, winnah!)

Seemed decent to get the front tracking done too before it wears the edges of the tyres like the last set, booked in for next saturday. Can't beat middle aged PSA for cheap consumables!

[beko1987]

Oh and when we are able to, my friend said that in exchange for multimeter help with his car he'll help me do the rear brake pipes and bleed it all through cos we do it manually. Which means I may as well do the discs and pads that day (he can come to mine though incase it goes wrong like the 406 did when we did that on his driveway, and I had to drive back to Thame with the front suspension ruined and roughly assembled (was nearer the scrapyard)

[beko1987]

Well I vastly over-estimated how long it would take to get here... Hope they don't have a lie in cos fuck it, it's Saturday!

[beko1987]

It's amazingly hard to pass time in tesco without looking like a massive shoplifter I find so I'm back stood near the place having a rolly. 

Cars on the lift now, their doing the tracking and I can hear the BFO hammer going some

[beko1987]

Before and after! 

I was then really fucking sad as I got the spare reshod too

Then wrapped it up nicely to protect it from road shit... 

Tracking wasn't too far out the guy said, but it feels alot nicer to drive now, and I had replaced the front tyres last year to hide worn outer edges... Fronts still have under 1000 miles on them and they got done about this time last year 

[Talbot]

9 hours ago, beko1987 said:

I was then really fucking sad as I got the spare reshod too

Did you not just put the best of the tyres coming off on the spare and not worry about it?   I've not actually needed a spare wheel in so long now I can see why newer cars haven't had one in years.

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

Did you not just put the best of the tyres coming off on the spare and not worry about it?   I've not actually needed a spare wheel in so long now I can see why newer cars haven't had one in years.

The thought did cross my mind, but 3 tyres and the tracking came to less than I had saved up so all 3 got changed AND I had a kebab. 

The other tyre was starting to perish too, and had money been tighter I would have done just that and flipped the wheels around. But I spent the £35 and did the right* thing

(it's a mental thing too. Sf15 I blew 2 tyres on the side of a Welsh mountain. Was in a ZX and I'd not long had new wheels and tyres on it (the smell of broken 2 week old rubber is sad). Luckily the old fucked wheels and tyres (rust and ancient rubber) were in the Garden so Amy drove them to somewhere near Hereford and zi drove back with a mega full car bricking it having spent the previous month saving up for the tyres I just broke. It was all fine though...) 

 

[Talbot]

Ah, so you have absolute* and conclusive* proof* that old tyres are better than brand new ones!

Actually, being serious... blowing two brand-new tyres sounds horrific.  Did you go back and complain bitterly?  I think I would have.  That's practically unheard of.

[beko1987]

8 hours ago, Talbot said:

Ah, so you have absolute* and conclusive* proof* that old tyres are better than brand new ones!

Actually, being serious... blowing two brand-new tyres sounds horrific.  Did you go back and complain bitterly?  I think I would have.  That's practically unheard of.

Oh it sucked! Was having fun bombing along when a massive swarm of bikers came along. Fair do's, I moved to the left slightly to let them know they can get past and I've clocked them and yep, they start going y, friendly mod etc OH SHIT BIG ROCK.... BANG BANG as I hit it not being able to swerve due to a bike alongside me. 

Back blew instantly so I pulled over (all the bikes had fucked off) and emptied the entire boot to get at my breaker bar. Did all that, buttoned back up and carried on. 15 miles later the front went too, much have stabbed it and it went. 

Chances of it happening again are fairly low but equally mummykins gave me some money when they moved and released the old house money last year and I promised her I'd not spend it all on shit and indeed most of it went on the car. 

When I'm back pounding* the mean roads again for work I'll be glad*. Equally if I do get a puncture I can be lazy now I've got a full size spare! 

 

[Talbot]

2 hours ago, beko1987 said:

OH SHIT BIG ROCK.... BANG BANG

Ah.. that somewhat explains it... I thought for a moment that two brand new tyres just randomly failed on you.

[spartacus]

Love what you're doing with this, it's a good looking car. If it goes anything like mother Sparts Picasso then it'll be a great drive too.

Your cleaning looks to be on another level!

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

Ah.. that somewhat explains it... I thought for a moment that two brand new tyres just randomly failed on you.

Your right though, if I ever actually use it I'll be amazed... And smug that I'm sorted for at least a few paydays (although I'm not as poor as I was to struggle with a £37 fitted tyre anymore thankfully!) 

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, spartacus said:

Love what you're doing with this, it's a good looking car. If it goes anything like mother Sparts Picasso then it'll be a great drive too.

Your cleaning looks to be on another level!

Its not bad! I don't really drive it atm though, it's not been washed since the session many pages back a square calendar year ago! 

Waiting for the weather to be a bit nicer to tackle the back brakes and beam bushes (and maybe shocks, it's very dull back there but equally I run it round empty 99.99999% of the time so it's probably just what it does!)