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Admirable AX Ambling, although ambling adjourned atm


Tomtation

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23 hours ago, DSdriver said:

If I may be permitted to hijack your thread for a moment as it seems a good place to reach a target audience, bloke who owns a lock-up in the same block as mine has his daughter's AX Dimension in his and she has been persuaded that she needs to sell it so he gets his garage back.

It is P reg (1996) 56k approx miles in slightly dark red, MOT till Novemberish. She is the second owner from new. It is in mid Kent. No, I forgot to take a photo. What's it worth? I have no idea how much she wants but please don't embarrass me with stupid offers.

If anyone is interested PM me and I will contact the chap so we can proceed.

Feel free to move this if there is a better place for it.

Probably £500-600 if its clean and rust-free.. Really depends on condition with these, although due to their often elderly owner demographic, really clean AX's aren't as rare as people think. 

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10 hours ago, sickboy said:

Probably £500-600 if its clean and rust-free.. Really depends on condition with these, although due to their often elderly owner demographic, really clean AX's aren't as rare as people think. 

Thanks, it looks very nice to me, I'll get more details next time I see him. I imagine it would make a very good first car for a young driver.

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DSdriver - my previoous AX was an almost perfect 1.0 elation with 40,000 miles and 1 lady owner form new, I snagged it for £500 and sold it for £750 😁

Sickboy - thanks man. You got it! It'll be a motorhome once all the mechanical bits are done, it was stood for quite some time before the previous owner got it on the road, so most things need to be or have been replaced/serviced etc. Should be just about enough space for a fold out full size double bed in the back, we've planned a double hob, sink, water tank, LPG tank, fridge and some storage too. Quite excited to get that bit started, but waay more excited to take it for a spin as a 2.5 turbo!

Ghosty - I suspected rear wheel cylinders, maybe shoes too. I'm delving into the rear brakes today to see what I need to order. I've had it for a year now and not needed it every day for commuting, it's only done 4000 miles this year, BUT of course from next week onwards I need it for a 50 mile commute for three weeks! This is why I bought it in the 1st place lol. Typical!

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Rear brakes don't look that bad at all, the rotors and shoes seem to have decent meat left on them (f you think otherwise, call me a fool!) so two new wheel cylinders ordered. I'm off on Friday so will fit them then, I had to splash out on a new 32mm socket for the hub nut 😱 I'm reassured to see it all looks quite well greased, undersealed and solid under here. Top maintenance Phil! Hubnut came undone nice and easily, as did the cylinder bolts.

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I just looked up the price for a new aux belt idler/tnesioner pulley. All I could find on ebay was from Latvia or Lithuania, the cheapest was £56.61 plus £9.95 postage. Jeeesus, seems a bit steep! I'll look elsewhere as it needs replacing.

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7 minutes ago, Tomtation said:

Rear brakes don't look that bad at all, the rotors and shoes seem to have decent meat left on them (f you think otherwise, call me a fool!) so two new wheel cylinders ordered. I'm off on Friday so will fit them then, I had to splash out on a new 32mm socket for the hub nut 😱 I'm reassured to see it all looks quite well greased, undersealed and solid under here. Top maintenance Phil! Hubnut came undone nice and easily, as did the cylinder bolts.

0erQS4l.jpg

qdAVWgH.jpg

I just looked up the price for a new aux belt idler/tnesioner pulley. All I could find on ebay was from Latvia or Lithuania, the cheapest was £56.61 plus £9.95 postage. Jeeesus, seems a bit steep! I'll look elsewhere as it needs replacing.

Almost £20 cheaper on Autodoc. Shipping took 10 days for me recently. 

 

 

Screenshot_20210511_114904_de.autodoc.gmbh.jpg

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Cheers Spurious, I might get those depending on the future for this car.

I got a bit pissed off this afternoon as the AX was leaking oil from the rocker cover again - the bolts had come loose though, so that expalins that! I don't think I re-tightened them when the engine was warm so totes my fault.

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I cleaned all of the drivers brake/wishbone area that was caked in oil and gunge. This took me quite a while, I don't think i'd ever been quite so dirty and i'm a proper dirty bugger usually 😇

Before:

XDFekAO.jpg

After:

U5zjToK.jpg

Soz - no direct comparisons.

Does anyone know what the below piece of diesel wizardry is? I'm guessing something to do with timing or maybe a vacuum pump? There is oil weeping out of the join between the end plate and body of it. This is what is dribbling oil all over the gearbox end of the engine.

gQdFhF2.jpg

Innards, I was very careful not to move anything just incase i'd ruin some alignement etc. There is quite a lot of oil in here, what you can see in the photo is about half of what there was when I opened it, a fair amount flowed out. Should there be som much oil? I was planning to make up a new cork gasket, but there is a skinny O-ring (not in the picture) which is not sealing properly. I cleaned up the faces and o-ring but it still leaks. Once I know what it is I can get a new seal!

6tG0rXX.jpg

I am mildly alarmed by the next bit, I confirmed that the head is leaking oil at that place, the front corner by the alternator. BUT is this beacuse the head is damaged? The next pic is looking down at the drivers side of the head, behind the cambelt. Is this area circled in yellow cracked and repaired? Doesn't look right to me. Also where the oil is dribbling out, there appears to be a gap between the head and the block (circled in red) - not ideal! Based on the location of the dribble here, which (when stationary) dribbles down the front of the engine to drip off of the aux belt tensioner bracket, i'm not quite sure how it's getting to be splattered all over the inner brake disc face and suspension components. The sump itself is relatively clean, the lip where it joins the block must re-direct the oil leak.

b0e4tw0.jpg

I'm a bit disheartened tbh, the rest of the car is pretty good if a bit shabby, and it is exactly what I need for my occasional commute, small, interesting enough and cheap to run. I don't feel like paying a garage to do the head, this car isn't worth that spend for me, but I don't think I want to do it myself (assuming I could do it!). On the flipside I don't have the funds for buying something else that might be even more fucked. A conundrum all around! I'll get my thinking cap on and will see what you guys think.

I'd appreciate the AS consensus on the head oddities above though, whilst I wallow in self-pity etc.

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  • Tomtation changed the title to Admirable AX Ambling, although ambling adjourned atm

I'd say those marks in your yellow highlighted region are just die grinding marks from the factory.  Manufacturers typically grind off any casting flash at the left from the foundry,  and the grinding marks left after this process look like that.  Most blocks have them somewhere.

Like you say, the oil is probably finding its way to that red area from elsewhere.  Is it not most likely that the rocker cover leak was the sole, overall culprit?

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Good news then, one of the FB lot said it could be 'hammer rash' too. Good to know it isn't damaged! It's difficult to see in the photo, but I sat there and watched oil leak out of the red circled area, you can just see the first run/line going down at the bottom of the red circle. Apparently this is the place where TU's leak, the aluminium engine's are worse than the this iron beast too.

Discussions are happening, the AX may be short lived with me. I have 4 other cars needing attention and just when I need it, this one becomes the 5th!

If anyone fancies a 1.5D AX that needs a HG but is otherwise perfectly drivable, this one has MOT until the 17th, I can do the rear brakes Saturday morning (15th) so it'd just be the HG oil leak for the MOT,  collection could happen over the weekend and still be legal etc.

 

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I had considered a roffle tbf, I'll know this evening if my plan for alternative transport is a go so could set up some rofflage tonight.

How are roffle winners picked, it's the lotto draw or something innit?

We're on the Somerset/Dorset border, so for most of you, yeah, pretty much foreign!

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7 minutes ago, Tomtation said:

Somerset/Dorset border

@Jimbob McGregor I'll let you explain to  Mrs McGregor why there's an AX behind you on your next trip to Devon.

 

8 minutes ago, Tomtation said:

How are roffle winners picked, it's the lotto draw or something innit?

Thats the badger.  Happy to help / run it for you if you wished.  Also, one please.

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