Bear's bangers: Insight gets GAZ'd for spring. Well, shocks. Bonus blue content.

[Bear]

Let's deal with the driveway blocker

It will never grip a sparkplug again. But that's what magnets on sticks are for.

The droplink is not helping matters here - it's trapped inside the spring.

[Bear]

Just smashed my hand with a hammer and crowbar trying to get the strut the last bit out of the knuckle.

I am fucking SICK of this. My time, my life, is just being wasted on crap with nothing actually making me happy, and I have no idea why I don't just stop.

[SmokinWaffle]

  On 27/03/2025 at 13:21, Bear said:

Just smashed my hand with a hammer and crowbar trying to get the strut the last bit out of the knuckle.

I am fucking SICK of this. My time, my life, is just being wasted on crap with nothing actually making me happy, and I have no idea why I don't just stop.

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Sounds like it might be time to take a step back and re-evaluate. Over the past few years I felt the same about old cars and working on them and realised....I'm just not that into it that more. And that's okay. That's why I sold the BX. 

Coming to that realisation has allowed me to get perspective, and immerse myself in other new and interesting hobbies which I actually enjoy, rather than just telling myself "I enjoy cars" over and over. 

I still like cars don't get me wrong but its not a blocker to my life any more. 

[Bear]

  On 27/03/2025 at 13:24, SmokinWaffle said:

Sounds like it might be time to take a step back and re-evaluate. Over the past few years I felt the same about old cars and working on them and realised....I'm just not that into it that more. And that's okay. That's why I sold the BX. 

Coming to that realisation has allowed me to get perspective, and immerse myself in other new and interesting hobbies which I actually enjoy, rather than just telling myself "I enjoy cars" over and over. 

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I don't have a choice - girlfriend is self employed and needs a car, I was forced out of my job a year ago, these cars aren't hobbies - they're need. Trying to solve a problem. I have no time for hobbies because I'm constantly trying to fix this situation, and when I get some work, any incoming stress will throw me off. Trying to sell stuff, dealing with eBay, it's all distraction from doing an actual job. Things like my synths, I reshuffle them to sell x value of stuff I worked hard for and buy 1/2-x of new kit to stop me from just smashing the lot in a fit of "what's the fucking point of trying to have anything".

So we're literally scraping around to try and buy the Spark for her, and I can't even flog the C3 for scrap in the sense that the bastard is stuck on the drive with a broken spring half removed, so I have to finish it 😕

RX-7 - not mine, just fixing it, no stress. Insight - not mine, just fixing it originally to sell - and I planned to buy it myself, though that looks less likely given the lack of work this month and need to replace gf's car because it broke a spring and that's sort of the last straw with it. The Sedici was supposed to replace it. And she tried the buses - £12 a day. Except it wasn't - they didn't show up (amusingly the one that is most suited, stopped running on Wednesday because after 100 years the firm went bust or something - because public transport should be down to private firms of course). So then I do running about, which means MY car must not break, and the Volvo needs work if it's not going to break - entirely reasonably.

But car that is needed to work - then that's stress. So the Volvo's wheelbearings, the C3 breaking a spring, the Sedici being sold scrap seats and feeling trapped into buying them because of the distance to collect etc. and trying to make the best of a crap situation thinking I could rebuild some bits, only to find the seat so physically damaged (and the seller MUST have known) that all the effort was wasted... it's just problems.

And yeah, maybe I can still get a £300/month new car on PCP and it'd cost less than this shitshow but that doesn't solve my gf's issues of international licence and no bloody appointments for UK driving tests even though she has passed theory. She can't be insured on a new car without it costing a fortune.

[Bear]

It was a puzzle worthy of the Crappedon Factor (a pigeon keeps sitting on this car and so... that is a risk).

But I managed it.

Persuading the strut out of rhe hub while the spring was tangled in everything was not fun, and eventually I had to sort of unwind it around the droplink and brake hose.

Then the sensible "allen key and spanner" did not want to undo the top mount so I pointed the impact gun at it and it was easy.

I've ordered a new spring, and if I don't have appropriate spring compressors I do have disc-type ones and some ratchet straps. I did have some proper ones but I bet they're somewhere in a shed near Grendon Lakes now.

[ruffgeezer]

You will not get the strut back on that way, you need to take the knuckle off too and fit that to the strut as there is not sufficient droop in the bottom arm to get the built strut back into the hub with the spring intact.

[Bear]

  On 27/03/2025 at 22:06, ruffgeezer said:

You will not get the strut back on that way, you need to take the knuckle off too and fit that to the strut as there is not sufficient droop in the bottom arm to get the built strut back into the hub with the spring intact.

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There is a small chance I might scrap the car with no spring on that side 😂 appreciate the heads up, I'm guessing you could hear the yelling and swearing from there...

I have hammers and a balljoint splitter. If nothing else it's good practice for when I've done nothing about the Sedici and end up deciding to put a clutch in it after all...

I can't quite bring myself to sign up for a Haval Jolion Pro just yet, but the Omoda 5 is tempting. Sadly, I want a Jaecoo 7 and they are quite expensive.

[MrBig]

If the C3 is just to be scrapped could you not jam a length of wood where the shock was and stick the wheel back on?

[Westbay]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254317774544?_skw=spring+compressor+tool&itmmeta=01JQDZTY8NREPTH25Z911BSGFS&hash=item3b368546d0:g:we4AAOSwkvBh3WTo&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1doYHFJ6FLKtdbIlYIzyoFl7ATmObCrdAvPqOsCyoACE7PCi9gjCI22dTigxAUirz7d7G1DQux9dOIJxPFZnx5XMf0mIR1xFXeW3KNMS9swlzx99MdWt4UPHPFuj5A5KpWsXBad4uWPW5cSZrJ2gFTf1%2FULkqwKFmMSnCY8gntKLKOl2OlBqzRI1fub3U2EH7jFJb%2BFMes10wgcDgueoKn7ys8QPDM6ICju8J0hS6vsfp5HSzLxN4GR9VScLft9NOw%3D|tkp%3ABlBMUL7k67-7ZQ

 

Just noticed there are some for as little £10 ! if the only do this job it would be worth it ...

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 28/03/2025 at 08:39, Bear said:

....Sedici ..... clutch in it .....

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Yer a braver man than I (and all that). If you do - lots of pictures

[Bear]

  On 28/03/2025 at 08:47, MrBig said:

If the C3 is just to be scrapped could you not jam a length of wood where the shock was and stick the wheel back on?

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There wouldn't be anything holding the hub upright

I have ordered some not-too-cheap spring compressors. I've used cheap ones before and my nerves can't take it.

The top bearing would be perfect if someone hadn't folded the sealing lip INSIDE the bearing. That's a pig to sort out and probably cheaper to replace the part, but might explain why the car had supposedly had new coil springs but was still noisy.
 

[MrBig]

Ah yes. Dear old Earle Macpherson did not think that through did he!

Good spring compressors are absolutely worth every penny. A good friend of mine had an incident with one and was very lucky to not lose some of his fingers. The aftermath photos still give me the creeps.

I hope you get all this sorted as quickly and painlessly as possible, I've been in this situation before so you have my sympathies.

[ruffgeezer]

If you want a day trip, you can pop down to me and I'll fit the spring to your strut, I can arrange for a new bearing and top mount to be here for when you do?

I'd say bring the hub too and we can knock that back on at the same time.

I'll be honest though, on a marginal car I have bought an entire used strut and hub from Ebay in the past and just slung that on complete. 

[Bear]

Thing is, I probably won't scrap the C3, but I'm going to have to grit my teeth and SELL a used car, like a normal person sells a new car, i.e. act like this is just what cars should be.

It's done 70,000 miles and runs well, apart from the occasional hiccup from the gearbox which is normal-ish for a sensodrive and largely down to my girlfriend not being taught to use the handbrake. It's had a new battery, new starter-charging belt, has working (but due a regas after two years – I can hear the compressor would like more lube pls when running) aircon, hasn't got much rust, just had a new backbox...

BUT

It was accident repaired by a copart-car-dealer who CBA with prep, sanding, lacquer or replacing anything you couldn't see, so the nearside front wing looks manky and attempts to polish it make it worse, someone reversed into the boot with a pickup and bent the bit below the numberplate, it's missing front undertrays and the wheel arch liner I got was a third-party copy and is Not Very Good, the roof trim strips have shrunk, and the gearbox is a little rattly because when the clutch was replaced they clearly did a half-assed job (left all the wires loose, didn't replace seals, didn't calibrate the sensodrive so it was very snappy before I got hold of it).

It has been used as a daily runabout and I can't catch up with the year or so of neglect and bad garages it's had, but it's still better than most of the cheap two-pedal cars I've seen. A car dealer would have no hesitation sticking £1495 in the window and throwing a bucket of Mer over it then waiting for someone inexperienced and desperate for a ULEZ-compliant auto. As a 1.4 16v with stop start, when I've driven it I've been pretty impressed with the economy and performance - it's quick enough and handles quite well, the gearbox is not a problem if you remember to use the handbrake and feel for it biting just as you would with a manual. What it doesn't like is 'rolling back and snapping the clutch in', which is what happens if you drive it like an auto and don't know what the gearbox is doing. Once I explained this to gf, she hasn't had it cut out on a hill or do the beep beep beep NOPE thing.

GF wants a manual, I tried to get something we could both use to cut down on cars - this did not go to plan - so now I have the Volvo, she's getting the Spark, and the C3's getting the chop - but if I can sell it and get actual money that's pretty important right now for us.

[Bear]

  On 28/03/2025 at 12:01, ruffgeezer said:

If you want a day trip, you can pop down to me and I'll fit the spring to your strut, I can arrange for a new bearing and top mount to be here for when you do?

I'd say bring the hub too and we can knock that back on at the same time.

I'll be honest though, on a marginal car I have bought an entire used strut and hub from Ebay in the past and just slung that on complete. 

Expand  

The only one I saw was £40 and looked like it was from an amphibious C3 used for channel crossings  

The price for new replacement strut assemblies seems to have gone right up, too - I am sure they were £169 or thereabouts when my dad needed one for his Picasso (it did much the same thing and I said it was cheaper to get the strut and swap it than pay for the labour rebuilding the old one), now they are much more - but I didn't find many listed.

The spring was £20, so I'm not too worried - I'd like the day trip, but will save it for Volvo nerding instead (the fuel would pay for the parts to fix the C3). I've done struts and springs before on other cars, I just have the arse with this car because it's eating time and unlike mine, where I can swap into a different car or just not go anywhere, she needs to drive every day so downtime is bad.

Sometimes I need to get just pissed off enough to finish the task, like "now I need a BIGGER hammer". But I prefer it without the pissed off, like doing the Insight shocks which did not involve one swear word at all and practically had the Tony Hart art music playing while I calmly set the torque wrench and double checked everything before a final clean and putting the wheels back on.

[robt100]

  On 28/03/2025 at 12:03, Bear said:

Thing is, I probably won't scrap the C3, but I'm going to have to grit my teeth and SELL a used car, like a normal person sells a new car, i.e. act like this is just what cars should be.

It's done 70,000 miles and runs well, apart from the occasional hiccup from the gearbox which is normal-ish for a sensodrive and largely down to my girlfriend not being taught to use the handbrake. It's had a new battery, new starter-charging belt, has working (but due a regas after two years – I can hear the compressor would like more lube pls when running) aircon, hasn't got much rust, just had a new backbox...

BUT

It was accident repaired by a copart-car-dealer who CBA with prep, sanding, lacquer or replacing anything you couldn't see, so the nearside front wing looks manky and attempts to polish it make it worse, someone reversed into the boot with a pickup and bent the bit below the numberplate, it's missing front undertrays and the wheel arch liner I got was a third-party copy and is Not Very Good, the roof trim strips have shrunk, and the gearbox is a little rattly because when the clutch was replaced they clearly did a half-assed job (left all the wires loose, didn't replace seals, didn't calibrate the sensodrive so it was very snappy before I got hold of it).

It has been used as a daily runabout and I can't catch up with the year or so of neglect and bad garages it's had, but it's still better than most of the cheap two-pedal cars I've seen. A car dealer would have no hesitation sticking £1495 in the window and throwing a bucket of Mer over it then waiting for someone inexperienced and desperate for a ULEZ-compliant auto. As a 1.4 16v with stop start, when I've driven it I've been pretty impressed with the economy and performance - it's quick enough and handles quite well, the gearbox is not a problem if you remember to use the handbrake and feel for it biting just as you would with a manual. What it doesn't like is 'rolling back and snapping the clutch in', which is what happens if you drive it like an auto and don't know what the gearbox is doing. Once I explained this to gf, she hasn't had it cut out on a hill or do the beep beep beep NOPE thing.

 

Expand  

Sounds a perfect candidate for selling on here, possibly in 59 small payments...

[Bear]

  On 28/03/2025 at 12:34, robt100 said:

Sounds a perfect candidate for selling on here, possibly in 59 small payments...

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That was what I was going to do if the spring repair doesn't show up any new problems

[Bear]

Went to fit the cleaned passenger seat to the Sedici. The back is bent on this one as well.

It's pretty obvious that the car was being broken and someone's chucked a load of heavy parts in there and wrecked the interior after it was exposed to the elements, what I don't understand is how the seller could get that interior and not go "well that's shite" and tell me it was no good, instead of pressing on and selling it.

Really more pissed off than 500 characters of negative feedback can sum up.

[ruffgeezer]

I reckon you could fish the seats from an SX4 and save your time on the shit ones.

https://www.facebook.com/share/12Hf3MEKBK2/

[Bear]

  On 28/03/2025 at 13:38, ruffgeezer said:

I reckon you could fish the seats from an SX4 and save your time on the shit ones.

https://www.facebook.com/share/12Hf3MEKBK2/

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I'd asked about that one ages ago, they said they give me a price then disappeared

[Bear]

One Spark collected - absolutely bricking it because the Volvo's wheelbearings have gone from "nowt of note" to "argh wheel's gonna fall off" in the space of half a tank of diesel.

GF drove the Spark back (first time solo a manual in years) and no fears but "car shaking" - she thought the wrong gear, but nah, sticking caliper from sitting around. I took it for a spin and a couple of aggressive stops got it to back off, so I'll strip and grease the sliders etc.

But she did report smoke coming from the Volvo a few times. I wonder if it was the spray from the headlight washers.

Definitely doing Volvo bearings ASAP 😂

@petermcpete has kept the Chevrolet in fine shape, engine sounds Honda-smooth and the lack of horses is less apparent when the brake isn't gripping on like a limpet - and gf thinks it is easier than a Panda to drive. Quite a funky sub-Corsa weird thing, the Spark, and the dash design is very cool! Also cheapest insurance yet.

[bigfella2]

I would take up ruff geezers offer of fitting the spring, the c3 spring I changed was tapered from top to bottom and the compressors did not fit it well, i.e it was sketchy as fuck. But a stupidly got away with it.

When I had to have a top mount changed I just took the strut to a local garage, there was no way I was attempting that again.

Citroen Peugeot are aware this is a problem and made this, and made this safety perch to stop the spring going into the tyre, am sure some cars were recalled to have em fitted too. Mine didn't have them.

[Bear]

This spring design wasn't as batshit as the Picasso one - I think the compressors I've ordered will do the trick, but I'd want to visit @ruffgeezer to talk shite and fix cars anyway if it weren't for the hours of road in the way.

[ruffgeezer]

  On 28/03/2025 at 20:59, Bear said:

One Spark collected - absolutely bricking it because the Volvo's wheelbearings have gone from "nowt of note" to "argh wheel's gonna fall off" in the space of half a tank of diesel.

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My old V70 (still with @Cord Fourteener I think?)  did that too, very handily whilst I was travelling to derby once a week, I don't really remember changing it so it can't have been too bad to do on the drive at the weekend.

[Bear]

Hmm. Mine also did it when travelling to Derby. I think Volvo Estates should not be allowed near Derby.

If anyone near Derby has a Volvo Estate they want to save, please message me and I'll keep it safe.

[Bear]

Early morning car prodding...

Crude "sticking brakes alleviation" is just a load of wheel cleaner (I did all four wheels anyway - this was a before pic to show the under-arch/sill ends when I'd got the mud off) and then a jetwash until all the brake dust crap stops flowing out from behind the wheel. It's not a fix - it'll need sliders and pad guides de-rusting at the very least, but she needed to drive it today and to be fair I'd got them freed off a bit with a bit of abuse yesterday.

I'll get things like this cleaned and it'll look disproportionately better, I think.

But someone likes it and is obviously feeling confident about it!

It is a more basic car than her C3, but 6 years newer is a bonus, and I see lots of nice silver paint under the arches so I'll do the waxoyl and stuff and it should stay easy to maintain and sensible.

First upgrade will be replacing the radio with an Android head unit  and reversing camera. Second upgrade will be some form of boot release 😂

[Bear]

  On 28/03/2025 at 21:26, ruffgeezer said:

My old V70 (still with @Cord Fourteener I think?)  did that too, very handily whilst I was travelling to derby once a week, I don't really remember changing it so it can't have been too bad to do on the drive at the weekend.

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They look very easy - technically anyway - four bolt hub assembly over driveshaft, so it's just how much the brakes and bits want to argue. Can't decide if the £36 part is going to be 1/2 as good as the £65 part, or if the £65 part is the £36 one with a once-respected brand name now attached via a holding company that's just buying in the same cheap crap. Because if it's the latter I may as well do both front ones and at least narrow down the noises somewhat.

[Bear]

First signs of spring

yeah that's a longboi with a bit of bend to it. I'm afraid.

Hydraulic spring compressors are £97 on Amazon. How deadly could they be?

[EyesWeldedShut]

Not as deadly as my manual ones (as said above - they're sketchy, I do the 'buy a complete, secondhand strut' now) - I'd take that to a nice garageman with a pukka tool and pay him 

[Cluffy]

  On 15/07/2024 at 23:21, Bear said:

 

Spot the difference?

Fixed the clock stalk with the repro pieces.

This isn't a trim cover, it's designed to hold a microphone! Very neat.

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Just reading through this highly enjoyable thread of your car-related activities from the last few years...

How did you replace the stalks on the Boxster cluster?? I need to do one of mine ..!