Grumblespeed - Who said breeding Pandas was hard?

[Grumblespeed]

Bit of a mini collection caper today. Always nice to collect from somewhere with a car park like this:

[wesacosa]

  On 08/06/2022 at 15:38, Grumblespeed said:

Bit of a mini collection caper today. Always nice to collect from somewhere with a car park like this:

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very nice.  I really need an Estelle in my life at some point 

[Grumblespeed]

OK, back now. So having discovered I'd cocked up buying the Rong Rover Rims, I'd been scouring the interweb for possible replacements. Few and far between apparently. I needed new tyres anyway with or without alloys and had sort of settled on probably Toyo or Kumho as about the cheapest ones that weren't makey uppey Chinese brands. So a set of Honda accord rims (same car right?) with a decent looking set of Kumhos already fitted looked a good bet. If only they weren't a hundred miles away in Walsall.🙁

However, after a weekend where someone travelled down from Scotland to drive my slightly iffy Pug back, via a lift with someone who was travelling the length of England to pick up an owl I felt like I really had to stop being a wimp and bought them.

200 mile round trip later, a set of 4 of these:

Tyres are in great nick, they'll go straight on:

And unlike the last lot:

[High Jetter]

Walsall...did you get a receipt?

[Grumblespeed]

  On 08/06/2022 at 23:28, High Jetter said:

Walsall...did you get a receipt?

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Well, Fleabay so there's some protection... More worried about all the nice new suspension I put on the Seicento. Walsall seem to be obsessed with putting vicious speed humps every 100 yards on every street.😠

[DSdriver]

  On 08/06/2022 at 16:45, Grumblespeed said:

someone who was travelling the length of England to pick up an owl I felt like I really had to stop being a wimp and bought them.

200 mile round trip later, a set of 4 of these:

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That seems a bit extreme, were there no Owls local to them that they could perch on their hand?

[Grumblespeed]

  On 09/06/2022 at 11:32, DSdriver said:

That seems a bit extreme, were there no Owls local to them that they could perch on their hand?

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Whooooo knows?

  On 05/06/2022 at 21:38, Jimbob McGregor said:

My spoils of the day. Drove 720 miles between 06:10 and 21:47 in the Panda 4x4 including 240-ish miles on the last tank-full in one hit on way home (after less than 5 hours sleep last night!).

Bit tired now.

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[Grumblespeed]

Bums! still not a bolt straight on fit. Offset is slightly higher and tyres one size bigger and it's just enough so the rear of the tyre touches the spring at the rear. Abut 3mm of a spacer and I'd be fine but it's getting a bit tight for stud length then - gives about 5 or 6 threads with the extra 3 mm.

Hmmm.. Plan C...

what's plan C?

[Grumblespeed]

Back on the Seicento yesterday. had an annoying knock on the front O/S after all the work I did on the suspension a few weeks ago so went back underneath for a nice lie down and tried to figure out what was going on. Nothing was loose, no play in anything (bloomin' shouldn't be it's all new!!) but feeling around it turned out when I refitted the ARB I had not quite centred it  properly, about 8mm out to the left which was just enough that it caught the edge of the inner arch when the suspension compressed. Some awkward levering later to get it to shift slightly and I can confirm the car is now completely knock free for the first time since I got it😁 Also discovered while I was under there that the centre bolt in the lower transmission mount had worked itself slightly loose - which explained the slight "buzz" I'd had on part throttle recently, and on removing it to retighten the mount was pretty tired so I renewed that too. What a difference! Doesn't do that "bounce" as I come on and off the throttle any more. Driving lovely at the minute.

...if only I'd taken some pictures eh. Sorry.

Got some spacers with extended studs for the Rover to get those rims on, but when I took the front wheel off to see the lie of the land I discovered the daft brake disc sandwiched behind the hub arrangement Honda saw fit to use meaning I've got to crack off the hub nut and disassemble to change the studs, so that's another job I'm putting off now.

[Grumblespeed]

Got a week off work so decided I should probably get on with some car stuff at some point in between family visits and the likes. Still rolling on the somewhat past their best tyres on the original steels on the Rover so had another go at getting the Honda rims on. This time I just whacked them straight on as is with the original studs and nuts and no spacers to see how far out it was again, and discovered that it is only the rear O/S where the tyre touches the spring, and actually only when the suspension is on full droop with the corner in the air. On the ground there is plenty of clearance, so after a bit of a test drive I decided to just leave them on. The offset isn't ideal, sit tucked into the arches a bit, but they are good enough for now.

Next on the list was the tatty front bumper. The 2 foglight holes in the bumper were looking dreadful, one just a hole, and one with a sheet of aluminium blanking the gap - that side looked like the blanking sheet had been brush painted in situ using a random tin of green paint from the back of someone's shed - including a good spread of the surrounding bumper - you can see the not really colour match in the first picture above,and:

So, I'd already sourced a pair of blanking vent thingys from the Facebook group and painted them black to avoid colour match issues. Had to drill out the nuts holding the plate in the left hole, then fitted the blanking bits. I rubbed down the naff green paint and gave the bottom half of the bumper a blow over with... erm.. a random tin of paint I found in the back of the shed. Metallic dark green from an Octavia is a considerably closer match than what was there before though.

The final job of the day was to fit a terribly naff little rubber lip "spoiler" to the boot. I'll not subject you to a photo of that, it's far too naff and embarrassing, but I sort of quite like it🙂 Probably fall off on the motorway tomorrow.

 

Meanwhile the wife's C30 in the background there is a bit broken. Power steering line had sprung a leak, You could actually see a little arterial spurt every time she turned the wheel once I had tracked down the PAS reservoir and topped it up. (underneath the headlight for goodness sake!)

So.. how hard could it be?.. the lines come as one big assembly, push fit at the rack end with a little retaining plate, couple of brackets, then a push fit into a retaining nut thingy for one line at the pump end and a hose clip for the other. Simples.

Only the push fit at the rack end was seized solid and I've broken the line off right at the end where it goes into the rack. Bum. Booked into a garage on Thursday, wonder how much their "customer had a go and cocked it up" surcharge is😟

[Grumblespeed]

Well, merry Boxing day! Haven't updated for a while, been mostly about the Volvo recently. The upshot of the steering rack shenanigans was 3 weeks at the local garage - got the broken connecter out no bother without dropping the rack, then left it to sit for ever because the replacement part is just not available anywhere apparently. This one has an electric pump for the PAS, and all the pipe sets you can buy off the shelf are designed for a belt driven set up. Eventually they got round to asking the dealership, got the part and returned it to us big factory part bill later back up and running.

... unfortunately about a week later it stopped working as all the fluid had drained back out of a whole new leak they had made in the pipework on the rack itself while trying to access the other connectors. They'd bent a heat shield back out the way which had holed the other pipe. To be fair it was pretty hard up already thus springing the leak when they clipped it, but still a bit annoying. So whole new rack fitted (by someone else!)

and today, the rear O/S brake was binding a bit and making a noise according to the Mrs. New discs and pads ordered as they were starting to look a bit hard up. This is what came off:

..yup. had the money's worth out of those alright.

See what the other side looks like tomorrow, ran out of daylight.

Meanwhile, Rover is just cruising on happily, Seicento still skipping about like a puppy, and leaving puddles like a puppy too wherever I park it, must do something about that, Red Panda still broke, proper Panda still in the garage in bits, definitely getting round to that soon... ish.

[Grumblespeed]

Well here we go, MOT season seems to be upon me, with the Rover in tomorrow and the Seicento next week. Might be in urgent need of a car next Tuesday if it all goes pear shaped. Hoping for the best with big 600, done next to nothing to it since I got it nigh on a year ago bar wheels & tyres and a light service. Checked the lights, given it a wash and put a nice fresh rag under the high level brake light to stop it flapping about on the rear shelf. See how we go.

[Grumblespeed]

Well, dropped off. Going by previous experience with this garage it might be done at pretty much any random time today.

[Grumblespeed]

I'll take that.😁

[Tickman]

That's an excellent result.
Hopefully the same with the Fiat.

 

[Grumblespeed]

Part 2 underway, Little Yellow dropped off this morning for test. Sitting refreshing the MOT history page like an expectant father.

[Grumblespeed]

Clean pass! 👍

[wesacosa]

great news 

[Grumblespeed]

Grrr, cars are stupid!

Having MOT'd both of my (currently running) cars over the last 2 weeks the wife has now nicked the Rover as her C30 has a bearing howl at the front (not the wheel bearings, think it's the mid bearing on the O/S driveshaft so new one waiting to go on when it is in for MOT next week) and a sticky rear O/S caliper I have to keep freeing off or it starts getting hot when she drives it (new one of those lined up too) So I'm driving the Sei now for a bit.

Got home in it today - rear O/S brakes red hot. Stupid Volvo is infectious apparently!

[Grumblespeed]

Well, been quiet for a while, mostly because I've done bugger all. Had an ongoing feud with the Sei as the driver side wiper has only been giving me a partial sweep, so I could either have it parking halfway up the screen, or only wiping to roughly in front of my face. Worked out that it was because the spindle was moving about so tried all sorts to try and secure it better but just kept getting worse. Looking at it again yesterday and I realised the panel was actually deforming with every swipe and was starting to figure out how I could possibly brace it or possibly just scrap the stupid car - then it finally dawned on me that the spindle was seized solid, the whole thing was twisting round with the wiper, securing nut and all. So having extracted it and spent a happy afternoon hammering it apart and running wet & dry on a drill bit round in the sleeve to open it out I finally got it freed off and all functioning as it should👍

Excellent, second car now available for use again. Been running the Rover as the daily just doing it's thing as old faithful never complaining. Until today. Got back to a flat tyre after work. So after discovering the spare is as bald as a coot and only slightly more inflated than the one I took off I limped it home and went to put a pair of the original steels back on the front to get it mobile for now. Can of worms now opened on removing both front wheels I have now discovered not one, but two CV boots flapping in the breeze, grease but a distant memory (apart from the liberal coating on nearby suspension parts obviously) Good job I got the spare car working then😒

And that's not going to repair... And why is the inner edge all scrubbed? Urgh, cars are a stupid idea!

[Grumblespeed]

OK, so fleet update. The red Panda AKA the newest car in the fleet including the wife's "proper" car C30 has been languishing out the back for 2 and a half years now after throwing up an ABS light just before the last MOT was up and subsequently putting on the engine light too with an array of fault codes. Not being a fan of having to mess with "modern" electronics I decided at that point to finish fixing the little Sei instead and abandoned it.

So, after a couple of years spent constantly "fixing" the Seicento and chasing daft little issues circumstances have changed somewhat. The wife has a new job which means a house move. My commute goes from 25 miles a day to 70, and we no longer have a car park out the back to stash umpteen cars which I haven't got round to yet. The Panda with it's high 40's mpg and £35 a year tax looks a better bet than the Sei with similar mpg but £300+ tax, or the big Rover with the £300++ tax and 35mpg. So finally got round to tackling it. A new ABS unit was needed (no, nothing as simple as a sensor) so fitted that but still had the light, and also had to replace a rear brake pipe to get the seized nipple and then cylinder union open to bleed through. Endless checking of the fuse box over and over again on about the 15th double check finally revealed that I had managed to put a fuse back in the wrong place which finally put the ABS light out (would have thought I'd just scored the winner in some sort of major sporting event at that point) and further investigation of a combination of Google and fusebox eventually pinpointed a slightly corroded pin on one fuse which also put out the EML.

Ahhh, behold, light free!

MOT today and after one false start with the exhaust blowing in the middle and the handbrake only really working on one side it finally has it's first pass since April 2020 (guess it belonged to some sort of key worker then)

So, state of play:

Got these 3, 2 fully insured & taxed (just temp cover on the Panda to get it to the garage). Rover still needs a tyre and the CV boots sorting with Seicento currently on daily duties. We now move house in a little over 3 weeks and really I can't move with all 3 - there will be the other Panda in the garage having been trailered there, the wife's car, the red panda will be my daily and I reckon we can accommodate one more as a backup car. But Rover or Seicento? Rover is bigger (obviously), more comfortable and generally a nicer car, plus has the advantage the wife will actually drive it if hers breaks. Thirsty if I have to commute it however, even more pricey on tax, and takes up more space on the drive. Seicento is more frugal, plus I have put a lot of work into it over the last couple of years, and it shares parts with both Pandas and I now have a full licensed diagnostic package for it having shelled out for the red one. Takes up only a tiny corner of the drive when  not in use too. Downsides, bit wearing for a long commute, flimsy, and the wife hates it...

Clock is ticking, what to do?

[wesacosa]

good work on the red Panda.  Feel your pain on having to decide which of the fleet to cull

[Grumblespeed]

  On 30/08/2023 at 16:12, wesacosa said:

good work on the red Panda.  Feel your pain on having to decide which of the fleet to cull

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Yes, at least Lincoln doesn't have an ULEZ ...yet.

[Grumblespeed]

  On 22/05/2022 at 07:04, BeEP said:

Did you ever make any progress with the modern Panda?

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😁

[wesacosa]

speaking of Seicento sporting, does this sound like a simple fix or start of HGF?

"selling as spares or repairs,it does drive but engine management light is on saying misfire,the car misfires on start up for about 10 secs then clears and runs fine"

[Grumblespeed]

  On 30/08/2023 at 19:48, wesacosa said:

speaking of Seicento sporting, does this sound like a simple fix or start of HGF?

"selling as spares or repairs,it does drive but engine management light is on saying misfire,the car misfires on start up for about 10 secs then clears and runs fine"

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Sounds perfectly normal to me👍

(with the possible exception of the "then clears and runs fine" part)

No good reason it should be HGF anyway.

 

[Grumblespeed]

Another one of those days. Started the day with the newly MOT'd Panda needing the O/S rear brakes freeing off as when I got home after the first run out in it the wheel was red hot. Tried getting in to it Sunday night but no joy, drum was slightly lipped and with the handbrake not releasing fully either no way was it coming off.  Hub puller ordered I was back on it this morning. This time, got the drum off no problem, despite the new hub puller not fitting so I had to devise a cunning plan pulling the loosely attached wheel spacer with a different puller I already had.

Success only slightly tempered by the fact the bearing came off in many pieces with balls scattering everywhere as it disintegrated.

Brakes dismantled OK after that, cable was free, pivot point on the lever on the brake shoe was seized solid so that looks to have been the problem. So after much swearing and a bit of you tube watching after I realised I probably should have got a picture before I started dismantling (hate drum brakes!) got everything back together and noticed brake fluid oozing out around the seals on the cylinder. Damn

So, by the end of the day, gone from needing the handbrake freeing to needing a new wheel bearing, cylinder, and brake pipe (cause there's no chance that's coming undone - I know, already done the other side.)

[Grumblespeed]

Going well, brake pipe here safe and sound, cylinder arrived today, bearing (on DPD next day delivery) delivered safely on Thursday lunchtime. No idea where, but definitely delivered, photo to prove it, of my lovely new bearing sitting on some random doorstep that is neither here nor, as far as I can tell, nearby. Have now ordered another bearing from a different supplier just so I can have one to get the car back on the road while I have the argument with the first lot who have checked the tracking and informed me that DPD says they've delivered it. Of course DPD say they've delivered it, that's why I contacted them in the first place!!!😡.. Can't contact DPD, their customer service only opens when I'm at work.

[Grumblespeed]

So, red Panda up and running now. Seicento up for some attention today and I literally even remembered to get the phone out and take some pics.

Last shot of the whole fleet together in the old place first

Grumbleweed will be getting trailered to his comfy new double garage tomorrow, and the race is on to reduce the numbers to fit on the drive after that.

With that in mind first job of the day was to swap off the Uno rims from the Sei, then while the drivers front wheel was off, maybe just pop a replacement hub on to try and stop the untoward warmth happening in that area. 

Amazing how much easier these jobs are when everything is all free and comes apart no bother 

Hasn't looked like that in a long while. Don't know if it's cured the issue yet, had to dash off to the new place with a Panda load as soon as I was done.

[Grumblespeed]

Didn't cure the issue, had to swap the old bearing back on as the replacement was even worse. At least @Ohdearmehas a spare hub to put a fresh bearing in off the car. Otherwise however, drives better on the original rims dammit.