THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[trigger]

I think your right, The annoying thing is my Passat, which had done 115k and was 2 years older was spot on, it drove perfectly and could easily pass for a car half it's age, It had done most it's mileage in it's it's first 3 years as a company car before being bought by the guy i bought it off who really well looked after it and spend a fortune on servicing it regularly.

 

The Bora on the other hand has been owned by a coupe of young families who lived out in the sticks and i get the impression it was just used and abused, Don't get me wrong it's by no means a shitter but i don't think it's been treated in the same way as my Passat was.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I used it 'on the car', so as not to remove massive long pipes where only the end of the pipe was rotten. Chop the rotten bit off, make a flare on the chopped-off end on the car, then make up a section to replace just the bit you've chopped off rather than having to dismatle the whole fuggin vehicle.

 

Isn't there a chance that other bits of that rotten pipe are also, how you say, "fugged" and that replacing the whole section would be a good idea?

 

Hmmm, I suppose its no worse in a way to me patching up bits off inner sill rather than chopping the lot out and starting again.

 

I'm not advocating leaving rusty brake pipes on, but if you can see that only the end bit is rusty, surely its better to replace that than do loads of dismantling - you always seem to need to remove major suspension components to get the damn things off in my experience.

[cms206]

Now storageless; Cumberland Motor Services National 206 (AHH 206T) departed on suspend tow behind a 57-plate DAF XF for a new life either as a resto project or spares, Western SMT Leopard 2508 (HCS 793N) departed on suspend tow behind a truely awesome F-reg Volvo F10 to a museum for definate restoration, and my little Fiesta Courier is now awaiting uplift for scrap. On the plus side, I now have money to fix the Cavalier and put a test on AFM 2W... yay!

[seth]

I'm not advocating leaving rusty brake pipes on, but if you can see that only the end bit is rusty, surely its better to replace that than do loads of dismantling - you always seem to need to remove major suspension components to get the damn things off in my experience.

 

Fair enough. I suppose I've usually done brake pipes when other things have been out of the way. Only did the one that goes across the bulkhead on the Herald last winter when the heater etc were out anyway.

[the barefoot chef]

Scirocco went to have tracking sorted.

It was miles out & like driving on completely bald tyres in the wet.

Now nicely sorted, steering wheel straightened out and bottom strut brace fitted at the same time.

It's still chucking it down here so I didn't drive it home like a complete tit

but it was like driving a different car.

 

Visit to carb specialist in the next couple of days & then a 300 mile round trip

to Whitby on Saturday for fish & chips.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

My Rover hit he road again on Sunday, and i've now covered 200 miles, no funny noises, engine sounds lovely, no burning oil, no smoke, and no leaks!!! For the first time since I bought it, it seems to be mechanically 100% AT LAST! fantastic!!!!

[trigger]

Don't speak to soon Bo1!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I know, I oughta keep my gob shut, i'll probably wake up to find some pikeys have nicked it and weighed it tomorrow morning.

[dollywobbler]

Now storageless; Cumberland Motor Services National 206 (AHH 206T) departed on suspend tow behind a 57-plate DAF XF for a new life either as a resto project or spares, Western SMT Leopard 2508 (HCS 793N) departed on suspend tow behind a truely awesome F-reg Volvo F10 to a museum for definate restoration, and my little Fiesta Courier is now awaiting uplift for scrap. On the plus side, I now have money to fix the Cavalier and put a test on AFM 2W... yay!

 

Hope the loud Nationals haven't also departed.

 

I'm currently tooling out in some quality van shite. An LDV Maxus as we scrape up yet more shite that between us we've deemed too useful to throw away. Yes, we own more than a truck load of absolute rubbish!

 

Now, I must admit to getting a bit excited when I discovered that my hired Transit-sized van hailed from Washwood Heath, Birmingham - in build if not design (joint operation with Daewoo with the first ones built in Poland - international!). For those who don't know, the Maxus packs a 2.5-litre powerplant with a pretty big turbo I reckon as it does not hang about. It's an odd engine, which won't rev much beyond 3000rpm but has oodles of torque. It also handles well enough, with front-wheel drive and the most direct steering this side of a Mini. It soon becomes clear that this is definitely not a re-skinned Sherpa.

 

However, what makes it Grade A shite is the build quality. The metal is so thin that windows are almost unecessary. The van is full of dents and the bloke at the hire centre reckoned most of them were from people merely shutting the doors. Inside, there's a central speedo assembly so they don't have to swap things about for LHD. There's also some plastic that's so nasty even Chrysler would think twice about using it. Still, the dash generally rattles less than a Maestro or XJS, so British heritage has been firmly removed, despite appearances. There are some switches, but at 66,000 miles, most of them don't work. Or are missing altogether. The heater blower motor only works on position 4. The variable intermittent wipers are both variable and very intermittent. Adjusting the switch seems to make no difference to the randomness.

 

This being a well cared for van, the steering wheel is at ten past eight when you're going in a straight line. The speedo under-reads by 10mph at 70mph. The gearchange requires the muscles of Hercules to move it, which is a shame as apparently, if you're too rough with it, the whole assembly just sort of falls apart. I'm having to be forceful and gentle at the same time - though I can just leave it in fourth gear for pretty much all conditions at least.

 

The ride quality is pretty bad, if not quite Iveco Daily bad. We'll see how it handles a bit of weight tomorrow. Might smooth things out. A bit.

 

Overall, I quite like the thing. It manages to keep many shite aspects that make me love old LDVs, but actually has some good points. A shame then that the Russkies bought LDV and promptly went bankrupt. Who will the Post Office buy their vans from now?

[Richard]

Who will the Post Office buy their vans from now?

 

I don't think that will be an issue for long.

 

The only ones I've seen close up have been delivering parcels to work and they do look pretty shoddy.

[Mr Lobster]

The Maxus isn't actually a bad design and when they work they are ok. Build quality really is terrible though. I mean really, really bad.

[garycox]

They seem to have (already very battered) Vauxhall ones around here now, the one that's like a Renault Trafic.

[dollywobbler]

The Maxus isn't actually a bad design and when they work they are ok. Build quality really is terrible though. I mean really, really bad.

 

I dunno. I still rate it ahead of the Iveco Daily I once had to drive from Bristol to Peterborough. That thing was absolutely shafted. The side door couldn't be opened, because it just fell off and hitting a bump made so many panels/bits of plastic shake about that my head hurt after ten minutes. Clearly related to the Iveco Eurocargo I used for the main house move - which remains the only vehicle I've ever driven which is louder at tickover than when flat out.

[gearoil]

The Maxus isn't actually a bad design and when they work they are ok. Build quality really is terrible though. I mean really, really bad.

 

We had one for a couple of weeks and it did exactly as it said on the tin. Bit cheap in places, granted, but no too bad I thought.

 

'58 plate Iveco Daily is the worst van I've ever driven - chod. And the side door fell off.

[Mr Lobster]

Biggest problem with Maxus' now is none availability of parts - especiallyt panels and plastic bits. Theres a lot of stuff that just isn't available anymore and I guess that will see a lot of them having an early trip over the bridge.

[cms206]

Not driven a Maxus, but I rate the older Iveco Dailys... we had a P-reg 50k miler 35.10 box van which was pretty good. Roasty toasty in the winter even with the window that fell out, went like shit off a stick when you worked it out. I even liked the driving position and lumpy gearchange...

 

... apparantly I still hold the aviance Land Speed Record for P107 MTR... 87mph with a decent load and a tailwind...

[cms206]

Now storageless; Cumberland Motor Services National 206 (AHH 206T) departed on suspend tow behind a 57-plate DAF XF for a new life either as a resto project or spares, Western SMT Leopard 2508 (HCS 793N) departed on suspend tow behind a truely awesome F-reg Volvo F10 to a museum for definate restoration, and my little Fiesta Courier is now awaiting uplift for scrap. On the plus side, I now have money to fix the Cavalier and put a test on AFM 2W... yay!

 

Hope the loud Nationals haven't also departed.

 

 

Meant to reply to this earlier... ! The gruesome twosome are staying as long as they have storage; SHH 389X is safe, AFM 2W is shaky. Working on it... working on it... !!!

 

[mnde]

News update from me:

 

1) I got married last month! I have some pics of Cit wedding cars and Turkish shite spots on honeymoon to share (been too lazy to upload them yet).

 

2) I'm hating the weather. Took the GSA to work on Wednesday to dry it off as it was a sunny day. Got stuck in a queue on the A3 which wasn't the plan - was hoping for some high speed car drying ... Then took it out yesterday and it got all wet again anyway. It's got a rust hole under the LH corner of the dashboard letting water into the front floorpan which is a massive ballache. As is the peeling underseal which seems to have been applied over bare metal...

 

3) Out in the BX this morning I had the pleasure of meeting a white Marina estate coming the other way. I flashed and waved, obviously.

 

4) We've just got our grubby mits on a brand new Skoda Fabia 1.2 SE DSG Estate for my wife! I've been on tenterhooks because although there was no way we could order one new without getting it in the new year because of demand, the odd "about to be built" car surfaced on the dealer's system in the past few days that were potentially up for grabs. So we lost out on an Anthracite Grey Elegance, and then there was the possibility of a maroon Elegance, but finally we've landed ourselves one in the spec we wanted, in Aqua Blue metallic. This will replace the Honda Jazz that's coming to the end of it's 3yr finance in December. I can't wait to drive this Fabia and try out the DSG gearbox. If we hadn't got a Fabia, we would have been getting a Used Approved Kia C'eed 1.6 Auto. We drove one last weekend ... it was decent, I'm sure it would have been easy to get on with, it was quite roomy and had a large boot. The steering felt a bit odd around straight ahead though, but overall it would have been a good prospect I think. Skoda was our first choice though. We had to give up on a new Octavia because there just weren't ANY available!

 

Mark.

[garethj]

Today I put new plugs and leads on the Volvo 740, took the old plugs out and their colour was the perfect tan to brown that Mr Haynes talks about. As the air filter is clean and the exhaust is brownish I reckon the engine's in pretty good shape.

 

I put a new sidelight bulb in, which had blown and gone all whiteish inside. Think it does that when a numpty turns the glass too hard and it lets air inside it.

 

10 minutes later I fitted a new sidelight bulb, it had gone all whiteish inside

 

I tried unblocking the washer jets by sticking various bits of wire down the holes which didn't make much difference. Then I got a monster syringe and sucked all the crud backwards through the jet and all was well.

 

Before the rain started I gave the car a wash, but I've lost my chamois so it looked pretty dreadful after. Proper wash for it soon

[eddyramrod]

'58 plate Iveco Daily is the worst van I've ever driven - chod. And the side door fell off.

 

Nice to know some things don't change! The older ones used to do that all the time, I got quite good at replacing them at the roadside. Most recent I've driven is the 05, so maybe the facelift that followed did them a disservice, but the 00-05 pre-facelift was a huge improvement on the previous body. At least you could reach the radio without breaking your back!

[the barefoot chef]

Ex HillmanImp - Scirocco update...

 

Carb tuned today to within an inch of its life.

Clutch cable re-routed & pedal lightened significantly.

 

The old Scirocco is now running as well as can be expected, but it is

really a bit overdue for its essential carb replacement...

 

It appears that the 75bhp@5000rpm/125Nm@2500 1595 GT is a very

different car to the 85bhp@5600rpm/125Nm@3800 1588 GL that I owned

20 years ago. Despite what is apparently a re-designed engine,

it's not a revver.

It has what drives like the smoothest cam I've encountered in a while.

 

bugger that, it runs and the odometer now works.

a first calculation, admittedly on just 80 miles on £9.10 worth of fuel

gave 46 mpg!

 

I'm not convinced of that but tomorrow we're off out for fish & chips

in Whitby at the Magpie - a 300 mile round trip and whether or not

all goes to plan, I will be posting pictures & more very shortly.

 

 

Can I just say that I really like this forum with its single 'general chat' frum.

There is nothing dismays me more than trawling through menus wondering

where I will cause the least offense when I eventually get to post my dull tale.

 

.

 

.

[r.welfare]

Never tried an 85bhp/1588cc, but can confirm, from experience of Mk2 Golfs and Jettas with the 75bhp/1595cc that they are smooth, but definitely no ball of fire.

 

My Autoshite news is that a pair of Delphi DeCarbon front shocks turned up for the Avensis today - not a bad deal from eBay for £49 delivered. This means I can hold the 2nd annual R.Welfare shock absorber challenge over my Xmas holiday - last year I only took 7 hours to change the fronts on the Accord, a 3.2 hour job according to Autodata

[MrDuke]

Today, I discovered that the Pug was even more dangerous to drive than I had imagined, and that I had been dicing with death on a daily basis by commuting in it. As such, it became Recycling Centre License No.11 's last cube of the week. RIP G209OWE

 

Also, I finally brought the Riva home Pictures shall follow once I've scraped 2 years' worth of dust and bird shit off of it. I'd forgotten how delightful they were to drive, and not even Mrs_Duke's wrath can wipe the grin off my face. I R HAPPY

[garethj]

a first calculation, admittedly on just 80 miles on £9.10 worth of fuel

gave 46 mpg!

The VW engines of that period were very economical, until the 16V came along and economy dropped to normal car levels.

 

46mpg seems a bit much, but as you say a longer run will give a more accurate figure. I reckon 40+mpg is on the cards for normal driving, perhaps 45mpg on a long run.

[Rocket88]

Started fitting a new set of adjustable coilovers to ye olde Passat estate. All four of the original struts were fubarred, and the coilovers were cheaper than the bog standard originals. Got the rears done yesterday [ballache of a job] fronts to do today

[Rusty Pelican]

Need a bonnet gas strut for my E30 Beemer , Theres some on the bay ranging from a tenner up to £30 , though it would be an idea to check with the dealers especially as they are 200 yards from my house . £21 + VAT , good price for a genuine part , coming in on Tuesday . No more having the bonnet smash down on my bonce .

[155V6]

'58 plate Iveco Daily is the worst van I've ever driven - chod. And the side door fell off.

 

Nice to know some things don't change! The older ones used to do that all the time, I got quite good at replacing them at the roadside. Most recent I've driven is the 05, so maybe the facelift that followed did them a disservice, but the 00-05 pre-facelift was a huge improvement on the previous body. At least you could reach the radio without breaking your back!

I've driven a few where that happened too,but the thing I never liked was that there was never anywhere to put anything in the cab.

[Mike D]

I have actually sold a car!!

 

See you later Pao!

 

Money will be going in the 928 bottomless pit fund

[garycox]

The Super Minx has gone off to be a spares car (it was even rustier than I thought).

 

So the £150 from that will be used to transport a free Lotus Eclat home.

 

I WILL NEVER LEARN.

[Pete-M]

SD1 sold to the one geezer who turned up to view it. Happy daze.

 

188 watchers and nearly 3100 page views. Thought it may have done better than £660. Not to worry.