THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[Mike D]

Heres a pic taken this morning, it's getting there

 

[Gompo]

Rather exiting news today - I had to spend £130 odd pounds on a single bloody tyre.

Nevertheless it gives me an excuse to post a photograph of the '87 models on the fleet.

.

 

..That's quite a lot of money to lay out on a single tyre, was it a metric one or something?

 

No it's a 225/50 ZR 16 N1

 

where N1 is the compound.

 

.

 

Oh yes, I forgot about the 'N' Porsche tyres.

[Pillock]

Golf work: Both driveshafts bolted up, bizarrely jacking the car up and down, putting the wheel on one lock then the other, jacking the engine up after removing the n/s mount bolt, lowering car, turning wheel and various repetitions of them all led to the n/s driveshaft just plopping into place. It had been about 3mm too long all that time, I moved the steering wheel and found it was about 8-10mm the other way. Result!

Also put all the belts back on, tightened all the engine mounts, double checked everything, buggered off to the scrapyard and got one of the metal water pipes that always rot through and seem like the worst idea in the world, and then braced myself for the first start.

 

Arse. Battery is flat.

 

I've been out and bought a jump pack but it needs charging overnight.

[Rusty Pelican]

O/S outer headlight on my E30 is half full of water , Ive removed it ( easy job ) and drained the water out , But can you dry it out any sence , can you fuck , eventually resorted to a bit of wire with a rag tapped to it and Mrs RPs hairdrier , ive attempted to stop the rain getting in using Captain Tolleys creaping crack cure then some bathroom sealant ,

Hella , Why make headlights you cant clean or dry out you baffoons ,

Only time will tell if this works

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Is it a sealed unit or can you crack the glass off?

[Rusty Pelican]

Is it a sealed unit or can you crack the glass off?

Glass seems bonded to the reflector and wont shift even though ive tried , so the only way in is via the hole for the main bulb or the sidelight one neither of which are very big

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I have heard that you can tip a bit of methylated spirit in there and leave it somewhere warm, the meths evaporates and takes the water with it. Plus you can drink a bit of the meths to help with reinstalling the light.

[Cavcraft]

Oh deep joy. The fucking hateful bastarding Passat has sprung yet another leak. This time it's the n/s/r footwell which resembles a swimming pool. I think it's due to the panel 'thing' under the battery being blocked so hoping it's ten minute job to do.

 

It's a pain in the bleeding arse though and I'm getting really pissed off with the sodding thing, it's quite possibly the worse made car I've owned which is quite some going considering the absolute shit I've owned in the past. If I could afford to I'd honestly set about the whole car with a sledgehammer and weigh it in. Build quality my arse, it's fucking shit.

[trigger]

GR8 advert for anyone thinking about buying it though Billy!, I know where your coming from, Although my Passat was possibly the best car I've had, my Bora is just a total shit heap, Looking at maybe chopping it in now for a Mazda 6.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Hope you're not thinking of buying a diesel one

[Rusty Pelican]

Commiserations Billy

Nothing worst than a leaky car , they steam up , ice up inside in the cold , smell musty , My old Marina had mushrooms growing in the back due to constant leakage , My mate Daves just bought one , just hope his is better

[trigger]

Hope you're not thinking of buying a diesel one

 

Why's that? I've heard nothing but good news about them?.

[Negative Creep]

Spotted a Saab 9000 2.3 turbo near me. If it's still for sale on Friday I will be seriously interested.............

[The Moog]

Bernard fixed and running today. Just need to bleed the brakes and replace the front right Brake piston to stop it pulling.

 

Micra needed tweaking so finally tried to fix the drivers window and used metal putty stuff to fix the glass in the runners. Will see if it will work. Also replace the coolant bottle which has become like egg shell.

 

Xantia looks like it has LHM leak somewhere at the front. Hoping it is simple

[meggersdog]

.

 

Xantia looks like it has LHM leak somewhere at the front. Hoping it is simple

 

Suspension accumilator is right at the front crossmember in the middle on a Xantia,the sphere might just need tightening

[The Moog]

Thats what I am hoping. Really I should bite the bullet and replace all the spheres. Not massively difficult and will do once I get rid of Bernard.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I've been pissing around with my Landcrab today, the MOT has run out on it. I've replaced a knackered CV boot and drive coupling and ordered another coupling for the other side. I've also established that the indicator switch is bolloxed, some terminals have snapped off it causing main beam not to work. Thats about £30 to replace, plus £60 or so for a pair of new tyres and £45 for the test itself, which basically means i cant afford to get on with it for a couple of weeeks. Also the steering rack is weeping some fluid out, is that a test fail?

 

This is what you get i suppose for driving your old motor all year without doing any maintenance on it of any sort.

[trigger]

EFA

 

This is what you get i suppose for living the dream.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Ha ha, cheers Trig!

 

Oh I forgot to mention, the tyres only need replacing cos the tracking must be out and the outer edges have gone off both of em, they were new last year!!

[Richard]

I've had a car fail for a leaky rack, I just gave it a good clean and took it back.

[seth]

Leaky rack is probably an advise rather than a fail, as long as gaiters aren't split or theres mega amounts of play. Actually, just had a look at the online manual and even split gaiters should pass (with an advise) if there's no excess play.

[AXrescuer]

Today I managed to replace the shonky offside wishbone on my Astra. Piece of piss, don't know why I put it off for so long.

Our Saab 900NG on the other hand is being quite the shit. Still can't find the reason for its unstable idle and constant stalling when slowing down.

[wuvvum]

My 900 (classic) is being a PITA at the moment too. Ever since I bought it back it's had a tendency to stall when slowing down, and recently it's started running on 3 as well - it runs on 4 when first started, but then after a couple of minutes it starts to lose one of the cylinders. I've replaced the distributor cap and tried new leads to no avail - next thing on the list is plugs, but it's got those platinum-tipped plugs that are supposed to last eleventy million miles and they cost a fugging fortune, and I don't want to fork out unless I know for a fact that doing so will cure the problem. So I might just buy a set of cheap standard plugs and fit them to see what happens.

 

The Justy is now (in theory) ready for a test and once it's passed it will be taking the mantle of daily driver from the Innocenti. It's not as economical as the Innocenti, but I can overtake stuff in the Justy, so it's swings and roundabouts.

 

Took the Skoda round the block today for the first time in ages - it seems to be driving OK and all the lights and wipers and shizz are all behaving at the moment. I should really take it for a bit of a run to check everything's shipshape but I really need to do an oil change before I do as the oil in the sump still looks like Bailey's from when the head gasket went, and I don't really want to do that as the sump plug was cross-threaded by a previous owner and is an absolute PITA to get to seal properly, so guaranteed it's going to be pouring oil over my driveway for weeks afterwards. I'm going to have to do it at some point though...

[mattblack]

Made a start on chopping out the grot and old patches on the Sceptre... C U L8ER MIG WIRE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Essential tool...

 

I also swapped the oil filter, as the old stock Unipart one I fitted seemed to be draining back. It hadn't been started for a few months, took a bit of churning to get the fuel through but ran nice. I think the f*ck off £90 battery was a good investment.

[seth]

Made a start on chopping out the grot and old patches on the Sceptre...

 

Urgh! Worse than mine.

[mattblack]

I HOPE that's the worse bit. Seems like it has just been patched over the rot in the past, and now the patches have rotted.

[The Moog]

My 900 (classic) is being a PITA at the moment too. Ever since I bought it back it's had a tendency to stall when slowing down, and recently it's started running on 3 as well - it runs on 4 when first started, but then after a couple of minutes it starts to lose one of the cylinders. I've replaced the distributor cap and tried new leads to no avail - next thing on the list is plugs, but it's got those platinum-tipped plugs that are supposed to last eleventy million miles and they cost a fugging fortune, and I don't want to fork out unless I know for a fact that doing so will cure the problem. So I might just buy a set of cheap standard plugs and fit them to see what happens.

 

Saab C900's only like NGK. Dont know why but they do. Any other plugs ends up giving you hassle. I had some really fancy ones in, and the car hated it. Took them back and got NGK (BCP7EV I think) and all was fine and dandy. Stalling can be the throttle body needing a damn good clean with some carb cleaner and toothbrush.

[Pillock]

Ha ha, cheers Trig!

 

Oh I forgot to mention, the tyres only need replacing cos the tracking must be out and the outer edges have gone off both of em, they were new last year!!

 

Can't you make one good tyre from the worn pair?

[wuvvum]

My 900 (classic) is being a PITA at the moment too. Ever since I bought it back it's had a tendency to stall when slowing down, and recently it's started running on 3 as well - it runs on 4 when first started, but then after a couple of minutes it starts to lose one of the cylinders. I've replaced the distributor cap and tried new leads to no avail - next thing on the list is plugs, but it's got those platinum-tipped plugs that are supposed to last eleventy million miles and they cost a fugging fortune, and I don't want to fork out unless I know for a fact that doing so will cure the problem. So I might just buy a set of cheap standard plugs and fit them to see what happens.

 

Saab C900's only like NGK. Dont know why but they do. Any other plugs ends up giving you hassle. I had some really fancy ones in, and the car hated it. Took them back and got NGK (BCP7EV I think) and all was fine and dandy. Stalling can be the throttle body needing a damn good clean with some carb cleaner and toothbrush.

 

It's got a full set of BCP7EVXs in it at the moment. No. 4 is rather sooty-looking though so I reckon that's the one that's been misfiring, but whether it's due to the plug itself or something else I don't know yet (although I'm not sure what else it could be at this stage). I'll try giving the throttle body a clean once I've got the thing back running on 4 and see if it helps the stalling.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

give the plugs a damn good cleanup and see what that does, if you think the problem is down to a dodgy plug you could try moving that plug around and seeing if the misfire follows it.