THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[retrogeezer]

just checked dvla and it says unlicensed since March (

[tonedepear]

Just home from a night shift and looking forward to a few days off and a camping to down south with the bairn. Bloody clutch is slipping. Brill.

 

Forgot I posted this. It fixed itself while I was away. Suspect carpet/pedal interface + tiredness, or possibly some kind of weirdy fluid got on it somehow, but it's not slipping now so I don't care any more. Yay!

 

All the best problems fix themselves. 100% fact.

[barefoot]

Scirocco failed MOT yesterday - excessive movement in front strut

top rear strut cup rotten & chafed brake pipe

All sorted - passed today.

Another year of cheap, yet stylish motoring looms ahead!

[Cavcraft]

I missed it too, it appears to be an Audi 80 Avant 1.9 TD- the best one of the bunch IMHO!

Aye that's the one. Tell you what though didnt miss it one bit today as the Cavalier has done me proud. Boring pro-vauxhall write up to follow.

[The Moog]

Finally finished the micra today. Got the passenger side drop link fitted. Had to take an angle grinder to get the old one off as it was rusted to buggery. Managed to finish it all without getting too wet. Handles beautifully now and drives with no noises up front. Bonus is that after driving the VW the 1.3 micra feels like a ferrari ..

 

Also managed to fit the rear speakers which are factory standard version. Improve the listening 1000%. Had to put some dub on to double check and rock it all the way home.

 

Volvo had a new headlight wiper arm fitted with new blade. That means no more annoying squeaking

[chaseracer]

New ARB droplink on Blingo yesterday. Front end feels better but still clonks under load, especially when reversing. Any ideas, gents, please?

[dollywobbler]

Wishbone bushes? They can make things a bit clonky. Fairly obvious when they're perished. At least, they were on the BX. A new wishbone was cheaper than the bushes alone...

[trigger]

My mates Belingo was knocking recently and was asking me the same question, i said wishbones, It went in for the mot a few days later and failed on wishbones...

[The Moog]

It is what I just changed on the Micra. Eurocarparts was £78 ebay was £22! The ball joints etc come already pressed in for the micra so was a quick change over..

[Shep Shepherd]

Just returned from my week-long German trip, during which TV2 behaved impeccably, although its tailpipe fell off somewhere between Magdeburg and Maidstone on the way home

 

 

More pictures (of TV2 and various bits of Euroshite) coming soon

[John F]

I've just added a '97 Discovery 300 TDi to my fleet...

[dollywobbler]

I've just added a '97 Discovery 300 TDi to my fleet...

 

Nice. Has it still got a boot floor?

[John F]

I've just added a '97 Discovery 300 TDi to my fleet...

 

Nice. Has it still got a boot floor?

 

Amazingly, yes Unlike the several dozen I've looked at recently.

[Father Ted]

Now there is one of those e-Petitions to Number 10 to get scrappies to stop paying out in cash but to use cheques of bank transfers only to try and discourage metal theft.

 

Good, bad or unworkable?

 

Discuss

[Lord Sterling]

Also managed to fit the rear speakers which are factory standard version. Improve the listening 1000%. Had to put some dub on to double check and rock it all the way home.

 

Done this to my Micra aswell a few months back. Picked the parcel shelf out from a scrap 1.3SR at the scrappies, for the parcel-shelf with speakers and a load of other interior trim the scrappy bloke charged me a grand total of £10.

 

 

I wasnt aware then, when I first bought the shelf that there was already a plug to plug the speakers into, but a a bit of digging around I found the plug.

 

Went back to the scrappy yesterday to pick up a boot latch locking mechanism as I intend to fit a boot light, I also sadly came away with 2 sets of genuine Fiat Marea mats, so if anyone wants a set for postage money, just PM me.

 

The scrappy also told me about a H-reg Toyota MR2 he has for sale, apparently its done just 120k, had money thrown at it etc.. He want about £650 for it, if anyone is interested, contact details are here

[CreepingJesus]

Unworkable. Scrappies trade in cash to keep the book-keeping 'simple'. Bank transfers etc.; fair enough for the jet-set stock buying types: I can't see it happening in a portakabin on a wet Wednesday in the arse end of Kirkcaldy...

[trigger]

I've just been and picked up my Mondeo, It's very quiet now, much quieter then when i bought it and it seems a bit quicker as well but I'm well pissed about how much it's cost me to repair in total....

 

£415! and that was with cheap labour, £187 for the orginial parts of ebay, £64 to fit them, then £119 for a replacement lower pulley, (the FEBI one of ebay was badly made) another £35 to diagnose the fault and fit the new pulley (He spend most of a day trying to work out why it was noisy and stripping it all down about 5 times) and £10 for new bolts for the pulley.

 

Buying cheap pattern parts really aren't the cost saving exercise i was hoping, especially as I've since found out i could have got a full genuine Ford kit of the Internet for £196.

 

Hopefully I'll get £100 back though from the ebay seller, we'll see.

[Father Ted]

Also managed to fit the rear speakers which are factory standard version. Improve the listening 1000%. Had to put some dub on to double check and rock it all the way home.

 

I wasnt aware then, when I first bought the shelf that there was already a plug to plug the speakers into, but a a bit of digging around I found the plug.

 

Which side? I might try and pick up a shelf for mine as its getting a new stereo this week.

[Lord Sterling]

Which side? I might try and pick up a shelf for mine as its getting a new stereo this week.

 

Right-hand side of the boot, under the side-carpet where you access the right-hand rear light, pull back the carpet and you'll see a white/yellow wire harness hanging off a metal bracket like so:

 

 

You can lift the plug off the metal bracket to ring out to reach the speakers plug.

[Father Ted]

Cool.

Cheers for that.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I've been PAINTING MY WAGON tonight:

 

[Pete-M]

KEWL. Any news on the BollTurdo?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

None whatsoever! Its doing garden ornament duty at the moment.

[Cavcraft]

Can't wait to see the Avenger when it's done, looking forward to more news on it. Right, yesterday's jaunt in the Cav: despite veg oil burning mingebag-ness decided the Audi was going to be a bit of a drag due to it's lowered suspension so the Cav was chosen for the Chester-Lincoln-Peterborough-Lincoln-Chester trek. Inspired choice (so far) as the first leg of the journey was brilliant. The car drives superbly, no problem keeping up with motorway traffic and sitting at about* the national speed limit and averaged circa 54mph in the first couple of hours which wasn't bad going as that included the Snake Pass and coming from the M1 towards Worksop. It was the oldest car I noticed on the motorway except perhaps for a Galant on the M1 that was being driven like it was stolen. Anyhow the Cav was superb; enough poke to keep constant decent speeds up as well as overtake and a very comfortable and surprisingly quiet place to be. A little raucous when in sport mode on the autobox and wellied some but it was rarely required as reading the road ahead generally means less requirement to boot it anyhow. Power steering is great but feels a touch heavier than modern shite but haven't checked the tyre pressures so possibly that. Made it seem like it was more involving to drive anyhow and the way the car corners and takes poor road surfaces puts stacks of modern cars to shame. The Cav feels like it'll go on forever and be the sort of car you could drive across Europe in non-stop without batting an eye lid. Absolutely 100% nicer to drive than all the cars I've had in ages Inc the E46 and the S-type. No crashing over bumps, no bad back and decent on fuel for what it is too. All in all a thoroughly delightful stress free drive that made me grin like mad. We'll be using this instead of the Audi for our forthcoming holiday as the pleasure and ease of the autobox coupled to the 8V engine makes a nice, smooth lazy drive.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I had some geezer walk into the workshop last night while I was arsing around with the avenger, he's from the unit next door where they've got a load of old buses. "I've got a Jag XJ40, its my daily driver and its a great car, but its just failed the MOT on welding... front and rear ends of the sills...... drivers side floorpan-to-sill joint on one side.... and a bit on the rear suspension...... Is that the sort of thing you could do?" I immediatley had visions of spending months welding this old thing back together while he knocks on the door every other day saying 'is it done/ready yet?' then expecting to pay £200 for 4 months work. I made some polite-but-discouraging noises, at which point he said 'I've got this mini, needs a clutch'...... I understand mini clutches are not too horrific to do, but I took one look under the bonnet at the total lack of finger space and started back-pedalling even more.

 

Theres another jobbing mechanic in one of the units alongside, i said 'can he not do it?' Apparently he'd already given our man the brush-off ('I'm too busy, sorry!') so that reassured me that I had made the right decision of sacking him off!

[cort16]

Been offered all the gear to put a 620ti T-Series turbo motor into my SD1 for not that much money. SD1 5speed gearbox and apparantly it'll go in on the o-series engine mounts so it sounds like it might just be do-able. The old 2600 anchor is okay but since it's been in my lockup it's pissed various oily fluids everywhere. I know I should be considering a 1.0 diesel Charade conversion in true AS style but its sounds like it could be quite a nice conversion.

[cms206]

Put the ex Garrbaldy Cavalier Classic in for MOT last week, after a bit of cocking about over the weekend it went for test this morning and...

 

IT PASSED!

 

 

Two CV gaiters, advisories for front discs & pads, a slightly corroded nearside front brake line and an oil leak. The quoted phrase was "If the engine doesn't go it should sail another test no problem, though the engine sounds healthy enough so I wouldn't think it'll be wanting one of those any time soon either. Good solid car."

 

 

Next on the agenda... brake lines and a service. Oh yeah, and a puncture repair for the nail it picked up on the way back from test... grrr!

[Cavcraft]

Two hours twenty seven minutes from Lincoln to Chester in the Cavalier. Totally and utterly knackered after nearly 400 miles in two days.

 

*Edit: various rammel spotted along the way, the absolute king of which was a white Montego estate with those stupid Audi-esque neon sort of chain lights in the headlights and a bodykit somewhere 'twixt Lincoln and Peterborough.

[The Moog]

Decided to investigate why the micraa blower was as strong as a fat asthmatic gerbil. To get out the cabin filter you have to cut the plastic behind the glove box. It was perfectly intact meaning that it has never been changed in the 13 years it has been on the road. Surely the owners must have had it serviced by Nissan when it was new and it should have been changed at 2 year. Wonder how many other jobs had corners cut with manufacturers servicing

 

Black filter out and white filter in and full blowage is restored!

[RoadworkUK]

....those stupid Audi-esque neon sort of chain lights in the headlights .

 

I saw a set of those on a Bedford Bambi motorhome (!) last night. I was appalled at first but then I realised that it might have actually been very awesome indeed.