THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[greengartside]

Ah that's worth a try! I had the hoover on it trying to suck the bits out but it wasn't powerful enough...

[ashmicro]

Small screwdriver with a lump of blu-tac. I have also used chewing gum - it's the Autoshite way!

[greengartside]

The grease tip worked! Managed to get a mangled spark plug out plus all the ceramic bits. Had a fiddle and found that most of the air intake hoses were split so I have duck taped up these - will see how it runs with a new set of plugs and the repaired air hoses tomorrow.

[Minimad5]

309 Carburettor has been stripped, cleaned and put back together

- But it now has no spark ...

New Rotor carm, Dizzy Cap, Plugs and leads are in order. (Along with some nice fresh oil and filters)

Also managed to stop the sunroof leaking.

[M'coli]

  Minimad5 said:

Also managed to stop the sunroof leaking.

They all do that sir

Top work!

[Cavcraft]

  pbottomley said:

News alert Earthquake felt in Northampton approximately 10:20 am this morning... measures a massive 65.5 bhp on the Richter Scale.

 

img_0206 by paul.bottomley, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

Turn up the volume to hear my side chimney on full roar

 

 

I have to say your car is bloody lovely.

 

Right in 'OMG Cavette has actually done something resembling a fix to his car' stylee I'd finally had enough of the pool of water in the n/s/r footwell. Off with the battery, off with the battery tray, out with the rubber bung (launched) and then started looking for the other bung. Which was 'handily' enough right under the fucking servo. I managed to get a screwdriver into it though, gave it a good shove and a cascade of water was heard to fall onto the floor.

Whizzed the K'archer out and took a good few litres out of the rear carpet and I'll wait until tomorrow and vac it again. I'm now confident that's the end of the water ingress problem that plague these fucking cars.

 

Economy has been getting better again recently I'm glad to report, but I've been driving even more saintly recently. Since the addition of the veg oil the car is now noticeably smoother and quieter and at a fair old saving compared to dizzle it's all good as far as I'm concerned.

[greengartside]

Now the 205 won't start, think its due to a immobiliser fault. It doesn't bump-start either. I cut a load of wires off the two redundant alarms which caused it to not work, so I refitted all the wires and still nothing! Grrrrr!

 

Fitted a new wiper motor as the old one had virtually siezed up through lack of use. Spent two hours faffing about setting the motor arms up as I bought just the motor. Was ready to give up when I finally got it in the correct position! Yay!

 

Also fitted some missing bits, a parcel shelf and front spotlamps which make it look better, and then fitted a replica backflash sticker on the rear window for that ultra-80's look!

 

Just need to give the interior a good hoovering and cleaning then its to be towed off to the garage so they can get stuck in to it.

[Minimad5]

309 now has spark - Thanks to new plugs and leads (Waiting for Rotor arm and Dizzy cap to come in)

It seems to run fine, but only when the choke is not on, MHHMMM , bloody Solex Carb's . Anyway it's getting replaced

 

More to come soon

[greengartside]

How did you stop your sunroof leaking minimad? I have got a full-length sliding roof on the 205 and it leaks from drivers side near the sunvisor.

[Minimad5]

  greengartside said:

How did you stop your sunroof leaking minimad? I have got a full-length sliding roof on the 205 and it leaks from drivers side near the sunvisor.

 

Mines a full lenght one too (I think)

Mine was leaking from the handle on the glass, so i pushed the handle up (which pushed the screws up) then forced some TIGERSEAL underneath and pulled it down. But i plan on replacing it 'when' i can get one.

Did find a small crack on the rubber tube that goes to the Servo (As the sunroof is vacuum fed) - So just replaced the small piece of pipe... So far so good.

 

Have you tried pulling the sunroof right back and checking all the seals ? (and cleaning all surfaces)

You should be able to hear a "sound" when you operate the sunroof too, if you can't hear anything then your pipes may be foobared.

 

 

/ No doubt non of that helped. . . . sorry \

[greengartside]

I'll have a look at that when I get it back from the garage.

 

I took the old Pug up to the garage this morning. I finally got it running after a good long tow-start. Ran it for a little while then blue and white smoke started to come out of the back, quite a bit of it. Have I fucked something royally? First thoughts are a head gasket has gone I think. Oh well, more expense...

[Cavcraft]

Could it be old/stale/shit fuel causing the smoke? Incidentally if the engine is in anyway related to 405 petrols then don't bee to alarmed if you see some mayonnaise as they were bastards for condensating if unused for a while or only used on short journeys. Probably worth a good flush of the oil and drain/refill the coolant.

[Pillock]

Those 205 air-fed sunroofs are ace, proper bit of bonkers french thinking. To replace a perfectly working solution with something complex

 

News today: Replaced a main beam bulb in the BMW. Noticed the plastic spade cover is all burned and discoloured but it works, so screw it.

[greengartside]

  Cavette said:

Could it be old/stale/shit fuel causing the smoke? Incidentally if the engine is in anyway related to 405 petrols then don't bee to alarmed if you see some mayonnaise as they were bastards for condensating if unused for a while or only used on short journeys. Probably worth a good flush of the oil and drain/refill the coolant.

 

I'm just worried i've buggered it badly. I did rev it quite high and it was spluttering and misfiring like mad. Blue smoke then a load of white smoke came out too. I checked the dipstick and it's mayonnaised right up. I only put a fiver's worth of fresh fuel in, so would that cause it? It's going for a full service whilst at the garage.

[Rusty Pelican]

Battery flat on the Commer yesterday , wasnt charging right when last used on the 5th , Alternators kicking out fine so had to be wiring , traced it to a dodgy warning light lead which ive replaced , talking of alternators ive fitted my bargainous one on the Beemer , the old one was charging but had borked rubber mounts causing an alarming wobble on the alternator , Borked the belt to so fitted a new one at the same time .

[dollywobbler]

2CV survived its trip to the Midlands, but the heater still stinks. More work needed but blimey is it pulling nicely! Had great fun chasing moderns about. Even overtook one or two! As a reward for its hard work, I actually treated it to a wash - it was getting hard to see that it is in fact two colours. It has been a while since I cleaned it (certainly not done since we moved in October) and it did remind me that rust is becoming an issue in several places!

 

While I was in cleaning mode, attacked the Land Rover's roof. Because we live in the upstairs of our house, I look straight out onto the previously-moss-strewn roof of the Landy. Took some clambering, but it's done and more mud has been removed from the underside too. Booked in for some local green laning in mid-Feb. Looking forward to it.

 

Fleet plans for this week are to stop the BX's thermostat housing from leaking (I may have to make my own gasket having ruined the one that's on there at the moment), carry out the Landy's service (need a plan to remove the oil filter - hoping not to resort to the screwdriver-through-it method...) and maybe even start on the Mini's brakes. A fair bit of work to do though, so I reserve the right to do absolutely none of that.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

  Pillock said:

Those 205 air-fed sunroofs are ace, proper bit of bonkers french thinking. To replace a perfectly working solution with something complex

 

How do they work?

[Pillock]

It's a slidey-back sunroof but on the outside of the roof, with an external channel down either side. There's a collapsible rubber tube built into the sunroof seal. When you pull the handle, it lets all the air out of the tube so the sunroof is released away from the channel and can be slid back. Pull it forwards, push handle and you hear the rubber tube repressurise and it pushes against the glass, forming the seal. Very clever really, but still a bit faffy.

 

I'm told the air pressure comes from the servo, I wonder if that means you can't open the roof with the engine off?

[mattblack]

I CAN HAZ WEEK OFF WORK!

 

So... change oil and filter/air filter and fit new auxilary belt on the V****a, and check the rear pads. Got the radio code on line today, so O/H has got radio 4 back.

 

Change the CV gaiter that was advised on the MOT on the Rover, and check the rear brakes.

 

Crack on with welding the Sceptre.

 

Will this happen? PRACE BETS NOW!

[Cavcraft]

  greengartside said:

  Cavette said:

Could it be old/stale/shit fuel causing the smoke? Incidentally if the engine is in anyway related to 405 petrols then don't bee to alarmed if you see some mayonnaise as they were bastards for condensating if unused for a while or only used on short journeys. Probably worth a good flush of the oil and drain/refill the coolant.

 

I'm just worried i've buggered it badly. I did rev it quite high and it was spluttering and misfiring like mad. Blue smoke then a load of white smoke came out too. I checked the dipstick and it's mayonnaised right up. I only put a fiver's worth of fresh fuel in, so would that cause it? It's going for a full service whilst at the garage.

 

I'd see what the service throws up to be honest. Have you been using the car much recently (you'll have to excuse me because I think there's two 205GTi owners on here and one of only very recently bought one that had been stodd and my memory is shagged!) and if so have you been letting it warm up fully and giving it some welly? As said earlier my experience of petrol engined Poojots is that they don't like repeated short/slow journeys. Decent quality plug leads always seemed to help general running/starting too from what I remember. If you get the all clear from the garage then I'd suggest giving it a right good thrashing once a week at least once it's warmed up.

[Rocket88]

Left witha revolting old 306 Meridian to get shot of by someone who's just left the island. Leaked oil, hand brake up by your chin, broken boot lock / glovebox lid / random other stuff / big dent in front wing. Stuck it on our local equivalent of Gumtree for £150............6 phone calls in 10 minutes, sold for full price to the first caller...which I'd got a few more like that!

[greengartside]

Thanks for the advice Cavette, much appreciated.

 

To answer your questions, all I have done since buying it last week is change the spark plugs and tape up some split air intake hoses. I haven't changed owt else, as I'm leaving it for the garage to do.

 

I haven't even driven it properly, I have just been towed everywhere! I got it going and had to keep the revs up quite a bit as it won't idle and is firing on three cylinders. We pulled into the garage car park and I kept the revs high-ish but not redlining it at all to see if I could clear the misfire. It was then lots of blue smoke started coming out of the exhaust followed by white smoke and then I switched it off. No oil has escaped on to the engine but I pulled the dipstick out and its creamy coloured. I'm really worried if it turns out to be serious like piston rings, then I'm fucked.

[Cavcraft]

Hopefully too early to worry and I hope to God what I'm about to say doesn't come true for you: I had a BX that had the same engine as the 205GTi and it started running on three.

Prolonged use (because I couldn't be arsed trying to find the problem!) and a very large does of hammering eventually created a rather wallet-lightening noise from the engine. Transpired some sort of bearing or other decided it would be best to stop doing it's job. Local garage checked the car over and discovered one plug lead was knackered where it couldn't be seen and was chafing on the engine creating a short. He reckoned because I'd pretty much thrashed the shit out of it constantly the engine (obviously) wasn't running right and that's what knack'd it up.

That said I really did hammer it and not for one journey: I just screwed the arse off it for a few weeks and even went on holiday in it

 

Was it running on four when you got it? I'm just wondering if it was parked up because of the problem and left there until you came along? Personally I'd check for a spark at each plug and if no joy at any given one try a known good lead and the coil or coil pack (I can't remember which they have now) and when the service is done it should be o.k.

[greengartside]

Ooh-er! I hope mine doesn't turn out like that Cav!

 

Well this is the thing, sometimes it will fire on four if the throttle is feathered but revving it makes it fire on three and it won't idle. Yet when I bump-started it after five years sitting it fired on four and ran lovely, even idled too until I drove it back to the garage where it started misfiring and cut out.

 

I took the pugs out and they were sooty and smelled of petrol, I replaced these with some brand new ones after I knackered one up trying to remove it!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I decided to tackle a tiny bit of rot on the back door of the cavalier the other day, suddenly it lokos like half the fuggin car needs a respray now

[Pete-M]

604 In da house!

[Cavcraft]

You can't just it leave it there Pete, we demand details and pictures!

[greengartside]

Awesome! My dad had a 604 back in 1982, he used it to go to France every weekend for some French produce when mum and dad used to have a pub in East London. Managed to drive up to Norwich when they moved to another pub and was written off by dad's mate in 1984. KMO 660P R.I.P...

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

 

Exclusive preview

[Guest]

  Leonard Hatred said:

Exclusive preview

 

Nah. You know what, I'll just send them all to Pete. It's his car after all, and a great day out was had. Saves me from posting them all up anyway, I've got coursework to sort out