THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[cort16]

I went to see a lockup just outside Kilmarnock yesterday. Perfect in every respect but one. It's £200 a month, which I can't justify spending to keep my Rover and other tat in. Shame really as it would fit 4 cars. I need to try to presuade someone to share it with me.

[trigger]

Just had a bit of a mare, I'm preping my wifes Micra to sell today, As i was cleaning the inside i noticed the dash trim is a bit high near the dial pod so i give it a friendly bang to see if it will clip back, Only to see the rev counter do the full 360 degree flip and stop the wrong side of the trip button at 8000 rpm!.

 

I tried starting the car in hope that it would come back but it wouldn't!, In a panic i rang my local Nissan garage would said they had never had that happen before and it would be a new pod job costing £££!, She did recommend taking it up the road to see if it would clear, which it amazingly did!, after going over the first bump it sprang back to the right position, Thank god.

 

The lesson from this story is never buy a french engineered Micra K12.

[dollywobbler]

Or maybe the lesson is don't thump cars!

[AnthonyG]

Hey Cavette, if you managed to move on that Vectra and Escrote then you must be able to work some magic with a 3.0 Litre Omega, even with wheelarch wob added .

[scaryoldcortina]

  trigger said:

Just had a bit of a mare, I'm preping my wifes Micra to sell today, As i was cleaning the inside i noticed the dash trim is a bit high near the dial pod so i give it a friendly bang to see if it will clip back, Only to see the rev counter do the full 360 degree flip and stop the wrong side of the trip button at 8000 rpm!.

 

I tried starting the car in hope that it would come back but it wouldn't!, In a panic i rang my local Nissan garage would said they had never had that happen before and it would be a new pod job costing £££!, She did recommend taking it up the road to see if it would clear, which it amazingly did!, after going over the first bump it sprang back to the right position, Thank god.

 

The lesson from this story is never buy a french engineered Micra K12.

 

I had that happen to a mk3 granada once - The battery was a bit low and I was trying to start it, all the dash lights flashed (with the starter solenoid clicking) and the rev counter shot round and stopped behind the bottom stop. Never moved again

[Cavcraft]

  AnthonyG said:

Hey Cavette, if you managed to move on that Vectra and Escrote then you must be able to work some magic with a 3.0 Litre Omega, even with wheelarch wob added .

 

Absolutely. Problem is it wouldn't be a keeper and I'm not seeing it being worthwhile financially MOTing it.

[The Moog]

Been out and changed the oil and fuel filter in the Ashtray. Had a shit day so needed to do something manly. Although I was being a bit brave because it was a) my only transport rusty as bugger nuts on the fuel filter c) had one dodgy torch with running out batteries to do it by

 

Still it is all done now and it is a happy puppy

[Pete-M]

The Omega isn't an estate is it? I like the facelift ones of those (as they've got Wat-annoying Xenons).

[Shep Shepherd]

I felt so guilty about leaving The Volvo dirty and idle for so long (almost a fortnight) that I used it for my commute today and put half a tank of Momentum in it at lunchtime. In addition, on the way home this evening, I took it to the local Karcher Clean Park where not only did I pressure wash the car, I hand washed it using my own bucket, sponge and shampoo; I'm sure that I've gone a long way to curry the car's favour. Just to make sure, I hope to get around to replacing its transmission fluid some time over the next few days, as the weather is forecast to be dry and fairly mild.

 

All being well, I plan to fit new front brake pads to TV2 as well ^^

[Pillock]

Tailpipe broke free and escaped from the 318's rear box so now it's making a dead crap noise and looks poo. There's comedy bits of stuffing poking out too!

[mk1_4dr]

Yesterday the Micra failed to proceed.

I hit some traffic on the M621 and, remembering that the h/gasket is already dicky and the temp was on the rise I got off and onto the A61 looking for a place to pull over and check the water level.

I got perhaps 1/2 mile before it started 'pinking' madly and another 200yrds before the engine nipped up.

I used the last of the momentum to dump it on the verge and ring the AA. While waiting for them I stuck all the water I could find into the header tank and left it to cool down. The AA duly arrived and, to give the little K10 its due, it started and drove me home, but its making the all the noises of imminent death now and getting pretty hot pretty quick.

 

It'd cost maybe £100 to sort (Headgasket set, timing belt, couple of oil filters, couple of sumpfulls of oil and a flush or two) and a weekends time and effort. Not to mention its out of rent next month, it'll need welding for the MOT and Ive never really gelled with it.

Im brassic though so with a budget of £300 anything I buy to replace it would be fairly grim.

 

Now, the question is, what to do?

[Rocket88]

Ref the above. K seal and a small prayer?

[garethj]

  mk1_4dr said:

Im brassic though so with a budget of £300 anything I buy to replace it would be fairly grim.

 

Now, the question is, what to do?

Hit the ebay thread here and choose from a wide variety of interesting old chod. My last 3 daily driver cars have cost £210, £350 and £400

[dollywobbler]

Agreed. Takes a bit of nerve to buy sub-£500 but there are bargains out there. My BX was £266 with six months t and t.

[Guest]

  colc said:

Ref the above. K seal and a small prayer?

 

+1. Save your FUNDZ for living and the SCROTE.

[mk1_4dr]

Ive had a scout through the ebay tat thread already...

 

  watanabe said:

  colc said:

Ref the above. K seal and a small prayer?

 

+1. Save your FUNDZ for living and the SCROTE.

 

/\ this sounds more like it, although the ex dollywobbler/M'coli Saab is winking at me....

[Claypole]

 

£295 ?

 

2.0l, 119k, tested while July with some tax - it's on Sheffield Gumtree today.

 

I'd risk the cash on it myself if I had it to spare.

[The Moog]

Bought this bad boy

 

Well chuffed with myself. Will have to sort out picking it up. Missus cant argue as she is in Scotland

[dollywobbler]

I like that. "Have a nice time dear!" Straight to Ebay. Looks nice.

[Barry Cade]

Got the 924 running properly today after its near 4 year snooze..anyone else notice these things blow comedy smoke rings out the exhaust on idle, maybe German humour... will be MOT'd and for sale soon.

 

Pick up a thermostat for my latest shite, a 64000 mile Astra 1.6 Mk3 estate, as the previous owner has shoved a load of cardboard down the front of the rad.Went out to pop it on, then remembered Vauxhalls crazy idea to put the 'stat behind the timing belt ... job for tomorrow. Already had new shoes and cyls this week, and needs rent.. grr. MOT'd and probably will be for sale soon- I'm scared of green cars.

[Guest]

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Stocking up on spare fuses Wat? Arf arf!

[tonedepear]

  The Moog said:

Bought this bad boy

 

Well chuffed with myself. Will have to sort out picking it up. Missus cant argue as she is in Scotland

 

Are they TRX wheels? /

[The Moog]

They are. You can still get tyres for them but they are £££. So will be trying to find another set of Alloys.

[Guest]

  Mr_Bo11ox said:

Stocking up on spare fuses Wat? Arf arf!

 

Funnily enough, yes. The white car is an S with a buggered head gasket. It only has 60,000 miles on the clock but is more or less worthless because it's not a Turbo. It has body coloured Turbo bumpers which I can flog for a few quid. It also has decent electrics and a dashtop that will be taken out along with several thousand other fixtures and fittings to keep mine going. I'm having the tailgate and various other pieces as well. It has the OMG extra speakers in the back and OEM Volvo mats in the front, as well as a working CEM and decent heater \ radiator.

 

I paid £125 all in, and should make that back on eBay even with 480 prices being about as low as they can get.

[Shep Shepherd]

As the weather has suddenly become dry and mild in my neck of the woods, I thought it was high time that I had a play with the Volvos. So far today I have:

 

*Replaced The Volvo's transmission fluid, which was a job I had been meaning to do for ages, but was prevented from doing so by bad weather. The gear change has improved noticeably.

 

*Tightened-up the exhaust's U-bolts, thus eliminating a horrible blow from the system.

 

*Sprayed a bit a of Waxoyl on the underbody, giving special regard to areas which I consider rust-prone - the car is 21 years old in May and is in amazing condition for its age, largely down to its build quality (the guys and gals from Ghent really know how to build a car well), but it still needs periodic bodywork checks and rustproofing.

 

*Had a decent part-worn fitted to TV2's full-size spare wheel, meaning that I can ditch the unused-but-horrid Nokia space-saver which has been in the car since November 2009, when I rescued it from a scrapped 850 estate. Anyone want it?

 

*Cleaned TV2's boot carpet (the bit under the loadspace floor that covers the spare wheel well) as it has suffered from oil being spilled on it at some point, probably late last summer.

 

*Cleaned the aforementioned car's bodywork, which was starting to look pretty grotty, having not been properly cleaned for about a month.

 

Tomorrow, I plan to replace TV2's front brake pads, a job which I've never done on a FWD volvo before, but one that I expect will be quite straightforward. That's the theory, anyway....

[dollywobbler]

Dollywobbler in OMG actually serviced the Land Rover shocker! Well, sort of. New plugs, leads, oil and oil/air filters. Was going to change the oil pressure switch, but haven't got a spanner the right size. I DO have a socket the right size, but someone put the steering box in the way. Very inconsiderate.

 

Went for a test drive after replacing the ignition bits. Felt a bit off to be honest, then a heat shield (I think!) fell off. When I was putting the oil in, I noticed that one of the HT leads was not attached at the cap end. Oops. It's very hard to notice a misfire with eight cylinders!

 

Managed to get oil pretty much everywhere. It falls from a great height with quite a lot of pressure! 5.3 litre capacity just to be annoying, and it had been overfilled by the previous chap, so almost overflowed from my oil catch bowl!

[Richard]

  The Moog said:

They are. You can still get tyres for them but they are £££. So will be trying to find another set of Alloys.

 

The tyres look reasonable at least.

 

When you're looking for alloys remember that the stud pattern changed when they moved the handbrake to the back around 1988, about a year after the facelift.

[PaykanHunter]

  seth said:

The Hillman has been a busy bee today.

Then after a quick spot of lunch into Central London to meet up with Shahin of Paykan Hunter blog fame (and employee of Chrysler in Detroit) and his Oxford based friend (employee of MINI) for a cruise about town and a chat over a coffee. To paraphrase/quote - "When I was growing up in Tehran I could never have expected, 20 years later, to see Big Ben through the windscreen of a 'Paykan' "

 

That's right Seth! Thanks for the report!... Here is a picture from that day that my buddy http://www.Kamshots.co.uk took, and a sample from my Paykan/Hunter Blog: http://www.PaykanHunter.com Keep that Hillman in tip-top shape!!!

 

 

[pogweasel]

A week of successes and fails here at Pog Towers.

BMW awakened from winter hibernation though use of (i) 99p of ebay parts (ii) some replacement wires (iii) £7.24 of fresh PEZ (iv) a drop of oil and (v) some air in the tyres.

Then today got BUMMED for £326 taking the Galaxy for an MoT.