THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[sporty-shite]

Well, the 635's going tomorrow. To Luxembourg.

 

Had an email about it when it was on C&C, but because it had bids on ebay, I directed him there, partly thinking it'd put him off because I couldn't be arsed with any hassle.

 

Anyway, this guy's won it on ebay. Credit where credit'd due, though,he's been on the phone a couple of times, seems dead straight, and is flying into London tomorrow, then taking a one-way hire car to Manchester, where I'll pick him up.

 

Bit disappointed, really, because it looks like he's only buying it for the black interior, but what can you do? I'll see what his plans are for the rest of it. just in case.....

 

I'll keep you posted, shiters!

[Cavcraft]

Got someone coming to look at the Pisshat tomorrow. For some extremely bizzare reason I think I'll miss it if it goes. Yeah it's shit, yeah it's not wearing a badge that does anything for me but I've sort of got used to it now and if it doesn't sell I won't be too arsed. To be honest it's only got to hold out until March or April anyhow when I'm going to do something stupid probably and chuck far more than I should or need to at a modern car. Or a Lambretta if I can get away with that.

[Pillock]

New backbox fitted to the 318i. I did fit it, lordy no.... the reason mainly consisting of the fact every time I've gone near an exhaust it results in sheared bolts, swearing, bloody knuckles and rust in my eye. Stuff that, they'll fit it for about a tenner. Turned out to be the best tenner ever spent.

 

 

You have to look closely, but that's a chap armed with an oxy torch. Admittedly it's between his legs but he still had to keep using that, and an air chisel, and a sledgehammer, to remove the old exhaust. Took the poor man the best part of an hour.

[pdg]

Fiat Panda passes MOT first time (again) shock!

 

 

3rd year running

[Cavcraft]

I R Omega owner

 

3.0 litres of Elite loveliness. Just driven it back about 6 miles and I'm grinning like a Cheshire cat. It's fucking ace fun: kicked it down a couple of times, probably about half a throttle's worth of right foot and it takes off like a takey off thing on national take off day.

Electric leathers, traction control, all the bells and whistles for about the price of four nights on the ale.

[r.welfare]

Those 3-litres are GR8. Mine was a manual and was surprisingly good on juice - 31mpg averaged. Of course, you need the Elite saloon for the full bank of switches across the dash and no blanks (mine was an estate so had one - no leccy rear blind).

 

Now, I know these Ecotec V6's are known for mixing oil and water but no-one seems to consistently say whether it's head gaskets or oil cooler failure. I suspect the latter but even Car Mechanics (in a Calibra feature a couple of months back) reckoned they were prone to HGF. But techy bods on the Omega forum (get yourself joined Cavette, they know their onions) say otherwise. Anybody got a definitive view?

[Pillock]

In blighty, the Omega was still called the Carlton when Lotus got their sticky mitts on it, hence we got a Lotus Carlton. The model after took the European name of Omega, and was a rehash of a Holden model anyway.

 

The top-flight model was called the Elite (not the Omega Elite, just the Elite in the same way that Ford dropped the Granada name from the Scorpio late on in the Mk2 run - it survived for a while in tiny writing under the Scorpio badge). The V6 was available in 3 litre, or 3.2 "MV6" flavour as used by police forces across the country.

[warren t claim]

I used a 3.0 Elite as a taxi for a while and 22mpg was the norm. Any smell of burning oil could be a leaky V cooler and comedy transmission errors are fixed by cleaning the sontacts on the DIN socket.

 

Ace cars but the air shocks went on mine, replaced with normal rears. Rear blind had its moments and trim fell off at regular intervals.

 

Electric memory seats and mirrors (even internal) are nice touches.

[Cavcraft]

I wish it was a Lotus (Carlton) Omega. I'd probably go for a test drive and not come home for three months.

 

Cheers Mr Welfare, had a decent scan of the engine and oil/water and not seen anything wrong. I can't believe how well it took off with a bit of welly, it's big heavy car and the engine is whisper quiet until you boot it then sounds pretty bloody nice indeed. I'm going to have a play with it tomorrow and see if I can figure out what all the switches/dials/knobs do and Monday I think it'll be time to play with the traction control off.

Dash is quite a nice affair, centre part seems to be a bit of a copy of later Vauxhalls (quite Vectra C-ish) but the seats don't seem quite as squishy as I'd like. The electric driver's seat works fine mind and I'll have a play with the passenger one tomorrow and see if they're heated which I'm hoping they will be. To get the car at the right money I had to forego the alloys and got steels instead which look really weedy but it'll probably make roundabouts even more fun.

[warren t claim]

I wish it was a Lotus (Carlton) Omega. I'd probably go for a test drive and not come home for three months.

 

Cheers Mr Welfare, had a decent scan of the engine and oil/water and not seen anything wrong. I can't believe how well it took off with a bit of welly, it's big heavy car and the engine is whisper quiet until you boot it then sounds pretty bloody nice indeed. I'm going to have a play with it tomorrow and see if I can figure out what all the switches/dials/knobs do and Monday I think it'll be time to play with the traction control off.

Dash is quite a nice affair, centre part seems to be a bit of a copy of later Vauxhalls (quite Vectra C-ish) but the seats don't seem quite as squishy as I'd like. The electric driver's seat works fine mind and I'll have a play with the passenger one tomorrow and see if they're heated which I'm hoping they will be. To get the car at the right money I had to forego the alloys and got steels instead which look really weedy but it'll probably make roundabouts even more fun.

 

Heated seats-front AND rear!

[r.welfare]

Turning the TC off on mine enabled me to light up the inside rear wheel for a hundred yards once. Childish fun.

 

Mine was a very early (January '95) car and the dash layout changed for the facelift. Mine had dual-zone aircon rather than digital climate, which is not well-liked with age as it goes wrong. Yes, heated seats front and rear, powered front seats (with memory on the driver's), leather and electrochromatic interior rear view. They listed for something like £30k new on introduction...random FACT, the early ones were badged "Vauxhall Elite", no Omega badge anywhere to be found

 

If it's a keeper I'd suggest only using GM 10W40 semi-synth oil (dirt cheap to buy anyway), clean out the breather pipes, change the rocker cover gaskets (if previous owners haven't used the aforementioned oil regularly or cleaned the breathers, the pressure blows the gaskets and the plug wells fill up with oil, you also get smoke under the bonnet where it drips onto the manifold) and they need belts and tensioners every 36k I think, not the 72k that Vx recommend - similar issue to Alfa 156s. Changing the belts is not hard to do, the Omega Owners Forum do a DVD for about 6 quid which is a home video of the job and even I could follow it. Of course, north-south engine and lots of space (once the multi-ram pipes come out) helps.

 

I liked mine, but I had too many cars and it had suffered from cretinous previous owners to be worth spending much money/time on so I sold it. It's still on the road, which I suppose isn't surprising because finding a manual 3-litre that isn't ex-police is quite rare.

[Cavcraft]

Cheers, this is a fairly late one (2001) with pretty good mileage (114k I think). Four keepers, last one had it five years and the one before him was a private owner. Not seen anything to suggest it's ex-plod so far and the mileage (if correct) would suggest it's not. It's the best colour too (imho) a sort of plum metallic.

 

In other news looks like the Pisshat has been sold. Off up town tonight on the premise of that. Vodka here I come!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Good work cavette!!!! For me these Omegas are 176% WIN

 

I've been doing a bit in the garage this evening, just pissing about with the Cavalier. I hate doing bodywork and paintin stuff cos it takes so long to do. Put some paint on then leave it till the next time you can get in the garage, like 3 days. Come back, rub it down a bit, put a bit of surface putty on (1 hr's work) then leave it again for another few days. It takes a fuggin month just to paint a door bottom

 

[boobydoo]

The insurance for the Simca is due on 8th Feb. Was quoted £115 fully comp by Adrian Flux who I've been with for donkeys years. My other cars are all due sometime in the summer, with each one having a £30 admin charge for each renewal. Therefore, four cars= £120 a year just in admin charges!

 

However, they've finally agreed to give me a 'multi-car' policy as follows:

 

Simca 1100

Tagora GL

Tagora SX

Chrysler 2 Litre

 

all insured for £267 for a year, fully comp (including £15 admin charge).

 

Bit of a result, I think!

[Guest]

I've given up on trying to do paintwork repairs properly myself, the 626 has some freshly-welded metal on the rear quarter bottoms extending onto the arch lip which has required some paint to protect the new metal, so it has been given a temporary job for now which looks faintly passable. It's getting new rear arches welded in this year and at that point a proper paint place can sort it. I reckon some people can hack doing paint and I'm not one of them, just way too much patience required.

[skattrd]

I'm off to look at a cheap Lancia tomorrow ... a Thema auto, something different for a daily I'm hoping. I wasn't keen on the idea of an auto to start with, but I do fancy a lazy drive to work in the morning. Fingers crossed it hasn't got terminal tin worm.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

I wasn't that keen on automatics until I drove one, even a 3 speed 1.3 carb Mitsubishi Colt is a relaxing drive.

[Pete-M]

3,0 OMG Elites are ace.

 

I've always fancied a crack at one of those, but it'd have to be a top spec one with all the toys and preferably a towbar.

[Pillock]

I like doing paint, as long as I'm not rushed. I had to do a Saxo bonnet in a rush (ex's car and someone had keyed a profanity into it) and it came out shite, cos I could only do it outside with rattlecans and it kept spitting with rain. Also the colour match was completely skewiff.

 

I'm going to attempt the BMW arch lip myself, there's a rust bleb on it. I reckon if I catch it quick I can make the paint line around the fold of the arch and mask it slightly. I'm certainly not doing a whole rear quarter and blowing it into doors and bootlid.

[Cavcraft]

I have to confess I love plodding arches. Still pretty grim at it but worked on the theory that if it looks better than it did before it's a partial result. Never spent days doing it (most were knocked up in hours tbh) but expect your results will be far better than anything I knobbed together.

[garethj]

I did an oil and filter change on the Volvo, using an OEM filter always looks nice in the engine bay, and that's what it had before so rude not to do the same. Drain plug is a 25mm which had be digging deep in my toolbox but it all came off nice and easy, including the oil which splashed a bit and I put my arm into

 

I changed the distributor cap and rotor arm, the forums say it's tricky and even the Haynes manual says "access is restricted" but it wasn't too bad. Getting the rotor arm off was impossible, but I managed to snap part of it so I was forced to take the distributor out and change it. Not difficult, but took a while.

 

Some 740 owners (and Dollywobbler is one!) claim over 30mpg, I'm getting more like 23-24. Is there a handy guide to checks and adjustments for the old K-Jetronic anywhere? I've got no lambda sensor or anything tricky, the plugs were a perfect tan colour but that mpg is still well down even though I drive like, errrr, like a Volvo driver

[Cavcraft]

3,0 OMG Elites are ace.

 

I've always fancied a crack at one of those, but it'd have to be a top spec one with all the toys and preferably a towbar.

 

 

This one is (top spec) but there's no towbar. Just wish I could afford to run your Jag as a daily as I'd try and lure you into a deal with the Omega and cash your way.

 

Leonard: agree with what you said about automatics. First one I had was a Cortina Mk5 2.0GL and when I first tried it I hated it. However after a few days I grew to love it and when you drive vans for a living it's nice to just stick it in 'drive' then poodle round not having to worry about using the clutch. Most of the autos I had were in better nick than the equivelant manuals too, I suspect most owners bought them to tootel about in and therefore they were rarely thrashed or abused.

[wuvvum]

Just run out of petrol in the Alfa. This has allowed me to work out that it's doing 27mpg, and that's in relatively gentle (as in sticking to 60) A- and B-road driving, with a bit of town driving thrown in. Seems rather poor to me - certainly my last 2-litre 166 managed better than that. On the plus side, it will fire up again with £3-worth of petrol that I had in a can in the boot - sometimes when big cars run out they need about two gallons before they'll start again.

 

Can you tell I run out of fuel quite regularly?

[dollywobbler]

Gareth - what sort of roads are you driving on? My 30mpg in the Volvo involved absolutely no town driving, just 60 or 70 on single/dual carriageway. It ran like a sack of crap for most of the time (idle control valve was knackered - starting it was a right bitch but it was generally a bit off) so probably find out it was running too lean or something.

 

Just got back from another great weekend with the 2CV lot. Not a lot of car action to report but the BX makes a reasonable bed and is a much better option than a small tent when it's chucking it down and blowing a gale. Saw a very Moog-like Saab 900 in Shrewsbury but it was the other side of the roundabout to me, so I only got a quick glimpse. Thought this one was only a 3-door but could have been wrong. Certainly had some nice alloys on it.

 

Drive out to Derbyshire yesterday was a bit alarming. Lots of rain here (funnily enough) and the roads were treacherous. Haven't aquaplaned for a while! Quite scary.

[mk1_4dr]

After an afternoon of investigation yesterday, Ive found what I suspect is waterpump failure on the K10.

Ive priced the job up to about £150 (pump, cambelt, headskim, headset, oil + filters), then a weekend to do the work (if I could even find somewhere to skim a head while I wait on a saturday dinnertime..)

 

Im looking at a few cars on Ebay, specifically these...

 

 

 

 

 

All look like decent motors. Iam actively looking for slightly bigger stuff (after driving the K10, I realise Im not cut out for small cars) and for stuff with the longest MOT but basically I'll drive owt.

 

Wish me luck.

[garethj]

Gareth - what sort of roads are you driving on? My 30mpg in the Volvo involved absolutely no town driving, just 60 or 70 on single/dual carriageway.

Ah, I'm got a fair amount of town driving. On the motorway it should be fine, overdrive 4th gear is very high indeed, in fact 4th gear is as high as 5th on most cars.

 

mk1_4dr - on the Volvos beware of electrical gremlins. Non working fuel gauge is common, but watch out for anything more serious, anything with an engine management light glowing or water in the footwells.

[dollywobbler]

I vote for Honda Prelude. I've always liked them, but have never really been able to say why. I just love Honda's low-scuttle designs.

[pogweasel]

LJK sez: "Psst - Preludes are the win"

[mk1_4dr]

I like the Prelude, not really what Im looking for though, and I feel something like that should really be a manual.

 

The Maroon 960 is on my doorstep, I might go for a looksee tomorrow. Not got masses of MOT, but then again it is cheap at the moment.

Its doesn't mention any electrical gremlins either. I imagine the MPG will be ruinous though.

Whats the general thoughts?

 

Clicky

 

and can I live with this crease in its slab-like side...

[barrett]

I reckon that Ovlov would be a great car if it stays mega cheap, fairly rare, acres of cow inside and 'running in' mileage. Lots of car for the money, as the saying goes. MPG would doubtless cripple you but if it's on the £2-300 mark it'll be worth it, shirely?

 

Prelude is more my sort of thing though, and being a bader doesn't it just mean it'll be less likely to have been thrashed (and attract any residual drift-tax)? I reckon in mills-mode it'd be a nice gentle cruiser which is what Hondas should be, in my view.

 

Don't buy the Mondeo.