THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[Guest]

I reckon it'd be difficult not to make a sizable profit on that if you sorted it, it's a Corsa Auto! Doesn't even look that bad nick really, looks straight enough bar the usual trim fade and obligatory bent door. If it wasn't for the stupid back lights it'd only look like any other old Corsa does now.

 

I'm by no means the world's biggest fan of them, but I definitely like being given money.

[Cavcraft]

That's the plan, though a full de-chavving session will have to take place first. Reasonably confident it'll see circa £225 as it stands.

[trigger]

The Escort failed the MOT But only on the rusty sill which i knew about and a sticking rear brake!, Result!

[Rusty Pelican]

That really is grim cavette , but for that money , who cares ,

[Cavcraft]

Erm, the seat was sort of not bolted down at all so the rope and the carefully placed spare (standard) wheels and tyres which came with it acted as my super safe seat securing device.

 

Been trying to locate an interior for it and only seem to be offered GSi/Sport type ones which I don't really want.

[Lankytim]

What are those wheels originally from? Only I do have a Mk4 Astra on the way...

[Station]

That Porsche 924 I bought had an unbolted seat when I bought it (the seller decided to unbolt and remove every thing inside for no obvious reason). It's a horrible sensation, I can't imagine the horror of a loose seat and worrying about struggling with a dodgy HG. I was in pain from contorting my body around corners to stop me going out through the boot glass.

[Station]

On a scarily related story, that Porsche I bought is up for sale again by the bloke who bought it off me:

 

 

 

Was lovely to drive, but overall, it was kind've rough looking! It's up for 400 quid, I'm tempted to buy it again!

[Cavcraft]

What are those wheels originally from? Only I do have a Mk4 Astra on the way...

 

Some sort of (newer) SXi model Vauxhall I believe. If your's (as I suspect) is a four stud set up they'll defo fit as they were all 4x100.

 

Dave: £400 seems a right bargain for that 924, unless you know it's terminally knackered or something of course.

[worldofceri]

Just bought ten litres of Simoniz car shampoo for £1 from my local Wilkinsons

 

Couldn't find any in my Wilko's yesterday. Wilko wash & wax (5l) = £4.97. Boo.

[Cavcraft]

Went to have a bash at the Corsa seats and found it's just the runners that are knackered, though quite how the previous owner managed to fuck them up as much as he did is a mystery.

Came to unbolt them and the welded captive nuts underneat the car gave way so it's looking like an angle grinder job now to get the bastards out. Whilst at least we don't need to buy seats now as we thought we would we're going to have to go and buy a small angle grinder and then some new bolts.

 

Plans this weekend will now be: try and clear the room in one garage so I can fit the Corsa and my scooter in, sort Corsa seats (as above) put standard steel wheels on, get some Vauxhall wheeltrims and standard rear lights then back car into garage and start on the headgasket.

[wuvvum]

The 166 passed its MoT today. The knackered front wheel bearing turned out not to be (no free play, no roughness felt when spinning the wheel) so not sure what the noise from that wheel is - could just be the tyre, but the locking wheel bolt key fell to bits when I tried to undo the bolt so I haven't been able to swap tyres around to find out. It was going to fail on offside brake light and rear fogs not working, but fortunately there was a spare 21/5w bulb in the tool kit so I was able to do the brake light on the spot, and the fogs mysteriously started working again as soon as I pulled the bulb holder out (Alfa electrics FTW). And, at the risk of tempting fate, the "faulty" climate control fan has been working fine for the last couple of weeks. So the car is now looking even more of a bargain.

[dollywobbler]

Yesterday I tackled the Scimitars brakes. A quick bleed didn't improve things much, but adjusting up the nearside rear brake certainly did! How on earth it passed an MOT with it that loose I dread to think... (think I mentioned this elsewhere, so apologies for repeating). Had a bloody good hoon to see how things are, but the pedal still goes a bit soft after a tight turn. Seems that there's a design fault that allows the pads to be pushed away from the disc when you get near full lock! Mental note - always give the brakes a shove after a tight turn...

 

At least I know what it is and the handbrake now works.

 

Then I pulled the 2CV apart so I could do a better job of getting the exhaust to seal on all five engine bay clamps. Think I've sorted it this time, but a couple of wiring faults need attention, so she's still in bits awaiting some electrical connectors. Still needs a relay for main beam too - daytime running only at the moment!

 

Then, as the Land Rover is STILL to be collected (very glad I've had the money though!) I decided I'd better see if it still moves. Good job I did as the brakes were jammed on a little. They quickly freed off but I thought I'd better go and 'exercise' the V8 engine anyway. Really quite a brisk motor for its bulk! (unless you've driven a BMW X5/Porsche Cayenne).

[Cavcraft]

Fingers crossed the Corsa headgasket might not be bollocksed. We ran it it up to temperature, the heater still blasts hot, it's not used any water (nor is it losing any) and the fan kicked in when it should. There's no oil in the water but the oil is a bit mayonnaise-ish. Hoping that's down to short journeys and condensation so plan is to flush the oil and keep running the car to see if the problem re-occurs.

There was a little pressure in the water and some blowing from the filler cap and dipstick if they're removed whilst running so obviously it could still be the headgasket. My neighbour connected a FCR up up which cleared two faults, one of which was the IACV but we heard a whistling/escaping air noise when the engine was running and found a split pipe which we repaired.

 

Didn't get near to taking the alloys off or getting much further with the front seats (except to clean them a bit with my valeting machine) so that and those dreadful rear lights are next on the list after an engine flush.

 

Incidentally if anyone has any insightful views on the above potential headgasket problem I'd be glad to hear them.

[Mike D]

This happened today...

 

 

You can just see the oil trail behind it where the gearbox spat its dummy out.... It hasnt been happy since a 530 mile trip last weekend, it blew a load of oil out the box, and started whining badly when i got home.. I checked the levels and topped it up, but today it started whining progressively louder, stopped chaning gear, and lost all drive. It did manage to get me back home, and expired in a cloud of smoke and lost fluids, now it wont move at all.. The bridge beckons!

 

I've also been investigating the water leak on my Camaro, the gasket on the bck of the pump seems to have given up the ghost, so i'm going to whip it off and crunchy nut packet it up tomorrow

 

[Station]

Didn't get near to taking the alloys off or getting much further with the front seats (except to clean them a bit with my valeting machine) so that and those dreadful rear lights are next on the list after an engine flush.

 

Incidentally if anyone has any insightful views on the above potential headgasket problem I'd be glad to hear them.

 

Think 'pressure' from the oil filler cap is completely normal.

Why not try and do a DIY leak down test with a hollowed out spark plug/12v compressor?

I have an old 1.4 8v that's been in my Astra since new if you really get stuck?

[Cavcraft]

Cheers gents, had considered some of the old K-seal to be honest.

 

Dave: what's this compressor/spark plug thing about please in layman's terms? I'll try and see what this engine is like and if it's kaput how much do you want for your spare Astra one please?

[Lankytim]

Hey Cavette, I have picked up this Mk4 astra estate today and it breathes heavily through the filler plus theres a healthy dose of sludge under the cap too. Water is fine and the oil on the dipstick looks ok too. Theres no history of it using water or oil, so I guess these engines are just heavy breathers and like to sludge up a bit! After a 60 mile blat home up the M6 theres much less sludge. A damn good service would help!

 

What are the tyres like on those corsa alloys? what size are they? are the alloys in good nick? (sorry bout all the questions!)- the rear tyres on the astra are decidedly bornerline!

[trigger]

Funny enough Billy i saw this Corsa outside a bodyshop tonight, i got my camera phone out and took and photo only for the garage owner to clock me and ask me what i was doing!, I explained i had a mate who liked chaved up Corsa and wanted to show him the photo

 

[HillmanImp]

New shite down my cul-de-sac. This beauty rolled up today just as I was off to the shops.

 

 

Had been in a garage for 10 years. Has 1600 GT running gear. My neighbour had heard of a Mk3 Cortina which he was going to break for spares but when he opened the garage he found this. Has had to do some welding on the floor and popped on the new wheels but that's the paint it had when he found it. Jammy git.

 

Today was the first time it had been on the road since he had it. Its lovely inside too. Well jealous. Its showing my cars up a bit now

[seth]

/\ Very nice looking Hunter Estate! *

[seth]

Had the first near break down with the Mirald last week. Mrs _Seth called me from the hard shoulder on her way to work to say that the ignition light was glowing, dimmly at lower revs but bright above about 3000 rpm. I suggested she took it easy and on the basis there was some charge entering the system she should be OK. She got to work fine and I then suggested she didn't leave work last in case she needed a jump. She didn't as it transpired but her journey home was a little worrying as she obviously needed the lights on and the ign light was glowing (She had had a look under the bonnet but couldn't see anything amiss).

 

The previous week I had found that the alternator bracket had fatigued again, probably as a result of the bottom pivot becoming slightly loose and allowing the whole lot to vibrate. Its the one thing that I wasn't 100% happy with as it was difficult to find a belt the right length - there is minimal room for tightening adjustment but it has obviously worked satisfactorily for 8000+ miles so can't be too much wrong. Even so I had been thinking about doing that bit again. I assumed I'd be spending Wednesday sorting this all out but when I gave the leads a wiggle the main thick one felt a bit floppy under the insulating sleeve.

 

 

Hmm, that'll be the problem then. I guess the mount wasn't the only thing fatiguing. The sleeve was probably holding it just in contact at lower revs. I put a new spade on there and all is good again but I think I'll get one of those alternator connector blocks at some point. Managed to get the belt to tighten a bit more and I think if I add about 5mm spacer between bottom mount and the block I can get it properly tight. May get a round tuit before trouble reoccurs.

[trigger]

He roundhouse punched you, and THEN asked questions?

 

Sounds like the police force!, I thought if someone "clocked" you it meant that someone spotted you?, Of course i could be wrong, I am normally.

[scaryoldcortina]

yes, clocked=spotted, athough given the context could also mean "falsified the odometer reading on"

[CreepingJesus]

Up here, 'clocked' can have all three of the suggested meanings. It's just a question of context!

 

And the few 8v OHC Vauxhalls I've owned have been pretty sludgy. The big 2" breather pipes on the old ones would tolerate a lot of mayonnaise-ish crap; over the 'tipping point', and it started acting like an HGF. If I cleared all the pipes, and the little accumulator box bolted to the crankcase (actually, I'm not sure exactly what that was really for...), all was well. I didn't change a HG until it reeked like smoky bacon crisps, and stuff was really going wrong. Dunno if any of that helps, I've not had anything to do with those Corsas!

[Cavcraft]

Thanks once again. I think an engine flush then some good old fashioned 'Italian tune ups' and hopefully it'll be reet. Probably best to flush the cooling system anyhow methinks (don't know when it wast done and doubt there's any antifreeze) once the seats are sorted.

Scrappy we tried want £20 just for the runners and said we can't have the seatbelt pre-tensioners with them as they 'get a fortune for them'. Bollocks to that, will try another scrappy as unfortunately we need the floor mounted part of the runners too. We had to borrow an angle grinder to get the bolts out of the floor yesterday due to the stupid fucking welded nut and a few years of shit from the road.

 

Tim: wheels look average-reasonable but I'll need to whizz them off and check them over better first as I've honestly not looked too closely at them yet. One tyre looks like it's close to the limit, the others I'm not sure but I think have loads of tread.

[meggersdog]

Some old chod in here in three weeks http://www.angliacarauctions.co.uk/clas ... -2011.aspx .That Lancia Gamma is back.Last time they had pressure washed the engine and the plug-holes were full of water,then wondered why it wouldn't start.There's a yamaha fizzy in this time.

Anyone going ?

[Tayne]

Some old chod in here in three weeks http://www.angliacarauctions.co.uk/clas ... -2011.aspx .

 

Its a good thing there's no reserve on that Jag that was used in a Danny Dyer film.

[pompei]

The estimate on that opel GT seems low?

[dollywobbler]

Looks a good sale. I'm wondering which TV production company had some many shite cars - which programmes should I be looking for?!

 

I do hope someone saves the two Austin estates. What's the betting that there's a ridiculous reserve?