Nibbler’s Universe: past and present. Rovers, Audi and a attack by car vandals!

[Nibbler]

1 minute ago, Rightnider said:

Looking at the pictures however, makes me draw the conclusion that you departed from Blomstermåla. 

I think you’re going north, Linköping is just over 2,5 hours away. 

You are a clever man but the  journey will not end in Linköping.

We had a bit of an episode when the bus driver ignored the big signs that said that the road was closed between Blomstermåla and Högsby due to roadwork. He had to reverse back to Blomstermåla before he could turn around. Then he ignored the diversion signs and instead of turning left at Coop in Blomstermåla he went all the way out to Ålem. By this time his driving style had changed, I’ve never experienced g-forces like this when cornering in a bus before. 

[ProgRocker]

Ha en travlig resa! 

I remember first seeing Audi 100 Avants on British roads when I was young. They looked very futuristic.

[Rightnider]

I’m guessing a Peugeot 304 diesel. 

[Nibbler]

27 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

Ha en travlig resa! 

I remember first seeing Audi 100 Avants on British roads when I was young. They looked very futuristic.

Tack så mycket!

[Nibbler]

5 minutes ago, Rightnider said:

I’m guessing a Peugeot 304 diesel. 

Nope! Time for a clue I guess. When this car was produced the maker was under foreign ownership. Bad idea for all involved. If I buy this car it will become the first car I own with a Turbo charged petrol engine under the bonnet.

[EyesWeldedShut]

36 minutes ago, Nibbler said:

I’ve never experienced g-forces like this when cornering in a bus before. 

Not tried a UK MegaBus then? Our kids call them the Vomit Comet for good reason.

Car is a late Rover 220 Turbo Coupe?

[Rightnider]

1997 Saab 900 Turbo?

[Nibbler]

34 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Not tried a UK MegaBus then? Our kids call them the Vomit Comet for good reason.

Car is a late Rover 220 Turbo Coupe?

 

26 minutes ago, Rightnider said:

1997 Saab 900 Turbo?

One of you is closer than the other.  
UK MegaBus is sadly unfamiliar too me. But with all your roundabouts every 30 seconds I can guess the horrors. 

[Nibbler]

The makers owner was not an American company by the way. 

Will soon arrive in Linköping. The seller will pick me up in a black MG 4.  

[Rightnider]

25 minutes ago, Nibbler said:

 

The makers owner was not an American company by the way. 

 

Hmm, this was a tough one!

I’d guess a Rover 620 Ti then?

[Nibbler]

A little bit of miscommunication… I’m still standing at the train station in Linköping…

[Rightnider]

There’s a taxi waiting to take care of you…

[Nibbler]

[Rightnider]

Wow! What a beauty! Tell us more!

[Rightnider]

And was Hans a nice guy?

[Nibbler]

1 hour ago, Rightnider said:

Wow! What a beauty! Tell us more!

I’m not done yet.. next stop Målilla!

[Nibbler]

2 hours ago, Nibbler said:

I’m not done yet.. next stop Målilla!

…and why would i stop in Målilla you may ask.

Here is why!

Citroen CX 25 GTI. But it was to rusty. So no deal. 
So Rightnider, this is the mysterious car I’ve been talking about.

[Rightnider]

I see… Well, you’ve got yourself another Rover. What’s it like?

[Nibbler]

4 hours ago, Rightnider said:

Wow! What a beauty! Tell us more!

 

4 hours ago, Rightnider said:

And was Hans a nice guy?

Hans was nice!

The car is a 1995 2,0 TI. Sold new in Italy and imported to Sweden in 2005 if I remember correctly. 140 000 kilometres from new. Hans bought it from English car care via Bilweb auctions. Some electrical problems like the electric windows and the electric seats and it has an weeping water pump but otherwise it’s completely solid. I had a really nice drive home.

[Nibbler]

Pretty grim weather this morning. My Hondas brand new Sailun winter tires that came with the car turned out to be quite unsatisfactory… 

 

[Nibbler]

 

We have a new vehicle in the fleet! 

My wife bought a three year old Toyota Yaris 1,5 hybrid two weeks ago. A few days ago we drove the 7,5 hours home from Hälsingland in it. Just before a place called Hamrångebygden two hours into the journey we watched in horror when a Volkswagen Caddy in high speed slammed into the wire separating us. He was northbound and we were southbound. He was still doing pretty high speed when we met him especially considering that he must have taken down at least 50 meters of wire. Sparks flying and with the Caddy now heading for the forest. Then we hit the debris field at 100 km/h… and what we hit was a coil spring with a piece of the strut still attached. Damage is mostly cosmetic but it’s now back at the dealer for repair.

Toyota Aygo:

Passed its MOT yesterday. No problem. Today it looks like this…

Thule trailer:

Got the brilliant idea that i could use a couple of 4x100 wheels from an Aygo as winter wheels. Perfect I thought, I don’t need to buy a new tire! Well it turned out I couldn’t.. the Aygo wheel was a few millimetres too tight. So I slammed the right wheel back on and set off to the recycling station of course forgetting that I loosened the wheel bolts on the left side as well. After about a kilometre I got a loud bang that immediately reminded me. I was then passed by my own wheel doing quite good speed… 

Rover SD1:

Operation “make the SD1 great again” has started. The most obvious thing to start with was the stuck brakes. Front was alright, everything was fine. But in the back it was a different story, left side the wheel cylinder was stuck. So I changed it, and then i could not for the sake of my life get the brake pipe to engage the threads on the wheel cylinder. The threads was shoot. On the other side the brake pipe went soft when I loosened it. So I went to the local brake specialist and asked them if they could make me two new brake pipes. They could but they have had a hard time sourcing nipples so there is where we are right now. 

 

Audi 100 Avant 1,8:

Fitted the really nice blue greyish front seats that I bought a while ago. With seats out I tried to get rid of all the anti freeze that was left from the leaking heater core. I bought one of those dust sucking machines that can handle liquid stuff and went too work. 9 liters of water was used and I managed to get it quite good. Success. C4 seats are an fantastic update compared to the original seats.

Right now I’m changing the cam belt. The idler wheel is screaming in agony so that needs sorting. 

Incredible dirty underneath the seats. Mostly sand, mold and dog hair. This was of course before the 9 liters of water.

Audi 100 2,3E:

Went back into storage just as the first snow hit. Before that I changed front seats and the washer fluid bottle in preparation for MOT.

 

Opel Astra 1,2 Enjoy:

This was my father’s car. He is now at a retirement home for people with dementia so we decided that the car needed to be sold. But before that I took it for a spin to Jönköping and back picking up a couple of Audi 100 Avant rear doors. We sold it to my Wife’s pregnant friend who was in desperate need for a cheap car.

[Rightnider]

That’s an action packed post!

[Nibbler]

On 03/01/2026 at 20:43, Rightnider said:

That’s an action packed post!

..and yet another action packed post!

Toyota Aygo:

The poor Toyota got attacked by a couple of car vandals a few weeks ago. They teared off the led lights and turned over our trash bins. I was upset. Then one of the neighbours stable girls came over and asked if we also had visitors during the night. Now I was fuming. Then she told us that she had caught the two suspects and had them in custody in the barn. I was now quite impressed and fuming at the same time and asked her if she had called the police. She looked at me like I was mad, and at the same time my wife that’s smarter than me started to laugh uncontrollably… I just leave this picture here as a clue.

Rover SD1:

The new brake pipes arrived a few weeks ago  so I fitted them. Nothing too exciting,  but here is a picture of a brand new wheel cylinder. 

The YouTubers I “rescued” the SD1 from was ”Living with a classic” and his friend “Furious driving”. The later had planned to take the car back to England.

Honda ANF 125 Innova:

Since I bought this bike in 2010 I’ve never cleaned the oil filter. It’s not an oil filter as we now it, it’s like a mesh filter that catches bigger chunks and it’s situated inside the engine. Otherwise this small 10 horsepower 4-stroke engine relies on regular oil changes. If I’ve known the work ahead I would rather have ignored it and instead continued with my oil changes. The filter turned out to be clean with just 3 small fragments of metal in it. 

When you do this work the gear linkage falls to pieces and you have to spend hours removing the remnants of the old rock hard gasket. Exhaust system, foot pegs and a lot of the plastic fairing also will have to come off. 

Here it is in all its mighty glory. This is the most fun I’ve ever had on a bike and believe me, as a motorcycle instructor I’ve ridden many different bikes and shitloads of miles/hours. I love it but I wish that Honda had used a conventional oil filter instead.

Rover 820 TI:

Read the horror story that is how to change  the water pump on a 800-series so i wasn’t exactly excited about this job. What I had read in my Haynes manual was for the older engines. T-series turned out to be pretty easy, a bit tight and fiddly but otherwise completely straight forward. 

My neighbours Buick Electra is parked quite close in front of my 820  so I’ve probably left some ass imprints in the dust of his car.

I went for an SKF pump. Hopefully this is the end of the car weeping coolant. I also changed a hose clamp and the coolant itself.

Audi 100 1,8 Avant:

My friend Eskil came over and we spent an evening changing the cambelt. Everybody should have a Eskil in their lives because he is bloody great. He would fit right in here, as he owns a Saab 900 Turbo, Ford Taunus 17m, a Saab 9-5 and more.

The old belt was a no name one drenched in oil so t felt good to have it changed. If I remember correctly I used a SKF belt this time. A few days later I changed the valve cover gasket as it was rock hard and leaking quite badly. Cleaned up quite a lot of oil sludge as well.

I found a leaking engine breather hose as well and another vacuum leak. This is the car that just keeps on giving…

Also changed the completely destroyed dip stick and the end of the dip stick tube. 1 trillion heat cycles has taken its toll.

Honda Civic 1,4:

 

MOT time and I messed it up… I forgot to bring the keys for the detachable towbar… crap! 

Next update will be about a new purchase! So stay tuned!