Cluffy's Fleet - All cars need work - how to find more time..!?

[Cluffy]

I managed to get the shocks swapped over this evening. Some cash in hand to one of my local friendly mechanics... Although he goes off on one when you get him chatting, I managed to give them to him around half three to have him call me that they were done at five. Spot on. 

Doubt I'll have chance tomorrow, so hopefully Thursday evening I'll get a bit of time after work 🤞

I also ordered some crows feet socket adapters that I am hopeful will help with torquing the inner wishbone bolts back in. 

 

[Cluffy]

Progress this evening. Drivers side in. I just hope I've not damaged the brake lines as the hub slipped at the most inconvenient moment and the brake line and track rod took the weight for a few moments. 

It's bolted roughly back in, and aligned at the top. So now I need to hunt out all the torque specs and go round them all properly... And obviously do the passenger side!

[Cluffy]

And copy, paste:

Now both sides all torqued up. Took the load on the ball joint and did up the bushes on the arms. 160NM on your side under a car isn't fun but got there ...

Under tray and wheels back on in the morning and then it's test drive o'clock. Keep everything crossed for me......

[Cluffy]

Well, we have good news!! All seems to be sorted! I'll do a proper shakedown through the week, with the acid test being the devilish speed bumps on my route to work/car park. But from a short blast locally, no knocking from the front and very smooth with the shocks doing nice work. Cheers to @grogee for the words of support and wisdom throughout. 

The only noises now are par for the course with a 21 year old convertible (even if it is a Porsche...).

Let's see if it gets under my skin through the summer... I've had it 3 1/2 months and it's yet to truly fire my systems, given its been problematic since pretty much day one! It does sound mega at full throttle and has a nice amount of grip... I'll get an alignment done and do the tyre pressures after I've been pulling it all apart etc...

Have a couple of pics of it after my first drive in weeks...!

[Matty]

On anything of that age, a bit of a suspension refresh just transforms em. I've done both of ours this year (both 17/18 years old). Neither were noisy or sloppy as such, but new springs, dampers top mounts etc and they're like new cars. Bet you're glad you bothered now!

[Cluffy]

Yeah, I'm very pleased. Just not the easiest strut swap I've ever done (and cone shaped springs need specialist tools/better tools than mine to compress). Booked for an alignment week on Tuesday so hoping that's a further improvement.

Porsche still working but on way back home this morning, the Jag started screaming at me "Low Fuel Warning" and the gauge reading zero. Then normal service back briefly after restarting but then hit zero again. Got back home. Had lunch. Went out again, all back working fine. 

A bit of reading suggests there are two senders. Well done Jaguar. One is more accessible than the other (under seat rather than in tank) so if it's not just a glitch and keeps happening I'll look at the easy option first for any obvious signs of age/rust/damage...

My car job list just never gets smaller..!

[Cluffy]

Went out for a hot dog with my daughter and met up with @grogee for Classics at the local cricket pitch. Pics below for anyone interested. Spoiler alert, m'daughter took them so any complaint on quality, please don't direct at me!

@grogee wanted to buy this thing...

[High Jetter]

She did well. That Alpine, Lewes  reg, any more on it?

[Cluffy]

16 hours ago, High Jetter said:

She did well. That Alpine, Lewes  reg, any more on it?

No one near it when we walked by to chat to. However, I have seen it before so will look out for the owner next time

[Matty]

17 hours ago, High Jetter said:

She did well. That Alpine, Lewes  reg, any more on it?

Yeah it is a nice old thing isn't it

[jonathan_dyane]

Lovely but a shame that old beetle thing was blocking the view of the excellent Renault 18 estate

[Cluffy]

The Porsche is still driving really well (or it was on Friday). Long may it continue as the rest of the fleet is getting bloody annoying. 

I dropped the Jag off for wheel wobble diagnosis confirmation yesterday and they will look at it on Monday. It's now doing the "no fuel" thing all the time. They can look at that too if the wobble is warped disc(s) and therefore not too mad on money. 

The Mini has now decided that opening of the boot is not possible. I've had a tinker for 20 minutes or so and got the panelling clips out, but nothing doing. Probably needs a new latch as I can hear it actuate off the key or external handle. Just physically not undoing. But I need to be able to get at it first...

Any ideas on how to get at it from experience of F56s from anyone?? 

It's times like these I miss the days of the Golf that rarely ever didn't just do "car" to perfection

[Cluffy]

It's been a while since an update... 

And not a lot has happened..! Still awaiting the boot latch for the Mini. Seems my order from Lithuania is taking an age. Happy to wait - £35 vs over 200 from Mini....

I've done LOADS with the Porsche and by that I mean zero tinkering and MAXIMUM driving..! I'm using it as a daily and it just wants to be thrashed everywhere. Which means I'm getting about 25mpg ! 😅

Lots on the list for winter with it, though. I'll get a list up here soon and look for any pointers...

Finally, the Jag. I've been wanting to do something about the creaky roof for some time. I grease it and it's quiet for a few weeks before starting to knock/creak again. They all do it pretty much ..

I'd seen a chap online who'd put some thick tape along the edges with good success. Mine already had old tape on but very thin. So I removed it. To find:

Hmmmmmm, grotty. Seen worse etc and can't get upset really as, again, they all do it. So, set to with sanding it back and then two coats of kurust, then two coats of fake hammerite:

Then finally some new deep tape to hopefully make it less noisy on the move:

We've a trip to South Wales at the weekend so that should be the acid test. Also, partially in prep for that, I've replaced the pollen filter. Best £6 I've spent in a while:

Pretty grotty and now with the new one there's a much less foisty smell when not running a/c. A cheap win. 

[Cluffy]

440 miles complete in the Jag over the last week to South Wales and back Zero noise from the roof to report, so my thick tape fix appears to have helped massively (for now!). Even bigger test coming soon with a road trip through France. 

The Mini boot is finally fixed. The latch arrived before my jolly to Wales but I had Covid and felt crap. Easy to unbolt but a pain to unplug. A bit of corrosion on the plug so cleaned that up and all back to operational. It has its MOT on Monday so fingers crossed for that...

No Porsche news. I shall get it out of the garage tomorrow and give it a brief thrashing. 

[Matty]

On 15/07/2025 at 11:47, Cluffy said:

It's been a while since an update... 

And not a lot has happened..! Still awaiting the boot latch for the Mini. Seems my order from Lithuania is taking an age. Happy to wait - £35 vs over 200 from Mini....

I've done LOADS with the Porsche and by that I mean zero tinkering and MAXIMUM driving..! I'm using it as a daily and it just wants to be thrashed everywhere. Which means I'm getting about 25mpg ! 😅

Lots on the list for winter with it, though. I'll get a list up here soon and look for any pointers...

Finally, the Jag. I've been wanting to do something about the creaky roof for some time. I grease it and it's quiet for a few weeks before starting to knock/creak again. They all do it pretty much ..

I'd seen a chap online who'd put some thick tape along the edges with good success. Mine already had old tape on but very thin. So I removed it. To find:

Hmmmmmm, grotty. Seen worse etc and can't get upset really as, again, they all do it. So, set to with sanding it back and then two coats of kurust, then two coats of fake hammerite:

Then finally some new deep tape to hopefully make it less noisy on the move:

We've a trip to South Wales at the weekend so that should be the acid test. Also, partially in prep for that, I've replaced the pollen filter. Best £6 I've spent in a while:

Pretty grotty and now with the new one there's a much less foisty smell when not running a/c. A cheap win. 

Why can't they nail a car together right for the money they charged? The XJ is a stunning piece of design but surely the roof runners shouldn't look like that yet.

Still would mind.

[Cluffy]

Yeah, the build quality isn't tank like, but it's 15 years old on 121k... An S class is built better, but those of the same age have usually rotted heavily by now. These are just so much fun to chuck about and it has real grunt to make it fly along. And comfy too. I'd swap it for a good series 3, though 😁

Outstanding bits to fix are the fuel gauge nonsense, crackling rear speaker and the rear check strap. All doable at home with time and patience (and in some cases a second set of hands). I also want to find someone local to give the gearbox a flush but as it operates fine, that's not urgent. 

[Cluffy]

Bonjour a' tous!

Just returned back from 11 days driving in/around France with the XJ. Paris followed by the coast near La Rochelle. 

I can not recommend one of these highly enough for distance. Soooo comfortable and the double glazing makes for very low wind noise even at French Motorway speeds. 

46mpg at an average of 62mph is mega to me. Probably pushing two tonnes at three up with all the clobber on board...

God knows how we ended up with Heart FM on....

On the negative side, seems like there is something more and more amiss with the rear sir suspension. I'd been getting an intermittent "Suspension Fault" yellow warning probably once every couple of weeks but now it appears on most drive cycles. I will take a look at the pump /piping when I get chance / can be bothered. Online suggestions are that the piston seal wears over time. If that's what it is, apparently it's interchangeable with a LR or BMW pump for a lot less than Jag OEM. Let's see ...

The joy of Barge motoring...! I'll get the Boxster out for daily duties and put this in the corner for a fettle..! Needs a clean!

[Cluffy]

Oh and having just popped out for post-holiday essentials, we now have this milestone reached:

[Cluffy]

I'm now knee deep into replacing blown speakers in the XJ. It's a hideous job as it's on the parcel shelf that requires the bulk of the rear of the car to come out to sort. 

@grogee helped me last weekend to get all the access and I've replaced the speaker with the new one this morning. However the car is fighting me putting the bits back from where they once came. 

Unfortunately, a casualty along the way was one of the rear windscreen demist tabs pulled off. Anyone got any tips on a good source of conductive glue or sticky conductive pads? I am hopeful it's one of those jobs I'll laugh about one day, but I appear to have broken more than I've fixed right now...

 

[Cluffy]

All for this...!

[Tickman]

I've had no luck in the past trying to reattach those tabs.

The conductive paste certainly didn't work for me.

[Cluffy]

36 minutes ago, Tickman said:

I've had no luck in the past trying to reattach those tabs.

The conductive paste certainly didn't work for me.

Yeah, I've tried a tube of paste that's supposed to be for PCB repairs but no joy. 

Really want to fix it as coming in to winter it's obviously quite important!

[Cluffy]

Worth a shot for £12

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PERMATEX-INC-21351-REAR-WINDOW/dp/B000HBGKWE

 

[scdan4]

Not cheap but I've used silver loaded epoxy to good effect on demisters before 

[Cluffy]

Afternoon All,

It's been a lovely weekend in Southam, however that's not where I've been! Took a bit of a tour of South Wales in the Boxster. A good chance to really get to know the car as I've used it only really for commuting up to now. 

Before heading off, the brakes were a little noisy so I did some tinkering first. Just cleaning off of discs, pads and calipers

Then we could set off. So so much fun. Really well put together for a flop top. We did four passes with it and in the damp, it still had loads of grip and were able to rev it out. Sounds great, goes like stink, steers well. Didn't get the roof off much, but Wales does that...

Stopped off at Wales' oldest Inn for a drink and a driver swap

Went through the big Century close to home on the way back. Here's to many more miles 🍻 

Over 30mpg average (which is incredible, given how much 2nd/3rd gear I put it through at full throttle 😅) over 400 miles. I can live with that. Another week or so of use and then I will probably SORN it as there are a number of jobs I want to tackle over the autumn / winter. 

Before any of that I need to get the Jag sorted. The parcel shelf needs to go back in properly and then I need to sort the feckin' rear windscreen heater cable. Unfortunately the parcel shelf was fitted at the factory before the screen went in and as such, it requires some ingenuity to refit properly and I've not figured that but out yet..!

[Cluffy]

I've managed to get the Jag back together but it's sadly not all good news. Stereo/speakers all back on song and no crackling /off-putting noises coming from my music of choice. Which is great...

The bad news is that despite fixing the demist cable back to the screen (thanks @scdan4 for the reference) the rear defrost is not working. I attached on the strip that connects all the in-glass bars:

But I didn't connect at the same point it was before as there was dirt/contamination there from my failed attempt with another adhesive...

So, question is should that matter? Is the whole up/down strip on the sides of the screen conductive or is it insulated? I'm starting to think the latter as it probably draws a decent current... 

Annoyingly it's considerable effort to pull apart again. So it will have to wait a few weeks for a few big road trips to be complete...

Feeling a bit stupid on this one....!!

[Westbay]

17 hours ago, Cluffy said:

I've managed to get the Jag back together but it's sadly not all good news. Stereo/speakers all back on song and no crackling /off-putting noises coming from my music of choice. Which is great...

The bad news is that despite fixing the demist cable back to the screen (thanks @scdan4 for the reference) the rear defrost is not working. I attached on the strip that connects all the in-glass bars:

But I didn't connect at the same point it was before as there was dirt/contamination there from my failed attempt with another adhesive...

So, question is should that matter? Is the whole up/down strip on the sides of the screen conductive or is it insulated? I'm starting to think the latter as it probably draws a decent current... 

Annoyingly it's considerable effort to pull apart again. So it will have to wait a few weeks for a few big road trips to be complete...

Feeling a bit stupid on this one....!!

Is it covered in the 'glass' part of your insurance ?

[Cluffy]

5 hours ago, Westbay said:

Is it covered in the 'glass' part of your insurance ?

Now that is a very good question! I will check

[Cluffy]

Afternoon All,

A long time since I updated this thread and updates on the fleet. 

Pretty quiet on the Jag, really. It needs the suspension Fault looking at which will happen with the MOT in January but otherwise it keeps on trucking... No issue flagged today, but most mornings from cold, it will ping up. Rear demist - still no idea if it's done the job as we've not had a frost..! I'm not all that confident though... The other thing I want to do is new headlamp bulbs. The dipped beam is pretty crap so might fit a set of these..:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/OSRAM-BREAKER-brightness-headlight-66340XN2-dp-B0D1CQSBWX/dp/B0D1CS88YC/ref=dp_ob_title_auto?th=1

My goodness, bulbs can be expensive! Anyway, it keeps soaking up the miles and I love it. A nice number to hit yesterday after a long overdue breakfast with @grogee:

The Porsche has been in the garage since end of September but I had a bit of a spurt last weekend due to issues with the (bloody!) Mini. Arch liners all removed and some scabby / lightly rusty brackets and bits treated. I also waxyoiled some of the body parts I could get to, but it's very tidy under there for a 21 year old thing. In addition, I also sorted the snapped cluster stalk with a fair amount of faff but got there in the end:

All sorted:

Bit tricky getting it in and out of the car but managed without major dramas. 

The car is now fully roadworthy again should it be called in to duty because...

...The MINI 😡

Mrs C drove to local Tesco. After shopping, got in the car and could not get the thing out of Park. Cue me rushing along with tools and finding the manual override underneath the gear shifter. Once out of park the thing was banging into Reverse, banging into Drive (stuck in second) and neither the paddles or manual mode on the stick would work... I took a drive in it and it felt dreadful. 

Cue much flapping, phoning gearbox specialists, local garages we've used before etc... Finally decided our plan of action was to have it towed to a specialist about 50 minutes away. I'd read the codes on the car with my little BMW reader (nothing major and nothing shouting "GEARBOX FUBAR, MATE") but had no way of knowing if driving more would make things worse, nor if a better code reader would find more info to help diagnose.   

Anyway, that same evening, I just thought to take another try as that car has often shouted an issue to us that's gone away after a sleep. And guess what? Yup. It drove absolutely fine. 

At that point my guy instinct was telling me the gearbox was fine and it was the shifter. The car has occasionally been throwing the odd "Gearbox not in park" message when it clearly was and online research suggests a number of other symptoms related to the shifter and the spring located within it. However, diligence and Mrs C's preference was to get the thing towed as originally planned:

After the gearbox place had it for a couple of days, result was a print out of codes EXACTLY THE SAME AS I ALREADY HAVE and a No Fault Found. So £200 down with the tow truck and then an hour token labour fee...

So plan B was for me to roll my sleeves up and start ripping into the thing. 

Centre console and armrest out first:

Followed by pulling the shifter itself. All actually not too bad bar me thinking I'd broken an armrest surround (already broken before me):

Needless to say the next bit was quite fiddly but I finally managed to get it apart enough to fit the new spring:

Tiny pack of five springs was a fiver and a week's wait from China... A replacement whole shifter from BMW..... £700!!!

It's back together now sufficiently for me to drive it. Thankfully I've not borked anything major just yet as it drove out of the garage and up and down the road. I will give it a shakedown this week before giving it back to Mrs C if all is well...  We're fortunate (I think!) to have her Dad's Corsa auto on loan for another week or so....

If it goes wrong again then it's going in the sea... It may be great to drive when on song and be a good looking little thing, but it's been a bit of a Diva in our ownership...!

 

 

[Cluffy]

Picked this up from Nico today ( @Schaefft)

Weather was diabolical aaaallllllll day so no real chance to do pictures   I hope to get some tomorrow. And such a long day, I barely had chance to think, let alone do a collection thread. 

I champion the sausage, omelette and cheese bagel I had at Tibshelf, though....

This makes me smile...:

Sitrep is it needs the throttle spring reseating as it's running as if it has permanent cruise control fitted (which ironically it doesn't have) and the rear suspension bushes need sorting rather quickly. 

It also needs the O2 sensor changing as you can watch the fuel gauge move in it's current state. 

Plus brakes. They're gonna need to be better...

And we'll have to look at bodywork at some point 😅