Mid-week Collection Thread: Alternator Gambling - It Survived!

[Schaefft]

Yes, it's that time again. An agreement has been reached to purchase a (imo) very special car from a member amongst us. It's quite far from here but should hopefully be a very trouble free journey. Fortunately it just turned summer again:

Even Timmy the turtoise decided to interrupt his hibernation sleep to come and wish me luck.

The trip shall begin in about an hour...

[loserone]

Timmy! Glad he's recovered from his fortnight in the colds of the North Pennines 

[Schaefft]

3 minutes ago, loserone said:

Timmy! Glad he's recovered from his fortnight in the colds of the North Pennines 

I think it's just around now he'd start to hibernate but he seems to be happy to be out as long as the sun shines. Who can blame him...

[Cookiesouwest]

Good luck. Chop speed

[HillmanImp]

Wolseley? 

[hairnet]

18 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Wolseley? 

🤣

gonna be an barge shirley

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, HillmanImp said:

Wolseley? 

No

1 hour ago, hairnet said:

🤣

gonna be an barge shirley

Naturally, how could it not be?

We are already way on our journey down South, making some good progress!

Mode of transport, a brand new Lexus UX:

[EyesWeldedShut]

Gi's a clue?
German?

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Gi's a clue?
German?

It is as big as a German barge, it is rwd and even has a V8! Just like the good old times.

[High Jetter]

Yank?

[hairnet]

ls400

 

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Yank?

Well, it was certainly designed for the American market!

1 hour ago, hairnet said:

ls400

 

Because it is indeed a Lexus LS400. Well done! More information soon as we should arrive in about 45 minutes.

[Schaefft]

We are near. A wild Nova appears!

[Schaefft]

Oh no. And no, it's probably not the battery! Will have to figure out the next steps tomorrow. Breakdown cover maybe?

[hairnet]

pre 94

 

[Schaefft]

23 minutes ago, hairnet said:

pre 94

 

Yes, pre-facelift too! We might attempt to drive the car tomorrow and see what the alternator does, but this might not be able to make it back on its own steam. Stay tuned!

[robt100]

4 hours ago, Schaefft said:

We are near. A wild Nova appears!

Even better being in full chav spec with oversized wheels, exhaust and a hooded driver in the front🤣

[Schaefft]

We are back in daylight and a plan is forming!

[Schaefft]

Well, we've made it 5 miles so far, battery voltage still iffy so Halfords will be the next stop to see if a fresh battery helps!

[gm]

new car looks great, how far is your drive home ? 

[gadgetgricey]

23 hours ago, Schaefft said:

 It's quite far from here but should hopefully be a very trouble free journey.

Worryingly

[loserone]

Usual PAS drop onto the alternator? @scaryoldcortina rebuilt one on the one in his yard.

[bezzabsa]

still a great looking car

[Schaefft]

217 miles to go but the alternator is keeping up so far with no consumers enabled. Got to get back before it's getting dark l, 4 hours to go.

[Schaefft]

What a good looking car though!

[Schaefft]

We are now past the midpoint of our journey from Norfolk with 129 miles to go. I have checked the voltage numerous times to ensure the alternator output is enough to power the essential systems. At cruising speed rpm things aren't looking too bad so I dared to switch the blower motor on at the low setting. Current ETA is 6:30pm!

Unfortunately the radio doesn't receive any stations due to a snapped off aerial. No tapes or CDs available either!

Have another photo though:

[Schaefft]

And we have made it! A bit under 300 miles in total today and the car did well (aside from the charging problems). Fortunately the weather improved significantly once I was out of Norfolk and we had a nice evening:

I didn't want to take any risk and take the longer route to pick up various bits and pieces on my way up north, the drive would be long enough during rush hour already as well.

I can't imagine that there are much better cars than a Lexus LS400 to cross half of England in though, despite the little niggles it has. Considering this is now a 33 year old car what more could you really want?

Shout-out to @Spottedlaurel for offering a lift down to his house where the Lexus was waiting, his and his Mrs.' hospitality and the willingness to mess around under the bonnet in the dark and rain at the end of a very long day. The car made it in the end which is all that matters. 10/10 seller, would buy again.

[Bren]

It's hard to believe these have been around since 1990. And quite a few still on the road. I always fancied one.

I watched car wizard a few months ago talking about these - sadly it would appear that, in the US anyway, parts are becoming difficult to source.

[stuboy]

looks fab, where they auto?

[Spottedlaurel]

1 hour ago, Schaefft said:

And we have made it!

Yay!!

I didn't want to chip in on here until I'd heard it had all worked out OK, and I knew Schaefft wasn't stuck somewhere unpleasant in awful weather awaiting recovery.

To explain matters to others, Schaefft was very quick to express interest after I made an offhand comment about rehoming the Lexus in Angrydicky's plea for a boring '90s Japanese car for his friend (and for which the Carina E seems to have been ideal).

Once we'd agreed a purchase then a logistical opportunity presented itself in that his friend lives very local to me. However, things got even easier when I found that I needed to visit Northumberland for work and it would be very easy to offer a lift down here when I was on my way home, saving time/money etc by avoiding those train things.

After a 5.30am start and doing my work stuff I then took a rather scenic route across Northumberland in glorious autumn sunshine and dropped into the rather lovely new Schaefft premises. Had the pleasure of looking at some of the fleet that I'd read so much about and then we set off mid-PM yesterday. My Lexus RX was in for some work (a story in its own right) so they had loaned me that brand new UX. Like just 7 miles on the clock, the lowest mileage car I've even driven! They knew that I was using it for a long work trip and that it would have 700+ more than that by the time I handed the key back.

It was great to have good company on the journey home and we got to mine at 9.30pm when it was still dry, but once the battery/alternator issue presented itself of course it started to rain, thanks to Storm Benjamin beginning to make his presence felt. I was pretty useless, ditto my weedy jump leads after an attempt to charge it from Master SL's Celica. Not the time to properly diagnose or resolve anything, so I put the battery on for an overnight charge, dropped Schaefft off at his friend's and left everything in place for his return here today after I'd gone off to work.

Finally got to bed around 12.30am after a long and eventful day.

Result of this is that I've halved my fleet in the last few days, but something else is on its way. News on that one in due course....