The Continuous Car Thread of S_S - Skodas, BMWs, Austins...

Artoir

RMS Regular
Messages
10,673
Drives
V8/V6
I guess they thought they could go anywhere they wanted in their landies 😂

And they’re right!

Getting back out is always the problem 😂

I love this thread, will check out your YouTube channel at lunch too.
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Erm, yeah, we just left the people carrier stuck in the field.

I genuinely needed the stuff in it though.

I woke up the next day and had a good laugh at the RR.
Asx7Gwv.jpg


Went round to inspect the damage:
FVG2l0J.jpg


Where the Tractor had been :eek:
RVzgNnE.jpg


The pathway out
HlUNvrh.jpg


Where the Navara had been:
n5SbYUb.jpg


Where the RR had been :eek:
T0isLFH.jpg


I had some jobs to do during the day. The Iveco had started being hard to start and not charging up - I had to get jump started one morning, and I don't like that much. Took the battery covers off and was presented with some horrible past "fixes", so I set to ripping those all out. Fiat Group vehicles tend to (all the ones I have anyway) have this distribution panel atop the positive terminal of the battery. The terminal had been broken off the Iveco one so there was a cable bolted to it that ran under to a new clamp. It did not sit right and the dist. plate and connectors were very rusty and gunky.
I delegated the removal of the one from a 2004 2.8 Ducato long since retired from work duties, and also the cleaning up with emery paper of every single bolt, connection and the plate itself.
Afterwards it was ready to be bolted together with a freshly charged battery, placed on top of a cleaned up battery tray, and it was bolted into place and everything works beatifully now.
NZzVXiX.jpg


Jumping into the Citroen van next, I went off to pick up the latest project.
The Citroen has a 'reversing' camera installed in it, very trick, but also active all the time, not just during reversing!
VLfF2gL.jpg


Exceedingly handy for reversing into work though, which is narrow enough and also requires some weaving, so it's particularly gratifying when you get it right in one go rather than pulling forward to correct a few times.
ZsjGiHi.jpg


A low owner 325i Sport in probably the most desirable red/black leather combo, recently painted to a good standard but over repairs that need re-done. Now tucked away safely, will look at that circa 2021!

Oh yeah, remember that thing you saw me carrying out of the cinema?
J4uygOM.jpg

A cool piece of garage art, if nothing else.
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Back then to the ridiculous tale. Leaving it again until evening, because in utter darkness seems like the best time to do these things, I gathered up the two inimitable youngsters once more and went for a Mizziwizzi rescue.
"You'll need a tractor!"
"That's never coming out of there again!"
"You're going to get stuck you idiot!"
That was the help I got, but I was certain the Range Rover would tow the Mizzlewizzle out. It had towed it in there, after all. Just don't go on the wet bits.

Well, I folded down the tailgate, invited them to ride in the back, and set off down the field at speed, which unfortunately did not result in either of them landing face first in the mud; then swung round and reversed up to the metallic blue land anchor.
vGKwCct.jpg


I threw a strap around it and took up the slack. "One of you will have to steer" I said.
"It's not coming out!" they snorted.
How wrong they were. Off we went! Matthew jumped in as I tore around the field, firstly down to the bottom, then across and up the drier far side. Not willing to be proved wrong and get beached, I careened over bumpy bits and right up towards the gate
VcuvjvA.jpg


With young William still sitting on the tailboard, I may add!
9DNICSg.jpg


That went superbly well, up until the yells of "STOOOOOPPPPPP!" came abounding.
Well, Matthew having been attempting to steer the Japanese brick, had been holding the drivers door open. Fair enough, given that the mirrors were plastered in mud. So when he came to the gate he thought he would close the door, but not in time! So we ended up with a door wrapped round against the wing - and then that jammed the car to the gatepost!
knRfOxI.jpg


No problem. I directed those skinny legs out of harms way, then reversed the RR into the rolling storage unit and shoved it back. Not one bit gently of course, after all, it was already wrecked. This car was very tidy up until now, but a wrapped round door was pretty terminal damage. So it got thumped.
That made things better:
fagokBX.jpg


No bumper! That disappeared under the RR, but with lots of V8 torque I just pulled it out over it.

Having realised that it was just a complete nightmare to contemplate bringing this car to my new house, given that it wouldn't even bump-start, I had already concluded I would empty it out then just scrap it.
It needed moved into position so it could be reached by a grab lorry. But first, the door needed closed so the stuff inside would not get damp.

That job there was a line of volunteers for!
fUJRY94.jpg


And it became permanently closed!
4ApL0Sn.jpg


Matthew driving, he then was supposed to push the Mitzilbitzel over to the side of the yard. For no discernible reason he turned around and did this in reverse.
DOLRyCq.jpg

This had the added bonus of somehow, inexplicably, pushing through a bumper vent and hooking the swan-neck tow-bar around the back of the heavy aluminium crash-bar, thereby completely locking the two vehicles together with a permanency seldom seen this side of a civil servant's employment contract.

No combination of steering lock, car rocking, gear banging, wheel spinning, bouncing, twisting or shouting would make the two separate.
We had been so close to a successful operation!
Never ones to give up, we next (I say we...) got the Disco which was handily parked there too, waiting for it's repairs, and strapped it to the back.
In fact we turned it round and engaged the low box in it too.
9z1SPpI.jpg

Thus ensued the most tyre-squealy tug-o-war seen in this country with neither British product gaining much advantage until the RR started spinning all four wheels, losing traction and thus allowing the might of the TD5 to drag the whole unwieldy train further to the East while the RR roared its V8 head off and gave everything behind it a nice coating of pebble-dash.

This was going spiffingly badly, so it was time to draw out the big guns.
One International-powered Manitou all terrain forklift soon made light work of it.
ZuZeL9a.jpg

The long toes were engaged, the crash-box jammed into what felt like a gear, and the blue box from the orient went sailing up into the air, freeing the towing hitch of the loud British vehicle and allowing it to noisily move out of the way.

There was an unceremonious dumping of the two ton wreck, the front bumper was hastily kicked back into (approximately) the right place, and it was very swiftly called "a night", which by this time it most certainly was, and another ridiculous scenario was put to bed.
RFsiPn6.jpg
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
The next problem was a non-starting Skoda. That Royal Blue Favorit Estate I'd bought just to make sure it got back onto the road, that hadn't been touched for months, well, that's had an issue for some time and when I tried to move it, it did not want to be moved.

This is some of the previous keeper's handiwork:
9uwNBXq.jpg


I still haven't got to the bottom of it, but I think the, or at least part of the, root cause may be a faulty ignition switch.

Anyway the starter motor needs jumped, but that is difficult to go while also holding the ignition on.

I hoked around the shed until I found a length of wire, then again until I found some old pliers, then stripped back some plastic.
nhO68qW.jpg


Connected one end
5ZFfjfV.jpg


Ran the other into the footwell
NhhE2rI.jpg


And eventual success!
wxlbOPA.jpg


Would you believe that it took three and a half long hours to get this thing to move out of the way?

All so I could deposit the E30 in there.
z4BCQpL.jpg


The Skoda also needs a wheel changed as it just goes flat all the time, and then sort the starting issue quickly as it'll soon be due over at Vinny's for paint. That will be a welcome day.

All that done, I loaded up a castle and made off on a 1500-mile roadtrip.
lcSYO60.jpg


Some of that definitely required:
hYEO07K.jpg


Dropped off the 9 foot tall towers, and headed down into England to pick up a few things - spare parts for my E34 for example, as Richard whom I bought it from had been so good to hold onto them until I was back over in a van; the original bumpers, spare lights, spare boot trim, and a spare tailgate.
Also a friend of mine had been storing a few parts for me as well and I got those - including a set of E31 8 series Brembo brakes - a direct fit (and massive upgrade) for an E34 - or E28, come to mention it...

Caught an evening ferry and was back in Ireland for midnight, and home at 2:45am, via Slane:
X2dkxlF.jpg

Last time I was here I was taking pictures of the E34 in the early morning mist!

That's about it, up to date. Current driving duties can be meted out between the Citroen Relay, Iveco C15, Fiat Ducato and a BMW 330i. The BMW 540i is ready for action if need be and the Discovery gets the occasional run out if I'm going less than 10 miles away.
The Range Rover is parked up at the old home farm where it will continue with towing stuff into and out of the field. The Alfa 156 and MG ZT are at my new house, just chilling out, and the Peugeot Partner I gave to a friend last year is back and waiting, I'll get that MOT'd soon too. The Austins are in storage, and the Skoda S110 is hiding out in work and could theoretically come out again soon once I sort out wheels, as the purpose of moving to a house in the country with a barn and sheds is so that I can have my cars at home to tinker with and play with.
And it's sunny today. Superb.
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
At the start of May, the time came to move my Alfa 164 from it's outdoor spot at work to inside accommodation at home with me.
Being an extremely reliable Alfa, I put a battery in it...
j8mqY5Z.jpg


and it...fired right up! Of course it did!
1NXnjet.jpg

I grabbed the light wood-rimmed wheel, and gently piloted it out and pointed it down the yard to be loaded on a trailer and moved over.

Once home it took a thousand point turn to get it half into place, and in the end I gave up on that and turned it around on the lawn.

Seeing as the van had just done a big trip, I figured I should reward it with some tender loving care and maybe sort out that oil filter that was annoying me since I bought the van. It had been fitted by the previous owner and had always dripped slightly, and the sump had been oily when I purchased as a result.
I had cleaned it up since but still, I did not like it, and I do not take it for granted that anyone else would use good quality oil. Not only might they have chosen cheap oil, they could have tried to buy good stuff and been sold some overpriced rubbish by a greedy merchant, or even had it done in a garage and perhaps even paid well, but unaware of the watery junk being used in some garages.
So it's not that I don't trust the seller/previous owner per se, but I don't blindly believe that there is good oil in there.
Off came the old filter.
uN1SgLF.jpg


And true enough it was pretty thin and black. But no particles.
It was tight enough in there and the access was from underneath. Getting the wrench on was pretty awkward.
TacxzM9.jpg


Also scored another free strap when out driving the van the next day. I always keep my eyes peeled - when we are transporting loads of twisted and sharp metal (stripped or damaged cars etc) then we often have straps rub through and snap. Truck straps do the same, but usually there is enough left to make a good length strap for us!
CMN5j90.jpg


Another job was the 540i using PAS fluid - not alarmingly fast, but still, it started to get a bit noisy. Checked it out and found it low, went to the shelves in work looking for the rarest of all PAS fluid, and found an old tin (I knew it was there) which topped up the system and got rid of the noisy.
4yY05Hs.jpg


That all done I took an evening of and went visiting folk.
To my surprise, when trying to get away from work, the little ones had built this and wanted to show me...
mb2JnMK.jpg

and we spent the rest of the evening building a super-garage for my lego-man to work from. Rapid expansion and all that.
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Speaking of rapid expansion, I needed another forklift for a new unit and with a tiny loading door, I had to find a container spec truck (with a little mast that will fit within 8 feet gaps). I was keeping an eye out until then I did actually spot one for sale cheap, well under what I was expecting to pay for a s/h truck, and better yet it was an old customer-turned-buddy that I'd been out of touch with for a while.
Nipped down (I say nipped, I mean well over an hour's drive) for 8pm and we got cold enough to quit chatting about 1am... almost forgetting to agree a deal on the forklift!

A couple of nights later I was back, with Matthew and William in the Navara with a hired plant trailer. I was guessing around 3 tons, but nope, it was definitely more than that! How do I know? Well, the trailer almost collapsed under the weight, and the Navara buckled under the strain, and split the chassis!
aKHXMQ6.jpg


We quickly off loaded it and miserably poked at the trailer and even more at the pickup.
But being the type of people who never give up, even when really we should do... one of us had a bright idea, a good two hours after we'd got there, so midnight-ish for sure, of taking the counter weight off.
We did that with another forklift, and that made it light enough to not break the floor of the trailer, and the Nissan was less splitty-splitty, and we set our compass homeward and made off like that, keeping a keen eye on the gap between crewcab and pickup bed.

The trailer had to go back at 9am so we offloaded that night, at 2am sort of time. That surely pleased the neighbours.
It definitely had a cool vibe the next morning. Kind of a Cars sort of deal, just needs a couple of big eyes at the front to match that jaunty angle.
PVVqnWB.jpg


Then I head back down the next evening with my Iveco flatbed to collect the counterweight. It was dropped right over the rear axle of the 'veco, and man could I feel it, dropping the rear suspension by a full foot. It must have been 1.5 tons by itself.

Reconnecting with this guy has been paying off since the forklift too, with two cars and some spares having come my way in another good deal.
Heading off to pick the first car up involved first a run around the country in the Iveco to pick up other things too.
There are great views when you are touring the countryside, and when you have an orange beacon enabling you to stop almost anywhere, and a bed to stand on that's four feet off the ground when empty, vantage points are that bit more attainable.
8b433dF.jpg
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Meanwhile the 540i had ran out of MOT and such is the mess of N.I. at the minute, that a test date is several months away, so conveniently a customer comes in and sells me two matching silver E39s.
One is a silver 528i Sport auto with MOT until December, 19" M parallels and black leather. I took it for a drive and it was nigh on perfect... so I decided to just keep driving that! Some would say the lack of radio unit (of any kind) would be a bad thing, but being a super-quiet auto, it just enhances the relaxment. Yes, new word again.
So I really like that and frankly a 528i Auto is so low value that I might as well just keep it about as long as possible. 23-27mpg is the major downside. But it's also one of the tidiest cars I've dailied in a while.

But the Iveco was not done hauling yet.
I had a mountain to drive up first.
i4mZeUq.jpg


Then a stack of wood to load. It didn't look like much but this really tested the wee truck, it was struggling badly with this load, and I've had it maxed out on payload before and it's barely broken a sweat.
HuqOL8x.jpg


That had to be delivered to Scotland, but there was no way I was doing that long journey with crackling speakers, so they had to go.
jdTdxNC.jpg


They were the usual paper junk, ripped and split.
I did have some decent 6x4s I was going to fit, but then I thought I would rather just stick some good components in and have done with it.
Which is what I did
woIhW7P.jpg


And they fitted too, with a bit of squeezing
mQ3Ssro.jpg

(that's as good as it looked before too!)

It wasn't far past the summer equinox when I went over on the ferry and so at 2:30am I grabbed this shot of Girvan
ZTiBRrg.jpg


Dropped the wood off, got some sleep, then turned around and went and picked up a car.
Passed a sticky-out rock called the Loudoun Hill, obviously so named because it's quite high.
aI15fue.jpg


and near the coast, in fact over most of Scotland, was this "har", this sea fog that just envelops everything. Still, it looked OK for photos.
agkDlOq.jpg


Some more old junk:
hDv302r.jpg



Came back and had some pleasing news, my LR which I had left in with a mechanic I know was now ready to go. Could I have done this job myself? Yes. Did I? No. So I paid a man to do it and he did it and it's done now.
I immediately took it away up some oul lanes.
zwmUYRo.jpg


And proceeded to do some 300+ miles in it over the next couple of days. Hey, he said it was fixed! And it is! So my LR is my daily again... but for how long?
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Another bright idea began to raise it's head, after fixing the LR, the shabby bits like the dented panel and the broken front bumper were looking a bit rough.

This idea gained traction (before-its-time-pun) when I realised I could utilise these tyres:
LaUHNrx.jpg


Uniroyal Tiger Paw 15"s that came on the wheels I bought for the Cadillac. The most devoted may go looking through the annals of pages past to find when that was, but my guess is 6 years ago was when I came to own those. The wheels had been off an Astro van as I recall and the tyres are massive as you can see. I did try selling them once but then found the treads had cracked from sitting around.

Also, just off an E34 were these awful 15"s with tyres that wouldn't hold air. They needed to come off...
4Qmf97Q.jpg


And before I had time to doubt my impeccable logic...
OEwRpGM.jpg


Now I had at least taken the time to look up the PCD of the LR, and the RR, and found both were 5x120 and offsets around 45-50. A set of ET20 wheels would be bound to work then. Standard sizes on both P38 and L320 are 16" minimum. I had tried to find evidence of 15"s being fitted but info was scarce on the Landie forums. I ploughed on anyway and figured if it didn't work, it would be OK.
Next step in this great plan was to get the wheels off the Range Rover. This was much harder to do than it first sounded.
vxOgDQy.jpg

That would be because of the 27(!!!)mm nuts torqued to eleventy-thousand-lbfts. I had no sockets that size with me so I used the wrench in the boot, which got four off the first wheel, and then bent, such was the torque. A piece of pipe slid over for added leverage only helped bend it more.

Eventually I had to go and get a 27mm socket and the big bar (a 4ft long 1" drive breaker bar) and it was still a right tug but that got them loosened.
Next challenge was putting the 15" BMW wheels on. On the rear they had a couple mm clearance, so gravy. On the front, they sort of pushed on, but scraped. I had a feel round the back and there was no gap to the dust cover, so I went to the LR and got my adjustment tool.
Y9NbFbV.jpg


All I did was beat the lip back, and that gave enough room, and the wheel was on!
Next challenge was the nuts. The 27mm ones did not fit inside the centre recess of the new wheels. I took a drive down to someone local to see if we could get something to suit from his garage, but nothing he had was the same fitting. We took a look back at my LR and realised they were smaller - 22mm in fact. Which made me think, they might fit. So back up, pulled two nuts off each wheel with the impact gun and tried them on the RR.
lkuh42V.jpg

Success! They had a small enough shank to fit into the 15" wheel.

With two nuts per wheel, I got them all changed over and the RR was now resplendent on it's new wheels and tyres.
DPuLhLA.jpg
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Concurrently to that adventure, the Land Rover, which at last mention was questioned about how long it could remain a reliable daily - well, not long it would seem. Did I maybe get three or four days out of it - well, maybe a week, lets be fair - before I was hearing squeaky noises and it was very hard to turn.
I limped it home and used another car the next day to go get an emergency topup of ATF - all I could find in the 2nd service station I called into.
j0aWzt8.jpg


It took all of that, and that got me over to the old house to the RR wheel change mission.

Taking a wee break from that at one of the many moments when it was being obstinate, I ducked my head under the front of the LR to check whether there was a leak needing addressed.
Ammm, yes, yes there was.
gHmu4bz.jpg

I pulled down the plastic undertray, just slightly, and got an armful of PAS fluid. Slow leak for some time obviously, and the pipes and the sump and ARB were all wet with oil beading under them. I added that to the list of jobs needing tackled and went back to work.

The Range Rover I had changed the wheels in the yard. I needed to make some space and there was an old trailer chassis lying in the field that needed shifting. I drove the forklift in to do that, and lifted it - only for it to slide on the toes and slip sideways. Right over my FavorAt. Precariously close. I had to manoeuvre delicately the forklift and chassis until I could get it settled and set down again - without just dragging it out because it would have damaged my precious Skoda. I did, eventually, manage to do that successfully, but at the expense of getting the forklift bogged down in the soft soil of the field.
We've been here before, and this is the beginning of when I should have realised this was all going very awry indeed.

With it stuck in the field, the LR repairs became a little more awkward but I reversed it in and over the toes and got if lifted anyway.
EKgIjtr.jpg


Note the bashed up, taped up bumper. It was like that when I bought it, but not helped by me driving it through hedges and pushing things out of the way with it since. Hey, it was already broken, right?
So in order to gain access to the PAS pipes I suspected were leaking, I could do another double-bonus job and rip that bumper off. Which is what I did next. It was that cracked and battered, it wasn't hard to get most of it off.
dNBOF3q.jpg



6AvRvTp.jpg

That gave me access to the pipe, and then I rubbed my fingers along it, brushing off the rusty scabs until I found the wet point. I pushed a little too hard and it cracked then, turning the drip into a waterfall.
*Sigh.*

As you recall from an earlier post, I'd bought a couple of spares cars from an old friend I'd recently become re-acquainted with, and conveniently I'd offloaded one of them at the same house until I get the Koni's and LSD out of it for one of my other future builds. I went to it a found some length of fuel pipe, quite a bit, which would effect a decent repair on this PAS pipe. Unfortunately I didn't have anything sharp to cut it with, or so I thought, until I saw my van was also parked in this yard and recalled there was a small folding Snap-on knife in the toolbox in the cab. I had the keys with me for the van so I was able to cut a piece, and went back to the LR armed with that and some jubilee clips.
It must be said that this house, my mums old place, is a few miles from my own house or from work, so fixing this was fairly essential if I was to leave again the same day! I say that, but it's only in typing this that I realise that I could just have used my van instead. Whoops, all that day I was convinced I had to get the LR fixed or walk home!

I started fitting the hose, and twisting it off, only to feel a lack of resistance and then the metal pipe snapped off in another place also! It was about 18 inches from the other weak point, and the hose I'd cut was only 10 inches long! Off to get another piece then.
And that piece was then fitted, and tightened on, and finally, I effected a repair worthy of the most discerning bush mechanic.
BVR3BpJ.jpg





Now...that allows us to get back to the main task of wheel changing.
Well, almost. Standing in the way was another 27mm nut. There are 20 wheel nuts on a Land Rover Discovery, 19 of which on this example were 22mm nuts matched to the 18" Disco3 wheels fitted to it. One of them, however, was a 27mm nut which was also crooked and also slightly rung.
*Sigh.*

88grEjY.jpg

It took a colossal battering of my pristine Halfords Advanced twelve-point 27mm socket to get it over this abortion of a nut.
Eventually it did come off, and this is what I was faced with:
f2YDOBK.jpg

I mean... what is that mess?

I tried to knock it out in the usual ways, but with no joy.
In my dad's old workshop, there is still a vice - in fact is this a replacement one I fitted there when his gave up years ago? Not sure.
Anyway that was the next stop.
Searched under the bench for a suitable piece of something hard.
Ah! This bolt will get it.
LVDk5QM.jpg


Hit that with the hammer and... well...
xjXMcAf.jpg


Oh right. So the centre of this home-made awful nut is also HOLLOW?!!
*Sigh.*

I found a thinner tool to try hitting the edges of the nut, but to no avail. I stopped as well when I realised the allen key I was using as a club was a bit special...
fsc8jkS.jpg

I've never seen one like that, but I like it. Going to keep that handy.

Finally, FINALLY, found a solution that worked, very slowly, but I got the socket tapped off, then launched that so-called "nut" into oblivion (or maybe left it in the vice, can't recall now)
LSXYWTJ.jpg


and went back to fitting the 16" wheels with the BFG tyres I'd taken off the RR.
Except they wouldn't go on! What now?
Ah, this now.
vCHKDqW.jpg

Spigot rings. Hadn't foreseen that, but easily dealt with. Well, three of them were. Number four required a screwdriver to be jammed into it and beaten off. At one point I tried to prise it - and broke my favourite flat-head screwdriver. Yes, it was one of those days. I was starting to realise that. I smacked the last of the spigot ring and snapped it; it came off much easier after that.


Finally, FINALLY, after all, I had a Land Rover with off-road tyres on it, and a full collection of wheel-nuts (the 27mm ones to match the wheels), and suddenly, as per the original, unchecked, "bright idea", I had myself an offroader. Now, the broken bumper could be ripped off, the dents did not matter so much, and instead of being a battered road-going example of a Disco2, it was a realtively clean off-road-capable example, which I confirmed by driving it around the field and NOT getting stuck.
JV4MCTU.jpg



It was, however, still a day not to remembered. More to come...unfortunately...
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
And to finish off the saga of last week, this is what happened after all that, on July 12th. I say that date as it's kind of ironic that I would avoid all the bonfires in N.I. ...

I moved the Range Rover down the field. Remember it's blocked in because I beached the forklift.

It started hissing steam from under the bonnet. fair enough I thought, it's been idling a while, it's hot, it's a hot day too, so I shut it off.

Then I walked a few steps away - and looked back.

gzODZwD.jpg


That isn't white steam any more. That's brown.

I looked underneath. I say some flames dropping down from beside the engine on to the grass.

I ran to get something - anything - and grabbed the hose and ran back round. Stuck it under the front, but even though I put those bits out, more flames dropped down from the engine bay.
I pointed the hose in through the front grille. Peering in I could see a fire starting in there.
The headlight exploded with heat behind it and the cold water on the front of it.
I ran round, threw the back door open and yanked out what I could from inside. There were still things I didn't need from my house move - football boots, shin pads, sleeping bag etc.-all my camping stuff, all my sports stuff. I got about two goes and then the smoke was so acrid I couldn't lean into the cabin any more.
Running around the front I grabbed that battery out of the way, and got back.
I stood on the bonnet of the E30 in front of it, with the hose running down the back of it to keep it wet so the fire wouldn't spread. If it caught, not only would it burn, but my Skoda next to it would go, then the forklift, and there were wooden posts on the ground and low hanging trees that would have caught, and then four houses would have been at risk. So I made the call.
My brother appeared from nowhere with buckets of water and proceeded to toss them over the back of the E30 as I kept the hose on it from the bonnet of the E30 or the roof of the Skoda, ducking down every time I heard something explode. I guess it was the tyres going.

5HEWxCl.jpg


The fire brigade arrived in around 10 minutes I think, it felt pretty quick, considering they are all retained part-timers and the station is 6 miles away in town, and they got it contained after about 15 minutes. They had to stay back as it was only when they started hosing it that I remembered the LPG system.

What we did was enough to save the E30 from going up too, although the lights and bumper were all completely melted of course.

The result...
UccKbRI.jpg

No more P38.

No clear reason what happened. Fault in the LPG system? Hot exhaust manifold igniting some residual oil gunk? The fire chief couldn't determine either.
However it's rather academic to speculate over the possible cause now as there is no way to know, and it'll only eat me up. I'm pretty gutted, I really liked the old bus.

Speaking of gutted:
OO6Gu8P.jpg


I apologise to all Land Rover fans, of which I have become one as a result of owning this Rangie and the Disco.

And that is when I realised the day really wasn't going my way at all.
 

svensktoppen

RMS Regular
Messages
32,751
Drives
FK2 CTR
Flip :eek:

I'm sure it wasn't funny at all, but can just imagine that call on 12th July, lol. Good they were out so quick! They were probably all at the ready with all the other carry-on, always a silver lining...
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
That they were, I chatted to most of them and learned a lot.
The irony certainly wasn't lost on me!
On another forum there is suggestion that a fine mist of coolant (from a blown or split pipe) is causing electrical fires on the P38... sounds plausible in this scenario.
 

svensktoppen

RMS Regular
Messages
32,751
Drives
FK2 CTR
Lord knows what... Plenty of flammables in an engine bay if something ends up where it shouldn't be!
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Since July then - six weeks of motoring adventures!

Well, after the Range Rover debacle, I needed some relief.
I bought a BMW E36 cabriolet. A really shoddy one, with loads of MOT, and a noisy exhaust. Then I bought another one, a really nice one, with loads of MOT and only one colour of panels.
Ih3YpeV.jpg

I drove those around a bit and quite enjoyed having a drop-top available for that week we had some sunshine between rain showers (remember that?)

I tried in vain to pull the forklift out (remember it was still stuck in the field, thankfully unburnt) with the Land Rover. Although my lunch remained unharmed!
b1gv9Vs.jpg

I reluctantly left it, even after my uncle came and gave me hand trying to dig it out for a number of hours.
However, I got a text the next evening, after I'd been somewhere else, which said that he had managed to get it out! By himself, one man and a spade. He's some trooper!

I was also tasked with finding a vehicle for my uncle to replace his outgoing Fiesta. It wouldn't have passed an MOT with various suspension rattles and was dented all over.
Knowing his propensity for carrying gardening tools and lumber and wellies around, I searched out a little van and eventually after a couple of weeks happened on an advert for a 2-owner non-turbo Citroen Berlingo with racking in the back and a good service history.
For a smidgeon of cash I was driving back this little champ.
tQQMKjI.jpg


Berlingo went his way, Fiesta came to me. I got a couple of days out of it before the MOT expired on the 3rd August. Then I used it as a bin when I moved out of a 5200sqft warehouse I'd been renting "temporarily" for storing stock for work... since 2015. I swept the place clean over the course of a long couple of nights and all the debris and rubbish went in the Fiesta - first the boot, then the back seats, then the front seats, and then the little Ford scraped driving out over a 3/4" difference in concrete level. Low!

Put the Iveco through the MOT as well.

Browsing the internet one day (dangerous...) I came across an advert that definitely reached out and grabbed at my attention. A set of repainted MG wheels, only an hour away via the 'scenic' route...and a plan was hatched and off I drove in the noisier of the cabriolets.
cfHrXmS.jpg


It really was quite scenic, and I enjoyed a spirited (but legal) drive without anyone else bothering me.
hmaddg5.jpg


I had thought I would just stick these wheels to one side for now until I could find some tyres at the right price. The correct size is something like 235/40/18 but I decided one evening to just buzz around blackcircles.com and see what pricing was like. Well by going down a notch to 225/40 I found the tyres were about a third less expensive... and there was a deal on for buying a set of four - which I intended to do anyway - so for a much tidier sum than expected, I ordered a set of Avons immediately.
Arrived not many days after
UxaV0Pu.jpg


So for around the same price as having a set of my existing wheels refurbished, I picked up a decent repainted set of the same wheels as well as the tyres for them I would have been buying anyway. Definitely quids in here. The new wheels are not immaculate, but then neither is my MG. Some day I will repaint the car and make it perfect, and at that point I can have the original wheels refurbished, but right now, we're good.

Slid the tyres on...
az6cb0z.jpg

Ooops, almost forgot to put the new valve in!


Buoyed by this wheel success, I then proceeded to investigate other wheel attainment sources, and nabbed a BMW M5 "Throwing Star" to complete another (third maybe?) set of those stored away, several other wheels for various projects (not interesting) and one more box of goodies:
KHZSLib.jpg

That's some more wheels to go towards a Skoda, hopefully some news on that soon.

And employing some more mathematics with a masculine tendency, I figured that scrapping my uncles old Fiesta was a pointless exercise, without at least getting some value from it. So off I went and purchased an extremely local and extremely cheap silver Fiesta with a broken exhaust and some MOT.
Brilliant! I said to myself. You are a genius! You can use the exhaust and other good parts from the old blue one to fix the woes of the silver one, and make yourself a few bob. What a plan.
Well, that sort of worked out. Immediately, as in the very next day, the door barrel of the new Fiesta gave up, so it could no longer be unlocked. The key fob battery was flat. So I had to climb in through the boot, which set the alarm off. And then opening the door, and starting the car with the key, was not enough to satisfy the alarm. Only locking it was, but then I still could not unlock it, and the saga continued. I eventually just left it to give up of it's own accord.

So I began the process of getting at the lock. Initially just wanting to grease or adjust it.
EnVHo3y.jpg


Was doing this at home and I'd parked the Fiesta in front of everything, like someone expecting to have the job done in an hour. Not so.
So I hunted around for tools to keep going, eventually making some top notch combinations...
lD3x127.jpg


Seems everything needs removed to get at it.
F0zGB8K.jpg


Finally... there we are.
rs78OAJ.jpg


Even out, it was very stiff indeed. Remembering that A-the blue Fiesta had no lock problems, and B-this was meant to be a quick flip for a few hundred snoops, I went and did the same to the blue Fiesta and took the handle and lock out of it. Four days later like, but I can make it seem instant when I write a post about it right, makes me seem efficient? Nah, it lay there with no glass in the door for half a week. I had real work to do.
But in it went and just in time too - for my uncle called me, to tell me the super little Berlingo had just launched all it's engine oil out all over the main road.
At 7am. On his way to work.
He got a taxi the remaining 30 miles and I said I'd sort the retrieval out.
That night I made the silver Fiesta a bit more usable and complete, and left it sitting in my drive with the key hidden so he could collect - and after all he ended up with another Fiesta!
And I ended up with the Berlingo back. Still no idea what is wrong, will put it on the lift this week and figure it out.

Put MG wheels on the back of the truck to take home and fit. Checked the MOT on the MG. Expired the day before. Bah!
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Checked the MG wheels the next day and at least two of them had gone flat - from just sitting on the flatbed! not even with pressure on them. So that needs addressed.

Took the 540 Touring to MOT. Failed on the bonnet not opening - but the tester gave me a few minutes to see if I could get it open. I ended up ripping the entire grille off but could not get in to it.

Drove it home, parked up, booked a retest.

yrgGpae.jpg


Went to drive it to work a few days later to fix it. Clutch pedal went straight to the floor! So I had to get the bonnet open at home, which meant more improvisation of tools. After maybe an hour I got some needle nose pliers in there and got it to unlatch.
Working with this gap:
V6ui4BE.jpg


So once that was opened, slowly put some fluid in
IJuHFjL.jpg

And it bubbled all the trapped air out and then it was OK again.

Brought it in and set to the cable. The latch was broken so I replaced that with a good one.
jHnFNBv.jpg


That didn't fix it though, and the cable was to blame as it was still well stretched. Took the handle off from inside which allowed it to be pulled much further and then the bonnet would open and close.
Took it for the MOT then and got it passed.

Then went to drive it to work in the morning with a view to replacing the grilled and re-attaching the cable handle and trim.
Got about a mile from home, then smoke starting pouring out of the engine bay. Nasty, smelly smoke - and we've been there all too recently, remember?!
Well it wasn't fire, but you might be able to see:
Orlbpaa.jpg


A pulley, not sure which, seized, and the belt was screeching around it.
I had no tools with me so I figured I would just make it snap. So I started the car and gave it a few revs to see, and then, a big slap and a bang.
GAoNuXn.jpg

There's the belt.

So that removed, I drove it on to work, through a busy village with no PAS, but whatever.
Got about another 2 miles then this
dEWDCvh.jpg


The fan unwound itself and popped off. Made a right racket.
Pulled it out then drove the last couple of miles before anything else would break.

Went to look about something else instead. Mechanic found the source of the oil leak on the Berlingo - the oil filer was so bad it had rotted through and the oil was gushing out of the filter under pressure!
O3zQFKt.jpg

So much for that FSH the P.O. told me about!

A hard day over, I took a nice car home from work then wanted to keep it blocked in, you know, in case of groups of men with sticky fingers. So the best plan of action - park the Land Rover in front of it.
Was moving it in and out and caught the front corner of it.
KfHOtiu.jpg

Goodbye indicator.

So this update is definitely a sickening one full of disasters!
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
In my last post, I mentioned having driven the E34 through the village on the way to work with no PAS. Three roundabouts and a host of bad parking make that more trouble that it sounds.

Anyway not one to be outdone, the Iveco wanted a bit of that action. If you thought a car with a steering box and a cast iron V8 up front would be a hard steer, this thing was another level altogether.

5HL1zb7.jpg

Taking a look in there once at work, it was another seized pulley. No squeal, no anything, in fact the belt was still fine too. The whole thing had to come off, tensioner bracket too, but looking them up, they were over £100 for a replacement. For a Febi one anyway, a bit cheaper from junk brands. But there is method to my "madness", the Iveco uses the same F1AE JTD engine in my vans that I love so much and so I headed towards one of the retired vans to see what was on there. It was a 2.8 version, so a little older design, and the tensioner was very different - but the pulley wasn't. Lay on the ground, reached under and hefted until I cracked that badboy off and got the pulley out.
It's a plastic wheel with internal bearing and looked exactly the same as the Iveco one... so it was bolted on, and belt re-fitted.
BqBBjHZ.jpg

Success!

Buoyed by that, I fixed the other pressing issue:
e3zK0rW.jpg


LrrgdTF.jpg

Double success!


However, don't worry, plenty more disaster coming!
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Remember months ago I (think so, anyway) posted the story about picking up a cheap forklift and breaking my buddy's pickup in half?

Well, he had that repaired and then recently sold it, to buy a Disco 3. Smart move, eh? Which instantly failed the MOT, on a broken handbrake, of course.

At the same time, I had decided to replace the cheap forklift, as it's just old and worn out.
obsOnhN.jpg


So I set to buying a replacement. I eventually found one not a half mile away, which saved on the transport costs, which helped a tiny bit as it was a clean fortune. It's a fairly recent Cat with not a huge amount of hours on it, but untidy in the looks department so it was four figures instead of five. Forklifts are expensive!
q2xp1E0.jpg


As I was heading over to take a final look at it before cracking a deal, the old forklift was used to load a car shell on to the Iveco, and as it backed away - the steering control snapped. So thankfully it was pointed straight, and it could be backed away, but that was it. It literally worked until the morning it was being replaced. You couldn't make that kind of thing up.
The Cat was delivered, and the old one was p/x'd so no more headaches on that subject. Happy just to not have to think about it any more.


Tuesday I was working inside and on my own. One of the staff (on his day off) called in to grab something, and I went outside for a couple of minutes.
At the same time as I was standing halfway down the yard, I heard a splintering crack type noise. The kind you hear when glass breaks. I looked around, wondering what had broken. There was a Mini Cooper parked in the front row of cars in the yard, and it's windscreen had just shattered near the middle. In shock I looked around to see what had hit it. Realising there was nothing... I went over to it, curious.
The screen was black.
I opened the door and inhaled a lungful of acrid smoke.
And I ran. I ran for the fire extinguishers.
I ran back with a couple of them in hand.
I smashed the screen through on the Mini and emptied the foam, Co2 and then the water into the Mini dash where the smoke and flames were coming from.
HvrNIr6.jpg


After a few minutes and with the help of t'other guy it was under control.

And I could check my pulse rate.
That was too many "just so happened"'s to be coincidence.
Any later and the fire would have been uncontrollable, and 75 cars, several houses and my workshop would have been an inferno.

Checking up on the damage, it was surprisingly limited.
NqHfsj1.jpg


But still taking no chances, I called the fire brigade out to douse it, just to be sure (and it was still smoking very slightly).

They said that often people "think" they've got a car fire out but haven't fully, so they would rather be called out than not. I asked how many car fires one could get away with per year before they started getting suspicious...
Best guess is an electrical fire. Cause, unknown.
The car was driven to the yard, by me, without fault, and had been moved around, several times, and only parked in that spot a couple of weeks previous. So no issues that I knew of.

Scary that a car can just self-ignite like that though!


So I didn't get around to working on any of my own cars that week...
 

quattro Rick

RMS Regular
Messages
5,217
Drives
quattro / M796
Remember months ago I (think so, anyway) posted the story about picking up a cheap forklift and breaking my buddy's pickup in half?

Well, he had that repaired and then recently sold it, to buy a Disco 3. Smart move, eh? Which instantly failed the MOT, on a broken handbrake, of course.

At the same time, I had decided to replace the cheap forklift, as it's just old and worn out.
obsOnhN.jpg


So I set to buying a replacement. I eventually found one not a half mile away, which saved on the transport costs, which helped a tiny bit as it was a clean fortune. It's a fairly recent Cat with not a huge amount of hours on it, but untidy in the looks department so it was four figures instead of five. Forklifts are expensive!
q2xp1E0.jpg


As I was heading over to take a final look at it before cracking a deal, the old forklift was used to load a car shell on to the Iveco, and as it backed away - the steering control snapped. So thankfully it was pointed straight, and it could be backed away, but that was it. It literally worked until the morning it was being replaced. You couldn't make that kind of thing up.
The Cat was delivered, and the old one was p/x'd so no more headaches on that subject. Happy just to not have to think about it any more.


Tuesday I was working inside and on my own. One of the staff (on his day off) called in to grab something, and I went outside for a couple of minutes.
At the same time as I was standing halfway down the yard, I heard a splintering crack type noise. The kind you hear when glass breaks. I looked around, wondering what had broken. There was a Mini Cooper parked in the front row of cars in the yard, and it's windscreen had just shattered near the middle. In shock I looked around to see what had hit it. Realising there was nothing... I went over to it, curious.
The screen was black.
I opened the door and inhaled a lungful of acrid smoke.
And I ran. I ran for the fire extinguishers.
I ran back with a couple of them in hand.
I smashed the screen through on the Mini and emptied the foam, Co2 and then the water into the Mini dash where the smoke and flames were coming from.
HvrNIr6.jpg


After a few minutes and with the help of t'other guy it was under control.

And I could check my pulse rate.
That was too many "just so happened"'s to be coincidence.
Any later and the fire would have been uncontrollable, and 75 cars, several houses and my workshop would have been an inferno.

Checking up on the damage, it was surprisingly limited.
NqHfsj1.jpg


But still taking no chances, I called the fire brigade out to douse it, just to be sure (and it was still smoking very slightly).

They said that often people "think" they've got a car fire out but haven't fully, so they would rather be called out than not. I asked how many car fires one could get away with per year before they started getting suspicious...
Best guess is an electrical fire. Cause, unknown.
The car was driven to the yard, by me, without fault, and had been moved around, several times, and only parked in that spot a couple of weeks previous. So no issues that I knew of.

Scary that a car can just self-ignite like that though!


So I didn't get around to working on any of my own cars that week...

Have heard of older 1 series BMWs erratically combusting for no reason due to electrical faults, I imagine these possibly share some of the electrics

Crazy series of unfortunate events, you should write a book lmao
51myTqAuKNL._SX356_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
When I did get a chance, I made a go at the E34 540i.

Water pump had to come off to check. It seemed to be seized, but who knows what was causing it. So, stripped the radiator and shroud out, and the intake system, and started into a series of 10mm bolts. Some were easy, some were behind the crank pulley and needed turned 1/8 of a turn at a time with an open-ended spanner I could only hold by my fingertips. So that took about an hour.
Ey8kKv3.jpg


In the process of taking it off, one of the alloy coolant transfer tubes that run inside the V of the engine decided to pop out.
This one.
B6c3Aab.jpg


That won't be difficult to get back in...[/sarcasm]



Buoyed by this further success (ok, sarcasm is still switched on), I tackled the Berlingo my uncle had been driving, that I've been trying to sell. After a couple of guys saw it one night, it wouldn't start again. Not that they did anything, it was just a strange co-incidence.
So after poking around and finding out the stop solenoid was armoured and inaccessible, and debating cracking off an injector, and other icky jobs that just seemed way much hassle, I honestly just started wiggling things and going round all the systems.
I'd been frustrated because it had been parked awkwardly at my house and was blocking things. I'd considered shipping it off to some other mechanic to fix it.
But it's only a 1.9d non-turbo. It's not exactly complicated.
9Ckh6Wq.jpg


And then, obscured from view, I found it. The glow plugs I was considering pulling out to replace, having read that a DW8 engine will not start from cold without them, guaranteed. So in poking at the wire running to them, it was a bit loose. And on the side of the inlet manifold, they are connected to their power feed by a simple nut and bolt - visible here in the middle of the pic, just under the breather tube.
nTTbvjD.jpg

So I robbed an 8mm nut from a BMW coil-pack, ensuring future issues when I can't figure out why that 330ci won't run right, and with now-glowing glow plugs, the Citroen fired immediately into life, and has been faultless over the last couple of weeks as I decided to use it for a few little tasks that were lingering.
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Now, time to make some progress. We shall see.

First, get that water pipe on the E34 located again. I couldn't get it from the front, trying to slide it under the inlet manifold, so I had to ram my hand down the back of the block, which as you can see, was pretty tight, and not a bit painful.
22uX1cK.jpg


Having successfully managed that bit of keyhole surgery, the replacement waterpump could go on. I used one for the later 4.4 V8 BMW engine, simply because I had about 8 of them sitting around. Same part basically other than having a couple of sensors that the 4.0 doesn't have.
So it got bolted up. Then came time to do that bolt behind the crank pulley again. I was dreading that one...
LlMHSOk.jpg


It got fed in with the magnet. Got it in place quick enough.
But a socket was never going to work - let me show you why:
tnvvFEt.jpg


No way!
So it's back to the trusty ratchet spanner. But a full length (~8") one is too long, as then it hits too many other things and can't get any degree of leverage. So, that's why I'm using a double-ended one about 5 inches long.
RIJRMn2.jpg

Probably only took 20 minutes to get it tightened up, so getting faster at this! But sore on the fingers, that's for sure.

That meant I could move on to the next task - fitting the belt. Given there were two lengths slightly different, and my old one was torn, I just ordered both up, and tried them on - shorter one it was. 7PK1590 for reference.
And that meant power steering, which meant I could move the car!
NAU3afp.jpg

Well, after changing out the totally flat battery, at least. Which wasn't any hassle, no, not at all, there was only another non-running car parked tight to the side doors of the E34, and the battery is under the rear seat.

Anyway, eventually, I put it back together.
qbNs5t0.jpg

Still daylight, I put the intake system on, and ran it up to temp to start bleeding the coolant.
And it only started to rain on me. Hood up, I continued to get soaked, and wonder why there was no end in sight to this filling up.
I left it and came back to it a couple of times, eventually noticing that it was definitely losing fluid. I guess that's when I found I'd missed popping on the tiny return pipe on the top of the rad!
Got that sorted and started again. By now the light was gone, so doing it by torchlight - still being rained on.
And now the coolant tank started hissing at me! Long story short, the radiator was cold on one side and so there I was pulling the whole thing apart again.
Not willing to tackle that bolt behind the crankshaft, I went for the slightly less awkward bolts holding the thermostat housing to the side of the waterpump.
Because of using the 4.4 pump, I had to use the housing and suitable 'stat for that, rather than the old one which I would have reused, knowing it worked. 'Stats are one of those things, even brand names are one in three whether they actually work or not. On BMWs I've found that the most reliable ones are actually ancient German ones fitted from the factory - even their new ones are just generic ones bought in. So I found an old one, got out the oily 'stat-testing kettle and fired it up till it was spitting at me, and lowered the used 'stat in - and watched it open up slowly as the heat increased.

Good enough, I pulled it out, while the kettle launched drops of super-boiling lava-acid at me and then I waited at least 30 seconds for the metal 'stat to cool down about one millicelcius, and then I started fitting it, impatient as I am when re-doing a job.
All bolted in, sealed in, it was time to start the process for the third time. Well, I was soaked, and it was dark, and fun as bolting slippy parts together by torch with contorted hands and aching arms is, I left it until the next day.

The next day, I started bleeding once I had some free time. This time it wasn't gurgling so much, but I was still pumping loads into the tank and started wondering where it was going. I spotted a tiny drip at the front and with much more contorting of head, managed to find the source - a tiny pinhole geyser located directly behind the water pump. Not from any of the pipes - looks like a gasket failure, or perhaps something else - either way, incredibly difficult to see, never mind access!
Well, I'm not taking the pump off if i can help it... so, the easier option, take the inlet manifold off. Should have just done that to begin with. Hindsight, eh?
Growing tired of this job! That is still to be done. Soon.


Long time ago, tyres were pictured.
Said tyres were fitted to MG rims.
Uqt5BPe.jpg


Said MG rims proceeded to slowly leak the air out and go flat.

Good job they hadn't been fitted. They did it at different rates, so only one went flat at the start over a weekend. By the time I'd taken it back to work, cracked the bead and realised we were out of bead sealer, ordered bead sealer, then applied bead sealer, and taken the tyre home, another one had gone flat.
9IExXll.jpg

And so the process carried on until every single one had been done! At least once done they all held fine. Just a side effect of the wheels having been repainted, nothing unusual here. Just a nuisance.

The last one done, it was brought home and it got to spend the night inside by the stove.
jeCGLLP.jpg


And now they are all fitted to the MG ZT. Which means... it is allowed out again! I said when I put it away that I wasn't going to drive it on mis-matched wheels (2 black, 2 silver) any longer, and the wheels needed refurbished. Well, now it's got repainted wheels (not perfect, but acceptable) and so... time to book an MOT!
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Following on...

The wheels went on to the MG just fine. I squeezed it out of the shed and took it in to work on the morning I'd booked the MOT, to wash it.
Forgot to wash it.
Took it to the MOT covered in dust and spiderwebs.
Failed MOT on one scatty brake pipe.
That's a success in my book.

had to stick some juice in on the way back and then it started running funny. It progressively got worse as I neared home, to the point where it sounds like I'm running off a couple of cylinders.
So, let's renege on that "success" statement.


So, I just moved on to something else.
I got exasperated waiting on various people to have some time to sort my bike fork seals out. Those who could do the whole job had no time or made excuses over and over, and those that could only do the seals, wanted me to take the forks out for them - the whole thing I was trying to avoid doing myself.
A buddy told me about Evolution Motor Works not too far away and that they did service work as well as custom builds. I phoned them and although they were booked up for several weeks, they gave me the number of another guy.
Called him on a Friday, dropped the bike on the Saturday.
UTjlT4D.jpg


point#1: I cracked the belly fairing when the plank I used to load it slipped slightly.
point#2: Bikes are way heavier than you think. I couldn't get it pushed up the last foot or so.
point#3: I wanted to find someone who would use the premium seals and Silkolene oil I'd bought for doing the job.
point#4: I also didn't have a chance to wash this, so it too was tastily covered in dust and crap.

I couldn't quite get it pushed all the way in. I figured the only way to get it in to the van was make it do the work, so I started it up. Feathering the throttle and clutch, I got it to drive up the plank, till it was nose in, then the back wheel started slipping. So I had to cut it off, pirouette around the front, holding the brake on, knocking it out of gear, balancing it on the plank then take position and pull it in from the front. Wow, I haven't had a workout like that for a while.

Then I spent the rest of the day looking for the seals and oil I'd bought previously. Absolutely no joy.

I can remember thinking about taking them home from work, after Ryan serviced it all that time ago. So the box would possibly have made it into something I used daily, but the box is definitely not at home. And this would have been a right while ago. Best guess right now, and not a great feeling, is that it may well have been inside the Range Rover. Remember how that one turned out?

In the end, this guy Gary had seals in stock, and I picked my bike up on the following Monday. Yes, a two-day turnaround on something I've been trying to get done for 18 months.

Picked it up with my Ducato van. Front spring on Ducato cracked. Can't drive that now.
MG was meant to temporarily take over daily service. Parked it at home, battery went flat.
Tried to use E39 auto that stays at home. Battery flat.
Tried to use Land Rover. Battery flat.
Back in the Berlingo.

Blah!
 

surprising_skoda

RMS Regular
OP
surprising_skoda
Messages
3,807
Location
Dungannon
Drives
Skoda/BMW/Austin
Hey! Yes, winning streak! It's happening!
OJ5N2Kh.jpg


The MG is now with test!
So it was running a bit funny, and although could be driven, it had no torque, no top end. So standard V6 then? Well, no, but the EML was only flashing when over 3k rpm and I tried to rev it, and only when on the move.
I headed in to work to fault find, with a pretty good idea what was wrong and a systematic approach taking form in my head. While I was planning that, I noticed the EML had come on all the time, and so a swift direction change over to Paul Conlan's to throw the diagnostic at it before it went out, as I was only a couple of miles away from him.
Paul and another guy that was there were sure it was a Subaru on it's way in, which isn't a bad sound but not the one I was aiming for! The EML agreed with me that it was a misfire, cylinder off. We, well, Paul - I stood and cracked jokes - pulled the lead off (now with a hole in it thanks to the spark jumping) and cleaned the oil out of the chamber, and pulled and cleaned the spark plug (which was good). Just to be sure, we laid it on the head and checked the spark was good. Everything cleaned, it was reassembled, error codes were cleared and my MG was a happy sounding machine again!
I gave it some beans on the rest of the way over to work, that Powerflow exhaust really giving it some meatiness, and then sorted the scabby brake pipe.
It was just flaky coating on the pipe, and after attacking it with a wire brush, it really didn't need changed. So I smeared a thin coat of transparent grease over it just to help protect it from the elements while driving to the MOT (will coat it later) and then set to washing the car so it looked like someone cared for it.
I have mentioned the lacquer peel on the roof of the MG before. Well, I now don't have that problem, because, well, the powerwasher removed all of the lacquer up top! So, well, that's just bumped that job up near the top of the list. Oh well, I wanted to paint it eventually anyway. Debating doing a lace effect candy red on the roof...
Changed the battery to a good one.
Took it to MOT... and passed.
Took it home.
Looked at it in the morning... both passenger side tyres soft, slowly deflating...

Thankfully I was better prepared last week.
Went back inside, took the Land Rover battery off charge and refitted that. Ran bleed procedure and coaxed the TD5 into life. Daily sorted.

Dreamt about getting back on a bike, now that's it's looking possible again.
Haven't found the mudguard yet. likely went missing forever, as it was at my friends house that was killed in February for him to paint, and it hasn't been seen since. Many things went missing around that time, including tools he'd borrowed from me, another friends motorbike, loads of painting equipment... anyhoo, I digress.
So no movement on the bike front until I get that and a couple of other little niggles done. I was looking over the bike, and washing it (no lacquer loss on this one!) and noticed for the first time, that the front fairing around the headlight was scratched, and under the blue it was yellow.
Given that I know (I was told) that this bike was repaired after a drop, it's not a surprise, and it was a bargain price, and low mileage, so I'm fine with it. But it does explain why the front end has mismatched fasteners for the fairings and screen, even a couple of missing ones.
So now I'm looking at it thinking should I replace them all, or not bother? Or maybe get all the pieces and make it into a Street Four, the bike that replaced the TT, which utilised the same engine with a slight downtune, and the same frame. I do prefer the street-fighter look to the road-racer. I looked up the cost of the fairings and cowls, and they're not too bad, but the £200 for the headlights (used!) made me think I'll stick with what I have for now.
I also got sidetracked while online and started looking at Ducati Monsters for sale... oh yes. Oh yes indeed.
And then I looked outside.
aUWDh6C.jpg

I don't need a Monster, I have this beauty waiting to scream at me at 14,000rpm once again.

Those little jobs will get done soon and I'll get an MOT on it this month or January.

Went for a spin with a mate in his Discovery, talked tractors and low-boxes, and he said he had just replaced the wheels as he was sick of running mismatched sets. Hadn't noticed, but he'd been running 2 16s and 2 18s. The other 2 18s have bald tyres and are lying in yet another mates shed.
So now I own a set of Land Rover 18x7.5j 5x120 wheels with two good and two done tyres... hmm, plans...
I would call them by their name, but if you ever wanted a completely head-frying thing to do, try to find out the names of LR wheels. It would appear that no-one there or in LR aftermarket supply gives one single toss about what a wheel is called, not even so much as a "type 1, type 2" etc. Very frustrating, just spent an hour trying to figure out what they're called, and gave up.

Anyway, better things are about to happen. I know this, because phonecalls. Important phonecalls. This thread is about to get, way, way better.
 
Top