Your fleet running reports

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Sundayjumper
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Sundayjumper »

JonMad wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:11 am Which one of that fleet is your daily banger that you don’t care where you park it etc?
Touareg I guess. Did you see the scratches down the side of it after my off-roading adventure ??
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Marv
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Marv »

Mito Man wrote: Sun Sep 15, 2019 8:51 pm Was looking around google maps last night and found an interesting looking road quite nearby - Klausenstrasse. So headed off this morning in search of it as a more scenic route to Lucerne which didn’t disappoint
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Got lucky with the traffic as there was hardly any bar the odd Harley going awkwardly slowly round the tighter bends - in fact you can see one in the picture if you squint. Harley’s are the most popular bikes around these mountain roads which is odd as everything I’ve read about them says they’re shit but they all jump out the way to let you through.

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Wheels and car colour doing a good job of hiding all the dirt. Took this picture at 2000 metres altitude according to my phone.
Great pics, Mitoboy 😎

You were lucky for the weather to be agreeable, too!
Oui, je suis un motard.
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JonMad
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by JonMad »

Sundayjumper wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 11:35 am
JonMad wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:11 am Which one of that fleet is your daily banger that you don’t care where you park it etc?
Touareg I guess. Did you see the scratches down the side of it after my off-roading adventure ??
I missed that.


In other news, Rally Car:
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Left over crest; tightens.
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Alex88
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Alex88 »

JLv3.0 wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 6:22 am
Matty wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 10:58 pm
Alex88 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 10:04 pm I bought a lovely little cottage back in June, which also meant I'd no longer be walking to work. As much as I'd love to be using the 650i every day, it's far too costly, especially with the round trip being 60 miles. So I acquired a 2.2 diesel Civic (FN shape) from a family friend not long after the house purchase. 1 owner, 90k, good nick, nice spec, loads of history and 55mpg. £1100. That'll do nicely. I'm actually quite fond of it! Goes well once the turbot gets going.

The 6 continues to be saved for weekends only. Still love it. Praying it doesn't go wrong. Funds have been quite severely depleted with the house buy, so we'll see how far my luck goes. I'm not holding my breath...
You can't beat a good banger. Having a car you don't give two shits about is a revelation for the crappy daily duties. The "I'm not parking there" and "don't eat that in here" go out the window as you smash it up kerb, into tiny spaces do tip runs without worrying about the upholstery.
All of this, with the added bonus that the "weekend" car feels even more special without familiarity taking the shine off it.
Absolutely. I’d started to ‘normalise’ the 6 before I’d started using the Civic every day, and wasn’t really appreciating it. So I’m indeed enjoying it feeling a bit special again.

Indeed, Matty. I’m loving shed life! Being free of the anxieties is brilliant. Almost worried I’m becoming a bit of a shed enthusiast…
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Alex88
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Alex88 »

Mito Man wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 11:11 pm
Alex88 wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 9:54 pm Nice pics, Mito. I've been meaning to do a euro road trip since I bought my 6. Would you mind posting some more info about your journey plan if you get a chance?
Sure, I only booked hotels in Zurich, Verona and Luxembourg.

First day I drove straight from Calais to Zurich only stopping for fuel and lunch on the motorway services. Arrived at Zurich for dinner and stayed 3 nights.
Spend a full day exploring around Zurich and another at Lucerne - plenty of lakes and nice roads between the 2. Klausen and Susten pass being the more notable ones. Zug was also a really nice little town.

Next day I drove to Verona via San Bernadino and Lugano. My first time in Lugano and it’s already one of my favourite places in Switzerland even though I only quickly stopped for lunch. It’s basically how an Italian town would look if it were pristine. Beautiful lake, close to the best roads (sadly didn’t have time to do the Gothard pass).
If you want to stay around this area you can drive east from Lugano to end up at Mennagio which is where lake Como really starts to get stunning (the southern bits are so so) then keep driving north along the lake to St Moritz. More great roads and another stunning town.

Anyway from Lugano it’s a pretty boring slog to Verona. Almost dead straight motorway for most of it with many tolls. I skipped Milan this time as I had been there a few times before and arrived at Verona for dinner. Then this morning went to do a lap of lake Garda. Peschierda, Sirmione and Desenzano are nice. The rest is not worth bothering with really, came back and had a good walk round Verona for the rest of the day :lol:

Tomorrow I’ll visit Modena and Maranello, day after maybe Padua. Not certain yet and I spend nights like this just looking at google maps! Think I’ll drive to Luxembourg via Austria (Innsbruck) then Germany just for the Autobahn. Only stopping in Luxembourg for the night to break up the long drive and because I’ve never been there before but I think I’ll then go have lunch in Brussels and drive back to Calais to get on the train home.

It’s all very chaotic and roughly planned because I really just wanted to spend a week on a beach in Portugal doing nothing but kept holding off buying flights due to the BA strike and then flight prices were way overpriced!
Thanks a lot. Some very useful info there. I’ll save that as I really do intend to go about a trip like this next year. Please do post some more pics if you get a chance. Also, how’s the Beema been so far?
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integrale_evo
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by integrale_evo »

Fitted a bluespark tuning box to the mighty mito. Took about 10 mins and half that was removing and detouring the wiring harness sitting a bit more neatly under the standard pipes and wires, and required no tools. My hands didn't even get dirty.

I've left it on the default setting and definitely seems a bit more peppy, and seems to have extended the useable powerband by another 500rpm or so instead of starting to feel wheezy at 5500 rpm.
Cheers, Harry
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16vCento
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by 16vCento »

integrale_evo wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2019 12:32 am Fitted a bluespark tuning box to the mighty mito. Took about 10 mins and half that was removing and detouring the wiring harness sitting a bit more neatly under the standard pipes and wires, and required no tools. My hands didn't even get dirty.

I've left it on the default setting and definitely seems a bit more peppy, and seems to have extended the useable powerband by another 500rpm or so instead of starting to feel wheezy at 5500 rpm.
One of my friends has an Abarth 500, he has one fitted to that and it seemed to make quite a difference, sometimes seems to bog down if you go WOT quickly though now?
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integrale_evo
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by integrale_evo »

I've not found that yet, but it does feel a bit more turboey if that makes sense, takes a fraction longer to get to full boost but has more of a hit when it gets there.

It seems to work well, it's given the normal mode a slight over boost feel similar to the extra grunt you get in dynamic, but without the stupidly short throttle mapping which seems to give you 90% throttle opening at 1/4 of the pedal travel.

I'll leave it as it is for now, there are two more higher performance settings you can chose by moving a pin jumper switch which I'm sure I'll have a play with at some point.
Cheers, Harry
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Mito Man
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Mito Man »

Well Italian Police are utter twats. I got pulled over exiting a car park for a spot check an hour ago, had left my driving license by mistake in the hotel safe but got my passport and V5 in the glovebox. I’m still pulled over as they’re convinced my car is stolen and uninsured even though I have pictures of it on my phone going back 10 years, my insurance documents on an email, and I’ve showed them the askmid website. They’ve been reading the fucking VIN number over and over on the phone. I mean at this point I could have fucking walked to the hotel room and back with the driving license but I don’t think it matters as they genuinely think it’s stolen. Got 3 of the time wasting cunts now.

Edit - So the three stooges fined me €60 and wasted 90 minutes. No wonder they’re driving a pair of 12 year old Pandas with that efficiency. And I also have to fill in some forms and post them back from the UK otherwise they’ll just impound the car on the border crossing next time :roll:
Last edited by Mito Man on Thu Sep 19, 2019 11:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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RobYob
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by RobYob »

So if I known what I know about my e39 last month I'd probably have saved myself £1k (and rising) in tyres, parts and labour and just cubed it bought something else.

To pass MOT last week it needed tyres (ok) rear brakes (ok) chassis welding (ohh ok) and rear springs (oh ffs)

This week it's started to not warm up, lose coolant and have both the occasional engine stumble and a (hopefully) one off catastrophic loss of power on the motorway. And a very strong 60mph shake.

So that's likely another £££ and a weekend or two rebuilding the cooling system and replacing ignition coils, then go hunting knackered suspension bushes.

Having thoroughly fallen out with the damned thing I'm looking at shed money Alfa GTs.......
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Sundayjumper
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Sundayjumper »

Rear springs are very common on older BMWs. I’ve had several.

The coolant loss is more worrying though, is it an obvious leak ? You don’t want to get into head gasket work.
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JLv3.0
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by JLv3.0 »

Sundayjumper wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2019 11:41 am Rear springs are very common on older BMWs. I’ve had several.
Yep my M5 had them as well - one on the right and one on the left.
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Simon
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Simon »

JLv3.0 wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2019 12:00 pm
Sundayjumper wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2019 11:41 am Rear springs are very common on older BMWs. I’ve had several.
Yep my M5 had them as well - one on the right and one on the left.
:D
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V8Granite
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by V8Granite »

The ML passed its MOT with no advisories which was nice. It needs a few little bits to tidy it up but it’s currently happily plodding along. I’ll give it a good polish and wax this month though as it is due one.

New battery on the TT has done it the world of good, I thought it always had a lazy starter as even when jumping from another car it always cranked a bit slow. New battery and it whizzes round and starts lovely, a nice bonus.

In true twat fashion the auxiliary battery in my Defender has given up the ghost so I’ll get another one for that, I’m tempted to get a normal cranking battery though instead of a leisure battery as the way the charging system works means the leisure battery takes an age to charge fully.

Removing the viscous engine fan on the 500e as I’m going for an all electric system now, might gain me 0.5hp :p.

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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by mr_jon »

The old Qashqai failed the MOT, as I expected tbf, yesterday. Pair of front wishbones and subframe bushes. I changed the wishbones 2 years ago but the cheapo ones from the china man obviously haven't lasted too well. Might try to get another 9 months or so out of it and move it on before cam belt time. We could do with something a bit bigger anyway, as the kids are growing up fast. Disco Sport/X-Trail/Kodiaq? Something of that ilk.
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Broccers
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Broccers »

Not having the dog in the boot at weekend made for immense fun having a spirited drive from Whitby to York - those that know that road will appreciate what a superb route it is especially having nothing in front and a gang on bikers trying to keep up. Car is a lot better on tight corners and that is about it :lol: :lol:

Its due to go back in March so thought I'd see how much it would be to extend another 12 months from then - 225 a month. Seems cheap compared to buying it at 23ish grand. Obviously will need service and tyres but even so at around 700 quid its not a lot in the grand scheme of things.
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Matty
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Matty »

MOT runs out on the Bora in 6 weeks time, and it's due a service. I'm thinking about flogging it on eBay soon - it's got a few issues, nothing major and it's been run as a daily driver for the past 10 year by my Dad then me.

I'll be suprised if it passed, TBH. It's failed the last 3. I was going to slap it on eBay as 99p starting auction with no reserve. Is it worth paying the £45 to get it MOT'd or would you just slap it on as is?
RobYob
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by RobYob »

Sundayjumper wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2019 11:41 am Rear springs are very common on older BMWs. I’ve had several.

The coolant loss is more worrying though, is it an obvious leak ? You don’t want to get into head gasket work.
I had ambitions of buying some lowered Eibachs for it as it had been increasingly nose up over the last three years. Very silly to spend anything on it really as the body work is looking more impromptu rat rod every week. If only it wasn't so damn nice to drive when it's working semi-properly.

Coolant loss has been ongoing to a greater or lesser degree. I've had the rad replaced twice the the 50,000miles I've had it, once when the leak got to needing a coolant top up once a week and once 11 months later when I played chicken with the temperature gauge for too long and the side tank blew out spectacularly (replaced under warranty :o :D ) Just like its appetite for oil the loss at the moment isn't fast enough to produce a trace with dye but it is bloody irritating.

New HG/head would write the car off as I've no garage or time or skill to replace it.
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Mito Man
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by Mito Man »

Well I’ll continue this road trip continuation of posts now that I have some free time.
Yesterday the weather wasn’t looking good with heavy rain forecast all day so I decided to postpone going to Modena by a day and spent the morning at one of the nicer less tourist heavy places at Garda again - Peschiera
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I found a huge supermarket on the way here and stopped off to buy a lot of Italian food to take back home.

Then off to Padua.
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Really nice place, great architecture, had lots of cafes and restaurants plus all the churches and cathedrals were free to enter which is rare for Italy and came in handy as there where heavy showers on and off throughout the day.

Which brings us into today. Modena, Maranello, maybe with some nice roads thrown in. Except it started off still raining. I barely got going before being pulled over which set me back 90 minutes and the autostrada was crawling. I arrived at the Montana restaurant too late and they wouldn’t serve me as it was close to their afternoon siesta. I drove around Maranello but it’s just an industrial area with Ferrari references thrown in. Like the odd prancing horse placed in a roundabout. Stopped off at the Ferrari Store / museum area but looking online it was just the cars that I had already seen every summer at Goodwood and I was too hungry to bother going in. Reviews of the factory tour said it was terrible so I never bothered booking that either.

Went a few miles south to see how the roads were but the surface was terrible. Did see quite a few brand new F8s driving past with just rear plates. I think they were just off the production line going on a road test - at least the crap roads should help identify any rattles! But I turned round having had enough and went to Modena which was another bust. The whole place was empty as it was siesta time, including restaurants. I found respite in a McDonald’s after having wasted half a day.

On the whole there’s really not much worth visiting in Modena, it’s not a city I would go out of my way to visit and it definitely didn’t feel as friendly. Lots of junctions had poor people knocking on car windows begging for money. I didn’t take a single picture here or in Maranello.

Wanting to make something of my last day in Italy I decided to go to Bologna. A proper bustling city. I stopped off at a cafe called Rosarosa for a drink, pretty good coffee but just before leaving I noticed something pretty cool, perched high above the wine shelves
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But yeah, it’s a great city worth visiting.

The only major place that I didn’t tick off North East Italy would be Venice. I think it’s too much of a tourist trap for me though and reckon it’s much easier to just fly there on a quick weekend break - didn’t fancy taking the car to the massive parking lot just outside of it.
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nuttinnew
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Re: Your fleet running reports

Post by nuttinnew »

Mito Man wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2019 10:42 am Well Italian Police are utter twats...the three stooges fined me €60 and wasted 90 minutes.

What was that for, not having your licence on you, or lunch?


A nice road trip on the whole though 8-)
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