Your fleet running reports

[Coaster1]

Top skills Gwaredd and Dan.

+1

Not driven a S2000, only a brief passenger ride in my friend’s car. I was surprised by how raw the car felt.

[integrale_evo]

I wanted an exhaust for the S2000 to release a bit of noise but all of the aftermarket ones cost a bloody fortune so I thought i'd have a go at making one. There's a great exhaust place near me that'll make silencers to any size you want so I ordered 3 from them and a bunch of bends and got fabricating.

It took me bloody ages but i'm chuffed with the result, I was especially proud of the Y piece I made

Exhaust prices do seem to have gone mental in the past few years, with people perfectly happy to pay £1500+ for a pretty back box for a mainstream turbocharged car.

Who did you use for the parts?

I’ve used 304stainlessexhaustparts.com a few times and been impressed with the quality for the price.

[McSwede]

M140i dropped of for 3rd service today. Hired a Focus or similar from Enterprise and shit out right royally by getting a Vauxhall Mokka X.

Awful thing! Touchscreen infotainment systems should be burned. Horrid to use on the move and makes you realise how good idrive is. It has a heated steering wheel but only appears to be heated at the 3.45 (or 9.15) position and nowhere else.

Hopefully get mine back tomorrow from BMW feeling fresh and having had its first wash in months.

The rears have for about 2.5mm left so I am waiting until some F1SS are in stock in in UK or mytyres so I can order another set.

[Explosive Newt]

Someone scraped the side of the XF as it was parked up in a side street. Broke off the faux plastic gill behind the wheelarch and I think mildly dented the arch itself. Sodding annoying. Debating whether it’s worth claiming on the insurance or just getting it fixed myself.

[tim]

I gave a pheasant a 70 mph headache in my M140i and now it needs a new front grille, which is bloody annoying. £60 from BMW but simple enough to change myself.

[mr_jon]

Could have been worse, I lost a DRL on the Zoe to a pheasant hit.

Not very exciting but a nice feelgood factor in replacing a seized front caliper on the Qashqai for a grand total of £14.99 delivered for a remanufactured unit. No more cooked brakes and hopefully my mpg might start to recover!

[mik]

I gave a pheasant a 70 mph headache in my M140i and now it needs a new front grille

I didn’t know pheasants had front grilles.....

[V8Granite]

So the 500e has been at Daves for a few weeks now and some progress is being made.

As is the way with old cars there was more work than planned but considering the way I’ve used it I’m really happy. It was never a garage queen and was used all year round so it was bound to get damaged in some way.

The studs that are used to secure the inner arch liners needed fixing. They have been removed, new metal put in on each inner arch for a very small patch on each side and that’s it

The wiper mechanism was removed, lubricated and checked. No wear to be found and the motor brushes also look pretty much brand new. This pleases me as it’s an early aluminium topped mechanism and these are pricey.

I wanted the under tray and inner arches secured better after my 160mph year ncident years ago and they are now all fixed together. Considering the over-engineering on many parts of the car this area is pretty poor. I still think it needs a 15/20mm splitter of some sort but I need to find the right profile.

Alarm wiring was quite sketchy, some bad connections and even 2 exposed wires. Dave has tidied all that up and made it safe.

No exciting pictures yet but it’s now time for the front suspension to be ripped out, refurbished and the lowering springs fitted.

Then suspension pipe work and all new rear suspension bar the struts which are relatively new and £500 each!!!

I’m excited and can’t wait to drive it again!!

Dave!

[Alex88]

GF's Beetle has suddenly started making a right awful racket when started from cold. Sounds like the exhaust has fallen off! Then, 20 seconds or so later, it completely disappears and all is well again.. anyone experienced this before?

A Google suggests it could be a secondary air injection pump. Will have do to a bit more digging. Luckily, the part is pretty cheap on eBay, etc.

[mik]

I was about to suggest exactly that. Stoopid system that only exists cos of emissions rules.... but provides zero environmental benefit

[Alex88]

How ridiculous. Fecking thing!

A bit more Googling suggests that it's a relatively common issue with the VAG. Some people delete it entirely, but I think I'll get a CEL if I do that

[McSwede]

Collected the M140i from service 3 at 62600 miles for a very reasonable £230. They'd knocked £100 off for me as I'd had to hire a car and didn't charge for investigation work.

Sandals BMW in Wakefield with superb service as always. Well worth going out of my way to get there.

[tim]

What did you pay for the 2nd service out of interest? Cooper told me it would be around £750

[mik]

You do some serious mileage McSwede!

[integrale_evo]

Bloody pheasants are everywhere at the moment. Doesn’t help that there’s been a lockdown for the last month which is prime shooting season so they’re not being thinned out as rapidly either.

[McSwede]

What did you pay for the 2nd service out of interest? Cooper told me it would be around £750

I'll try find it today but I'm sure it wasn't that much.

[Jobbo]

You do some serious mileage McSwede!

Yeah, is it 2 years old yet?

Up to just over 21k miles in exactly 8 months in my Merc.

[DeskJockey]

Switching the Galaxy to winters later today. Looking at the summer tyres the fronts are very, very nearly on the wear markers. Rears have both been replaced in the last six or so months, so they're fine (one after the accident, one because of a nail).

Michelin Primacy 4s fitted in Feb 19 and they've not lasted two years/20k miles. For a non-performance tyre, that's not very impressive I think.

Edit: they've barely done 15k. Even less impressed.

[McSwede]

You do some serious mileage McSwede!

Yes, but this year has reigned it back in a bit. Lease is 3yrs and 82500 miles and I'd been on to them in March for an extension as I was going to batter though it but now it's less of an issue. Only done 20k in the last 12mths

Lease is up in September so a hybrid of some sort will be on the horizon as I can no longer order whatever I want (within budget).

[McSwede]

What did you pay for the 2nd service out of interest? Cooper told me it would be around £750

£563 was quite reasonable for service 2. This has been much cheaper to maintain than the C220d before it. Merc are robbing MF's.