Your fleet running reports

[JonMad]

First drive of the Fabia for a couple of months. It last turned a wheel at Kemble Targa. Did an autosolo at Bordon with Farnborough District Motor Club (my and @Sundayjumper’s home club). 3rd in class, 15th out of 44 overall. Happy with that.

[John]

Maybe it’s just East Anglia but I really don’t understand car companies at the minute.

3 alloy wheel places cannot deal with any corrosion, says that it will never be flat and I say well fill any corrosion as I had done years ago on some MI16 rims. Can’t be done apparently and they must be powder coated, which I don’t want.

Respray costs have gone through the roof, from 12k to 19k and that’s not even back to bare metal and doesn’t include any hardware, seals etc.

One place showed me a job done on a Megane cup, it looked awful, different levels of orange peel and was “around the 6k mark for that kind of finish” at which point I said ok and made my excuses to leave.

At Baston car show last weekend I saw a few cars which had definitely had paint and by and large they all looked bad, either no depth to the colour or just an uneven finish.

I think I’m changing tack with the car now, I’ll do the interior, make some small modifications and then spend the money driving it and seeing places.

Dave!

My friend had his mk1 Escort painted by a company who paint mainly competition cars. The finish is the best I've seen on any car and that was around 7k although he did send them the bare rolling shell to keep costs down. I think they are in Northamptonshire somewhere, I'll ask him for the details.

Photos really don't do it justice.

Wasn’t normandales was it?

That’s the one.

[integrale_evo]

I like the throwing stars, I don't like the turbines. I also don't like the front camber but I suspect it's a necessity for the wheels & the ride height ?

The wheel is turned a bit in that pic, camber is actually pretty modest, just a little to help both clearance and give a nice sharp front end.

It’s pretty tough trying to get something which looks low, sits nicely, has tight clearance yet still works for normal everyday use and hard driving.

Most of the really low ones have tiny tyres, daft geometry and remove all the guards and under trays. none of which I want on something I want to be able to use all year round.

One of my pet peeves on modified e36s is when you can see the ground through the front bumper opening because all the radiator ducting has been ripped out



Obviously there are compromises, certain speed bumps and car parks are best avoided, but I’m happy with how it works for me.

[Sundayjumper]

My wife's MINI started spluttering and going into limp mode yesterday, the fault codes all relate to combustion & ignition. Nothing specific to coil packs but they're my #1 suspect.

Definitely coil pack on cylinder 2.

Two of the error codes said cylinder #2, although not coil pack. I pulled all four for a visual inspection - dead easy on this, you don't even need any tools - and all looked OK. I switched 2 & 3 around and started the engine again. Error code now on cylinder #3.

ECP have them in stock, I'll pick one up tomorrow.

[Delphi]

Porsche has been booked in for a new tank strainer, fuel pump and filter. Hopefully this should fix the occasional non-start.

Bought some new interior goodies, namely a new luggage cover, new spare wheel cover, some new sound deadening for the driver and passenger footwell and some new sound deadening for the boot floor. It's something that was fitted as standard to post 90 cars (not my 87) and should make things a bit quieter.

[Nic]

Maybe it’s just East Anglia but I really don’t understand car companies at the minute.

3 alloy wheel places cannot deal with any corrosion, says that it will never be flat and I say well fill any corrosion as I had done years ago on some MI16 rims. Can’t be done apparently and they must be powder coated, which I don’t want.

Respray costs have gone through the roof, from 12k to 19k and that’s not even back to bare metal and doesn’t include any hardware, seals etc.

One place showed me a job done on a Megane cup, it looked awful, different levels of orange peel and was “around the 6k mark for that kind of finish” at which point I said ok and made my excuses to leave.

At Baston car show last weekend I saw a few cars which had definitely had paint and by and large they all looked bad, either no depth to the colour or just an uneven finish.

I think I’m changing tack with the car now, I’ll do the interior, make some small modifications and then spend the money driving it and seeing places.

Dave!

Must be a local thing to you, I had my badly corroded carat wheels refurbed no problem.

Paint is fortunes though, I haven’t got a final price for the actual paint on my 124 as I’ve told them to just get it done and I’m estimating it’s in the region of 6-7k. Although it’s been fully stripped and rebuilt underneath and the body is fairly straight it’s been around 4 days of prep, in to primer and then left to cure will be half a day and then paint another half day before all the plastics in another half day. Refitting estimated at least a full day before polishing.

[Sundayjumper]

Coil pack replaced, car fixed, wife happy

I clearly didn’t do a very good visual inspection though, as I went to chuck the old one in the bin I noticed this:

4D27BF08-4A22-41E1-A59F-E7D2889FFBDC.jpeg (33.68 KiB) Viewed 793 times

[drcarlos]

Coil pack replaced, car fixed, wife happy

I clearly didn’t do a very good visual inspection though, as I went to chuck the old one in the bin I noticed this:


4D27BF08-4A22-41E1-A59F-E7D2889FFBDC.jpeg

I still maintain coil on plug is a retrograde step from a separate coil pack with ECU triggering, they seem to fail with amazing regularity.

[integrale_evo]

At least when the old system started playing up it was usually just a cheap set of leads.

Then again, plugs leads cap and arm every 10,000 miles probably works out more expensive in the long run than an occasional plug change and a coil pack or two every 100k miles

[Jobbo]

Got my Audi VED renewal through today. The direct debit is £45.50 a month until next May (which is the 5th anniversary of when it was sold ex-demo) when it goes down to £14.45. I didn't realise they reduced the direct debit half way through the year when you got to the end of the increased VED during the first 5 years.

[Broccers]

Finally got my driveshaft sorted.

Long story short is I supplied the part Ive been billed twice for taking off and refitting twice as the part still leaked.
I've requested the cost back from the supplier but they aren't stumping up the whole amount which is a bit rude.
We will see what happens. Annoying as should have been relatively simple.

[Rich B]

Well the wife decided she'd try going into the driveway forward today (she usually reverses in, I give her the space that's straight from the road, I take the space that needs to be manoeuvred into).

I widened the driveway opening by 600mm a few years back as it used to be quite tight and it was always a bit of a faff to make sure you could get in.

Anyway - this is how it went:

[IanF]

That’s impressive!… how did she end up making it your fault??

[jamcg]

That’s impressive!… how did she end up making it your fault??

or at least not hers

[Broccers]

At least its just the door #positivevibes

[Broccers]

Clubman booked in for H&R lowering springs on Friday. They're 25mm drop so shouldnt be too low / harsh.

[Rich B]

That’s impressive!… how did she end up making it your fault??

there's the voice of experience!

I managed to remain calm and supportive on the phone - no point in ending up with exactly that!

I've found and bought a second hand estoril blue rear door from eBay and I'll be swapping that over, then hopefully we can get the arch and skirt repaired by a cheap guy I've used before. To be fair, most of the car has been battered at some point or other by her, so any repair will be in keeping....

[integrale_evo]

That’s impressive!… how did she end up making it your fault??

Of course it’s his fault, he only widened it 600mm not the 700mm required

[KevH18]

The Focus seemed to shit itself in the heat yesterday and had thrown up error messages for the ABS, traction control lights, then saying TPMS malfunction and Hill Start Assist not available. Checked the tyres and they were all fine. Still on today so been on Forscan to clear the messages and hope they don't come back.
They didn't return when I started the car and left it running for a couple of minutes so hopefully it was just the heat doing weird stuff.

It's also going to be going soon as my wife has a new job in Newcastle and it'll be easier to get the bus/walk then Metro than drive.

Kona EV is with us for three years as a lease so no choice of which one will go. Now done nearly 6k miles since 9th Feb. So that's nearly all of this years' allowance used up in five months. Good job we're putting our expenses aside!

[Simon]

The Yeti has picked up a scrape on the trailing edge of the nearside rear wheel-arch. It's right down to the primer, but not the metal, strangely. It's like someone's sanded it!

Anyway, needless to say the Mrs has no idea how it happened and has no memory of anything.

Not to worry - she's done well for nearly 3 years of driving so far if that's the only damage to show for it.