Your fleet running reports

[Sundayjumper]

Did you check the price of the brake line from BMW ? When I had my E38 (quite a long time ago now, tbf) I did the long front-rear lines and they were surprisingly cheap. They still had to be bent to shape but they were cheap enough it wasn't worth messing about making them, plus they came with "correct" unions that match the originals perfectly.

[Beany]

Rear light cluster did the TADTS thing of corroding it's earth pin, so have spent lunchtime running a bodge wire with a bodged clip to a free part of the earth frame in the light fixture - now much happier.

Hopefully that'll last till next weekend, there is a proper OEM repair kit for these the correct size of crimpy thing in it, rather than the one I molded to shape that is being held on with a big gob of solder

[nuttinnew]

Very nicely done

[JonMad]

Washer system hasn't miraculously fixed itself on the Fabia. I checked the fuse and that looks fine. It doesn't appear to be making a motor noise so it's not that the hoses have come undone and it's squirting water inside the engine bay. The connectors inside the wheel arch - to the pump - all look as attached as they always have been. That area did get covered in mud during the last event, so maybe something in there has stopped working.

[integrale_evo]

Did you check the price of the brake line from BMW ? When I had my E38 (quite a long time ago now, tbf) I did the long front-rear lines and they were surprisingly cheap. They still had to be bent to shape but they were cheap enough it wasn't worth messing about making them, plus they came with "correct" unions that match the originals perfectly.

Realoem shows it at $9 which going by recent experience means it’s probably £20 here

I already had a fresh reel of pipe, a bag of stainless unions and a decent flare tool which is easy to use and works brilliantly. Quicker for me to make one than drive to bmw and back.

I actually used the measurement from realoem to pre-make it. Only to find it was too long once I started bending. I guess their measurements are from the pipe sides of the unions not flare to flare.

Some of the other pipes have m12 unions which I don’t have and have never used so would probably buy those ones from bmw.

[V8Granite]

It’s Kunifer pipe on the Merc and although you can buy it from them, they bend it in half for transport

Dave!

[integrale_evo]

I’m not sure what bmw actually supply. Obviously the factory lines are steel. One of the reasons for diying them was I knew I could bend kunifer easily at home.

[tim]

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[tim]

I got the V5 for the Mondeo yesterday, I'm only the 4th owner with my mate having owned it the 5 years before me. This ties in quite nicely with the service history having been at the same Ford dealer in Essex from new all the way to 130k, then a random other Ford dealer, then a local garage since my mate owned it.

Looking back through the receipts it has had annual oil/filter changes but no spark plugs for 30k miles. So I thought I'd chuck in a new set as a starter for 10. They're NGK Iridium, £56 for a set from local motor factors.

These are what I took out, which look fairly decent to me



I got it done just as the light was going last night, started it up and.... only running on 4. FFS! OBDII reader showed Cyl 1 was not firing, but I was out of light. So up at 6 this morning, covers off and coil pack out. Nothing obvious amiss with it, but I suspect it just wasn't fully seated, as it's running fine now I've put it all back together.

I'm not sure what to do about the cam belt. I've no paperwork to say it was done at 110k on schedule, but given the solid service history well past that from the same main dealer, I'm going to assume it probably was. At 172k now I suppose technically it's still only half-way to the next one.

I mean it looks ok, but who knows with these things?



Just for lols I called the local Ford dealer and got a price for Cambelt (which also includes water pump), Aux belts and valve check/adjustments. £974.35 sir. Um, no thanks. I'll ask the garage that looks after the Jag for a quote and then decide whether to get it done or sit it out a bit longer.

[Rich B]

Surely with a £1400 car, the bangernomics approach kicks in. you do nothing else until it breaks, then then you do the math if it'll cost more to fix or buy another.

[mik]

Plugs look OK, and if it was serviced at the Ford stealership to 130K then I'd also be assuming the belt was done if it was due at 110K. Worth a call to the dealership to see if they have a record for peace of mind?

[integrale_evo]

Surely with a £1400 car, the bangernomics approach kicks in. you do nothing else until it breaks, then then you do the math if it'll cost more to fix or buy another.

No, it’s at the point where you have a go yourself for £100 because it’s not worth spending £600 at a garage but you don’t want it to go and end up stranded.

Tbh, as long as it looks ok and none of the tensioners or pulleys are making odd noises I’d probably leave it for a while.

[Rich B]

Surely with a £1400 car, the bangernomics approach kicks in. you do nothing else until it breaks, then then you do the math if it'll cost more to fix or buy another.

No, it’s at the point where you have a go yourself for £100 because it’s not worth spending £600 at a garage but you don’t want it to go and end up stranded.

Tims not doing that either though - hes had one quote at £900 and now he's getting other quotes for a garage to do it.

[Jobbo]

While Harry and SJ might have a go at a cambelt change themselves, I think I'd probably take the risk of continuing to use one which isn't obviously falling apart over replacing it myself and it failing due to me putting the idler pulley on backwards or something.

[Beany]

While Harry and SJ might have a go at a cambelt change themselves, I think I'd probably take the risk of continuing to use one which isn't obviously falling apart over replacing it myself and it failing due to me putting the idler pulley on backwards or something.

Same, I'm brave but I know my limits

[integrale_evo]

Finally another piece of the 90s nostalgia fest compact.

I bought a stereo late last year which never arrived, got my money back and started searching again. I love alpine units, they were always the ones to have growing up. I blame all the adverts with Lamborghinis and leggy blondes, plus seemingly a default choice in 90s max power feature cars.

What I’ve ended up with isn’t quite what I originally wanted - that was the proper top end, no amp, optical output version.

What I did get is a more easily useable unit, if you’d driven your brand new bmw to a local car stereo specialist and asked for the best alpine unit they could plug in with an adaptor, this is it.

A 1998 CDA-7842r
Boxed, all accessories, bags, instruction booklets etc. if it wasn’t for a couple of bent fingers on the fitting cage I’d have said it had never been used.



I know it’s not pretty, it doesn’t blend in or pretend to look factory, but it’s just at the turning point of headunit design. I’m pretty sure it’s their first with white ccfl illumination for the lcd, but there’s also no chrome or bling or blue lights.

Very soon after this everything went silver and weird swoopy styling ( yes I’m guilty of buying some of those units in the past too )

Crap photo I know


I’m really happy with it, it feels so solid and well made compared to newer units. The buttons have an oem like firmness and solidity. Nothing like the loose rattly buttons on pretty much everything else in my collection.

I like how straightforward and no frills it is, although the menu system and hidden functions are pretty unintuitive so I’ve actually had to look at the instruction manual to turn the subwoofer pre out on ( press and hold the eject button for three seconds obviously…)

The sound quality is yet another notch above the previous ‘decent’ alpine, which itself was a huge jump over the Blaupunkt.

I still want to wire up and fit one of my small genesis amps for the front components and adjust the sub box so it better fits the boot to take up less space, but that can wait.

[Jobbo]

I know that’s intentionally very 1990s but I’d far rather have a slightly older Alpine like a 7909. Probably because that’s what was advertised with a Countach in the 80s.

[integrale_evo]

A decent 7909 is £600+ these days

7939 is the one I remember nearly everything cool had in the mid 90s

[Jobbo]

I googled them and found there’s a 7909 owners’ club. FFS

Those 6 light up buttons are iconic though.

[tim]

Plugs look OK, and if it was serviced at the Ford stealership to 130K then I'd also be assuming the belt was done if it was due at 110K. Worth a call to the dealership to see if they have a record for peace of mind?

Better still, I could always read through the pile of invoices properly

Cambelt & Waterpump done in 2017 at 125k, so that won't need doing again in my ownership for sure. Aux belts also done in 2019 so that's another one off the list.

It's on Falken tyres which were all replaced at different times over the last 3 years, so while not super urgent I'd quite like to bin those off for a new set of Toyo Proxes, which have been superb on the Jag.