Your fleet running reports

[DeskJockey]

Galaxy now fitted with a towbar. Went for a fully detachable one. It certainty is sturdy!

I hadn't realised that it also doubles as the rear impact bar, meaning I've now got the old one spare.

Now to buy a bike rack. It seems to be down to either Thule or Witter. The latter is cheaper and has a four bike carrier (Thule one needs an additional bit which takes the cost to nearly four figures for the rack alone). Anyone have experience with Witter racks?

While the rear bumper was off I could see the amount of crud that had accumulated behind it. Felt like I should clean it, but didn't want to get in the way of the fitter.

Have a look at the Halfords one, really pleased with mine and takes 4 bikes very well. Really in-impressed with Thule for the price. I’ve not looked at Witter but most of their stuff appears to be good quality.

Dave!

Thanks!

[Jobbo]

Pirelli Scorpion Zeros on 20" alloys fitted to the Macan - the Porsche dealership sorted out my TPMS issue this morning.

They're pretty alloys; I still think they look nicest in single colour satin platinum but that's an option for a future refurb anyway. They look small despite being 20"s and the rears being 295 section (very necessary on a 4-cylinder SUV).

Just realised that I might have fitted them, checked pressures and torqued them up (160Nm - higher than any of my other cars have been) but I haven't checked whether the TPMS is throwing up errors



Edit: went out for a quick spin round the lanes, found the TPMS screen in the dash display in which it is very obvious how to change the selected wheel size and tyre type on the car and it picked up the wheels and read the pressures within about half a mile.

[scotta]

Discs and pads on the mini yesterday...3 wheels done OSR calliper completely seized and wouldnt wind back. £70 for a replacement but couldnt get one on a sunday so had to put the old disc & pads back on. Did manage to change one of the wheel arch liners however. Planned to do brake fluid But decided that was pointless since i now need to change a calliper. Will do the fluid at the same time.

New calliper bought and fitted so it’s now not got one fucked disc and pads on the metal! Fluid changed also and all the brake service intervals reset.

[Mito Man]

Defender MOT

[Jobbo]

I hear they have a big LGBTQ+ following these days. Nice picture.

[Delphi]

As part of the interior light fix, I realised that the door guard lights (red lights in the door jamb that come on when the door is open) weren't working. They're connected in series to the door interior lights so I thought I'd pop them out and have a look. They both disintegrated and I was left with this



Luckily, they were £19 plus VAT from Porsche, so they're on order and should be here by the weekend. Bought some red LED bulbs for them, so the whole of the interior lighting load should now be less than 5w LED rather than the 45w with incandescent bulbs. While the door cards are off I'll also double-check all the wiring and make sure it's all good.

[Mito Man]

Another one

[V8Granite]

Audi parts are absolutely hopeless.

I wanted the mk1 TT stretch bolts for the engine mounts. 4 pulley bolts (would cost more in fuel to get them elsewhere) and a y piece pipe from the cooling system.

Cooling system pictures didn’t show the part, the guy there said that’s the only cooling system drawing they had, which showed various parts not fitted but no connectors.

The stretch bolts were the normal price, yet now they say I need to minimum order 10, so I’d have 16 spare.

Ho hum, another useless dealership.

Bought the parts online for more money than Audi if they let me buy the amounts you need.

Dave!

[Mito Man]

Also dropped the Model 3 in for its MOT as it's with me currently. Tester said it's a decent car, 90,000 miles, no play anywhere, brakes still like new, no surface rust underneath either. Seemed surprised.

[Beany]

Drivers door on BMW now not opening.

I'm at the stage of just setting fire to this piece of shit.

[Matty]

Drivers door on BMW now not opening.

I'm at the stage of just setting fire to this piece of shit.

Unreliable Germans. You need something Italian. Something Alfa.

[Rich B]

Drivers door on BMW now not opening.

I'm at the stage of just setting fire to this piece of shit.

this is the stage where cars cross that line between every day useable and collectors cars. Annoyingly the line is about 10 years wide.

The ones that make it through this "growing ever more expensive to fix as parts become more sparse and problems become more frequent" stage, steadily grow in value as they become ever rarer.

Sadly, unless you enjoy constant DIY tweaking (Harry and SJ), this stage is virtually impossible to get through, so you sell up whilst it's still worth something.-

[Beany]

Yeah, that's the idea.

So I'll need to wait for the cold weather to pass, then see what the fuck is the doors problem. Because obviously it's not going to be worthwhile now, unless you like frostbite.

(no, I didn't yank the door handle - I gave it a gentle tug, and it was loose already after I had poured tap water over it to melt the ice off)

[Mito Man]

Can’t even set fire to it the way insurance prices are currently

[V8Granite]

Older cars just need regular use and preventative maintenance. Sitting for weeks on end especially in winter is awful. Especially as cars aren’t waterproof, so whatever the humidity outside, that’s what it will be inside the car.

What is a pain with older cars is when the manufacturer stops supporting it and you need to them find quality parts. For example Lemforder used to be good, now they are hit and Miss. at least with genuine they always had a certain quality level.

Dave!

[Rich B]

Older cars just need regular use and preventative maintenance.

"just" - says the man most of the way through a massively expensive overhaul of an older car!

[Beany]

And who has off street parking and garage (I presume) etc - running an older car on the street is something I used to kinda enjoy but I just don't have the fucking patience for it now, particularly as the street I'm on is a bit of a busy one.

Ah well, I'll check it tonight/tomorrow/whenever it stops being icy and I'll see if wants to play ball.

[V8Granite]

Older cars just need regular use and preventative maintenance.

"just" - says the man most of the way through a massively expensive overhaul of an older car!

It never needed an overhaul, I just wanted a new 500e

Dave!

[Beany]

Door opened normally tonight on the car. Thank fuck.

*puts the swan vestas of justice and jerrycan of plausibly deniability super unleaded back in the cellar*

[integrale_evo]

When it warms up a bit just take the doorcard off and peel back the membrane and spray the inside of the latch mechanism with some white grease.