Your fleet running reports

[Mito Man]

Bought a load of stuff for the Defender one of which was a full stainless steel nut and bolt package for the entire car. I don’t know if it’s a terrible idea due to dissimilar metals but I’m smearing everything in a crap load of anti seize.
Not much progress for 2 hours!

Few broken bolts so far. Think if I left it any longer it would have been quite a nightmare.

Naturally as I remove all the bits of trim I’m adding more insulation, painting everything where I can, replacing the trim clips so hopefully it will be more solid when done.

What year is yours? I’ve swapped about 80% out on my 2011 Defender and none broke but a few were pretty tired. I happened to have two supposedly complete bolt kits but still didn’t have the correct length bolts for the 2nd row door hinges!

2012. I bought a Natawakanagea kit or something like that and also finding some differences. Their ones have bigger heads, no flange nuts (which is annoying having to fiddle with additional washers) and spring washers which I’m not bothering with.
Currently waiting for the spare wheel carrier to dry so I can refit that and I’ll be done with the back end.

[Mito Man]

I have removed all the brown from my rear end
Before

After nutting


Only about another 100 left to do

[V8Granite]

I used Nickel plated bolts when I replaced anything. The original stuff was all fine and good quality apart from every screw for the indicators, lights etc. these are made from Weetabix.

Dave!

[Mito Man]

Finished it, didn’t realise but the kit came with a whole load of interior screws too but they seem fine.

For the passenger door mirror to show a full view the arm must be in one notch, as in my pictures. However the drivers one must be at almost 90 degrees to the door.
I have never noticed this until 30 minutes ago and now the asymmetry is bugging me
I think having the passenger one at 90 degrees too is ok as the top 1/4 of the mirror is only useful for looking at airplanes.

[nuttinnew]

now the asymmetry is bugging me

Don't look at (possibly older) GDM cars, they'll give you teh twitch.

[integrale_evo]

Head on shot of a merc w124

Tbh most wing mirrors are handed to some degree. Stick lhd m3 mirrors on a rhd e36 and you can’t see anything.

[Sundayjumper]

And a VW T4.

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[V8Granite]

I bought the extra tall mirrors as they are also wider, I bring them in an extra notch and get a fantastic view backwards and it’s narrower too.

https://www.johncraddockltd.co.uk/da40 ... -10-5.html

I got them from mud stuff but I can’t see them on there anymore.

Dave!

[Sundayjumper]

Steady progress on the Smart. All reassembled and back on the ground. It's not actually made much difference - we have new springs, top mounts & ball joints. It doesn't make an awful springy-grindy noise any more which is good but it doesn't feel any different otherwise. Weird. But the front does sit about 2" higher now.

IMG_1355.jpeg (180.22 KiB) Viewed 1349 times

The brakes are still very spongy. Teh internetz sez "OMG you got air in ABS and it can't be fixed it has to go to Mercedes for their STAR computer system to do special voodoo". So I got one of my code readers out (the Thinkdiag one) and found that can cycle the ABS system. I'll bleed it again during the week. Parents visiting stopped play today.

(Range Rover break disco in background for scale, they're the same diameter as the Smart wheels )

I also *might* have sorted the longstanding suspension error on the Cayenne. After literally years of not being able to figure it out, yesterday I gave up and bought a tube of stop leak from ECP and <touch wood> it's behaving now. I've driven it a bit and the wife took it on a shopping trip this morning too. All fine. My conclusion is that the problem was/is worn seals inside the front ARB and this stuff floofs them up enough to work again. I always regarded these fluids as snake oil.

[V8Granite]

Have you tried the bicycle trick of having the brake pedal
Pushed overnight ?

We could never bleed the brakes on our MTBs after we carried them upside down on a roof rack. Cable tying the lever back fixed it. It worked on my Go-Kart too.

Dave!

[nuttinnew]

V-Power diesel definitely gives more oomph; I put a few litres in and now the clutch slips.

It now has a tank of finest supermarket derv in it; the clutch slips less readily, and not as much when it does. I'd be of a mind to eke it out as long as possible but it's been booked in for a new one. That got me wondering if it's worth changing the gearbox for a longer geared one - 70mph is approx. 2750rpm, a change would bring that down to 24- or 2200 rpm - while in that area. The main negative is that most of the time 70mph seems an impossible dream.

[Beany]

M135i is big enough to take the box from a 55" telly, quite surprised by that.

Along with some other boxes I've not got around to getting shot of. I've got a nasty fucking fever and feeling kinda boaky at the moment so that's in the car to take to the tip when that clears up, hopefully by next week (which I have off).

I am very woolly in the head, have cancelled a gas safety inspection tomorrow (hopefully reschedule next week) and I'm feeling very woolly so fuck this noise, argh etc

[Matty]

All reassembled and back on the ground.

On the ground? Thought you'd converted it to an SUV Lets off road!

[Delphi]

Fitted an AliExpress unit to the Boxster the other day. As my car has Bose, it needs an optical amp adapter which came with the head unit. It was probably the easiest stereo installation I've ever done. Literally plug and play.

Wireless Android Auto makes it so much easier to live with. I start the car, the unit powers up, launches Android Auto and connects in about 20 seconds and I'm good to go. It sounds great too. For a smidge over £200 all in, it was a worthwhile upgrade.

[Mito Man]

It’s amazing how much better these cheap head units make the audio sound. Makes you wander wtf the OEMs are fitting inside their fancy badged units.

[Ascender]

@Delphi - That's brilliant. Makes such a difference being able to get Android Auto or CarPlay on these older cars. And £200?!? That's about 1/5 the price of the official Porsche option.

The M3's brakes are squealing at normal speeds and it's more annoying than I thought it would be. Its due its first service in a couple of thousand miles so I'll try and get those miles-in and get it serviced before we had up north.

[GG.]

I'm completely allergic to fitting non-standard stereos.... BUT... the sound in the 991 is so appalling, I'm considering it.

That one looks pretty neat.

[Mito Man]

I'm completely allergic to fitting non-standard stereos.... BUT... the sound in the 991 is so appalling, I'm considering it.

That one looks pretty neat.

There’s variations of this, if you want to keep it completely standard looking you can buy a box which has the amplifier and CarPlay module and just fit that behind your existing head unit. You long press a button on your wheel and it goes to the hidden CarPlay display just like changing the HDMI source on your tv.

[GG.]

I'm completely allergic to fitting non-standard stereos.... BUT... the sound in the 991 is so appalling, I'm considering it.

That one looks pretty neat.

There’s variations of this, if you want to keep it completely standard looking you can buy a box which has the amplifier and CarPlay module and just fit that behind your existing head unit. You long press a button on your wheel and it goes to the hidden CarPlay display just like changing the HDMI source on your tv.

I wonder if that will improve the sound sufficiently - I think the main problem is the EQ in the head unit is absolute garbage. The Bose I had in my previous Boxster was good so I don't think it is the amp or speakers that are the issue.

The other problem is that I think it is very hard to get an aftermarket unit to plug into the Bose system...

I would really like to go further down the route of a full install, rip all the Bose stuff out and have a good amp and focal speaker set up or suchlike. My other concern at the moment is that the car is still under warranty. Plus you never know where life leads... a 4.0 GT3 might be a nice upgrade at some point if the rear seats become unusable for the boy anyway...

[Delphi]

@Delphi - That's brilliant. Makes such a difference being able to get Android Auto or CarPlay on these older cars. And £200?!? That's about 1/5 the price of the official Porsche option.

The M3's brakes are squealing at normal speeds and it's more annoying than I thought it would be. Its due its first service in a couple of thousand miles so I'll try and get those miles-in and get it serviced before we had up north.

Porsche PCM3 is about £1500 (although if you haggle you can get it for £1300) , runs Android 6 (my unit runs Android 13) and the only difference I can see visually is mine doesn't have a Porsche badge on it. Although, I'm tempted to buy a badge off eBay and slap it on there to complete the look! I've kept the old stereo so if the next owner wants originality they can pop it back in.