Your fleet running reports

[KevH18]

Bought a second car to go with the Skoda Enyaq - 2008 Ford C-Max 1.8 petrol Zetec. 55k miles with about 5k done in the last 4 years. It's basically going to be something we need in emergencies and throw loads of garden clippings in for the tip.

9 months MOT on it but needs a wheel bearing doing on it and one of the tyres is dated 2007 others are 2015. On the lockout for some alloys with decent tyres included. Going to cost £60 just to get four wheels balanced for just tyres so anything for £100 would be decent value.

Cost £1450 and it's red. No one needs to see any pictures.

[Rich B]

i took it out for a spin, there’s a elongated peanut shaped roundabout just down the road from me (between ascot and windsor, just outside the great park) which reminds me an awful lot of the Andy Walsh day handling track! it suits the cars strengths so well, I did 4 laps today!



Then it performed some van duties, picking up 4 grow bags from tesco.





it’s a great little thing!

[Beany]

I think the Z4 left a dirty protest when I parked it up earlier, but is a BMW without an oil leak really a BMW?

I'll do the taste test tomorrow, suspect a sump gasket - not rare on these, really. Especially when they've got their first hot supper in a while.

I'm thinking it might also want all the front end idlers and tensioners done, so methinks a half-day and maybe a few hundred quid in bits with my local indy will turn it into a 'fluids and filters' car for the next few years.

[Gavin]

The Ka - skooshers don't work. I spent a few hours stripping as much of it to check for blackages to no avail. there is defintely a seal that sits betwixt pump and resevoir, but that had perished. It is going in to get teh garage to sort it on Monday as I could not get the inner arch off, the screws had been humped in the past and well rusted.

The Mini - was assessed by the local body shop yesterday, will find out when it goes in to have the dent pulled and the panel painted soon.

The Audi - It is getting very similar economy to my old E350CDI wagon, which is pleasing. That is when I am just going with the flow. I need to read the handbook to see what the different modes do, I know dynamic holds gears longer, but not sure if it sharpens up throttle rtespnses etc. Car doesn't seem to have all that many options, but TBH, I am absolutely loving it, Grand Tourer with sufficient Power and a nice woffle on start up, it is not the sports car(ish) the TTS was, but that is fine, the Mini fills go kart duties if required.

[Sundayjumper]

A couple of small jobs on The Disco today.

I finally got hold of a “proper” code reader for it, a Gap IIDTool, not cheap even second hand, but they are transferable and have proper support so they hold their value extremely well. The car’s been behaving very well since doing the throttle body - I didn’t need it for fault reading this time but rather calibration as ever since I changed the rear wishbones last year the rear has sat about 20mm too high. Weird, as the wishbones were a straight swap and shouldn’t have affected it. Anyway, it’s now sitting level.

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After that, front wheel bearings. More of a hunch / general refresh than really needing them. Offside proved to be fine but nearside was just a touch grumbly and looked like the grease has leaked out so not a waste of time. Pretty easy job apart from needing a 6’ bit of scaffold tube on my breaker bar to undo the hub nuts Original torque spec for these was 350Nm (that’s quite a lot) but reduced to 230Nm subsequently as it was killing the bearings too quickly.

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[integrale_evo]

X5 has been leaking coolant for a while, couldn’t find any leaks anywhere. Recently started occasionally leaving a puddle after parking up.

Bought some UV dye and a uv torch off Amazon. Took the fan pack off, took the car for a run to get it nice and warm and found this.



Connections all dry, water pump & coolant transfer pipe weep hole dry, just leaking out of the radiator core.

Seems hard to find anything other than an NRF radiator. As that one hasn’t even been in 18 months there’s no way I’d trust another.

Decided to buy a Nissens one, which was on back order so took a couple of weeks to arrive. Finally I could take the leaky one out.

Now I know radiators can bow at the bottom with age, but I’ve never seen one bow up at the top. Looks like it’s trying to make itself circular. That’s not camera distortion!


Not even made 2 years ago yet, never mind fitted. Definitely no damage, the radiator is completely covered from the front by all the other coolers.



While it was out I had much better access to the AC clutch. Finally got the coil off, only to find the coil isn’t the problem. Its power wire had lost all of its insulation so would have been shorting on the casing whenever ac tried to engage.

Repaired that, fitted the new coil I had anyway, fitted the new radiator, refilled the system, took it for a test drive.

No leaks, no coolant smell, nice cold, properly working AC.

Happy.

Also helped a neighbour on one side change his rear disks/pads on his fabia, and fit a new thermostat for the neighbour on the other side on his Vauxhall mokka. He’s got the old one off but couldn’t get the very awkward to get at bolts back in. My skinny nimble fingers to the rescue

[Alex88]

I want to get the Ditchfinder Specials off the Mustang this weekend.

To be fair, I've not had a problem with them. It grips and goes, but the idea of budgets on a Mustang, solid rear axle, with tired suspension (although that's getting rectified next month) just makes me uneasy when I'm out for a fun drive. I feel like I'm living life a bit too dangerously.

When surfing the web, in size 285/30/20, I can get each rear for

- Michelin PS 4S: £273
- Continental Sport Contact 7: £235
- Yokohama Advan Sport: £170
- Vredestein Ultrac Pro: £195
- Goodyear Eagle F1: £250

Various others that I'm not overly interested in.

Michelin's still the best, isn't it?

A previous concern about Continental was them wearing out too quick.. but the car only does about 2000 miles per year, so not bothered by that.

Cheers

[mik]

I'd be happy with PS4S, Conti7 or the Eagle F1's. Although if you get PS4S we can be rear-tyre-fwends.

Check that whatever you choose is available in your front size too so you can get a matching set on at some point in the future.

Camskill beats some of your prices and their service is great, but you need to sort fitting yourself.

[Alex88]

Thanks Mik. I hadn't tried Camskill yet.

Good point. I planned on getting the rears done this weekend and the fronts next month after payday. Will check the front sizes too.

[Jobbo]

I'd say the same three as Mik; I have Contis (6 not 7) on my Audi and they're really good, and Goodyear F1s on my MX5 and they're even better. But that might be down to the weight of the car. I'd probably go for Goodyears on the basis they're cheaper than the Michelins and I'm uncertain if the Contis are more for motorway use (as I have mostly used mine).

[integrale_evo]

Impressed with F1s on our merc tbh. The ps4 ( not S ) it had on previously seemed to wear a lot quicker than expected so made the switch and have been happy with them so far.

[Mito Man]

I think some clarification may be needed on the Goodyear Eagle F1 - that’s an all encompassing name for their tyre line and it goes from regular road tyres, to sports tyres to full on track tyres.

[Alex88]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like there's not much in it when it comes to the premium brands; just read some reviews which confirms they Conti/Michelin are very evenly matched.

Regardless, any of them is better than what I've got, and I'll never be pushing the car hard enough to notice the differences.

Might do a bit more digging and see if I can get any of the top 3 a bit cheaper delivered, then get them whacked on this weekend. Will feel a bit better then!

Mito, looks like it's the Eagle F1 Supersport. Hopefully not the Michelin equivalent that didn't like colder weather.

[Jobbo]

Mito, looks like it's the Eagle F1 Supersport. Hopefully not the Michelin equivalent that didn't like colder weather.

Mito made a good point - my recent positive experience is of the Assymetric 6. I think the Supersport is more hard core.

[Mito Man]

Tyre reviews is a good website to have a quick glance at all the tyre tests in one place. May help make your mind up.
https://www.tyrereviews.com/Tyre/GoodYe ... rSport.htm

[Alex88]

Cheers

[Alex88]

Another thing I need to sort.

Car was MOT'd on Saturday (passed), but the tester said it only just met emissions and I should get it looked into. Apparently it could be running a bit rich, or something.

It does have an intermittent EML, which didn't come in during the test and isn't on now.. I've put that down to the aftermarket cold air intake and axle-back exhaust.

Hopefully not a huge headache to fix before the next test. But I suppose it could be anything from a cheap to expensive fix. The EML is for engine control module/power control module.

I'll ask Modurstang to take a look when it's in next month.

[Beany]

Forscan might be worth a look - get a suitable OBD adapter, install forscan on a laptop, and it should be able to pull up a lot of data. Might be worth checking on the Mustang forums to see if anyones used it for emissions control type stuff though.

IE on my Mondeo it could give me real time (calculated) cylinder pressures and injector output, etc.

[Mito Man]

Another thing I need to sort.

Car was MOT'd on Saturday (passed), but the tester said it only just met emissions and I should get it looked into. Apparently it could be running a bit rich, or something.

It does have an intermittent EML, which didn't come in during the test and isn't on now.. I've put that down to the aftermarket cold air intake and axle-back exhaust.

Hopefully not a huge headache to fix before the next test. But I suppose it could be anything from a cheap to expensive fix. The EML is for engine control module/power control module.

I'll ask Modurstang to take a look when it's in next month.

Cat back exhaust shouldn’t affect it. Is your CAI filter of the oiled variety?

[Alex88]

Cheers guys. My OBD reader is just one of the cheapo ones.

Yep, it's one of the 'lifetime' performance filters that does indeed need oiling. It looks ok, but is ancient! I do service it.