Your fleet running reports

[Jobbo]

Not completely related, but anyone else having issues with wooden structures and this horrendously damp winter?

Both the wooden door on our brick (former) outhouse and my wooden garage doors no longer fit properly. Never normally get an issue in winter, and don’t really want to make any adjustments!

Our house is mostly wood framed and the back door occasionally catches or is difficult to lock - it’s all moving a bit so I don’t adjust it now, it’s fine most of the year.

[DeskJockey]

Our side gate is very weather sensitive, this time of year it is always tight in the frame and requires jiggling and the odd swift kick.

[integrale_evo]

Remembered I had spacers behind the hinges on one side of the garage door. I made the doors in an autumn and added shims the following supper as a gap opened up. They’ve been there untouched for about 8 years. On Sunday evening I couldn’t close the doors even with a heavy shove.

Anyway, merc. I test drove it for about 6 miles, the mrs has been to the shops, her mums and a journey to work, no reports of an issue.

So, do I declare it fixed and leave it alone? Or knowing the pedal was the issue buy a nice brand new one?

I have no idea how many miles the donor car had done, however I also don’t think pedal failures are particularly common. If it was my car I’d leave it as is and see what happens….

Worked out how to do graphs on my diagnostics, not worked out how to save them to view later, as soon as you disconnect the interface it kicks you out of the software.

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[Mito Man]

Wasted a few hours looking at control arms for the 6 series. Whilst underneath it the other day I thought it’s time to change all the old control arms later this year. The fronts are clearly past their best. The control arms annoyingly have a non serviceable ball joint and at 110k miles I think it’s a waste of time leaving those alone and just doing the bushes.
From my research it seems like aside from BMW all the aftermarket manufacturers are not worth bothering with. Lemforder have moved their aftermarket factories abroad and it seems like unless you can find old made in Germany stock then it’s not good. I went back to some old M539 videos to see what he used on his builds and it seems to be all straight from BMW and the odd bit of old made in Germany stock. Damn.
Nothing to do but to pay up.

[Delphi]

You forced me to look on google/youtube : I didn't appreciate that the 928 had adjustable spring platforms from the factory. (maybe not all varients ) Assume you have a spring dying?

You'd think that but the springs are only about 3 years old. Shocks are about the same. I'll investigate once the weather warms up a bit.

So bizarrely, it appears the rear "droop" is because the fronts are too high (I thought it was sitting a bit high at the front). Of course the adjustment collars on the fronts are completely seized, which will mean removing the front suspension, and if that's going to happen I might as well replace the front shocks anyway, so that's what I'm going to do.

Currently trying to figure out why there's no heat. I've replaced the blend flap motor and the heater control valve is being actuated correctly when I move the climate control to heat, but it still blows cold. Going to pull the control valve just to make sure it's not stuck closed, then if that's OK, back flush the heater matrix to make sure it's not blocked.

[integrale_evo]

Mito - squealing wheel. Suspect bearing. I have done for some time but hadn’t been able to feel any play and only did it after some hard driving, but in the way home the other day it was doing it constantly.

X5 - still has a driveline vibration I can’t track down. Only does it at ~ 18 and 36mph which is odd. Still need to get the screen replaced too.

Compact - headlight stopped working on the way home yesterday.

Merc - Replacement pedal seems to have fixed it.

Alfasud - Paint knackered after being under a cover and months of damp weather.


It’s one of those weeks where I want to sell the lot and get something sensible and modern