Your fleet running reports

[jamcg]

Focus written off, just waiting to hear back from gap people now. I think looking for a boring, practicable, cheap to run, reliable everyday car that’s not too boring is the hardest type of car to look for, there’s no “want that one” factor like if you want something performance orientated

Giulia. The Ti's look great, reliable, reasonable money, and you can tell people Ferrari designers were involved with it.

Thanks for the suggestion of the Giulia Matty, but saloon body style wouldn’t fit my lifestyle, with the need for a car to act as a pseudo van on occasion so a hatch is a necessity, anyway I looked and looked and looked some more and came home with this today:

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Puma ST, reasonably quick, decently practical and easily delivered 46mpg on the way home

[DeskJockey]

Good colour. Nice to see something bright.

[mik]

After years of different Allen keys I now have these 2 sets....

https://www.screwfix.com/p/wera-l-keys- ... dUQAvD_BwE

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wera-Hex-Plus- ... d_source=1

Both really nice.

I've tried a lot of others but these are now my keys of choice when travelling.

Dave!

I use wera Allen keys, they have a funny concave shape that are supposed to bind in where others don’t- and it actually works- I have used the ones that come with radiators etc that have just rounded off and then used the wera ones to great effect

I have decent Bahco metric Allen keys. My imperial ones are Draper, but 3/16” is only 4.7mm and this thing was on too tight for that.

[IanF]

After years of different Allen keys I now have these 2 sets....

https://www.screwfix.com/p/wera-l-keys- ... dUQAvD_BwE

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wera-Hex-Plus- ... d_source=1

Both really nice.

I've tried a lot of others but these are now my keys of choice when travelling.

Dave!

I use wera Allen keys, they have a funny concave shape that are supposed to bind in where others don’t- and it actually works- I have used the ones that come with radiators etc that have just rounded off and then used the wera ones to great effect

I have decent Bahco metric Allen keys. My imperial ones are Draper, but 3/16” is only 4.7mm and this thing was on too tight for that.

Wera - “ Hex-plus profile drives from the flats instead of the points, preventing the rounding out of screws.” Every day is a school day

[Sundayjumper]

The garage is 3 miles away, right?

1.5 miles according to Google. However, last year there were roadworks & a road closure, forcing me to go the long way, which is four miles.

4 miles home last year + 1.5 miles back again this year = 5.5 miles (appx.) and then rounded to 6.

In MOT year 23/24 it recorded the correct total of 3 miles.

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[integrale_evo]

X5 is back on its normal wheels and test driven.

Happy with the exhaust mods, a bit more of a “whoomph” as it fires up, maybe a little more bass at idle, and a bit more bark under load, but nothing silly or antisocial. The middle box was very big, but the pipes inside were straight and only perforated at certain points. Probably removed a good 5kg of weight

Unfortunately with the return of the 20s my hideous 30mph vibration has returned. It was there with the other wheels, just nowhere near as pronounced. I was hoping it was some sort of resonance issue and the subframe bushes would help. They needed doing so wasn’t a waste of time, but it’s not a cure.

Correct brake carriers for the compact turned up, so it now has 300mm e46 disks, which will still fit behind the oe 16in wheels. £38 for a pair of disks, £50 for a pair of secondhand caliper carriers.

[scotta]

Alpine MOT today

Results.

[scotta]

Our mate Chris's car made it on to Porsche's Insta account today.

[Rich B]

Looks perfect on the silver wheels. Very nice.

[unzippy]

Changed the oil, filter and plugs. Greased the kingpins and half shafts, also put 2 new engine mounts in.
Surprisingly nippier after the new plugs!

[Mito Man]

Learned something new today. So when you take your car in for an MOT the tester inputs the VIN, not the reg. And so my dad learned that his Caterham doesn’t exist. It’s not on the system. The tester was concerned at first thinking the car has dodgy history, but was then told it was bought from new. Asks for the V5 so a short round trip later and he finds the problem. Car is listed as a Lotus and the VIN is off by 2 characters.

Call to the DVLA and they update the VIN over the phone but the MOT will have to wait for another day…

[mik]

That’s what happens when you register cars on April Fools day.

[Matty]

It's quite common. My VXR8 was registered as an automatic, despite being manual.
I think it was my ITR that was registered as Blue or Black, yet was white.

[Matty]

Puma ST, reasonably quick, decently practical and easily delivered 46mpg on the way home

10/10 for choice of colour. Nowhere near enough green cars about.

[Marv]

Changed the oil, filter and plugs. Greased the kingpins and half shafts, also put 2 new engine mounts in.
Surprisingly nippier after the new plugs!

That's a very British looking part of Australia!

Back in Blighty, zips?

I like the custom wooden jack puck

[Jobbo]

A 2CV is a wonderful thing. Low entry jack seems a bit OTT

[unzippy]

@Marv, Yep, back just over a year now

@Jobbo 2CV is Dad's but he's too sick to drive it anymore, so I do - like I am 17 again! The low profile jack is mine that he looked after while I was away.

[Delphi]

In the continuing subwoofer saga, sent back the underseat one as it just didn't work and bought a more recommended one. Test wired it up and it works a treat, so that's progress. However it's too tall to fit under the passenger seat (928 seats are VERY low - about 70mm of clearance), however bouyed by the success of it actually fucking working I decided to fabricate a mount in the guise of a sheet of MDF I had lying around which would double as a spare wheel well cover. The unit sits about 5mm proud of the cover surface, so once it's covered with the carpet it should be invisible. I've got some black adhesive glovebox liner that I'll cover the MDF with to make it look a bit nicer.

I've not tuned the sound yet, but it does exactly what I wanted which is to fill out the bottom end nicely.

[mik]

Helped eldest miket swap over the thermostat on his car on Sunday morning. Whilst ordering the replacement part, I allowed myself to drift back to the good old days when this was an absolute doddle of a job > two or three bolts, swappy swappy thermostat (and possibly a gasket) replace bolts, cup of tea. But for many years now it's a whole thermostat housing doo-dah you purchase. In this case, a thermostat body which includes actual new thermostat plus a new temp sensor.

Access is pretty pish, so we followed the guidance of a youchoob video > removed the airbox and intake pipe. Removed the battery (using my new doofer to retain power to the car via OBD). Removed and folded back items bolted to (or at least supposed to be bolted to..... they were after we'd finished) the battery box (possibly the ECU? I didn't really pay too much attention), and then took out the battery box itself.

At which point access was no longer completely pish. Although the clip for one clip was a bit of a buggar as it was rotated round to stoopid position.

Successful repair.

[Delphi]

Helped eldest miket swap over the thermostat on his car on Sunday morning. Whilst ordering the replacement part, I allowed myself to drift back to the good old days when this was an absolute doddle of a job > two or three bolts, swappy swappy thermostat (and possibly a gasket) replace bolts, cup of tea. But for many years now it's a whole thermostat housing doo-dah you purchase. In this case, a thermostat body which includes actual new thermostat plus a new temp sensor.

Access is pretty pish, so we followed the guidance of a youchoob video > removed the airbox and intake pipe. Removed the battery (using my new doofer to retain power to the car via OBD). Removed and folded back items bolted to (or at least supposed to be bolted to..... they were after we'd finished) the battery box (possibly the ECU? I didn't really pay too much attention), and then took out the battery box itself.

At which point access was no longer completely pish. Although the clip for one clip was a bit of a buggar as it was rotated round to stoopid position.

Successful repair.

Modern cars are (I suspect intentionally) difficult to work on. Apparently, many manufacturers are fitting security bolts to things like brake calipers so you need a custom socket set at £400 to be able to do them. Why let customers DIY their brakes for £100 when you can bend them over to the tune of £700 for the same job.