Your fleet running reports

[Maurice]

I’m a 4300K to 5000K kinda guy.

I’m beginning to warm to that range, but 6000k is cool.

This definitely didn’t get enough appreciation

[JonMad]

I’m a 4300K to 5000K kinda guy.

I’m beginning to warm to that range, but 6000k is cool.

This definitely didn’t get enough appreciation

On balance, it was alwhite.

[Coaster1]

I’m a 4300K to 5000K kinda guy.

I’m beginning to warm to that range, but 6000k is cool.

This definitely didn’t get enough appreciation

Because people on this forum are too dim.

[NotoriousREV]

I’m beginning to warm to that range, but 6000k is cool.

This definitely didn’t get enough appreciation

Because people on this forum are too dim.

I am incandescent with rage.

[mik]

This definitely didn’t get enough appreciation

Because people on this forum are too dim.

I am incandescent with rage.

It has at least confirmed where Rich and I are on the spectrum.

[Coaster1]

Because people on this forum are too dim.

I am incandescent with rage.

It has at least confirmed where Rich and I are on the spectrum.

Glad that you have seen the light.

[Mito Man]

I am incandescent with rage.

It has at least confirmed where Rich and I are on the spectrum.

Glad that you have seen the light.

The fleshlight.

[Mito Man]

Looks like I have an unwanted passenger

I’m actually paranoid that I’m going to have a mouse jump on me whilst driving now

[Sundayjumper]

I picked up some wheels with winter tyres for the Compact yesterday. Regs vary between events, but for the one next week all tyres have to be road legal and you’re not allowed “knobblies” of any kind, so winters are the next closest.

The wheels are from an E90 and have a slightly lower offset than E36 wheels, so it’s like putting 12mm spacers all round for free

They were listed on eBay as having a nail in one tyre. When I got them home I removed the stone and we’re all set !

[Matty]

Looks like I have an unwanted passenger
I’m actually paranoid that I’m going to have a mouse jump on me whilst driving now

I'd be more worried about upcoming/expensive electrical repairs.

[Mito Man]

Looks like I have an unwanted passenger
I’m actually paranoid that I’m going to have a mouse jump on me whilst driving now

I'd be more worried about upcoming/expensive electrical repairs.

I turned it on to check, left it parked with the bonnet up and chucked some poison under the car but it hasn’t touched it yet.

[JonMad]

I picked up some wheels with winter tyres for the Compact yesterday. Regs vary between events, but for the one next week all tyres have to be road legal and you’re not allowed “knobblies” of any kind, so winters are the next closest.

The wheels are from an E90 and have a slightly lower offset than E36 wheels, so it’s like putting 12mm spacers all round for free

They were listed on eBay as having a nail in one tyre. When I got them home I removed the stone and we’re all set !

Result!

[integrale_evo]

Compact rear calipers stripped, cleaned, painted and refitted with new hoses and nipples.

Shame the anti rattle springs didn't turn up in time so I've had to stick the manky ones back on.

[ste]

Update

'71 Vauxhall Viva HC De-Luxe

Sold 4 weeks ago. Still won't work. It's at a local garage who is a classic Vauxhall nerd. He got it to start but it won't run properly. He reckons the carb is playing up now so he's fitting a used one he has in stock today.

E46 330d Sport Touring

As mentioned previously, I bought Neil Mukerji’s old one as he bought my mate Ian Haynes' newer, tidier one off him. I sold Neil’s boss my X5 and Neil dropped the E46 330d Sport Touring manual round and offered it me for a price I couldn't refuse.



It’s got higher miles at 186k but has FSH and in Neil’s ownership over the last 10+ years has had ridiculous amounts of maintenance. It featured in BMW Car mag for years as one of the fleet when Neil wrote for them so it had loads of stuff covered in there, it's also on Neil's comprehensive website where he covers all maintenance etc. It’s black and a facelift which I like, but has horrific tan leather and wooden trim which I don't.



For the first month it just lived up the back of the drive. One of the rear tyres went flat and so did the battery.



In that time it only got used for 2nd child to have driving lessons. He prefers it to the Viva we’d been using up to then.



Then we were scheduled to go away for the weekend as a family. I swapped my plate on, removed the Ring sticker and also the amp and sub.





Who attaches plates with 10mm bolts??



Amp and sub was 18kg! I needed the extra space in the under-boot storage but the car also feels rear heavy when pressing on and I’d guessed the sub probably wasn’t helping that. I guessed the kids probably didn't need phat bass whacking the back of their skulls either.



Like Nic’s it’s way thirstier than I imagined and even with the swirl flap delete and remap* it’s got it doesn’t feel as fast as I hoped. It’s really made me realise how good the X5 was for us. Silly stuff like the self levelling suspension. The E46 has got the nice detachable BMW towbar system which is great to have. But has conventional coil springs on the back. Loaded up with the kid's MTBs it’s an utter pig to drive.




Anyway there we are. Once the Viva goes my entire car fleet will be a £1k diesel estate car.






* You'll like this. It was 'chiped' by Jason Corcorran, the dickhead of 'ChipedUK' (sic) fame. NEil got him to do it so that it hopefully blew up pand the mag could prove he was a shithead. 10 years and 150k later it's still going strong. I think it's really testament to how bloody robust these M57 diesel lumps are if you just keep changing the oil.

[ste]

Oh forgot this: In an attempt to get it to turn in a bit better I knocked the crash pins out of the top of the front struts and shoved them over to gain more -ve camber. It's possibly made a tiny improvement. Ideally it needs adjustable mounts or M3 lower arms. I think a set of rear wheels and tyres on the front would help too. All that costs though. For free, I may look at slotting the top turrets further to get more camber from the standard parts.

[Jobbo]

* You'll like this. It was 'chiped' by Jason Corcorran, the dickhead of 'ChipedUK' (sic) fame. NEil got him to do it so that it hopefully blew up pand the mag could prove he was a shithead. 10 years and 150k later it's still going strong. I think it's really testament to how bloody robust these M57 diesel lumps are if you just keep changing the oil.

For someone with the time and energy to follow "Jayson", have a look at this awful website: http://thetruthblog.cloudaccess.host/

[Coaster1]

Oh forgot this: In an attempt to get it to turn in a bit better I knocked the crash pins out of the top of the front struts and shoved them over to gain more -ve camber. It's possibly made a tiny improvement. Ideally it needs adjustable mounts or M3 lower arms. I think a set of rear wheels and tyres on the front would help too. All that costs though. For free, I may look at slotting the top turrets further to get more camber from the standard parts.

Rockingham prep?

[ste]

Initially yes.

I soon realised that to get it ready enough to drive on track I'd have to spend actual money. It's got a clonk from either the diff bush or subframe bushes and it got a soft rear damper on the OSR that it squats onto and that sets up an unpleasnat oscillating pogo motion in high-speed left handers (which is erm, loads of Rockingham). It's got a brake vibration too and pushing on it just gets worse. It's also got a vagueness to the steering just off-centre. It feels like the rack is worn. I looked at doing lots of fixes and then remembered it cost me £1k and the point of buying it was to save money.

I'm going to bring the Polo as it's tight as a drum (as you'd expect). I guess I'll do a few laps in it but don't imagine I'll feel like doing many. However I've spoken to a chap about racing some of his cars next year and so will hopefully be testing some of those over the day.

[Beany]

Must convince my brother to buy a leggy M57 wagon...

Anyway, in Today I Learned:
Drivers side outer door handle has been getting a bit slack lately, but I assumed it'd be a bushing or a clip or something and I'd have months to play with in terms of waiting for it to actually fail. Which was great till I couldn't get into the car tonight outside Lidl. D'oh. Crawled over the transmission tunnel with absolutely no grace, and about halfway over had a thought....and popped it open fine from the inside. Yes, it's been a long day and even I surprised myself with that lack of forethought.

Anyway, was mentally prepping myself to have to strip the whole fucking door down, find a broken bit of plastic.

Of course what's old to a few of you is new to me - a quick google shows there's a 4mm grub screw in the door panel that tightens the handle. Tweek tweek, door working perfectly again.

Nice to see (again) that someone at BMW thought about these things.

[Rich B]

Worth remembering that if you hold the unlock button on the key the windows go down (which is also bloody useful in tight parking spaces when you have frameless windows).