Your fleet running reports

[Beany]

BTW don't go the 'halfords can of AC refrigerant' route. AC refrigerant goes by weight, not pressure. Get a pro to fill it.

Also, you'll need some lubricant, at least for the o-rings. And if you're changing the condenser it doesn't hurt to pre-fill that with some lubricant too.

Good thread here which I followed. Links are old now and likely dead, but the principle is correct.

I watched a few videos on aircon back when I was trying to troubleshoot the Puma AC, and so picked up a few hints. But yeah, if it's <£100 for a pro to do it and it gets it sorted properly, that saves a lot of skinned knuckles and missed details.

If it's more than that, then I'll do what prep work I can myself - carefully. No vacuum pump etc here, but there's no reason I couldn't change a condensor and save myself a couple of hours of labour, etc - let the aircon guys deal with the actual tricky stuff.

[Jobbo]

The drive up to Oxford on Saturday morning was predictably awful taking 2hr 20m from London! As it turned out we had to set off back early yesterday as I had a couple of calls I needed to be on so the traffic was pretty non-existent and we managed the trip in a little over 90 minutes.

Ah, this wasn't you then! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ox ... e-44037256

We stayed at the Vanbrugh House Hotel on St Michael's Street - only a few hundred yards or so from the gunman. But we checked out and were gone an hour or so before he kicked off, lucky

[Sundayjumper]

X74! Looking purposeful

Thanks I need to thank you for prompting me to get the 5-spoke wheels. I'm liking them more and more, I think I prefer them to the splits now.

Enjoying the Porsche updates SJ, I think most of us have dreamed of fitting daft bits to a 911 at some stage I trust an emergency start video will be forthcoming when the exhausts have been fitted?

I've not gone full daft ! Seats, cage, harnesses. Tyres. Springs & 'zorst. Looks like I need new dampers too. I'm not too fussed about power upgrades for now, I want to get it handling first. At my last Autosolo, FTD was a frogeye sprite, these things are not all about power. It's agility & flow.

As for the emergency start, I think my clutch is on its last legs, that might kill it for good.

[Simon]

Also, you'll need some lubricant, at least for the o-rings.

What if there's no time for lubricant?

[John]

I've been enjoying roof down motoring in the mx5 in this lovely weather. The hard top is quite insulating but with the roof down I was surprised how raspy the exhaust is with the odd pop thrown in for good measure Standard back box but four branch manifold, not sure what the middle section is.

Is it feeling fast after the C63 and it presumably being linear power delivery with the supercharger?

Well I've been spoilt with the c63 as it had effortless power. The mx5 certainly isn't slow and on a quick blat across the peaks or similar then I doubt the c63 would have it easy against the mx5.

[GG.]

The drive up to Oxford on Saturday morning was predictably awful taking 2hr 20m from London! As it turned out we had to set off back early yesterday as I had a couple of calls I needed to be on so the traffic was pretty non-existent and we managed the trip in a little over 90 minutes.

Ah, this wasn't you then! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ox ... e-44037256

We stayed at the Vanbrugh House Hotel on St Michael's Street - only a few hundred yards or so from the gunman. But we checked out and were gone an hour or so before he kicked off, lucky

Yes I saw that on the news when we got home! The in-laws joked we were safer back in South London.

Glad you made a timely exit!

[PreacherCain]

Quite a nice bank hol weekend - drove to the New Forest on Friday, having proved that I can fit two dogs and a weekend's worth of clobber in our 'surprisingly practical' GT.

Took some time yesterday to hunt down and kill some wiring gremlins which made the stereo do funny things (to be fair, gremlins of my own making, in the main), and also took the opportunity to strip the driver's side door and replace the window seals; this has done two things: 1) lower the wind noise enough that I can hear the radio (now that it works), and 2) prevent water coming down the inside of the window. Finally I swapped out the a/c freeze switch, which means lots of lovely cold air and the evaporator doesn't ice up.

We came home late last night and the lack of traffic was most pleasing. Fuel economy, not so much.

[Coaster1]

X74! Looking purposeful

Thanks I need to thank you for prompting me to get the 5-spoke wheels. I'm liking them more and more, I think I prefer them to the splits now.

Yeah the 5-spoke look good and bonus for 10kg saving. They look great on X74, even better than my M030.

M030:


And one from the archives

[duncs500]

Well the new tyres were at about 22psi, not as much as I thought but dropping them down to 18psi does seem to have helped. I still think the Yokos rode better.

[Sundayjumper]

And one from the archives

We can do an updated pic at Bedford. With matching wheels our cars will look nearly identical

[Foz]

Teh New 911 needs lots of money spending

[Coaster1]

Teh New 911 needs lots of money spending

You have a 4S now haven’t you?

Details man, we need details.

[Foz]

Yeah picked it up about a month ago.

Already had the headlights machine polished & given it a good clean/clay/polish etc.

Stuff to do are bushes, as the front NS is a bit creaky, wheel refurb, new tyres, brake caliper refurb and a general going over. I already have a shifter kit and a desperate for a chavvy induction kit as its a bit too quiet- it has had previously replaced exhausts that sound great outside the car but I want it to sound like my mates GT3

Also been looking into whipping out the front driveshafts diff and prop


It's had an absolutely frightening amount of money spent on it over the last few years the highlight being a hartech engine rebuild at about £11.5k

[GG.]

Looks sweet and sounds like it should be sorted if its had a Hartech rebuild.

Re the removal of front drive shafts - I think that might cause you some issues with the PCM/computer if its set up to split power front/rear. I seem to remember in the 991 (I think - Nick Murray mentioned it on his channel I believe) you can force it to switch to 2WD but not sure about the 997 or 996.

Careful you don't park too close to the kerb though - you might scuff those wheels

[Sundayjumper]

Stuff to do are bushes, as the front NS is a bit creaky...

If you spend a load of time & money replacing the suspension arms, ARB bushes, top mounts and drop links and find it's still creaking, it's the track rods.

[/voice of experience]

[Foz]

if you have a lessons learnt be great to hear it, don't want going pissing away money unnecessarily but the handling is pretty blunt, could do with improving it without spending £4k on ohlins and poly-bushing everything! I know the front geo is miles out and was going to concentrate on the cosmetics stuff initially.

[Coaster1]

It's had an absolutely frightening amount of money spent on it over the last few years the highlight being a hartech engine rebuild at about £11.5k

Nice fine

[Foz]

It's had an absolutely frightening amount of money spent on it over the last few years the highlight being a hartech engine rebuild at about £11.5k

Nice fine

£18k+ in 5000 miles (7 years)


This lot I reckon is upwards of £35k in maintenance

[mik]

Also - I assume it came with that private plate?

[Foz]

No I picked the plate up last year, doesn't mean anything to me but makes a huge difference to the car