Your fleet running reports

[Mito Man]

I bought 2 traps and did that. Hopefully the little shit gets caught without gnawing on something important

Got it. Boot covered in piss and turds though but I can sleep peacefully tonight!

Where are the traps from out of interest?

Just found them in Homebase 2 for £9.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rentokil-FC10 ... 2537&psc=1
I left one triggered by mistake on the garden wall and it caught another mouse!

[Jimexpl]

A car that I generally forget that I own met its maker a couple of weeks ago.

4f700945-503d-48f2-9be4-e2b054eaa3a5.JPG (239.26 KiB) Viewed 3102 times

With only two owners and 28,000 miles from new, some Ford anoraks will be mourning their loss. A 1997 Fiesta Ghia 1.3 that I inherited from a Great Uncle about five years ago (with only 1,800 miles!), I drove it around for a few months until the novelty wore off, then left it at the office as a pool car.
A new member of staff started commuting in the M25 in it while I was on holiday, and my business partner failed to educated him on cars without ABS...

What always surprised me whenever I used it was how much better it was as a city car than most new city cars. The ancient 1.3 was good on fuel at low speeds, the steering was light and direct, giving a fair amount of information on what the skinny 13" tyres were doing, and the suspension was perfect for speed bumps.
Great visibility made it simple to park without sensors also.
Everything still worked, other than the remote locking loosing memory within a couple of days of programming. It still had the original back box on it until last year, and no rust on the body anywhere...



EOTR M140i

Factory ordered to my spec with a crazy discount giving £1900 down and £340 monthly on a 36 month PCP.
Sold after 29 months and 12,000 miles with two kerbed wheels and minor lower wheel arch damage leaving £1700 equity.
Fitted a lower rear strut brace straight away, but never got round to doing the M4 LCAs, which sat on the stock room shelf until last week.
Loads have been written about these so I’ll keep it brief.
Had a great drive to Barcelona two months after getting it. For road use the brakes were good and while the engine might not zing like my old Z4M, on the same roads in the Pyrenees the punch of this one more than made up for it.
It never felt like a true sports car; just a competent hot hatch that has rwd balance and ample power.

Being stuck with the heavy steering mode when the stability is switched off was annoying, as it feels more natural in comfort, so on interesting roads I found myself cycling between the semi-configurable ‘sport’ mode or all-off.
The adaptive suspension option was worth every penny.
Fitted a JB+ boost box for some of the time, which makes it slightly lairy in the dry, but irritating without an LSD when wet.

At one point I thought I’d keep it long term, do the suspension mods, fit an LSD and get a Lichfield remap, but once our second kid was here (14 months ago) there were so many occasions when the extra space of our Disco was required that this just sat on the street.
I’m glad and sad to have owned a car that concludes the era of big engined hatchbacks, but it never really got under my skin like some older BMWs. I realised today that I’ve owned ten in the last ten years...
I’m not replacing it straight away. Family and a larger home need to take priority. I’ll probably put my Mini or one of the Land Rovers into more regular use for a bit, and get myself back into a more interesting car that can squeeze two kids in occasionally (911 or Evora are the most likely).

In forum fashion, here’s my effort of a crap photo.

IMG_6347.jpg (234.18 KiB) Viewed 3102 times

[mik]

Got it. Boot covered in piss and turds though but I can sleep peacefully tonight!

Where are the traps from out of interest?

Just found them in Homebase 2 for £9.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rentokil-FC10 ... 2537&psc=1
I left one triggered by mistake on the garden wall and it caught another mouse!

I cant kill something without good reason, so have used humane traps in the past and taken the fookers away once trapped.

Unfortunately I discovered that these traps arent very humane if you get more than one in there and they decide to fight to the death

[Beany]

Re the Fiesta, ouch, did they lock up into the back of a 4x4/lorry or something?

[Jimexpl]

Re the Fiesta, ouch, did they lock up into the back of a 4x4/lorry or something?

It was a brand new van with a bumper bar. The van braked sharply and my man locked up. It was dark and wet at the time.

To be fair, I doubt many people understand the limitations of older cars these days when braking. Until now, the people who’d used it out of central London were experienced drivers.

[Beany]

Re the Fiesta, ouch, did they lock up into the back of a 4x4/lorry or something?

It was a brand new van with a bumper bar. The van braked sharply and my man locked up. It was dark and wet at the time.

To be fair, I doubt many people understand the limitations of older cars these days when braking. Until now, the people who’d used it out of central London were experienced drivers.

To be fair, the first time I proper, seriously panic braked was in the Micra, which had no ABS.

Thankfully, quiet road, and the deer I was avoiding let me slide through them, locked up, and collect it without hitting them.

Made me reconsider my life choices a bit. I imagine yer man there likely had a similar experience!

[JonMad]

Just looks like a PCV hose to me. Manufacturers are not allowed to vent them to atmos, hence they are fed back into the intake. It won't be the cause of your CEL in my experience. Just read the code and then you don't have to guess

Ta. ‪After a couple of drives it went off but a few codes were stored. Have cleared those now so let’s see if they reappear:

Random misfire. Missus on cylinder 1. Misfire on cylinder 2. Throttle Actuator Control (TAC), bank 1 - Range/performance problem.

I previously had a misfire on cylinder 2 after which I replaced the coil.

[GG.]

Missus on cylinder 1

How'd she get on there!

[JonMad]

Missus on cylinder 1

How'd she get on there!

Ha! Didn’t spot that one. (She is quite small)

[DeskJockey]

Have done some troubleshooting on the radio issue, as it was blasting away with the car off and locked. I used a scientific approach, taught to me by [mention]Simon[/mention], to isolate the fault and am very sure it is the radio that's at fault.

When it is being daft and not responding to the on/off button, and has come on by itself, give it a great big thump on the left side of the driver's side dash trim. Cured the issue.

[Simon]

Have done some troubleshooting on the radio issue, as it was blasting away with the car off and locked. I used a scientific approach, taught to me by @Simon, to isolate the fault and am very sure it is the radio that's at fault.

When it is being daft and not responding to the on/off button, and has come on by itself, give it a great big thump on the left side of the driver's side dash trim. Cured the issue.

Ha! OK, so we know what it is now. We'll schedule a date to sort it in the new year. (My Mondeo behaved exactly like that, and also a similar thing in the binnacle too).

[DeskJockey]

Have done some troubleshooting on the radio issue, as it was blasting away with the car off and locked. I used a scientific approach, taught to me by @Simon, to isolate the fault and am very sure it is the radio that's at fault.

When it is being daft and not responding to the on/off button, and has come on by itself, give it a great big thump on the left side of the driver's side dash trim. Cured the issue.

Ha! OK, so we know what it is now. We'll schedule a date to sort it in the new year. (My Mondeo behaved exactly like that, and also a similar thing in the binnacle too).

Sounds good!

[Gwaredd]

Genuine question DJ, but why don't you just upgrade the stereo for a new apple play style one? They're so much better than oem stuff and aren't too expensive.

[mik]

I’m not replacing it straight away. Family and a larger home need to take priority. I’ll probably put my Mini or one of the Land Rovers into more regular use for a bit, and get myself back into a more interesting car that can squeeze two kids in occasionally (911 or Evora are the most likely).

No bad option there

[Sundayjumper]

Depends how tall you are, there was no space for anything larger than a very small toddler behind the drivers seat of mine. Legroom.

So I fitted buckets & cage to make absolutely sure it’ll never be used as a family car

[Coaster1]

More stickers

[JonMad]

Loving the use your giving your GT3. Full respect.

[Coaster1]

Loving the use your giving your GT3. Full respect.

Cheers Jon, yeah all those years I wasn’t dreaming about ‘polishing’ my dream car!

[mikeyb]

Loving the use your giving your GT3. Full respect.

Cheers Jon, yeah all those years I wasn’t dreaming about ‘polishing’ my dream car!

[Sundayjumper]

530d in for MOT. I’ll be stunned if it doesn’t pass. It’s been a very uneventful car these last two years.

Update - headlight aim too low probably due to the new springs. Adjusted FOC. Clean MOT.