OV9

Sundayjumper wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2023 11:00 am Capristo exhaust off, sold, ready to go. And with the exhaust off, I now have a list of "while we're there" jobs to sort out...

I missed this part... what was wrong with the Capristo - too loud? I thought they were a de riguer addition...

GG. wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2023 5:11 pm I missed this part... what was wrong with the Capristo - too loud? I thought they were a de riguer addition...

Too loud and too valuable I was planning on getting rid right from the start, they’re worth £1k+ even second hand and I’d already picked up an OEM exhaust for £100 so that was the plan - free up £1k and either tell myself the car cost £1k less than it really did, or have £1k to spend fixing other stuff for “free”.

And having driven the car a bit it’s too loud for me too. It sounds good. Don’t get me wrong there. But the number of pedestrians who’ve turned around to see what the noise was tells me it’s a bit obnoxious. And it drones on the motorway.

Capristo do valved & non-valved versions, this is non-valved, I’m guessing the valved one might be more to my taste. The stock exhaust is valved so I’m looking forward to trying it out. Just waiting on some nuts & bolts to arrive before I put it all back together.

Oh, and ever on point, @gavster bought me these for my birthday:



I’m just pondering changing “drive” to “spend all my time fixing”…

Sundayjumper wrote: Tue Sep 05, 2023 9:53 am Oh, and ever on point, @gavster bought me these for my birthday:


IMG_1966.jpeg



I’m just pondering changing “drive” to “spend all my time fixing”…

Sounds like a grey area...

Very good

I took the mx5 for its first MOT and 3rd service. As it is now at the end of the warranty, I took it to a specialist (BBR GTI in Brackley) as although my local Mazda dealership have been great, they do tend to deal with hybrid oaps mobiles day to day.

Despite the aftermarket exhaust and sports cat, the emissions were well within their limits so nothing to worry about on that score.

After 35 months, I have only mustered 4600 miles and 50 of those was the journey to Brackley and 800 of was a 2 day driving event in the pennines, moors and lake district. This is down to me rather than the car, I don't think I would have done more miles had it been a Testarossa, GT4 or whatever floats your boat. It's a little sad for a car to be sat in the garage gathering dust and Im having a debate with myself over putting it up for sale or not.

MikeHunt wrote: Tue Sep 05, 2023 5:08 pm I'm having a debate with myself over putting it up for sale or not.

Well you know who to contact on here if you do

Used the alfasud at the weekend, got a feint whiff of coolant and a slight bubbling sound when turning off the engine while hot coming from the heater matrix.

Rather annoying, particularly as they don’t seem to be available anywhere. They’re a very simple shape so should be easy for someone to replicate for sensible money.

Have just linked the pipes together for now to cut it out of the system. I don’t often use it when it’s cold anyway, but would like to have it all working properly.

The brakes hadn’t been feeling great recently, and after a few miles there was a bit of vibration and it was definitely pulling to the left.

Pulled into a side road and there was a definite smell of hot brakes! As it was a nice quiet road I did a couple of hard stomps on the pedal, which gave a bit of a clunk and a very soft pedal. Pulled over again and used some water to cool the caliper, a few gentle stops and everything feels back to normal, isn’t getting hot and is pulling up straight and true. Will keep an eye on it and look at rebuilding them over the winter.

After that it was nice to be out cruising around in it, was starting to question whether it was worth keeping as I doubt I’ve even done 500 miles in it this year. Especially annoying as I’ve swapped from shifts to normal day hours and was hoping to get a lot more use out of it!

Ended up at a local Italian car meet and got directed to park next to a 4c


Amazingly, out of the 60 or so Alfas there there were three ‘suds and three alfasud sprints!

A series 1 Ti


My series 2 super

And a series 3 TiX

Oh yeah, mito goes in for a mot tomorrow, should do a mot check and see how little I’ve used it. Put a fresh set of disks and pads on as the old ones were so crusty they just shredded the pads and never cleaned up. All 4 were pretty bad. Was surprised it didn’t fail the mot last year although it still stopped fine.

E36 m3 refuses to start. Would give a little cough as if it was going to then do nothing but keep cranking.

Fuel pump buzzing very lightly, but definitely not like it should, the impeller in the end seems seized but weirdly with it removed and fed 12v directly it did gurgle and eject what fuel was inside it. I presume there was just enough pressure to fill the fuel rail hence the initial cough, but no actual flow to make it run. New walbro on order. I need to be able to move it to lift the golf for better access for the welding that needs.

Twingo was making a grinding noise on and off today- my cooling fan blades are no longer attached to the motor. I’ll pull the fan out tomorrow and fingers crossed it’s just the nut attaching the blades that’s worked it’s way loose rather than something bust

Actually managed 5k in it last year, but I did use it quite a bit over winter after the compact mot ran out and I was busy fixing the x5

12 years old never even had an advisory

That's way more than I manage although I imagine my seat time isn't far off. I tend to get about 100 miles from a tank of fuel driving in London and that lasts me a couple months but my average speed is 4 mph

2 1/2 hours and half a front end dismantled to fit a new screw and tighten. Ffs

jamcg wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2023 9:52 pm IMG_0798.jpeg

2 1/2 hours and half a front end dismantled to fit a new screw and tighten. Ffs

we've all done way more for a screw at some point or other...

Rich B wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2023 10:25 pm

jamcg wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2023 9:52 pm IMG_0798.jpeg

2 1/2 hours and half a front end dismantled to fit a new screw and tighten. Ffs

we've all done way more for a screw at some point or other...

Did you nut?

Seem to average around 40mph and 40mpg in mine. Have reset the trip this morning for an accurate between MOTs reading.

Sundayjumper wrote: Tue Sep 05, 2023 9:52 am Just waiting on some nuts & bolts to arrive before I put it all back together.

It's not totally back together yet but it's driveable and the stock exhaust is SO much quieter. It's almost like its a different car. It's now acceptable as a daily driver. And the tail pipes are level now. I didn't notice until I took the old ones off that they were wonky and far too low.

I've also spotted that the drivers side window seal isn't sitting right and leaves a small gap between the glass & the seal right by the mirror which might explain the (what seemed to me) excessive wind noise.

Sundayjumper wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2023 9:27 am I've also spotted that the drivers side window seal isn't sitting right and leaves a small gap between the glass & the seal right by the mirror which might explain the (what seemed to me) excessive wind noise.

I had that after I fixed the regulator on the drivers window on the Evora.

This was my last post on TheLotusForum - you might need to follow a similar process.

And just to close this one out : turned out I hadn't aligned my door glass very well. The glass was sealing well at the upper and rear edges, but it wasn't pressing sufficiently against the front seal on the A-pillar. This only really became apparent at higher speeds.

Finally had some time to look at it, so the door card came off again today (I'm getting quite slick at this now).. I loosened the front & rear glass clamps just enough that the glass could move, but wasn't totally loose, and then got the door shut (checking that the glass had done it's "final close" movement).

Whilst outside (using my best Marcel Marceau imitation) I was able to manoeuvre the glass into the position I wanted it to be in, and then very carefully open the door and re-tighten the clamps. It seems a kinda obvious technique as I type this, but It didn't occur to me first time round - hence I thought I'd add another post here. A few more open/close checks before putting the door card back on to ensure it wasn't catching on any thing.... all good, and no more wind noise

This vid shows door card removal (edit: oops - thats a 430 - hopefully similar similar), and demonstrates the same challenge in the process - you need to see the seal position with the door closed, but in order to do that you need to be able to close the door, which is a real juggle with the door card hanging off. He tries to make adjustments and then see how it looks (with only limited success) - which is the method I used initially too (also with only limited success).

I just watched that video through, I've seen a few of his other videos, he normally has rather more success ! That gap he was left with would be a disaster every time it rains.

360 door panel is actually slightly easier to remove. Innards look to be the same. I found this diagram on a Ferrari group, the glass needs to tilt back a bit, that was the adjustment he found later on.


I will have a look later today when the sun has moved around and the front of the house is in the shade. It's been way too hot down here the last few days.