OV9

Turns out that the MOT centre might have used a different car's exhaust to take the emissions readings to get a pass, then put the blue smoke advisory on the ticket as a warning

They'll have put that to cover themselves on the off chance VOSA were waiting up the road to check recent MOT's, as they sometimes do. Its not uncommon for mot stations to get checked, which is why the one i'm about to go to won't let me get away with tiny number plates on elises as its an obvious thing to check at the roadside, whereas they'll overlook just about anything else

@Mito Man prompted by the (popular) CSR20 thread : is your dad getting much use out of his 620R? Are you insured for it? If yes - why haven't you had it on track yet?

mik wrote: Fri Nov 15, 2024 11:59 am @Mito Man prompted by the (popular) CSR20 thread : is your dad getting much use out of his 620R? Are you insured for it? If yes - why haven't you had it on track yet?

Nope, he did a Caterham organised track day in the summer but it hasn't been out since, and I trailered it to it's service. Then shortly after he left to go to Portugal with my mum and didn't return. Don't know when they're returning. Asked me to fly out there for Christmas...

Galaxy has new non-juddery wipers, and a shiny new yellow 20A fuse for the 12v sockets, permitting the charging of phones and the like.

Fucking DVLA v5 transfer service is only 7am to 7pm fucking useless

The alfasuds heater matrix has been bypassed for over a year after it started smelling rather coolanty. Not really a huge problem as I don’t tend to drive it much when it’s cold anyway, but there have been some nice dry days recently where I would have liked to take it to work but didn’t fancy it with no heating.

I had seen someone else had had a custom replacement heater matrix made. I contacted the company to see if they could make another. As it happens they had made a spare and it was ready to go.



So today I pulled the heater box out. Only 4 nuts under the dash, but a bit of a fiddle with a couple of cables and flap controls.



“While you’re there” split the heater box to clean out 44 years worth of dust, dirt, bugs and debris



Definitely didn’t then split the fan assembly to clean it all up, then pull the motor to bits to clean up the commutator and grease the bushings…



And also definitely didn’t clean up and paint the fly screen mesh while it was in bits



Then ran out of daylight so haven’t put it back together yet

"This'll only take, eh, hour and a half"

Then suddenly it's 11pm.

Had same with bro just now (he's snagged the E46), admittedly I went and collected him to save him having to faff with public transport (And cos he's not been in the M135i yet - he was suitably shocked by it's """"overtaking"""" performance).

Should have realistically taken from 3pm to about 8pm.

He left about 45 mins ago in the E46

He's got the patience for it - I don't!

Beany wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2024 9:48 pm Fucking DVLA v5 transfer service is only 7am to 7pm fucking useless

Remember that 7pm cut-off time. It’s annoyed me a few times.

Macan disks and pads all round with labour came to just over £1600. I don’t think they are smaller or cheaper on the 4-cyl versions but they may be (and ours is 4-cyl). I don’t feel like it’s a bad price for disks and pads all round at a main dealer. I do feel pads should be replaced a few times before you need disks, and this was first time for both.

Getting back from Malta has made me appreciate the ride comfort of the S6 and the high quality of our roads But that’s more a reflection of Maltese potholes than anything.

Jobbo wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2024 1:31 am

Beany wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2024 9:48 pm Fucking DVLA v5 transfer service is only 7am to 7pm fucking useless

Remember that 7pm cut-off time. It’s annoyed me a few times.

I will in future, for sure. Fucking annoying. What *possible* technical reason can there be for that??

duncs500 wrote: Fri Aug 09, 2024 9:55 pm For the FTAO Lotus afficionados: I'm going to refresh the interior of the Lotus over the winter, and getting a nice set of seat pads for the Tilletts is one of the additions coming. You can basically customise them however you want, but rather than having "teh duncs500" stitched into them, my approach to my Elise upgrades as always been a kind of OEM++ feel rather than super individual.

The Lotus badge always looks a bit weedy to me on seats:



I think it works a lot better with the heritage wreath around it like this:



However, AFAIK this logo is usually the preserve of heritage special editions (which mine is not). Is it sacrilege or does it really matter?

I was also toying with designing something unique and giving a nod to Honda:



...but I don't think I fancy it.

The heritage one would look the best IMO. Thoughts?

In the end I went fairly conservative but still fairly unique
unique in their own way. First set fitted this afternoon.

Nice

I’m looking forward to the next time I see your car Duncs. It looked good when it had just had the mechanical work done. Now you’ve done visuals too I can’t wait. I imagine you never intend to sell it?

Jobbo wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2024 6:09 pm I’m looking forward to the next time I see your car Duncs. It looked good when it had just had the mechanical work done. Now you’ve done visuals too I can’t wait. I imagine you never intend to sell it?

Not for a long time, and whenever that is it will be hard to part with it. It's kinda hard to think what I could replace it with in terms of a driving experience. It's pretty raw though so if anything it would be to get into something a bit more refined with more than two seats. I basically need to work harder so I can afford to have a 911 as a third car!

We need to start thinking about getting a meet sorted in the new year.

Plan is to get steering wheel and sill protectors re-trimmed and then probably a few other minor cosmetic bits, but it really feels like it's nearly there now.

Heater all back in and working properly. Works better than I remember it ever doing before. Blower is quieter and has more puff. Pretty pleased.

duncs; that has a factory option look to it
i_e; "Pretty pleased." You must have a warm feeling inside as well as out

A2 derv has a new mot, Yeti has Bilstein B4s all round.

Looks lovely Duncs, I particularly like the yellow diamond stitching

Also, nice work on replacing the heater matrix and the other "while you're there" jobs, Harry

duncs500 wrote: Sun Nov 17, 2024 4:33 pm First set fitted this afternoon.

Like.

Enough yellow to tie it together without being OTT.