OV9

Sundayjumper wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 8:34 pm This passed an MOT in January with just a (strong) advisory. My parents live in a village and the local garage is "generous" and "understanding" on MOTs for trusted customers, and with some of the older cars that's OK because, well, they're old cars. But this is not an old car and those brakes were potentially lethal

IanF wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 9:04 pm Think I averaged 19mpg in my pre LCI F10 M5 never really saw any better than 28/29...

Sundayjumper wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 9:16 pm

IanF wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 9:04 pm Think I averaged 19mpg in my pre LCI F10 M5 never really saw any better than 28/29...

That's handy to know, ta. Averages are a bit meaningless as they - obviously - depend very much on a person's "average" day. But "best" is going to be 60-70mph motorway and that's more repeatable between owners.

I'm still aiming for 30mpg even if I have to hypermile it.

Sundayjumper wrote: Mon Feb 23, 2026 8:30 pm Sunday. Figured I should check the brakes on the Merc.

A bit crusty on the outside:


IMG_6868.jpeg

mik wrote: Sat Dec 13, 2025 6:38 pm So I didn't mention that the exterior door handle on the drivers side failed whilst it was having the PPF done. It's been feeling pretty crunchy / inconsistent for some time, and I'd just ignored it.

Took the door card off, and the handle has "peeled apart" where the actuator rod goes into it.

New handles are actually cheap, but you do then need to get them painted of course. The internet however advised that the same handle is used on both driver and passenger side. Each handle has two arms, but only the rearmost arm takes the actuator rod.

The happy outcome of this is that I was able to therefore swap driver and passenger handles, which allowed both sides to present a "fresh" arm to the actuator rod.

I've seen images of Evora handles failing similarly on other cars however, so I mused over ways to add a little strength without compromising their movement > eventually opting to score the inner faces for purchase, and then fell the "voids" in the handles with hot-melt glue. If it does no good, it'll do no harm.....

Bad


Good


Fill de well

mik wrote: Tue Feb 24, 2026 12:48 pm

mik wrote: Sat Dec 13, 2025 6:38 pm So I didn't mention that the exterior door handle on the drivers side failed whilst it was having the PPF done. It's been feeling pretty crunchy / inconsistent for some time, and I'd just ignored it.

Took the door card off, and the handle has "peeled apart" where the actuator rod goes into it.

New handles are actually cheap, but you do then need to get them painted of course. The internet however advised that the same handle is used on both driver and passenger side. Each handle has two arms, but only the rearmost arm takes the actuator rod.

The happy outcome of this is that I was able to therefore swap driver and passenger handles, which allowed both sides to present a "fresh" arm to the actuator rod.

I've seen images of Evora handles failing similarly on other cars however, so I mused over ways to add a little strength without compromising their movement > eventually opting to score the inner faces for purchase, and then fell the "voids" in the handles with hot-melt glue. If it does no good, it'll do no harm.....

Bad


Good


Fill de well

Since I did this (back in December) I've been overly sensitised to the fact that the force required to pull the drivers door handle has remained higher than I remember it being in the past, and higher than the force required to open the passenger door. I lubed all the internal rods n shizzle when I was replacing the handle, so I assumed the lock internals were a bit sticky. Fired some lube in, but no different.

Whilst fiddling however, I noticed that if I was squeezing the door closed whilst I pulled on the exterior handle - the force to actuate it reduced noticably.

Body-mounted striker pin looked a bit dirty, so I got a small wire brush out and gave it a good all-round skritchin'. Which yielded more flakes of "cruddy shit" than I was expecting. All clean - slight smear of litium grease, and...... exterior handle now only requires a small force again. Dead simple - annoyed I didn't look there earlier - at the very least this must have contributed to the handle failing in the first place.....