OV9

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri Jul 17, 2026 6:35 pm So have you been climbing in & out of the window - that rather fortunately does work now ?

No, the drivers door is just fine

I did have to extricate last nights pizza and cheap wine through the passenger window though.

Can someone send me an idiot award

So I put the Mito back together (new bearing). Still makes the same noise

Mito Man wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2026 5:11 pm Can someone send me an idiot award

So I put the Mito back together (new bearing). Still makes the same noise

Thank you.
Looking at the parts diagram there is another hearing on the left of the car - it’s a support bearing for the right hand driveshaft so I’ll have a poke at that next.

If that doesn’t fix it I’m cutting it in half. Back half of the car will be a nice sofa and the front bonnet 1/3 will be a nice Smeg style fridge.

To be fair calling yourself an idiot is quite unfair, if I’d attempted that I’d be stuffed as I don’t have a welder. Cars are the same as fixing boilers, it’s not always the obvious part

Yes, it’s just the frustration of spending a few hours doing nothing constructive.
Also changing the ABS sensor - never seen a car throw so many error messages once I turned it back on and got quite worried as it took 3 attempts to clear all the various errors!

Mito Man wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2026 7:00 pm Thank you.
Looking at the parts diagram there is another hearing on the left of the car - it’s a support bearing for the right hand driveshaft so I’ll have a poke at that next.

If that doesn’t fix it I’m cutting it in half. Back half of the car will be a nice sofa and the front bonnet 1/3 will be a nice Smeg style fridge.

I saw that the noise was there and came to say check the driveshaft support bearing

I did the same on our focus as the driveshaft bearing bracket was bolted to the block and made no noise at all, till I removed it and then you could hear it.

Dave!

Sundayjumper wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2026 4:11 pm I would honestly prefer to have the cloth/alcantara combo that BMW do in lesser models like 1 & 3 Series.

I have purchased some cloth/alcantara seats that BMW do in lesser models like 1 & 3 Series.

Sundayjumper wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2026 2:17 pm

Sundayjumper wrote: Mon Jun 22, 2026 4:11 pm I would honestly prefer to have the cloth/alcantara combo that BMW do in lesser models like 1 & 3 Series.

I have purchased some cloth/alcantara seats that BMW do in lesser models like 1 & 3 Series.


IMG_9360.jpeg

Are they for the M5?

Would they fit in an R53 (or whatever the supercharged ones are) MINI? Neighbour is after new seats and he's not a fan of leather because it's slippy.

Beany wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2026 6:53 pm Would they fit in an R53 (or whatever the supercharged ones are) MINI? Neighbour is after new seats and he's not a fan of leather because it's slippy.

I have never once had leather seats that were....slippy. Is he a particularly greasy fella?

I think the seats in the mini just aren't that well bucketed (or aren't for him - he's racing snake physique), so alcantara might be a better, less slidey-by-default solution. I really like the half-alcantara seats in the mondeo for those times I was going faster than the recommended speed on motorway sliproad corners. You know, high-G stuff, etc like wot real drivers do .

He running R888s or some other barely legal track tyres for the summer and coilovers that he's been tuning on backroads for a while, and he throws the car around a bit based on the videos he's shared. I did also suggest ("no offence, like, but....") that decent pro fast road/track tutoring would probably be more helpful than anything else, as it is for anyone, really. Technique trumps toys in most cases.

Beany wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2026 6:53 pm Would they fit in an R53 (or whatever the supercharged ones are) MINI? Neighbour is after new seats and he's not a fan of leather because it's slippy.

Err, don’t know but I doubt it. Quite different cars.

Jobbo wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2026 6:31 pm Are they for the M5?

Probably not. They’re currently attached to the 118d I bought this morning so I’ll trying driving that for a bit.

Good to see it’s monochrome but your silver fetish is slipping.

Yeah, it's not deliberate, it's just been cars at the right price / right time / not a colour I hate. F10 M5s (AFAIK) didn't come in Titanium Silver, only Silverstone Silver, which has a blue tinge that I don't like. Same problem on 360s with Grigio Alloy. A good deal came up on my Grigio Titanio one and I told myself it's almost silver and bought it I wasn't planning on buying an M5 but I had money from the sale of the Disco burning a hole and was browsing (as you do) and it was cheap & looked nice in the photos so I bought it. If I'd been more careful I think I would have gone for Singapore Grey. And now the 118d, I was looking for super-cheap running costs. £35 VED & 70mpg, it's a facelift so it has the B47 instead of the slightly dodgy N47, for comfortably under £2k. Silver would have been nice but it's Sapphire Black the same as the M5 so at least they're both identically not-silver !

Minor downside to the 118d is that apparently I'm unable to buy anything these day without a hilarious mechanical problem It has a common problem with the ABS valve block that causes the brakes to bind on. Basically it's not letting the fluid flow back properly when you release the brakes. So you apply the brakes, they stay on. It was only a four mile drive home from the seller in Bracknell but we had a quite alarming cloud of smoke following us most of the way I'll get a replacement, it's not a hard job, but does require coding which seems to scare normal people. Apart from that it seems quite nice.

Sundayjumper wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 8:20 am A good deal came up on my Grigio Titanio one

My Caterham is Grigio Titanio too, have you found a decent touch up paint match or don’t you let such details bother you?