Your fleet running reports

[GG.]

911 is going to need a set of new boots soon. Just worked out the mileage since I put them on and its around 11 or 12k I believe. There's probably another 1,000 miles in them before they're down to the wear bars too... though they are showing cracking in the rubber where the sidewall meets the bottom of the tread blocks.

Not bad really, considering though I guess the percentage of low speed town driving probably helps.

[GG.]

More details please.

I think I am falling out of love with the 911 a bit. All the way up to 997 still look great, but I was looking at a 992 the other day and it looked mahoosive. Not trying to argue that they are anything other than hugely capable, but..... losing their appeal for me.

I have a little finance remaining on mine which is all done next year. The only thing which would tempt me as regards newer metal would be a manual 991.1 GTS (assuming the electric power steering is not a deal breaker) - the styling of the base 991.1 isn't hugely appealing and turbos are a no which rules out the later cars rather than size per se.

Due to the rarity of manual GTSs, price wise its either that or keep the 997 and buy a 993 Carrera/928S2. Just wondering how much I'd use two cars though and the 928 is pretty much impossible to find in a manuel and also probably too old to leave uncovered and on the street...

[Beany]

...and turbos are a no which rules out the later cars rather than size per se.

That said, the turbos mean 500+ bhp is a remap away. Even on a base Carrera, apparently

Ah, you're talking about 991s, not 992s, disregard.

[integrale_evo]

The constantly ballooning 911s is why an early narrow body 996 still appeals. They look tiny compared to most modern cars.

It seems since the 993 they expand the arches for the special ones, then widen the middle to fill the gap for the next one, and raise the engine cover a bit. Repeat for the next few generations and although the changes are only incremental they lead to it shifting into a completely different bracket.

I’m sure on paper they’re not that much bigger, it’s just the added all round bulk makes them look it.

[Broccers]

Got a last min evening session at donington for monday. Thinking about insurance and not to bother - dont plan on beating any lap records and know it pretty well so may just chance it.

[mik]

One of the number plate bulbs on the ‘vora died. It doesn’t make sense to replace normal “festoon” bulbs when LED replacements are so easily available (and whiterer and brighterer), so £4.50 for a pair of canbus friendly eBay bulbs it is. They look pretty nasty, and are supposed to be 36mm long, but are probably closer to 34mm, but seem to do the job (with a little tweak to the sprung bulb holders)

Before n after comparison.

[Mito Man]

I’m a fucking berk

My locking wheel nut adaptor got stuck in the nut and with the deeper socket recess M5 wheels I didn’t notice it. So lost my wheel nut adaptor somewhere on the road. It took a trip to the tyre fitter and looking at my old photo to realise
Can just make out the shiny fecker here.


So some phone calls later and someone went to BMW to get their box of adaptor keys and now they’re back and working on it

I want to do the Homer Simpson thing of disappearing into a bush. How fucking embarrassing.

[mik]

I definitely didn’t do the same thing with the locknut key for mrs mik’s RX8.

Luckily the history left by the first owner included the code needed to just buy a new key. Or it would have been lucky if I’d needed to do it. But I didn’t. OK?

[Mito Man]

BMW said the part number is NLA/discontinued but there’s a CAT Automotive opposite which have a new set of locking wheel nuts fortunately. £30 for being a numpty.

[Rich B]

My local bmw specialist has a big tray with loads of locking wheel nut keys - I think they've had to use it once with me!

[Beany]

That's pretty good, but not as good as the time I topped up the oil in the Puma, got distracted by something, and then drove to the supermarket.... Then smelled burning oil.

Clever boy hadn't put the oil filler cap back on

By dumb luck the cap had wedged itself behind the headlight, so sorted out immediately, but still, by a wide margin the dumbest thing I've done with a car

[mik]

I definitely haven’t done that either. Not with my Strada, driving into uni. Up the motorway.

If I had done that the oil would have been sprayed feckin everywhere as the filler cap sat above one of the cam lobes.

[Marv]

I left the locking wheel nut on one one the wheels on my Golf years ago. When I realised, I searched about a mile of road trying to find it. No sign of it. It had fallen off about 5 meters away from where I changed the wheel. Hard to spot as it was on a a gravel driveway!

[duncs500]

I left the locking wheel nut on one one the wheels on my Golf years ago. When I realised, I searched about a mile of road trying to find it. No sign of it. It had fallen off about 5 meters away from where I changed the wheel. Hard to spot as it was on a a gravel driveway!

Pretty much same thing happened to me, never found it, bought a new one and then weeks later I saw one of the neighbours must have found it and it was left on a ledge near the garages.

[McSwede]

That's pretty good, but not as good as the time I topped up the oil in the Puma, got distracted by something, and then drove to the supermarket.... Then smelled burning oil.

Clever boy hadn't put the oil filler cap back on

By dumb luck the cap had wedged itself behind the headlight, so sorted out immediately, but still, by a wide margin the dumbest thing I've done with a car

I did the same and drove from N.Yorkshire to Lincoln in my Fiat Tipo. Didn't realise until oil light came on. What a mess under the bonnet. The rear of the car was covered in a fine mist of oil too. Took some bloody cleaning too. Like you, my filler cap got wedged somewhere luckily.

[V8Granite]

Not being funny but mistakes like that are why you shouldn’t be doing stuff yourselves. That could have gone through a windscreen........









My own locking wheelnut snafoo was ok as I remembered on the dual carriageway and pulled up a slip road and popped it back in the box

I did once do the valve clearances on the on the Defender, did a test drive and all was fine so decided to go to Go-Outdoors and grab something. When I stopped I heard a very slight clunk so investigated.

My angle headed Kennedy ratchet, 12” one, had fallen on the floor. So the ratchet had spent the last 9 miles doing an average of around 2500rpm on the bottom pulley bolt. I still use it and it still works great

Dave!

[Beany]

I'll grant you, that's quite impressive

[Marv]

Not being funny but mistakes like that are why you shouldn’t be doing stuff yourselves. That could have gone through a windscreen........

Meh, sometimes the "professionals" do worse. I've had mechanics leave gloves in the engine compartment before. Everyone makes mistakes.

[scotta]

Not being funny but mistakes like that are why you shouldn’t be doing stuff yourselves. That could have gone through a windscreen........

Meh, sometimes the "professionals" do worse. I've had mechanics leave gloves in the engine compartment before. Everyone makes mistakes.

Honda main dealer left the coolant cap off on my accord..Found it jammed between the bonnet and the windscreen.

[duncs500]

So called 'specialist' totally fucked up the coolant hose change on my 7. Several were not tight and leaking.