Your fleet running reports

[integrale_evo]

An afternoon of changing pads today.
Rears on the X5


All very pleasant, nothing seized, didn’t cut my wrists open, it even stayed sunny and I worked in an old tatty £5 t-shirt

What year X5 is it?

The whole layout looks virtually identical to my first gen X5. Good luck to anyone wanting to get that hub nut off though

[Mito Man]

2009. Identical to the next generation too.
Funny thing, rear brake pads also had Rolls Royce Phantom listed on them - you'd think it would be under braked for a much heavier Phantom!

[Matty]

Just clocked over 55k now on the best car I've owned.

6 years old, never failed to start, thrown an error light or broken down - other than oil changes (and a few tyres thanks to potholes) its still as it left the factory, brake pads, bulbs, battery and all.

If you need an entertaining little city runner to run on pennies, highly recommended.

[Jobbo]

It’s nearly a year since I got my S6. About 24k miles done. I’ve discovered that you can turn off the lane keep assist by holding down the button at the end of the indicator stalk - I knew that turned on and off the lane following function when using adaptive cruise (single press) but had no idea it also turned off the basic lane keeping by holding it down. Thanks to Ma Twatson and his YouTube video about his new RS7 for showing me that.

[Jimexpl]

Started up the red Land Rover and brought it out of the shed for the first time in a least two years. I’d forgotten how healthy the engine sounds.

Eight years of almost zero use meant that it had no brakes. Half a litre of fluid later and it had a bit of pedal and a drip from the osr caliper.
I’m going to put some forward facing rear seats in it and use it for my London daily driver over the summer.

Photo from the last time it ever saw any use (in 2016) as I didn’t take one yesterday.

IMG_0803.jpeg (91.3 KiB) Viewed 442 times

Drive it around the fields for a while and taught my five year old how to use the hydraulic winch - essential life skills…

[duncs500]

First track outing for the Elise, it went well, and didn't miss a beat. I chose Snetterton, which I think was a good choice because the noise limits are quite high, and actually I really enjoyed the track too (plus plenty of run off).

YK was on my mind, I'd probably be doing this kind of thing with him.

Still, it was a fun day.

[Sundayjumper]

A bit tight on headroom there eh ?

[Sundayjumper]

Next big job is the saggy headliner.

This is just one of the large overheads you have to expect on a Bentley

[integrale_evo]

Have spent the long weekend changing the clutch, fitting a new metal pivot pin to replace the rubbish plastic ones, changed all the metal hard lines for the rear brakes and changed all the hoses for braided ones with stainless fittings.

Also cleaned up a few crusty brackets, bent a couple of things back into their correct shape, and made some repairs to some of the heat shields where the steel mounting screws had corroded through the aluminium.

Not been able to test it all yes as I found the propshaft guibo starting to crack and seems daft bolting it all back up then having to take it all back off again. Hopefully the replacement arrives swiftly.

Also managed to snap all four manifold to downpipe studs. Rather than taking the manifold off I bought some decent drill bits to try and drill them out in place.

Good god, have you ever tried to decide what drill bits to buy without having any personal experience to go on? I swear every single set no matter what the price or brand will have several people saying they’re great, and others saying they’re terrible

Bought a dewalt set because they were discounted, but still the most expensive bits I’ve ever bought. Going nice and steady with the occasional squirt of lubricant I was through all four way quicker than I could have taken the manifold off to even begin trying to get the studs out.

[KiwiDave]

Genuine Q - in normal driving do you find the wind over the top of the windscreen hits your eyes? I have that issue in Elises and MX5s and I don't think my head is sitting much higher than yours? How tall are you?

[mik]

First track outing for the Elise, it went well, and didn't miss a beat.

YK was on my mind, I'd probably be doing this kind of thing with him.

Just noticed your plate

And yeah re YK.

[duncs500]

Genuine Q - in normal driving do you find the wind over the top of the windscreen hits your eyes? I have that issue in Elises and MX5s and I don't think my head is sitting much higher than yours? How tall are you?

No, I think my crash helmet is quite chunky, in reality I don't get any wind in my face in normal driving, I can just feel it at the tips of my hair if I don't have a hat on. I'm about 6ft, but short legs and long back. I might put a bit of rake on the seat to bring my head down, but it feels pretty good where it is.

[Sundayjumper]

Good god, have you ever tried to decide what drill bits to buy without having any personal experience to go on? I swear every single set no matter what the price or brand will have several people saying they’re great, and others saying they’re terrible

Have you ever asked a forum what oil you should use ? Same

Going nice and steady with the occasional squirt of lubricant I was through all four way quicker than I could have taken the manifold off to even begin trying to get the studs out.

It took me WAY longer than it should have done to understand this. The hours I've wasted with blunt drill bits, blunted because I didn't use any lubricant.

Which oil did you use ?

[V8Granite]

I use a HSS centre point but when I need to start a hole in something important. It only let me down when trying to drill out the studs in the TT Cats as they were the hardest thing I’ve ever had to drill. We even set it up on a mill and it was chirruping like crazy as the bit was just skipping over the surface.

I have a bottle of gloopy cutting oil for when I need to tap a thread so I use that. Gives a lovely clean thread.

Dave!

[DeskJockey]

Galaxy has lost one of the exhaust rubber hanger thingies, which is a tad annoying as we've just arrived in Paris for a week away.

There is also an intermittent vibration that I need to figure out when we're back home.

[John]

Four new spherical bush/bearings fitted to the rear of the Mazda this morning and we now have silent suspension again

I'd forgotten what fun removing and fitting bushes and then lining up all the various under tension suspension components was

[NGRhodes]

Treated Steve to a few parts.
Struts cost less than the bits of plastic (covers for where the roof bars bolt on).
Hopefully weather holds out to finish off the dashcam wiring tomorrow.
Steve also needs tyres rotating (continental cross contact, which are mild off road tyres).

[Sundayjumper]

Steve also needs rotating

This is still incredibly confusing.

[Beany]

Steve also needs rotating

This is still incredibly confusing.

Have you tried doing the hokey cokey to see if that helps?

[Sundayjumper]

You’re asking if I’ve got something to put in, then out, repeatedly?