OV9

The farmer next door gets random visits to his warehouse since he was was caught a while back but they still dip his trucks.

We're all towing experts nowadays, eh ?

For my own peace of mind I checked the handbook for my car and all models of F10 / F11 are 2000kg except the 523i manual which is 1900kg because it's pathetic.

The Touareg, like most big 4x4s, is rated at 3500kg but that's because you're not allowed over 3500kg without coupled brakes and those aren't often fitted to passenger vehicles. I'm sure it's physically capable of pulling a lot more.

Anecdotally, when the Traffic Police used to use classic Range Rovers, one of those could tow a stricken artic (slowly!) if necessary to get it off the motorway.

E53 4.8is has a smaller towing capacity (2700kg), it's perfectly fine for what I'll tow but less than I imagined and less than similarly sized SUVs. Weirdly if you have the run-out models with a few extra options as standard they're rated at 2300kg which is daft when most owners would have taken those options on the other ones anyway.

Other fleet news...

The 530d reached 90k miles last week. Nothing happened. In fact, apart from a failed screen wash pump that got replaced under warranty, nothing interesting has happened since I bought it in Jan last year. I'm still not finding it entirely comfortable. I like the car but I don't love it. My E39 despite all its faults was nicer to drive.

The Touareg definitely has a slow leak from the front suspension. But I rarely use it so it's not high on my priorities.

I drove the Aston to work on Monday. Nothing happened.

I drove the Porsche to work on Tuesday. Nothing happened. It reminded me how big & heavy the other cars are though. I need to use it more often.

The Compact is still wearing the mud from the last event. I need to change the suspension before the next Autosolo - lower springs and reinstate the ARBs.

Ste told me to buy a X5 to tow, it’s my defence against anything going wrong in future.

Sundayjumper wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 10:50 am We're all towing experts nowadays, eh ?

I'm now a google expert on Grand Vitaras at least; mine still doesn't have a tow bar

One thing I didn't consider about a convertible car: I need to buy more sunscreen. The skin is basically peeling off my entire head.

Explosive Newt wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 11:52 am One thing I didn't consider about a convertible car: I need to buy more sunscreen. The skin is basically peeling off my entire head.

Yeah, that can be a thing. You could always get a beanie for longer trips

Explosive Newt wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 11:52 am One thing I didn't consider about a convertible car: I need to buy more sunscreen. The skin is basically peeling off my entire head.

Yep, sometimes it can to too hot to have the roof down wear a hat. I recommend a Bowler.

Surely BoyBandHair is an adequate protection for you all?

Explosive Newt wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 11:52 am One thing I didn't consider about a convertible car: I need to buy more sunscreen. The skin is basically peeling off my entire head.

Definitely get a hat. I drove soft tops (including 3 Boxsters - good choice) for about 35 years and ended up being treated for a type of skin cancer two years ago. All seems OK currently though. Enjoy your car.

My dad's best mate had an epileptic fit after driving to Le Mans with the roof down on his 993. Take it seriously

mik wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 2:02 pm Surely BoyBandHair is an adequate protection for you all?

Works for me.

Plus not being ginger.

evostick wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 2:13 pm Subaru is going back to the dealer with suspected HGF.

People warned me that the 2.5l petrol was no good.

I should've listened. At least it's still under warranty. Think I'll get shot when it's fixed.

The subaru dealer have admitted it's HGF. Today they rang up claiming that warranty co. (RAC branded outfit), were insisting that we foot the bill to have the engine out prior to them upholding, or otherwise, the warranty claim. i.e Can we have £2k up front please?.

A quick call to the warranty co. confirms this is utter bullshit and they'd only asked to see a vid of the bubbles in the coolant reservoir

UPDATE

E53 4.8is

It became apparent that one of the cats had broken down and was blocking the exhaust from the near-side bank of the engine. As a temporary measure the cat was cut open, the debris removed and the 'inspection panel' welded back up.





It runs much better without the exhaust blockage and it's booked in to have both cats swapped for high-flow ones when it has the rest of the exhaust work done.

Recently the offside angel-eyes / halos stopped working. Interestingly the car turns the turn-signal on to act as a DLR when the halos aren't working. I inspected and found they'd been previously replaced withh LED ones. From the factory this age car wouldn't have had LEDs, but I prefer the crisper white light so replaced both sides with new white LEDs to make sure the colour matched.





The exhaust on this car sounds great, but there's not much induction noise. I've looked at carbon airboxes etc but nobody seems to make an off-the-shelf one for this car, plus I want to keep things looking OEM in the main, with subtle improvements where I think they'll add to the bus, OEM+ essentially. So I decided to modify the existing airbox by opening up the cold / dirty side of the box to allow more induction noise.





Done, it has slightly more of a bark on induction and looking in the bonnet still looks completely standard.



So I've carried on driving it about using it as my daily driver. It's a really good place to be, comfortable, a nice size, makes all the right noises and is quick enough to not be boring. The one big eyesore though was still the wheels.



I eventually found a place in West London that do exchange wheels. You drive to them, they have a set of refurbished wheels waiting and they swap your tyres onto your wheels and on to your car. They added a small surcharge to deal with the chrome nightmare mine were under the grey paint.





With that done it's all looking a bit less Birmingham gangster than it was when I bought it. There are still things to sort out, but it's getting there. To most people I want it to just look like a well-kept standard car, but to those that know, they'll spot that it sits better and has some subtle improvements. I gave it it's first proper clean and took some snaps of the progress.













Because of my past history of swapping cars every month, usually when I've just sorted them out everyone has assumed this means I'm obviously now selling it... However it still does exactly what I bought it for really well and I'm enjoying using it. So it's here to stay and I'll carry on with the improvements and it'll carry on working hauling bikes about.

Silver wheels are a huge improvement.

Rich B wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2019 12:11 pm Silver wheels are a huge improvement.

Very much so

I eventually found a place in West London that do exchange wheels. You drive to them, they have a set of refurbished wheels waiting and they swap your tyres onto your wheels and on to your car. They added a small surcharge to deal with the chrome nightmare mine were under the grey paint.

This is interesting, I assume labour is charged for the swappage, but are there other charges? I expect it's a lot more convenient than buying spare wheels/cleaning up old ones/selling old ones.

Just looked up that place - my wheels need a refurb and the idea of a drive in drive out service is pretty appealing (especially as I have diamond cut wheels).

It’s a single cost unless your existing wheels are particularly bad.

Mine would be £450, yours would be about £300.