Discussion
Driveway CSI today I have made a couple of discoveries.
1/ Shell V-Power is worth the extra. I did 376 miles on £50 of normal 95 Ron Shell petrol in my Bravo today but would normally get 410-ish from £50 of V-Power.
2/ When you are in a car for close to eight hours with the rear seats folded down your farts accumulate in the back. You discover this when you open the tailgate at journeys end.
1/ Shell V-Power is worth the extra. I did 376 miles on £50 of normal 95 Ron Shell petrol in my Bravo today but would normally get 410-ish from £50 of V-Power.
2/ When you are in a car for close to eight hours with the rear seats folded down your farts accumulate in the back. You discover this when you open the tailgate at journeys end.
Liquid Knight said:
1/ Shell V-Power is worth the extra. I did 376 miles on £50 of normal 95 Ron Shell petrol in my Bravo today but would normally get 410-ish from £50 of V-Power.
I agree. I've only ever found good results from using V-Power in all my cars, and:Liquid Knight said:
2/ When you are in a car for close to eight hours with the rear seats folded down your farts accumulate in the back. You discover this when you open the tailgate at journeys end.
Where it all began.
The first Driveway CSI from seven years ago today.
I drove my Subaru Justy through a puddle, she fired on two (out of three) for long enough for fuel vapor to build up in the back box and as the wet HT was drying it fired out of sequence sending a flame down the exhaust blowing the back box wide open.
Hilarious at the time and she sounded like a proper Subaru the rest of the way home.
As I was to find out later Subaru Justy parts are near impossible to find so I ended up using a back box from my MGB and two ninety degree bends.
The first Driveway CSI from seven years ago today.
I drove my Subaru Justy through a puddle, she fired on two (out of three) for long enough for fuel vapor to build up in the back box and as the wet HT was drying it fired out of sequence sending a flame down the exhaust blowing the back box wide open.
Hilarious at the time and she sounded like a proper Subaru the rest of the way home.
As I was to find out later Subaru Justy parts are near impossible to find so I ended up using a back box from my MGB and two ninety degree bends.
Driveway CSI today is a bit of a valet job...
...the classic...
This time it was a Fiat Seicento SX, 2001, three owners from new, 45,000 miles, no advisories for the last MOT and only £110 (haggled down from £150 before I saw it).
The MOT expired in October and I think the last one was a favor.
So with a total budget of £300 (so I could sell the car before Christmas for £400-495 and use the profit for more Jesus's birthday presents) I had a closer look.
All four tyres needed replacing, the fronts were bald and the rears were cracked.
The rear brakes didn't work and the hand brake was useless, new cable, shoes and/or cylinders.
The drivers side rear wheel bearing was shot and had about ten degrees of play.
The back box had a "slight leak"...
...about as slight as an MI6 laptop left on a tube train.
Interior vents were either missing or smashed due to cheap clip on air fresheners.
No spare wheel.
But the car cleaned up nicely.
Car £110
MOT £40
Tyres £110-£130
Exhaust £60
Wheel bearings £60 (no point only doing one side and the rear brakes need to come apart anyway).
Brakes £50-£110 depending on what needs replacing/doing.
Total £510 on the high side £210 more than my budget would accommodate.
Any other month and with fewer projects to consider I would have bought it and done something more fun (I have a 1242cc engine, rally cam' and DIY roll cage kit from the Cinquecento in my shed) but it's better to check these things over before jumping into it.
...the classic...
My mate Kev said:
Would you be interested in X for £Y? I'll drop it round for you to look at.
...knowing I will not look over a car before cleaning it first. This time it was a Fiat Seicento SX, 2001, three owners from new, 45,000 miles, no advisories for the last MOT and only £110 (haggled down from £150 before I saw it).
The MOT expired in October and I think the last one was a favor.
So with a total budget of £300 (so I could sell the car before Christmas for £400-495 and use the profit for more Jesus's birthday presents) I had a closer look.
All four tyres needed replacing, the fronts were bald and the rears were cracked.
The rear brakes didn't work and the hand brake was useless, new cable, shoes and/or cylinders.
The drivers side rear wheel bearing was shot and had about ten degrees of play.
The back box had a "slight leak"...
...about as slight as an MI6 laptop left on a tube train.
Interior vents were either missing or smashed due to cheap clip on air fresheners.
No spare wheel.
But the car cleaned up nicely.
Car £110
MOT £40
Tyres £110-£130
Exhaust £60
Wheel bearings £60 (no point only doing one side and the rear brakes need to come apart anyway).
Brakes £50-£110 depending on what needs replacing/doing.
Total £510 on the high side £210 more than my budget would accommodate.
Any other month and with fewer projects to consider I would have bought it and done something more fun (I have a 1242cc engine, rally cam' and DIY roll cage kit from the Cinquecento in my shed) but it's better to check these things over before jumping into it.
Update. I've been offered the Seicento for £60
Tempting.
My American friend has a Volvo M90 gearbox with a broken slave cylinder mount...
...it looks like the slave has been stuck, hit with a hammer and broken the slide mount when changed in the past. From the looks of it the damage was done ages ago and it has been working perfectly since.
So for this International Driveway CSI we have four options as I see it...
1/ Leave it. It's been fine so it should stay that way.
2/ Cut a bit of Aluminium pipe to fit the gap and weld it in place.
3/ Replace the slave with a cold bar and weld layers from both sides until the new metal meets in the middle.
4/ Cut the same bit out of a scrap gearbox and weld it in place.
I have some cast Aluminium welding rods I bought to repair a cracked Fiat Panda distributor and such a remote spot shouldn't cause heat damage to the rest of the bell housing or box so welding is a viable option.
Tempting.
My American friend has a Volvo M90 gearbox with a broken slave cylinder mount...
...it looks like the slave has been stuck, hit with a hammer and broken the slide mount when changed in the past. From the looks of it the damage was done ages ago and it has been working perfectly since.
So for this International Driveway CSI we have four options as I see it...
1/ Leave it. It's been fine so it should stay that way.
2/ Cut a bit of Aluminium pipe to fit the gap and weld it in place.
3/ Replace the slave with a cold bar and weld layers from both sides until the new metal meets in the middle.
4/ Cut the same bit out of a scrap gearbox and weld it in place.
I have some cast Aluminium welding rods I bought to repair a cracked Fiat Panda distributor and such a remote spot shouldn't cause heat damage to the rest of the bell housing or box so welding is a viable option.
Liquid Knight said:
Driveway CSI today I have made a couple of discoveries.
1/ Shell V-Power is worth the extra. I did 376 miles on £50 of normal 95 Ron Shell petrol in my Bravo today but would normally get 410-ish from £50 of V-Power.
2/ When you are in a car for close to eight hours with the rear seats folded down your farts accumulate in the back. You discover this when you open the tailgate at journeys end.
Hmm your are buying 10% less fuel buying £50 of vpower rather than unleaded, and you are saying you got roughly 10% more miles with 10% less fuel.1/ Shell V-Power is worth the extra. I did 376 miles on £50 of normal 95 Ron Shell petrol in my Bravo today but would normally get 410-ish from £50 of V-Power.
2/ When you are in a car for close to eight hours with the rear seats folded down your farts accumulate in the back. You discover this when you open the tailgate at journeys end.
So you are asking us to believe vpower is giving you a twenty percent improvement on range.
I don't think so. Even the most optimistic figures on the net show a possible but unreproducible 5% difference.
I think you just like vpower.
julian64 said:
Liquid Knight said:
Driveway CSI today I have made a couple of discoveries.
1/ Shell V-Power is worth the extra. I did 376 miles on £50 of normal 95 Ron Shell petrol in my Bravo today but would normally get 410-ish from £50 of V-Power.
2/ When you are in a car for close to eight hours with the rear seats folded down your farts accumulate in the back. You discover this when you open the tailgate at journeys end.
Hmm your are buying 10% less fuel buying £50 of vpower rather than unleaded, and you are saying you got roughly 10% more miles with 10% less fuel.1/ Shell V-Power is worth the extra. I did 376 miles on £50 of normal 95 Ron Shell petrol in my Bravo today but would normally get 410-ish from £50 of V-Power.
2/ When you are in a car for close to eight hours with the rear seats folded down your farts accumulate in the back. You discover this when you open the tailgate at journeys end.
So you are asking us to believe vpower is giving you a twenty percent improvement on range.
I don't think so. Even the most optimistic figures on the net show a possible but unreproducible 5% difference.
I think you just like vpower.
Pretty slow week for me. I've advertised my Spider as a potential Christmas gift. Had a few calls but people are generally stupid this time of year.
Done another three hundred miles in my Bravo to collect an M90 gearbox for my mates race car. That was collected by FedEx and will be in America by Monday.
I'm thinking of taking my Spider to work Sunday and swapping the fuse box for the new one. Not much else to do.
Merry character in a book's birthday if you're into that sort of thing.
Done another three hundred miles in my Bravo to collect an M90 gearbox for my mates race car. That was collected by FedEx and will be in America by Monday.
I'm thinking of taking my Spider to work Sunday and swapping the fuse box for the new one. Not much else to do.
Merry character in a book's birthday if you're into that sort of thing.
Driveway CSI today and we now have a silent running Seicento.
It would have been quicker to fit a new Seicento box but I had a Punto one in my shed, grinder and welder.
So I had to cut the original box off, make a link pipe to the front of the Punto box, cut off and invert the tail pipe, fabricate a couple of brackets and weld the lot together.
New Seicento exhaust £50-70 plus 30-60 minutes fitting.
Cut and shut Punto box £0.00 plus an hour and ten minutes.
It would have been quicker to fit a new Seicento box but I had a Punto one in my shed, grinder and welder.
So I had to cut the original box off, make a link pipe to the front of the Punto box, cut off and invert the tail pipe, fabricate a couple of brackets and weld the lot together.
New Seicento exhaust £50-70 plus 30-60 minutes fitting.
Cut and shut Punto box £0.00 plus an hour and ten minutes.
Final Driveway CSI of 2016
A Fiat Panda that belongs to a friend of mine had a moment the other night when the throttle stuck open and appears to be fine now.
Driving in freezing fog, parking up and sticky throttle on the way home? The Panda version of carb' icing.
I hope you all have a great 2017
Well a less bodgy dodgy one at least.
A Fiat Panda that belongs to a friend of mine had a moment the other night when the throttle stuck open and appears to be fine now.
Driving in freezing fog, parking up and sticky throttle on the way home? The Panda version of carb' icing.
I hope you all have a great 2017
Well a less bodgy dodgy one at least.
One of my resolutions this year was to be less sadistic. That didn't last. A chap was going on about his turbo and how replacing the intercooler with a charge cooler hasn't made much difference.
I told him that charge coolers reduce the temperature of the electricity so the spark plugs work better.
This is what happens when you pay someone to work on your car instead of doing it yourself. He believed me until he Google'd with his phone.
I told him that charge coolers reduce the temperature of the electricity so the spark plugs work better.
This is what happens when you pay someone to work on your car instead of doing it yourself. He believed me until he Google'd with his phone.
Historical Driveway CSI from last year.
Driving on my way to work I encountered a Vauxhall Zafira broken down half way up a hill. Typically it was a snapped timing belt.
Nothing I could do to help apart from roll it down the hill and push it safely off the road and make sure the drivers husband was on his way.
Driving on my way to work I encountered a Vauxhall Zafira broken down half way up a hill. Typically it was a snapped timing belt.
Nothing I could do to help apart from roll it down the hill and push it safely off the road and make sure the drivers husband was on his way.
I've upset someone with Driveway CSI today.
"It's taken me all weekend to do the wishbones on my Alfa GTV".
Really? Why?
"It took forever to get the new one lined up to the back bolt".
Oh I see. Next time when you take the upright out place a bar across the hole and use a ratchet strap to hold the anti-roll bar out of the way; then use a spare bolt with the threads ground off as an alignment tool.
"Are you serious?"
Yep, it takes about half an hour each side.
"GIT!"
"It's taken me all weekend to do the wishbones on my Alfa GTV".
Really? Why?
"It took forever to get the new one lined up to the back bolt".
Oh I see. Next time when you take the upright out place a bar across the hole and use a ratchet strap to hold the anti-roll bar out of the way; then use a spare bolt with the threads ground off as an alignment tool.
"Are you serious?"
Yep, it takes about half an hour each side.
"GIT!"
Similar story here this morning. I've just started breaking my mx5 and a mate came round to start nicking some trim bits, I was just setting to work on the rear drive shaft nuts.
Mate: ha, you'll never get them off, they are tight as f
k. I had car in 5th and Mrs standing on the brakes and couldn't do it. Ended up at a garage in the end.
Me: did you send a screwdriver down that little lip in the collar to bend it out the way?, it's a locking mechanism.... (proceeds to whip nuts off with windy gun).
Mate: I'm leaving now you bd!
Mate: ha, you'll never get them off, they are tight as f
k. I had car in 5th and Mrs standing on the brakes and couldn't do it. Ended up at a garage in the end. Me: did you send a screwdriver down that little lip in the collar to bend it out the way?, it's a locking mechanism.... (proceeds to whip nuts off with windy gun).
Mate: I'm leaving now you b
d!
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