My car history since April.

[twazzock]

This is what I've been up to cars-wise:

April this year, bought a Fiat Cinquecento Sporting. Haven't got any pictures but you know what it's like:


Here's a Streetview pic of it languishing on a drive a while before I got it:

A bright yellow box on wheels. It cost me £400 on eBay, from (allegedly) a Fiat mechanic of 12 years. Not bad condition; scraped arch, scabby wheels and a worn driver's seat but bearable. First car so I LOVED IT. It was great fun to drive: wonderfully zippy engine and nice steering feel, but bugger me did it roll. Even with lowered suspension it felt like it was going to fall over on mini-roundabouts, even without any particular enthusiasm. It also fell apart quite a lot. Turning on the interior light blew the fuse for the hazards, repeatedly. I hadn't even got it home when the exhaust baffling started making a bid for freedom... Slightly unnerving to see a length of 'hair' waving around in your rear view mirror. Gave the exhaust a crap drone too. Thankfully that didn't last long as the headgasket failed shortly after

I'd owned it for a grand total of three and a bit weeks. I did contemplate fixing it (even bought the parts!) but being as mechanically competent as the average elephant I ended up taking a few bits off then scrapping it.

So, I was pretty desperate for a replacement, and being a keen drinker and internettist, I spotted this and arranged to view it the next day:




Excuse the quality of the pictures, I don't usually take any unless I'm selling up. For the princely sum of £450 I bought this lovely Peugeot 205 from a nice chap in Newcastle. It was originally a 'Junior' 1124cc (that is, absolutely pov spec - the sort of thing even the average Ethiopian would be dismayed at). Thankfully it had had an XS lump (1360cc, 85bhp) dropped in at some point so it was rather lively (also had a few sportier suspension/brake stuff to match). The handling 'upgrades' were a bit of a bodge, especially the silly low rear-end, but fk me was it fun. Compared to the Fiat it felt even more direct and rather planted even! Engine was hilariously eager and a fair chunk quicker too... until the headgasket went .

This time it was rather sudden, at motorway speeds rather than the 2-day degradation of the Fiat. A couple of hours waiting for the RAC, wallet lightened by £90 because I was outside of the zone I was entitled, one very dead car and me feeling rather glum. Lifespan in my hands: dead on three weeks. Again, thought about fixing it, bought parts but then decided against it. Couldn't bring myself to scrap it so I sold it for £150. Gutted.

Now after this I decided to be more 'sensible', by which I mean 'turn into an old git'. I bought a diesel estate.

Citroen ZX to be precise. £425, eBay. Quite tidy, even had service history (a first!) In hindsight I should have looked a bit more closely at the history before buying it as it had been crashed twice in five years and there was no evidence of servicing in the last 8 years. No sign of a cambelt being done at all so I thought " I can do that!". So off I toddled to ECP and bought myself nigh-on £200 of various service parts, a Haynes manual, borrowed some tools and got cracking. Well, I think the right term is 'unmitigated disaster'. It took me the best part of 3 weeks thanks to my ineptitude. I won't go into too much detail though, let's just say I fked something up and the belt 'fell off' 8 miles later and took my engine with it.

Remains of cam:

Oh dear. Quite annoying. That one lasted about 5 weeks all in, but more than half of that was on my drive in pieces...

Didn't really know what to do with myself after that, eyed up an awful lot of crap on eBay and generally moped... until I did this:

YEAH MOTHERfkER, ANOTHER ONE! Spotted it in the remaining hour of an eBay auction. Nearby, looked OK and well-written ad. A steal for £300. Not really much to say about it; exactly the same as the last one (1.9 non-turbo diesel, as quick as Usain Bolt with his legs cut off, bland bland comfyish bland handles alright bland bland bland!) just with more life left in the clutch and working central locking. Oh, and it smelt like dogs.

Decided not to touch anything on that one, as I had travel plans which I'd already fked right up due to time and money spent on other crap cars!

So, I stacked it full of camping crap and took it round Scotland with a mate. Then we met another couple of chums in the Lakes. All very good fun and the car handled it superbly. It even made it over Wrynose pass (hilarious road, steepest in England) not once, but twice! The only time it caused any trouble was down to human error, like getting it stuck in an abandoned quarry whilst drunkenly arsing around...

Some pics:




Applecross^

Once that was done and dusted I crammed it full of my personal belongings and moved to uni. I also pilfered a load of parts off the old one that was sitting derelict on my mum's drive, and sent it to the great scrapyard in the sky (it's actually on the A1306):


Since then it's not really done a lot. I put some snazzy wheels on it though (but it still looks crap). Now on ebay if anyone's interested...


Even though I didn't drive it all that much by now, it was still boring me to death just knowing I owned a diesel estate at the age of 19, so I was going on eBay a fair bit more than is advisable, trigger finger itching for a bargain (well, it would be after just under 2 months of ownership!)

I investigated a lot of ste. Thankfully my last-minute bid on a Mk4 Escort estate was unsuccessful, as was the one on the Talbot Horizon. Spurred on by the recent SOTW (which I frantically tried to buy) I stuck a bid on a 106 Rallye just before it finished (at 11pm on a Monday )

£600 and it even has MOT. AWESOME. Went to Newcastle today to collect it and it's rather more sheddy than I imagined. Not too fussed about that (apart from the driver's seat which won't stay upright - no fun for 2 hours down the A1), but I think it's showing the early signs of headgasket failure

More info & pictures tomorrow.

That is my history of sheds. Hopefully it hasn't been too dull (christ, it's longer than I thought...)

Edited by twazzock on Wednesday 5th October 21:37

Edited by twazzock on Wednesday 5th October 21:38

Edited by twazzock on Wednesday 5th October 21:43

[mwstewart]

I'm sorry for your misfortune, but the way you recount the cam belt disaster really made me

[vrtrooper]

Going off your short history and money wasted, have you considered a bus pass?
Keep us all informed, I see trouble ahead.

[twazzock]

vrtrooper said:

Going off your short history and money wasted, have you considered a bus pass?
Keep us all informed, I see trouble ahead.

Funnily enough I used to have a bike as my 'reliable' backup transport. Except every single time I ride it it gets a puncture on the rear tyre

[vrtrooper]

Going off your short history and money wasted, have you considered a bus pass?
Keep us all informed, I see trouble ahead.

[roadend1981]

You made me laugh,keep us all updated,.

[TAHodgson]

Brilliant! Love how you've written this! Keep us all updated with the rallye, I take it's the S1 with that little 1.3 screamer? Always fancied one!

[twazzock]

It's actually an S2 (1.6 8v) - this one to be precise:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280747481022?ssPageName=...
(and yes, it screams, 7000rpm+ after a few months of dieseldom is fantastic

It doesn't look too terrible in the ad pictures, probably thanks to them being taken in the shade and on a camera phone, but reassuringly it's far worse in real life I've just realised that the ad has been written in the Rallye colours - classy touch.

I must say the seller was a nice enough bloke, certainly into his Peugeots. Bit dim though, he seems to have a habit of buying cars without checking the insurance first - this is the 12th he'd owned (he was 19) and he'd not driven a single one of them (no surprise as he was quoted £6k to insure the 106!)

I did absolutely kack myself at one point during the sale though. Shut the door on the car and -zzzzpp-, it locks. With the key and both fobs inside. bks. We all just look at each other dumbly, seller suggests I go and sort the tax out and he'll get it open. So I jump into a manky Transit with two of his workmates to go to the nearest Post Office. A few minutes into the journey something clicks in my head and I think 'st. st. He's got my cash, and the car, and the keys. st. What if he just locked it with a spare fob? Are these two grubby s going to kick the st out of me, take the tax and docs back and leave me in an alleyway? fk! st' Thankfully all was well, they were indeed uncouth bds but nice uncouth bds. I got back in one piece, car and seller still there. Apparently Peugeot 106s are laughably easy to break into without causing any damage.

Here are some pictures. Ostensibly it looks not bad but when you step a little closer it's pretty shoddy.



Pretty sure there should be something in that hole (and no paint on the gasket)...


Yes, that's a Ford (Fiesta) dipstick. I've got a new one on order.


And that pipe should be bolted to something too


Hmm, my ZX has a clippy/bracket thing holding the rad in place, this just wobbles around as it sees fit.



As does this


Lovely bit of grot.









I know I said it's a doss to break into them but whoever had a go at it before was clearly a fking mong:


That's the one and only position for the driver's seat. It's a instrument of fking torture on the motorway, I tells ya (fully sik around town though ) Need to fix/bodge it asap as I've got 350 miles to do over the weekend!


The puddle it left in 10 minutes parked outside GSF:

The spot I parked in last night looks like the gulf of Mexico...

No wonder the oil light is on:


I have topped up the oil since I got it home but it's not really gone out. It's either flickering or fully on. I have no idea how accurate it is thanks to the lack of dipstick. It's certainly leaking somewhere, but it also seems to be leaking upwards! After the first drive there was an arseload (or is it sumpload?) sprayed on the underside of the bonnet, enough that it had dripped down on to the airthingybob behind the cam cover. There was a little bit when I parked it up today but I only drove a few miles. Any idea where it's forcing its way out? I would have said dipstick but the top of the tube and place on the bonnet don't really seem to match up.

I bunged some K-Seal in it with the hope of nipping any potential HGF in the bud. Not sure it's done much. The only sign that the HG was going at all was moisture coming out of the exhaust. Now when I put my hand under it it doesn't feel damp as such, more sticky-ish? Smells like petrol too, maybe just running rich? Apparently it's got a 'chip' but there's a 'thing' in the engine bay which I suspect is a crappy fuel pressure regulator which is overfuelling it. Idles crap but they all do that, I need to clean/replace the ICV. Probably be the first thing I sort as it's a pain in the arse trying to idle through traffic, it's like having a learner driving what with all the kangarooing... Otherwise seems to run well.

As ever, apols 4 st pickhers. It was cold and windy and wet.

Edited by twazzock on Thursday 6th October 19:52

[omgus]

OP, this has really cheered me up. I forsee a little fun in the 106 then a trip back to the dark side (ZX).

I'm so glad to meet another person who has done the ZX thing twice, voluntarily.

[twazzock]

omgus said:

OP, this has really cheered me up. I forsee a little fun in the 106 then a trip back to the dark side (ZX).

I'm so glad to meet another person who has done the ZX thing twice, voluntarily.

I came pretty to close to doing it 3 times actually! Spotted a 16v for sale as spares/repairs (all it needed was new windows as some little stes had smashed them) for just £250, I'd offered to have it off him but the bd sold it to his mate for a track car That was just one of a string of cars I missed out on thanks to being too far away to shove cash in hands.

[omgus]

I have always wanted a 16v Volcane.

It's on the list of cars I have to own. And there are very few about nowadays.

[MC Bodge]

Looks as if you've got yourself a good project with that 106.

You'll have fun sorting out that exhaust stud.

[teddy87]

Head over to 106rallye.co.uk - £600 for a S2 is a bargain, even if in a sorry state!

[mig25_foxbat2003]

It's like you deliberately seek out the absolute snotters, and you'd be a bit disappointed if you accidentally bought a minter! Good read though mate :lol:

[MC Bodge]

mig25_foxbat2003 said:

It's like you deliberately seek out the absolute snotters

It's a great way to learn about repairing things.

[RevYob]

You going to deal with those rust patches before winter OP?

MC Bodge said:

It's a great way to learn about repairing things.

-looks at your username-


hmmm...

[twazzock]

vrtrooper said:

Keep us all informed, I see trouble ahead.

Astonishing prescience...

Got a call from a friend to say the window had been smashed. Had a look and found this:



Of course as soon as I got in and shut the door it became this:


And by the time I'd driven it off the road it looked like this (hard suspension + crappy car park):



fking wonderful. I'm all for a 'raw' experience but I've got 350 miles of non-fun A-road driving to do this weekend and this takes the piss a bit. If only whoever tinted the rears had bothered with the screen as well it might still be in vaguely one piece.

Probably shouldn't have parked it so close to the entrance to my uni halls (that's the gate on the right - the main entrance/exit route for hundreds of students in varying stages of inebriation) but it was the only space available at the time. If my uni actually had a vaguely fking logical policy on parking it would have been safely tucked away in the car park itself. Permit pricing is based on the tax band of the car in question and the bloke I spoke to wasn't even aware of the pre- and post-2001 system, let alone how to deal with my car, so just fobbed me off to a higher upper but I haven't had time to go and see them.

Oh, and my dipstick hasn't arrived yet so I've still no idea how much oil I have.

Edited by twazzock on Friday 7th October 14:45

[Chunkychucky]

fking s some people. Just goes to show how fking stupid they must have been if they tried, and failed, breaking into a 106, and they managed to cause considerable damage in the process. Although I suppose they could have been even more stupid and just done it out of spite.. Nice, varied history you've got there chap, and the thread, as previously pointed out, makes an entertaining read! Keep us posted

[RevYob]

fking arsewipes

Drunk students seem to love damaging cars for some reason. Seen it alot at the uni I'm at. Like running over the roofs of cars all parked up along the road, and stamping on the windscreens.

Called the police and no one showed up.


No 106s in the local scrappers? I imagine a rear tailgate wouldnt be anymore than £40, won't be matching colour but will do until you can get a new screen fitted at least. (And you can do your long journey at the weekend, more importantly)

[twazzock]

RevYob said:

No 106s in the local scrappers? I imagine a rear tailgate wouldnt be anymore than £40, won't be matching colour but will do until you can get a new screen fitted at least. (And you can do your long journey at the weekend, more importantly)

Didn't even think of that, cheers mate - just phoned a bloke who had one on eBay, going to collect it at 5.


I'm pretty sure it wasn't a failed robbery; even a malnourished student would have had the strength to push through the shattered window. Not that they'd have had much use a few 106 parts (you can't exactly wear them on your head). I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a couple of drunkards dicking around, falling into my car in their enthusiasm. I know of someone who's had that to happen their car, and may or may not have broken my own computer screen in a similar fashion

Anyway... No I don't deliberately buy stters! It's just a combination of meagre budget and no self-control! There is something about the challenge of a 'fixer-upper' too, even if I've yet to fix a single thing.

Not sure what to do about the rust. AFAIK it's not structural (going to have a more thorough check) and as it's covered by the arches shouldn't fail an MOT based on sharp edges. Cosmetics don't really fuss me but I'd like to see it gone if it can be done quite cheaply. But it'll probably cost me £70ish for two wings, plus the welding, and then paint. But then again, the boot has split where it meets the arch (again! Apparently it was fixed for the last MOT, must have been a great job...) so if I'm getting that welding done I might as well go all out. I may just pour all my money into making it handle sweetly instead.

Oh, and who said a varied collection? It's been PSA hatchbacks of the 90s ffs

Edited by twazzock on Friday 7th October 15:50