The Joy of Running an Old Shed

[S100HP]

gman88667733 said:

So my up and down relationship with my CRV continues... it has a clear fault (the car jolts a bit a second or so after taking your foot off the accelerator pedal) the garage say they can't notice it so far. I am not a huge fan of the car, but I am sure it'll go on for a good while yet as its only on 94k miles and is the 'reliable' petrol model. Do I.... if all else fails, ignore the issue, drive the car for a year or so and get my moneys worth then shift it, or do I persue getting the issue sorted and take a hit with whatever the bill is and then keep the car just as long as I would've before (a year or so) and then shift it?

It is a shed money car, so although I hate driving a car with issues that I can always notice, am I better off just forgetting about it if the garage won't do it under warranty, waiting for the year to be up and shifting it?


It is our main car mostly and my partner is sick of me wanting to change cars and being picky about faults that she can't notice, not being a car person... So she wants me to stick with the car as she likes it still.

Edited by gman88667733 on Tuesday 12th November 15:24

It's winter. Best time to sell it.

Edited by S100HP on Tuesday 12th November 15:52

[Pat H]

gman88667733 said:

I’ve got a diesel focus mk2 as a loan car whilst my CRV is once again at the garage....
Lovely place to be and it would be perfect if it was petrol. Not a fan of the diesel one, the one I’ve got right now is a bit worse for wear, bad idle and it stalls like it has no power at low revs.

Which flavour of diesel is it?

The 1.6 and the 2.0 are Peugeot 16v motors.

The 1.8, however, is Ford's old 8v single cam lump. It is a bit of a blunt instrument, but gets the job done.

My 2.0 has done 168,000. It's pre DPF and has the EGR blanked, so it's a bit smoky if you hoof it, but uses no oil to speak of.

I like the way the cams are connected by a hoofing great chain and are driven by a single pulley on the exhaust cam. This makes changing the timing belt a lot more straightforward than most 16v motors and gives the tensioner an easier life. I suppose this probably accounts for the 110,000 mile interval.

[M4cruiser]

Khaki Suit said:

M4cruiser said:

She drives the newest car in the household, and I hate driving her car, she hates driving mine.

The problem I have (with the OH) is that I have another car lying around on a SORN which I'm still planning to resurrect at some future point, like when my current shed totally gives up. I do a bit of tinkering with it from time to time.
She just doesn't understand, and recently said "you have too many cars" to which I could only say "all my cars are together worth less than the one of yours".

That is when you say "you have too many shoes/handbags (delete as appropriate)" and retreat to a safe distance.

It also works with the classic "you can only drive one at a time".

I like the shoes bit! I should have thought of that.

[rich12]

I think I've got my first shed problem in the saab.
Filled it up for the first time to the brim (couple of clicks) but when I turn the car on, it only shows halfway between full and 3/4. Filled it twice now and same thing.

Last night the obc said 104 miles then quickly went to 24 miles and went down from there.
Filled up this evening and the obc is now only showing 107 miles after starting it.

Any ideas?

[MR2 Steve]

The day of Shed dread when the MOT is due. Failed on a broken rear coil spring and no advisories. £28 for a spring so happy with that. Treated it to an oil change and timing belt which was due. I know not true shedding but it’s costing peanuts and I’d rather not have the belt roulette.

[slk 32]

gman88667733 said:

So my up and down relationship with my CRV continues... it has a clear fault (the car jolts a bit a second or so after taking your foot off the accelerator pedal) the garage say they can't notice it so far. I am not a huge fan of the car, but I am sure it'll go on for a good while yet as its only on 94k miles and is the 'reliable' petrol model. Do I.... if all else fails, ignore the issue, drive the car for a year or so and get my moneys worth then shift it, or do I persue getting the issue sorted and take a hit with whatever the bill is and then keep the car just as long as I would've before (a year or so) and then shift it?

It is a shed money car, so although I hate driving a car with issues that I can always notice, am I better off just forgetting about it if the garage won't do it under warranty, waiting for the year to be up and shifting it?


It is our main car mostly and my partner is sick of me wanting to change cars and being picky about faults that she can't notice, not being a car person... So she wants me to stick with the car as she likes it still.

Edited by gman88667733 on Tuesday 12th November 15:24

The philosophy of shed seems to break down into two schools of thought; one is to run the car until something expensive goes wrong, then merely bin the aforementioned shed and replace with something else that takes your fancy.

The second is to keep up a maintenance schedule and look to extend the lifetime of shed. Whilst somewhat counter intuitive I belong to this school of thought after replacing the turbo on my bluemotion polo a couple of years ago. I did it for two reasons, firstly, with a non functioning turbo the car would only be worth scrap money and secondly I'd have the russian roulette of replacement which could be (knowing my luck!) Just me buying someone else's problem. Now I've done that I plan to replace the shocks and do a bit of a suspension refresh with the rationale / justification that for the cost of a couple of months of lease payments get another 100k out of it.

Finally, if you imagine these two opposing methodologies are a Venn diagram, where they intersect is where you initially belong to the first school of thought but having had a smallish bill decide it's worth it to keep your trusty steed on the road only to find in quick succession another bill is thrown up and before you know it you are moving towards the second group albeit inadvertently.

Hence the reason why many sheddists simply will trade in / scrap at the first sign of any mechanical malaise to avoid the risk lof throwing good money after bad.

Whichever route ypou choose, happy shedding!

[Monkeylegend]

magpie215 said:

Shed fix

So carelessly loading wood into car resulted in this.



With the recent wet weather I noticed that the rear light cluster had started to develop a tide line inside.


Shed fix.




Add one drain hole.......I do have a spare cluster from the Galaxy I broke up but I don't feel this is ruined enough to replace.
Also I just know that if I fitted the replacement it would probably get damaged immediately :-)

My other half brought her Scenic home about 3 months ago with a crack and a small piece knocked out of the rear cluster, she backed into something very slowly.

One piece of 2" wide clear sellotape later and it was as good as new and its still ok today keeping out the rain

We have left the scratch marks on the paint, nobody cares.

[Superchickenn]

magpie215 said:

OMITN said:

The rear wiper arm I bought for the 307 from ebay turned out to be too long/which shape. At 6.99 I couldn’t be bothered to send it back. So I ordered an OEM one (referencing the reg plate) from the nearby Citroen dealer.

Fitted it (after using the dremel to cut off the old seized-on allot spigot) only to discover it’s too long so the blade hits the trim at the top of the rear hatch. Thwack thwack twice per intermittent stroke.

Oh well. Need the money’s worth from an expensive OEM part before sourcing something better for the MOT next May....

Am I missing something here?

I just removed all the none working rear wiper stuff and installed a rubber bung into the hole......shed fix is shedding.....fixing stuff is restoration .:-)

Thats exactly what i done too.. cheap bung off ebay and job jobbed

[greenarrow]

Khaki Suit said:

greenarrow said:

My OH has decided she hates my shed and wants it gone. I could tell as soon as I went to pick it up she wasn't happy. Having a noisy crankshaft bearing which makes it sound like an old bus at speed and the idle problem common to Focus' which made it stall on the dual carriageway hasn't helped its cause. Pointing out to her the fact that these tiny faults aside, its a sound old car with long MOT and no rust to speak of doesn't cut any ice.

The irony is that she runs a 14 year old Fiesta ST with a bent rear wheel arch and a rattling track rod end, so her old Ford is in reality hardly any different to my 19 year old Ford. The lady is not for turning however and is scanning Facebay for a new car for me.

Yesterday she was trying to tempt me with a £1295 2004 Mini One. I mean, why would I get rid of my little 1.6 Focus Mk1 for one of those? Honestly?!!

I assume she will be paying for said new shed? If so, although I don't agree with the snobbiness of it, a free car is ultimate shedding...

Oh no, I buy all the cars.....! She's happy enough with the £2,000 change left over from the insurance money for my old written off diesel insignia, but not happy with the replacement shed. Sometimes you can't win!

[anonymous-user]

I got bored of my Megane Diesel shed that I have owned for two years so three months ago I bought a petrol Civic. It's a great car, but the Megane just feels a smoother, more modern car and I am ruined by the 60MPG and £30 road tax so I went back to using it.

The Civic has to go, so I got it MOT'd and it is now on eBay as an Auction. I am not bothered about getting the best possible price so I thought auction it, someone will hopefully think they got a good deal and it will be gone.

I have already had someone email to tell me it is really bad on fuel and that they will travel from Leeds (the car is 240 miles away) to collect it, but they only have £700.

Another guy with very poor English emailed to say what is my best price and he would collect it today. Looking through his feedback half of it is from people saying he won the auction and never collected the car.

He just sent a third message, literally "400 in cash for hand?"

I can see why people just scrap sheds.......

Fingers crossed there are some people interested who drive sheds because they want to, not because they literally only have £700........

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 13th November 12:21

[Triumph Man]

My E39 is not a happy camper at the moment - it has a misfire that isn't throwing any codes, manifesting under 1/3 throttle and more but I can only assume they are the coils as I had them out to re-torque the spark plugs, and I suspect my fail(ing) valve cover gasket has something to do with it as the plug tubes were wet! New VCG should be arriving in time for a weekend of tinkering...

Hoping changing the VCG together a quick squizz of electrical contact cleaner will haver her firing on 6 again...

Any tips on successfully cleaning out the plug tubes?

My E34 soldiers on as my temporary daily - in fact it seems to have become peppier than it has been in the last few days, it seemed quite lethargic before, and it sounds fruitier. Maybe it has a holed exhaust? I'm not too worried, it sounds quite nice!

Edited by Triumph Man on Wednesday 13th November 12:36

[JaredVannett]

Triumph Man said:

My E39 is not a happy camper at the moment - it has a misfire that isn't throwing any codes, but I can only assume they are the coils as I had them out to re-torque the spark plugs, and I suspect my fail(ing) VCG has something to do with it as the plug tubes were wet! New VCG should be arriving in time for a weekend of tinkering...

Any tips on successfully cleaning out the plug tubes?

My E34 soldiers on as my temporary daily - in fact it seems to have become peppier than it has been in the last few days, it seemed quite lethargic before, and it sounds fruitier. Maybe it has a holed exhaust? I'm not too worried, it sounds quite nice!

When you say isn't throwing any codes... are you using a generic OBD II scanner?

Ideally you'll want BMW INPA or BMW PA SOFT 1.4 (check ebay) to read BMW specific codes that an ordinary OBD scanner won't pick up:

PA SOFT 1.4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8eGR6R-h1c

Of course, this does mean spending money so depends how bad it is.

If you decide to buy the PA Soft Kit and are having trouble connecting, the dongle may need rewiring - see here:
https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/dals-46m.81...

[Triumph Man]

JaredVannett said:

Triumph Man said:

My E39 is not a happy camper at the moment - it has a misfire that isn't throwing any codes, but I can only assume they are the coils as I had them out to re-torque the spark plugs, and I suspect my fail(ing) VCG has something to do with it as the plug tubes were wet! New VCG should be arriving in time for a weekend of tinkering...

Any tips on successfully cleaning out the plug tubes?

My E34 soldiers on as my temporary daily - in fact it seems to have become peppier than it has been in the last few days, it seemed quite lethargic before, and it sounds fruitier. Maybe it has a holed exhaust? I'm not too worried, it sounds quite nice!

When you say isn't throwing any codes... are you using a generic OBD II scanner?

Ideally you'll want BMW INPA or BMW PA SOFT 1.4 (check ebay) to read BMW specific codes that an ordinary OBD scanner won't pick up:

PA SOFT 1.4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8eGR6R-h1c

Of course, this does mean spending money so depends how bad it is.

If you decide to buy the PA Soft Kit and are having trouble connecting, the dongle may need rewiring - see here:
https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/dals-46m.81...

Yeah sorry, should have clarified, that was with a generic OBDII scanner. Although to give it its dues, it has picked things up in the past that haven't necessarily thrown engine management lights.

INPA is one of those things I keep thinking "I really ought to get that" and never get around to!

As a non-believer in coincidences, I'm sure that my fiddling around with it is what has caused a problem though, and it needs the gasket anyway so it wouldn't be a waste of time either way.

[anonymous-user]

Triumph Man said:

INPA is one of those things I keep thinking "I really ought to get that" and never get around to!

INPA is great, I bought mine from eBay years ago I seem to remember there was an 80 page document about how to set it up though which took half a day to go through. Works perfectly, even pointed out that my ex wives 3 series had been clocked by 70k miles.......

[Davie]

Having spent a week running around with buggered lock bolts, getting increasingly nervous at the thought of a puncture and the world of pain that'd cause... today, my resident mechanic got all serious with a welder and some out of the box thinking and they're off.

In turn that meant I could strip and clean the back calipers, carriers and pads and have a good old nosey about, which revealed little to be concerned about. Granted it's got a sporadic clunk from the front which sounds suspiciously similar to the clunk on her equally sheddy V50 and I've convinced myself it's driveshaft and / or CV related on both now.

Also swapped some wheels around. My wife's V50 started on its OEM 18" alloys with Rainsports but wear and tear plus cold, wet, muddy and frosty weather meant I put a set of 16" Focus steel wheels on with Ultragrip winters and it was all the better for it. I then got some OEM 16" Volvo alloys with Cross Climates so swapped them on to it and thus far, they're proving to be excellent.

My V70 was sat on its OEM 17" alloys with budget tyres and it was shocking. Cold, wet grip was comically bad more so compared to her car on Cross Climates. I went hunting for Volvo 16" steels but couldn't find any so figured why not just put the Ford steels / Ultragrips on...



Grip in the current freezing / wet conditions ismuch improved, ride is a bit better, they should be more up to the job of rural life and the car looks a lot less respectable now too.

Post EGR / boost valve clean a few days ago, it's much more spritely now however it's also got the beginnings of a noisey wheel bearing, that clunk needs fixed and some fresh fluids and filters may not go amiss either.

[Lemming Train]

Joey Deacon said:

I got bored of my Megane Diesel shed that I have owned for two years so three months ago I bought a petrol Civic. It's a great car, but the Megane just feels a smoother, more modern car and I am ruined by the 60MPG and £30 road tax so I went back to using it.

The Civic has to go, so I got it MOT'd and it is now on eBay as an Auction. I am not bothered about getting the best possible price so I thought auction it, someone will hopefully think they got a good deal and it will be gone.

I have already had someone email to tell me it is really bad on fuel and that they will travel from Leeds (the car is 240 miles away) to collect it, but they only have £700.

Another guy with very poor English emailed to say what is my best price and he would collect it today. Looking through his feedback half of it is from people saying he won the auction and never collected the car.

He just sent a third message, literally "400 in cash for hand?"

I can see why people just scrap sheds.......

Fingers crossed there are some people interested who drive sheds because they want to, not because they literally only have £700........

Edited by Joey Deacon on Wednesday 13th November 12:21

Your mistake was putting it on Ebay! Just bang it on your local Gumtree a few hundred quid more than what you want for it. You'll still get dumb messages but your likelihood of flogging it to a local within a couple of days are greatly increased. Ebay always attracts time-waster nutters from the opposite end of the country.

[W00DY]

Davie said:

Having spent a week running around with buggered lock bolts, getting increasingly nervous at the thought of a puncture and the world of pain that'd cause... today, my resident mechanic got all serious with a welder and some out of the box thinking and they're off.

In turn that meant I could strip and clean the back calipers, carriers and pads and have a good old nosey about, which revealed little to be concerned about. Granted it's got a sporadic clunk from the front which sounds suspiciously similar to the clunk on her equally sheddy V50 and I've convinced myself it's driveshaft and / or CV related on both now.

Also swapped some wheels around. My wife's V50 started on its OEM 18" alloys with Rainsports but wear and tear plus cold, wet, muddy and frosty weather meant I put a set of 16" Focus steel wheels on with Ultragrip winters and it was all the better for it. I then got some OEM 16" Volvo alloys with Cross Climates so swapped them on to it and thus far, they're proving to be excellent.

My V70 was sat on its OEM 17" alloys with budget tyres and it was shocking. Cold, wet grip was comically bad more so compared to her car on Cross Climates. I went hunting for Volvo 16" steels but couldn't find any so figured why not just put the Ford steels / Ultragrips on...



Grip in the current freezing / wet conditions ismuch improved, ride is a bit better, they should be more up to the job of rural life and the car looks a lot less respectable now too.

Post EGR / boost valve clean a few days ago, it's much more spritely now however it's also got the beginnings of a noisey wheel bearing, that clunk needs fixed and some fresh fluids and filters may not go amiss either.

Looks great on those wheels.

[Khaki Suit]

greenarrow said:

Oh no, I buy all the cars.....! She's happy enough with the £2,000 change left over from the insurance money for my old written off diesel insignia, but not happy with the replacement shed. Sometimes you can't win!

Happy wife happy life, as they say.

I guess I am lucky with my missus as she doesn't mind my car antics. There's 11 cars at home atm and if I came home with another she'd just roll her eyes and smile.

I suggested selling my M5 today, so that we can properly finish the extension which is currently being built and she told me "no way". She's also told me that under no circumstances am I to trade up my shed, she wants it instead of her car! she loves the shedding life as much as I do it seems.

[Khaki Suit]

Triumph Man said:

Yeah sorry, should have clarified, that was with a generic OBDII scanner. Although to give it its dues, it has picked things up in the past that haven't necessarily thrown engine management lights.

INPA is one of those things I keep thinking "I really ought to get that" and never get around to!

As a non-believer in coincidences, I'm sure that my fiddling around with it is what has caused a problem though, and it needs the gasket anyway so it wouldn't be a waste of time either way.

Normally a fooked coil would be picked up even on a simple OBD scanner.

I'd go back in and double check the connections etc. Also the tubes under the coil are removable, if you didn't already know, as they're just extenders.

[v15ben]

Woman parked way too close in ASDA tonight, then tried to squeeze out of her door.
She had clearly underestimated her weight class given the tiny gap, so ended up knocking her door against mine.
I looked across, she smiled an awkward apology.
I simply chuckled and didn't care in the slightest.
Only in a shed.