The Joy of Running an Old Shed (Vol 2)

[bodhi]

Got to admit, the sheddy Civic is an absolute revelation now I've got rid of the Chinese tyres and put some mid range Avons on. Pulling off quickly used to be an exercise in holding on whilst Churchills "finest" tyres debated whether they were going to grip in a straight line or not, and in the wet you could forget it.

Now I can deploy all 140 of those vaguely disinterested Swindon horses and it just grips, and doesn't feel like it's trying to find the nearest hedge in the wet.

I know some on here don't mind Chinese tyres, however after my second experience of them I honestly don't know how they are legal.

[PAUL.S.]

The ditchfinders on my focus have far better independent test ratings than most of the branded alternatives. That is the thing to check really before fitting budgets.

[tim jb]

Talking of Civics got me thinking about one I was looking at ...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202402236...

Shed mileage at 160,000+, but not shed money at £4500

What do we think it's really worth?

[Mad Maximus]

tim jb said:

Talking of Civics got me thinking about one I was looking at ...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202402236...

Shed mileage at 160,000+, but not shed money at £4500

What do we think it's really worth?

You would be bonkers to pay that for that. Maybe 2.5k.

[bodhi]

PAUL.S. said:

The ditchfinders on my focus have far better independent test ratings than most of the branded alternatives. That is the thing to check really before fitting budgets.

As mentioned I've had them all round on two cars now, an E36 328i and a 2008 Civic. Events on the 328i, Churchill on the Civic.

Both awful and bordering on dangerous. I will not be fitting budgets to any car ever again.

[ferrisbueller]

tim jb said:

Talking of Civics got me thinking about one I was looking at ...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202402236...

Shed mileage at 160,000+, but not shed money at £4500

What do we think it's really worth?

You're into "run it until it's dead" territory there I think. Selling that on privately could be a challenge if it's not dirt cheap. £4500 feels toppy to me, too.

A 50k mile similar car is £7700
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403247...

According to WBAC, 160k miles on that would make it a £2k car. On which basis, £2500-£3000 would be where you'd want to be.

[MisterWhippy]

Took the Grand Scenic the 320 mile trip to Scotland this week. Managed to munch up the motorway miles, fully loaded up with family and associated crap.

Got to the final 20 miles, and it threw up a ‘Engine Failure Hazard’ warning, but no noticeable loss of power or change, so I chugged on and it disappeared close to up if final destination.

It’s popped up again a couples of times since, so I’m thinking it’s a sensor, but for now, I’ve bunged in some injector cleaner and hope for the best, ready for the 320 mile journey home on Friday.

fking Renaults.

[defblade]

defblade said:

Sounds like my daughter's '06 Corolla shed.

Been making a speed-dependent rubbing noise from the offside rear brakes, the discs have always been poorly swept.
Decided to change the discs and pads, cross fingers for the shoes being ok.
Nope, offside shoes the locating pins have pulled through the rusty backplate. That'll be the rubbing noise then with the shoes moving about. Ordered new shoes plus fitting kit.
Offside sorted with extra washers to stop new pins pulling through (backing plate sound apart from the holes being a little bigger than they should be).
Nearside no problems... except the flexi hose is split - not leaking, but I couldn't leave it.
Trouble getting the handbrake to go tight, take interior apart to adjust cable end too, end up with them too tight... I'll slacken them off a bit when I do the flexi.

New flexi arrives, and a set of pipe spanners to make sure it doesn't round.. Clean and PlusGas union. Will it shift? Nope. Does it round, even with the proper spanners? Oh yes.
Clamp it up and unscrew flexi instead. Screw on new flexi. It's a little tight... and then it's not. Bugger. Union thread stripped, not sure on flexi.
I have no tools for this and never made rigid brake lines. Research how to replace union (and union types, and flare types)... pretty sure I won't be able to do that in situ as the rigid pipe bends 90' just after the union.
New flexi ordered, pipe flarer, new unions plus double female joint, rigid brake line, line bender. It's a lot of twists and turns before the pipe gets to a straight bit I can make a join at.

None of which has arrived in time to get it done this weekend.
Can't even move it as the pipe is still disconnected, and I don't dare check if I've got the handbrake adjusted properly as if it's too loose again, I don't want to have to touch the brakes!

I'm about £280 into a 50 quid job at the moment...

Update: fixed.

The final bit arrived today. I did a couple of practice flares on the new pipe, the took a deep breath and cut into the rigid line under the car. All went fairly smoothly for the most part... I managed to cut into a run where the pipe is clipped up the side of a chassis rail, so the join is now nicely tucked up out of harms way; the little manual pipe bender did a good job and the flexi hose went on the end.

Of course, all this went together ok as I had bought matching unions all round, based on the spec of the flexi hose.
Then I went to screw the new banjo bolt into the caliper, and that didn't fir either. Cue frantic rummaging through the bin, praying the old bolt didn't go out with the black bags last week! Found it eventually, and finished off with bleeding.
Brakes now work well enough to trigger the ABS and not the tiniest sign of a drip anywhere

As the threads both ends of both these flexi hoses seem to have issues, I no longer believe it was my maybe-not-so-knackered old union at fault in the first place, and the supplier is sending the wrong spec of hose for the car. I have written them an email...

[Gordon Hill]

First biggish bill has reared it's head on the shed Merc after 15 months. The engine mounts want replacing. Not the end of the world at £50 a side plus a day of me and a mate swearing and no skin left on knuckles. Been feeling vibration for a while especially in reverse so I'll get it done in June with the MOT.

[AgentZ]

MisterWhippy said:

Took the Grand Scenic the 320 mile trip to Scotland this week. Managed to munch up the motorway miles, fully loaded up with family and associated crap.

Got to the final 20 miles, and it threw up a ‘Engine Failure Hazard’ warning, but no noticeable loss of power or change, so I chugged on and it disappeared close to up if final destination.

It’s popped up again a couples of times since, so I’m thinking it’s a sensor, but for now, I’ve bunged in some injector cleaner and hope for the best, ready for the 320 mile journey home on Friday.

fking Renaults.

The good old intermittent scary warning light. Possibly a chafing wiring loom or bad battery but could be a thousand things.

[BenS94]

Mad Maximus said:

tim jb said:

Talking of Civics got me thinking about one I was looking at ...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202402236...

Shed mileage at 160,000+, but not shed money at £4500

What do we think it's really worth?

You would be bonkers to pay that for that. Maybe 2.5k.

I was thinking about £3,000. A shame it isn't a 1.6 i-DTEC. Very smooth, flexible engine

[7 5 7]

BenS94 said:

I was thinking about £3,000. A shame it isn't a 1.6 i-DTEC. Very smooth, flexible engine

Highly rate the 1.6 i-DTEC, I am led to believe it is one of the very few diesel engines designed with the DPF in mind, rather than just bolted on - so in theory causes less grief, making it an already more reliable chain driven engine - its good in the CRV too, moves it quite well for its extra bulk.

[Byker28i]

AgentZ said:

MisterWhippy said:

Took the Grand Scenic the 320 mile trip to Scotland this week. Managed to munch up the motorway miles, fully loaded up with family and associated crap.

Got to the final 20 miles, and it threw up a ‘Engine Failure Hazard’ warning, but no noticeable loss of power or change, so I chugged on and it disappeared close to up if final destination.

It’s popped up again a couples of times since, so I’m thinking it’s a sensor, but for now, I’ve bunged in some injector cleaner and hope for the best, ready for the 320 mile journey home on Friday.

fking Renaults.

The good old intermittent scary warning light. Possibly a chafing wiring loom or bad battery but could be a thousand things.

Ex work had one of these, no ends of problems. As said turned out to be the wiring loom chafing where it went through the bulkhead

[7 5 7]

Intermittent 'fog light bulb out' warning on my Vecshed for past few weeks, goes out when I switch it on, it does work, and I have been underneath and changed for a new bulb, seems to be alot of condensation on the NSF holder, also I have cleaned the connectors etc also, warning sometimes appears when I hit a pothole too, a good kick and its goes out also, so it does seem to point to a loose connector or something.

M'eh its not a MOT issue, so happily cracking on, not arsed - got 500 miles to stick on it by the end of this week.

[BenS94]

7 5 7 said:

BenS94 said:

I was thinking about £3,000. A shame it isn't a 1.6 i-DTEC. Very smooth, flexible engine

Highly rate the 1.6 i-DTEC, I am led to believe it is one of the very few diesel engines designed with the DPF in mind, rather than just bolted on - so in theory causes less grief, making it an already more reliable chain driven engine - its good in the CRV too, moves it quite well for its extra bulk.

Thats right, and one of even fewer that requires AdBlue to meet even the latest Euro6 ruling.

[tim jb]

Mad Maximus said:

You would be bonkers to pay that for that. Maybe 2.5k.

I think it's worth about £1500.

He's increased the price to £4700 today. It was £4500 yesterday.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202402236...

£4700 for a motor with 165000 miles on it. Boggles the mind but punters must be paying it. At that mileage you've got to factor in a new engine really. I don't mind installing engines and performing major surgery on cars but I might as well look for a decent condition non-runner at copart for a reflective price.

[MisterWhippy]

AgentZ said:

The good old intermittent scary warning light. Possibly a chafing wiring loom or bad battery but could be a thousand things.

Byker28i said:

Ex work had one of these, no ends of problems. As said turned out to be the wiring loom chafing where it went through the bulkhead

Wouldn’t surprise me to be honest, that’s why I haven’t bothered to sort the cruise control out. So far the injector cleaner has done the job with it not appearing, yet.

I’ll take it with a pinch of salt and run it until it dies (hopefully not on the journey home..), it’s only done 109k!

[BrettMRC]

tim jb said:

Mad Maximus said:

You would be bonkers to pay that for that. Maybe 2.5k.

I think it's worth about £1500.

He's increased the price to £4700 today. It was £4500 yesterday.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202402236...

£4700 for a motor with 165000 miles on it. Boggles the mind but punters must be paying it. At that mileage you've got to factor in a new engine really. I don't mind installing engines and performing major surgery on cars but I might as well look for a decent condition non-runner at copart for a reflective price.

Insane.
I'm also deeply suspicious when a clean MOT history is claimed, but they block out the registration number so you can't actually look up it's history yourself.

[bodhi]

tim jb said:

I think it's worth about £1500.

He's increased the price to £4700 today. It was £4500 yesterday.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202402236...

£4700 for a motor with 165000 miles on it. Boggles the mind but punters must be paying it. At that mileage you've got to factor in a new engine really. I don't mind installing engines and performing major surgery on cars but I might as well look for a decent condition non-runner at copart for a reflective price.

Assuming it's the same 1.8 VTEC unit that's been about since the Mk8 I wouldn't be too concerned about the engine crapping itself - I've seen a fair few Mk8s on 200k +

From the experience of our own Civic however it's everything attached to the mechanicals I'd be worried about - doors randomly deciding not to open, bits of trim falling off, rust etc.

For 2k that would be a decent contender to be run into the ground, at that price though? Large bargepole required....

[-Lummox-]

New shed acquired, what are the chances of being able to run this land yacht on shed budget???