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And a snippet more.
When I was making to leave, I turned round and said to him, shouldn't we sort out the V5 then? And he says, oh yes, and goes into his front room, only to return with 3 stuffed folders full of history. Pretty much everything is there, and I've not even really managed to get through it all yet. So we'll call that a full s/h.
Because I'm interested in details (sometimes), I worked out the cost of bringing it home.
72.99 flight + 171 ferry + 9.75 trains (all of which were late or cancelled) and the rest on fuel and snacks - mostly fuel! - and the total is £355.77 to bring it back. I'm sure it would be much more if it wasn't attempted in a single day, and if I'd paid for a cabin instead of sleeping on the ferry seat like a hobo (to be fair, pretty much everyone on the night ferry does it, and I'm not paying for a cabin for 3.5hs) and I did also lose half of the next day as I collapsed from exhaustion. I think that's as much to do with the heat as anything, as I was roasting like a good'un on the M6 that day.
And future fixes must include:
All the warnings that flash up on the dash - most noticeably, the one for the (deleted) self levelling
The pingy bong sound thing that's obviously disconnected due to the errors constantly going off - as it sounds the lights-on warning too
The constant on traction control light (disabled due to the M5 shift surround requiring the plug to be moved or removed)
The non-functional RCL
The crappy juddery wipers (think new blades will help this)
The inoperative boot handles
The rev surge on startup
The (diff bush?) clunk on downshift
The (beam bushes?) clunk on medium-to-hard launch
It's not nice to drive yet. Which is OK as I have something else to drive now, see next post!
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Right this is what I tackled on Sunday evening once the sun had settled down a bit. The cover off the top of the ZT V6. I'd read a bit about the "keyhole method" which is basically sticking your hand under the inlet manifold instead of taking it off, which is quite the effort.  Wait, you mean, in there?!  SRSLY?  Well, OK, I'll try it. First jobs were to take off the coolant hoses of course, then the TB for a bit more access. Nothing too hard yet, all accomplished with home tools which are much less complete and comprehensive as what's in work.  Looking a bit gungy though. I might come back to that. I had to remove some hard plastic vacuum piping. All unclipped ok at the TB side. On the belt side,  Not so much!  That's heat damage for you. You can also see my access hole there for the bolt on the back of the thermostat housing which was STUPID tight. Yeah, in here  I tried to get to it through a variety of means  I couldn't get purchase on it at all. Remember each time I tried anything I was squeezing my hand through a hole that didn't actually appear to exist across the top of the housing, under the manifold. So I was guiding the socket on with my right hand and trying to make the extensions stay straight with my left hand while lowering them down. Anyone ever tried to keep those swivel joints straight? not a hope. I gave up on that, and remembered my little 8/10mm ratchet spanner, a great wee tool. See it there?  So I got that on - and could NOT move it. I was using finger power only as there was no swing room to use wrist or arm strength, but still. So back to the extensions, and with much fiddling, getting out an adapter and using 1/4 drive for part of it so I could get through a smaller hole, and I eventually got it on, and with a great deal of effort, cracked the 10mm bolt off. After much faffing about, got the thermostat and the associated plastic pipes off (which I also got news ones of in the kit)  Done much? Looks like someone had been in there before trying to seal something. So, I stuck it all back in, Fitting, as they say, is the reverse of removal. Aye! The 10mm bolt was a pain to line up. Then it didn't want to go in. Then it was a real ache to get it tight, or even near tight. The other pipes rely on the stat housing being tight to stay in. I'm really not convinced by the centre pipe under the manifold. It connects to the water pump and the stat by just a not-that-tight seal on each end. No clips, nothing to tighten it. Just a loose press fit with a thin O-ring on either end! I put the hoses back on and again I wasn't happy. The new stat seems to move an awful lot when I push the pipes on to it. Like, maybe rocks back 10 or 15mm. That's a lot of movement. One 10mm bolt is all that holds it down and another press fit and seal into the block. Also, it sits higher than the original did, so I can't get my hand in past it. So, I'm not going to be taking this one off with the keyhole method, no way. Unless my hand swelled up and I didn't notice! Thankfully I managed to do all this without drawing blood, and usually I catch every pointy thing in a four metre radius. To think, my hand was squeezed in there, along with tools!  So I went for broke and topped up (refilled) the coolant tank. And then charged the battery up as it was flat. And then I could test run it. And it only went and idled merrily away up to temperature and stayed there. So, erm, it must be OK then? Not the worst job ever, but a slight feeling of unease with those new parts fitted - which were aftermarket, but supplied as OE replacements from one of the firms supplying in place of the defunct dealer network, so not complete garbage (I hope!). And I really hope they work as, like I said, I can't fit my hand in there now to get at that bolt again, although it might be more possible now with extensions given it isn't at a million lb/ft any more, more like 0.5 (nowhere near enough). So with slight hesitancy, slight trepidation, I'm going to call that one done. A quick test-drive round the block also took it up to temp and no further. I will try it on a longer run once I pump up that near flat tyre I didn't notice... |
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Love jobs like that. A real pain to do while leaving you feeling, "Hmmm".
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I got my Alfa parts back from the painter - given they'd been there for weeks and were still only in primer... and I'd given him the paint. In exasperation I sent them off to someone halfway across the country that a friend had used before. So I got them back (for the second time) and when i got a chance, started to fit... only to find, well, just look at it.  Seems that my Alfa was WAY more faded than I thought. Turned to wheels on the 540i. Trying to quickly get some wheels on because I realised I don't really like this car. It doesn't drive all that well, and also, I spent some time this week trying to figure out what I want, because this should be it, but it's just, well, not. I want something rougher, more aggressive. I want a muscle-car with race overtones and beefy stance. Something with pop-riveted on canards and plexiglass and stupid flip up spoilers. My E28 has that vibe. And sometimes I want a decked, gleaming, pristine car I can cruise around in. The Cadillac will eventually fill that role. Sometimes I want something a bit nice but somewhat sensible, which is the MG. And I need a daily I can just abuse which will cart stuff around and never get cleaned, but still reasonably pacy (which is why a 530d fits the bill so well). The Subaru was that, but it made way for the 540i, which doesn't fit there. I can't make a nasty race-car out of it, so it doesn't qualify for that category (yeah, d'ya get it?). So either it becomes a second semi-normal weekend car, or it gets dropped and cleaned up - but I've got loads of cars like that. Either way I need to do something with it pretty sharp-ish so it doesn't end up without a role any more and sit about wasted - which is the way of the Alfa, after it went from being the nice semi-normal weekend car, to a daily which it wasn't suitable for and was thereafter just sitting about unused most of the time. So, let's find some wheels to spice this thing up. Straight to the top of the pile - 17" x8.5/9.5 B12 Alpina wheels and 17" x8/9 or 8/8 Style 21 Throwing Stars (naked) Alpina-Star  Or, T-Star on rear and a 17" x8/8 or 8/9.5 Style 5 BBS RC090 / 009/010 Star-BBS  Trying a few other options out; 18" x8.5/9.5 Jade-R and Alpina Jade-Alpina  Stilauto 15" x7 splits and 17" x8/8 or 8/9 Style 66 M-Parallel Stilauto-66  The T-Star with it's cover (well a LHS cover) and that Stilauto wheel again. I know they're small - too small - but I really quite like it. Imagine it with a fat slick and white lettered tyre mounted. My Oh My. Star-Stilauto  This was a happy by-product of setting a 17" Throwing Star (naked) over the front of a 17" Style 16 wheel - that's pretty cool. Star-Star  Any thoughts? Nothing really got me excited so I think it's likely it'll end up on a set of Throwing Stars just for now to complete the psuedo-M5 looks, anything will be better than the current shoes, but it's not really setting a new bar or anything. Oh and I finished the Alfa off afterwards.  Some buffing needed. Back end isn't so far off after washing it today and looking it over, it's mainly the front end that's faded, but oh-so-badly. All in all a week full of "hmm" and "erm" and "umm". Speaking of which, the MG has been spot on over the last couple of days with the temperature. Seems ill-fitting plastic pipes with no seal save a rubber O ring is sufficient for a revvy engine which (lets face it) has a notoriety for coolant-related failures. Who'd have thunk it? |
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Jun 24, 2018 16:58:29 GMT
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So I started to change over the wheels on the 540i last week. I got as far as ONE wheel which was the only wheel without a locknut. Then I started on the others, the ones with a locknut. With a rusty, worn, seized locknut. They were very tight and very rusty and very worn so even though I managed to get a lock-nut bit out of my very handy big box of spare bits into them, it immediately spun round and stripped all it's threads. I ended up doing that to about four of them before I conceded. I couldn't use the lock-nut remover for them as I recalled when i went to get it that I still hadn't got a replacement for it after it shattered one day and went through my hand. Much blood was used up that day. So eventually when I remembered to go get a new one I got offered these screw on ones with a reverse thread, which seemed much more civilised than the hammer on type. I wasn't convinced but I took them to try anyway - well, I'm convinced now. Line it up, screw it on a turn or two with the ratchet, then set on the impact gun. It bites in until it locks, then as it's already going in reverse it whizzes them right out. Getting the old lock-nut back out is the hard part, unless you have an old hub lying around (handy) and then you can whizz them into that and when they tighten the screw-on remover bit just unscrews off.  Which it did, faultlessly, so now the four wheels are all throwing stars. Well, except they're not, because I didn't put the covers on. Going to run them 'naked' for a while - more interesting than with the covers on. More race. I bought this set recently for spares and they came with good tread and Falken tyres so methinks that also solves the bad old tyres problem from before. Unfortunately I broke the screen of my phone so the picture of the wheels on will have to wait. Or, just imagine it in your head for now. As will the picture I took of the Alfa front end. Now that it's back together and the car is driving nice again, while it was running in my drive (so the lights were on) and I was moving the MG back in, I got this head on look at the Alfa and it just sat there looking menacing, poised, the right amount of angry - the look all car designers want to put into their performance saloons these days, and just for a second, it almost made me think about keeping it. But, the head must rule the heart on this one. So the last of my junk is cleared out of it, ready for sale preparation - just got to find the missing interior panels that have fallen off now. It's an Alfa you see, it's a racing car. Self lightening. |
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Jun 25, 2018 22:49:27 GMT
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Changed the radio in the 540 as it was annoying me. The nice Blaupunkt was removed along with several metres of cable behind it. I'm sick of it spitting my CDs back out at me 50% of the time and not recognising my phone via the USB (or charging it). Ignore the halo, it certainly isn't divine in any sense.  And replaced by... the Pioneer out of the Alfa. This gives it a chance to redeem itself. It infuriated me for ages that it would not switch on or off with the ignition - which turned out to be down to the Alfa wiring, not the radio. However it also liked switching on the demo mode, and generally being a puke. I bought it years and year ago - in fact I bought it for the Alfa just after I got it almost seven years ago, and it's the only radio I ever bought new from an actual shop.  I just set it into the existing cage for now, as that would mean if it's annoying, it will slide out easily. Too easily, as it kept sliding out while I was driving. Much ramming later I got it to, well, not stay put, but slide out a bit less. Then it went into mute mode for ages. I took it out, wiggled it around a bit, reversed the live and switched live wiring and flung it back in there and now it switches on and off with the ignition and doesn't forget which CD track to play. Yes, I still play CDs. It still switches off when you eject a CD though, that's annoying. I don't want to just fling it in some car I'm selling as I paid actual money for it and I'd feel like I was losing out - yes, after 7 years of being annoyed with it. Someday I'll just do it though and then it will be gone. As previously asked, here is an explanation of the Throwing Star wheels that are now on the car.  First you have the forged alloy which is normally silver rim and black spokes. See the hole in the centre of each spoke.  A cap. One of my spare stars - I was told once these were made of magnesium but they're too heavy.  The back of which looks like this. See the threaded holes in each "spoke". Five bolts go through the wheel from behind and into these threads. The cap can only be put on from the rear when the wheel is off the car. The centre cap is plastic and can be removed separately for wheel removal. And yeah, yet to get a picture of the car with the wheels on. Oops... I did it again. |
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,971
Club RR Member Number: 71
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I do like a wagon I like a 4.0i V8 in BMW flavour I like throwing star wheels (esp naked) Please carry on  |
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hopeso
Part of things
Posts: 349 
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Jun 26, 2018 18:21:35 GMT
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Cool FM, good plug for our local station.
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Jul 20, 2018 22:04:50 GMT
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Having finally sorted out the case of the cracked phone, I can bring you the missing picture. This one  nearly made me rethink selling the 156. but it did make it up for sale.  And the view that made me fall in love with Alfas and 156s.  Moving on... latest business. Some adapters arrived for the S110R. Only two and I need four, but they were available used for half price. I've since found a cheaper supplier...typical!  Got a minute to put the 540i on the lift and check it out. Blurry shot as the car was in motion. Vertical motion.  So what did we find? Tight balljoints. Surprising as the steering is as vague as a bumper car. Suspect idler arm now. Conveniently bought another E34 a while back with a bootful of spares including lots of new steering arms.  What's this? A double backbox? Who does that!  AND a middle box! Three boxes rear of the cats. Madness. This one is busted, obviously caught too many ramps, so that's a good excuse to get rid of it.  Wet diff  Worn out rear beam bushes. I knew about this. They're pretty far gone, lots of play on the drivers side, passenger side following closely. New ones came with the car.  And I also knew about these little areas (both sides) that need welded up. Not structural and it had an MOT like this but it will be good to get them sorted out as planned, as soon as I have another car to drive.  MG is booked for MOT next week. Going to rip the black wheels off it and put the silver originals back on, once I get them refurbished and spend some money on decent tyres for it. MAJOR news involves the return to my staff of my favourite welder, which is good news for the E28 and E32 and a couple of the less tidy Skodas. Other MAJOR news is that I've finally realised a long held desire to have my own spray shop, which is good news for the Fiat and the tidier Skodas. |
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Jul 30, 2018 22:48:15 GMT
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Today saw this little box arrive all the way from Germany.  Inside... 4x100 7jx13 ATS Classics! x2 only. Got them for a good price on ebay.de - when a set of 4x130 Skoda fitment are fetching 750-900 now, and 4x100 sets are not far behind.  6js are far cheaper, 5j and 5.5j are plentiful but without any lip/dish, they just look very plain. And these are destined for my S110R, with the little tubby arches, so they need filled out. 8j are just too wide by the time I fit a 20mm PCD adapter as well. Buying just 2 also gives me a chance to check fitting just in case 7js wont fit. I can use them to line up offsets etc and worse case scenario I can use them to help me get correct measurements to get a set of Image wheels made up. Over a grand though... that's mental for 13" wheels..! And 4x100 wheels will never, ever go to waste around here.  Bunged one on the Favorit I'm fixing up just to see. I think this is all welded up now so it's parked in the paintshop now. Brake caliper at the front is seized as I found out driving it over in 3rd gear at 20mph. Still, where's that donor car at? You know, the one with the rebuilt brakes on it? We'll not struggle for Skoda spares for some years! Anyway that's it for this week, apart from getting my very vain 540 plate on to the 540i, so I like it slightly more now. Not enough though, the thought of a Favorit estate with an MOT soon is a big draw. Feels like home. |
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Big post, many pictures. First off I've been waiting for a gap of a day or so on our lift for weeks now. Finally found it. I've been living in dread of a serious common problem on the 90's V8 BMW engines. See if you can tell what it is... (And it's not the fact that there appears to only be half the required oil in the car...hmm...)  Ummm...  Yeah. This.   Loctite, ratchet spanner and oil change sorted that all out.  Next up: Holey bits.  and  Those were basically peeling away. They were visible but not accessible from up-top. The brackets hold the pipes for the self-levelling hydraulic rear shocks - now deleted, with standard shocks (well, Bilsteins) so I can just remove the whole bracket as it's obsolete anyway. I'm not so sure about the method of SLS deletion though...  Weld up the end of the pipe, eh? I will come back to that and totally remove the system, properly, as well as the dash warnings about it not working. For now, cut some holes...  Cut out pieces of fresh steel and stick them in  and make it permanent. My buddy Steve did the welding while I held the panel in place from above with a magnet.  Didn't bother to dress them as they are above the rear axle, so just undersealed and will get stonechip/tetra-shutz'd later. That is fresh steel too, despite how the flash on my phone makes it look. I keep 8'x4' sheets in various grades under my Caddy now as it's just always needed and far handier cutting big holes and welding in fresh metal than trying to fabricate small patches and welding to crispy tinwork. Given my prepondence towards old tat and the sheer amount of 80's and 90's BMWs we work on, the £50 a sheet is well worth it. While it was up on the ramp I fixed the upside down side repeaters...  Decided to stick with amber for now as I have no clear rear lights for it (never made for touring, have to get custom parts). Amber isn't the worst on a blue car but only if they are clean - might need to polish the indicators all round. To do the floor welding the exhaust had to come down for access. Which was a happy enough occurrence as I've complained about it before. Here is why, three stainless steel baffled boxes...  Why three? TOO QUIET! Slice:  Tack:  Louder!  Steve did the exhaust too and every cut was spot on, no gaps to fill and no excess to cut off. Just butted up perfect and I held it in place as he tacked on. Sits perfect in the bumper slot too. Took it for a quick blat up the road and it's still quiet enough low down, and meaty up the rev range. It isn't a fire cracking thunder-wagon like the couple of V8 exhausts I made last year, which were so intense I made videos of them, this is far more sedate, but tolerable. This one I could drive around at night without getting arrested for disturbing the peace. On idle you can definitely hear that meaty thump though, there's no denying what it's packing now. Which is just... nice. Not muted as previously, not obnoxious either, just a nice thumpy thump thump from the shiny tipped twin exit. |
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The Favorit previously mentioned was taken away for paint and sat waiting to be done - and then the painter found that someone had rebuilt the rear arch on one side with filler, so it hadda come back and get welded again, and prepped again...   I sold the E31 throwing stars that were on the 540 as well, so it got my Alpina's thrown on to it in the meantime.  Another one of it's long line of little nuisance niggles was the inoperative illuminated gearknob. pulled it off to find out why. That is a female plug.  And...so is that.  Well, two females are never going to make a connection, so had to find a male plug. Remembered where I'd seen something similar and got a nearly the same one from an E34 boot. Had to trim one edge of it but couldn't get camera to focus on it. Cut and joined, still using these great things  I literally have no idea if it worked because I put it all back together and forgot to check it in the dark on the way home. Lets assume it does, because I already bought a celebratory donut.  Paid for on expenses of course, because I was away to see another project car... |
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It's been a long time since an update! Well, for the past few weeks I've not been driving around any of my old tat despite them all sitting there taxed up - so cancelled them all tonight! because I'm driving this courtesy car at the minute...  One of the guys at work got into a fender bender (well, a right old write-off smash) and we got given this petrol midi-SUV pretender (what exactly is this? is it a "crossover"?) to replace a diesel car-derived van.  is it any good? Well... sort of.  It's a three cylinder petrol of unknown displacement, 5 speed manual and came to us with maybe 700 miles on it or so. Good points are the digital speedo which is handy as the police have been very active with the hairdriers lately, as well as the digital cruise control which even works at low speed (many cars still don't; my dad's 2017 Yaris doesn't work under 30mph). It does 42mpg and the slightly higher driving position is reminiscent of a small van which is good. Comfy enough, not totally offensive to look at, central locking works, and it has a proper key, a flip-out metal one, no mucking about with keyless entry or push button start, systems I don't like or trust. Bad points, I have noticed that it has a dip on pick-up when about to move off. If I try to move off without any throttle as anyone who drives a diesel will know about, it almost dies and tremors shake the whole drivetrain. Someone told me that they have experienced the same in other 3-cyl cars. Really offensive could be the number and arrow that flash up in the corner of the dash central display to tell you to change up a gear. Nothing on downshift, but they could really annoy someone that knows how to drive... it is a Peugeot 2008 though. It's not for those people. Also the dash clocks are shrouded so they need to be bright, but the central radio display is retina-burning bright so at night it has to be turned down... but they are on the same button, so you turn the radio display down from "staring at the sun" to just "dangerously distracting" and your dials are so dim - well, they're not awfully dim, but not bright enough for my liking and it's a nuisance.  It's not totally appalling, I've found it quite relaxing to drive (on account of having no power) but I've not found it gutless like I expected. The ground clearance is a nice boon too as I'd gotten to know someone that lives up a deeply rutted lane and my MG really, really does not like it. And nothing else I own would even get past the first bump... so the Peugeot has improved my social life. How about that. That's going tomorrow, handily the first day of the month, so I can go tax something to drive, because yeah, I'd just SORN'd all the taxed cars (four I think!) on the same day the phonecall came "Can we have our Peugeot back now?" To be fair we've had it nearly six weeks I think while insurance was sorted out. Lets talk more about something more interesting. Like an E34 maybe. Ordered these Aero wipers off ebay that said they would fit. Came in white boxes...  Hmm. Both boxes had the same part number on the label. I definitely wasn't hoepful. The E34 has a reverse mount on one wiper arm so it needs a special connection. Standard one does not work. BUT...  Yeah. Both normal mounts. So that definitely will not work. No matter, not driving the 540i yet anyway until I've done those beam bushes. Not driving anything else either as everything has some issue. So... what to drive now? It has been a big dilemma over the last week or two. You know, I looked up the contact info on my phone for the guy I sold my Forester to in May. I miss that old thing. I didn't call him though... maybe I should? Can I have it back? You know, just on the cusp of the snow starting again? Perfect timing!! |
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and it has a proper key, a flip-out metal one, no mucking about with keyless entry or push button start, systems I don't like or trust. Glad it's not just me. Madam's Mazda C3, whilst not a bad little tool, has this and I hate it. |
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Let me tell you how brilliant planning should work... and often doesn't quite as expected.
Over the years in work we've run a series of Fiat Ducato (Peugeot Boxer/Citroen Relay) vans.
My first van was a 2.4d Transporter. Bought for £990, driven on my first delivery run around England the next week with only the most basic checks and a set of front brakes replaced.
Sold that for £1400 AFTER the MOT ran out as it was immaculately clean despite the 198k on it, but I had already realised I needed a bigger van.
In August 2012 I bought a six year old Fiat Ducato 2.3jtd 18 LWB with just 49k on the clock. An ex-fridge van, it had many dents and the mileage was dubious, but at that time there were no online records for N.I. MOTs and with no history I couldn't check. The speedo was broken which I soon traced to a broken spinny thing in the gearbox, which I sourced from Fiat and got clocking up the miles.
It covered - hold on, I didn't realise I was writing this much about my van! - many more miles, taking me through England up to four/five times a year on big 1000-1500 mile round trips over a few short days, driving point to point and meeting customers from 6am to 12am every day for days on end until I could hack it no more and headed home. The van never quit, never hiccuped, even carrying heavy loads up Welsh hills, never complained, even racing back for ferries at 3am. This van towed more broken old BMWs than I'm sure most recovery firms ever have, and aside from regular servicing, it's never, ever stranded me apart from once. 13 miles from home I stopped and the clutch which was starting to slip jammed up and needed recovered to be replaced.
Once towing an E30 325i Sport back from up the Mourne mountains the gearbox (as inevitably happens) lost a gear or two, but, she still took me up the hill, down the hill, and up the next and the next and all the way home. And it threw the PAS belt once on the motorway as well but still managed to drive back to work.
With 88k on it now, which seems much lower than the work it's actually done, it's reached 12 years old and is very battered, with both wings out of shape, headlight broken, bumper hanging down, both sides well scraped and dented in, and unfortunately, despite being a really, really clean one up until now, not suffering the usual rot of a heavily used van, it has taken off over the last few months and the inner sills have just vanished.
Problem is, it's all repairable, and it still drives like an absolute boss, but all the bodywork coupled with a new fault of the handbrake not working on one side (despite £300 of new parts thrown at it, still no change!) - it's just uneconomical to fix it.
That's a real shame. This is "my" van, and it's really got under my skin. I still take some joy in that when at 6 years old, the ridiculous price I paid for it, STILL wouldn't buy me another one in good condition.
We've had I think six of these in total. A white Citroen which I used for panels to tidy the body of my Fiat up, a Fiat 2.8jtd which is also still here but now retired, a blue Fiat 2.8jtd which I used as a gearbox donor and a red LHD one which is just a storage shed that can be moved. And possibly another white one I think. Despite that, the "first" one, still just keeps on shining through.
A Transit Mk6 came and went while the gearbox was being swapped, and so did a Transit Connect.
For the last year my Fiat has been my sole van, sole tow vehicle, sole do-everything champion. But now, with the leaf springs starting to let go, handbrake giving up, bodywork just being "too much", it is with absolute heartache that it is being retired.
1st Nov was it's MOT expiry, and for the last month it's been parked up anyway as it's still full of NOS panels and other goodies since I bought out another business. That was my Fiat's last grand day out and it did it with aplomb, pulling a trailer full of M3 engines back as well as being stuffed to the gills with all those nice rare bits of BMW. There was a couple of mountain passes to deal with on the way back from there, a few long steep gradients, but up it climbed, steady as a rock.
There was a tear in my eye as I got back home. There's never been a van like it.
I've had a month since to look for another van. Another very clean 2002-2006 Ducato, or else a fresher one. Why a Ducato? They still deliver the highest payload, lowest MPG figures and best prices for any LWB "big" van. Towing capacity is one of the highest, and the 2.3jtd Iveco-derived engine is still in use today, meeting Euro-6 without the need for Ad-blue. A brilliant motor - and I still am so grateful that I just happened into one rather than an unreliable / rusty / expensive to maintain / poor MPG / low payload alternatives.
In that time I have found nothing suitable, at ALL. Nothing, Nada. Even fresh vans have had over 200k on them, and everything typically battered almost as badly as my own. I'm searching for a well priced, low mileage, well maintained van with clean bodywork and a certain engine so I guess it's a limited field, but still.
Right, set that aside. At the same time, I have an MG that I don't want to ruin by using daily, a 540i that is unsuitable for use in bad weather and still in need of lots of repair, an Alfa I don't want to put lots of miles on or ruin either, and lots of cars without MOT that are unsuitable for daily abuse.
I had been using that Peugeot thing which did a sterling job actually but had to be handed back. I cancelled the tax on everything else and hoped it would all work out.
Drove into work on Thursday 1st Nov in the Pug 2008. It was collected from there.
Scrounged a lift home from a friend who was nearby.
Drove 540i into work on Friday to be kept there until lift becomes free. Deiberately chanced it in with zero range showing, so I'll conk out if I try to drive it home!
Friday evening... shopping time, maybe?
Over the last couple of weeks then because I couldn't find a van, my thoughts turned to a cheap 4x4. Ideally an X5, even more ideally a manual diesel with a towbar. Scabby enough to use daily, just about bearably frugal.
I couldn't find one for sale in Ireland at all. Well, not under £2k anyway. I want something cheap enough to throw away if it breaks, or sell on quickly if and when I find a brilliant van.
I did find a couple of unsuitable ones. I enquired about an Auto, but the Turkish seller was very shouty on the phone and couldn't understand why I couldn't come right away when he told me he was a town 30 minutes away, not in the same town as me as his advert actually showed.
My interest was piqued by a Land Rover with the BMW M51 2.5tds engine in auto flava. The ad was a few days old but I rang hopefully anyway, but no, it's away long time. The advert is still live now by the way. Why??
This was after a few non-responses and cars advertised having no MOTs when checked, so at this point, at least ten possibilities discounted.
A 3.0 petrol X5 auto showed up at the right price, but was far away and they were not in that night. A 3.0d auto with no MOT appeared on Gumtree for cheaps and I rang nearly immediately but someone was already on their way; crup!
As of Thursday night, had all but given up.
Friday night, after work, one of the guys said he was up for a spin about in his newly acquired Freelander, so started looking again.
A Kia Sorrento had also caught my eye, huge thing with a 2.7 diesel Mercedes engine I think, but anyway it was £700 with a towbar and although two hours away, should be worth a look, especially when we spotted a £500 number plate on it! But, erm, rang up, and despite the ad being a week old, someone was coming for it just then!
Asked also about a Freelander I found, to get a "what do you mean?" when I asked about MOT. Err, when is it to? "Doesn't have any" was the response. Is that not something you would mention in an ad then? Wasn't cheap enough to be bothered with.
Rang about that petrol X5 again. Just sold! Agh! Getting old!
Decided to go see the diesel one the Turkish Barber was selling (yes that really was his job). It had a CV joint clicking on lock and some weird rattle underneath which turned out to be the prop hanging out of it. It was already pushing my budget out and he would not budge, and with 194k on the clock I wasn't too excited anyway.
We went and sat at a petrol station eating ice cream and drinking coffee, as, by the way, it was raining last night and we were soaked.
And spent at least an hour hitting Gumtree, Facebook, Autotrader and Donedeal with three phones.
I posted a disgruntled, and (intentionally) possibly a bit affronted statement on my Facebook knowing the right people would see it and sure enough some suggestions were made.
But while discussing that, I happened across an advert that was well over a week, maybe 10 days, old, and at this point I was just sending off texts and instant messages to anyone with anything listed for sale that was MOT'd, 4x4 and towbar'd.
This guy replied half an hour later saying it was still there... and thus began the tale I will relate to you in the next post after I refill my mug of tay.
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So with several people I know having bought Land Rover products in the last few weeks I knew if I ended up with one I would get all the "copycat" ribbing, so going one better and getting a Range Rover was the only way forward. What I actually wanted you know, the thing that put me in mind of a Rangey, was a grey TDV8 L320 Sport with straight pipes that sat and burbled in front of me one day in work. Absolutely lush. Unfortunately my £2k budget absolutely won't come near one of those, not even an early L322, nor will it land me the other thing I would like, an orange or black crewcab 110 pickup with exo-skeletal rollcage. So, bargain basement searching it is. But yeah, I'd read enough horror stories, that I wanted to buy in the LR world at the bottom end. This is because I can't find a suitable van or X5 and I don't want to have a Commandshift gearbox break on a £9k RRS after two months! Well, to continue on. The guy gives me his phone number so I can ring and I apologise as it's late (after 9pm I always do that, some people are not up late!) and I'm sure we can't see it tonight... and he says, no problem, I'm working until midnight, but you can come see it after that if you want! Well, it's as dark at 12am as it is at 7pm, so what odds? And we were committed, we had been driving around and trying to find something, anything, to buy, we were determined not to return empty handed! I filled my buddy full of Boost and me with coffee and we drove slowly (to kill time) up to the sellers address to wait in the petrol station opposite he had mentioned. We still got there 20 minutes early and so the muddy Freelander got a wash.  It actually wasn't as pitch black as the photo makes out, there was some street lighting.  I could see the Rangey headlights glinting in the drive opposite though. A long 20 minutes for me. At 00:01 we knocked on his door. He'd managed to park up and go inside while we were over by the jetwash. Out came this bubbly middle aged guy and I could smell a bit of drink from him. Alarm bells? Nope. Two minutes talking about it and showing us some of the foibles like how to work the semi-broken ignition and the crack in the windscreen, and he handed me the key. Did he want to come with us? "Nah mate go ahead, I'm going back in for a glass of wine" and he was off. And so were we! Instantly I liked the old thing, because the exhaust blowout made the V8 sound like a proper machine. Shifting well, electrics all working, temperature came up a little slowly but reasonable enough, a bit boaty but the tyres were huge things on small wheels and a bit soft from standing. We did a good few miles, coming down onto the main coast road and up past Jordanstown university. The entrance was a perfect spot to pull over with bright lights to get a good look round, which we did, and could find little wrong. Well, plenty of little things, but it's a 20 year old RR with 11 months MOT. Seems solid, rot-free, dent-free, 107k and wipers, lights and windows all working. So started driving back. It was very slow to pull away and uphill it was pathetic. "Push it" I was told and down went the pedal. Up went the noise but not the speed! Eventually it did downshift - for the last time! Pulled up the hill then it stayed in that gear and wouldn't change up or down. Sod this for a pack of biscuits, we pulled over to pull the key out and hope it would reset. I was looking for a space to stop when my mate said, you're in a 4x4 Will, use the kerb... And then... it would not restart. Just churned over. Switched off the LPG and it wasn't having it on petrol either! Then the battery started fading. This adventure was turning sour. We got out to walk. Oh. Can't lock it either, keyfob battery is flat. Rang seller and said, um, I have some bad news for you, and he burst out laughing, yes I do pal, where are you? Not a sarcastic laugh, not a I-was-expecting-that laugh, he genuinely was having a ball.  A few minutes later he was round with the leads, and the monster fired right up. He said a few kicks on the throttle pedal usually gets the sticky gear sorted out. Well, it didn't and we drove it back to his place and up his narrow drive. Getting to behind his house the Rangey was now pointed the wrong way round so I drove it onto his back garden, and proceeded to do a five-point turn on the grass. Then I brought it up towards his back door and the floodlight and switched it off. Just out of curiosity we started poking around to see if we could find whatever was causing the "kickdown problem" as he called it - seemed like limp-mode to me - but it seemed to be electrical, not mechanical, so nothing we could do.  I'll mention now that before heading off on the test drive he had said with a excited gleam that when I got back I would have to turn it on the rough patch of grass at the back of his house, but watch out for tree stumps! I don't normally drive over peoples lawns! So we got nowhere with the gearbox but we did go to hook up jump leads again and then my buddy said wait, just try it first... and we did. It snapped into life right away. So... hot start issue then, common on the diesels I think. That's manageable! Just don't try to start it hot. This was looking better. At this point we were still chatting away, he had gone back in to get another glass of wine, and we hadn't given up tinkering. It was drizzling at it was 1:30am but we're not going home empty! So I said look, these are big issues, on top of the issues already known like the key/immobiliser/locking problems, cracked screen, etc. If it's cheaper - much cheaper - I would take it on as a project. It had smitten me already. And he said how much are you thinking is cheap - and I said, half of what you advertised it for! Oh no! Couldn't do that! So we carried on tinkering. He told me the price a local LR place had offered him (presumably for spares/breaking). Maybe if I matched that... After another while I upped my offer by £100, still well short of the breakers. I don't know why, I just wasn't up for any more than that, but he didn't recoil from that. He went to get some more wine and we continued poring over the green hulk I was better off avoiding. We took it back out to the road and he tried it up and down the street a few times to see if the gearbox would come round. How he didn't make himself dizzy driving round the petrol station pumps then up the road I don't know! Stopped again under the street lights and the LPG had ran out so I switched it onto petrol and that was also almost out. This just gets better, doesn't it? He says to me, cheery as anything, talkative and bubbling away, you know, when I went inside there, I had a minimum figure in my head before you even came tonight. But you know, I was thinking, and I really like you, and I like what you plan to do with it, and, you know, I wouldn't do this for anyone else but I really like the way you's have got on, and not been cheeky with me or told me I have to take a low price like some people would, so, I'm going to let you have it for the price you said to me, if you still want it. And thus I became the apprehensive new owner of a 20 year old P38 Range Rover 4.0 V8 that neither runs right, starts right, locks right or drives right, but it's mine and it was cheap! So obviously we need to sort out some fuel. The station we are actually in - how handy is that! - has a card operated pump. Brilliant, stick the card in. Oh, except there's no petrol available. Darnit. The seller hasn't stopped talking yet, and he's telling my buddy all the little last minute things. One more thing, the door card clips are in the glovebox. Oh, one more thing, this door locks because the pin falls down, just pull it up again and it opens. Oh! one more thing, etc etc etc... we actually burst out laughing at him, and he joined in, like, that's about ten "one more thing"s... And about 2am we set off to find some fuel. This is the result. That actually only took it to 5/8ths full.  Starting to feel the pinch of RR ownership already, we headed off for the 1.5 hour journey home with my stuck in gear V8 and soon realised that it was going to be a long night, 50mph was 4k rpm. Stopped for a break in Belfast after half an hour of that, then because I switched it off, had to wait 15 minutes before attempting a restart - I was getting cocky/confident at the this stage - and... yes, it did start, actually. And the radio worked! So, out onto the M1 and settled in for a noisy 45 miles at 45-50mph. After 20 minutes I got bored of that and so did he who was driving the Freelander behind me, although with offroad tyres we could only go 60 tops anyway, and I tried a couple of times to boot it and take it up to the redline. Which worked! It changed up! And up again! So it was now in 4th gear, but when I slowed down (as those big tyres made it very wallowy over 50 anyway) then the gearbox changed back down gears until it was doing 4,000rpm again. You brute! So in a week where I've had several chances to pit my wits against animal and machine, I redlined it again, then switched into Sport mode which holds it in gear longer, on the theory that it wouldn't be so keen to change down. it didn't work the first time, but I tried it again, and got it to do 60mph at 2krpm! And now I could hear the back-to-the-90's tunes on the radio at last, and that was a much nicer few miles. Shortly before getting home it started dropping gears again but I just turned off the motorway then and went the last few miles by back-road, to save my ears as much as anything, and we safely made it home anyway. Now I still haven't seen this thing in daylight, so I can't tell you what it's actually like to look at it, but I'm not taking it back so whatever it's like, it's mine now! |
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Not making any promises but the auto on mine was all over the place when I first got it. "Adjust the throttle cable as per factory manual." I was told. Hmm, a likely story. So I did, and it cured all the problems!  |
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Realising of course that a broken, gas-guzzler Range Rover solves NONE of the needs I was trying to sort out, I made some more plans for today (Saturday). Having bought a car at 2am, got home at 4, and woke up at 11am, I was back on the road again. A friend changed their whole days plans to help me out, which will not go unappreciated, and drove me back down to Belfast again, to see what I had been messaging another guy about. This was Glen, that runs a recovery firm that I use a fair amount, and he spotted that deliberately petulant Facebook post I'd made and offered me one of his personal cars - why, he doesn't know, especially at the mouth of winter, when it makes him money doing rescues as well, but maybe because he felt sorry for me (see, it worked!) - and i was happy because it was his which meant at least halfways looked after, I know him well enough that he wouldn't sell me a bad car, and it was the right sort of price, probably a bit cheap to be honest. It wasn't advertised, he had no real intention of selling, so it hadn't been grubbed over by farmers looking a cheap winter tow truck. So a message or two this morning to confirm time and I was on my way to see another 4x4 with 11 months MOT with no real intention to walk away. I arrived before he did (at a family members house) and they gave me the key and I had it briefly looked over before he arrived. In fact I had ran the engine, and fitted my trade plates by that time too, and my friend bringing me down asked me was I not taking it for a test drive? Sure I have to drive it home 40 miles, isn't that enough? Should I not wait until I buy it before putting the plates on? Well, I'm buying it, we all know that already! All I had to do was wait for him to arrive with the V5, done online on the phone, cash exchanged, and now I also own a 2002 Discovery TD5 manual.  This is a much better picture because it was bought when it was neither raining nor night-time. So I have one RR project, and one working towcar ready for use. Only one problem, I put £80 of petrol into the broken one! I want my moneys worth! Ah, I'm happy. And total expenditure for the day still no more than one worn out X5 would have cost. Someone once said, I always like reading an S_S update, there is always a new car being bought. Well, you got two for one today! Just two? Well, I did spy a Jeep for sale locally that looks interesting... |
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Not making any promises but the auto on mine was all over the place when I first got it. "Adjust the throttle cable as per factory manual." I was told. Hmm, a likely story. So I did, and it cured all the problems! Ooh. If that cures it... we will be well chuffed |
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As I say, no promises! rangerovers.pub/ is worth signing up to. Mainly Brit and dedicated to the '38. |
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