The Continuous Car Thread of S_S - Dream Car #1 Achieved '23

Last Thursday we stripped the interior of all the remaining panels and painted the insides black




and sent the alternator for a rebuild, planned out the next couple of stages etc.

My dad ordered material for the interior side panels and they will all be remade as they were a little bit tatty.

Also spent half the day chasing around trying to get a decent horn button that didn't look like it was out of a corsa stockcar, and a fusebox enclosure, but no joy.

Yesterday was a bit more degreasing, stripping back 60 year old paint to repaint the engine compartment.


I can't wire up until all the paint is dry but that means I can fabricate the new loom next week as all the clips, connections, cables and so forth that I've bought locally and ordered online are all here now.

Debating the future of the Alfa 156 at present also.
It barely gets used, but is always there when I do need it. MOT is now up and it will need the exhaust welded (why I don't know, new stainless less than 18 months ago, and it's not lowered), new discs and pads all round (again, brand new EBC Greenstuffs 18 months ago), a few brake lines of which one is an engine out job! but can be routed over the top of the engine bay as a cheap fix, and timing belt. On the other hand it has had many upgrades, I've recently shelled out many fortunes for a new OEM rear window wiper, boot badge/lock mech, and a key repair as it was getting a bit dubious. There's a good car underneath the issues as this one has always got whatever it needed, but this is a big bill for the MOT and I don't use the car, but I like having one reliable, presentable daily to hand when I need it. I do have the 740i coming into service this year I think, if not the Caddy and at least one of the Skodas, all of which could do the daily job, along with the M535i when the sun is back, and trade plates allow me to drive any of the cars in work if I'm really stuck.
Head says "time to let go", heart says "you love that Alfa, find the money"...

You know I probably still have them somewhere, as I took them out before selling the car, but I have another Estelle which will be getting them when it's done.

The next news article is that of a NEW CAR!

You've no doubt (maybe) read the previous musings on the imminent termination of my beloved 156 V6. Several discussions were had with people who know my cars, or love for them.
After which I was still unsure, but I happened to come across an advert for a car I quite liked, for what I thought was a reasonable sum of £800 with MOT until Spetember. Ideally I would want an estate (a Tourer, if you will) with a V8 plant in it, but those are slim pickings.
If I was to replace the Alfa, there were certain conditions. A friend of mine in church has a little autistic boy that loves cars, although his parents know nothing about them. He loves the Alfa on account of being noisy, fast and his favourite colour. He asked me only a week or two ago "when are you going to drive the Alfa again?" Pressure was on to find a noisy red car.
This car was a red V6.
I filed that under "maybe I'll think about that again later" in my head.

The next day whilst checking out facebook (for WORK PURPOSES honest!!) I saw the same car for £650. My interest was piqued. Cheapness I thought. I rang a mate for some sense but he also thought I should buy. I filed this all under "will sort it out later" in my head.

Cue lunch-time and the same car popped up with an ad of "£500, must go, getting company car" and I was scuppered. No chance am I refusing that. Got in touch, sorted a time out for just after work, got one of the guys to drop me off on his way home. 25 miles down the road only.



So. Half Leather. Xenons (high and low). 18" alloys, good tyres. 89k. Folding mirrors. "Get inside your house without falling over in the dark" lights or whatever they be called. Other nice things. Red. V6. Noisy!




There were a couple of issues I picked up on after a couple of days motoring.
Firstly after I got it back home it started cutting out on idle. It wouldn't idle smoothly and pickup from low revs was very bad, especially under load when moving off. Felt like an intake air leak to me, and sure enough after digging around for all of five seconds the revs were changing when a little pipe coming from the TB was moved. Not sure of its original purpose but maybe a secondary intake or idle valve connection? Anyway it was cracked at the end and the little filter on it was filthy.


Vinny said there was one of them on something else in the yard and went for a rummage only to come back with a nice clean one although it was twice as big. Cut the pipe down, made a step up and blatted it on - problem solved.


The other problem is that water is getting into the spare wheel well. This is apparently fairly common. The boot also doesn't close well, needs a good slam and several tries to get it to stick and even then the on-board says its still open.
I have however devised an ingenious solution to both of these issues, by not using the boot area at all, ever. Sorted.

I have noticed a lot of differences between this, and the Alfa, and the E39 530d and 525i I've been driving recently. These are all concurrent cars aimed at the same market but the differences are marked, so I might do a little back to back road-test report on them soon when I can feel my fingers again.

And one final piece of news is that AFTER the arrival of the MG, a last chat with my resident mechanic about the Alfa issues revealed that the exhaust was not actually holed, but in fact just badly scuffed (ramps where I live) and therefore not an MOT worry, and only the front brakes were needed, and I had already got new discs for the car but just needed pads, and the brake lines were fixed already... so I actually just need to buy a set of front brake pads for the Alfa and if I ignore the timing belt there is no reason why it wont pass another MOT... Oh the look I gave him. Some things really are lost in translation eh?
I'll give it a twice over myself next week to be sure but in all likelihood I now have two red V6s. Well, still not complaining.

So I did mention in my last ramble that I might do a road-test report. More for my own amusement and interest than anything else but I do not mind sharing it for you good people. Or indeed, for you to bemusedly wonder what on earth I am bleating on about this time.

So four cars I've done a few miles in each of lately.
2001 Alfa Romeo 156 V6 Veloce Sportwagon
2002 MG ZT+ 190
2000 BMW 530d SE Touring
2002 BMW 525i M Sport

The Alfa I have had for several years now. People say "Oh, it's Italian" as if that should explain it all. "Italian electrics!" or "Typical Alfa" are things I have endured in that time. And yet, what has it needed? Tyres, a radiator after a heavy winter, top wishbones which are a common fault. I've done a lot of work to it but that's my own choice, putting the GT front bumper on, new boot badge and wiper mechanism which I could have lived without, I upgraded the leather to facelift leather for some forgotten reason, facelift steering wheel which apparently is not compatible but its on mine, so... , and speaker and stereo upgrades, and a few alloy wheel changes. Oh and the strut brace and 3D dipped spoiler.
Anyway the things it has "needed" have been service items. Brakes have been done (and upgraded) and they are needed again which is unexpected but they've spent much time standing around and it's easy to see how they could become poor over time.
The 156 gets a poor rap for rust, and to be fair the first one I looked at (a grey diesel wagon) was rotten in the floor, but when I drove it and sat looking at the instrument binnacles I knew I was having one. It was just "special" to sit in. My red one has had zero rust prevention and is still just dandy. The front bumper mounts are a bit crusty now though, a common point on which any other I've seen have been eaten away completely.
So there are rust issues, but then, a 2001 3 series or a 2001 C-class would be just as bad, and actually have just as bad a reputation.
I say the three series as I don't think the 156 is up against the 5 series, even though that's what I'm checking out. It's a smaller, lighter car, with fewer toys, but I could be wrong.
So ignore the electrical "worries". My biggest issue in that regard has been a dash backlight that goes out sometimes so I can't see the higher end of the rev counter. And sometimes it comes back on again. It's more usually on than off.
Reliability wise it has never failed to proceed save when I flung a gallon of diesel into it (whoops!). Towed home, and pulled the injection system apart, used the fuel pump to remove the diesel from the tank, filled up with super unleaded and it has ran fine ever since. It has a towbar and has pulled a 2.5 ton load 60 miles home once when stuck in dire circumstances.
It still feels special to drive. It's quick, it's rev-happy, it has a great pickup without any lag and it goes where you point it. It does get a bit under-steery when pushed. The suspension is good, compliant but firm. The gear ratios are very short. Acceleration is odd as you are frantically changing gear every two seconds until you get to sixth and still want another. It has no nice final drive gear for cruising. V6s to tend to rev higher I find, but even still, 70mph at 3,200 rpm is the same as my 1.3 Skoda, and noisy on the motorway. I know its undergeared as a quick stamp on the throttle and the torque is there to accelerate from 70 further. A cruising gear does not need to be in the torque band. It's my one major grip with the car. It feels as though I have redundant gears and I would be surprised if third and fifth are not gummed up inside the box as they're never used.
The electrics are all to hand, the steering wheel is small-ish and everything makes sense with its location - the only out of the way thing being the fog light switches between the seats. But you shouldn't be playing with those anyway.
Interior space is tight. I'm six foot and I like some head space so I sit low. There's no room for a rear passenger behind me and my elbows have no natural resting spot on either the door or the centre console. Early cars had no centre arm-rest, the facelift seats in mine have one attached to the seats which is handy but its small. It just about does the trick for my left side at least. Boot space is decent, although the lip doesn't help with getting heavy things in. My boot is full of curse word. There's still shin pads and helmets in there from the last time i took out my MTB in like 2012 or something. Embarassing.
The Alfa has no cruise control and it can't be added to pre-facelift cars without a complete wiring session. Facelift cars you can plug it into. So none of that for me, and few other mod-cons really, just electric windows, mirrors, usual things.
I think its a reasonably good looking car, its fairly practical, its interesting and in my case reliable. I bought it with 82,500m and now it has 99,200 with little more than servicing and a few replacement items that I can see being needed on any 15 year old car.

The MG I purchased recently as a replacement for the Alfa although the Alfa may live on (see previous). It's also a 190bhp 2.5 V6 and another good looking car to my eyes.
It's a completely different steer though. First thing I noticed was that the Rover 75 based saloon was very much bigger indeed than the 156 or indeed the E39s. It is a concurrent car so this was some surprise, and as I have a narrow drive I needed to be careful when arriving home. The wider body, and presumably track, means its much more planted than the Alfa and I have not yet found if it under or over steers on the limit.
It has the same V6 undergearing woe, with no 6th gear to relieve the engine on a fast motorway waft. There's also no cruise control to make life easier. It does like to rev as well, and gear changes are to be done on the heavy side of 3k rpm to keep it pulling. It's an exceedingly rapid car though, given the bulk, lack of wind noise and displacement from the exterior I feel it to be surprisingly sharp. When lowering oneself into the seat, you do realise that the doors are thick, the dash long, the bonnet long, the bumper extends further still and the road is at some point over the horizon and you can take a rough estimate where it should be. The comfort though is something I've missed since my 620sdi, with half leather semi-bucket seats making for a most enjoyable butt-plonking experience.
The controls inside are not as accessible. The radio is too cluttered, as is the heater. They make sense, but there's too much going on. The steering wheel controls are in the 7-8 o clock position which is not where my thumb is when driving. However the armrest in the centre and on the door are in just the right spot for someone my height, as a result of being designed by someone called Arthur, not Alessandro. The dials light up white which makes it racy (not too bright) and there is a little LCD trip computer screen you can cycle through in the centre of the dials, or switch it right off which is good. It's prone to failure and mine has a few broken pixel lines in it.
Space inside is much better due to the large cabin size, so people (well, children), can sit behind me. There's headroom for all and footspace to match.
The ride is firmer but not uncomfortable with this car, and it feels much more taut than the others. The larger 18" wheels don't detract from the ride as you might imagine they would. It probably is the most quiet car to be inside, with no road noise except that of the burbling exhaust. It's a meaty sounding affair, with more purpose to it than the other cars here. Overall I'm very impressed so far with the finish of it and the comfort yet sportiness, if not the ergonomic detail, but its not something I can't easily cope with. The wipers are a bit fiddly. Every time you start up you need to reset them, unlike the Alfa and BMWs which maintain their previous operational discourse. Likewise all of these cars have lights that must be turned on/off except the Alfa which can be left on and go on/off with the ignition. It's the small things - but I've left lights on before and had flat batteries in the morning. If the "ping ping" fails, you might not realise. I don't trust car electronics not to fail and having a system that takes care of it is nice.

The BMWs can be summarised together for interior then separately for driving.
The E39 model is a very comfortable car, with large arm rests on both sides and steering wheel controls at your thumbtip. The radio and heater controls make almost instant sense and the wipers etc are all where you'd expect. There are no surprises. But then, it's very boring inside. The instruments are plain (and prone to failure) and the standard radio quite sparse with controls given it's size. The radio and the heater control panel are also prone to buttons falling off and LCDs failing and even the cupholders, which the other cars don't have, are so fragile that they are essentially useless.
BMW seats are hard but they are still reasonably comfortable and supportive. They're harder wearing than others too although these cars have more miles than my other two. They have a little more adjustment scope though and it leaves it that rear seat passengers can have thicker legs than the other cars. Equipment levels with all of these four cars is much the same, but the 5 series has got more radio control and almost all of them have cruise control built into the wheel. As per usual the windows and mirrors are all electric.
I've considered both of these cars as we have a Sport, auto, petrol, and a normal SE trim, manual, diesel which are far apart and give a broad view of what they're like.
The Diesel is very boaty, wafty, with no real prowess in the cornering stakes, but, in saying that, even with it's standard 16" wheels with sidewalls the size of some hi-rise tower blocks, it will stick to the road. It soaks up all manner of bumps and rattles but even though you don't feel the harshness of the bump, you feel the wobble in the back end as it goes over it. For this reason I find the car very comfortable when traversing some B roads or if I need to be somewhere in a hurry. The turbo is a good one (replaced it just after buying the car) and the kick it adds to the 184bhp 3.0 engine makes it a reasonably fast car. It is not quick, there is no "nippyness" about it, and it certainly wouldn't do well in a traffic light grand prix against anything other than a Daewoo, but once past the first few gears and into the boost range, it will fly along quite merrily at lose-your-licence speed with a settled feel and maintaining the torque curve so you have some when you need it. It will calm itself to about 2,150 rpm at 70mph and so beats the petrol cars 24-27mpg by doing 37mpg on the same kind of mixed mainly fast back roads driving I do mostly.
This particular heavy oil Touring has some 165k on it of which 5-6 would be mine over the last several months. The light control unit is faulty, I've had issues with the central locking, the boot doesn't open, it puts up error lights that sometimes go away and sometimes don't, and it has succumbed to rust which is unusual for these but once they get some, they go very bad indeed. It has a towbar as well and has pulled a few loads and is quite competent at towing, although the weight limit must be adhered to as the multi-link suspension and air-bags at the rear do not appreciate being pushed past their specifications. The rear tyres also wear quite fast when used for towing because of the way they camber in.
The petrol automatic M Sport model is much more stable but at the cost of comfort. It's not a harsh ride, but you know you are not being cossetted. It feels eager to push on but you can feel the tendency to oversteer when you do, unlike the diesel in which the heavy engine balanced the front to back and it would understeer first. The straight six 193bhp 2.5 has more toque and grunt than the V6s but then doesn't rev as high, so it feels like it takes less effort but by doing so removes a little of the ethereal pleasure. What it is, is very capable, but not terribly engaging. The auto box is efficient but kickdown is slow and accelerating feels a little too committee-decided. There's a decision every time in the transmission ECU on whether or not I really meant to jam on the throttle and if I actually need a lower gear or just a little bit more noise. It does get tiresome. I've driven manual petrol ones and they are better in this regard (of course) but you do need to drop a gear to accelerate or overtake as they are geared for cruising, not racing, so they sit just below the torque band. It's a nice sound off them although this particular car is too loud and being auto, odd sounding with a stainless exhaust. There is 138k on this car but it doesn't show in the way the diesel one wears its mileage. It has no faults electrically but did need some suspension work and the usual engine gaskets that all these BMW petrols need regularly.


I'm noticing the subtle differences with running these cars all at once (sort of). Like the BMWs have a key fob with a boot button, the others don't. The MG has a open button that opens the drivers door on single tap or all the doors on double tap. The Alfa doesn't have parking sensors but the others do. The Alfa can clear it's misty screen in half the time the others take, but the MG has "walk-me-home" lights.

I can't recall ever having several cars at the same time that would have been competing with each other when new, so it's interesting to me to segregate their differences and foibles and so on, and compare them 15 years later when all the common faults and reliability factors have been exposed. I'd be further interested to drive say a concurrent Mercedes/Audi/etc to see how they compare. I did drive a Lexus GS300 as a daily a few years ago but it was a '95 and I can't remember much about it apart from not liking it so that doesn't need revisiting!

We've been hectic in work hence no updates in ages.
Just after the last post, I took this picture inside the workshop. There are 5 M cars in there being worked on, hence having no time (or spare money!) to work on any of my projects.


I mentioned in a recent "cars you miss" thread about a E39 535i manual I sold last year. I came across a similar car, a black facelift Sport, for sale in London. It had black leather and sat-nav over my previous standard radio and silver leather, and was advertised with "immobiliser problem". I bought it and had it moved to into storage in the midlands for a month until I could get over and sort it out.


Where I also have this lovely low mileage 530i Sport stored


I went over to sort them out a couple of weeks ago and brought of couple of my guys with me. The 530i got whatever work it needed and now just needs an MOT and will be up for sale. The 535i turned out to have been previously owned by a devious little liar who had totalled the engine internally and pulled the immobiliser to hide it. A real shame as I was quite looking forward to driving that one.

I had no choice but to buy another car to float around England in while I was there...

Another 530i auto with sat-nav and black leather but short MOT.
It stayed in England after I was done with it.


So next step is back home and see what the score is here.

Maybe you should hang an old bonnet on the wall to use as a list board.

More pictures?

So Alfa list was extensive and in all took a full work day and the next morning as well.

First crack was getting the old trash off.

This is the "professional" custom built exhaust I had made a couple of years ago.




I counted six welds at various points along the new pieces, with a clamp joint in the middle. The clamp, and every single weld, was leaking, evident by the carbon buildup around them.
It's not hard to do that right, even though it is stainless to be fair but with careful use you can do a reasonable weld with normal MIG wire. I set them to one side to weld myself after doing the brakes but one of my guys who is a ex-professional welder for one of those many local industries making heavy plant, well he had little to do that day so he grooved the welds out and did them right for me while I did other bits.


What a weld should look like.


And he made and affixed a patch on the downpipe where that had rubbed through.



Back arms were looking well tired so I had a new set of them. They had a lot of movement under side load when tested.
Doused in fluid.


Thankfully all the crusty looking bolts came out cleanly. I took a knotwheel to them to tidy the heads up and coated them in much copper grease


And so.


However these have nearly the same amount of movement. I am near sure they are meant to, and there is a bushing at the bottom of the hub which they mount to, which seems slack, but anyway having new arms on will at least show the MOT tester that they're supposed to have some bushing movement. or maybe they tauten under load.


Vinny spent half the day replacing the bottom arms and learning why mechanics only think they're good until they run up against an old Italian car.


While I did brakes. Plenty of meat on the pads


and the discs.


Problem is, the car was lying up. There is no grooving or lip to the discs - and very little wear. pads have only slightly worn down. Lying up has made them suffer rust issues, which has led to pitting, and all the problems you can see in this picture. I don't tend to fit curse word so I can imagine I've just thrown out a good chunk of cash in front brakes that were at one point perfectly sound. Don't leave your car lying up!


Fix time.






Sorted.


Also I had a bit of time yesterday to bring the E28 into the workshop.
I compression tested it and got consistent readings on 5 cylinders of 10-11 bar pressure, but #2 was 8.5. then I used another tester and got 10. Then 9. Finally I had a hoke about to make sure there wasn't something in the threads preventing a good seal with the two different testers I was using and then got two readings of 10.5, crisis averted.
Fitted the radiator more securely, check all the levels and refilled and re-bled the coolant. Seems to be all good again now. Will refit the bumper and put some gogo juice in and hopefully that's ready to rock again.

Bought some mastik and fixed the MG. It took ages to rebuild the back seats into it, as the catches didn't want to play. Many fruitless minutes were spent on it between making the dinner, but eventually got it sorted. Have had it out a couple of runs again after charging the battery up and adding a bit of air pressure to the tyres.

This country is never too sure what's going on. Hail left the area looking like mid-winter.


The E28 is doing daily duties at the minute without any drama.

A friend of mine needed a car as theirs blew up. Spent a Sunday afternoon getting that one towed to a safe storage place for now, and had a rack of me brains but realised I had nothing suitable as a lender car.
So I did what any good friend would do and went and bought a 330i MSport.

It's a really well specced car, factory Xenons and towbar, black leather etc. Looking forward to getting it back sometime.

And finally, finally finished the restoration (oily rag refurb really) of this 1983 E21. Didn't want to make it immaculate, left the history and patina intact.
Took six weeks from MOT until a dry day I could take photos, and then it sold in under three hours, from uploading to specialist websites to deposit in hand.


Battery ordered for Triumph and service parts here.
Working on the 740i at the minute, few new parts and diagnosing hot start issue at minute, hopefully will be able to MOT it soon then begin on manual conversion.

Brilliant read this. 👍🏽