Be Excellent To Each Other

Yup. It’s just taken me almost an hour to do about 5-6 miles from Archway to home. Granted, Arsenal were playing at home which always causes chaos on the Holloway Rd, but it wasn’t helped by a road being closed due to a fucking Simon Snorkel being deployed for a house fire on one detour I tried to take

I’ve been Googling Simon Snorkels, and wondering why we don’t name things so excellently any more?

I had to Google it too, we call them brontosaurus.

If you just say Snorkel they won’t put the fire out.

I only know their name as my older brother, funnily enough called Simon, had one when we were small kids.

https://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph ... etro/37931
Now, this makes me think of someone on here, or is that just a malicious afterthought...

£1500! Fuck that, that's a £500 car at best!

I had one of those. My first car in fact... a G reg in white.

I loved it and so did the ladies!!!

I agree.

Broken down again. I’ve a feeling it’s the slave cylinder.

Mine too! Except it was metallic green, it was actually my mum's and I totalled it in a head on collision with a Range Rover on a country lane.

EXCITING ROVER UPDATE!

MOT DAY!!!

Am expecting it to fail on drivers side brake light and exhaust blowing.

My gearbox is fucked.

2nd hand one being sourced now by local VAG garage.

Yeah.

She'd better be good to me after all this spending.

Could be worse, I could be Hearthly.

Six months of pleasurable Seat Leon FR Technology ownership approaches. I think this is the car for me.

Also, it means I have cash to spend fecklessly on consumer electronics and games consoles and stuff instead.

Yeah, just watch out for anything transmission related once it's 16 years old.

16 year old Leon weeps fluid. Ok.

And handbrake needs adjusting, and a track rod end and a tyre. Chuck in oil, plugs and filters and £290 cash and job done.

Second hand gearbox sourced £335.
Then £140 labour (plus VAT).

Ouch.

Been an expensive year so far.

So, I did it. A 2003 Volkswagen Bora 1.9 TDI Sport in oceanic green. Based on the MK4 Golf so has rust on the front arches, but for £795 I can't really complain. 130bhp and 220ft-lbs of torque. 0-60 in 9.3s but crucially does 50+ mpg!

Super yay! Seems like a bargain to me.

They're pretty good cars, and produced before diesel engines had a lot of the shit bolted to them that can go expensively wrong.

There are still loads of Mark IV Golfs on the road running perfectly well, so I'd expect the Bora to be solid.

The 130bhp is the POWER VARIANT too, when that was crazy numbers to get out of a diesel engine. (Although IIRC they took the engine out to 150bhp towards the end of the run.)

2003 will be a pretty late one too, the Mk V launched in 2004/2005.

Glad you got something sorted, bargain that.

Mates MK4 golf has corrosion in exactly the same spot. It's the arch liners that hold the dirt on the inside. Give me a shout if you want tips on egr removal and cleaning and where to squirt Mr Muscle if you get limp mode

No DPF to worry about on yours either.

Well I took the plunge and I'm pleased I did. The Yeti won't be winning any drag races down the seafront, but I'm impressed by how much less pressure I need to give on the accelerator to get a decent lick of speed. Should have taken the 1.2 litre from 102 BHP to 130, and torque from 175nm to 215nm.

It also feels like mpg might have improved a smidge, possibly from the fact I'm giving it less welly around town.

All in all, feels like money well spent.

Cheers! I've already found a couple of issues (windscreen wipers are very slow at all speeds, clutch pedal sticking) so I've booked it in with my local garage. Hopefully nothing too serious. :/

Nice one, FindusFop! That's a good deal more horses.

Myp, clutch pedal heavy or not getting into gear properly? Hope it's something easily remedied.

Good forum for MK4 info, Bora section here: http://uk-mkivs.net/forum/28-mkiv-mk4-golf-bora/

Pedal has to be pulled back into position as it stays depressed. It's only a problem when getting into first from a standstill. Hoping it's just the cable and not a sign the clutch is on its way out.

They're hydraulic. Could be the slave cylinder. See what the garage says though mate.

That's well into unsafe and not something even a private seller can get away with (unless they said"it's fucked" and you said "that's how i like it"). Garage says more than a tenner and the law is pretty much on your side getting a refund. No idea how applying the law actually happens in that case though.

Did you test drive it?

Yeah I did, and it was fine. Only had the issue the next morning. So not really sure I have a leg to stand on.

I'd expect you do, but even when the law was clarified a good while back it seems like it would always be iffy.

Also that sounds like a leak, overfill it five minutes before the potential buyer arrives, fuck em five minutes after. Clutches don't spontaneously fail like that.

Step it up, Vision.

I've seen them on the roads loads but I somehow didn't realise just how small those are until I parked next to one the other day. They're properly dinky.

Got my car back!

That is awesome! I've seen a Pac-man sticker set in a similar vein... I'm sorely tempted.

Garage bled the clutch system and left it overnight. Seems ok today so all I had to pay for was labour! Phew.

Bleeding clutches.

It's started doing it again so back to the garage tomorrow.

If Skoda don't build my car soon I'm going to have to start spending on the bmw, the garage said "eh I wouldn't bother" but it is really running like shit now, more every day - the injector nozzles really might not have another month in them.

Maybe just give them a clean to put you on until you get your new car.

They're way beyond that, at least one of them dribbles so it pumps out a load of unburnt diesel smoke after sitting overnight, and now it smells like it's running rich even when hot, which it probably is even after all the clever compensation the ECU does.

I was feeling bad about doing it to the sales guy cos he put loads of time and effort in but he's left anyway.

Ah, fair enough. Hopefully they'll last long enough then.

In other news, the subaru is about 10 miles away at a friend's having its battery charged as it has mysteriously run out of gogo juice.

After 4 hours it didn't turn so I stuck a new battery into it.

Subaru Forester 2004 SG needs a 005 battery from Halfords (in case anyone is googling it). Their system didn't have it on so I had to go back to car, bring old battery in and size them up. They got rid of the old one, too.

I have the car back. They cannot find anything wrong so are loathe to change the whole clutch system and flywheel as it'll be £750. They've done an extended bleed again and got a lot more old fluid out, and refilled it. They kept it yesterday and today and took it on a few trips and it seems ok now. Will have to see how it goes.

At least it's the clutch not the brakes.

It's week 20! My car should be being built! Maybe right now!