Be Excellent To Each Other

Also, with regards to "minter", I was referring to the pristine bodywork/interior.

I paid £275 for mine...

No, that just burns oil.

You can get that effect simply by neglecting to change the oil for long enough, or by using crap oil. Unless there's other symptoms it might clear up if you change the oil and filter.
Lack of 3rd gear is a bit of a bummer though.

But yours isn't PROPER RAPID INNIT?

I realise a 205 GTI isn't ultra quick by today's standards, but for a 19 year old's first car, it was pretty quick.

I come from a family of motor-lovers and I change the oil often with top quality semi-synthetic stuff, else I'd be clipped around the ear. I perhaps exaggerated the mayo symptoms. It's not enough of a problem to worry about HGF yet. Just a bit of the white goo everytime it comes to change the oil. Still burns oil real bad, though.

I'm not a car-moron!

Bought so far:
New front springs, new rear shocks, brake flexies all round, brake pads all round, handbrake cables, cv joint boots, track rod ends. Spend £220.

Done so far:
Replaced rear brakes. Noticed the one bit that's actually knackered (the automatic adjuster) isn't in the kit.
Replaced handbrake cables. Noticed the little plastic bit which wore out and allowed the cables to fray isn't included.
Ripped off front brake hoses and managed not to take the bracket with it (yet)

Going to buy another shitheap of a car in 1 month from now. Ho hum.

Probably something like a 306, or a ZX as they are OK.

Happy days.

Get a 306 Rallye. Most entertaining car I've ever owned. Except perhaps the mini.

Tempting, but it will be diesel and ZX/306 sized estate.

I've got the motorbike for twatting about in.

I was musing over a 306 GTI-6 a couple of years ago. I decided it was a silly idea.

That and the Rallye are effectively the same car, but the Rallye is a lot lighter because it doesn't have any of the creature comforts.

Isn't the Rallye bonkers light? No carpets and stuff? And which car was it -- the Clio 172? -- that they went to really obscene lightening steps for, like manual window winders, removing the ABS, and thinner windscreen glass?

That'll've been the Cup if any. They really went to extremes for the Megane R26.R.

Ah yes, the Cup, that's the one. It was around the same time as the mk2 V6 one I think. It was interesting how different the approaches to bonkers hot hatch town the two cars took.

Gotta change the brake pads on the rear of the car tomorrow. That'll be interesting, always had an innate fear of messing with my braking systems.

Pads are easy peasy. Just don't get the copper grease on the friction surface.

Me too, although I did change the pads and discs on an old fiesta I had once, but my dad was around to help out and he was very good with cars and machines in general. Me, now, not so much - and especially as my wife uses the cars more than I do.

That was quite easy, apart from getting a couple of the pins out of the calipers.

I forgot to put copper grease on the rear side of the pads though, is that what's making the grinding noise or is that just the pads bedding in and it'll go away after a while?

I had a 306 D-turbo.. I loved that car. Wern't they similar spec to a GTI but a deisel?

That'll go away.

When they fall out the bottom.

Is it wrong of me to be considering changing the back box on my car for one that has a different sound? Not one of those stupidly loud chavvy things with a tailpipe that looks like a 5 litre paint pot, but just a little bit burblier than the original Mazda one which is incredibly muted.

Keep the original on for the MOT, and swap them after. And you might have to cock about with your fueling.

@MarkG: Lord, no.

@Mali: Or, buy the exhaust from the guy that does your MOT

And if go to a mechanic you know well, they may not mind at MOT time if it's technically road-illegal.

Well I'll probably be fitting the exhaust myself but I don't see why there will be anything not MOT-worthy about it. It will still have a cat. That said I'll be getting it MOT'd at a mate's place anyway so it should be ok.

Well, you did say you wanted a slighter louder one, so I knew you weren't going to take the piss with a road-illegal race can like my brother has on all his bikes.

The ERFive probably needs a new exhaust once I get around to getting it back on the road, so I might stick an aftermarket system on it, as it's probably cheaper than the Kwak one.

Bought: little plastic bits for the handbrake cable.
Took back the front springs and got the right ones: total spent now £205 as the right ones were cheaper.

Done so far:
Replaced 3 steel brake pipes and fitted the new flexies.
Replaced track rod ends.
Replaced both front springs.
Fitted new CV boot (achievement unlocked: managed to do that without taking off the driveshaft or the hub)
Replaced both rear shock absorbers.

Now it only remains to bleed the brakes and fix a tail light..

EXPLAIN. Split boot?

Well, either that or the boot is made of the same stuff they made the T-1000 out of.

Yes, you can get them.

OR:

Paging Zio!

No. Explanation: if you un-bolt the hub from the shock, the hub will tilt right over allowing you to un-pin the CV joint and slide the shaft out of it, without disconnecting the bottom ball joint (which is always a 'mare).

It helps that I had the shock off anyway to change the spring, and also the steering track rod end. However it's dead easy to remove the shock on this car, just two bolts at the hub and two at the top.



edit: Oh, OK, I did take the driveshaft out of the CV joint, but not completely off the car, which is what you sometimes end up doing.

Hey, cunning.

Did I tell you about the time I changed the CV boot and wheel bearing on my Metro? The hub was so badly rusted on to the driveshaft that we broke a hub puller, sheared the bolts in it right through. In the end we had to pull the entire shaft from the gearbox and put it in a 25 ton hydraulic press to pop the hub off the end. When we did there was an almighty BANG and the ball bearings went everywhere.

Hehe That was actually the standard procedure for taking a rear hub off a Triumph Herald, except you'd also want to heat it cherry red with an oxy torch first, otherwise the press would simply break the hub.
Modern cars are better in a lot of ways, it has to be said.

Hooray, my temperature sensor has arrived, and just in time to be useless for 2 months (the weekend was the only time both me and my dad are available for ages). It's almost a completely different design to the one that's fallen off - even the loom sheathing has different colour coding on it.

Do we reckon it'll be okay to try it both ways round, or is there likely to be sensor-killing current/potential applied? I suppose I could try and borrow a multimeter.

The "Loom Sheathing"? You mean the wire colours? Yeah, you can try it both ways around, it won't damage the computer and is very unlikely to damage the sensor.

Is that the one you got from eBay?

Yep.

\
Slide the seat forward and fire this piece of shit up, daddy!

More Tomcat "fun": http://www.mattbuildsatomcat.co.uk/
Beware: It's getting properly dull(er) now.

I think you're confusing 'dull' with 'fucking awesome'. Giz a go!

I'll extend the promise I made to DBSnappa to anyone - if you want a drive, come down to London when it's finished and we'll terrorise some chavs

!

I will have to take you up on that offer.

New, noisier exhaust is on the way. It's a Borla, as helpfully demonstrated by this American:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLMCeSLg6Ko

Now I just need to pop by Halfords for some wicked neons and shit.

I fitted neon lights to my minibus so we could out-chav the Bedford Korsa Krew. Amusingly the bus had a better stereo, more neons (eight!) than all of them, and left the lights faster than a good number of them too

[edit]Rubbish photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/grim/sets/ ... 070908196/

.

Good work Grim... I saw a Corsa the other night that had these strips of bright blue LEDs running down the inside of the A-pillar to illuminate the spotty berk at the wheel, it was superb.

LOL @ Z, you twunt.

So the recession has hit Torchwood as well...