Be Excellent To Each Other

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!

It's doing it again. Gonna scrap it I think. Not spending £750 on a 15 year old car on 193k miles only for it to fail the MOT in Feb.

Ah shite, sorry it’s let you down.

It might just be the master cylinder? If there's not fluid pissing out the bottom then it can't be leaking. Is there a leak? Is the reservoir emptying?

Alternatively the clutch might just be fairly worn, VW put a really strong over center spring on the pedal. It's only a junker so just put a spring or elastic or some shit to help the pedal return

So sorry, Myp. It sounds like a hard thing to bear even when you have money to burn, but when you live a more money-conscious life it must hit harder still. I have experience of the life but not the car aspect. I take it you have no legal recourse after sale with a private purchase (it was a private purchase, right, rather than via a used car sales place?)

On the other side of the 'spend money on an old car' coin.

Mine is shifting' really well now!

Yeah, not wanting to rub things in, but the Puma barrelled through another MOT this weekend.

The emissions test was basically nailed on.

Yeah, my Mk1 Focus ST has never failed an MOT either. I like Fords

I appreciate the advice, but eventually it grinds to a halt and gets stuck in gear - if it were just a loose pedal I could put up with it. Last time Green Flag had to tow me to my garage, but they won't do it again within 28 days and I daren't drive it any further than locally, so it's no use to me.

My garage can't find what's wrong with it and are very reluctant to start swapping out parts when they're not sure where the fault lies.

When it grinds to a halt, i'm assuming you have checked and there is fluid in the slave cylinder? If not, it is 100% a cylinder leak, either master or slave.
Although, why your garage wouldn't know that would be a mystery, so it can't be that simple.

Aye, there is.

So they don't know for sure where the problem lies. Hence it could become very labour-intensive, especially as the slave cylinder is on the gearbox.

In better news, my dad has offered to lend me the money to get something else, as long as it's from a garage and comes with a 3mo warranty and 12mo MOT.

I've found a 120k 52 plate Octavia TDI six miles away so I'm going to risk the Bora up there shortly.

Good luck mate.

Clutch release bearing I would expect in that case, if there is still fluid in the cylinder. Which means opening up the gearbox to diagnose/fix, which I agree just isn't worth it.

Good luck on the drive!

Rather than scrapping it, I would recommend putting it on ebay for no reserve and explain the symptoms of the problem. Someone will buy it and you may get more than you expect, plus they will come and take it away for you. I once got £300 for an old E28 5 series with a blown engine that way, I only paid £300 for it in the first place when it was working!

https://twitter.com/colinmckerrache/sta ... 0890563584

Shenzhen:
May 1st: all new commercial light duty trucks = EVs
From July 1: Only EVs allowed in ride hailing
By Dec 31:
Replace all remaining taxis with EVs
Build 5,200 EV chargers for taxis
Retire 20,000 diesel light duty trucks

City policies will reshape auto markets.

— Colin Mckerracher (@colinmckerrache) May 17, 2018

Wow. Shenzhen already has about 17,000 electric buaes: (100% of the fleet): https://cleantechnica.com/2018/01/01/sh ... axis-next/

At Google I/O I saw a Jaguar iPace (the all-electric SUV). It looked really nice. For the size of the car, the cabin space was enormous, as electric drive trains are so compact compared to IC ones. (This one was also a concept Waymo self-driving one. Jaguar is delivering tens of thousands of those starting in 2020, apparently.)

I don't think there's a problem to solve on building nice electric cars. Fast charging and charger availability are the things to fix.

Made it! Octavia is in decent nick for its age, but they've only just brought it in so needs a few things doing first (rear driver side window needs replacing, central locking issue). It's only 103k miles for a car that's older than this Bora that's done 196k.

It's only 110bhp, but I'll pull through somehow.

Mines a 110 TDi (ASV), they're a good engine and there's plenty of stuff that can be done to them.

Very economical and cheap tax too.

£200 deposit put down! Thanks Dad.

Are they taking the Bora off you?

Yeah, they're giving me £100. So I'm £700 down on the deal. Obviously with hindsight I wish I'd done this in the first place, but I didn't have £1,300 for a car. Now it's ended up costing close to £2k so I could've got the Merc fixed.

Hopefully this car will last me a few years and I can soon forget about this desperately sad period of car ownership.

Life is a roller coaster, you've just got to ride it.

Is five cars in two years worse than Hearthly now?

Sold my Clio in 2016 after four years as I wanted something bigger.
After a year decided I was too old for the Civic Type R and the looks I was getting because it was so loud.
Merc was great and suited me to a tee until I started delivering parcels in it and getting 25mpg at best. Then failed its MOT.
The Bora wins for shortest ownership period of any car I've had by a huge margin.
Now the Octavia.

But you changed cars for reasons.

So did Hearthly.
Bored now.

He didn't get the Mustang though as the Seat coddles him so.

But that's what you get when you remove the Heart from Hearthly.

Hly.

Play a board game or read a book.

Got the kids a car last week so they can all learn to drive. It's pretty much a necessity I think, being able to get yourself around.

It's a 1.2 16v Fiesta Zetec so it's an absolute flying machine obviously, and has all the mod-cons. Rear spoiler, cassette player, manual windows, metallic paint, AC. Only 34,000 miles but it's 19 years old.

No cup holders though. Well, it has little recesses in the glove box but that doesn't count.

My car is a 2017 Golf GTD so... the Fiesta was.... Interesting. Got it up to 90 though! After accelerating down hill for half a mile. It felt solid, it slowed down fine and was smooth through the gears. Be alright for them I think.

I forgot it didn't have parking sensors or a camera so almost reversed into a wall.

Perfect first car!