The Car Thread

[Tom Booth]

Thought you'd have chickened out an onto winters by now Dan!

[Pashley26]

You know when you're bored and just have a wank for the fun of it? Well I watch these instead -

Oh yes.

[N.Wood]

On a normal, everyday car how deep water can it get through before it starts to die? I guess it depends mainly on air intake level?

Just drove through some ~1.5 foot deep water on the way home (pretty slowly, obviously) and made it here fine but I guess intake level is the limiting factor?

[Revolver]

There's the exhaust and electrics too. Getting a wet alternator won't be good.

[Pashley26]

You'll be fine at that sort of level, I've had water come in the windows before on my old Discovery.

As long as you've got an airbox and not just a cone filter and don't take your foot off the throttle you'll be ok for a second or two at that level. It won't even be as high as the alternator on a lot of vehicles.

[Luke Rainbird]

Werd.

In other news; The chaos that Prawn's thread on AS became over the past 24 hours is comedy gold

[Tom Booth]

Lol, my mum took one of the work vans through a puddle about 1/1.5ft deep an hydrolocked it, bent rod an generally shafted! Was even funnier when we got there to try an recover it an she was practically in a resevoiur as it didn't stop raining

[Pashley26]

Werd.

In other news; The chaos that Prawn's thread on AS became over the past 24 hours is comedy gold

SO many retards, not enough hours in the day to correct them all.

Prawn's given up caring now, he's just left me stood alone telling them all how wrong they are.

If he was considerably quicker than you with 200 bhp he will be even quicker again with 350bhp...How is it so hard to see!

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

Lol, my mum took one of the work vans through a puddle about 1/1.5ft deep an hydrolocked it, bent rod an generally shafted! Was even funnier when we got there to try an recover it an she was practically in a resevoiur as it didn't stop raining

Yeah my mum killed her MINI going through a ~1ft deep flood because their intake is pointing downwards at the bottom of the front grill. Genius design. German quality f**king engineering my arse.

[David]

Thanks for the feedback. I am potentially looking at the 2.0L Zetec. Not sure the ST170 is worth the extra money for what I want. I also get the impression they would be driven a lot harder!

What sort of mileage is reasonable for a used focus? I know the Zetec engines are very reliable and at the end of the day it matters more about how well the car has been looked after etc..

Dave

My old man had a 2.0l Ghia and now has a ST170

As for the ST:

• Lookout for rust under the rear window
  
• Lambda sensors have a habit of going
  
• The wheels will probably need a refurb unless they have already been done
  
• Stick to the original continental tires, tried yoko's and it tramlined pretty bad
  
• The dash backlight can flicker
  

He's also had problems with the power steering going notchy and some unit that opens some butterflys in the inlet manifold im not sure exactly what.

Saying that he's probably had it 7-8 years now and it gets very little looking after.

Oh and don't bump it if it has xenon lights. They are about £600 each.

And get a 3 door because 5 are just ugly

[Dan6061]

Tom - Nah still rolling on these! I might give it a service and change the wheels over on Saturday though...

[Pete.M]

For a mk1 Focus I'd expect around 120,000 miles, that's what mine is on. But do try for under 100,000...

I recommend the Zetec model as it has ever so slightly stiffer suspension than all the other standard models.

[Greetings]

Drop top E46's are so cheap here because they are driven by women, drug dealers, closet homosexuals and wankers. Haha! E46's in general have a really bad image here, anything other than a top spec M3 or CSL is "just a BMW" to most people.

If you do come to the UK and for some reason find yourself in the South West you're welcome to stay at mine, also if you do buy something over here you're more than welcome to drop by our workshop to get it on the ramps. Our workshop is south west of London so a pretty central location within the south. It's also a 10 mile drive from Prawn so you could meet up with a few of us at once.

I'd happily take you up on that offer, I'll be staying at SW19 if I come over, got a lot of friends/family there. Sounds like it's fairly close by.

Good to know that those cars are driven by women, it's a good thing right? Replace clutch and the rest of the car should be mint?

I'm not entirely sold on the E46 M3 to be honest, I drove one while owning an S2000 and found it incredibly boring. It was sort of quick but it didn't feel fun to drive. Just an ordinary saloon car with sharp controls and a firm ride. That's my opinion, on the other hand you have motoring journalists and among others Chris Harris who hails it as the best and most complete car ever made. I must be missing something.

Edited November 22, 2012 by Greetings

[Duncy H]

Anybody know anything about vans in here?

I'm thinking a van is a sensible idea for me atm, I want something I can cart my motorbike and push bikes around in along with a couple of mates perhaps. All vans seem jolly expensive though and I don't know much about vans! Looking to spend about 1500. Been considering a t4 transporter but the price of them varies hugely.

I don't mind bodywork or a bit of work to get it how I want it, any tips greatly appreciated

[Tom Booth]

I wouldn't be looking at t4s for £1500, they've got such a following at the minute its rediculous how expensive they are. Even an old space travelled plasters van fetches £1200+. It's mental. Can't say I've heard much bad press on the Renault traffic/vaux vivaro range of vans. Prepare yourself for the tax an insurance thou!

[Prawny Baby]

I'm not entirely sold on the E46 M3 to be honest, It was sort of quick but it didn't feel fun to drive. Just an ordinary saloon car with sharp controls and a firm ride.

As always, I think weight is the enemy here, a stock E46 M3 weighs just short of 1600kg's I believe, which is just FAAAARRR too much for a flagship sporty model.

Epic GT cars yes, but the fact that a 225bhp Renault hatch back is faster round just about any track, wet or dry, would suggest they've got something wrong if outright pace were the only goal.

E36 for me all day long, I love them to bits!

[Duncy H]

I wouldn't be looking at t4s for £1500, they've got such a following at the minute its rediculous how expensive they are. Even an old space travelled plasters van fetches £1200+. It's mental. Can't say I've heard much bad press on the Renault traffic/vaux vivaro range of vans. Prepare yourself for the tax an insurance thou!

Cheers Tom, I thought all the vivaros and traffics would be too new so never bothered checking.

Looks like ill be having a lovely day in getting insurance quotes

[Luke Rainbird]

Yeah, Tom's on the money. I was looking at them myself for a fair while, but it's just not cheap due to the massive scene tax. The most rotten vans go for silly money, it's unreal!

[Tomm]

As people have said, they command high prices second hand at the moment, especially VWs. Also ex-commercial vehicles will often need VAT paying if they're for private use, so bear in mind that might add a lot onto the price. I believe insurance is cheaper if you turn it into a camper. To some insurance companies that means a mattress in the back, but others require more evidence than that.

The plus side is that you can always whore yourself out as 'man with van' for extra cash at the weekends.

[Revolver]

Those newer transporters aren't even particularly good looking. Fools.

[Duncy H]

Well I think I have a chance of getting a transit connect that is mint and I know the history of for free or a very little fee through my dads company so I'm going to snap his hand off if I get the chance.

[Pashley26]

Copy and pasted off ASN. Long and short of it is my new clutch is here, it isn't BRAND new but it's about a week old. It's good for 350bhp and is much lighter than the dual mass setup I currently have so it will be much more responsive on and off the throttle as well as rev up a little lighter and quicker. All round a win win.

Sooooo, on Wednesday night the clutch went on the A3

I was very very sad! I made a post on facebook saying the clutch was gone on the Audi and within 57 minutes of clutch related failings I had a barely used ABF flywheel, a VR6 friction plate and a VR6 pressure plate on its way to me from London. Courtesy of our very own Ranvir/Bobby/Customboy on the promise of a chilli and chips at the Ace. What a lovely bloke and a great friend!

So I had a clutch; but nowhere to fit it. Step in Phil Miller, who offered to take a day off work to fit the clutch round at his place for me. What a hero!

And for me that is what community and forums are all about; it's lovely that everybody pulls together in their time of need. What goes around comes around and all that jazz; and I'm very grateful to have these sorts of people around me. I can't thank you enough.

I ordered the bolts up from VW, 6x ABF flywheel bolts (P/N90206103) and 6x VR6 friction plate bolts (P/NN10101001). The bolts arrived today so I went and picked them up and got a new release bearing whilst I was there, they didn't have a release arm so I'll have to risk that not being cracked.

I was supposed to be going home to see my family and the COV boys next week, but what with all the **** that's going down with the car and me having a lot on my plate at work I am going to be fitting the clutch with Phil on Sunday morning I think.

Edited November 23, 2012 by Pashley26

[Luke Rainbird]

Tight communities with decent folk like that are what it's all about

[Prawny Baby]

I bought a VW Motorsport Billet alloy shifter

It won't make the car any faster, or lighter, but it will make me smile every single time I use it, because it's just so damn cool. It's something I have wanted for YEARS since I first saw one on a race car many years ago.

The unit seems really nicely made, both the pivots are on bearings, and it has an awesome little lift collar to engage reverse.

The only complaint I could find about these, was the lack of self centring on the lever from left to right, so I decided to try and come up with a solution.

That's where a tractor brake pedal return spring comes in.

it'll be fitted over the main shaft like this:

But in between the unit body, and the main left-right pivot body, with 2 small dowel holes drilled for the tangs:

With careful placement, that should see the lever springing back to centre nicely.

The reverse lock out is also really cool. In normal operation, you push left for first, the these adjustable stops hit this pin like so:

Then you pull this little lift collar:

Which pulls this bike gear cable:

And the pin slides back, allowing you to move further left for reverse!

The welding on the alloy tower supplied seems strong enough, but it's not very pretty, so I'm going to attack it with a flap disc and some wet n dry, and paint the tower Porsche 8C6 orange to match the cage and things.

Cable wise, I've got a set of shift cables from a volvo S40 which are longer to allow me to position the lever where I want it, and I'll be making up custom cable stays from 3mm plate, and of course, painting them orange too.

The ball joints I showed earlier, will go on each end of the new cables, so it'll be solidly mounted at each end of the cables for a really tight shift without any rubber in there.

Taking the volvo cables, and cutting the ends off, you can run an M6 die down the rod end and cut on an M6 thread like so:

Then with the aid of an M6-M8 adapter, I can convert the cable ends to an M8 thread:

Then screw on my ball joints:

Sorted! If I need to extend the cables ends at all due to stay placement or anything like that, I also have some M8 threaded sleeves, so I can fit a sleeve to the M8 male end on the cable end, then use some M8 stainless thread bar to get the ball joint exactly where I want it and lock it out with lock nuts.

It's a complete experiment, and I'm sure it'll feel rubbish at first, and take considerable setting up to get it right, but I just love these shifters so much, so here goes!

[King C]

That looks bloody great. I'd never seen them up close enough to figure out how the lift collar worked but now I know.

Love your planned mods as well