The Car Thread

[Simon]

Common fault on BMW's is for the strut top to fail and the strut pushes through, could also be that.

Can i just say, holy shit Prawn, would hardly recognise you man, epic.

To stay on topic;

[AndrewEH1]

Okay, I'm looking for tyres for my car as the previous owner installed some wet weather ditch finders...

It being Scotland I need something that is good in the wet too! They don't need to be winter tyres at all though!

Audi A4 3.0 Avant Quattro 2003

Here's what I'm after, any recommendations?

235/40R18 Y 95

[Greetings]

JD, I have an identical suspension setup in my E38 as you in the E39 and really the only thing that can go wrong there is a broken spring. If the top mount went through, it would also go through your rear windscreen.

Jack the car up on that side and move the wheel up and down. You'll soon get an answer.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Greetings

[Skoze]

Just sorted out some new headlights for the Capri (i've given up with my f**ked one) through another forum, turns out i'm dealing with trials_pimp/ Lee Mccaw of this parish. Small world!

New parts are arriving too which is nice, -2" Leda springs out back and some coilover converted bilsteins complete with new hubs etc for less than £500 all in. Yes.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Skoze

[RobinJI]

Okay, I'm looking for tyres for my car as the previous owner installed some wet weather ditch finders...

It being Scotland I need something that is good in the wet too! They don't need to be winter tyres at all though!

Audi A4 3.0 Avant Quattro 2003

Here's what I'm after, any recommendations?

235/40R18 Y 95

I've never heard a bad word about Uniroyal Rainsport 2's, which are wet weather tyres, but also apparently very good in the dry. They're what'll be going on my car when the current tyres wear out.

[AndrewEH1]

I've never heard a bad word about Uniroyal Rainsport 2's, which are wet weather tyres, but also apparently very good in the dry. They're what'll be going on my car when the current tyres wear out.

Cheers for that, the reviews look pretty good. I'll have a think!

[AndrewEH1]

...and cock

Driving home from work. Not revving how it should. 'Engine Management' light turns on.

Idling sounds a little different and doesn't rev very well at all.

Any ideas?

From a quick google might be ignition coils?

Edited August 14, 2013 by AndrewEH1

[Bucky]

Common fault on BMW's is for the strut top to fail and the strut pushes through, could also be that.

Can i just say, holy shit Prawn, would hardly recognise you man, epic.

To stay on topic;

Like like like!!!!!!

Love the 240sx s13!!

I was wanting one before i got the s14a but just out of my price range.

A Whats its going to be used for? B Which engine?

[CurtisRider]

Has anybody got a spare head unit kicking about, looking for an old tape deck from the 80's era...

[RobinJI]

So take one of these:

Apply a soldering iron and a Stanley knife for a while and you get:

A cover thingy for your silly internally mounted shifter. Please excuse the rest of the interior, tomorrow evenings plan's to chuck some satin black paint on this cover and cleaning the interior between coats. Should really tidy up the interior hopefully. I might add a phone holder to this thing sometime too.

Any ideas for grommet type things to fill the hole where the stick comes through?

[Revolver]

ny ideas for grommet type things to fill the hole where the stick comes through?

Jack a nice one from a scrap-o's and cut the hole in the top to suit it and glue it in.

?

[Pete.M]

Has anybody got a spare head unit kicking about, looking for an old tape deck from the 80's era...

Got a Volvo cr-906 kicking about, problem is it might need a code and I'm not sure I have it. I can have a look for said code if you wanted though. Edited August 14, 2013 by Pete.M

[Simon]

Like like like!!!!!!

Love the 240sx s13!!

I was wanting one before i got the s14a but just out of my price range.

A Whats its going to be used for? B Which engine?

SR20DE Auto at the moment.

Have SR20DET with S14 Ball Bearing turbo and manual box sitting in garage waiting to go in. Need a few more parts and my diff welded then it's good to go.

Will be used to have fun, and some open drift days if i'm good enough. Already got steering wheel, seat and few other bits and pieces too.

Might drop down to 17's though, or get it lower on the 18's though, they just seem a bit too big at moment but i think that's cause the HSD's are maxed out.

[Azarathal]

So the mr2 idea has fallen through because I'd prefer 4 seats. Am I right in thinking im stuck with the 318i/328ti if I want a 4 seat rwd? Ideally I'd like a fastback rwd. How hard would it be to chop an old civic or golf for rwd? I wouldn't mind a 4wd based on a rwd system too if it's affordable.

[Pete.M]

There are sierra's, old volvo's, and various other 5 seat cars with rwd, but I can't think of a better all rounder than the BMW, as long as you can afford the insurance.

[Azarathal]

Heard insurance isn't bad, it'd be going on a credit card rather than pay monthly so i'd probably be paying £1.4-1.6k for the bmw (was quoted £1.4k for the mr2).

Shame the bmw's don't look that great.

[Tom Booth]

SR20DE Auto at the moment.

Have SR20DET with S14 Ball Bearing turbo and manual box sitting in garage waiting to go in. Need a few more parts and my diff welded then it's good to go.

Will be used to have fun, and some open drift days if i'm good enough. Already got steering wheel, seat and few other bits and pieces too.

Might drop down to 17's though, or get it lower on the 18's though, they just seem a bit too big at moment but i think that's cause the HSD's are maxed out.

What's the score with modding cars in aus? I thought I'd read it was difficult over there to keep stuff road legal. Probably blown out of all proportions thou..

[Prawny Baby]

So, yOn tuesday Dad and I entered a little low key Sprint event at Curborough. It was great fun!

I set off from home at 6am, and met Dad near Worcester, this was to be the first long trip on the new setup, so everything was crossed!




We arrived at Curborough, all very chilled out. it was a very informal day, but enjoyable





The morning was spent doing practice runs, then the afternoon runs were timed.

First timed run out in the morning was just 0.2s off the class record. The class we'd been put in was 'Road legal over 2.0' (due to the turbo) A good start.

Then it rained a lot. Dad didn't want to take it out in the wet, not being familiar with the car, so I just went out and messed around a bit.

In the wet:

And then mildly moist:

I won't lie, I had a moment in that one! We've discovered that the check valve on the servo line is leaking slightly, and for the first few tenths of a second after boost there is no vacuum assistance to the servo, so a quick squirt of powered followed by a left foot brake saw me find the brake pedal ROCK solid with no stopping power at all! I grabbed the handbrake at the last last second to get the back end to drop round, and just kept my foot planted, crisis avoided!

Later on it dried up, and I did a 1:25.9, which was fastest in class on the day by 5s, and broke the previous fastest time they'd had in the class by 2.0s as well, which was pretty cool. we were 3rd over all on the day behind a Caterham R500 and a bike engined MK Indy regular.

After that, I decided I'd had enough, and as it was drying, Dad had a few more runs.



Despite having only 2 runs in the morning, Dads 3rd run in the afternoon was a 1:31.8, good enough for 3rd in class and 5th fastest over all on the day, so bloody good going, considering he had me on board too.

We decided to send dad out alone to get a better time.

Then he got a bit carried away:



I'm sure there was a corner here Dad



Really good fun day

Just to make things a tiny bit cooler still, after the fun of Mum doing a lap of the Ring in the car last summer, here's a pic of my gran, aged 93, who quite easily jumped into the drivers seat, and was gutted to find she couldn't reach the pedals, or the gear lever!



Coolest grandma ever

[bing]

Top gran. That'd be funny as hell getting dusted by an old granny in your motor. Respect to the old girl

[N.Wood]

Trusty Octavia has failed MOT on the goddamn airbag light and the bias on the rear brakes is out. 36% one side, 14% the other. What causes this?

Any dodgy ways to get it through the MOT with an airbag light on? The sensor my mechanic thinks I need is on back order, not sure how long for... And the MOT runs out tomorrow.

How clever are MOT people? Can I just put a plaster over the light or something?!

[Luke Rainbird]

Brakes could be a number of things, but often something as simple as one caliper getting a little seized up. Could try and get some lube in there to free things up.

With the airbag light - have you connected the car to VCDS/other code reading kit at all and tried clearing the code? If so, how long did the light stay off or did it come back on instantly? With the former you may be able to get it through by simply clearing it right before the test, though obviously only do this if you know it's nothing that's going to kill you on the way home...

[dann2707]

Could you remove the instrument cluster and remove the airbag light? Not sure what the layout is like on your car though, might be a totally different story.

[N.Wood]

Cool cool, the car is being dealt with by the mechanic man who is 2 units down from work which makes things logistically easy as pie. I just wanna do a little research so i can hit him with some ideas so I can sort myself out ASAP.

Sticky caliper was my first thought, will get him to hit it with a hammer

The airbag light has been on for a good 4 years, and due to the MOT changing the goal posts its' no longer safe

Anyway, yeah he's plugged it into his VAGina and soldered the wires into the main box thang under the seat but to no avail, won't even turn off for long enough for them to MOT it.

The main problem is the sensor being on back order I guess, as nothing can really be done until that part comes in stock. It's kinda bs that you can't get a written note from the mechanic saying he'll fix it when the part comes in and the MOT man passes it on that basis.

I will pay whatever it takes, just need my ride to pull chicks.

Luckily I have an 89hp Kia C'eed estate as a work hire car as of tomorrow so my cock won;t be out of action for too long :shades emoticon that's no longer there:

[Mark W]

You're the best.

[RobinJI]

Perfectly ok to take the instrument cluster out and put some tape over the bulb. Unlike the ABS light they don't have to check it comes on for a bit then goes out. If it's not (visibly) on then it's not on, they can't fail it. You can't take the bulb out on your clocks, but a bit of tape over it will stop any light getting out. (I've got the same/similar clocks in the Scirocco, obviously half the warning lights aren't relevant in it so that's exactly how I got rid of them.)

I think I might be a pikey, I just spray-painted my back seats black. They were seriously disgusting before, 25 year old white cloth isn't a good look, so I figured it was worth a try, and it's actually come out OK(ish). At least I'll look cheap rather than unclean.