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Messages - Nick W

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1
General Car Chat / Re: Costs of running a car
« on: 25 March 2024, 16:13:03 »
picks its heels up when asked.
All things are relative.  I consider 150bhp to be a sluggish dog ;D .  Maybe when I'm (even) older....  ;D


The traffic must behave very differently in Brackley than it does here; a tired 2.0l Capri(100bhp claimed) easily keeps up with any traffic in Medway without any effort. Just like they always did.


150bhp 2.0l - Vauxhall's XE was probably the first mass-market one - were becoming more common in the late 80s, but I'd suggest that the more traditional 100bhp 8valve ones(like Pintos etc) were still in the majority. 150bhp does have to work much harder than it used to, when you consider the sheer bulk of most modern cars.

2
General Car Chat / Re: C1 (The skate) serious misfire.
« on: 24 March 2024, 19:55:36 »
When I mentioned I had a Renault, it was French shite  ::)


You're forgetting that Citroens have the reputation of being properly engineered cars for connoisseurs, whereas Renaults are the French equivalent of Austins.


Of course, this is all utter 'dangle berries' mixed with an overdose of marketing wank. Also known as the Alfa-Romeo doctrine ;D

3
General Car Chat / Re: C1 (The skate) serious misfire.
« on: 24 March 2024, 13:02:46 »
Who knows. Fuel system looks very basic. No schraeder valve. Pipe comes from the tank to a white plastic block (some kind of valve ?) and then to the fuel rail. If number one pot is the timing chain end (not sure) then number three is the first one supplied at the fuel rail.


You could find out! Unhook the return pipe, drain 100ml of fuel into a clear glass jar and inspect it for dirt, water or diesel. Do that a couple of times before you make any irrecoverable decisions.

4
Discs and pads are still readily available at your nearest motor factor, and aren't worth spending any time sourcing any other way.




Master cylinders are still available new but the price might not be acceptable, especially when seal kits are about £30. I wouldn't use a second hand master cylinder without fitting new seals, so the only reason to acquire one would be to have a known good unit ready to fit before starting the job. I would suggest that the MC off a car that has been in recent, frequent use is unlikely to need more than seals. It's the ones that have had little use for long periods that are leaking brake fluid which looks like oxtail soup that are instant scrap.

5
Omega General Help / Re: Head gasket?
« on: 22 March 2024, 21:59:14 »
Mine was leaking coolant into the driver's side rear cylinder, once the engine was turned off due to a rotten gasket. No other symptoms other than a slow but persistent water loss and a steam cleaned spark plug.


The passenger side gasket didn't look any better, but wasn't leaking.

6
Omega General Help / Re: 3.2 Elite - Surface rust in bores
« on: 22 March 2024, 21:55:59 »
You worry too much.


Bolt it back together, but do an oil change after the first start.


I would probably have removed the surface rust with some fine scotchbrite soaked in engine oil, if I bothered at all.

7
General Discussion Area / Re: Dead Person
« on: 14 March 2024, 10:58:34 »
Marcello Gandini. Designer of many of the most beautiful cars ever made. Mostly Italian, but also various others.



 


And some Citroens :P

8
Omega General Help / Re: Loosing coolant
« on: 07 March 2024, 17:27:43 »
........
HBV is quite new so not suspecting that either.

I wouldn't completely dismiss the HBV, as my original on my 3.2 lasted around 80K miles but it's replacement lasted less than 5K miles. The replacement was purchased from a main dealer and the box had the hologram on it. The second replacement was still OK when I sold it. Worth checking using the max high temp, max low temp method.  :y
There did appear to be a duff batch a few years ago, a few people, myself included, got caught out :(

I did get 2 new ones a couple of years ago with GM numbers on them, hopefully mine's isn't one of the duff batch.


The other snag is that although they're unused, they are still just old.

9
General Car Chat / Re: Signum woes.
« on: 03 March 2024, 11:18:40 »


I thought the ATF was supposed to last the life of the car without the need to change it.


It is. But you'll notice that they don't define the life of the car.




10
Omega General Help / Re: Timing belt kit question
« on: 01 March 2024, 12:26:14 »
Of course it can, as plenty of people do.


But it's much simpler to do than the V6 and the tools for doing it correctly are so cheap, it's hard to understand why you'd even consider doing it without.

11
General Car Chat / Re: £25 million for this ugly bastard
« on: 29 February 2024, 18:20:04 »
For the more dignified approach you can pick up a usable old Silver shadow for less than £10,000.


A sub £10,000 Shadow will only look like a car. A very scruffy, rusty one with expensive(everything is expensive on a Shadow) mechanical faults. It's a pity, because a good one drives like a large American car that was built properly ::)

12
Omega General Help / Re: Head gasket?
« on: 29 February 2024, 15:27:25 »
Head gasket replacement is a lot of work, and money in parts. Consequently, you need to be sure it's the problem.


That means spending some time, and probably money, on proper diagnosis.


The chemicals that check for combustion gases in the coolant are probably the place to start as they're quick, cheap and easy to use without any dismantling.


I'd do a pressure check on the cooling system for similar reasons, although you need to remove the spark plugs and check the bores with a camera to be thorough.


A leak down test is the definitive method, but requires some costly kit and a lot of time - you could probably lift the heads off a Ford OHV V6 in the time to do this test on an X30.


My 3.0l exhibited similar symptoms, in that it only lost water after switching off, but briefly produced noticeable steam from the exhaust when restarted from cold. The cause was failure of the gasket at rear of the RH cylinder head, although the LH one wasn't much better - that cylinder was cleaner than the other two, unlike the RH which looked like it had been steam cleaned.

13
General Car Chat / Re: £25 million for this ugly bastard
« on: 29 February 2024, 12:56:19 »
The sort of think Lewis Hamilton or some wealthy yank rapper would own.


Rolls Royces were always bought by people needing to show off their cash.

14
General Car Chat / Re: £25 million for this ugly bastard
« on: 29 February 2024, 12:34:43 »
Looks like what you'd get from rear ending a Rolls with a 911 and running out of filler halfway through blending the bits together.

15
General Car Chat / Re: Can I buy one?
« on: 27 February 2024, 15:00:36 »

This is exactly right. It's all very well saying you should run an older XYorZ but when any kind of minor repair at a garage, or even routine items like suspension bushes runs well into three figures it makes much less sense to buy cheaper older cars.

For a lot of people a £500 bill (easily achieved these days) will quickly become £6-700 by the time the credit card company has had its due.


Economics like these are why large and expensive cars always depreciated quickly, before their value dropped through the floor for the third or fourth owner. The problem now is that all cars have the complicated, expensive and unreliable 'extras' that was only fitted on the high-end stuff. Which makes the margins extra thin for an ordinary car, so even a car less than ten years old can easily need a couple of four figure jobs(£1000 clutches, £1500 timing belts, water damaged electrics etc, etc) that previous owners wouldn't pay for. Just consider what we used to recommend for a 15 year old £1000 Omega, but triple the cost and time involved to do the work at £75/hour.

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