Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I guess suspension travel is not needed when driving on parquetry flooring?
Red tho...

And fix the reflections

Yeah. Ha. ;o)

MOT today, both rear tyres failed with deep cuts in the sidewall and seeing as i was planning on getting away from the mud terrain and onto something slicker for the road i've had to drop £515 for all 5.

Merry christmas to me. :(

Lubering? Is like a sport?

I can't decide whether or not to drive to the Indy or to get the car recovered.

I have AA cover, I'm going to look under the car and also pop the bonnet and check brake fluid reservoir levels when I get home.

If there's fluid on the floor and/or the fluid is below the minimum then I'll get it recovered, if fluid looks ok/isn't leaking then that says master cylinder failure to me, which (please correct if wrong) will lead to brake performance degradation but not catastrophic failure.

Well first day of defender ownership has been good.

It drives exactly how one would expect, I got round to opening up the fuse box and replacing a few but I've still not gotten to hazard/indicator circuit but hoping to do that tomorrow.

I did nearly scalp the thing in a multi-story carpark...

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What @diable says is fair, but is it really worth risking it? Maybe if you were looking at a £300 recovery bill, but the AA will do it for nothing more than a bit of time and hassle.

How much of a tit will you feel if you crash it because the brakes don't work?

What if you hit someone?

What @diable says is fair, but is it really worth risking it? Maybe if you were looking at a £300 recovery bill, but the AA will do it for nothing more than a bit of time and hassle.

How much of a tit will you feel if you crash it because the brakes don't work?

What if you hit someone?

Well it looks like Southern Railways have taken the matter out of my hands - they're on strike tomorrow so I would not be able to get back, therefore I think I'll be calling the AA at lunchtime to come and get it.

Looks great!
Can't wait til the day I have the space to keep something silly like this around for the odd outing once or twice a month. Looks like you're gonna have a laugh playing around with the inner workings of it all.
You keeping it in London?

And sorry to hear about your continuing car woes @Dammit! Are you cursed?
It's a good job you like a project...

To me sounds like it's loosing fluid. Or less crash inducing but prob more £££ the master is pushing fluid past the piston seal, I.e. It's not pushing the fluid as hard as it should. Or it could be leaking past the master into an orifice someplace or into the booster, so you might not find where the fluid is going but it will still be disappearing. Takes lots of pedal pumps to empty most resivoirs.

In brick news..... Hubs and how to bend them. Bearings are perfect, but whole flange is just bent enough to cause brake problems again le sigh

And sorry to hear about your continuing car woes @Dammit! Are you cursed?

It's a good job you like a project...

Quite possibly. I wonder how much tomorrow is going to cost?

Cheers man, it's street parked in london unfortunately but as of today it's my only working* **car. Once I get a few bits sorted I'm gonna try and take it for a week long trip to wales in the new year for greenlaning, mountainbiking and camping.

*Kinda working

**Kind of a car

Is it LEZ compliant? (I'm sure you've checked, obv...)

IF it is a 130 it is congestion zone exempt.

Def a 110. Maybe it's a V8

Also LEZ a very different beast to the congestion zone, expensive to confuse them

That's madness owning one of these in London(in a good way)
well done though, I've always wanted one!

expensive?

Looks great IR. Word of warning though, not sure if it was more to do with the newer chelsea tractor versions, but defenders were on a real hit list for getting nicked! If it's street parked take some precautions!

Looks like RS6 ownership is unsurprisingly going to be rather expensive. The Wankerbarge has developed an annoying clonking noise from the front right suspension (sounds like a top mount or control arm bush has died) so it's off to Mr. Audi next week. I thought I might as well treat it to an oil change at the same time. Turns out that's £355. Ouch.

Still, I managed a new low for fuel consumption on the way back from my spray booth tonight. 15.8mpg. It's a thirsty old barge, particularly now I've started using the steering wheel paddles to change gear rather than leaving the autobox to do its own thing.

Oh well, could be worse. I could have bought @Dammit's Porsche.

@Danstuff yes, once again I should have bought a new car rather than making an old car new again. Oh well. When I'm done it's going to be a great example of a 996. Now, who should I take off the Christmas list?

The plot thickens:

I moved the car out of the garage to await the recovery truck, some observations:

• You need a lot of revs to move off on the flat, as if you are on an incline
  
• As soon as you come off the throttle the car stops
  
• Even on an incline
  
• It stays stopped, on an incline, with no pressure on the brake pedal
  
• It's sluggish
  
  

All the previous symptoms still present - spongy pedal, slow to return etc.

When moving off for the first time with the handbrake and normal brakes released there was a "gronk!" of the brakes releasing.

I think they're sticking on, basically.

What on earth is going on?

?

Could the brake fluid be contaminated?

Sounds spendy either way. :o$