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

Agree. If I had a massive garage, I'd be all over it.

Dammit - So Cal innit. Only rains about 4 times a year. Surprised they even bother fitting them. :)

Pissing down last night here in NorCal

grey or blue @brm for sure

Just saw one of these prowling around petts wood.

Last chance saloon before I give up and accept its the head. Only reason Im bothering is it's not behaving in classic 'head gasket failure' sort of way. Plus this is very cheap. Have got a more experienced mechanic to do the work this time.

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Two bottles of radweld and a prayer?

Bloke came to look at the M3 yesterday, umming and aahing though. At least it forced me into washing it and taking better photos. PistonHeads ad.

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@Olly398 have no idea what the going rate is, but seems well priced considering the inevitable appreciation that'll happen in a few years.

The last week has been about addressing the rust spotted through the mouth of the car.

5 attempts, several broken drill bits, front of the car removed, strategic angle grinder purchase... and the last weighty tow hook is finally off

As expected almost every bolt to remove the front of the car was rounded in the process or needed to be drilled out, don't know how I've lived without these.

Ear Boner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FitKfc_kb0

A stick on standard slightly smaller plate along your spoiler/splitter would work well on your car.

No love for square plates.

Russell?

@Olly398 have no idea what the going rate is, but seems well priced considering the inevitable appreciation that'll happen in a few years.

Well the Cat D puts people off, even though it was no more than a Tesco shunt that bent a few panels. So I've aimed it 30% less than equivalent models with similar mileage.

Anyone have experience with/can reliably recommend a 7 seater? Have narrowed down to Ford S Max or Volkswagan Touran, leaning towards to S Max in terms of best second hand value...

Smax 2.5T. 300bhp with a remap and quite a lot bigger than the VW.

Not bad to drive either.

landcruiser troopy

Actually, no.

I’d get a Nissan El Grand.

This...

I've got a coupe/c70 2.5t (its the 2.4 that the later 2000> cars used that became the really weak rod "r", but with a light pressure turbo.
I'm still 50;50 if it's headgasket is actual gone, it looses Coolant somewhere. But it's not going in thr oil, it's not ending up in thr auto box (shares a Coolant rad with the gearbox), so could just be a bad turbo Coolant seal (dumps Coolant into turbo when on boost) or matrix partially blocking which us causing the Coolant to flow less.
Compression test on cold and hot engine is solid across the cylinders. Occasionally decides ita gonna run on 3 out of 5 cylinders when cold, coils are all good so think it's just the wiring harness being a dick.
Next step would be proper leak down test, but don't habe thr gear so got to bribe someone I guess.
Rest of car is excellent, it's got almost envy option, is in metallic racing beige, with double beige leather interioer, bbs 17/18" factory wheels and the epic dolby pro logic setup, abd full history with only two pervious owners, ome worth saving! Just got to get around to it lol

Oh yeah, also the later engines you get in v70r and 2.4 and 2.5t v70/c70 are prone to hairline cracks in the head between cylinder abd Coolant passage. Coolant doesn't escape here, but under boost or high duty the combustion gasses force through thr little crack.
Very hard to spot even with head off, you need that uv or blue steel dye to find it. I imagine if not a simple fix that's what's wrong with mine also

You have me7 then? I'm B5234T3 with cable throttle found in 850 t5's so doesn't have the same issue with the head.

So many places for it to go wrong, so little time....

Quite close to driving 2 miles down the road then getting it recovered to Leicester and let tim fix it.

i'll be in aus in a couple of weeks. I will select a few beasts from my now traditional scouring of unique cars magazine and post them here.

Impressive... starts first time after 10 years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQalEhicBQU

What a find.

Yeah me7, the bitch!

Electronic throttle on the tdi wagon was around way before me7 and much much more reliable. Volvo /ford got it wrong, unfortunately in thr UK I don't think we every got any fix for it, not a good one.