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

The Becker worked this morning, I then attached a wire to the subwoofer pin in the mini-iso connector and connected another ground to the shared ground, again in the mini-iso connector.

I then plugged in the Focal piggy-back harness, which replicates all original wiring whilst tapping into switched power, remote start and ground.

I plugged the Becker back in to check that it all worked, and the Becker would not power up.

No changes were made to power, ground or switched power, other than plugging in the piggyback harness.

I unplugged the piggy-back harness, the Becker still would not power up when connected to the original wiring, from which it powered up this morning.

I then plugged the (brand new, up until that point in it's box) Continental in, and that powered straight up.

I then checked the piggy-back harness with the Conti, and it powered straight up with that also.

Fucksticks.

Security feature? Or maybe the Becker has a fuse that's gone?

Sounds like a fuse has gone (or something that has performed in the same way as a fuse, by design or otherwise). Any magic blue smoke?

The Becker has a 10 amp fuse in the back, I checked that and it was fine, I checked all fuses in the fuse panel and they were all fine. I sniffed the Becker to see if there were olfactory signs of the magic smoke escaping, and could not detect any.

The Conti firing straight up on the same wiring that the Becker didn't, points to a problem in the Becker I agree. I've dropped the unit off with a rando I found on the Internet (in Cockfosters - never been there before) he's going to check the unit out and let me know if it's cooked by tomorrow afternoon.

I was low key dreading the drive back to NI in the Panda. I'd never driven this far before, it's not a new car, it's not a big car, mrs_com is 5 months pregnant. But it was a piece of piss. Left at 5am and was on the M40 within an hour, that has never happened before. 450 miles later with a few relaxed stops we're at the B&B right next to the ferry port.

Considering we would normally have been flying from Gatwick to Belfast, I am very happy.

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Bought our first car yesterday. Kinda hate owning it already. Bying it was stressfull. It’s old and a bit knackered due to our budget.
I hope the nerves ease out soon.
2007 peugeot 307 2.0 7 seater.

Hopefully owning a car which can take you on decent trips away as well as being useful for doing everyday stuff means it starts to become a more enjoyable experience soon. Also, if you're a bit handy, try and get a haynes manual for it. That way for any small projects you can try and undertake them yourself and lessen the financial burden.

Thanks. I hope you’re right. We have some good trips lined up already, just need to get a kids seat for the littles one.
It’s mostly the nagging doubt , I think, if a whole lot of problems will arise very soon. That’s what I get from buying from a private seller without a clue what I’m doing.
It drives very nicely apart from the rear end not being very gentoe when going over cobbles and bumps. Not much experience to compare to so not sure if it’s a feature or a fault. It passed the danish equivalent of MOT day before yesterday so can’t be too unsafe though and that’s what really counts.

2008 c63 just down the road from me
It's tipping 99 thousand miles though. Hmmmm

The place I use in Ashtead is very good at finding stuff on my Mercedes that needs fixing - they could do a pre-purchase inspection for you?

Thanks for the offer,Dammit. I'm North Yorkshire, car is York....alleged exclusive dealer, gets 12 5star figure reviews, apart from that my Google skills not brought much else up. Would need a decent recom for what you suggest. Pre inspection.

Thanks for the offer,Dammit. I'm North Yorkshire, car is York....alleged exclusive dealer, gets 12 5star Google reviews, apart from that my Google skills not brought much else up. Would need a decent recom for what you suggest. Pre inspection.

Up and out early this morning to meet the chaps at the engineering company that have been making the tappet-carrier for us. Rolled up to their unit (just outside Luton) at five to eight, then spent just over an hour perving over their impressive machines - the CMM that could measure fractions of a micron was impressive, as was the upper surface of our carrier being within 1 micron of perfectly flat.

Carriers measured and wrapped, we headed to the engine designer, arriving at just before 12. Three hours passed in what felt like half an hour, and we agreed what we are going to do in a number of key areas.

We're going to use billet cams, which means that we can actually re-space the lobes (they're slightly off centre normally, by design to make the tappets spin) in order to use the domed (and therefore pinned in one orientation) cam followers that we've decided to use. We're going to increase the valve size, because why not.

At this point in the day I'd had a single cup of decent coffee, two cups of instant, and six dreadful pain au chocolate, so headed for home, passing two car-fires on the way back from Cheltenham - people using cars for long journeys that have been parked up for ages maybe?

Rolled up to home at half five, having been on the road for 11 hours, covered 300 miles, and used a tank of fuel at 28.5 mpg.

Having slept on it, I think we're going to delete the variable valve timing (AKA, camshaft angle) as it's driven by a single chain that is the one remaining weak spot - all other chains are duplex.

We can replace the single chain with cam gears, as we can design the tappet carrier (on which the variable timing kit mounts) to accommodate said gears.

Volkswagen fans!

I need a run around for the next year and I've narrowed my search down to few MK4 Golf GTIs.

Is there anything in particular they suffer from or is there anything I need to look at or ask about?

My last VW was aircooled so I'm a bit out of touch with the water pumpers.

Thank you.

Sad Dad car is running really well, really should go in for a service ASAP and I haven't done anything about sourcing a tail light, fog/parking light either but can't be fucked at the moment... No mishaps since I was last here, starting to relax and enjoy the experience now... Off to visit the nonna 100kms up the coast in a couple of days, holiday motorway driving will present me with a new challenge!!

Good to hear. Just stay chill on the motorway, you'll be right. Ignore the tailgating Muppets.

How's the storms up there? My previously pristine old 306 got a few unintended speed dimples thanks to hail last week. Many sadnesses.

Ooh, that's a shame... Won't your insurance repair it? We had two big ones miss us over the last couple of days, an empty storm went right over my house yesterday but I was indoors in the air-con... Gutted... My mate (who gave me the Mazda) lives a street away and took this photo, monster!

My sis-in-law or her fella will be in the front with me giving me tips on the highway, sure it'll be fine...

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Ignore the tailgating Muppets.

Slow down when someone is close following you:

a) it annoys them.

b) more importantly it increases the gap ahead of you, allowing you to slow smoothly if necessary rather than sharply, which would cause the tail gater to hit you.

#grandmatosuckeggs

Well I made it back to the UK with my fiat!

It currently feels incredibly unstable and wobbly whenever going over bumps or cornering. It wasn’t great to start with but it’s gotten much worse and I reckon it’ll have to be sorted for MOT.

I’m gonna be treating it to new suspension bushing, shocks and probably abarth springs alround as well asgearbox mountings as there’s a bit of a lurch when I take off.

I’ll be doing a bit of paint and bodywork and then going to chrome bumpers because I ant stand the faded plastic ones.

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excellent.

been giving mine a bit of love the last couple of days as it got a five day road trip over the holidays.

just makes me smile driving the little fella.

going to try and talk my brother into going halves on another to live up in the shires

Nice, is yours LHD or right?

I've got this little VZ21 turbo lying about that I'm seriously considering making work when it's on the road.

Christmas:

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Mrs Hammer and I are currently driving up the west coast from Sydney to Brisbane in a rental SV6. Lane discipline is non-existent, speed limits are slow and generally adhered to and so far there has been virtually no traffic!

This car is wierd, in theory loads of power but putting your foot down whilst moving just drops a few gears, increases revs and holds the speed with little to no acceleration unless you then floor it. Vague steering and a rubbish engine note.
Haven’t tried sport shift yet, maybe that’s better.

Nah mate, Commodores are really shit unless they have a V8, even then .... Still perfectly fine for highway cruising. Steering should be better though.

Also, east coast....