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

Did you drill them yourself? That sounds stressful :) Looks pretty cool though

I did! It was actually far less stressful than I anticipated although my holesaws were a bit agricultural and have left it in need of a bit of paint touch up around the holes so I'll do that as soon as materials arrive and then fit some black mesh behind them.

They're genuinely functional rather than boy-racer though as the intake to the airbox is directly behind them.

Honda accord and mondeo.

Want to give me the details need a cheap banger for a bit.

Have you got the tools, oil tray etc? Have you done one before?

Want to wander over to mine and can help?

Crumbs what went wrong?

Not sure that the swirl flaps make that much difference at that mileage. The flaps only work and tick over and a little above, when they get clogged up, google photos, are they doing their job anymore?

If you want to keep them, maybe regular dismantling and cleaning would help.

ECU died but also due a few other bits for the MOT so just decided to call it quits. Got picked up today so all done and no ticket, thankfully.

Better than me at calling it quits...

Doh, posting while tired, the coincidence of the two numbers blinded me to the unit you actually used.

Given my Peugeot Boxer has a 90L tank for about 700 miles of range, 200L in a RAV4 would be ridiculous with approx 49mpg giving it a range of about 2200 miles, or about 4 days of extreme road trip.

I’ve asked around and got a bit more clued up.

My 320d has the m47tu engine which has swirl flaps.
The n47 engine was the one that had lots of problems, and wasn’t as reliable. The swirl flaps on that engine often broke and ended up getting ingested into the engine. Which is bad.
The m47 is more reliable, and while it does have swirl flaps, their failure rate is a lot lower. The m57 (the 6 cylinder version) is also less reliable.
These related reliability issues somewhat clouded the water in terms of advice, which has lead to the mantra of telling everyone to remove their swirl flaps.

As the engine is still rather low mileage, I’m not worrying about it. I might take the inlet manifold off for a clean and inspection at some point, maybe clean the EGR valve at the same time.

But I’ve got other bits to dither on with before that!

Have helped remove flaps from the the 2.0 4 pot diesel at 60k and the car had no service history so the inlet were quite filled with carbon/gung. We were quite careful in making sure the valves were closed when we clean the gung out of each cylinder. Even used a vacuum cleaner with two layers of tights, as a filter, in to the vac. The egr and inlet manifolds were left to soak in restaurant fat cleaners used to clean extraction fans fat deposits.

This seems like the best place to ask. Is there an easy/cheap/decent way to connect my phone via Bluetooth to my car's stereo? It has a 3.5mm port and a USB port.

If you just want to stream music there are cheap adapters that sit in the fag lighter and receive via Bluetooth then generate an output that the car radio can be tuned to.

If you want to be able to use hands free type stuff then you will need a Bluetooth adapter for your specific stereo.

Sent you a DM with what I know about it. A proper banger!! really needs some love, oh and owner has had it 9 years and lowish milage edit:photolinkfail

Look good here though .
I agree turbo wheels look better

I think that Dammit's current wheels are the nicest wheels you can put on a 996. But I am biased as I had them on my Boxster.

^agree

Yeah there's lots of options, the cheapest and simplest is one of these:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KON1JIA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fab_DOAGFb53Q085Q

It converts Bluetooth sound to analog and sends it to the car stereo via the 3.5mm port. You'll have to control everything either via the phone or the little receiver, but it'll be reliable and decent enough quality.

How's the ownership so far? Really tempted by one of these.

I've had mixed results with those things. Having a battery is a potential liability, and won't stop when you switch the ignition off etc, but the one I had without a battery used to glitch and lose the connection, probably because lighter sockets are an awful way to power electronics.

If you have an iPhone there are cheapo lightning to audio adapters that also allow charging.

New (very old) car didn't have a line in, so I bought a £10 (!) BT mechless head unit and it's the best experience I've had in the post-headphone socket era.

I've not had a bad experience, but that's a sample of 1.

Bluetooth head units are definitely better, but modern cars look pretty shit with aftermarket head units.

Honestly it's been great! The only thing that presented as a problem is the alternator let me down but I wouldn't be too upset by that in a 14 year old car. Everything else has been routine maintenance and modifications. It's not too bad to work on either though a little cramped under the bonnet but manageable.

It's a blast to drive though. I've recently swapped the air filter for a K&N conical and also done a Davef (increased air intake from scuttle to back of airbox) airbox mod, bigger intercooler with diverter and serviced the supercharger so it's running really nicely. I've got a full Milltek exhaust to go on next and I'll swap the pulley for a 16% I think which should be very very nice!

New (very old) car didn't have a line in, so I bought a £10 (!) BT mechless head unit

Do you happen to have a link to this?

That's good to know. Work space is nice to hear as well, makes a change from motorbikes and needing Trumps hands to get anywhere.
I'd most likely do the same mods as you but the 12%. There's other vehicles to consider, but I'm not looking to carry a lot of passengers or goods, so something a little more fun without smashing 3 figures at every turn is very tempting.

It's the reliability after 14 years that's important. What did you look for in that area before buying?