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

Well, it currently seems like the choice is a) give a motorsport fabricator a set of pedals and some money or b) put up with back-ache on every journey I do in the car over one hour in duration.

I'm going to choose A. If you Google the issue you'll find that it's not just me - seems to be suffered more by tall drivers than short(er) ones.

Is the steering wheel also off centre?

Change the seat,too

Yes, a little. I don’t care about that though.

But this one gives you a massage!

60 minute massage. No happy ending.

I know you love this shit, Neil, but this is insane.

Are the pedal plates welded to the arms, or could some wider pieces be fabbed and bolted on?

Sooooo purchased a thermostat body for the zetec se, fits the engine perfectly but the non thermostat pipe is slighly the wrong angle. Had the joy of going to both ecp and GSF in waltham forest and not one matched the original, all more of the one size fits all. So ended up getting the one from the Transit parts place that was a third of the price, and 3 years guarantee.

Took the throttle body off to clean the body with a baby wipe as the throttle body and butterfly have a special coating so shouldn't be cleaned...found the body has been replaced. The car is an 01, and the throttle body has a date stamp of 99. One security screw has been snapped off, and used rtf to stick the throttle body to the housing. Tried to use molegrip to remove the broken screw, but no chance. What could cause a metal screw be stuck in a plastic body. Ended up making a little clamp with two bolts. So now the tick over is smooth and stable and no issues when you stay on the brake at tick over.

Looked to take the plastic rocker cover off, and replace the gasket on the engine, but it has been stuck on. The gaskets pops and leaks oil as the rubber PCV pipe to the inlet manifold collapses so the engine fumes have nowhere to escape so pressure builds and pops the gasket and has an oil leak. Found that the plastic cover is stuck on, so some other garage has stuck the rocker cover on. So left if as is.

What are the odds that replacing the water pump and thermostat housing yet the car will still leak.

What you can see in the picture are rubber and alloy covers that are held onto metal (steel?) pedals that are part of the pedal arms. It’s possible that the pedal arm could be bent and the pad repositioned.

I’ve got two sets of pedals coming, once they arrive I can find out a lot more.

c. Buy an aftermarket pedal box.

Would be far more work

Wider covers then? Makes it easier to revert to stock later.

Brake+accelerator pedal pairs are ~£50 on eBay, simple enough to swap unmolested pairs back in. The throttle pedal doesn’t have to change at all, hopefully.

Welding the pad on a bit lower strikes me as more appealing than cutting the arm itself, if that makes sense.

My car's MOT is running out on Monday - does anyone have a view whether the test I've got booked will be open still now we're in tier four...

I can't find out before then as the garage is now closed for the weekend...

Covid extension...

Unless they extend again it's at the end of it... It runs out Monday - new car I just picked up otherwise it wouldn't have been left this late.

If you owned a 911 (996) turbo, why would you make the car rear wheel drive. Wouldn't that devalue the car?

EDIT And not make it handle as well, makes no issue to the traction control tho as viscous diff does the power transfer.

If the MOT stations are closed is there must be something, hence my use of the ellipsis. (?)

What happens when you want to sell the car?

No one in their right mind would touch a car that costs as much as yours and has had the pedals chopped up and moved around surely!?!

Didn't the pedal spacing issue appear on the test drive before the car was purchased

Lighter?

Just swap them back for standard ones before you sell it?

On the E63 each pedal is a standalone bolt in unit, they’re easy to swap

Often takes a longer journey for physical problem to become obvious, even if you can see or feel it's offset.

People do this with Lambos don't they? I'm not sure of the reason why, but I guess it's not much more than putting some drive shafts back in and removing the deletes when you come to sell it.