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

Oh for sure.

So my stolen catalytic converter replacement has been sorted - a shade over £1100 and that’s not using any Honda parts. Happy fucking Monday.

But why not the 530i? Isn't that the sweet spot of the E39, if you're not going m5?

Not that I wouldn't buy the 54i estate though, that's cool.

Because I'm a child I love the way my E63 (and the C55 before it) sound. Steering on the six cylinder E39's is meant to be better - but I'm not Senna, so I doubt that's meaningful for me.

Big oof. Wonder what parts they used. Amusingly the cheapo o2 sensor I used when I replaced ours after the cat got nicked has just thrown a fault. Probably better to pay what you did rather than the absolute bottom of the barrel parts like I did (and the subsequent headaches).

It's a 1.8 on ITBs.

1. Throttle bodies balanced
   
2. Engine timing checked & adjusted
   
3. Engine mapping
   
4. Stainless brake hoses fitted
   
5. Brake fluid changed and bled
   
6. Diff oil changed
   
7. Alignment
   
8. Harness mounts fitted on the floor for the lower 2 points of my 6 point harness
   
9. PPF aligned
   
   

All went smoothly, only thing that was a curve ball was that it needed a new TPS as the old one wasn't reading properly.

They used Lucas sensors and did warn me that Hondas can be very picky about after market sensors and exhausts, often throwing up error lights.

To be fair they also said this when the exhaust on my previous Honda was starting on the way out, they said as it still had a few years in it to just get an obd and cancel the warning as it wasn’t failing yet.

Thought yours was supercharged...oh remember that you had an engine change.

What happened to the supercharged engine to need a swap?

Hope you got some sort of catalytic converter protection?

Sensor wise, honda don't make sensors. The art is finding a branded sensor, that isn't a fake, and will last.

My red one was supercharged. I loved that car but the head casting suffered a catastrophic failure. The supercharger was mounted utilising a mounting point for an engine hook. Unfortunately, this caused a shear in the head, so the head actually broke purely from the stress of having a supercharger bolted to it, rather than boost/power/heating/cooling issues.

I spent a large amount of money (proper theme for me) having a head skimmed, ported, polished, bigger valves machined by Blink Motorsport, but then naively thought it would be cheaper to take the car to a local MX5 place rather than get my car transported up to Blink.

They did a shite job of fitting the head which resulted in me having to pay twice and I took the car to Skuzzle after to fix the shit job the local place did, but there was still ongoing issues. It still made a little bit of blue smoke after sitting on idle, eg sitting at traffic lights, and the supercharger belt wouldn't stop squealing no matter what I did. I just had the fear that it would never be OK again, so I sold it to buy a mate's ITB MX5 he was selling, which was the grey car which I think was posted on here a few times. I had a good 1.5 years I think in that car but when I took it down to Skuzzle for an MOT and a few minor tweaks, it turned out the floor was really rusty so they suggested I do a body swap.

The body swap to this white car didn't go as well as it was supposed to and I had 12 months where I barely drove the car, literally every time I drove it something would go wrong, which was extremely frustrating after I'd spent basically the price of a decent MX5 getting this car built. Then I finally got it back to Skuzzle to get it finessed, which should have been done before the original handover, and then on the way home the engine overheated (my fault for not noticing but the car shouldn't have overheated) so badly it seized.

That was about 2 years ago, I completed 90% of an engine swap to a good 1.8 engine in 2 weekends but the last 10% has taken the rest of the time, plus I was adding bits and replacing bits that were always a bit dodgy. Such as:

1. Fujitsubo exhaust manifold
   
2. HKS main exhaust
   
3. custom exhaust tip (to look narrow and conservative like the MX5 Cup
   cars)
   
4. AFR, water temp, oil temp and oil pressure gauges - did a
   proper job on these, fitted the sandwich plate, sensors, created
   a loom, made a gauge holder for the dash top out of an upside down under dash headunit mount
   
5. 6 point harness
   
6. modified the ECU chassis to have a permanent USB cable to connect to the standalone ECU
   
7. worked out why the horn didn't work and found the right
   steering wheel hub, slip ring, horn push etc to make the horn work
   
8. Created a loom for the LED headlights
   
9. gearbox oil change
   
10. new speedo cable
    
    

Extremely glad to have this car back from Unit 3 and "finished".

Been a shit few years of car ownership.

Just checked Google photos, I started the engine swap on 12/08/2018, so it's over 3 years, not 2. Time fucking flies.

It is good you stuck at it.

Been a shit few years of car ownership.

And some. Your dedication is as inspiring as it is impressive. Fair play.

I’ll put a small some of money on an intake hose popping off.

“ Hose re-attached. A part in the wrong place led to build up of oil then hose popped off. Was a quick exchange of info as they were just closing. He said shouldn't be any more issues with it tho”

Was the text my bro sent. No detail of which hose, but they fitted it in today and back on the road with no issues for £60. Much relief on his behalf tbh.

I'm happy to admit it's been hard, pretty depressing at times. I feel like I'm out the other side now thankfully. As soon as the Merc is gone, I've got a 2016 standard (but fairly quick) family car that I can depend on and a fun car so I can get back to doing trackdays and try out things like Gymkhana, sprints, maybe drift days.

Owning the 850R was definitely a car career highlight, and while it was tumultuous at the end, I did have a couple of years of relatively trouble free mirroring. The trip to Puglia and Salento will always be a standout memory of mine.

You also need an ability to not give up and just keep going while nervously borrowing more money from the bank to keep trying to buy your way out of your problems.

nervously borrowing more money from the bank to keep trying to buy your way out of your problems.

This is the reality that will always make me more of a keen admirer rather than participant.

Owning the 850R was definitely a car career highlight

Genuinely would have been tempted by the auction if I was in a reasonable financial position!

Paging @Dammit

https://driverbase.com/company/toyota-tacoma-tacozilla-camper-overlanding-truck-concept-at-the-2021-los-angeles-auto-show/

having no kids

I'm considering trading mine in having been out in my mates S3 today. What an absolute b-road weapon that car is. His other wagon is a T6, and I can understand your desire for a van type cruiser and fast car even more so now.

Appear quite handy around the estates too according to various Traffic Cop style shows....

In SUV kid carrying chat; what should I get for my Xc90 - lot's of 10/15% off deals right now and I need 4 new tyres. Thinking Scorpion Verde All Season at the moment - £650 for 4 fitted. Not much choice outside of that for 275/45/20s it'd seem?

Mate mentioned on Sunday that his mates all do banger racing in a field, which he’s keen to get in on. The search for a £500 RWD tank begins. MX5 or other small sports cars are a no-no as he wants something that’ll hopefully survive a few outings.

There’s a 740 on auto trader for £750 which looks promising, but without a valid MOT, and over budget it’s not looking too smart.

If anyone come across anything do post it up. Near York-ish would be a bonus, and with any amount of MOT left will deffo be a big plus.

Let the shitbox search begin!

Have you checked if there’s any more common tyre sizes your rim will take? The little label on the inside of the door listed several sizes on the e46 and ended up saving me about £40 a corner.

Car bills were the biggest driver of personal career development. Nothing other than my wife being pregnant has made me more motivated for new jobs and promotions than a car bill looming.

Haha, well as someone who semi recently changed career to earn more money due to the arrival of a baby I definitely understand.

Maybe once I’m fully qualified I’ll have the budget to stretch to something more fun.

Which neatly brings me to a current musing. My wife and I have a car each. I commute 20 motorway miles in an estate, while she has a jazz (which she used to commute in before baby came along). I always imagined replacing the jazz with something more fun like a hot hatch as they seem like a cheap way into some fun motoring.

But my wife doesn’t really want something sporty, and realistically all the long driving will be done in the estate by me anyway, so I’d rather that was the fun car we have. So, are there any fun but relatively cheap estates? The e46 definitely ticks the boxes so far, but is there a next logical step? The 2l turbo diesel isn’t crap, but it’s not a rocket either.
Is it simply foolish to look for a fun yet practical estate? The Superb 280 4x4 deffo piqued my interest, but even the cheapest one on autotrader was £20k!

If Nurse's posts haven't scared you off cars for life, nothing will. Cars are a money pit, and unless you've got it sloshing about don't bother. It's a waste.

/runs

Is it simply foolish to look for a fun yet practical estate?

Absolutely not.

Got a budget in mind?

I agree, absolutely addicted to the pieces of shit and the misery they bring.