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

are the ones on there cheapies and do they work?

No brand on the current ones. Dodgy starting when damp so slowly replacing possible weak points.

my car is old and british, so naturally, i spent a fucktonne of time chasing lucas gremlins until i just bought good stuff and forgot about it.

what are we talking 25 squid saving? buy oem

Everything on my car is OEM Volvo, life is too short to be left stranded by a £20 sensor/wire/whatevs.

Just get a decent set such as a bosch or lucas. Leads age and can cause issues. Check the resistance of the cables and if the cables make a good contact with dizzy cap and spark plug.

What is the resistance of the coil windings?

Totally, wholeheartedly agree.

Can you get MG OEM quality anything? Same manufacturing tolerances?

As long as you get decent branded stuff from a reputable supplier, it'll be fine.

The Lucas , Bocsh, etc parts are Chinese made pattern parts in Lucas boxes. Dog poo. He's talking about a 93 volvo

I agree and disagree with you. I agree that alot of the Chinese made parts are knock off copies. Purchased as they were cheap, and look like the real thing. Years ago Euro car parts sold lots of knock off stuff merc radiator emblems that were copies, but then at less than £5 a time no one cared. German Swedish were the ones that had the higher price but sourced there bits from Europe. Hence using a reputable supplier.

But then there are suppliers that can have knock offs made in India as well as taiwan.

The more worrying thing, for me, was using aftermarket filters. I used to value fram and have seen how the quality has dropped. I still value technocar (yeah bet you have never heard of that make) and purflux. But then those manufacturers are Italy and France based respectively and their filters are a little more expensive than the blueprint japanese filters. A sign of this is a purflux oil filter for a K12 Micra (a clio rebodied) is 5 euro in a hyper market while a motorfactor can sell the same filter by blueprint for less than £2.

My fiancée has been heavily involved in the development of a new oil cell and filtration system called nexcel . It is being launched on the new Aston Martin.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/135547-castrol-nexcel-gives-you-a-90-second-engine-oil-change-debuts-on-aston-martin-vulcan

Speaking of Astons, I work just around the corner from Castle Coombe. A few people at work saw the recent £20 million DBR1 crash. They said the whole place went absolutely silent just after it happened....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11912003/Sir-Stirling-Mosss-Aston-Martin-involved-in-bizarre-racing-crash.html

Now owned by venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft, who has invested in the likes of Wonga

So not all bad news in that case..

Hey @Dammit, is there an IPD-esque site based in the UK/EU that you'd recommend?

oof! Anyone got a video of the crash?

I'm always secretly hoping for a big crash involving something expensive at Goodwood Revival

Afraid not, parts for Volvo's has a lot of stuff but I usually end up buying parts from FRF Volvo Swansea, as they give a discount to T5D5 members.

Cheers. OEM Volvo ones are about £100 quid! Car only cost £700. halfords it is. and a liberal coating of dampstart.

Cheers. OEM Volvo ones are about £100 quid! Car only cost £700. halfords it is. and a liberal coating of dampstart.

I can see where you are coming from, but the less the car costs initially the more you have to spend on maintenance/parts/servicing - it balances out to the point where you're probably better off getting a newer car in the first place (takes less of your time).

That, of course, is easy to say I know- and it's not what I did.

I do however speak as a car owner who has probably spent more than the purchase price of the car each year of ownership on maintaining/fixing/improving it.

On a different but related note, a good stage zero should repay the cost in terms of hours not spent on the back of an AA van/searching the car park for someone with jump leads/wondering if you take the number plates off you could just set fire to it and walk away.

That.

Book value of older cars is irrelevant, if you like it and want it to work you spend what you need to spend.

Need an early flat nose 900 t16 in my life soon, preferably with that violent red velour interior

Also uniroyal rainsports 3 tyres, genuinely magic in the wet and the continous damp of the North / Scotland, but you pay for that in lifespan..... About 5-8k of tbh deliberately gentle driving to eek them to actually make it to winter. I have failed. Already down to 3.5/4.0mm at most and the edges are totally gone. Went for higher pressure than recommended too in a failed attempt to make them feel like they are rolling off the rims less.

All this discussion over ignition leads.

The last few set I made from lucas 8mm silicone leads and a range of brass ends. Remembering to remove the caps properly and not yank them at the cable.

Tyre wise is the edges are gone on the tyres the have been run under pressure.

All this discussion over ignition leads.

The last few set I made from lucas 8mm silicone leads and a range of brass ends. Remembering to remove the caps properly and not yank them at the cable.

Tyre wise is the edges are gone on the tyres the have been run under pressure.

Sorry mate, she's got multiproblem, gonna be at least a pony and a bag of hooves, but I will chuck in a free Magic Tree

winter boots picked up

They defo aren't under inflated, over if anything. Its just car needs much more camber, and no adjustment without making plates up. Its 4 wheel aligned like a boss, just a feat of nose heavy fwd cars :(