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

For an impartial MoT, go to your local council's testing station.
I used to take the Merc to Tower Hamlets, then chat to the tester about old Mercs and motorcycles. Occasionally he'd say "your parking brake isn't up to much, but you don't use that do you?" to which I'd reply "no" and he'd give it a pass anyway.

On a relatively lengthy drive to the coast this chilly weekend, i noticed that the heating / 'aircon' in the defender has 2 settings. OFF and THE SUN.

can this be adjusted?

Set to "the sun" and open the little flaps under the windscreen?

Td04hl-20T, journal bearing unit to a Volvo/Mitsu design, pretty unbalanced as well given the small hot side relative to the large cold side.

I had considered a 3076R, but that's not going to lower the boost threshold appreciably.

5w30 and oil filter..might as well change the airfilter too.

Eurocarparts are doing 50% off so you can get a decent fully synthetic oil.

What is the temperature guage doing?

When was the last time the coolant was changed?

temp gauge hasn't budged beyond the halfway point since i've owned it.

I'll have to check the logbook re coolant.

Ahh the twin scroll Misti Evo turbo. I quite like them actually!

There is a guy in NZ called Steve Murch runs Motorsport Engeering.

This guy has been playing with turbos for many many years and refurbs / custom builds turbos for people all over the world. He seems to be pretty good with giving people advise abdout setups and also could more than likley build you a setup which would take out the lag and lower boost and still run the same if not more power.

A little update regarding the skoda's misfire. Got a new coil from eurocarparts and fitted that tonight, no more misfiring, no more codes! Also called my local skoda garage who (after a bit of persuasion and me calling skoda UK to confirm the recall's still open) have booked me in to get all 4 ignition coils replaced under the 2011 recall.

I'll swap my new bosch one out in the car park before leaving it with them. Thanks @mi7rennie and @Fixedwheelnut for entertaining the stupid questions of a simpleton :)

I went and collected the 911 after work today, £1,400 in exchange for my car keys back.

The car I drove home in had a new brake servo, roof latch and a some hours spent chasing down and fixing rattles.

It's just such a nice car to drive, every time I get it back it's got better, I had forgotten about the money I'd just spent by the time I turned left onto the main road.

That's not to say I want to spend anymore this year, or indeed next year (when the car is scheduled to be sold and replaced).

Or the first person to say coil.

Oops, thanks to you as well Lynx :)

Common even on the recalled ones too.

Hopefully they updated the updates.

Asked to see if there could be a sticky bypass valve to the heater. Usual sign is a drop on the temp guage when you go from closed to open.

Yeah fingers crossed. As far as I'm aware they're the original coils, so they'd done 110k without any (obvious) issues, the two I pulled out were 'J' versions, so are part of the recall.

Dunno if it's anything to do with it, but I've been doing a lot of short journeys lately. Do you think that could contribute to the coil failing?

Doubt short journeys would have any effect. VAG had issues with supply quality but then again 110k is doing well with some thing that has a design fault.

You're already planning on selling it?

I drove my Boxster down to my mum's on the south coast, in beautiful sunshine, barely any traffic. There were some good windy roads to play on, and plenty of opportunity to make it do the Porsche noise, or practice perfect heel and toe downchanges. It really is a bloody good car when the driving conditions allow.
It's just a shame that it's so dull at other times.
You'll be pleased it's going to cost me some time or money though. Looks like the headlamp washers are leaking.

Took my new car for its first proper spin over Christmas, home to Ireland fully loaded with girlfriend, greyhound, and all our luggage.

Coming from a seriously over engineered e39 5 series I was worried the Clio might be a bit noisy on a longer spin, but it really wasn't. The dual clutch semi auto was a dream through London at rush hour on the 23rd Dec, and once on the motorway, cruise control at 74mph, it ate miles quietly. Even with roof rack and bike it averaged 32mpg which is reasonable.

Once home and car emptied, set to race mode with gearbox in full manual it really shines on a good B road. The launch control sounds hilarious but maybe not as advanced as the gtr system it's based on as I still got a lot of wheel slip.

The satin paint is a proper pita though, it needed a serious scrub inside and out when we got back.

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You're already planning on selling it?

Yes, I've said this before - I'd like a GT3, therefore I've planned out some steps to get there.

Wouldn't you be better off just saving up for it over a few years rather than dumping money into stepping stones that you possibly wont recoup?

Seems a shame to be already scheduling its departure.
Edit ^ and this

???lelz

I'm assuming it's because buying and selling progressively more expensive Porsches has a bigger ROI than pure saving.

It's about predicting which ones are going to go up in value the most, because otherwise as your current 911 increases, then the one you want increases too, thus negating the profit you've made.

Exactly - it's equivalent to the housing ladder.

Well, except that on the housing ladder you're offsetting rent, paying down a mortgage, have a predictable selling price, can't ding it, won't increase the mileage or incur running costs of 15%p.a. Apart from that it's, like, the same.

:-)