Davie's french attraction.

[mickthemaverick]

The bill from Two Wrestlers was about £300 including a LUK full clutch kit if I remember right.

That sort of price suggests it's not a difficult job then

Probably the easiest clutch replacement I've ever done, it only took me 90 minutes with the car on the drive on stands. I do have alignment tool so it went together first time but as Michel suggests the engine and box are so light it really is as easy as changing brake discs and pads!!

[CitroJim]

The bill from Two Wrestlers was about £300 including a LUK full clutch kit if I remember right.

That sort of price suggests it's not a difficult job then

Probably the easiest clutch replacement I've ever done, it only took me 90 minutes with the car on the drive on stands. I do have alignment tool so it went together first time but as Michel suggests the engine and box are so light it really is as easy as changing brake discs and pads!!

Excellent!

[daviemck2006]

The lazy (-expletive removed-) has not put his car back together.Its still sitting on my drive on the axle stands and the gearbox out. I'm officially annoyed at him. I cannot do anything as I further knackered my bad back two weeks ago by slipping on the stairs and falling down the bottom 3 or 4 with a basket of washing. After 5 previous back ups this is not a good development. I know I have damaged something in there, pain levels have multiplied considerably and mobility levels decreased to near none. I'm not able to do my wee job and have hardly been out of the house. I am waiting for a scan to see what further damage I have done in there, but due to the current covid crisis it is unknown how long it's going to take to get it.

Son is using the shared bora, and a very good friend has a loan of my leon while her car is in for repairs, typical garage here, they have had her car for nearly two weeks and not even looked at it. So I have just had the hilux when I need wheels, which is ok for me. Its auto, and the higher driving position is easier for me to get in and out of, and being an invincible its top spec with good comfy seats. The only bad thing about it is the BFGoodritch all terrain tyres on it, although big chunky things with plenty tread are rubbish on the road. Poorest grip of any tyres I have had for a long time. So I have bought a set of Bridgestone dueller highway terrain tyres for it, which were removed from a truck just having covered 120 miles before it was fitted with mud tyres for a farmer I know. When I get them fitted hopefully the road behaviour will be improved, better comfort, better grip on road, and better economy. It's not actually that bad on economy, does over 30 mpg overall which to me is acceptable for a big heavy auto 4x4.

[CitroJim]

Oh Davie, I'm so sorry to hear things are not good in your world

The lazy (-expletive removed-) needs a big kick up the (-expletive removed-)

Here's hoping things will very soon improve in your life

[daviemck2006]

Gosh, a while since I've been on here. Sons 107 is still sitting on my drive in bits. Me and him have had a falling out over it. My back and legs have recovered back to my normal after the fall I had. I did get a scan which showed that there was no injury in there, it must have been muscular. However when compared to my last scan 6 years ago there is more wear in more on the joints. This is not unexpected, I know my pain levels, and painkiller levels have risen over the last few years. That's just the normal for me, and I try not to think about it, just live with it as much as I can. My days of doing much in the way of big jobs outside are numbered.

On to cars. The vw bora is doing about 300 miles a week delivering food, it is now at 245000 miles and running as sweetly as possible. It is now parked until I get either a dry, nice day (unlikely ) as the back brakes are done and scraping. I'm going to make a claim about it which is hard to believe, it's one of the most comfortable cars I have owned, both for seat comfort and ride comfort! Very strange for a vw! It's better than old gabby was in some respects, heated seats, working air con, 6 speed gearbox, amazing pull, about the same in seat comfort and just about it in ride comfort. That's saying something, a vw bora being comparable to a xantia in the comfort stakes!

The leon doesn't actually do very much. It was put into a garage for a service last week, but only had done 5000 miles in the year. It had (still has) a headlight out. It has swivelling xenon headlights on it, the same as my old c4vts, c5 and pug407 had. Now when the c5 got written off it was because of the price of a headlamp at £1300. Garage told me, and they specialise in vw audi, bmw that water has got into the light and destroyed all the electrics in it. This is the case, as you can see the water and it went out when I hit a big puddle at 55mph. Garage says go find a replacement headlight and dont expect change from a grand if not nearer two. Cue an ebay search, there is a set of two which the seller wont split for £600. Phone call to seat Aberdeen. Complete headlight £550, fitting £140. Not as bad as expected. Then a gumtree search, found a complete leon 2.0 turbo fr MOT failure on a few items with the hens teeth xenon lights, and fr front and rear bumpers in red, and a decent fr sports interior for £400. I just have this funny feeling g that the hilux will be towing a trailer to glasgow to collect said leon during the week. It will take maybe £100 of diesel to get there and back. The front bumper has to come off to get the headlights so the fr bumper will find it's way onto mine, and the sports interior will probably find its way into mine ant the rest offloaded for spares. Someone will buy it just for the 2.0 turbo golf GTI engine! I also need two tyres for the Leon's upcoming mot test too, so the donor car may liberate tyres too.

The hilux remains as my toy, it does less than the leon does. It was a godsend when my bak was really bad, being at a near perfect height for me getting in and out, with no sills inside to lift my legs over getting out. The BFG all terrain have been replaced with the Bridgestone road tyres which has improved it on road, where it will spend 99% of its mileage.

[CitroJim]

Good to hear all your news Davie You're right, it's been a while! Don't be a stranger

The cost of those fancy headlights That's outrageous

[daviemck2006]

Good to hear all your news Davie You're right, it's been a while! Don't be a stranger

The cost of those fancy headlights That's outrageous

It's not been weather to get the bumper off to get the light off. I think we might be blessed with a dry day tomorrow so hoping I get the seats lights out, I'm going to swap the ballast units to find out if it is it that's bust, as they are about £50. Then hopefully get the back brakes of the bora done. I'm down to just the hilux being legal right now which is ok, but I would really need the leon or bora for friday night. Hilux is far too big and clumsy for all the side streets and guzzles too much fuel to use for deliveries.

I bet you are surprised that a vw bora is on a par with gabby for comfort Jim. I certainly was not expecting that. I have never wanted to own a golf, yet a bora is a mk4 golf with a boot and square headlights instead of oval. It must have different suspension settings to a golf.

[Zelandeth]

Friend of mine had a Passat CC that was six years old written off by their insurer after hitting a pheasant on the motorway.

The quoted repair bill was something like nine grand - nearly four of that was the headlight and DRL package which was left finely atomised over the M6 just south of Sandbach services.

If postage wasn't so horrendously dear these days I'd have loved to do an autopsy on the dead headlight...Despite having been into lighting texh I've never had a chance to look at the innards of an automotive HID setup. The prohibitive pricetag being the main reason!

Do the VAG ones have everything built into the headlights or do they have a separate ballast/ignitor box?

While the driver is most likely dead unless the lamp has shattered due to getting wet I'd bet I could get the sucker lit... because it becomes an engineering challenge then, and one of the sort which interest me. I get to play with things which present an explosion risk which may end up embedding red hot quartz in my forehead, striking voltages in the 10kV range...not to mention potentially a not insignificant amount of UV radiation and stuff just getting hot.

Okay, play is the wrong word. The very fact that I treat all of the above with great respect is probably the main reason I'm not blind and hadn't electrocuted myself by the time I turned 12.

[CitroJim]

I bet you are surprised that a vw bora is on a par with gabby for comfort Jim. I certainly was not expecting that. I have never wanted to own a golf, yet a bora is a mk4 golf with a boot and square headlights instead of oval. It must have different suspension settings to a golf.

Very much so Davie All the Jerrymobiles I've ever ridden in have been akin to old horse carts as far as comfort has been concerned

I guess, yours is the exception that proves the rule!

If postage wasn't so horrendously dear these days I'd have loved to do an autopsy on the dead headlight...

Yes, I'd love to do likewise, or at least see the results of you doing an autopsy Zel

They can't be that difficult to fix, given the cost of HID conversion kits...

[Michel]

I bet you could get the light down here from the frozen North for less than a tenner with one of the usual sources off parcelmonkey these days..

[Michel]

I had a Golf MK4 1.6 poverty spec when it was new back in 1999 as a company vehicle. It had tall tyres on it and was amazingly soft to drive - it could have been French. Pity it couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding!

[CitroJim]

I bet you could get the light down here from the frozen North for less than a tenner with one of the usual sources off parcelmonkey these days..

Maybe not if you wish to see it again!

Parcels around here are going missing like there's no tomorrow judging by posts in our local Facebook group... One company in particular are getting a lot of mentions...

They managed to lose one of mine back in November...

[Hell Razor5543]

I bet you could get the light down here from the frozen North for less than a tenner with one of the usual sources off parcelmonkey these days..

Maybe not if you wish to see it again!

Parcels around here are going missing like there's no tomorrow judging by posts in our local Facebook group... One company in particular are getting a lot of mentions...

They managed to lose one of mine back in November...

UPS, by any chance? At one of our clients they are known as "Usually Pinches Stuff". A few weeks before Christmas one year the client sent four new (and imaged in their specific way) laptops to one of their offices. The laptops never arrived. However, whoever received them (possibly as Christmas presents?) would not have been able to use them, as BitLocker was used, in conjunction with TPM technology. If you don't know the password you cannot get into Windows (and the unlock key is stupid in length!), and deleting the partition and re-formatting the HDD won't work either (as the TPM gets in the way). Even replacing the HDD won't work (TPM again).

Something that I find worrying is that UPS apparently has got the contract to deliver the COVID-19 vaccines!

[daviemck2006]

I got the front bumper off the Leon today and both headlights out. It took a while to find all the fixings to get it off. The left light(the one which is not working) was full of water. Probably due to some numptie taking off the rubber to change the side light or drl which are both normal bulbs and not replacing it. It had been dropped between the light and wheelarch liner where it would have been very difficult to reach. The light is currently on top of a radiator drying out. That may fix it, I will connect the electrics and try it. If it doesn't work then I shall swap the ballast unit with the other side, they are the exact same part number on them. If that works then its 50 quid for a genuine valeo one or 15 quid for a chinese copy. I am expecting this to be the cause. I'm sure someone somewhere should make an adaptor harness to make standard halogen lights a plug and play. I also remember going through this when I crashed my white c5, for which I was quoted £1300 for a similar light a few years ago.

[CitroJim]

Fingers crossed a dry-out on the rad works Davie... Let us all know how it goes, watching with interest

James, no, not UPS. Think of an aircraft carrier that took part in the Falklands War