Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[BW]

Washing up liquid, I believe, contains lots of salt, so definitely not ideal for car cleaning.
Theres loads of info about all sorts of car cleaning and polishing products on this site http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
But beware, it can become compulsive. Some of the waxes are outrageously expensive, see the £2200 a jar stuff! but theres much that is really good at reasonable prices.
I also use Greased Lightning with plenty of microfiibre cloths, maybe frowned on by purists but Im very careful to keep the cloths clean to avoid swirl.

[Miguel]

Washing up liquid, I believe, contains lots of salt,

It doesn't. Not on any spec sheets I can find on the web anyway. Anyway, if it did? So what..you put what, 5ml in a bucket of water? That wouldn't even register on the scale of saltiness compared to what goes on the roads in winter.

Autoglym car shampoo and tesco cheap window cleaner here, when I can be bothered to wash the cars by hand. I use a microfibre mitt from Asda that was £1.99.

[BW]

The main problem with washing up liquid is that it cleans too well and therefore removes wax, but it undoubtedly contains some salt (less Im sure than a treated road throws up) so is not ideal on a car.

[bxzx16v]

I think fairy is best left for the dishes .

Mark

[Mandrake]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Dish washing liquid!?

That's one way to take all of the wax off the paintwork. A good quality shampoo will make a world of difference and will leave a much better finish then what you're used to. Turtle wax tends to leave a good finish on the paintwork. I'm not that clued up on shampoo's though I'm afraid as all of ours get washed with a special shampoo that has no wax in it due to them being detailed.

In my defence - all of the cars I've owned that have had washing up liquid used on them have never been waxed and in fact most of them even pre-date modern clear coat finishes.... Neither of my V6's have had washing up liquid used on them.

Edit: Simon, don't use a brush to wash it either they're awful for making your paint swirly. Get yourself a microfibre washmit out of a supermarket or halfords. If you really want to be nice to it, get a lambswool washmit.

No brushes have been near this car either, I'll look for a washmit at Halfords then.

Sounds like the Autoglym, a couple of buckets of water and a wash mit are the way to go then ? All I need now is somewhere other than out on the road to wash cars... (still working on that...)

[Mandrake]

Richard will be pleased to know he's off the hook in the exhaust welding department.

I've ordered a matching centre silencer from the same mob that I got the muffler from:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160689844186? ... EBIDX%3AIT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At £36 including shipping I decided it makes no sense trying to weld the old one, especially out in the rain! It's a shame to throw away a silencer that's 90% ok but the 10% on the end isn't worth the grief to repair when the pipe has a rust hole I can put my finger through near the flange and the flange itself is starting to crumble away. With both centre section and muffler it should be pretty much just a case of swapping everything over...

[CitroJim]

I think that is sensible Simon

With both centre section and muffler it should be pretty much just a case of swapping everything over...

One hopes that is the case unless you fine a mount broken off.. Also, watch that even if the muffler mounts aren't broken off you may find one or more are a bit bent out of line, either in shipping or during manufacture. It's certainly the case with the one I had delivered to Dad's.

I'd get the old one off and then lay the old and new side-by-side and adjust the mounts on the new one to match the old one. Just be careful you don't break the welds though...

I really hope yours goes a lot more smoothly than mine did! All I can say is the first of those Polish systems fitted like a glove so hopefully mine was very much an exception...

[Mandrake]

The Polish one that was fitted to the Silver V6 certainly did need a little "persuasion" to fit Jim, I think we did have to bend the mounts slightly, also we found the angle of the bend on the flange on the centre section pipe where it meets the rear muffler wasn't quite right, so that the joint didn't come together square - even with the clamp pulling it together that joint never sealed 100%. Hopefully this one is a bit better fit!

Are we even sure if the ones I've ordered are made by the same people though ? They look superficially similar - at least the muffler part I already have does, but I didn't order it from Poland...I think it's from Germany from a crowd called ETS. Whether they make them or just sell them I don't know.

In other news I was ordering some assorted electronics parts today and decided I should take advantage of the combined shipping to order some diodes so I can get the diode mod done on the suspension as it does seem to stick in the hard mode at the front a lot of the time.

This time I decided to get some 3 amp 1N5408 as they're only about 10p each more than the typical 1 amp 1N400x types...hopefully I can get it done next weekend. The only problem is I can't seem to refill my gas soldering iron anymore (the nozzle on the filler can never fitted well right from the beginning and now it won't seal at all, it just leaks everywhere when trying to fill it) and I don't have enough extension leads for my electric iron to reach all the way out to the road.

Last time I needed to solder something on the car I had to plug the iron in closer to the house until it warmed up, unplug it, run to the car with it and do about a minutes worth of soldering then run back and plug it in for a couple of minutes then repeat until the job was done.

[myglaren]

In other news I was ordering some assorted electronics parts today and decided I should take advantage of the combined shipping to order some diodes so I can get the diode mod done on the suspension as it does seem to stick in the hard mode at the front a lot of the time.

Oh Simon. Talk about misreading - I first read that as you had ordered a pile of dildoes

[Hell Razor5543]

I got a 150W invertor, so that (if I had forgotten to charge it, or had to use it for a very long time) I could use my Lexia at any time. I paid about £15 for it from, of all places, TK Maxx!

[Northern_Mike]

In other news I was ordering some assorted electronics parts today and decided I should take advantage of the combined shipping to order some diodes so I can get the diode mod done on the suspension as it does seem to stick in the hard mode at the front a lot of the time.

Oh Simon. Talk about misreading - I first read that as you had ordered a pile of dildoes

With an FCF logo, I hope...

[CitroJim]

In other news I was ordering some assorted electronics parts today and decided I should take advantage of the combined shipping to order some diodes so I can get the diode mod done on the suspension as it does seem to stick in the hard mode at the front a lot of the time.

Oh Simon. Talk about misreading - I first read that as you had ordered a pile of dildoes

Team WFA took similar advantage once and bought a job lot of 200 of them.. 1p each or something like that. They'll last us a long time I hope...

[DHallworth]

Team WFA took similar advantage once and bought a job lot of 200 of them.. 1p each or something like that. They'll last us a long time I hope...

Dildoes or diodes!?!?

[CitroJim]

Team WFA took similar advantage once and bought a job lot of 200 of them.. 1p each or something like that. They'll last us a long time I hope...

Dildoes or diodes!?!?

I didn't say because I really have trouble spelling them...

That's my excise anyway

One of my little word blindnesses..

I always seem to end up spelling them doides

I used to have the same problem with capacitors...

[Mandrake]

DIODES have arrived.

Weather doesn't look too bad for Sunday so I'll have a go at getting the DIODE mod done then, even if I have to buy another extension lead for my soldering iron so it can reach to the car...

The centre silencer for the exhaust also arrived yesterday - a full week before the estimated delivery time! I haven't un-boxed it yet, it just got thrown into the shed but I will open it up on Sunday and check that it fits the muffler properly, and straighten the dent on the muffler flange. I also got a couple of Citroen style exhaust clamps from ebay, one intended for the CAT tail - though it turns out these ones are 80mm instead of 74.5mm... but I think with these single bolt wrap around style clamps it doesn't matter if they're slightly different diameter has they wrap around and bend to suit - we were able to get both the 64mm and 74.5mm clamps to fit on the muffler flange, after a fashion!