For those interested in "Modern Classic" Cars

[peanuts]

2 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

Does anything not have electric windows these days? It's probably cheaper to fit the same bits to all trim levels and not bother making the wind-up mechanisms at all.

 

Weirdest thing I've seen is my mate's six-year-old Fiesta, with electric windows in the front, but wind-up ones in the back, which might be fun if he had kids.

 

The size of tyres now being fitted to even small cars (and the demographic of much of that market segment) must make power steering pretty much universal, too.  

 

I've had aircon on all three of the cars I've had since 2004 and wouldn't be without it. Biggest bill it's ever incurred was £70 for a new heat exchanger (at 11years/90,000m) on my Pug 206. The only other expense was a recharge on my (now) eight-year-old Yeti a few months back. On my 207, it was never touched in the four years I had it. I leave it on all the time, which I am told is a good policy. Handbooks generally say it must be run for at least 10 minutes once a week, and my garage reckons it's a matter of use it or lose it....

 

John 

We have an 11 plate kia rio which is in poverty spec .no central locking wind up windows no aircon etc it does have a radio that connects to our phone via a USB cable but that is it .guess what we love it less to go wrong .

[Dunsignalling]

18 minutes ago, peanuts said:

We have an 11 plate kia rio which is in poverty spec .no central locking wind up windows no aircon etc it does have a radio that connects to our phone via a USB cable but that is it .guess what we love it less to go wrong .

I'd be interested to know if you could get a similar spec. on a 21 plate....

 

Once I discovered how much quicker and better the windows demisted with aircon, there was no going back for me.

 

Next to nothing of what could have gone wrong on any of my post-1990  cars ever has. Luck, fixed before they got to me or just better made?.

 

Alternatively of course, maybe we still expect cars to be like they were in the 1970s and '8os,,,,

 

John

Edited December 12, 2021 by Dunsignalling

[peanuts]

7 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

I'd be interested to know if you could get a similar spec. on a 21 plate....

 

Once I discovered how much quicker and better the windows demisted with aircon, there was no going back for me.

 

Very little of what could have gone wrong on any of my post-1990  cars ever has. Luck, fixed before they got to me or just better made?.

 

Alternatively of course, maybe we still expect cars to be like they were in the 1970s and '8os,,,,

 

John

I now work for a motor factors delivering parts to garages so do see what parts a regulars outside of the usual where and tear service parts .electric window mechanisms for v.a.g. products are a major one theres a plastic link that fails causing replacment of the whole mechanism apears very prevalent on polos .the other one is cental door looking actuators for nissan quashkias od cashcows as they are known in the trade .

[Dunsignalling]

4 minutes ago, peanuts said:

I now work for a motor factors delivering parts to garages so do see what parts a regulars outside of the usual where and tear service parts .electric window mechanisms for v.a.g. products are a major one theres a plastic link that fails causing replacment of the whole mechanism apears very prevalent on polos .the other one is cental door looking actuators for nissan quashkias od cashcows as they are known in the trade .

Anything nasty to watch for on Yetis?

 

I know about rain getting into the base of the radio aerial, but that's not a hi-tech issue...

Edited December 12, 2021 by Dunsignalling

[peanuts]

Not that I have seen we do have two vag specialists so that may account for the frequency of parts requests one does lean more to Van's mainly the aT5 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

Does anything not have electric windows these days? It's probably cheaper to fit the same bits to all trim levels and not bother making the wind-up mechanisms at all.

 

The Citroen Ami has sliding windows. The Renault Twizy skips having windows altogether.

Couldn't name a mainstream car with windy windows though.

[spamcan61]

11 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

The Citroen Ami has sliding windows. The Renault Twizy skips having windows altogether.

Couldn't name a mainstream car with windy windows though.

SWMBO's poxy Dacia Sandero has wind up rear windows, electric front. I actually like rear windy up windows, it gives a means of emergency exit if the thing ends up in the drink (OK that's not exactly a likely occurrence)

[spamcan61]

2 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

Anything nasty to watch for on Yetis?

 

I know about rain getting into the base of the radio aerial, but that's not a hi-tech issue...

Before the excellent Honest John website disappeared the main issues reported were engine related, petrol models eating their own cam chains due to poor quality manufacture, Diesels it's the usual DPF / EGR problems that can be as much to do with driving style as inherent defects.

[spamcan61]

2 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

Once I discovered how much quicker and better the windows demisted with aircon, there was no going back for me.

 

Yep I'm another Aircon all year round user, just leave the Avensis climate control set at 22C all year.

[Dunsignalling]

20 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

Before the excellent Honest John website disappeared the main issues reported were engine related, petrol models eating their own cam chains due to poor quality manufacture, Diesels it's the usual DPF / EGR problems that can be as much to do with driving style as inherent defects.

My third turbo-diesel (though first from VAG) but my usage hasn't caused any problems up to now. I do very little short tripping or regular urban driving.

[big jim]

Big job broke out!

 

decided to make a start on the DPF swap 

 

 

hopefully swap it out on Tuesday all being well

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, big jim said:

Big job broke out!

 

decided to make a start on the DPF swap 

 

 

When I had a proper Mini I replaced the exhaust. The entire system was one piece and the only extra thing I had to do was jack the front up high enough.

Although I did nearly break a shop window carrying it home. It was a bit unwieldy.

[doilum]

As a very young man I recall knocking on doors to borrow sufficient socket extensions to reach the exhaust nuts on my Bond Bug from below..

[Nick C]

10 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

Does anything not have electric windows these days? It's probably cheaper to fit the same bits to all trim levels and not bother making the wind-up mechanisms at all.

 

Weirdest thing I've seen is my mate's six-year-old Fiesta, with electric windows in the front, but wind-up ones in the back, which might be fun if he had kids.

My 2014 Astra has the same, electric in the front, wind up in the back. It's also the only version in the current range with a mechanical handbrake. Both I presume are to save weight, as it's the eco version.

 

The oddest I've heard of was Ford engineering a different set of quarterlight trims on the MK2 Fiesta so that the cheapest version could be made without a passenger side wing mirror.

[Dunsignalling]

1 hour ago, Nick C said:

My 2014 Astra has the same, electric in the front, wind up in the back. It's also the only version in the current range with a mechanical handbrake. Both I presume are to save weight, as it's the eco version.

 

The oddest I've heard of was Ford engineering a different set of quarterlight trims on the MK2 Fiesta so that the cheapest version could be made without a passenger side wing mirror.

Mine had two, which is possibly one of the things that made it a Popular Plus 

 

Still the most mind-numbingly boring thing to drive that I ever owned, rivalled only by a 600cc Reliant Regal from twenty years earlier. At least the handling of the three-wheeler kept me awake...

 

John

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Dunsignalling

[big jim]

Finally got the PDF off the mini, I think I can pretty much say it’s empty….

 

 

now to put it all back together and hope for the best! 

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, big jim said:

Finally got the PDF off the mini, I think I can pretty much say it’s empty….

 

 

now to put it all back together and hope for the best! 

Are there any obvious weld lines apart from the originals, or even if the originals looks bit “uneven” the internals could have been removed by a boy racer, if it’s obvious when on the vehicle it could cause a fail of course.

 

MoT garages/testers have been alerted to be extra vigilant for this (also headlamp bulb modifications) recently.

[big jim]

I’ll get a pic of the bottom of it later it’s got ‘bird$hit’ welding around a patch where they have obviously smashed the insides out, if you remember when I got the car it also had a straight through exhaust, it basically just had a centre resonator box!

 

it’s now back to standard, the new DPF is fitted, I feared the worst when I first fired it back up as it gave out plumes of white smoke

 

left if running while I did a few other bits and bobs the shut it down for a bit before running it again and it seems ok now, obviously the DPF had been sat in the shed since March so probably just needed warming up to clear it, you can see the soot and moisture that got ejected on the wall behind 

 

took it for a spin and no smoke at all so a happy bunny now, will see if it’s still ok in the morning once it’s properly cooled down again 

 

 

 

 

[Quarryscapes]

I had to let the garage do my DPF in the end (Same one as yours if you remember). The official Volvo service instructions are to undo the engine mount and swing the engine back to get clearance to get it out. (Since I have no hoist this was out fo the question)It wasn't even getting the DPF out that needed clearance, you can't get the heatshield off it in situ to get at the bolts to take it out! A Top/Bottom split to the cover would have been far better than the stupid front/back split it actually has, it would actually come out from the bottom easily if you could get the sodding covers off it! 

[big jim]

Bit of a an unusual classic in sainsburys car park earlier, never seen one of these before, left hand drive too, a golf country

[monkeysarefun]

Another unusual modern classic I followed into town this afternoon. 

I stayed back from the afterburner just in case.

 

 

 

[Hobby]

"Golf Country" based on a Mk2 Golf, I doubt any right hand drive ones were made looking at the details of who built it...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Golf_Mk2

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Another unusual modern classic I followed into town this afternoon. 

I stayed back from the afterburner just in case.

 

 

 

There is no kidding us…..you just couldn’t catch up eh? 

[monkeysarefun]

10 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

There is no kidding us…..you just couldn’t catch up eh? 

Yeah, I wasn't in my Bat Ute.

[faulcon1]

Found this video of an Aussie bloke pondering the merits of fitting aftermarket Android units in cars that don't have them. It's certainly food for thought.