Stephen

Some dicking about today around this Caster problem. Hub centre to hub centre there was a descrepancy of 10mm. I removed the rear wheels and checked traction arms, both flat out closed. This is what I feared. The alignment guy can’t make it smaller than smallest. So I took the passenger one (problem side) off for further inspection, this revealed it to be 5mm longer than the stock arm. Took it all apart and noticed one end was a thread out of sink with the other and some paint runs where preventing the nut sitting home. Cleaned up and all reassembled. Took it for a quick spin round the block to settle it all out, hooray it’s now much closer and once the toe is correct I recon it will come together, at least the drivers side can be lengthened if required to make things bang on symmetrical. Still waiting for a response for a local specialist as the normal places either haven’t got the facilities to do Caster or they won’t touch modified cars. Found the previous alignment sheet; the rear is worthless information and it’s a for a Z31 (won’t make that mistake again) but it shows the front camber was 0.2, I’ve raised the front 5mm or so in anticipation that it drop a little with a degree of camber extra. Can’t wait to get it done properly next week, already it’s so much better to drive.

I dunno what’s worse, the fact you did it or the fact I stood here looking at it not spotting it for a good 5 seconds. Nice Stillen battery tie down btw.

Yup that’s my life. :lol: Last BH I was called out the Eastbourne, that journey home was intergalactic in length it was that slow, getting home from Manchester last Monday was faster! Getting a new van soon with aircon! That will be a game changer from sitting at the end of the M27 queuing for the hill by picket post just to get into Dorset!

Autobahn is a copy brand of the HKS intercooler, I would expect the twin air filter was purchased together with the intercooler as a package. It probably did come off an online market place such as amazon or ebay, not a bad front mount for the money though if that’s why your after. I wouldn’t write it off as junk.

Beetles are RWD as are Morris’ I believe? Most things used to rwd before the Mini shook it up, didn’t they.

You can connect a vac gauge to the dip stick tube. There is temporary measure you can make but it would be at your own risk? First move to check the breather system. Check the PCVs and that the restrictors are in place.

I worked the last BH weekend so I’ve been looking forward to this one. 4am wake up from the little person, who thankfully went back to sleep for a bit. We got up about 6 and got out, down the beach before the grockles arrived, nice and empty and peaceful. Then when they start turning up with there suitcases and tent we left for breakfast and afterwards let kiddo run about in the water field, loved it! We were home and drinking coffee in the garden by 11.30. The perks of living in a holiday resort, got to get on with it early though as 200k+ people arrived in our town last bank holiday and it’s just chaos. It’s a nice day though!

Smoking once warm at idle is classic rear turbo seal failure. Very simple test is if you turn the air con on does it stop? The even mild increase in load and idle speed is often enough to reduce to smoke. Smoke will/should be grey, white is coolant and blue is combusted oil. This is a slight misnomer though, it’s not really even a seal it’s a ring like a piston ring, in a perfect world a rear seal would not even be needed. The problem arises because the pressure is higher in the turbos core than the exhaust. Thus oil drips or is sucked through the “seal” to the exhaust. So there’s some variables, is the oil passing from the turbo back to the crank case freely. Is the exhaust scavenging. Is there pressure in the crank case from blow by gasses. So check first before investing in new turbos, which would still smoke; What pressure is in the crank, negative, positive, neutral? Is there good compression? Are the crank case gasses being controlled by the PCV system correctly? Simply decreasing the pressure in the crank case my well eliminate your issue.

Because the profile number is a percentage, to retain the diameter wit a wider wheel obviously 35% of 235 is not the same as 35% of 265.

With the symptoms described in mind that’s a fair point Joel.

Compressor is best mate.

If you can hook it up that will help a lot. The air idle system on these cars is a bit faffy. It could a number of things, mass airflow meter, throttle position etc or it could just be a large air leak in intercooler/inlet pipework. Perform a boost leak test and then move forward.

Let me know if you need the sequel.

If my old school sent me an invitation to anything, after I’d finished laughing, it would be going straight in the bin.

That’s a pretty good match.

That wasn’t as seemless as I thought :( Really should rename this thread, “Feck, Piss, Arse.”

We got spoilt, remember when fuel prices were over 1.50? Not that long ago. There has been a concerted effort drive up fuel prices by the Middle East and current tensions between the IS and Iran have put the nail in. Can’t see it being much worse than where it was three years or so ago...

Did bob have spacers on the rear for that track width Pete?

I was just responding to what Craig said, for me personally the issue looks like it’s resolved thanks to Pete (gotta PM him and finalise it) however in reference to pirateering from other models, it’s always worth knowing. These cars are vastly less common than some others of the same marquee and obviously some items are common. For example there’s no need to hunt for a good set of rear plate lamps as there’s millions of them on micras. It’s a convenience thing, as well as a longer term thing. I actually quite enjoy a bit of scrapyard challenge.

Erm.... anyone having ground hog day with this thread?

Something will share them. Primera is a good bet.

Cheers Pete il be in touch.

I do indeed Pete. Mines worn out, it clicks about 30 times before either latching in or just not.

Annoyingly my little relay treasures didn’t work out.

Pretty sure Mr Morgan’s machine had Ksports as well.