The Dark Wob

SiC wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 5:08 pm What was wrong with the old ABS unit? If brake pressure sensor, could you split the unit apart and swap the ECU over? (Probably a bit late to say that now!)

Pissing brake fluid everywhere.

Possibly could just swap the ECU over on it? The official VAG valve block replacement kits do just that.

The mini has now gone. Stepdaughter bow has a Kia Rio, which after 2 weeks shat it’s power steering high pressure hose. Repair section being made by Pirtek in Pompey, which I’m sure will be just as fun to fit as it was to remove.

Also have another Citroen C2, picked it up locally for £800. Needs the cone air filter replacing with stock item, which has been purchased on fleabay and awaiting delivery.

Update. For some reason I've not been able to log in on here for nearly 3 months - I type my post and get logged out straight away.

Kia's steering pipe was at fault. Rusted completely through.
New one was well over £200 from the local Kia dealer, and of course I couldn't buy just the section which had rusted through. It was an odd size (9mm) and could only find 8 or 10mm pipe fittings with ease; stepdaughter needed the car daily and because of her odd work and uni hours was stranded in Selsey reliant on dickhead boyfriend taking her places because no public transport when needed.

It was replaced by this, which was £80 ish from Pirtek. Not the cheapest but I could get it made overnight.
It was a swine to fit, and while it does the job it can't mould nicely to the route of the old metal pipe. I was hoping they'd just splice into the rotten bit but they made a long Flexi piece replacing the rotten bit and the lower Flexi. I'm not happy with the routing as it passes very close to the alternator and exhaust manifold, but is secure enough for now and hasn't shown any signs of abrasion or heat damage, so until I can find some appropriate pipe clips it will have to do.
Good news is you can't see the terrible job I did once it's all buttoned up. It's quite a decent little car this, about 115bhp from a 1.5 Diesel but has typical 90s-00s Japanese/Korean predictably stodgy handling. It's a lot more economical than the mini was.

Meanwhile on the C2 I replaced its ridiculous induction system. and fitted a second hand standard airbox. If it was a get up and go C2 I'd have made a better attempt at fitting a cone filter, but this was some 50p eBay special, held in place quite loosely with cable ties so it slopped about like a turd in a piss-pot. It's a 1.1 with a whopping 60bhp, and now it's like this:
It runs nicer, it doesn't sound like the Max Power boys are in town and returns better fuel consumption.


Next few jobs are to service all 3 cars - I won a complete filters and plugs kit for the C2 on eBay for £7 - and do the MoT jobs on the Kia. It had advisories for perished rubber boots on all the drop links and bottom ball joints, so I'll change them entirely, they're cheap enough.

Welcome back

I never knew you were a Nazi sympathiser.

paulplom wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 11:51 am I never knew you were a Nazi sympathiser.

I hadn't spotted that.

dozeydustman wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 9:46 pm

paulplom wrote: ↑Fri Jun 09, 2023 11:51 am I never knew you were a Nazi sympathiser.

I hadn't spotted that.

That's what they all say.

I wanted to give the Saab a service at the weekend but some muppet has done the sump plug up so tight not even a breaker bar can get it undone without rounding off the corners, so I’ll have to wait for an extraction pump before I can do that. At least I changed the air filter which while not horrific, had seen better days. I did the C2’s oil change instead. Although the service indicator said 14k to go (20,000 mile interval), I wasn’t entirely sure when it was last done and the oil level indicator was having a strop (dipstick read between min and max) so I dropped the oil. It was very thin and almost black, so I don’t think it had been done for some time. I managed to change the element without too much fuss and the old seal was very crispy. I’ve never changed one of these paper element types before so I’m not 100% sure if this is healthy or not. But a change won’t do any harm. EDIT - can’t add because portrait orientation.

All back together and the C2 sounds nicer. Nice to see PSA at the time still had the easiest service indicator reset. Why that’s upside down I have no idea. I still need to change the plugs but I got so hot, sweaty and dirty I decided a cooling shower was the order of the early evening followed by a pint of cider and some bbq ribs.

Cropping your pictures a little makes them go the right way up for some reason. I do it to all of mine.