Renault goes hi-tech

Just spotted this prototype of the new Renault Twingo ‘concept’. Now i think it looks very very nice, similar to a C2 (which im not such a fan of!), and it looks very high tech! Im still wondering why you’d need (and whether it’s legal) to have a 15″ monitor mounted on your dash! On top of that, according to ‘Motor Authority’, it has a turbo charged 1.2 engine!.. wooo! Click here to read the info and have a gander at some high-res pics! [Motor Authority via Engadget] 

Get Well Soon Hampster

As most people would of heard by now, Top Gear’s presenter, Richard Hammond was involved in a high speed accident whilst filming a segment for the show. More details can be found here. Hopefully, Richard will make a speedy recovery! Get well soon Hammond! 

THIS is how you do it!

Just spotted this [via Digg]. THIS is how you do it!.. Electric motoring has always been a bit… well, bland! The Toyota Prius, has probably been one of the most successful electric car’s and even that has a petrol engine!. The Hybrid connection. One of the main problems for electric car’s though is the fact that they’re not very fast, and most dont seem to have much range on them

However, a britiish engineering firm (PML Flightlink) has gone and stuck 4 (FOUR!) electric motor’s capable of 160hp each, and stuck them in a Mini. So This mini is now able to push 640hp (ish) and top out at 150mph with a 0-60 of 4.5 seconds! Now that is pretty impressive for an electric car (in my eyes anywho). They’ve managed this by putting one engine in each wheel, and this is what PML specialise in!.. I think they’ve done a damn good job!

Brakes are done!

Well i got the brakes done! Which is good. At least i know i can trust them now!

Oh well.. That's nearly £300 quid gone over the last 2 weeks on the car :( !

Meh!

Been 6 weeks since the last post. Exhaust started blowing & catching on speed bumps..

Then it fell off on saturday. Got it patched up with a new bracket. It failed again on tuesday. Took it to another garage yesterday. The pipe on the end of the cat has rusted away and any clamps going on there are just not working. £200 for a new catalytic converter.

Was also told that the brake pads are quite low on the front. Will get them done at the weekend.

Also have a dodgy O/S/R ? wheel bearing. Surely that should be O/S/F.

All-in-all.. not f'in happy!

On a lighter note, i got an xbox360 for my birthday! That will allow me to take my anger out on something :)

Oh fudge...

Just had a call from the local garage. My car has failed it's MOT. It failed on 2 minor problems and another problem which i was unaware of.

1) Door Mirror Glass - This is slightly cracked (still). Didn't think it'd fail on this.
2) Passanger side window washer - Again, didn't think it'd fail on this!
3) Rear brakes are below the limit - Never even knew about this problem. Brakes are fine!!!

Sooo, they are looking into the brakes and will let us know how much it's gonna cost to fix!!!

:(

volkswagon bora's

Recently, i've been noticing a few VW Bora's on the roads. Now i know these have been around for ages, but in my eyes, they look rather nice. And after a few hours on various VW forums & websites, i've found some very nice looking Bora's.

Check these badboys out!







Certainly something worth thinking about in the future :)

Surprise Surprise!

Well, yet again, the car has a problem!

I posted last week to say that the car had been into the garage to get the hose fixed and all that!... Well that's all done. Last Friday, we decided to go to Suffolk to see "H"'s parents. I thought it'd be a good test for the car, to see how it goes now after the work. Anyway, it got there & back in one peice which was good :)

But Tuesday morning, i got in the car, started her up, put it in reverse and looked out the back window to find a load of blue(ish) smoke coming from the exhaust. Jumped out to have a look, but the smoke had dissapeared, and nothing was coming from the exhaust so thought nothing of it.

Got to work & posted what i saw on the PGAC, to which the ever-helpful members told me it's probably due to worn valve stem seals which *should* ideally be re-placed when doing the head gasket. But obviously it hasn't been done.

So now, basically, when the engine is off, a small amount of oil seaps into the cyclinder. Upon starting the car, this oil get's burnt off, hence the blue smoke. It shouldn't create too much hassle if it get's left, which it probably will do... Well for a few weeks or so until i can get enough money together to get it done again. You see, when the valve seals go, you need to take off the head to replace them. Doing this, might damage the head gasket and depending on how you take the head off, it may need skimming again too!... So in theory, i'd need to get the head gasket done AGAIN in order to do the stem seals. What a bitch!

Soo, "H" & i have been talking recently about really saving. We're gonna look into getting a mortgage & get our own place together... But obviously we need a car too, so we're gonna try and save a bit of cash for a new motor!

Will this ever end?

It goes from bad to worse!

Sooo, on friday, i picked the car up. Seemed ok!.. Saturday, we helped my girlies dad move from Croydon to Eastbourne. Car behaved well,although i wasn't racing it or anything. I did notice however, that when i pulled away, sometimes the clutch would judder. But i thought nothing more of it, and didn't want to scare the passangers into thinking that there was a problem.

Forgot about it on Sunday, but the problem kinda re-appeared on Monday. So monday night, i got home from work and decided to inspect the driveshaft gaiter which the mechanic had done. Looked fine to me. So stood up, locked the car and walked away. A quick glance back to the car to make sure the indicators had gone off, and i realised a big puddle under the car, and it was getting bigger by the second!... Doh!

Went back and opened the bonnet to be met with a radiator pipe with a huge spray of water coming from it!... Nice! Now if you have read my blog, you should know that i had a similar problem almost a year ago now with a different pipe!

Never-the-less, the pipe needed replacing. Now seeing as the mechanic had done a decent job on the head gasket, i gave him a call. Bearing in mind it was at 6pm on monday, and the car was booked in on Tuesday morning at 9! Not bad i thought.

So Tuesday comes, i drop the keys off, and head towards the train station (again). At 11am, i phoned the mechanic to find out what the progress is. he said he couldn't find a problem!.. So i told him where it was coming from and to go have another look.

I Phoned him up at 2 to find out what was happening with the car. He said he had fuond the leak, and ordered the new part. He'd be picking it up at 4, and then i could have the car at 6! I was told to phone back around half 4, 5pm to find out how much it'd cost!

So 4.30 comes, i was about to leave to get the train and thought i'd better make sure it was done. Phoned hte mechanic, and he told me he didn't have a chance to pick up the part, and the car wouldn't be ready until today!... AARGHH!

So in the last 2 weeks(ish), i've had the car 3 days... That aint good at all!

Oh, and the other problem. Saturday night, "H" went out to meet some old school friends. 1am, she phoned up to be picked up. I got halfway to the club when i got a flat tyre.. So had to lock the car (and leave it at the side of the road) and walk to where she was as i didn't want her standing around alone waiting for me.

The car's gone from bad to worse. Im hoping this is the last of the problems, but i've got half an idea that it wont be! im mean't to be going to suffolk this weekend. I hope the car behaves itself!

I've got the car back!..Wooo

Well, as my last post mentioned, with a bit of luck, i'd be picking up the car on Friday, and indeed i did! Damn it feels good to be driving again! And since friday, i've done around 150miles which has been quite fun!.. But still had a few problems though!

Saturday, my girlie & i helped her dad move to Eastbourne, which is around 50 miles from where we live. So we loaded up the van and drove down there. i followed behind the van and drove sensibly so as to run the engine in so i dont wreck it with the new bits on it. Had no trouble getting down there, but i was always looking under the car for leaks. I must of been imagining it (or unlucky) but whereever i parked, there always seemed to be a few drops under the car until i got home from Eastbourne. I will have a proper look at the engine today though!

Also, Saturday night, "H" went out with her old school pals. She phoned me at 1am asking to be picked up, so i jumped in the car, and drove into town to pick her up. It's about 5 mins away, if that. Anyway, got halfway there, and i could feel the car pulling to the right. Now it had not done this earlier whilst driving to eastbourne, so it meant only one thing, a flat tyre! D'oh!. Being 1am, and not an entirely safe neighbour hood, i thought i'd drive to the club, pick "H" up, and drive back, and then change the tyre in the morning as it didn't 'feel' that flat. But after turning a corner, i realised the tyre was completly flat, DAMN!

So pulled over to the side of the road, and called "H" telling her that i had a flat tyre. Now i wasn't going to leave her waiting, or standing alone for too long in town, so i locked the car, and ran down to where she was. We walked back to the car so i could change the tyre.

It's all done now (obviously), but this is the 3rd flat tyre i've had in as many weeks, and it always seems to be the same corner of the car that's going down, however, it's not the same tyre. My first thought was that someone was sabotaging(sp?) the car. But thinking about it, my first flat was in Suffolk, the second one was driving home on the A12, and the last one was at Home. So it's not that. I doubt anything is catching inside the wheel to flatten it, but i'll definatly have a look later on when i get the flat tyre replaced!...

Since ive got the car back though, i've realised i do love the car, i love the way it drives, the way it handles, and the way it feels on the roads, and it'd certainly be a shame to get rid of the car. It's a difficult decision, but maybe one that will have to be made sooner or later :(

Nearly done...

Well i have constantly been on the phone to the mechanic, and if all goes to plan, im picking up the car tonight!!!..

The Mechanic first off, set about looking into a water leak i never knew i had. This turned out to be coming from the inlet manifold and he sorted that out. he said he looked into this as it could be causing the head gasket problems, but once it was done, the problems were still there. So they set about changing the head gasket. Upon removal of the head, they noticed that the gasket was indeed knackered, and had a breach between the water ways & the cylinder. Not good! So the gasket was replaced and the head was sent off to be skimmed.

When i phoned them yesterday afternoon (hoping the car would be ready), he said the head was back and all was well. But the car wouldn't be ready until friday morning (today), because obviously, it all needs to be put back together, and then driven round the houses to sort it all out!!!..

So i shall be leaving work early and head back into Croydon to get the car.. Wooo.. I cant wait!

I've also got the guy to fix my leaking CV gaiter, so in theory, the car should be pretty much sorted now!.. I told him i had the MOT coming up and was there any problem's he's spotted that i should be aware of, and he said no, the car looked pretty good now that the work has been done!

I Cant wait!!!

The Car's gone...

... to the garage this morning! Hopefully it'll be ready soon! I phoned up a load of places last week to see if there was a garage close by to where i live which could do the head gasket as soon as possible, and this garage said they could take it in today and hopefully be ready by thursday morning!.. Fingers crossed! Let's hope it's not too expensive!

I know it may sound stupid, but im missing the car already, and REALLY cant wait to get it back! Getting the train to work this morning was a nightmare, and took me well over an hour! Had to go from East Croydon Station upto London bridge, and then back out to where i work! Was hassle considering i can do the drive in 20 mins on a good day!

Roll on thursday!... Oh, and the mechanic will also look at my leaking CV Joint!

Will post more news when i get it!

Oooh, it's mucky!

Last night, i went round to my dad's again to try and flush the water system, to try and pre-long the engine till next tuesday when the head gasket get's fixed.

I took some pictures of the gunk coming outta the engine.. it doesn't look nice! Here's the pictures


The water filler cap.


The crap coming outta the radiator.


The basin under the car full of the sludge!

Hopefully the engine will hold out till tuesday!.. Finger's crossed!

Double whammy!

I Took the car into the garage today to get some welding done which has been pending for over 6 months! an hour or so after taking it in, the mechanic phoned up and told me he had done the welding and also fixed my exhaust as it was blowing loudly and annoying him!.. Wooo... So for £40, i got 2 problems fixed! Back of the net!

I did have some quotes from various garages about the exhaust. They told me that the catalytic converter was worn and needed replacing... one garage wanted over £300 for it. Turn's out it was just a loose connection, and needed to be tightened up!

Also, i've booked my car in to a local garage to get the head gasket done. It's going in next tuesday so fingers crossed, it shouldn't take too long and once it's out, most of the bad problem's would have been rectified, and it'll only be smaller problems which will need attention!

Shall post back with any new news!

And... to top it off...

Just got my tyre, and whilst there, i asked the fella why there would be oil/grease around the inside of the rim. He had a look and told me that the driver's side CV joint has worn, and is leaking grease!

F'in fantastic! :(

Woah, it's been a long time!

Yup, its been a very long time since i last posted here, but to tell you the truth, there's not much going on!

I've still got the 106, it's still got problems. Here's the story from the last 5 day's...

THURSDAY
I notice i've run out of ciggarettes, so i decide to drive down to the local shop and get some. we were in suffolk at the time, and the local shop was a mile away. So i drove down there, got my ciggies, and drove back. Whilst driving back, i notice that the car's pulling to the right. Thought this was slightly strange, so when i got home, i checked the tyres, and sure enough, one was flat! D'oh!

Oh, and i also noticed that my right hand indicator isn't working!!!

FRIDAY
Friday morning consisted of me changing the flat tyre for the spare. The spare appeared to be mildly flat too! Damnit! So i pumped it up and drove down to the local "Rapid-fit" garage to get it replaced. 3 Hours later (3 damn hours!!!) they had managed to fix the flat tyre, put a brand new tyre on the passanger side, and ignore the mildly flat drivers side tyre! After a brief conversation with the bloke, he went off, and checked the drivers side tyre before telling me it was fine and it had no holes or leaks!... Fair enough, so i drove away £40 lighter.

SATURDAY
We were going to drive back to London today, so i decided to do the usual checks. Looked at the tyres, the looked fine. Checked the engine, it was ok. Oil was a little low, but it was alright. Brake fluid was fine. Last check was the water. Now you may recall i had trouble with the radiator a few months back! The water level on saturday was fine, but it had a brown oily water substance congealed around the cap!. Nice. This would indicate a head gasket on it's way out! Cost to fix would be around £400! OUCH!

So anyway, decided to drive home. It was me, my girlie, and her sister in the car. Driving down the motorway, i was in the fast lane overtaking a car when i felt the steering wheel start juddering. I thought "this aint right", and sure enough, 30 seconds later, my front drivers side tyre (AGAIN!!!) was flat, and i was still doing 70mph down the fast lane.. So after battling to get onto the hard shoulder, i had to change the tyre which isn't much fun when there are huge trucks racing by my ear at 70!!

SUNDAY
Decided to leave the car today! too much trouble!

MONDAY
Driving home from work, i pull into my driveway to hear a funny whirring noise coming from the engine. After closer inspection, it turns out my alternator could be knackered!... Not MORE problems!

So, to sum it all up, the past 5 days have produced:

1) flat tyre
2) Indicator
3) Worn Head Gasket
4) ANOTHER flat tyre
5) Dodgy alternator

Oh the fun of running a Peugeot!!! So now, im off to get another tyre for the car. Tomorrow, the car's booked in to a local garage to get the hand brake pivot welded. They will also inspect the passanger side front suspension as it's creaking like a be-atch!...

Oh, and i know where the exhaust is blowing from now :D!

Onwards, and downwards?!

News?!

Well to be honest, nowt's been going on! The car's been fine, with just the niggly problem of the small peice of welding which needs doing to the handbrake pivot (really should get that done) and the blowing exhaust which also needs looking at.

I've been thinking about the sounds in my car, and im half tempted to upgrade the rear speakers to a set of 6x9's which would of course, require a stronger rear shelf. The only reason i want to replace the rear speakers is whilst sat in traffic last week, i decided to play with the settings on my stereo. I adjusted the sound to the rear of the car, and to be honest, it sounded awful. This (i think) is because the speakers are too deep, and are not moving correctly.

Also, whilst on the note of ICE, i've been hunting for a pioneer CD-RB20. I spotted one on ebay on saturday, which i started bidding on, but got outbid with 5 seconds to go. Done another search which produced a second one which ended sunday morning. I placed my max bid, and went out. When i got home, i checked it only to find i had been outbid again!... arrgh!.. So, the search continues. I actually spotted one on eBay this morning with a "Buy It Now" price of £10. Sooold!.. Bought it straight-away. So hopefully it will turn up soon and it'll work fine! Although im a bit dubious because of the price. Oh well. We shall see!

Lastly, with some kind help from 'Longun', a mate of mine from the PGAC, he has leant me some server space. ONce it's all up & running, i shall be moving my blog over to that space which will allow me more creative freedom with the site, which is nice! And i promise i'll set up a new domain name so that the website is memorable.

Ho hum, back to work i guess!

Well that's done then!

Got the driveshaft done yesterday! The car seems better, no creaking or knocking on corners which is good, but it's also a good peice of mind having worried for the last couple of weeks that the driveshaft was going to give, and then be left somewhere i didn't want to be left with a car that wouldn't go!

In my last post i mentioned about the prices at my local garage jumping up by £50! Well i phoned them last thursday and told them i had a quote for £120 and i'd like to book it in! They didn't say anything and that is what i eventually paid!

No other problems jumped out at them apart from the exhaust which i know is blowing. Not sure if they were punting for work but they said that the flange between the front section & the catalytic converter has gone and they reckon i'd need a new 'cat' on there....hmm i think not! Next time i get under the car, ill have a look at the flange. Maybe i can purchase a flange joint thingy from a shop and just replace it to seal up the hole.

Not much else to report. im still hankering for more power and the thoughts of dropping a 1.6 16v GTi engine into the pug is still growing on me!

Ta ta for now!

That damn driveshaft...

On my last post here, i mentioned that my driveshaft was knackered. Well that was about 2 weeks ago. I phoned up the garage where i had my cambelt changed, and they quoted me £120. hmmm, bit pricey and being so close to xmas aswell but luckily, i got a bit of money for some work i had done and that covered it. So last monday, i phoned up the garage again to get a quote for the same works and was told it would be £170! £50 price rise in 2 weeks?! that's soo wrong! I know of another garage which is around the corner from my house. Phoned them, and they said they wouldn't be able to fit me in until after xmas!.. Ouchy! So with all these setbacks, i thought i'd order a driveshaft from GSF or eurocarparts for £50 and then fit it myself.

Anyway, i logged onto the PGAC today where one of the users had posted some images of his 205, which had more or less eaten his driveshaft and the damage looked a bit horrible. So i phoned up the garage again and told them that i had phoned up 2 weeks ago and was quoted £120 for the replacement driveshaft + fitting. It's booked in for monday, and it's for £120. Bonus! I'll finally get the driveshaft sorted!

Last weekend, i popped round to my dad's to do a bit of work on the car. Not much done, but we did have a look at the radiator, which has still not leaked. So whatever the problem was, it's gone! We also looked at the doors as they have been creaking, squeeking and banging for the last couple of months. With a bit of WD40 & Grease, they now open and close with ease! Problem with that is though that im used to giving the door a bit of welly to open it, whereas now, it opens with minimal force, so i've very nearly wrecked both doors by swinging them open into parked cars! Gotta watch that!

We also fixed my dodgy rear window wiper & washer. Basically, the washer didnt work and the wiper would only wipe the sides of the rear windscreen, and leave the central bit covered in water / dust or whatever was on there. After looking at it, my dad quickly realised that the wiper wasn't actually touching the window in the middle because the wiper arm had ceased. So out came the WD40 again which loosened it up a treat and it now cleans the whole rear screen! As for the washer, that seemed to be blocked. A pin up the shoot fixed that. But the washer housing has split. So now when i turn on the rear washer, it sprays in 3 different directions, one on the window, one straight out behind the car, and one straight upwards! Could be useful if someone's tailgating me ;)

it get's worse...

Going on from my post on Friday about a few problems with the 106. On Saturday, i took the car back to Rapid-Fit in Lowestoft to get the funny sound looked at. My original thought was a warped disc, and seeing as Rapid-fit done the brakes 8 months back, if it was the problem, they could fix it under waranty!... Alas, it wasn't a warped disc. The dodgy sound is coming from a knackered driveshaft knuckle. NOT what i wanted to hear. Other problems that the nice mechanic spotted included:

• A blowing coming from the front part of the exhaust system.
• Excessive travel in the handbrake. Either requires welding or new shoes in the rear drums.
• A bald tyre (now rectified).

Oh joy! So i've just got back from the local tyre place to replace the front tyre which was bald. So a new tyre on there, and i thought whilst i was there, i'd get the valve replaced in the back tyre which appears to keep going down... turn's out there was a big f***in nail stuck in there! So that's been repaired.

The leaky radiator is playing games still. It hasn't leaked in almost a week after releiving itself of it's contents all over the road last monday. In the 2 day's following, i put in 5 litres of water and i could see that it was leaking, however, as i said, it hasn't leaked since last wednesday, and that's after nearly 400 miles of driving. How queer. Never-the-less, my dad has yet again prevailed, and has a shiny new radiator sitting at his house waiting for me.

Lastly, over the weekend, BWS & I fitted a head unit into the Scooby. It was quite hard to do. Halfords didn't have an ISO connector to fit the scooby, so we hard-wired the lot and it worked! Also, the scooby has a double din socket (twice the size of a normal head unit). So we had to fabricate a facia panel to make the whole install look a hell of a lot nicer! Again, Halfords couldn't help us on a facia panel, so off to wickes we went, and purchased some materials to create our own. I don't have pictures, but the job was a good'un!