Car D.I.Y.

[Drago]

Add BMW & Audi to that, possibly a cultural thing, F-I-L had a BMW in the 80's whilst they were still slightly exclusive & not like dog poo, I was always unimpressed by the interior, the quality of the straight 2.0L straight 6 though was another matter.

My old 7 series was the same. It cost my ex wife an absolute mint. It was very comfortable, very well appointed, but lacked any real flair.

The build quality was a strange mix of stunning and meh. It was a semi handmade car, and individual components, even individual nuts and bolts, were beautifully finished. No penny pinching there.

But the electrics were dreadful. A persistent immobiliser fault left me stranded several times, and there were all sorts of other niggles. I was actually quite surprised to find one day that when it warned me of a tail light bulb failure that the bulb really had failed, and it wasn't just another fault. BMW are another brand with an image for "quality" that isn't really deserved.

The engine, however, was a peach. I'm not a car person by any means, but the turbine smoothness and instant punch from any revs was nice.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

What have VW learned in the past 47 years?

That they have a better marketing department then other car brand, that their target market of financially mobile users are like sheep, most will have an iPhone & will believe all the other hype that gets thrown at them, if something fails they will overlook that as they are in the "In crowd" & will just replace it with another at the end of 3 years.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Noticed a DRL bulb out on the Ceed the other day, and I know they're a fecker to do.

Anyway bit the bullet today and changed them both, and TBH it's nowhere near as bad when you actually use ramps rather than trying to squeeze your melon under the car at standard height

FWIW I have to say I think the Koreans choice of a P21/5W 380 as a DRL bulb, especially one in a poorly accessible position is p!$$ poor IMO

I was going to replace them with LED's purely for longer life, but at £25-£30 a pair I decided to fit a standard branded bulb instead.

 

[cosmicbike]

Well that took most of the day, but my Grace (Volvo 240 estate) now has a new clutch fitted. I need new shoulders from working upside down on the driveway all day, but the car is transformed. Easy gear selection, no crunchy reverse, wonderful. The one I removed was an OEM Sachs, so maybe the original, the car has about 180,000 miles on so not bad.
Only the NSF control arm to replace now and that's probably all the mechanical stuff done. A few bits of wiring to sort out, along with new tailgate hinges and tidy some of the trim.

 

[tyred]

I repaired the hinges on the parcel shelf of the Skoda and this morning using two small pieces of wood and some 4mm bolts as I refuse to give Skoda €50 for two stupid plastic clip things. Works perfectly but why oh why did they put the hinge a few inches behind the back rest of the seat so when the bootlid opens the shelf lifts and leaves a 2 inch gap so anything left on the parcel shelf will fall into the boot.

It's basically a good car really, all the parts that matter - engine, gearbox, suspension etc seem to be perfect and the bodywork is rustfree and sound apart from a few minor scrapes. It's just let down by a long list of silly faults that need time rather than money to sort them. I might treat it to a set of cheap wheel trims to make it look a bit better.

I suspect my 205 will fail test on the rusty sills in August. I plan on using the Skoda while I do some restoration work on the 205. The 205 will always be my first motoring love. I view the Skoda as an appliance.

 

[Gunk]

I can see why someone would like a 6 cylinder petrol BMW as it is truely one of the smoothest engines around.

Unfortunately most BMWs sold nowadays are fitted with tractor engines.

I really miss my old E46 330i touring, I bought it in 2002 when was a year old and kept it for 8 years.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Gear change on the GTM was very sloppy I drilled out the connecting rod at the back a few weeks ago from 6mm to 8mm & that made a bit of difference so decided to look at the front yesterday.

The photo doesn't show it up too well but a 6mm bolt in a hole that was a an 8mm rod slopped about in but couldn't quite get a 9mm in

Put a rod inside the tube & welded it all up & redrilled, far better now

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I really miss my old E46 330i touring, I bought it in 2002 when was a year old and kept it for 8 years.

Despite my not liking B*Ws (1), my head was momentairly changed by one I saw dropping someone off at work a few days ago

It was a 'petrol-blue' (no idea of the name) 3 series ....... I can't really call it an estate, as it's not really capacious enough to bear that name
Touring, is that the phrase??
And equally, it didn't have any stupid 'rubber-band' tyres, they appeared to have a sensible sidewall aspect

It was a diesel, first two digits were 33, so a 3litre (or more???)
It sounded as though it was an automatic, as it pulled away though

10 seconds of thought, & I was back to thoughts of my Octavia


1. Discounting the i8, the father of one of daughters old school friends has one, & it's very intriguing

 

[gbb]

Former colleague of mine hd a (i think) BMW 330 convertible (very late 90s model i suspect) but it was maybe 4 years old when he had it. Awesome car he always said, fast, comfortable, stylish....but eye wateringly expensive every time something went wrong with it...which was a moderately regular thing. He got rid, couldnt afford the extra (un) relaibility costs that came with it.

 

[Gunk]

We also had a 330i convertible. Lovely car. That went when the kids arrived!

 

[figbat]

Best car I have had so far is a BMW 130i. That engine absolutely made the car. Every now and then I look it up on the government MOT website and see that after my initial ownership it is still going and has a low annual mileage. I wish I could track it down. In the three years I had it (from new) not a single thing went wrong; it just had oil, filters and tyres.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

In the three years I had it (from new) not a single thing went wrong; it just had oil, filters and tyres.

But like a Toyota then, although mine is now 14 years old

 

[figbat]

But like a Toyota then, although mine is now 14 years old

Or like my old Yamaha motorbike - 17 years with me with only a single spark plug cap failure to blot its copybook.

 

[fossyant]

But like a Toyota then, although mine is now 14 years old

Or a Nissan, mine is 18 ! and the Qashqai is nearly 8 - now't gone with that, other than tyres and some new anti-roll bar links, which were a doddle.

 

[Drago]

Or like my old Yamaha motorbike - 17 years with me with only a single spark plug cap failure to blot its copybook.

12 years and 141,000 and the passenger mirror glass becoming partially unglued is the only issue my D5 brick has suffered, unless you count the occasional bulb.