Car D.I.Y.

[fossyant]

My car was running a bit rough yesterday - It's had £80 of fuel in it since September - two part full tanks. It's only done supermarket runs ! MOT is tomorrow, so as the tank was empty, chucked in a bottle of injector cleaner and Italian Tuned it up the motorway at 70 mph and 5000 rpm. Came back and chucked £40 of fuel in. Running fine now.

Son has had the front tyres replaced on his Fabia, but on torquing up the wheels he and the garage noticed some 'play' - the bushes on the lower arm are worn on the passenger side - another job. Going for poly bushes again, and that will be the front suspension bushes all upgraded - the down side of lots of driving on urban roads... wear and tear !

 

[fossyant]

PS son was planning on polly bushing the car's suspension and tuning it. Just needs a full time job now to pay for it....

 

[Scottish Scrutineer]

My car was running a bit rough yesterday - It's had £80 of fuel in it since September - two part full tanks. It's only done supermarket runs ! MOT is tomorrow, so as the tank was empty, chucked in a bottle of injector cleaner and Italian Tuned it up the motorway at 70 mph and 5000 rpm. Came back and chucked £40 of fuel in. Running fine now.

My Elise almost failed an MOT emissions test because it had "old" petrol in it. MOT was March and it hadn't really be used since October. I had thought that either the head gasket was going (K-series), or the inlet manifold gasket was leaking. Next MOT I had fresh premium fuel in and had given it a good run on the way to the test centre and it passed fine.
It had also developed a slight hesitation when transitioning from a trailing throttle. I had check the usual suspects and fitted new spark plugs, but replacing the coil packs eliminated the problem and really improved how crisp the car felt.

 

[fossyant]

<<<< My Car just flew through the MOT, 19 years old and 137k miles, with only 3k done this year. Only did any mileage in July to September going to and from our caravan (when it was open).

 

[irw]

<<<< My Car just flew through the MOT, 19 years old and 137k miles, with only 3k done this year. Only did any mileage in July to September going to and from our caravan (when it was open).

Pfffft, that's nothing...Our Polo passed the other day. 20 years old, 81,391 miles, and only 1856 miles this year!

 

[cosmicbike]

<<<< My Car just flew through the MOT, 19 years old and 137k miles, with only 3k done this year. Only did any mileage in July to September going to and from our caravan (when it was open).

Pfffft, that's nothing...Our Polo passed the other day. 20 years old, 81,391 miles, and only 1856 miles this year!

Oh all right then. My 27 year and 5 month old, 181,254 miles on the clock Volvo 240 passed 3 weeks ago.

 

[fossyant]

Oh all right then. My 27 year and 5 month old, 181,254 miles on the clock Volvo 240 passed 3 weeks ago.

And it's heated seats work again !

 

[Pale Rider]

I put some fancy diesel in ours from BP (Ultimate Diesel?).

I've never put any credence into thoughts of expensive diesel being better than Tesco fuel but I'm sure it's running a lot smoother.

Might have to eat my words!.

I've used super diesel a couple of times.

The car did feel a bit more perky, but that is a very subjective judgment.

Lots online about supermarket fuel being cheap and nasty, but there's also lots of people who say it comes from the same depot as the fuel delivered to Shell or BP stations.

 

[figbat]

What lots of people don’t realise is what is actually in pump fuel. 99+% of it is ‘base fuel’, which comes from the same limited number of refineries and is distributed to all fuel sellers. What makes one fuel different to another is the small amount of additives that are added to the fuel to manage things like combustion properties, lubricity, foam, deposit formation and so on. This is dosed into the fuel during final distribution so whilst it might appear that ‘all fuel comes from the same place’, at the pump they differ by supplier.

 

[Drago]

The quality of the storage at each individual retail premises varies wildly, and makes a far bigger difference than any notional minor differences in the actual fuels themselves.

 

[figbat]

Maybe, but a well-kept fuel with no additives in it will always have no additives in it.

 

[tyred]

Oh all right then. My 27 year and 5 month old, 181,254 miles on the clock Volvo 240 passed 3 weeks ago.

My 25 year old Peugeot 205 with 234,000 miles passed in September.

Whether or not it will pass this year without some welding remains to be seen but I will find out soon.

 

[Drago]

Mines a positive sprog with a mere 143,000 miles under it's belt, but in 10myears of tests it's never had an advisory. I don't know how long I can keep that going, but i'll certainly try.

 

[fossyant]

Mines a positive sprog with a mere 143,000 miles under it's belt, but in 10myears of tests it's never had an advisory. I don't know how long I can keep that going, but i'll certainly try.

It's only 10.

 

[fossyant]

3 out of 4 failed four year old tyres got me last year, they weren't even half worn. Splits on the inner side wall. Wasn't happy as they were Maxxis, who make ace MTB tyres.