Colin Lindsay
-
Posts
16,773 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
540
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Gallery
Downloads
Store
Events
Posts posted by Colin Lindsay
-
-
The Herald / Vitesse system uses a small glass bead inside the jet itself, a simple system where the ball rises to allow water through then sinks back to block the pipe and stop it draining away. I really should work out the diameter of the glass bead some time and see what alternatives there are as many have been lost over the years.
-
Smart car fans also work well. Very quiet and at the moment quite cheap.
-
Is it a 30 or a 28? I wonder if the topcover has been replaced from a different model over the years?
-
14 hours ago, Morgana said:
That's not a bad idea. I think the olive on one of the spigots on the original fuel pump is soldered. I guess not something to do with petrol around! Would you align the end of the olive with the pipe, or have some projecting?
If you're sure that the olive is in the correct position then solder it, but to a small length of pipe, about two inches. Then the pipe will rotate as tightened - can't do that with the original one-piece pipe! - and you can link the rest via a rubber joint.
-
17 hours ago, Chris A said:
If I go for the electric pump option no problems getting one here either (already located a good candidate) I'm not up to reworking the pump and wiper switch as above so will just add a press or switch to the dash, or under if I don't want it visible. Been looking for suitable pushes that sort of look ok. Like the one with the 'W' must do more research.
The switch is a Lucas SPB104, used on Landrovers, simple two-terminal connection. Search also for PS7 or 31515. The knob is interchangeable and is available new, so if you get the switch cheaper without one, the knob can be sourced separately. It is an amazing improvement on the push-button; my first try sprayed the bootlid until the jets were adjusted to the screen. You can get washer bottles with a built-in pump but they can be very bulky and some of them won't fit the engine bay.
-
12 hours ago, Eric Smith said:
Hi Guys, thanks to everyone who has replied and contributed information so far, your advice is helpful.
Obviously many thanks to Colin L for his offer to sell me the tubular manifolds, I would be very interested in buying the manifold, however l have no idea as to how we can move forward because of these strange regulations??
There is no logic to all of these new rules and regulations, it’s not as if we are talking about moving toxic waste.
Eric
I'll start enquiries next week from Monday; I'll message you with progress. I'd rather see it fitted to a good car than gathering cobwebs! (Love Standard 8s, always wanted one.)
-
Easy to fit a hidden electric motor behind the dash or in the engine bay, just a 12v supply to earth via a switch, and hide the switch under the dash or use a period auxiliary switch in plain view. My dash is much modified but those little Lucas pull-switches - H for Heater and W for Washer - can be placed anywhere; along the dash support to the right of the steering wheel where the early 1200s have the washer pump is a good spot. They also take the Herald chrome bezels so look the part as well.
-
1 hour ago, Iain T said:
Colin, out of interest I've put any old area postcodes in for both you and Eric on DHL for car parts and it seems as though you might be able to send from no man's land to UK mainland.
Iain
Thanks Iain - but some say they will until they see the actual item. A while ago I tried to sell a wind deflector on eBay; DHL, DPD (depot 200 yards from me!) and UPS all declined to transport Car Parts, Royal Mail eventually took it as I lied and said it was a plastic shelf or the like for a house. The shape of the exhaust might give that away somewhat. I've had to travel the country round sometimes to find a carrier who will take items and you turn up at the counter only to get a refusal, so can never guarantee the delivery.
-
15 hours ago, Steve P said:
I reckon someone stole the precious metals overnight and then covered it up with the patches.
S
And welded it up again from above... I can just picture a whole gang of inch-high welders walking about on top and ducking under the bodywork...
-
If you need a 1200 tubular manifold I have a NOS version trial-fitted to my 1200, going for half the price of a new one, but the only problem is carriage; under EU law the carriers won't take car parts at all as although I'm in the UK I'm also in the EU therefore not in either, otherwise it would have gone on eBay long ago! I can't risk selling it then finding out I can't deliver it. Never fully fitted nor used at all on a running engine.
-
Latest news on the old CAT is interesting. As BMW wouldn't take it back due to the welded patch on top I decided I'd see what was lurking underneath. I suspected the internals had fallen in, hence the rattling, and the resultant blockage had affected performance which was far from blistering. So: one patch ground off: here's another one!!
Grind that one off and...... nothing.
The CAT is completely empty, not a trace of internals. No trace of what was causing the rattle, no trace of what was blocking the engine gases and reducing performance, and absolutely no trace of how it sailed through MOT last August well within emissions limits when the aftermarket Euro 2 CATs fail regularly. You'd think a poor CAT would be better than none at all!
Strange... but the transformed engine is definitely a real points-getter so I'll just avoid looking at the bank balance and enjoy the car. If it would stop raining I might even get the hood down.
-
Some of my local shows used to have a pre-1980 clause, and that was later amended to pre-1990, but then we had the serial complainers along the lines of "my model came out in 1988 but my actual car was made in 1992 and it's not fair that I'm excluded" which THEN became modified to 'my car first appeared in 1971 and they're still using the name so my 1995 model is excluded and it's not fair' and finally to the 'I'm a member of the Owner's Club and we have a stand so I can bring my 2023 car as I'm a Club member' so once again the real 'Classics' became a minority at some shows. When shows have limited spaces for entrants, and you see very old cars from the 40s, 50s and 60s being turned away because the field is full of 'Present Day' moderns, there's something not right.
-
No doubt someone will come up with the 'correct' shade or paint code especially for the wheels, but as for supplier: if that's all you're painting your local Motorfactors would be a good starting point. Personally I tend to avoid Hammerite and the like but a good aerosol of the preferred colour will go quite a long way, and you should be able to find a modern alternative to the original paint quite easily.
-
1 hour ago, Peter Truman said:
So you could say we classify a car as classic at 25 years
25 years I can live with - my Z3 is 25, for example - but 25 minutes is stretching things a bit....
-
Call it a hankering for a particular era, if you like. I remember in the 1970s going to shows full of cars from the 1950s and 1960s, models I remembered as a child. Where are they now? No-one in those days would have dreamed of turning up in a modern car and claiming it as a classic. I can't believe there's been a huge jump from 1950s or 1960s cars - which even then were all around ten to twenty years old and can't all have been scrapped since - missing out the 1970s and 1980s, and even the 1990s to a large extent and going straight to 2010 or the 2020s. It's like going to a 1950s Band Show and playing modern music - it's music, people like it, so why shouldn't it be allowed? - while those who really want the genuine article from their preferred era are left feeling let down and excluded among cars that are just everyday models in their hundreds.
-
Saturday morning... "Classic Car Show" at The Boulevard, Banbridge. I called up at 10am in the BMW, not a classic but drier than the Herald, only to see two oiks in lowered moderns with bean-tin exhausts doing doughnuts in the carpark. That was it. I stayed until 12.00 noon, coffee and a newspaper, and when nothing else appeared went home again. Perhaps it was cancelled, perhaps all those moderns in the car park really were the 'Classic' show. Who knows?
(Incidentally there's another next Saturday at a local church; £10 for cars, public get in free. I pay to display my car but others get in free to see them? Work that one out. They'll make Springsteen pay to perform, next.)
However whilst idly wandering the shops I had a look at some of the artwork they use to cover empty units. Presumably by a local Ulster artist, but some of the detail was telling if very stylised. I wonder what his connection / interest is?
-
12 hours ago, Wagger said:
I have only spent around £1k on my 520D in four years. (20,000 miles) Most of that been on Runflat Tyres.
I know I'm newly-fangled with the Z3 hence some of the expenditure, like a pair of front struts that I now reckon I don't need but cost me £300. I had to fix the rear fog lights - stuck permanently on - for MOT, so needed a £30 switch plus a full service which included a new thermostat, but I also replaced the front brake discs and pads and gave the underside a full Wax treatment. The exhaust rattled alarmingly, so I replaced the silencer which admittedly did have a perforation at one of the welds, then found it was the CAT. It was embarrassing if driven down a street as pedestrians could hear it echoing off the buildings, so as it spoiled the image completely(!) it had to go too. THAT was £1700, no exchange as the BMW mechanics reckon the internals have been removed over the last 25 years as it's dated 1997. Replacement hood window was £100. Replacement stainless petrol tank straps were £75, the originals were crumbly, and only a tenner for new seat bushes. Rear tyres were about £180 a pair. Get that airbag system sorted and it'll see no more for a while, although the headlamp switch illumination doesn't work - that will really annoy me until I replace the £5 bulb after about ten hours labour as it requires parts of the dash removed, and the exhaust joint bolts are not the proper sprung bolts so I'll scour eBay for replacements. As with the Triumphs, little details get on my goat until properly sorted.
Incidentally I replaced the exhaust last night and the car is transformed; not only much quieter but more power at low revs. I was always surprised at how poor the acceleration was in lower gears. The CAT has been messed about with and no doubt blocked. All I need to do is work out where exactly the vibration damper sits on the main pipe, or if I even need it, and that's it done.
-
10 minutes ago, Wagger said:
Don't despair Colin. There are some good BMW forums where you may find a solution. There are some clever guys who can program out some features and there used to be plug on bits that would 'Fool' the system into believing all was well. Quite how useful Airbags are on a CV I cannot suggest. I know two people thrown clear of a CV car who would not have survived if they had been wearing a belt. This was before belt wearing was compulsory.
Nil desperandum, if that's how it's spelt. I don't really despair, just grumble out loud and take on the challenge. I've just fitted the new exhaust, not as well as I'd like (it seemed a slightly different profile to the old, so some of the flexible joints are not as square as I'd prefer) but no leaks or blow-outs. Currently trying to work out where the vibration damper goes as there are no clues. I need the car tomorrow as family are all working or on courses so taking theirs, so it'll be roadworthy by then.
I'm not used to this kind of expenditure in recent years; exhaust, tyres, and small sundry parts have cost me 75% of the purchase price already. It had better behave! Conversely I'll be in a position where I can't sell it as I'll never get the outlay back.
I did manage to get the Freelander through MOT, clean slate and in quite good condition, so that's a bonus.
-
I'd agree, home made version. Looks well made and a nice add-on for an electric pump.
-
I think yours is Mk2? The GT6 Mk1 had upright overriders which bolted to this bracket - see photo of where mine was - but the Mk2 doesn't have the overriders, just the bumper, so I suppose it's not needed in those models.
-
33 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:
colin .
checked the wiring under the seat ?
checked the wiring from seat to module ?
swapped pretensioner from left to right to see if issue follows ?
rgds
mick
Removed and cleaned passenger pretensioner and contacts; removed and cleaned the short cable from pretensioner to loom along the rear of the seat, and cleaned the contacts at that main connection too where it disappears under the floor. I don't think I can swap pretensioners round as there's a different short cable connection on either side so passenger cable won't fit the driver's side except at the actual pretensioner itself, which means removing both seats yet again. NOT AGAIN!!!
I might replace the pretensioner itself but have located a small BMW-specialist garage less than ten miles from me, so might call in with them for advice, as some enthusiasts are stating that the airbag warning light is not so easily reset as many claim. Worth a try later in the week.
-
Well 50% success; the last two tyre sensors were replaced this morning on the Fiesta and so far the light has not reappeared. Happy days! Mot expires on the 15th so that means an appointment will be obtained for about 2025.
Sadly the BMW seat went back in this morning and despite cleaning all of the electrical contacts from loom to seat to pre-tensioner the airbag warning light came on immediately and although the OBD reader states that the code has been cleared, it remains lit or else comes back on on restart. I can see now why so many of these modern cars are going to be scrapped as beyond economic repair.
-
4 hours ago, PeteH said:
Also being curious?. Would the 1300 Spit engine drop straight in to a 13/60?
Yes. Most of the small engines are interchangeable across the range with only small changes required such as keeping the proper front plate etc.
-
1
-
-
4 hours ago, Wagger said:
I now do not park on a slope or a camber if I can avoid doing so.
Herald owners avoid parking when facing downhill, now BMW owners do the opposite!
BMW wiring and error codes
in My NON-Triumph cars
Posted
You can't fake the emissions over here, the machine must register a proper sample and then pass it, so if it fails the machine will let you know. You get a readout of the results on the MOT certificate which is also sent to DVA electronically. Mine was 0.770 CO idle and 503 HC idle, I must check that against the permissable limit. That's with NO CAT at all.
The BMW online forum is currently tearing their hair out over why I only have one O2 sensor in the exhaust, pre-CAT, and none post-CAT, but the original 25 year old exhaust and the new replacement from BMW are identical with only one socket for a sensor so it's not a PO mod. All of their M44 engines have two so as the engine didn't alter any settings to compensate we can't account for the drop in performance and as I've examined the old exhaust minutely there's no blockage.