Upon initial inspection, the radius arm bushes are shot. Loads of movement. Question is, do I just replace them, or replace the whole car with poly bushes and be done with it?

I can pick up a full poly bush kit for £70. That doesn't include shock absorber bushes though.

What d'ya think?

I see. Not sure if the council will appreciate me washing their road with diesel though.

I've also seen many videos of people using branded cleaners and then pressure washing the engine. This doesn't look like a good thing for a p38. Would I be right?

Vancer wrote:

Good information here. I would also check that the HT leads are completely seated in the coil packs on the back of the engine. My experience is the screws to the packs themselves may have backed out causing the lead to wiggle out, which in turn causes an intermittent miss.

Thanks. New coil packs and leads going in at same time.

Gilbertd wrote:

I normally use brake cleaner spray for smaller bits or diesel for bigger bits. That and lighting bonfires is the only good use for diesel as far as I'm concerned.......

Use diesel as a cleaner?

ok. what am I looking for on the Christmas tree? should I get another on standby?

Just been out and had a look at spark plugs. Biggest socket I had to hand was a 13/16 which seemed to fit. Is that roughly 21mm? I might go for the bcpr6es on refit as I have a 16mm spark plug socket and it will avoid any headaches if perhaps I have odd holes like OB.

As a side note, what degreaser do you use? The best one I ever had was Astonish Engine Degreaser. Got it from the pound shop. Cleaned the inside of my wood burner up like new. Pound shop don't have it anymore though.

Thanks

Orangebean wrote:
Most important is a damn good clean out inside and on the gasket faces, and a close look at the christmas tree separator in the RH breather hole

Christmas tree separator??

Gilbertd wrote:
Thor heads have a smaller hole machined in them for the plugs so the standard sized plug socket won't fit in the hole.

Can I tell what size I have by pulling a HT lead and seeing what socket will go in the hole?

Ta.

I was also thinking of cleaning up the rocker covers. Is it worth the effort of polishing or just spray em up?

which spark plugs d'ya recommend? £10 a go is not an option by the way. lol

I've read NGK BPR6ES will do. If I stick my reg number in a few websites, they recommend either a BERU or Bosch. £2.50ish each gapped at 0.8 which is correct I think.

Also, should I gap them to 0.7 because of lpg or just leave them standard?

Cheers.

Take your tailgate button off and inspect it. Mine was dead loose and when i stripped it, it was full of rust and the spring had snapped. Completely rotton. You might have a bad connection if yours is corroded too. There's a large rubber o ring that might have perished that's letting water in.

both cv joints look pretty new. Not that it's more pronounced. It's easier to feel and dismiss the fact that its probably not brakes as i'm not using them at that point.

i'll check that tomorrow. It's also very prominent when going round a corner or roundabout with no acceleration (i.e coasting/overrun)

Sadly, those little niggles that I'm trying to iron out just seem to keep coming.

When slowing down for traffic lights, roundabouts or speed bumps, I get judder through the steering wheel and you can feel vibration a little through the floor. Happens from about 20mph downover until stopped.

I put it down to brakes at first because I do need new pads but, the car doesn't pull. I've also just tested slowing down without applying brakes and the problem is still there. Accelerating is fine, it's just deceleration. Alas, it would appear something more expensive is afoot. Any pointers?

What's different on a vogue SE than a vogue?

The one at my local scrap yard looks the same as mine other than the bizarre green walnut.

Suppose in the same way you'd turn a light off when you're not in the room. If you're not using it, you switch it off. If it's red hot in the car as it was for a couple of days, It's nice to blast the aircon and get an indoor arctic vibe going. If it's just normal weather, I don't need the a/c cutting in and out regulating the temperature for me. That's what the window is for. Save the planet from cfc's and save my wallet from the extra fuel.

A long journey would be different. But most days, I'm the taxi for the school run and dropping the Mrs off at work.

Didn't have it set on auto and I had the a/c turned off (light on) Thats how I know.

Yeah. Except I live In the north east and today was cloudy and considerably colder. Didn't even use it today. Lol.

Ok. I'll go have a look tomorrow and let you know. I'll take pictures.

Just to clarify, I've robbed nothing. Tis just an expression.

The car at the scrap yard that I've been robbing bits from is a vogue SE. There was nowt wrong with it apparently. 2002, Metallic blue, lightstone interior with a hideous green walnut trim. So that's one less on the road.

Well I'm glad you're all pleased that I fixed mine. :-)

we have cold air.

Mended it with quick steel albeit against some advice. We'll see how long it lasts. However, the other thing is, i could have replaced the condenser and dryer and still not have had cold air if there was another problem somewhere. At least now i know that it does work and when the time comes, i will replace both the condenser and dryer.

I'll find out in the morning if the hevac book has gone or if indeed, the matters are unreleated.

Also picked myself up a lightstone gear knob for a fiver whilst at the scrappy getting the A/C done. Bargains all round.

well i'll give it a go. Only 4 bolts to take the slam panel off and you can see the holes right there. Quick steel will cost me nowt and the vacuum test will also cost nothing. Can't see quick steel failing. it's proper bell metal when it's gone off.

what makes them all rot in the same place? seems like a common area of failure