Lowrider Dave - 1992 Automatic

[Lowrider Dave]

Two rims obtained from scrappy yesterday, having a plate welded over the hole in sill today and MOT booked for Friday.

[Cavalier342]

Sweet as dude, should be alright now.

[Lowrider Dave]

Spoke too soon, welders were too busy to do the plate today, they cant do it tomorrow and mot expires on Friday. So, that's that buggered until I can find a garge that does welding and MOT.

[Cavalier342]

Oh right... Ring around I guess, if you've booked it, unless you can phone your MOT garage and re-arrange it for another day?

[Lowrider Dave]

I'll cancel the MOT I had booked and start searching for a garage that does both, as my two nearest garages does one but not the other!!

[Lowrider Dave]

Got welding done and MOT retest. Lives to drive another year.

[James McGrath]

Great news!

[Cavalier342]

Good to hear mate.

[humbucker]

+1

[Lowrider Dave]

My mooching trip in London was put on hold as the clouds have decided to urinate on us all.
Not one to waste time, I headed to the garage with recently acquired parts

Plugs and gasket…



…and new headlight bulbs - co-incidently identical to TonyO’s choice.


As with most things in life, simple things turn into a metric arsetonne of faff. Metal wire that holds bulb in place twanged off and scuttled off under the headlight like a deranged clockwork mouse on speed. This led to: A: Hands on hips, B: Expletive and C: Tools

Removal of headlight to retreive said b@$tard bit of metal:


Which, of course, revealed dirt. Something I tried to ignore but like Kryten, it is hardwired in my DNA to clean stuff.


May have broken something - it was old and would have had been humainly put down soon anyway.


Water+cleaner+cloth+tea+polish = clean


Now it looks…just like it did. But fractionally cleaner.


All this because I was investigating how to add front fogs. I had the fog button:



which once I added a 10A fuse, I tried and nothing happened.
This could be down to 3 points. 1: I actually needed a 20a fuse and didn’t realise this, 2: The button looks a little burnt on one contact and could be fubar’d or 3: the fogs do look a little ‘well worn’ . i.e: terminals look rusty, bulbs could be dead, etc.
I guess I’ll just have to slowly clean and test everything before I get working fog lights.


And for no reason, a picture of the fuse box. You lucky people.

[Cavalier342]

Those bulb holder springs are a pain the ass at the best of times. You remind me of me back in the day, removing something for some simple reason, only to find myself cleaning everything in the area for half hour before putting it back together again. lol.

That warm air duct is useless anyway, why would you want hot air being drawn in? The cooler the inlet air, the better.

[tonyo]

Gosh! What a surprising lack of clutter behind the headlamp.. Really strange how a few extra pieces (bigger air pipe, wiper motor, extra front fan cowl) can make the dippy's headlamp cavity look somuch fuller.

Top Bombing anyway.. Have you tried the Osrams properly yet? I didn;t expect miracles, as they are in a 25ish year old design of headlamp.. On dipped beam they give a much whiter light, I wouldn't say they are 110% brighter though.. On main beam though, they are superb!

Don't the foglamps need a relay? ISTR when I retrofitted fogs to the GTE, I had to fit a relay as well as the switch, and lamps.

[Lowrider Dave]

Cheers Tony. I haven't tried it in the dark yet but will do soon. I do recall that I wouldn't have to bother with the relay if I kept the yellow/grey wire on place - see top right hand corner of last photo...I read it on here somewhere but can't remember...must search when I have time or Robsey will saunter along and put us to rights!

[Lowrider Dave]

Just seen Robsey's post about the fogs! All good.

[Lowrider Dave]

Ah tits.
After buying a 'Brake Box' (MDC322) from Mintex to do the front discs and pads a month or so ago, I have only just had time to tackle the job. I spent ages undoing caliper bolts that were last touched during the ice age and the disc goes on fine but the caliper doesn't, I then tumble to the fact that the brakes should be solid not vented. Arsetigers. So now I have a kit of two vented discs and pads that are no use to me!

In case anyone is interested in them they are this:
http://www.brakebook.com/bb/mintex/en_G ... ml?reset=1

£30, collect from Eastleigh (Southampton)

[Cavalier342]

Really? My old auto and my old 1.8 carb pre-facelift both had vented front discs. But then if my memory serves me right, yours is the 1600. Can you get away with fitting the right calipers/pad holders in place of the ones on there?

[Seannnn]

That sucks! Can u not try taking them back? I went back to eurocarparts a month after buying suspension parts and they didn't even question it, I was determined they wouldn't refund it, they may even let u replace them instead of a refund

[Lowrider Dave]

Mincing time!


Got the right discs this time! These were duly fitted.


New air filter, the old one was a dirty as your mum.


New tubular thing…


Well, the old one was a bit knackered…


Sparky, sparky.


Also changed oil and oil filter and add a magnetic sump plug.

[tonyo]

Top work Dave. Seeing your hard work on Pedro reminds me I've still got so much to do on Dippy..

[Robsey]

All good work to keep the passion wagon moving and stopping correctly.

For extra confusion there are three types of discs...

Solids,
20mm thick vented on the 1.8 SPi's
(Including mine) and
24mm thick vented on the 2.0 litres and up .

[Lowrider Dave]

Thanks chaps.

[James McGrath]

Good work.

For extra confusion there are three types of discs...

Solids,
20mm thick vented on the 1.8 SPi's
(Including mine) and
24mm thick vented on the 2.0 litres and up .

My 1.6 SPi LS has vented discs.

[Lowrider Dave]

Pedro is up for sale now.
More details and 'for sale' advert to follow.

[Cavalier342]

How come you're selling up all your rolling stock? The train companies have tried that method already..

[Lowrider Dave]

Father in law no longer needs it and I no longer need the V6, especially as it won't start. Bored now!