Be Excellent To Each Other

Pug 205 XS, needs stuff to pass MOT. Otherwise, I'll call the council tomorrow.

200 quid as it is.

How much for the stereo?

What does it need to pass the MOT? Is the MOT expired? Does it have any tax left on it? Mileage, year?

(looking for a car that I could teach Shin to drive in - the GT-Four isn't really appropriate )

You realise it's physically impossible for a relationship to survive one party teaching the other to drive, right?

At the last count:

Bolt for exhaust manifold.
brake lights don't work (need to fix switch by the pedal)
CV boot needed.
New battery.
Front discs and pads.

I think that's it.

Everything else is dandy.

Oh, front right tyre needs doing in a bit.

How much is postage? Second-class.

My car failed its MOT the other week and rather than pay the £350 it needed to get through it, I sold it for scrap instead as I didn't see the point. A £400 car that cost me £180 for the first MOT I put it through and it had done about 700 miles since then. I'll stick to walking and catching buses for a bit.

I'll pass on it then. I'd be alright with everything except the CV boot and exhaust bolt.

Well, duh, reveal my plan in public for Shin to view, why don't you?

Given the prices of second hand cars these days I doubt that's worth £200.

CV boot is an easy job mind. Unless the hub is welded on through corrosion (fucking thanks British Leyland) and you have to pull the driveshaft from the gear box.

The mass air filter in the chinster mobile might be on it's way out*. I'm wondering if this might be something I can do myself. I'm good with the insides of computers so a car can't be difficult.

Or perhaps I just buy one and get my man with spanners to fit it.



* Occasional stuttering with low revs and acceleration.

A mass air filter? Do you mean mass air sensor?

Furrymuff, the cou cil gets the chavriot, tomorrow.

<cries>

Yeah summink like that. You have to appreciate that to me cars are something where you put some smelly shit in one end and then it goes brum brum. I did update the oil last week as it was low and I'm also capable of upgrading tyres when they get viruses.

I did bang on the air filter box with my hand and it got abit better. I'm technical me.

The mass air sensor (in a Land Rover, at least) measures how much electricity it has to put through a piece of wire to keep it at a certain temperature. The wire is inside the bit that feeds the air into your engine, so it works out how much air is travelling past because it takes more to heat the wire when there is a breeze. They're not too hard to replace (in a V8 Discovery, at least).
The air filter keeps dust and water out of your engine. If it needs changing, you can totally do that yourself, for a pittance. We used to replace them after every off-road session, they only cost about £3 each.

The car is due a service. I'm told that if you spray the mass air wire thing with brake cleaner, the problem will go away for a while. When the problem comes back a few months later you can be sure it is the sensor and that is the time to replace it.

So I might get spanners bod to do that and see what happens when it has it's service.

Oh how I'd like a new car but that ain't happening. DAMN YOU GORDON!

That'll be your air filter. Spraying it with brake cleaner will clean it (and it'll also ruin it, but I'd say in a week rather than a couple of months - brake cleaner will melt toe foam and the glue, turning small holes into big ones) but honestly, it really is super-simple to change.
What car have you got?

Christ, important tip: Do not spray the cleaner at it while the car is running. And don't run the car afterwards for a while.
In fact, using brake cleaner is a really bad idea. You can get proper air filter cleaners, but they will probably cost more than a new filter.

No no. The guy says take the mass air sensor thing out, clean it with the brake cleaner, then replace it when dry.

The air filter itself is seperate. Apparently the mass air sensor gets gunked up and corrodes with time. You can temporarily fix it but you need to replace it before it breaks totally.

Oh, okay, I can see the logic behind that. In fact, if that is the problem, I can't see why cleaning it would only be a short-term solution.
Time to dig out the spanners then, Chinners!

(A new air sensor (again, this is for a Land Rover, YMMV) is about £30 on eBay, if you wanted to just stick a new one in instead of cleaning the old one).

Hmm, I'll need to find some spanners. But I know people who have them.

To the Ebay-o-tron for the part! Well perhaps in the morning as I've now had a glass and a half of wine and I'll probably end up ordering an elephant or something.

WTF is brake cleaner?

It's, er... For cleaning brakes. http://www.workshopsupplies.co.uk/index1.html
Hardcore degreasing shit.

Someone is confused.

You DO NOT clean an air filter with brake/carb cleaner. You DO clean a MAF (mass air flow, Grim...'s wire thing) sensor with it.

Crap builds up on it, you remove it from the engine, spray carb cleaner into it, give it a gentle shake (wearing good gloves), leave it to dry overnight and refit it. If it cleaned properly and the wire isn't broken or corroded, it's as good as new.

Edit: On a re-read, it seems I missed this knowledge party. Doh.

MaliA, could you hang on until I've asked my Spanner man (The father in law) if it's worth it?

Oh yeah also, age mileage etc?

I'm wanting a cheap runabout as soon I will hexploderise a bus from sheer concentrated annoyance.

What year is it?

Awww, you want a tree car of your own, do ya?

No, I was just going to post loads of cars that are similar and don't need that much work done to them.

Maybe it's the ULTRA RARE 205 Automatic that we saw on the way back from NERDLAND.

R@RE!!!

Hello MetalAngel

I was thinking about that Supra this morning

Also, is not saloon, is hatchback.

I just thought of that, heh.

It's a G reg with 128,000 miles on it.

I'm calling the council in an hour.

You can clean an air filter with brake cleaner. It's a bad idea, but it does work.

In that case, I'll pass. Thanks for the offer though.

Will the council pay you for it? You should get up to 100 quid for a scrapper from a scrapyard, at least 50 anyway, even if they come and collect it.

I thought scrap prices had gone through the floor last year?

It's not really a corrective procedure though - you still need an air filter fairly immediately. Done right, cleaning the MAF is functionally equivalent to getting a new one.

I thought scrapping ending up costing you these days, because of the recycling rules.

MrsA wants rid of it, so do I. my mate, Dave the Scrappie (no, really) says it isn't really worth it. so off it goes.

Does he shout 'pa-pa-PUPPY POWER!' whenever starting a task?

Hardly, but <3 all the same.

Well if you want rid of it so badly, why not offer it to someone here for free?

[bumpsywump]

I could do that, but I shan't.

Hey, who wants 2k off a new car?

Will only cost 600 quid.

Council didn't turn up? Also, YOU have to buy the new car, and then give it to the other person, surely?

I held off on the council to see how the 2k thing panned out.

And, according to the Beeb, yes.

But this should present no significant problem.

Although, admittedly, the whole post was somewhat tongue in cheek.