Recent content by Cret

Would love one of those for making up nice ally bits for my cars but couldn't justify it at all. Even the mig is an extravagance, but on the occasions when I actually need it, it's so totally worth it's weight in gold!

Nice one - you've done well for someone who's never welded before. I bought a mig a couple of years ago as prior to that I only had an old (Noah's) Arc welder that was more harm than benefit (no use for thin stuff and I ended up with more holes in the metal than I began with). A few mates can...

Well I've excelled myself now, and have broken the new UJ. Got the old one out and it was in a total state. One of the caps chunks missing from it, had no needle bearings left inside it (and none found outside), was bone dry and had some nice dents in the surface the bearings sit against...

Still unsure about gasket/coolant if I'm honest. Had one day when there was a bit of smoke out the back but nothing today. Not done many miles as I bought a 320D during the week as a more economical daily driver (very nice it is too!). Anyway, tonight I took the front propshaft off to remove...

Thanks chaps - and yeah, good point sorry, should have said D2! Will try that fix out, thanks! There is power getting to it. Like I say it tries to do something as you can feel it, but it's more like a tiny click or something like it's stuck, so maybe it is like it says in the link. Will...

Well, drove 15 miles to work this morning and the heater worked better than it recently has, so I guess I got the coolant round the system ok in the end. It's a wet day here, but not the slightest whiff of any clouds out of the exhaust when starting and driving off that I could detect, compared...

Rear driver side door has started suddenly acting up whereby the lock won't pop up/unlock at all. Either by the unlock switch in the cabin, or via keyfob - it just won't have it. I assumed that it was maybe just a bit sticky or something but took off the door card to investigate and all seems...

Thanks for the tips chaps. Strangely (in a good way) there didn't appear to be any clouds from it today. Not sure why. I will continue to observe and monitor it though and try to get a healthy lungful to see how it smells. Can diesel really burn as white smoke? I always thought than...

OK - updates: Today I replaced the thermostat (what a pain in the hoop to undo the clamps as they're spring ones, not jubilee type!), the top rad hose, the header tank cap, and the propshaft donut. Not been able to do a proper test jet as there's been alsorts of stuff going on today...

New top hose came yesterday so will get that lashed on ASAP and hopefully that will at least stop the coolant leak so I have a better idea of what else is really going on... This morning there were a good few clouds out of the exhaust for approx the first mile or so. It's not fuel, but I'm...

Am on the Isle of Man so not much scope here for parts apart for online! Anyone know part number for the metal dowels or who keeps them in stock etc? Presume they're only a few quid. New top hose came today and hopefully other bits will come by weekend so I can get things on and start testing...

Right - that makes sense I suppose. Well I obviously hope that's not the case but am not going to pretend it's not a reasonable possibility. My only particular hope to make me think I might be lucky is that the car has never full on overheated its nuts off as it were. Each time the...

Thanks - have worried about that myself but am hoping it's not going to be the case. I know it's common though and a possibility. It's actually only a little bit at startup, and today I barely noticed anything at all so not sure why there was what seemed like a fair bit the other day, but it...

Right - just popped out to have a scan under the car to check out the rubber donut since it's been suggested it might be the cause of the vibration and matching drone noise. It's not good and is full of cracks but isn't actually splitting apart or anything yet. Needs replacing from the look of...

Ahh, fair enough cheers. Needle is almost always (once eventually warm anyway!) bang centre on the gauge. The only time it's ever gone higher (and never to the top) is when the coolant is a bit on the low side, but that's only happened a couple of times since I keep it topped up. When it has...