1051 replies to this topic

[JG]

£26 for a diagnostic, can;t say fairer than that.

[Stuey]

So my Shed is an 18 year old MK2 Golf with 90, 000miles on the clock.... not a GTI just a basic 1. (almost) 2 It leaks; the inside of the windscreen freezes up; the paint is crap; the windscreen wipers are crap; the lights are crap..... hang on a minute? The most recent develpment is my new radio volume control button... otherwise know as the heater fan speed button... WTF? Sod it maybe I'll just drive the VX.

[TurboTomato]

Shed has just clicked over 100k

[JG]

As of thursday, shed is going to be my only car for 5 months. OMG i've just realised what i've done!

[RobNA]

My attempt at a shed, R reg Polo 1.4CL with only 31,000 miles on, bought for £800 (its not what you know.... ) sailed through its MOT last week without needing any work

However, I have recently been given the chance to branch out of proper shed ownership. One of my mothers friends has offered to give me her E36 BMW 328 convertable It wouldn't be until March next year when she takes delivery of a 350Z convertible It is in a bit of a state, ie, its tatty, scratches and stuff, and the roof doesn't work but it has had a new engine (paid for by BMW due to the Nikasil issue) so i'm guessing its going to be mechanically sound
I do have a few concerns with it though. The obvious one being fuel consumption. I dont think it will get me 100 miles for £10 like the Polo does, but the other thing is if anything goes wrong it would be big money to fix (am i right?)

Basically, has anyone had any experience with the E36 328? Any advice would be great

By the way, i know i have spelt convertible differently, probably both incorrect because i have had a complete mental block. DOH

[JG]

lovely lovely engine huge consumption. The little things although time consuming will be easy to fix. give it to me if you don't want it

[JG]

I'm considering driving the shed to the south of france over christmas - good idea or bad idea? fixed one of the injectors which means its running better again...

Edited by JamesGray, 03 November 2006 - 02:44 PM.

[JG]

*cough* its lost drive *cough* Thrashed it all week end. literally 20 yards from parking space, something fell apart. its not in the cable or in the actuator. Suppose its an excuse to put a new clutch in. Royal PITA though.

[fluffy]

Nearly joined you lot over the weekend by adopting an apparently abandoned rover "city rover". Yup the piece of shite built in india. It was parked outside my flat ages ago and its tax disk expired end of september so I thought it might be going free. So I picked up my company catalogue and spoke to a load of the neighbours saying I was going to get my company to take it away so we could use for demonstration of our tools. Cough cough... Sadly one neighbour admitted it was his, but he looked like he would never be able to drive again due to a heavy combo of drugs and booze. So once the paramedics take his corpse away (probably less than a month away) that cars mine! I must confess I wouldn't buy a city rover but I'm more than happy to pay the road tax on one to avoid putting miles on the vx. Especially if the car itself is free.

[smithers]

In mid december I wil be inheriting my new shed!!! yes, it is a vauxhall, yes it will be shite, and yes it is free! I will be pimping around in my mums old chavalier I can't wait for the refinement of the leaking sunroof, the armchair and more power than I can shake a stick at... 1.8 power all the way baby, alloys and a bent aerial

[JG]

After 4 days away on Business, i've taken the corsa apart and am half way through a clutch replacement. The fact that it went so suddenly gave me the impression that something nasty must have happend. But no - just a tottally worn out clutch. Never seen one like it, tottally devoid of material on one of the surfaces. Anyway, its nearly back together now. It is quite a long thing to do though going something along the lines. Disassemble front suspension both sides Removal of front passenger suspension link Exhaust off. Split drive shafts Remove reversing light connector, speedo, clutch cable Front and rear gearbox mountings removal Split bellhousing from engine Clutch out Removal of thrust bearing by disassembly of clutch actuator New thrust bearing New clutch in Half way through the reversal. i've nearly got a new corsa - still costing nothing (£58 for new clutch assy) - starting to be a bit expensive in time though. Ant - i'm going to answer your PM, i've been away for a few days.

Edited by JamesGray, 11 November 2006 - 06:26 PM.

[JG]

fook me, lining up a half dropped engine with a gearbox hanging from the celing isn't easy. All back together now and feeling good again. slight adjustment to the selector mechanism req - no 5th gear. and a couple of of new rattles introduced to fix see you on the 14 th Ant, and that PM is still on its way.

Edited by JamesGray, 12 November 2006 - 06:03 PM.

[RobNA]

What does it mean, when what can only be described as hair comes out of your exhaust pipe

[ECM]

James - what's with all this work on the shed? I thought the idea was that the thing was so cheap in the first place that when something annoying (like a clutch) went wrong you just scrapped it and got another shed

[JG]

James - what's with all this work on the shed? I thought the idea was that the thing was so cheap in the first place that when something annoying (like a clutch) went wrong you just scrapped it and got another shed

Hi Rob,

Hows tricks?

The thing with this shed is that soon, i'll have changed most of the tings that can go wrong. its fairly rust free and another would cost around £700, so 50 quid for a clutch was worth it.

[JG]

Ant, is yours still on its orginal clutch? because IIRC yours has a fair few miles more than mine on it? just ticking past 114.5k miles I'm still unsure about the best way to go about running a shed: mine cost £300 i've changed: driveshaft oil seals radiator clutch i've repaired All internal and dash lighting on board 'computer' (outdoor temp, time, date, and stereo output) speedo coolant leak It passed an MOT without costing anything bar the std charge. My guess is that once you choose a shed, if you keep replacing parts with new ones (which in the case of a diesel vauxhall are very very cheap) then eventually it will become reliable. Whether it is worth spending £700-£1200 rather than £300 is still unclear. £400-£900 buys a lot of spares that the more expensive car will eventually need anyway. In the case of the corsa's clutch for example, everywhere i spoke to (inc Vxl) had many of them in stock, indicating i suspect that they are replaced fairly regularly. Anyway this corsa would have been scrapped by now if i didn't own it, so it had better start behaving soon, although credit to it, in 6k miles it has not actually let me down away from home. cheap motoring

Edited by JamesGray, 13 November 2006 - 11:36 AM.