dr_mat

"SPOTS CAT"? Your dog owns a cat??

I thought the early and late wheels had different sized splines or something? I'm sure I heard something ...

No they're not, not really. They're smearing around the top layer of paint. Injudicious use of T-cut can be problematic because you might smear the paint AWAY from a particular area, but there's only a tiny amount is actually removed (and ends up on the buffing pad). The biggest issue is being careful over raised areas (like the bonnet bulge) - it's easy to wind up buffing all the paint off them if you're not careful.

124212 ... No wait, 124213 ... Oh, hang on 124214. Jeez! 124215 ...

Worrying. How much damage did it do while it was clogged though!!

Yikes. Low oil pressure could cause massive problems, best cross yer fingers that's all it's done!

3 days! lol .. Did the shakes subside after the the second day? :)

If you look in the same thread that Kev pointed you to above you'll see all the people who have the right cables and where they live, just get in touch with someone!

It really depends where the clatters come from! The tappets can clatter for years and years (particularly from cold) without any major problems, but the timing chains on the right hand (gearbox) end of the engine should be quiet. But then, even then, once the timing chains get rattley they will usually keep rattling and not break for k's of miles. But as dinkus says, if they're rattling, start saving.

So you have a lot of dyslexic bigots who frequent your local swimming pool, corradowales?

My view is that no one person on this forum is less guilty than any other. Kev deciding it's time to leave is an extreme response, but frankly I know exactly where he's coming from, and at several occasions in the past I have deliberately "walked away" due to differences of opinion and stirring from those that should know better. (Yes Kev included.) Does kev have an automatic right to stay when others go? He's a mod, he's got 10,000+ posts, and he's generally a helpful guy. But I try to be helpful too, and I've got N,000 posts. I might not always be right, but then, neither was Kev. It takes a LOT of my time responding to people on this forum and trying to answer questions, people seem to forget that. Kev must be doing a LOT of thumb twiddling right now, wondering what to do.. If that time I spend turns out to not be FUN any more, then why the feck should I bother? People can help themselves.

I hope they were cheap!

I am sceptical of these comments saying that there "must" be warning signs up for a speed camera to be legit. I don't think that's the case. There are definitely *guidelines* for police forces in terms of best practices, but at the end of the day you were breaking the speed limit (breaking the law) and therefore they don't have to warn you that they're about to test if you're breaking the law or not ..

"A-pillar moved .." and "ripple in the roof" says it's a write off in most people's books!

Next time the money is burning a hole in your pocket, give me a shout and I'll provide some lead lined pockets .. ;)

£40 last time I was there!

Price of the job depends on who does it ... There's around £250 of parts there, then about 8-10 hours labour. Dealer rates that's a huge amount of labour (around a grand, no doubt!), but Stealth (which was the example given at the top) don't charge that much, thankfully!

You need a leak-down test to check the rings state aswell as just a compression test.

Out of how many that trudge on and on clattering away to themselves and never fail? I know they're not totally fit-and-forget, and you should consider it important to visually inspect periodically to see what the state is, but assuming they'll need replacement on a set schedule is like replacing your tyres every 4000 miles because that's what your mate does. (Only significantly more expensive! :) )

Ok, here's the breakdown (again): clutch comes off to replace the timing chains, so you do it at the same time, no biggie. Timing chains and clutch job costs £600-£700. Head recondition job (valve stem seals etc) costs around the same, but can be done more-or-less independantly. But you only have to do the timing chains and head recon IF IT NEEDS IT. They don't all need it till much later in life. It's something to have at the back of your mind, but it's not something that MUST be done. The whole timing chain thing has been escalated to a state of paranoia on this forum, I have to say. Mine needed doing, at 115k miles. Kev's needed doing at 95k (iirc), some people's hold out till 160k. As they always say: YMMV!

East coast .. (brave man, I know). Inverness and the Cairngorms is the plan. If it was just for the sake of the fuel cost I would take the VR no question, but it's the 12 hour drive up and back. We're not going for long enough to justify taking two days to get there, so it's really got to be all in one go. I wouldn't mind being the only driver for the day-to-day stuff. Maybe next year, when the missus can drive it (hopefully)...!

.. and being berated by someone who states that he hit 140+ on the M6 toll road ..

Ok I got the conversion factor wrong .. :) The guy still has nothing to worry about, compression-wise ..

And isn't it feasible that a broken piston ring can score the bore on the cylinder?

11 bar is around 130 psi, iirc, so that's pretty good.