What have you done to your car today?

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
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In acme's chair.
I guess you've never heard of photoshop ? Christ.



Yeah, you all got your silly little laughs. Lets all point at the silly man, with his silly Focus, and his silly little badge. Grow the F up.

Says the guy throwing his toys out of the pram and insulting everything and everyone because someone doesn't like a badge he didn't put on, come on learn to have a laugh and don't take everything so personally. :p

The Focus ST is a decent car, we were only picking at the little sticker.
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
36,343
Location
In acme's chair.
If that's a proper ST and not a tractor that's crashed through Halfords then your engine came straight out of his Volvo.

Not so sure you'd pass up on it, tbh.

Well, his is a more cheaply produced re-engineered and weaker version of the engine in the Volvo. :p

Still a good lump until it cracks a liner though.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Nov 2013
Posts
4,096
Replaced the battery in the wife's Audi S4. Went reasonably well, it's a very tight fit though, and a hell of a heavy thing to insert into a very tight gap right at the back of the engine bay.

We've been struggling for a while with occasional flat batteries, and I believe the old battery was underspecified for the car. On top of that, I think that having flattened several times, it was not holding as much charge when full as previously.

All this compounded by the car doing very low mileage (1500 last year) and mostly quite short journeys.

If the problem persits with a new battery, then I think we've got a drain somewhere. (Although that has theoretically been ruled out by a garage quite some time ago when we first started having the issues.)

Well, 2 months later and having not charged the battery at any point (mostly because I forgot) and journeys being even less than usual (for obvious reasons) the car is still starting perfectly.

I suspected that we had a duff battery along with another underlying issue - but the evidence seems now to point to it purely being a duff battery. For comparison - with the previous battery, this sort of usage for 2 weeks without a charge would have resulted in the car not starting.
 
Associate
Joined
25 Apr 2013
Posts
2,090
Location
Kent
Since fitting the Recaro's to the MPS I have had a bit of an issue with changing gear. Where the seats are a good bit lower than stock (for that awesome driving position) my forearm and elbow seem to rub or rest on the armrest while changing gear. This gets really annoying when you are enjoying a spirited drive.

In hunting around I found a gear stick extension from Tegiwa that might fit the bill.

Stock:

49723873986_ce979ccb8d_c.jpg


Avec Extension:

49724191067_6009f7a282_c.jpg


Yes not the most aesthetically pleasing of extensions and if it stays I am sure a cheeky powder coat would make it fit in with the interior a tad better.

Being a key worker I am still driving to work so a little test over the coming weeks to see if it makes a difference and doesn't make changing gear horrendous. Or if I need to look at replacing some of the bushes under the gear stick and fit a short shift plate to make it a bit better.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Nov 2002
Posts
5,247
Location
Scotland
Installed an Android head unit on the Lexus, wasn't the easiest in the long run but almost got there. Had to find a phase 2 vent to get better fitment, its still not ideal, id rather it had less space between. However, it works, it has all the Apps I want, works with the existing reverse camera etc

I "might" have another go at refitting it all to see if I can get it better but Ive had enough of it for now :) Maybe a few more months of lockdown will get me in the mood again

 
Caporegime
Joined
26 Aug 2003
Posts
37,493
Location
Leafy Cheshire
Started removing the old original exhaust from my TT, which is a rusty mess of a job that so far is defeating me. No rush as the replacement hasn't actually arrived yet though.

I do have a question for anyone who puts their car on small ramps to work on it. Do your ramps try to run away whilst you drive/reverse onto them? I had to get ingenious with spare wheels to chock the ramps before I could actually get the car on.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2004
Posts
10,583
Location
Kent
Started removing the old original exhaust from my TT, which is a rusty mess of a job that so far is defeating me. No rush as the replacement hasn't actually arrived yet though.

I do have a question for anyone who puts their car on small ramps to work on it. Do your ramps try to run away whilst you drive/reverse onto them? I had to get ingenious with spare wheels to chock the ramps before I could actually get the car on.

I'm planning to do some exhaust work on my car soon and have an old style set of metal ramps that I want to use (if they aren't too steep for my car). One tip I've heard is to get some long strips of something like carpet offcuts, and loop them around the bottom "rung" of the ramps. The wheels themselves on this will then hold the ramp in place.

Similar principle here;
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2013
Posts
8,565
Snapped the head off a bolt the moment I touched it practically.

Fortunately it's still solid so I can take it down the road to a garage to drill it out. Pain in the backside :rolleyes:
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
26,812
Location
Boston, Lincolnshire
Since fitting the Recaro's to the MPS I have had a bit of an issue with changing gear. Where the seats are a good bit lower than stock (for that awesome driving position) my forearm and elbow seem to rub or rest on the armrest while changing gear. This gets really annoying when you are enjoying a spirited drive.

In hunting around I found a gear stick extension from Tegiwa that might fit the bill.

Stock:

49723873986_ce979ccb8d_c.jpg


Avec Extension:

49724191067_6009f7a282_c.jpg


Yes not the most aesthetically pleasing of extensions and if it stays I am sure a cheeky powder coat would make it fit in with the interior a tad better.

Being a key worker I am still driving to work so a little test over the coming weeks to see if it makes a difference and doesn't make changing gear horrendous. Or if I need to look at replacing some of the bushes under the gear stick and fit a short shift plate to make it a bit better.

You understand you are increasing the throw by doing that. Ideally you want to couple that extension with a short shifter kit to bring back to stockish levels.
 
Associate
Joined
25 Apr 2013
Posts
2,090
Location
Kent
You understand you are increasing the throw by doing that. Ideally you want to couple that extension with a short shifter kit to bring back to stockish levels.

I do indeed. The throw stock wasn't that long so i'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Trying to weigh up the pros vs cons. A short shift isn't very good if you cannot change gears comfortably :)

A short shift plate and bushes isn't that expensive and it is probably a route I was going to go down in the future.
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
26,812
Location
Boston, Lincolnshire
I do indeed. The throw stock wasn't that long so i'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Trying to weigh up the pros vs cons. A short shift isn't very good if you cannot change gears comfortably :)

A short shift plate and bushes isn't that expensive and it is probably a route I was going to go down in the future.

I have done the same with my Celica it has an extension but bought a second cradle which I had machined to change the pivot point.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Dec 2011
Posts
10,401
Stuck the focus up on stands the other day and in the process of doing so noticed I've got rust starting on both rear arches!! Infuriating to say the least on a mid 2012 car (on looking it up it seems to be relatively common on the mk3 ST) and particularly annoying because I know if they're just rubbed back treated and resprayed it'll be back in a couple of years, but it's nowhere close to being bad enough to warrant cutting out metal at this point.

Also thinking about getting my steering wheel refurbished while the car isn't being used anyway, have a quote from royal steering wheels but I cant decide whether a centre line would make the thing look tacky or not
 
Associate
Joined
25 Apr 2013
Posts
2,090
Location
Kent
I have done the same with my Celica it has an extension but bought a second cradle which I had machined to change the pivot point.

Tasty!

Corksport do offer a complete new shifter that can be set to be 0.6 inches higher than OEM that couples with up to 35% shorter shift than standard. Which if I am honest would be ideal. But that is about £200 + more involved fitting. The extension was £20 :D.

But the short shift bushes and plate are £110 so in the long run when you consider man maths and CoronaVirus isolation quarantine maths. I may as well just buy the shifter and go full baller.
 
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