For me the last really good hot hatch was the 306 GTI. The modern ones are more powerful more economic and probably more reliable but god they are dull! Driven Golf R and an S3 had a modded Vrs all very capable but boring. Understeer seems to be the default handling characteristic these days. If I was looking for a fun small car these days with that budget I would be looking for a Swift GTI. At that price it isn’t about ultimate power or 0-60 it’s about how it goes round corners and how it handles. The smile on your face as you stick to the arse of a golf gti on a twisty road with ease. Or this https://www.gumtree.com/p/peugeot/peugeot-306-gti-6-low-mileage-only-84-300/1228715145

Steering wheel car alarm
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SPARKRITE-Car-Steering-Wheel-Alarm/dp/B000KKCAVW

Cannondale Trail SL 29er. I’m 6ft 4″ I have an xl think it’s 21 or 22″ Really comfy frame. Decent geometry, decent spec. Wheels are crap and will need upgrading at some point. It’s bloody fast at covering ground though. I use mine for all terrain touring. 40 miles plus very comfy. I put some schwalbe hurricane tyres on. Mud is not great but everything else it flies on.

Mine had no rust and the clutch was fine. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. In my opinion it was injector failure and the pumps braking up due to low sulphur diesel that finished these off. Shame it was a superb car and I wish I’d bought mine earlier and had it a bit longer.

How many Mondeos do you see with that duratech engine in these days say compared with early Vw’s. Hardly any it’s just not worth the risk. Shame it was a great car. If I had the 2.2 I might of taken the risk and had them done.

Ok I’m being a bit pedantic but from past experience with this engine, I had exactly the same problem and symptoms. 3 injectors were knackered. Garage carried out a leak test. So it made sense to replace all four. Garage bill was circa £1k. Problem is if the pump is starting to fail and breaking down it dumps crap into the injectors. New injectors wouldn’t last long. It’s a bit of a gamble really. If you can fit them yourself and code them in then fair enough. One other thing, if injectors fail the engine management can compensate with the other cylinders so if the light comes on you probably have more than one failing because the mixture is read in the exhaust . The management can’t tell which injector has failed you need a leak test for that. I hope it’s something else but I doubt it.

Sorry Saxon rider but the glow plug light coming on is an injector fault. It indicates a problem with the injection so your car drops to limp mode. The glow plugs are fine. Very common problem on the ford duratech diesel. It senses under load if the mixture is too lean and to protect the engine it drops into limp mode. It will do it more under load in a higher gear. New injector time me thinks. It wrote my Mondeo off. Uneconomical repair. I tried a new EGR valve made no difference and wasted £120.00

I’m not in the Chubb club but well done to everyone Dantsw13 looking good man. Reducing carbs and sugar is the way to go. Trying to maintain my muscle mass or improve it is my goal now and keeping the weight down to under 15 st. I am 6ft 4 though. Keep it up boys.

Has to be “Smells like teen sprit” Nevermind.

Get the Superb. If you are doing 4K a month there is nothing better for eating up the miles. Back seats down bike in the back with wheels on!

Project you’ve just made my point. Lack of investment (subsidy from taxpayer?) Or lack of investment from private equity sources. Either way couldn’t stand on their own feet in the market place. I would tend to think a lot of that was down to inept management as well. I suppose the government with the subsidies and tax breaks are indirectly supporting jobs and wages through this.

The problem in the past was we had an industrial led economy paid for by the taxpayer, that couldn’t stand on its own feet and compete with newer more progressive economies. I can’t think of one large industrial entity that is successful and home grown i.e. British owned and ran. Can anybody else?

Didn’t Embleton just win beach of the year for the Northern hemisphere. Ghastly place miles of empty boring beaches. Stick with Cornwall ahem!

Wedge the end of the legs lying on the ground so they can’t move to the left. Loop rope around the join half way along the top leg where the cross brace is and pull the frame upright making sure the frame pivots on the end of the bottom leg where the wedge is.

Why don’t you widen your driveway to the left so you can swing further over before you swing right and miss the grass.

Any car with roof bars, then you’re not having to keep taking wheel off on off on! Sorry just noticed no bars. Is the car in a garage so said bike can’t be seen etc.

As I have gotten older the biggest single difference to my riding has been dropping some weight. It has made a hell of a difference and probably makes up for the fact that I don’t recover as fast as I once did and also I’m just not as strong as I was. Having said that I can now ride for longer and I’m quicker up hill! I’ve also stopped comparing myself to my younger riding buddies. I can still compete over the longer distances due to stamina and just about keep up by turning a bigger gear. You can’t exercise off a shit diet at our age unless your a bloody fell runner. Lose some weight and get your mojo back.

I’ve been a serial saddle shopper for years. Got a garage full of them. The only ones that have been repeatedly good have been the spesh body geometry ones. I’m using an Avatar comp gel at the moment. Not mega comfy but a good compromise between comfort weight and performance. Done 40 milers with no real problems. I always find I need a wider saddle than the sit bone gauges tell me I need. Tried the scoops and spoons and always found them to offer to little support.

My 15yr old Son has no interest in mileage, he is spending his time on all the techy stuff learning how to jump, manual and eventually fall off. He is fast for a bit but can’t pace himself at all and fades pretty quickly. Really enjoys building trails with his mates though.

The Mondeo is probably the best estate on the market for comfort reliability and handling. You should be able to get a really good one if you look around. My injectors failed at around 120k on mine. It was such a good car I considered shelling out to replace them all but I sold it for spares and repairs in the end. Would have another again with a decent auto box next time.

You must be mental. There are so many wear and tear items with that car at that age that if they do go wrong it will be worthless. Just walk away (needs roof bars.) I love fords and especially the Mondeo but that one I would only buy if I knew the exact service history of it and the type of mileage and the owner etc etc.

That’s nothing a work colleague has a S3 2 months out of warranty with about 32k on the clock. One injector failed open. Took both lambda sensors out but luckily the cat wasn’t damaged. To replace one injector and 2 sensors with a discount to parts and labour £1600.00. Two weeks later static temp sensor fails £700.00 quid. It’s getting chopped in this week against a new focus ST 3. He’s too scared to keep it. 3yrs old. They have lost a really loyal customer who has had performance Gti’s and S3’s for the last 15yrs.

All the jobs you suggest need doing are simple compared to fitting a new rear mech and indexing the gears!

Oops double post!

N+1= 4xWork!

The Octalink is heavier but is very robust and will last a lot longer than your HT2 BB. You may or may not have to have your BB faced before you fit a HT2 crankset. HT2 is stiffer though. Horses for courses.

You have just completed one of the most complex jobs you will probably ever do on a car, you Sir are now in a very exclusive club.
Well done that man. Go and have that beer.

Unfortunately the care differs vastly between different health authorities. You can choose where you want to be treated and who you want to see. We shipped my father in law down to Surrey from Lincolnshire. He was diagnosed with cancer of the urethra so Lincs were going to wip his Kidney out. Luckily for him we wanted a second opinion so we got him checked out at his other daughters hospital in Surrey. They checked his kidney function and found that the Kidney that Lincs were going to remove was the only one functioning properly! So Surrey removed the tumour on his urethra and left the Kidney. If he had been in Lincs he would be on dialysis now with a knackered Kidney needing a transplant. Please do your research. All the best fella sending healing vibes.

Does anybody remember Will Gollops Bi turbo 6R4 rallycross car! Mental quick that was.

RS200 engines were only designed to last about 10hrs before they needed a rebuild! For me it was the original Audi Quattro in standard form (pre S1) with Walter Rohrl peddling it in Corsica ( or Portugal.) Henry Toivonen was probably the fastest driver of his era. I heard a tale that Toivonen did a lap at Estoril in a Lancia Delta Integrale in tarmac spec and his time would have put him fourth on the grid for that years F1 race!

Mowgli I am full of admiration for what you have done. I have spent many a cold night on a garage floor changing engines. It’s been something I have done since being a kid. It’s daunting when you first do it but you are a changed man and will look at engines and cars in a different light from now on. Fingers crossed everything will be fine.

Worked in Subcontract Engineering for 30 yrs. started off doing project work and automation for the supply companies for Nissan. Robot weld cells etc. Loved it great bunch of lads great times. Long hours etc. On call for breakdowns 24hrs. Then shifted to oil and gas. More money but very boring production work. Now estimating jobs for the Aerospace industry. Quite interesting but equally frustrating. Looking like most people to get a better work life balance. (Ps. Very frustrated by the quality of training for apprentices and the ability of them when they leave college.)

Next time they go out and smoke next to your house go out and piss all over your wall. If it’s ok for them to do a disgusting habit next to your house then vice a versa!!! Better still build a compost heap next to their boundary but on your land and tell them it’s to mask the smell of smoking. Make it really unpleasant for them to smoke there. B@stards. Or move.

Hit and miss panelling.
Above is just an example, there are cheaper versions about. If you don’t have to use panels why not just use boards with an air gap. Another hint. If using wooden posts don’t concrete posts in just use rubble, this allows a bit of movement for the fence and will stop the post snapping and if it does they are a damn site easier to change.

Does your seat need moving forward or back? With your feet at 9.15 i.e. horizontal the front of your knee cap should be perpendicular through the axis of your pedal if your seat is at the correct height for most people. I await being shot down in flames!

Worked on the shop floor for 20 yrs machining metal. Never a dull day, a lot of pressure not to scrap stuff but quite rewarding. Now stuck behind a desk with multiple computer screens CAD software, emails estimating jobs for 10 hrs a day. Irate customers on the phone non stop. The problem is work life balance, just can’t seem to find the right balance. It’s either all or nothing.

If you are getting a timing belt get the full kit that should include a water pump. The pump runs on the timing belt, if it fails it takes the belt out.

Okay will try a hex socket. What was wrong with the old style hex adjuster at the bottom of the fork leg so that you could see how far you had adjusted it.

Wylam Brewery and Mordue are two excellent local brewers in the North East. Federation Brewery Ace lager was probably the worst. Long gone thank goodness.

What material do you want it made from? Any light engineering company will knock you one up if you ask nicely.