As Ibis says, poor grounding/earth would be my first suggestion.

Ooh, I like that Pearson…

1, I was having sex with a girl the other day when I started to get tired so I told her “your turn, get on top”

To which she replied, “you haven’t raped many girls before have you?”

2, Build my own racing car and win a race in it.

3, Fixing my current racing car and amazingly enough the o/h makes me very happy.

4, Hot Castrol R, bloomin gorgeous smell.

5, Verses and Mr Greedy, are really good guys.

Put a new battery on, is it worth all this hassle for the sake of 50/60 quid?

If your close to suffolk area I’m more than happy to sort out a trade price on one for you (no i do not work for any motor factor places)

Each heater plug takes *about* 20 amps if working correctly therefore 80 amps of current needed for 10-15 seconds ish to work heater plugs, possible more depending on ambient and coolant temperature. If a bttery is on its was out it will kill it stone dead fairly quickly giving the symptoms you describe.

As molgrips says batterys are serviceable items and because they are still of the lead/acid type they get sulphation which eventually causes failure of one or more cells and a car that struggles to turn over.

Go for it! She might even like it up the tea towel holder.

I've 'done' a few friends (although not at the same time unfortunately) in my past and it's never affected our relationships, if you are good enough friends you'll be able to tell them its just for fun anyway.

My of my friends with extras is still one of my best mates and always will be

For me the noise comes down to the amount of moving parts that are all going roundy roundy uppy downy at the same time and the sheer harmony that it creates. IMO no other engine on earth sounds that good!!

The sound of a merlin = stirring in my loins!

M12 Helicoil kit?? Diameter of bolt size sounds right but have you ordered the right pitch thread? Caliper bolts are usually fine thread to allow a stronger/tighter fitting. I presume you took the bolt with you to ensure 'they' ordered the right helicoil kit?

Brakes may feel 'spongy' (sorry best word I could think of) for a few miles until the pads have bedded in a little, especially as you have changed all four corners.

Whereabouts are you based? Got a wind back tool that you could borrow if you're close enough??

I'm based in Suffolk BTW

Would happily give you some advice but would need to look at the job in hand rather than throw blind darts…

Email in profile if required.

Because all MOTs are now completed 'online' (the tester has to log in to DVLA, VOSA etc) as soon as your car fails it's MOT the appropriate authorities know that it has failed. If the police are doing their roadside checks your car will flag up as no MOT and therefore no insurance. Although you are permitted to drive your car to and from a place of test.

At the end of the day an MOT is a test of roadworthiness and if it fails then it is not roadworthy and therefore unsuitable for use on the road, whether the vehicle still has a current MOT or not.

My 2p worth…

How did you know the turbo had blown the first time? If it was leaking oil down the exhaust causing the thing to smoke like a train then you would have to put this down to a bearing close to failure. The exhaust side of most turbos seals like a piston ring (the only decent way to cope with the heat) and these tend not to fail without some movement in the bearing/bushes. Turbos turn at over 100,000 rpm and need to be made well to cope with this speed. IF there is/was play in the shaft (there should be a little up and down movement as the shaft runs on a film of oil) then you would expect bearing failure and would therefore replace the oil pressure feed pipe to the turbo as a matter of course. Turbos tend to last a very short period of time if there is a lubrication problem, as it looks like you've found out…

However without looking at the turbos I am throwing blind darts…

Fear not young Harry, tonite is the penultimate episode and the 'grand finale' is next week (or grand national if you know anything about Brisca racing?)

As a sad and lonely lifelong stock car follower and competitor I've actually quite enjoyed the show but they should have shown more racing and fixing of things rather than hype up all the bul**hit that the women are giving. If you noticed on last weeks episode the first one to congratulate Andy Smith on his win was Frankie…

My 2p worth anyway

A simple repair, had to help a mate out on a Ford Galaxy the other day and he didn't even have the socket to undo them…

Just fire up the welder and weld a nut to the end of the locking wheelnut, fit socket and undo wheel nut, hey presto it came undone. Would suggest they've been lazy got the airgun on it and rounded it all off but proving that may be difficult…

Any profficient garge should be able to get them off in a matter of minutes, even if they are goosed.

Not your fault they messed them up though, they managed to get the other wheelnuts off safely and easily why not the locking ones…

I'm a local to the area and probably will be for a few more years yet.

If the job is in Stowmarket I'd be looking for somewhere to live fairly close to it if I could. Stowmarket is a fair commute from Ipwsich and you could find some villages with some much cheaper accomodation rather than the centre of town, you could look at Clayden, Barum, Sproughton or Gt Blakenham to name a few. If you want to live near Stowmarket look at areas like needham market or coombes (sp?). Or you could live in Stowmarket itself? Stowmarket is not the biggest town but there is a couple of night clubs and a few pubs, there is also a climbing wall inside the leisure centre if that floats your boat?

I guess by looking on rightmove you've only got street names and whereabouts on the compass the area is and it is a little difficult to deciper whether it is a 'good' area or not, especially to the untrained eye.

Yes there are some bits that are better than others but you get that in all towns and cities. FWIW I'd be avoiding west side of town if I could but even then I know more than a few people who live on that side and its no dramas, depends on what you're used to I guess?

A bit vague but if you want any further help let me have your email address and I'll be in contact.

I'm pretty sure the fact that your airbags have been deployed and the airbag light does not function as it should if everything was functioning correctly means your car will fail its MOT. AFAIK the airbag light forms the same part of the test as the ABS light, there used to be a large chart on the wall which would detail the correct procedure for airbag and abs light functions when ignition is switched on. Now it prints out when you print the first part of the MOT. Depending on the sizeof the crack in the screen it will also fail the MOT on this. Of the top of my head I think the crack needs to be smaller than 40mm within the swept area of the wipers and smaller than 10mm if it within the extreme edges of the steering wheel measured straight up to the screen.

Possibly not he news you were hoping for but hope it helps a little

Gudgeon pin has always been one of my favourites.

Or one we use on apprentices… Think you better change the 'dip-van oscillator valve'

Antifreeze, as in motor vehicle coolant. Wonderful stuff for killing just about everything, including humans if given a high enough dosage 8O

Been posted already but an amazing machine!

A friend I was at college with worked at a engine builders and a customer had his RS200 engine on the dyno making over 650bhp when it decided to let one of its legs leave the bed! The customer sat in the corner of the dyno room crying! Engine blocks were rather hard to come by…

Bl00dy fantastic thread!!!

Valve stem seals springs to mind, does it smoke (blue) on start up from cold and then clear when the engine begins to run better? If so this would point to stem seals. Could however be a huge number of things. Enging management temp sensor not working and not increasing fuel when starting from cold, head gasket on way out, takes a little while to build compression? I could go on…

Need more details, as golden wonder says, is it using a lot or using a lot of oil???

Cheers Ianpinder, your help is appreciated

Same this week but in all honesty I ate too much and haven't done enough exercise so only got myself to blame. The body is changing shape though and finding clothes that fit me again just need to get some more weight off.

Not weird but even now still gets the loins stirring…

From The Fall Guy

If they are ever showing repeats on Bravo I still watch them just for her

Good work ianpinder. Thanks for taking this on. Do we still need to send weights to 18bikes tomorrow or wait until you've got an email address set up?

Must admit I failed to email in this week, had a weekend away. Lost 2 stone so far this year and hoping to keep going. got to get back on the bandwagon after a weekend of beer and food!

I'm still in and hoping it continues!

Use a good quality socket and make sure you keep it square when tightening the bolts. Use their torque settings and you should be fine. Personally I wouldn't use the loctite but just check them every ride for a few weeks and make sure they stay tight.

I'm sure if it was a huge problem it would be pretty prevalent on here…

try this thread:

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/htii-bb-diy

Might help

I've been sending in since the start and will continue to do so, as I've said earlier it gives me more motivation and seems to help me a lot. Things are even still going well and have very nearly lost 2 stone, only another 1 to go to reach target weight. I'll be emailing in tomorrow as I'll have no t'internet access from tomorrow morning onwards as I'll be in Wales riding my bike, woo hoo! Even managing to find some extra clothes that fit within the wardrobe!

Seriously upping the water intake each day seems to have a very positive effect for me, and also eating loads more fruit than I used to and cutting out even more $hite that used to get nibbled on through the day.

For those that are still emailing in, hang in there and keep making small adjustments, every little helps to create those good habits.

I'll be voting, its my chance to say who I want. Doubt it'll have any huge effect but I'll have had 'my say'

Got below the 80kg marker today and haven't been able to get out on the bike at all this week (due to injury) but have managed to keep up the diet and increased my daily water intake to over 2 litres a day which seems to have made quite a difference (i have drunk 1.5 litres a day for years). Lets hope it continues!

Must admit I'm a little concerned about the lack of updates but I'll keep emailing in. It does seem to motivate me pretty well which helps a lot in my case.

Stripping down my new (to me) racing car and beginning to get the seat and pedals all in the right place.

Got a few days work ahead of me as yet…

2010 got rather expensive yesterday!

DMFs are pants.

On Fords you can buy a new (old style) solid flywheel and clutch cheaper than the DMF.

Increased reliability for less cost?? wonder which way people go… Still would be a lot cheaper if they didn't fit the DMF in the first place!

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but would have thought that the C-max will have an hydraulicly actuated clutch? How much free play/travel in the clutch pedal have you lost? I very much doubt that the weight of the pedal will actuate the clutch master cylinder and if you pull the pedal away from the master cylinder plunger does it extend out any further? If not then the release bearing will not come back any further and you will do no long term damage.

If it was me it would depend on how much it pi$$ed me off. A lot would mean I'd change the spring, if not I'd leave it alone. I strongly doubt that Ford would rely on a pedal spring to ensure the clutch is fully released. you may find the spring is fitted to give the clutch pedal more 'feel' but that is pure speculation.

I'm playing on PS3.

PSN – Texas_Pete78

As in the baddie from Superted!

Current clan tag is [PLEB] but looks like I'll be changing to STW

Tend not to worry too much about killstreaks and just keep playing. I do like the hardline perk though and only ever really play team deathmatch

Friend requests sent…

Thankfully only put on a kilo this week. Haven't been anywhere near the bike or the gym so actually reaosnably pleased with that.

Best case scenario is 9 kilo loss since we started. Only another 11 to get down to the first (and probably more realistic) target weight

Got a funny feeling its going to be a $hit week tomorrow, felt like dog turd all week, no exercise and eating more than I have been, bet I've put on a couple of kilos this week…

Oh well starting to feel better lets hope I can get things back on track next week.

C0ck and balls!! Weight has gone up this week, only by half a kilo but still an increase. I thought I'd done well this week, commuting to work and a couple of kickboxing training sessions and was thinking the trousers were beginning to fit more comfortably. Hoping I've just started to gain some muscle mass back which is having an adverse effect on my weight but still improving my fitness levels.

Hopefully normal service will be resumed next week??

Would like to thank Si for sorting this all out it has helped me my motivation levels hugely!

Clutch.

Almost impossible for it to be anything else.

think it'll have one of those stupid/rubbish dual mass flywheels. If you end up getting the clutch replaced ask for them to modify/change the flywheel/clutch arrangement for the old stlye with a solid flywheel and the 'cush drive' back in the centre of the clutch. Wont be much more expensive, if any, and hugely more reliable over time. I expect they'll want to replace the dual mass flywheel when they replace the clutch.

Dual mass flywheels are pants

Yeah 271 will do but, if I remember rightly, that stuff is designed for a more or less permanent fix and would be very difficult to get apart if you needed to.

Loctite should, IMO, be a last resort.

Personally would only use loctite if the bearings were 'loose' in the linkages etc. If they are not 'loose' it will make them an absolute cow to remove the next time he want to replace them.

However if he does want to use it he needs Loctite 641 retaining compound. Should be easily available from a bearing supplier/engineering place.

Well after my positive post last night the scales of truth weren't quite as good as I'd hoped, only a 1kg loss this week but still happy, we're still heading in the right direction just got to keep hanging in there.

Happily made my first milestone this week though!! :-)