Andrew Smith

Had this after one month of not starting car. I used the phyisical key but had to use pliars to turn it. Go carefully and maybe shoot some wd40 down the lock first

How badly scuffed are the wheels and where are you located? Ta

Might just see you when I am whizzing between Ashbourne and Ikeston, if you see it parked up feel free to give it a polish

I have learned from running in old motobikes that run them in slow and you get a slow engine, run them in fast and you get a fast engine, you can feel how hard a new engine wants to be revved I reckon

They do have their own repair shop in Manchester, my write off went there for insurance assesment

Would put me off to be fair, might be worth sending a pm though as the girl on the end of the phone may just have made a mistake and you might be able to get a reaonable deal......maybe

Just trying to get the overpipe out so I can remove the manifold. Looks like if I take the mani off first the pipe will come out easily and when refitting I should be able to balance the overpipe in place first and put the mani in around it. Can anyone confirm that this is possible? Cheers A

F#@k, is it chrismas again!!!!!!

What I meant to say maurice was most of mine came apart without a stuggle. I am getting on a bit with arthritis and should know better at my age to be scrabbling about under cars. I had a couple of seized nuts on the overpipe to cat so I just put a ring spanner on the nuts, used another spanner to extend the first one and used my foot instead of my hand to free them off. The only other thing we havnt mentioned is that the under trays need to come off. Very simple, bolts and several plastic clips. Pry the clips off with a screwdriver or similar being careful not to damage them as they are reuseable

The whole system has been a hotch potch of random nuts and bolts and after getting a quote for around £300 from my local dealer for all the genuine nuts bolts and gaskets and anothet 300 for labour I decided to bring my exhaust mod plans forward and do it myself. The stripped threads are on the mani studs and overpipe studs so I am replacing with Tuning Developments mani and overpipe that will come with their own nuts bolts and gaskets.

How I have done it today...... unbolt 2nd cat from overpipe then 2 nd cat from catback. Remove the bolt that fixes the cat to bracket and loosen the bracket bolts a bit to remove cat. Unbolt over pipe from manifold then remove the mani. With no heat shields on the overpipe it is easy to draw it out of the gap where it was once bolted to the mani. I had no shields on my pipe but you are going to have to remove them at some point, probably just before you remove the mani although if you can get the mai off first it would be easier. It is easily doable on the drive with basic tools, the biggest struggle I had was removing seized bolts and dealing with already stripped threads. I sprayed all nuts and bolts with wd40 the day before and most of it came apart without a struggle

So here is the answer to my question..... yes, take off the mani and overpipe comes out very easily, however if there is no need to remove the manifold then I would imagine that loosening the engine mounts and lifting the motor a bit would be the simpler way to go

Cheers Rob, I have been watching ytube vids of folks doing this on their drives....didnt look so tricky but now I have the pipe loose I realise that they were LHD cars and the weather is beautiful. Looks like if the mani is out the way the pipe should come out of the place where they bolt together.....hope so

Are you completely catless?

Karmann Ghia by any chance?

I see your Starlet and I raise you with my first car..... Vauxhall Viva. 1195cc, RWD, death on 4 wheels. How folks got on with the 3Ltr Magnum I still fail to comprehend

Good choice of car 😎

I didnt see you pass, I was probably too busy being mardy. It was a lovely crash really, not so much as a stiff neck, not a bad place to be when it all goes wrong The main plan is to try and keep it out of the hedge, it doesnt seem to take much of a shunt to break them. I need to sort out a few little issues with the car, one of them being that the remap was done with a few mods but now the car is back to standard I am using the stock map to be safe. I think i will had a TD manifold and k&n filter again then a remap. A set of Teins is on the cards as well. Hopefully I can get my spanners out on Sunday and have a tinker

Long story short, I managed to total my black 86 on the way to TSS last august and have been gutted ever since. Today I bought a beautiful white one from a lovely chap up in Manchester. I couldn't be more pleased....happy days 😎

Good lad....crack on

Reading that made my blood boil, horrendous service. Keep at it, this fiasco will make the rewards of completion even sweeter

Spot on Lauren, I had given those tyres some hammer and they had blued. I think a second set of wheels and tyres for track use is the way to go next year.

Yes Im afraid so Mike, although I rather think of it as the car had the incident and I was just along for the ride.

Hell yeah Lauren, Saturday night gigs permitting I should be able to make it to a few rounds. The worst thing for me is that I am not really sure why it happend. Damp road, slight curve (A5 slip at Chester), tyres down to 3mm all round and the biggie...all aids off. The thing is that I had been driving spiritly for the first 75 mile with no bother but at that point, not being too sure that I was going the right way, I was accelerating gently around the long mild curve of the slip road when the car snapped vilently sideways giving me no time to react. The front end went in to the hedge and found a small tree, totaling the car. I dont believe I was doing much more than 40mph. The tyres,Conti 5s were near the end but recently I have been thinking about heat cycles. They had done 5 track days and wondered if they had gone hard. The other idea is diesel or some other on the road and the last is was I going quicker than I thought. Ultimately if TC had been on I am sure it would have saved me.....lesson learned.