Vw

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gazza82
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Re: Vw

#21 Post by gazza82 » Wed Oct 28, 2020 12:57 pm

Dick wrote:
Tue Oct 27, 2020 6:13 pm
Ght, ive lived here for a while now and there are lots of brits who haven't made the effort to speak the lingo...
Anyway clio has started playing silly buggers so ive bought sis in law's 206.. its 20 years old with only 80k on the clock and fairly tidy apart from the fact it smells like an ashtray its fine.. wish me luck :oops:
You appear to be a glutton for punishment .. first a Clio and now a 206 .. :o ;)

We've had both :(

A Clio 1.5dCi which lunched its gearbox last year in the Lake District (as well as throwing up random engine management warning lights .. mostly to do with the brake light switch which I changed three times). :(

We still have a 206 1.4Hdi which is almost ready to go back on the road after sitting for a year following it needing two new water core plugs in the head - which are behind the manifolds - which you can't get off without removing the steering pump - not according to the manual anyway - btw it is possible!). I fixed the leaks and got it MOTd in late 2019 only for Covid to basically "stop play". So left it on SORN. It will probably need a new battery now as I've neglected it. It let my youngest son down once when the o/s balljoint popped out of the arm leaving him at a jaunty angle on a BP forecourt! :shock: The one also suffered major performance fail when the catalyst collapsed to the size of a small ball and blocked the exhaust outlet! It passes the MOT without out BTW! :roll:

We also had a 206 CC in the family! Bright green and a royal pain to do any work on. Underneath it looked like it had spent most of it's days in salt water (used to live in Dundee) .. so green on top, and orange underneath! It ate lower suspension arms on a regular basis and then the tyres. Then the rear trailing arm bearings failed and wrecked the rear tyres in a matter of days!! Eventually it had a EML that would not go out!! Both 206s were a pain to work on, especially the cambelts. I think the CC still had some of me attached to the engine bay when we part-ex'd it!

Electronically all three were royal PITAs which the Pugs hiding a lot of the settings in a different system .. possibly to get around the EU law changes about allowing third-party maintenance. Not every diagnostic reader will work with them and both 206s had different diag systems!!

Would I buy another?? Not a chance .. and this is a family who has owned three Alfa's: 1988 75 Twinspark, 1994 156 2.0 TSpark and a 2009 1.4 MiTo. In comparison the Alfa's were reliable.

Actually they were very reliable .. the 75 is still on the road in hands of a 75 enthusiast - I sold it with 110,000 on the clock, the '98 156 got to 210,000miles, even after a major cambelt failure at 73k, before the tin worm ended its life in 2016 and the MiTo has been a real peach with only a flat battery to stop it and still with us! My wife still refers to it as her new car wven though it is nearly 11 years old. The 75 and 156 were both my company cars and I bought them off the fleet once their contract life was up so they worked hard for their first three years!

Hope the 206 proves more reliable than ours ever did! :thumbs:
"If you're driving on the edge ... you're leaving too much room!"

Retirement Project: '59 Austin A35 2-door with 1330cc Midget engine and many upgrades
Said goodbye: got '98 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 TSpark to 210K miles before tin worm struck

Dick
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Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:31 pm

Re: Vw

#22 Post by Dick » Thu Oct 29, 2020 12:09 pm

gazza82 wrote:
Wed Oct 28, 2020 12:57 pm


You appear to be a glutton for punishment .. first a Clio and now a 206 .. :o ;)

We've had both :(

A Clio 1.5dCi which lunched its gearbox last year in the Lake District (as well as throwing up random engine management warning lights .. mostly to do with the brake light switch which I changed three times). :(

We still have a 206 1.4Hdi which is almost ready to go back on the road after sitting for a year following it needing two new water core plugs in the head - which are behind the manifolds - which you can't get off without removing the steering pump - not according to the manual anyway - btw it is possible!). I fixed the leaks and got it MOTd in late 2019 only for Covid to basically "stop play". So left it on SORN. It will probably need a new battery now as I've neglected it. It let my youngest son down once when the o/s balljoint popped out of the arm leaving him at a jaunty angle on a BP forecourt! :shock: The one also suffered major performance fail when the catalyst collapsed to the size of a small ball and blocked the exhaust outlet! It passes the MOT without out BTW! :roll:

We also had a 206 CC in the family! Bright green and a royal pain to do any work on. Underneath it looked like it had spent most of it's days in salt water (used to live in Dundee) .. so green on top, and orange underneath! It ate lower suspension arms on a regular basis and then the tyres. Then the rear trailing arm bearings failed and wrecked the rear tyres in a matter of days!! Eventually it had a EML that would not go out!! Both 206s were a pain to work on, especially the cambelts. I think the CC still had some of me attached to the engine bay when we part-ex'd it!

Electronically all three were royal PITAs which the Pugs hiding a lot of the settings in a different system .. possibly to get around the EU law changes about allowing third-party maintenance. Not every diagnostic reader will work with them and both 206s had different diag systems!!

Would I buy another?? Not a chance .. and this is a family who has owned three Alfa's: 1988 75 Twinspark, 1994 156 2.0 TSpark and a 2009 1.4 MiTo. In comparison the Alfa's were reliable.

Actually they were very reliable .. the 75 is still on the road in hands of a 75 enthusiast - I sold it with 110,000 on the clock, the '98 156 got to 210,000miles, even after a major cambelt failure at 73k, before the tin worm ended its life in 2016 and the MiTo has been a real peach with only a flat battery to stop it and still with us! My wife still refers to it as her new car wven though it is nearly 11 years old. The 75 and 156 were both my company cars and I bought them off the fleet once their contract life was up so they worked hard for their first three years!

Hope the 206 proves more reliable than ours ever did! :thumbs:
Have you been driving my clio? Random lights 1.5, although the gearbox is fine for the moment..
As for 206 cc those have been on my wish list for a while.. and as for Alfa Romeo, sis in law is replacing her/our 206 for an alfa 159 gt coupe thing.. her chap has the estate version and loves his..

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Re: Vw

#23 Post by gazza82 » Thu Oct 29, 2020 4:29 pm

Dick wrote:
Thu Oct 29, 2020 12:09 pm
Have you been driving my clio? Random lights 1.5, although the gearbox is fine for the moment..
As for 206 cc those have been on my wish list for a while.. and as for Alfa Romeo, sis in law is replacing her/our 206 for an alfa 159 gt coupe thing.. her chap has the estate version and loves his..
Do you think flashing EML light was a standard feature they forgot to mention ?? :lol:


I did look at a 159 and the Estate version but most were diesel and I'd had my fill of the oily fuel.

So when the 156 went to car-heaven, I tried to get the nice people at Alfa to give me a price on the new Giulia .. but try as I might, and the dealers, they refused to even give a ball-park figure as the car hadn't been officially released .. and then it was delayed. So Plan A was dropped and Plan B was put into motion .. a Subaru BRZ SE Lux Auto ..

In the end it worked out the best option as mine with some extras (and a personalised plate for the car, not me!) came in at a lot less than the list price of a basic Giulia - and those Alfa options some boosted the price. Plus I really would have wanted the Quadrifoglio (2.9litre, Bi-Turbo Maserati engine and assembled in the Maserati factiory) .. at that was starting a £60K+ in 2017!! Ouch!! OK not as much room in the BRZ, but I didn't buy it for that. It's my late mid-life crisis car!
20170301_110729A.JPG
20170301_110729A.JPG (119.08 KiB) Viewed 14607 times
But next on the list is rebuilding this ..
20191208_092654_LR.jpg
20191208_092654_LR.jpg (219.29 KiB) Viewed 14607 times
"If you're driving on the edge ... you're leaving too much room!"

Retirement Project: '59 Austin A35 2-door with 1330cc Midget engine and many upgrades
Said goodbye: got '98 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 TSpark to 210K miles before tin worm struck

GHT
Posts: 1523
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 3:09 pm

Re: Vw

#24 Post by GHT » Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:37 am

When I was 18 I used to borrow my brother's Austin A35. I can tell you that a back seat tango with the girlfriend was a non starter. A Doctor Who Box it was not.

Dick
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Re: Vw

#25 Post by Dick » Sat Oct 31, 2020 9:46 am

Gazza, i like the sporty blue thing, is it Subaru?
Meanwhile someone else went to le mans and got lost :lol:
https://www.turbo.fr/actualite-automobi ... rse-169715

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Re: Vw

#26 Post by gazza82 » Sat Oct 31, 2020 2:04 pm

Subaru BRZ .. Similar to Toyota GT86. 86mm bore and stroke Subaru Boxer and diameter of exhaust tips! Clever marketing from the Japanese!

Actually the story goes Toyota asked Subaru to help design it and Subaru build them both. Even Lexus engineers got in the act when they had issues with emissions with the Toyota injection. Just a tad under 200bhp. But the Scooby has slightly better suspension and, in my mind, a much nicer interior.

My late mid-life crisis car as my wife describes it.

Auto version with manual gear select option and paddles. (I believe as fitted to Lexus models). It was actually one class cheaper to tax than a manual too!

Absolute pleasure to drive.

Not sure the A35 will be as nimble ... even with a 1330cc tweaked engine. MG1300/Cooper S head.

PS The A35 was the car I took my wife out for our first date in. Many, many years ago. (Think Ruby plus a few years!). Got put in my mother's garage when it went wrong in 1975/6 and saw daylight for the first time last December.
"If you're driving on the edge ... you're leaving too much room!"

Retirement Project: '59 Austin A35 2-door with 1330cc Midget engine and many upgrades
Said goodbye: got '98 Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 TSpark to 210K miles before tin worm struck

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