Homer

The wife's 13 year old Astra needs to be replaced so we're looking for a 2nd hand, sensible, car. I'm totally out of touch with what's available so welcome any suggestions and ideas from you knowledgeable lot We have between £5-8k to spent, but it can be a little flexible. The missus would much prefer a BMW 3 series but the price of these puts me off a bit. She also mentioned a Toureg but I imagine the running costs will be pretty high. Must have's: - 4 door - Modern safety points for child seats (Planning for future ) - Turbo Diesel, or very fuel efficient - Must have average performance or better (i.e. sub 10s 0-60) - 8 years or newer (newer preferred) Must not's (This is the wife's doing): - Be a Skoda or similar 'cr*ppy' badge. Yes, I know.... - No estates - No auto's - No red cars (FFS!!) The 320d saloon ticks pretty much all boxes but they are quite pricey (comparatively), so I'm really looking for sensible alternatives to that. Are the Focus, Astra or Golf worth considering? Any advice is welcome

lol, it will do! Damn that is a long time

Nisha and I are paid up, can't wait to see you all there

That's one very well looked after car, JM-Imports did a great job again Personally I prefer the TTE wheels, but wheels are always a very personal thing... you'll never please everyone so just go with your preference.

Thanks all. I've sent a PM to Keron to see what he has. It's only to keep the car going until I get the TT on the road so can't justify a spend on new stuff.

Chris, I would never buy it in the first place, this is just what was on the car when I got it. I actually quite like how it handles regardless of how cr*p they are on paper. So, the best option on this car is to replace the lot? Quite honestly, that would almost write the car off... Are there really shock kits out there for less than £200? Last time I looked at Bilsteins they were closer to £600 for a set which I could never justify on this car.

Unfortunately one of the rear shocks has started knocking, since these are very old shocks and no longer available I'd like some advice on what to do... I can imagine a repair will be quite expensive as it'd be a custom job and these units are not the best to begin with. It's on my silver NA which I only wish to keep useable as a daily hack so do not want to spent a load of cash on an entire new suspension kit. Do any of you know if these old units can be fixed? Or any alternatives for a suitable cheap replacement apart from going back to stock?

As Abz mentions, be VERY careful with IR35, this can really catch some people out. I worked for 12 years as a limited company contractor so know quite a lot of the in's and out's. I'll have a re-read tomorrow (when less tired) and can hopefully add some input to the responses already provided.

Very nice Rob, unmolested on the outside but lots of goodies under wraps - the way it should be Looking forward to the future updates.

Very clean, wish by daily hack 199 looked that good! Great work.

My neighbour owns a Focus RS, it's easily quicker than my NA 5spd, at sub 100mph I would bet they're not too far off a totally stock TT. They're good fun to drive and don't handle too bad for FWD... I don't like the diff though!

Might be worth PM'ing Turtleshead. He has a 68 Eleanor Mustang. I was hoping to use it for my wedding last year but it wasn't available sadly... He's based in Oundle (not sure on the spelling!)

So it's not just me that does this I do start it up every few months just to make sure nothing is getting seized, it fires up first time, every time It's running very rich which is most likely related to a MAP sensor issue Ian pointed out earlier in the thread.

Thanks for the PM Adam, that's just ticked a few of the most critical items off the shopping list Now it's only time I need to crack on with this!

PM me your mail address mate

As Nic and I said above you need to be invited to become a member, after which you'll see the diagrams on toyodiy. It's well worth it as it's kept up to date with the latest part number revisions. If you want to become a member send Nic or me a PM with your email address and we can invite you, it's free

Well spotted They're supposed to be 1.1mm but were 1.5 on a few!

Well that was much more of a ball ache than doing the same on a TT! Took about 3 hours in total but I did the plugs at the same time. No more oil leaks now and it certainly runs a lot smoother! Cams were in good condition and despite the 5+ year old oil it's not that bad Look at the state of these!

As above no updates at all since the last one, I've been extremely busy with work (plus got married last summer) and have a huge list of household DIY tasks to do, I just haven't had any time for the car. Now the weather is getting a bit better I will restart on it soon! Definitely feeling the motivation again Big Supes, any parts are always welcome! I have quite a lot of bits already but the main thing missing is a manual accelerator pedal, clutch pedal (and bracket), clutch master and clutch slave. Those are pretty much top of my list to find so if you have any please let me know and I'm more than happy to pay the going rate for them

Toyodiy is just awesome for parts. There was a time when you needed an invite to become a member and able to view the pictures (not sure if that's still needed). If you need that send me a PM and I'll invite you.

I live just over the A45 from Billing Aquadrome and I see all sorts of stuff from my (home) office window. Most of the worse ones are the 'rat' look VAG cars that are slammed - non existent suspension and hilarious camber angles. When the window is open I can hear the crunch from the nearby speed bump every time one of those cars goes over it. On the plus side I also see a lot of nice motors too, plenty of old US muscle cars. Makes me look up every time.

Perfect, many thanks Mike. Not sure how I missed that in the search...

This isn't something I should be proud of, but having put this car together in 2009/2010, I have never serviced it. No new oil, plugs, anything.. The only thing I've done is fixed a PAS leak and changed the tyre's and brake pads when needed. It still runs perfectly and I use it every day! Just goes to show how solid the 2JZ-GE engine is Anyhow, I finally decided to service it as the RSP is still a while away from being started on again. Going to change the plugs, oil and clean the air filter. It has an oil leak from the both cam covers so will fit new gaskets this weekend. What's the easiest way to remove the throttle body/intake pipe over the top of the engine? The manual says the whole intake manifold needs to come off but I know that's not needed.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the "Where's my turbo's thread" Which resulted in this picture:

Haha, thanks Keron. At least you tried as well