HubNut Blog

What’s on my mind?

The Citroëns are tormenting me!

I frustrate myself sometimes. I’ve got the Golf running nicely now, after a fair dose of expenditure – probably in the region of £250 in total, consisting of a cambelt change, complete rear brake overhaul and various service items. I’ve also been distracting myself with the Land Rover – which I like very much – and the 2CV – which has been undergoing a fair bit of work itself. The plan was that the Golf would be the dull, dependable transport.

And it’s been very good at that, stepping in when I needed to get to North Yorkshire and the Disco failed and being the car I just jump in when I want to get to the end of the journey without rainwater running into my shoes (though I have improved the leak situation on the Disco at least!). Yet, there’s always something else I want to own. Always.

The one thing lacking with the Golf is comfort. I don’t get on with the driving position and the rather firm ride gets depressing after a while. The Mercedes was great for comfort, but pretty much every other aspect of this barge reminded me why I don’t like barges. Welsh roads need small, nimble machines. Finding comfort amongst cars of a smaller scale is difficult, but Citroen manage it readily enough.

Which brings me back to the GS and BX again. The GS or GSA in particular hold massive appeal. They’re deliciously quirky, supremely comfortable and I love the styling. I don’t like their propensity to rust quite so much, nor their rather fuel-slurping manners. Sub-1300cc cars really shouldn’t struggle to top 30mpg. But, it’s a car I’ve always wanted to own and never have. In fact, I’ve barely clocked up any miles behind the wheel of one at all – probably about 10 I reckon, split between two different GSAs. With much gnashing of teeth, I watched a GSA estate come up for sale for £850 but I was powerless to buy it. All my funds are tied up in the Golf.

These sleek cars are causing sleepless nights

It may be that it’s too late to own a GSA anyway. They’ve gone a bit beyond daily transport for most people. That leaves me pondering a return to BXs instead. There are still quite a few of them about, and I’m being properly tempted by a non-turbo diesel and a very tidy petrol right now. In fact, tormented may be closer to the truth. Both have less than 80,000 miles on them – rare for a BX – so perhaps I’d find either a lot more pleasant to drive than my previous, leggy BX estate.

Selling this. My biggest mistake?

Where I really went wrong was selling my silver BX TXD Turbo. It was a great car, in which I did many thousands of miles in the short time I had the car. Stupidly, I sold it because I’d convinced myself I needed a towbar when actually all I needed was a neighbour with a Land Rover. Even more stupidly, I have my own Land Rover now!

That BX was a car I sold for all the wrong reasons and is probably the only time I’ve sold a car on which I was still very keen. The lack of practicality compared to an estate is easily remedied now I have another workhorse. Given that I still keep finding BX parts littering our storeroom and my garage, I think it really does make sense to get another. Doesn’t it?

PS – anyone want to buy a Golf? £825.

A sports car I DO like

Not all that long ago, I repeated my assertion that I dislike sports cars. Generally, this is true but, just as you may have thought you were certain you didn’t like the ginger one in Girls Aloud, every now and then you’re reminded that your previous certainty may have been slightly suspect.

The ginger-one-in-Girls-Aloud carwise for me is the TVR Chimaera. It’s everything I dislike about sports cars. It’s a proper pose-mobile, it’s stupendously, unnecessarily quick and clambering aboard is like trying to get into one of those mummy-style sleeping bags without undoing the zip. But Peter Wheeler, who was TVR’s boss when the Chimaera was current, was a savvy old player. He even managed to build a sports car that people who don’t like sports cars want to own.

I hate sports cars. See how unhappy I look

Look at the picture above, taken in 2010. I’m trying to look grumpy because I hate sports cars. The problem is, I was having a whale of a time. I enjoyed temporary ownership of this TVR for 24 hours and every time I tried to clamber out of it to do the normal sorts of things like eat and sleep, I just wanted to get back in and listen to that thundering V8 a little bit more. The swooping lines are delicious. The hand-crafted interior is just lovely. The fact you press a switch under the mirror (Citroen CX mirrors no less) to open the doors is stupidly, boyishly silly. Grown men love that.

A bold colour choice, but I love it

Every element of this car makes you feel special. Yet under the skin, it’s simplicity itself. Electrical annoyances are very few and far between. No traction control, no airbags, just a powerful engine and a well-sorted chassis. It’s the engine that astonishes though. I can only assume that the noise and the acceleration invoke some of the excitement of being chased by an angry lion. It’s stupidly addictive. In the same way as poking a sleeping lion with a stick. You think ‘life is interesting enough. I can just potter through life and enjoy simple pleasures.’ But the desire to pick up that stick soon resurfaces, and you find yourself screaming towards the horizon at a slightly-terrifying rate of knots once more.

Annoyingly, a TVR Chimaera 450 gets from 0-60mph in just 4.6 seconds, so actually exploiting its 285bhp on public roads can be intensely frustrating. I had a lot of fun, but I didn’t get anywhere near its 158mph top speed. Which does reinforce my initial hatred of sports cars – it’s very hard to enjoy them to their full potential. I considered this dilemma when I returned home and parked the TVR in front of my Citroen 2CV, brown Renault 21 and ‘colourful’ Bedford CF camper.

TVR was fun, but so were these old clunkers

The next day, I returned the fearsome TVR to a dealer and reclaimed my 71bhp Citroen BX diesel. I must admit, it did feel a bit slow, but it was like donning a pair of slippers after a long day on your feet in horrible, posh shoes. Rather lovely actually, and very comfortable. I had a lot of fun in that TVR, but I’m still not sure I’d actually want to own one. I’m convinced that at some point, the lion would catch me up, and I’d become dinner.

Why do I like it so much?

The gearchange is horrible. The ride is not as comfortable as it should be. The driver’s front window often needs help on its way down. The rear axle makes more noise than Motorhead. It’s just started leaking engine oil again. When faced with a long journey, it gave up after three miles. By locking a wheel in dramatic fashion.

Plus, it is the ultimate parts-bin special, beating most kit-cars in the ‘bits stolen from other cars’ stakes.

So, why do I like my Land Rover Discovery so much?

I just love it. Even this badge

In truth, I’m not really sure why. Yes, I’d wanted one for decades, but that was also true of the Land Rover 90 and Range Rover I owned previously. The Land Rover was very disappointing. It was pretty horrible to drive even though it was a V8. The only thing it did really well was slurp fuel. The Range Rover was ok, but didn’t exactly feel like the prestige vehicle it was trying to be. I guess I like where the Discovery was aimed at market-wise. It’s a Range Rover, without the fancy stuff. But it’s also a million times nicer to sit in than a Defender.

There’s the exposure to them when I was younger too, as mentioned here. But I’ve thought about this. I don’t drive around in it recalling my teenage experiences. I think a lot of it comes down to how it looks actually.

Desirable. To me.

I would never have deliberately chosen a Discovery in this colour, but it really does suit it well. I love the steel wheels, I love the stepped roof design and I absolutely love the side graphics. I really like the front grille/headlamp design too – stolen straight from a Mk2 Transit van. It’s a brilliant reskinning of a Range Rover.

I really like the interior too. The seats are comfortable with a great driving position. I love the sheer amount of blue.

A great place to sit

The controls are neatly laid out and while one or two are obscured by that enormous, chunky steering wheel, they are easily reached. The heater controls seem baffling at first, but they allow you to do something very rare on anything built after 1980. You can have fresh air to the face and warm air to the windscreen and/or feet. Why did this option disappear?! There is also the very-useful feature of variable intermittent wipers. A godsend when you live in Wales…

Visibility is superb, with enormous windows. The loadspace, while not the longest, is very useful. The towing capacity of 3500kgs is handy too. It has permanent four-wheel drive, so there’s no faffing about with switching between two and four wheel drive, and there is a centre differential, which means you can use low box on tarmac – handy for towing. It’s delivering an acceptable 28mpg (the Golf barely tops that) and its off-road abilities are astounding.

In fact, I look at later Discos, even the 95MY facelift ones I worked on as prototypes, and I just see a continuous ruining of the pure original. Nothing new in that – it’s how it goes with almost any car. That’s why early ones tend to become collectible.

It’s difficult to convey how happy this car makes me. I’m in the rare position at the moment of thinking that there’s simply nothing out there to tempt me at the moment. I have a 2CV and I have a Land Rover Discovery. They were both cars I dreamt of owning as a 16-year old, and they both cost me the grand sum of £450 to buy (albeit 13 years apart). Proof that when it comes to dream cars, it really does pay to have humble desires.

Disco comes to grief

It’s quite easy to get a bit blasé about greenlaning. I’ve been doing it for years, and have been proud of the fact that I’ve never got stuck and have generally avoided any damage to my car at all. That changed last night.

We were tackling a tricky lane in Nant-y-Moch, one which will be closed in a few days time for tree felling. Me and a friend thought we’d get in before the chop so to speak. It’s a lane we both know well, and one which I’ve travelled down twice in the past couple of months, with no drama at all. Going up the lane is much more difficult, but I’d successfully done so in the Maverick last year, albeit it was very much a challenge that required several attempts.

I got through what I thought was the tricky section with no problems. Easy! It’s all about momentum – going as slowly as possible, but quickly enough to keep moving. Then the lane began to tilt the Discovery onto its side. One side of the lane had been washed out very badly, and I mis-judged just how bad things were. The front end began to slide into the bank and the rear followed. I eased back and forth, but there was no escape. I was lodged firmly against the bank. My options were to attempt recovery or risk much damage.

Ouch! Firmly stuck, and a bit bent

With the front indicator housing already snapped off its mountings, recovery seemed the sensible option. I could drive forward to free the front end from the bank, but was powerless to do the same with the rear. My friend in his Defender was deployed and a short, sharp tug pulled the back end away. I could then reverse down the lane to ponder our next move and repair damage!

Putting it back together

We used string to hold the indicator housing in place. I think superglue should mend it longer term. That wasn’t the only damage though.

Oh dear. Paint took a beating

The entire side is now littered with scratch marks, some of them quite deep. Fortunately, the Discovery’s side panels are aluminium, so corrosion is not a problem. I’ll have to see what I can do about tidying it up a bit.

My friend then set about getting even more stuck than I had managed, so the rest of our adventure involved trying to free his Defender – a fine education in how to use a hi-lift jack and the importance of having a shovel. With his car free and light fading, we opted to abort our adventure. We’d got all of about half a mile into the lane! Our local laning group is already plotting repairs to this lane, so hopefully when it reopens in 2014, it’ll be in far better shape.

But for me, I’m now rethinking the future of the Discovery. My initial plan was one of preservation, keeping the Disco as original as possible. Now I’ve damaged it and also realised how poor a standard Discovery is when it comes to recovery points, I’m considering a change of direction. Is it time to make with the modifications? Do I really want a vehicle that looks more aggressive? It’s perhaps time to answer those questions.

Disco: Stop, carry on

As described earlier, my plan to drive to North Yorkshire in the Discovery only last three miles. I think it probably goes down as one of my least successful journeys ever.

Going nowhere

A bang, a clatter and then the front nearside wheel locked up. Fortunately for me, it was wet and the front wheel happened to be on a white line at the time, so the retardation effect was not too dramatic. Enough for me to know that my destination was well out of reach though.

I nervously limped home at 20mph (the hazard lights got a lot of use that day), not daring to go any faster because of the hideous noise coming from the front end. Knowledgeable people reckoned it was likely to be a failed wheel bearing and the grumbling noise certainly seemed to back that up.

Yesterday, I limped to my mate Dave’s house, where we pulled the front hub apart. The outer bearing looked fine, but when the pulled the hub off, the inner bearing simply fell out in many pieces. It was absolutely bone dry and the failure had been sufficient to turn the inner collar on the axle shaft – that takes some force. It took some force to remove it too, but happily, with plenty of grease and a fair degree of effort, the new bearings were soon in place.

What a transformation. The bump-shake tendency when hitting a pothole with the nearside front wheel has gone entirely and it all seems a lot quieter too. That’s the thing with permanent four-wheel drive – there are an awful lot of moving parts, and it becomes difficult to hear one over any other. I certainly noticed the difference once the duff bearing was gone though!

I’ll hopefully be putting it immediately to the test as the plan is to go greenlaning in Gloucestershire this weekend. Hopefully it’ll make up for the lack of Disco laning last weekend – fun as it was. I didn’t buy the Disco so I could go laning in someone else’s vehicle.

It has been interesting to find that I’ve now clocked up 1200 miles in the Discovery, even though it stayed at home last weekend. That’s in just over three months of ownership – IIRC I only managed 1500 miles in eight months with the Ford Maverick. The improved economy of the Discovery is certainly a factor – 27mpg compared to 20-22 – but the Disco is much more comfortable as well, and I find it much nicer to drive on the roads. Certainly, this is one vehicle I remain very happy about buying.

Shitefest ’13: The Weekend

Having successfully reached Shitefest, I settled down for a very enjoyable weekend of car-related nonsense.

The line up of hopelessness

As you can see, the field was chock full of dreadfulness. Most of those cars belong to only three people and most had to be dragged to the site as they weren’t actually road legal. The beige Polonez is though – I drove it last year and declared it surprisingly uncrap. The Niva is a parts source for another that joined us greenlaning.

The greenlaning was an added dimension to this event and the reason I was meant to be travelling up in the Discovery. The failure of the Disco to proceed turned out to be a good thing though. It gave me an opportunity to play passenger, and that was actually really good fun, especially in the back of a roofless Frontera.

The fun way to get into a Frontera

I got to drive the Frontera and the Niva, which both impressed off-road. The Frontera was hilariously uncomfortable though, thanks largely to the leaf springs at the rear. It was very bouncy! But it also impressed on-road, where it could be hustled with surprising pace. I’m not sure it was any more uncomfortable than my old Ford Maverick, and that had coil springs! It was hugely spacious in the rear and everyone who travelled in it jumped out smiling.

Greenlaning with a Niva

Outstanding scenery and good humour meant we had a great day. For food, a convoy of two Volvo 740 estates and a Montego whisked us to Settle for a chip shop visit, before we all thawed out in a local pub. It was perishing! The weekend also saw me riding a Honda C90 motorcycle. I still accept that motorcycles are great fun in a field, but I’m still not keen on the idea of riding one on actual roads. There was also an opportunity to relax and enjoy weapons – ranging from archery to axe throwing. All car meets should have this.

Fortunately, the Golf got me home with no further dramas. It even managed 34mpg, which is far better than it usually manages! Now all I need to do is fix the Discovery…

The day I tried to drive to Shitefest

Firstly, I apologise for the language, but I’m a member of the excellent Autoshite forum and so it seemed natural to call our now annual gathering Shitefest. The forum is dedicated to old cars, but with the twist that we love cars that are often seen as undesirable and usually deeply unfashionable. Some like driving cars that look like wrecks (subtly different to Rat Look, where cars are MADE to look like wrecks), others cherish their unloved cars with a dedication that can only be admired. I hope I fall somewhere between the two…

Anyway, the net result of all this is that a very excited me spent AGES last week preparing the Discovery for its trip up north. Levels had been checked, a specialist had given it the once over and I’d carefully loaded it up with everything I’d need. I leapt aboard and began my 160-mile journey to North Yorkshire. That journey ended after just three miles. The Discovery made a horrific clattering noise, a wheel locked up and I found myself stopped at the side of the road. The locked wheel was on a wet white line, so thankfully things didn’t get very exciting. I jumped out, expecting to see differential teeth or bits of propshaft littering the road. Nothing. Odd.

I jumped back in, took the handbrake off and marvelled at a car parked on a hill that wouldn’t roll. I selected reverse and gave it a bit of welly and it did go backwards. It then rolled forward again, but making a rather horrible grinding noise. Still, it was better than not moving at all so having dismissed the idea of limping on another 157 miles, I meekly drove back home at a steady 20mph. It would have to be the Golf as it was raining quite heavily and the 2CV is about as watertight as tissue paper.

No careful packing here, I just hurled everything out of the Disco and into the Golf. The Golf was low on fuel, but hopefully not any other vital fluids. I had recently carried out a service, so the oil was probably ok, and had topped up the coolant after replacing the heater bypass valve. I raced northwards as quickly as a plague of sodding camper vans would let me, which wasn’t really as quickly as I’d hoped. I’d thoroughly missed my traffic window and Newtown was its usual snarled up, hideous self. That’s ok, as the cooling fan was cutting in as required. But then the entire car started shaking as the fan cut in for a second time. I’ve known it’s been a bit iffy for a while, but naturally it chose an important country-crossing journey to REALLY play up. My solution was to put the heater blower on full. I was now far too hot, but the car, importantly, wasn’t. Rain prevented me opening windows too readily.

Then I hit resurfacing works on the A458 approaching Welshpool. This seems to happen with depressing regularity. Thankfully, the five-minute stop allowed me to turn the engine off completely to avoid overheating. Oswestry, Wrexham and Chester were circumnavigated and after two hours, I found myself on actual motorway at long last. It was now just after 5pm though, and traffic was heavy. That meant more heater action and my new regime on sighting multiple brake lights up ahead was check mirror, slow down, put heater on, downshift as required, increasing heater blower speed if speed reduced too much.

That was bearable until I reached the M6. Here, it was very stop-start, which unfortunately is just how the Golf’s engine decided to behave. If I let the revs drop below 1500rpm, even in gear, it cut out. This was not much fun, as my new regime on sighting multiple brake lights ahead was check mirror, slow down, put heater on, try and downshift while also braking and blipping the throttle without crashing into any other vehicles due to trying to operate three pedals at once. I may have cried, but due to having the heater on full blast, any tears would have evaporated very quickly.

After twenty minutes of this, I was getting cramp in my legs and wishing I’d come in the 2CV after all. Happily, after another longer stretch of clear motorway, normal service was resumed. I can only assume that the very soggy leg up to the M6 had caused damp to play havoc with the spark plugs and HT leads, both of which I know are far from perfect (but have remained on the To Do list while I try and earn money rather than spend it all on cars).

North Yorkshire. Finally! What a day

Was the event worth the stress of getting there? Find out in the next installment. Here’s a clue…

Ian (left) trying to play it cool in the back of a Frontera

Disco: Greenlaning woes and wheels

It has taken several months, but I’ve finally finished refurbing the Discovery’s steel wheels. I’m very happy with the results.

Looking good on refurbed wheels

Actually, the work itself only took a few hours, though it’s a job that requires a huge amount of waiting. I rubbed the wheels down – with a wire brush initially, then sandpaper. I then applied two coats of brushed zinc-rich primer, to hopefully keep the rust at bay, before spraying two coats of silver wheel paint followed by two coats of clear lacquer. I then waited a few days for the paint to harden before getting them refitted. Sadly, the loss of sunshine meant the paint was still a little soft. I’m hoping it’ll be ok.

It now looks far, far better than it did when I bought it. Here’s a reminder.

As she arrived. Shonky

To recap, the front bumper has been painted, the sill steps removed (as they were entirely rotten) and the wheels refurbed and then fitted with new, narrower rubber. The tyres are now correct for what early Discos wore as standard – 205/80 R16s. It came on 235/70 R16s which were optional. I prefer the look of thinner rubber and reckon there are advantages in mud and snow too.

I’m very pleased with how this car is coming along and will be using it this weekend for a lengthy trip to North Yorkshire, for a car meet and to explore some greenlanes up that way. I fear that the future of greenlaning is far from secure, with the news breaking just today that The Roych greenlane in the Peak District now has a Traffic Regulation Order on it, banning the use of mechanical vehicles. No doubt ramblers will be overjoyed at the news, but I’m deeply saddened. When you consider the amount of greenlanes you can drive versus the number of footpaths, there is a massive difference. It is very, very easy to find hundreds if not thousands of footpaths that go nowhere near a greenlane. I fear this is just the start of the end for greenlaning, which I find desperately sad. Sadly, I fear it’s a hobby ruined by a few idiots and as more lanes close, heavier traffic will develop on the remainder until those are lost to us as well. The countryside should be for all. There’s still enough of it out there! The people complaining don’t seem so ready to call for actual, metalled roads to be closed – the ones they use to access the countryside. A bit of toleration goes a long way and after all, I quite like to enjoy the countryside on foot, not just behind the wheel of a 4×4.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing how the Disco performs on a long trip and shall report back next week.

2CV: Enjoy the Silence

Thanks to a friend, I’ve finally discovered a more enjoyable way to drive the 2CV. Earplugs!

The best 2CV upgrade yet?

For £3.49 from Ebay, they had to be worth a go. You can get posh ones for £17-20, but I’m not posh. These ones are rated at -20. That’s important. I don’t want to block all of the noise out – it’s dangerous if you can’t hear sirens or other noises – like things falling off. Therefore, I apologise for the artistic licence used in my headline. I just happen to like that Depeche Mode song very much!

Today was the first time I’d had a chance to leap into the 2CV and test them and the results are staggering. I could still hear everything that was going on, even individual rain drops hitting the roof, but it was all turned down to a much more agreeable level. I could even hear the indicator relay clicking away. Engine noise was very much reduced and wind noise was now tolerable.

The best bit was how much more refined the car felt, because clonks and rattles are reduced and road noise is so much quieter. Heading up hill, with the engine screaming away, was nowhere near as painful on the ears. I’m going to rate this as one of the best upgrades you can make to a 2CV, and for only a few pounds! I’ll also be testing them in the Discovery as I attempt to quieten the rear axle howl on the way up to North Yorkshire next weekend.

Golf: Brakes finally sorted

At long last, I’ve fixed the Golf’s rear brakes. I even found what was causing the incessant whistling that nearly drove us mad on the trip to Devon.

Wear ridge – shouldn’t be there!

That wear really shouldn’t be there. It all stems from my initial attempt to check the condition of the rear brakes. When I was refitting the drum, I over-tightened the wheel bearing nut, as I hadn’t realised that this actually needs to be set fairly loose. I knew something was wrong immediately as the hub was hard to turn. I slackened it off after taking the desperate measure of reading the manual, but the damage was done – whatever it was. The drum was now running too close to the backplate and was rubbing merrily on the nuts that hold the backplate in place.

Having had to pull everything apart again, I opted to overhaul the rear brakes entirely. I’d need a wheel bearing for the nearside, but they are so cheap that I decided to replace both. Then I decided that the stub axles looked a bit scored, so I replaced those too. Annoyingly, I don’t think any of this work was really that necessary, had I not ballsed things up in the first place, but the brakes feel more positive now, which is nice. It was at least fairly simple to work on, though I needed professional help tackling the shoe springs and knocking in the new bearing outers. I farmed that job out for a few quid – a wise move!

I also treated the car to a fresh oil filter and new oil, in the hope that it might cure the occasional-clattery hydraulic tappet. It doesn’t seem to have sadly, though it always quietens down after a while. A new heater bypass valve has been fitted too, so all-in-all, it’s in far better shape than it was a few weeks ago. Hopefully, expenditure will now decrease somewhat, though I’ve just discovered that the heated rear window isn’t working – a faulty switch I reckon. There’s always something!

Now in better shape, hopefully for a goodly while!

HubNut – celebrating the average!