Recent content by nr.

Currently on a Royal Enfield Scram for everyday duty, and an old and decrepit KLR650 for muddy fun. Well, more dusty than muddy right now, but you get the idea. And a K1600GTL for big miles (that said, I'm off to The Alps in a couple of weeks on the Little Scram. It's surprisingly capable of...

I was resigned to replacing the oil pressure sensor on my M54, due to a recurring 'implausible value from oil pressure sensor' error. So I bought a new one, and a few days back popped up the bonnet and looked in there with a torch to see just what a git of a job it was likely to be. At which...

If you've got a feel for keeping old bikes running, you'll be fine. I'm way more experienced with crusty old bikes than cars, but my Z4 has so far been pretty simple to work on (with the help of @enuff_zed for an airbag light fault!). But mechanically, everything has so far been easy to get to...

(Hopefully I'm over the 25 post requirement for this to be accepted) I was clearing out the loft the other day, and found an IL motorsports chassis brace bit for a Mk. 3 MX-5 [1] including the factory mounting bracket. Completely unused (I bought it to fit once the car passed it's MOT, but it's...

I've used Renovo on both my Z4 and previous MX5 - and it's always worked very well. Now, it's interesting that the comment was made about the roof not retracting all the way and locking down, as mine never has. I've always retracted it until the little red light goes out, and then just lean on...

Yup - I'll go gently. I've got a track record of restoring ancient Italian bikes, so crusty fasteners (and dubious electrics...) are familiar, if not enjoyable territory for me. Heat is normally a good part of the answer, and as the current shocks have been on there for 22 years I'd be...

Brilliant, thanks! That's perfect.

Sorry, a bit of a newbie question - I suspect that the answer is out there but I'm just searching for the wrong terms. I'm looking to refresh the suspension on my E85, and one thing that I was advised was to replace the front hub bolts, as they were likely to be seized and take a bit of a...

Renault Laguna 1.8 normally aspirated diesel. In my defence, I needed a car same day after a head gasket failure on an aged Audi 80. And this was all the local garage had on the forecourt, so it came home with me. A few days later I was driving out of Cambridge, when I found myself in the wrong...

Ah, tea - now I'm on safe ground with this one... And I'm with @enuff_zed on this one - Yorkshire Tea just doesn't do it for me I'm afraid. I'm lucky - one of my daughters works in a tea shop, so I get industrial quantities of Assam tealeaves delivered on a regular basis. When I'm old(er) and...

If you need to read codes from the airbags, I've just ordered an Autophix 7910 - I saw just how quickly and easily @enuff_zed scanned and reset mine at the weekend using one, so it was a simple choice to pick one up. Should be arriving later this week, and I'm only just up the road from Cambridge.

Absolutely! And that's what spurred me on to getting things as clean as I could. Honestly, I'd love to know that the old one was glued in with, as I'd buy a few tubes for when I absolutely don't want something to come unstuck. I'm willing to bet it was some kind of Sikaflex or similar. Anyway -...

One thing that I always knew I'd need to do with my E85 was the windscreen surround rubber. It was 22 years old, perished, and turning green in places. The part is easy enough to find (I ordered one from LLL - came in at about £40 including postage) and I'd seen the videos that showed the...

Following up on this - after a lovely drive out on a sunny day, the airbag light is now off, and currently staying off. I popped up the road into Deepest Norfolk, and Martin got stuck in, cleared the codes, and everything is just fine now. My suspicion falls on a Under Voltage error that was...

I agree, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as you say, spinning a motor every now and the will ensure that things don't start to stick together where they shouldn't be. But secondly, I'd far rather find out that the ABS pump was failing in the garage than the outside lane of the M6 on a wet...