Dorris

See if there is a Mr Clutch near you and give them a bell, my self and a few others in the club have had a very good service from them, quick and a fair price. Dorris

My settlements too, if you had an injector down and not atomising it would be very obvious the engine would be difficult to start, miss fire and will feel very flat. Not idea who told you that if the oil goes black after a thousand miles but I think they been sniffing something they shouldn’t, depending what came out and what residue is left in the engine oil can go black near on instantly, as long as you stick to the routine maintenance and don’t let any faults escalate then your engine will go for many, many miles. Dorris

Yes it would. To be honest checking it with the dipstick isn’t really going to tell you much, if you had a leaky injector the car would run rough and wouldn’t leak whilst not running. The only way you would get fuel in the oil is if you had excessive over fuelling and bore washed the engine which would point to ecu injector timing. I take it you have dropped the oil and let it stand? If so how much fuel is sitting on top of the oil? I looked at a Gen6 a few weeks ago where the guy said he could smell fuel in his oil, turned out to be nothing wrong and just the normal smell of the oil. Have you any codes flash up? Dorris

Astra polish a turd its still a turd! I modded my 182 at 150K nothing major, felt nicer to drive and tidied it up, I’m also modding my CS at 140K+ so yes mileage is irrelevant. Dorris

As others have said number one is head gasket, if the head gasket hasn’t been up rated and it’s running anything over standard boost walk away. Number 2 is sills, especially towards the rear. It’s getting harder to find a 185 without any sort of problem these days but its so easy to find one that’s a whole lot of trouble. Even though the normal running costs are a bit more then most cars its the age cost of trying to keep them on the road that hurts, they are very much becoming a car these days for the enthusiastic mechanic. I always say, do your home work, shop around, be prepared to travel for one, give the car a damn good inspection and be prepared to walk away. If your gut feeling is saying no then its probably right! Lets hope we see you in the Gen5 or GT4 forums soon, Dorris

Good call but can get a bit expencive if over a large area, D

I use Trailer wash which I assume is the same as truck was, very potent and used with a jet wash is perfect, then its a matter of degrease and then paint or polish. Dorris

Oh ye i remember that would like to know the out come. Dorris

Just go with the standard pressures that is stated but you can play around by a couple PSI but something around the 33psi should be fine. Dorris 42 rear seems a little high, what bike is it? Dorris

Camshaft bearings are integral to the head so no bearings to change, the valve stem seals will more then likely come with the top end gasket kit. If you're not getting any problems with the head gasket then the chances are your head will not need to be skimmed but a flat check will tell you what your warpage is and whether it needs skimming. I would seriously advise against removing the collets with the head in place, these are fiddly little things at the best of time and I can guarantee you will drop at least one into the head and if you do there is a very high probability it will go down the oil gallery. If it does, then it’s a complete strip down to find it. Dorris

I’ve done a few 3sge and 3sgte top end rebuilds and like the others have said it is a head off job; unfortunately there is no short cut with this. The only way you could speed this up is to have a second head all ready to go straight on but with the head off it would be silly to at least not put a new cam belt on. Dorris

They will be a generic sensor found in most engines and yes the Gen 5s also use them. Dorris

Cheers mate didn’t think of using Google, just done a search and your right comes up with Gen6, now I know I can see about getting them sold on. Dorris

Hi all, I’ve a pair of boot struts in my possession, was originally miss sold them as Gen 5 struts but I believe they might be off a Gen7 can anyone confirm this or if they are off another model Part numbers are 68960-0W020LH & 68950-0W020RH Cheers guys, Dorris

As much of a fan and purest I am of the GT4 and after reading your thread there is only one answer to this and that is go for the 190, I’m sure you wont be disappointed. Dorris

I’ve been building model kits of all different shapes and sizes since I was 6 years old and the Tamiya kits are very good kits and in the right hands can turn out to be very impressive finished product. As it happens my GF bought me a Tamiya Castrol WRC 185 CS for my BD last week, when done it will take pride and place in my display cabinet. Dorris

You where lucky it didnt do any damage when it over heated and im so glad you put the anti freeze in aswell. I wonder how many this winter will have frozen and cracked blocks due to lack of anti freeze????? Dorris

None if you leave a head unit on that uses the power of a small town It sounds like to me that you just need to get some power back in to the battery providing the battery is in a fairy good condition. My advice is to run the car for half hour with everything switched off and that should put the life back into the battery. The other problem you might encounter with your sound system taking so much power is that it might cause running problems with the car, I’m sure a sound system expert will be along soon to advise what’s more appropriate. Dorris

No question: Handling! Dorris

I was seriously thinking of getting one but the road tax put me off! Dorris

My advice would be don’t fix something that’s not broken. As for the clutch just drop a new one in along with a new flywheel at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what car it is you will have to end up putting a clutch in at sometime. Like the others have said, keep on top of things and there is no reason why it shouldn’t last for another 170k. Dorris

The noise will be ignition and injection interference picked up by your now more sensitive sound system, the company should have addressed this problem. In the old days you changed your spark plugs for a higher resistance plug but most interference is caused by electronic engine management systems. Dorris

Ok we have established you can drive a vehicle on the road with out road tax to and fro a booked MOT. Everything is now automated through a central database so if you SORN online it will be instant and you will get a confirmation emailed returned to you, this database also applies to the MOT and insurance. As long as the vehicle has a valid MOT and the new owner who is buying the vehicle has valid insurance for it then you can take the now filled in V5 with the new owners details to the post office to get road tax and the post office will send off the V5 to DVLA, both parties will then keep their appropriate parts of the V5. This is the way I did it so I was able to drive my GT4 home when I bought it. Dorris

If your battery is still ok and has just gone flat with age then a jump start and then half hour sat running wiil bring it back up to full charge. Dorris

What he says! Dorris