Poita

Sorted! SVC lamps ordered and on their way. Thanks for all your advice guys. Ian, thanks for the offer, but I really need both, and this will sort me out while I decide what I want to do long term. Thanks again fellas. Pete.

Lee - good point! I shoulda thought of that. Doug - you're right, it would be. And that's what I probably should do, but at the moment I have very little in the way of tools or workshop space. I'm early in my 7-career, so I'm still at the stage of paying for the convenience of something off the shelf, rather than doing it myself. 😬 But eventually I hope to do more of this sort of work myself.

Hi Chris , I haven't actually seen with my own eyes the way the bracketed lights mount on. At this point I hope my understanding is correct. But yes, on my car there's a piece of cylindrical tube welded horizontally onto the lower rear frame tube. One on each side. I presume that's where the lights are supposed to mount. Ah okay, that SVC lamp looks just the trick. The SVC pic you sent looks like it mounts with a bolt that runs fore-aft. Based on the pics of your car, it looks like you've ditched that bracket and run a bolt through the horizontal mount in the lamp, and through the horizontal mount on the car. Am I seeing that right? If that's the case, then thanks, what you've pointed out is bang-on. Pete.

I've a '96 K-series, from which one of the previous owners has decided to remove and bin the fog and reverse lamps (to clean up the looks of the rear panel). It appears he's borrowed a fog lamp from somewhere to get through each MOT. I'm now coming up on my first MOT as the owner, and I'm trying to figure out what best to do. I'd like to put both lamps back on permanently. I've got new lamps for CC, but my cars one of the ones had the lamps mounted using a bracket from one of the frame tubes below the back panel and unfortunately, CC no longer have or can get the brackets. I'd rather not drill into the rear panel right now, so: anybody got a set of the brackets they want rid of for a fair price? Or, are there any other options - other brackets that fit, other shops that manufacture them? Any suggestions that don't involve mounting direct to the panel much appreciated. Cheers, Pete.

Hi guys. Sorry for the delay. John - thanks! That'd be great. I'll drop you a blatmail with my details. Are you at the pub tonight? RS - thanks for those. I was hoping to make it to GTKY7 but was away on hols that weekend. Oh, if only I'd been there, this would never have happened. Thanks for passing on the learning. Rog - sure will be, see you tonight. 😬 And thanks very much to everybody who's replied. You've settled my mind and eliminated my worry about the situation. Pete. Edited by - Poita on 1 Jun 2011 09:01:11

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your advice. I did appear that the rail wasn't bearing much load, but I was a bit paranoid anyway. I figured the fix was just to bend it back, but wasn't sure how safe it was driving the way it is. And I felt like a total dope. Appreciate your thoughts fellas. I'll look into straightening it a bit myself, but won't put off driving it while I sort it out. 😬

I've done a very dumb thing while trying to get the back of the car up on axle stands. I was trying to get the rear of my S3 up to whip the wheels off and have a look at the brake discs/pads. I wanted to use the lower triangulated point just behind the wheels to place the axle stands, so was looking for somewhere else to place the jack. In the end I decided to put the jack just inboard of where I was going to put the axle stands, along the chassis member that runs horizontally between those two points. I don't know what I was thinking. Started jacking it up. Luckily I didn't get all the weight off the wheels before I realised the chassis member was flexing more than I'd like. Dropped the car back down, but the flex didn't come back out of the member. So now I'm wondering, how much damage have I done? I've just come back in from the garage, and it's too dark in there now to take a photo, so I'll post one in the morning. But basically, the horizontal member that runs left to right, just aft of the DD tube, and just in front of the fuel tank, now isn't level. A bit left of centre, it's about 10mm higher than the outside edges. There're no cracked welds or creases in the tube, it's just got a gentle rise from the outsides towards the centre. I presume, at the least, I should take it to have the tube straightened. But is it safe to drive like that? I'm guessing that since it's nowhere near a suspension pickup point, and there're no cracks/creases, then it should be so, but I don't know what effect the bend will have on the straightness of the chassis. Any thoughts or opinions on my next course of action? Aside from reminding me how stupid it was. :(

Bummer. Oh well, thanks anyway. Pete.

Is the fog lamp the type that mounts with a bracket to the rear edge of the car? Does it come with the bracket as well? Ta, Pete.

No worries Carl. That red camper you just managed to squeeze past kept me held up for what felt like the next fortnight, so no chance of catching you again. I'm not bothered, I had a nice pootle home anyway. Rich, I think we had fun enough trying to find them again. :-)

Ah bugger... just realised there was already a thread going in ChitChat.

...in front of me while I was trying to keep up! Thanks fellas for my first outting with the Herts crowd. Had a blast! It was great to meet you all, and I look forward to the next one! Pete. Edited by - Poita on 15 May 2011 15:20:46

Hi Chris, Newbie to the K series here too... actually a newbie to 7s full stop. Can't help you out with most of those Qs - only had mine a couple of months - but what I can do is suggest a doors/harnesses routine, since this confounded me for a while, until I found a good one. My prob was (assuming yours is the same) that: if you do the harness up, you can't reach around to fasten the upper door stub; do the door up first and you don't have enough elbow room to do the harness buckle! My current routine: - with door open (gives you elbow room to work the buckle) snap the harness belts into the buckle (4point), but leave the top belts really loose - close and fasten the door (the loose top belts leave you with shoulder mobility) - cinch the upper belts and drive away! - when pulling up, reverse the procedure. And when getting out, always remember to loosen the top belts before you unbuckle - its much easier with some tension in them. I find the lower belts a bugger (impossible?) to adjust while in the car, and the uppers a piece of cake, so I leave the lowers adjusted to suit me, and loosen the uppers to make getting in/out, reversing/maneuvering, and whatnot easier. Hope this helps and I'm not just teaching you to suck eggs, Pete. Edited by - Poita on 12 May 2011 11:38:05

Well, it was a quick glimpse, and green and orange are pretty close to each other on the rainbow. Thanks mate! I have to give the credit to one of the previous owners, who did the paintwork, and the other owners who kept it in such good nick for me.

That'd be me. Hi Stephen At least I think that's me. Bonnet stripe yes, but green, no. Orange with bonnet stripe. That was you in the Red. What's your plate? *7 VRN? Not a bad day for a drive. The sun showed her face every once in a while, but also kept the temperature down nicely. Pete.