Trotsky

I'm going for new discs all round and mintex 1144 on the front, standard blue dot from CC on rears. was going to do myself but my local french mechanic seems a decent sort .so im going to pop along in one of the 2cv's to introduce myself when I've got all the bits together. hes got a lovely DS 20 pallas tucked away at the back of his garage.

Good point, I had read that somewhere too, now I think about it. I shall order some standard pads from CC and get SWMBO to bung em in her hand luggage next week. thanks for the heads up.

Thanks Domus and Jonathan, just the ticket. my next obsticle is to get the correct rear pads sent out here To France, just opened the box and they sent me 2 sets of fronts just my blooming luck, perfect weather, perfect roads and time to play and the cars out of action! oh well I'll have to go for a thrash in the 2cv instead. 😬 Thanks again,

Cheers Peter , but that link doesnt work.

Incredibly, I think anyway, I have never had to change discs or pads on my car in the 5 or so years and 40K plus miles I have owned it, anyway, I have bought myself a full set of replacement discs and Mintex 1144 pads, I have no idea what pads are in but they have never felt Brilliant and why I seem not to use em much anyway, standard brake set up etc is there a idiots guide anywhere to doing the Job, removing discs and pads and refitting? any special tools reqd? special techniques? thanks all. oh, 1995 s3 HPC de dion by the way.

Not yet Roger, I'm in the middle of packing for a move to France on the 8 th February. Was just having a quick whizz round checking things pre mot next week, I'll have to sort it before then of course, it's on my to do list, just not near the top yet

Quick pre mot check reveals left side rear indicators faulty, indicator and brake light flashing dimly , any ideas for a quick fix?

Excellent, a good day had by all, the chap with me is my postman! We were doing some express deliveries 😬 he's also an old friend and has been after a run out for ages but never had the chance before today , the excellent 'ish' weather and superb driving rds made for a top day out,catching up with you was a bonus, always nice to bump into another 7 just shy of 200 miles of blatting for us as relatively local. Certainly closer than Shropshire! Hope to see you up that way again some time, I'm often about Edited by - Trotsky on 9 Sep 2013 00:52:57

Hi Klunk. hope you had a good run out and managed to avoid the hay wagon 😬 cracking rd from Hawes isn't it? Nice to say hello.

Heading towards Kirby Lonsdale I was on my way back from Blackpool, the long way round 😬 Edited by - Trotsky on 3 Sep 2013 20:47:06

Ill add my 2 penneth re the air filter, clean and re oil annually with kn cleaning kit, just done mine after months trying to sort out a steadily worsening hesitancy and misfire. Having gone through checking and changing various bits inc. plugs, ht leads , coil pack and tps it turned out my kn filters were filthy, they looked ok mind. But a quick last resort run up the rd with no filters revealed them to be the culprit, I wouldn't recommend running sans filters but I'm glad I did now as I was at a loss and on the pint of spending more money on bits I now don't need. Cleaned them and oiled them as per instructions and amazed at the results. Have done 40 k + miles in the last 5 years tho so they were pretty dreadful 😬

I recently scraped the exhaust on a speed bump and broke the exhaust bobbin, after much head scratching I remembered reading that Radiator bobbins ( there are 4) are the same as the exhaust bobbin, so as a get me home , I nicked one .Elasticated tow rope, cell phone ,tyre weld( no spare)and multi tool are all I carry , I have lots of mates I have got out the **** in the past so rely on a good mobile phone signal to call in the recovery mob should anything else break. Throttle cable and clutch cable are probably a good idea tho as spares so I hear, but are they that prone to breaking?

Ill be cleaning mine regularly from now on that's for sure, it's one of these things that creep up unnoticed as they get less effective I suppose, theyre about the only thing on my car that have not been cleaned, stripped or messed with regularly. Lesson learned I presume they are the original ones and as my car is now 18 and 90k miles I suppose it would be prudent to get some fresh ones, can you just buy the filter without the metal ware? Edited by - Trotsky on 31 Aug 2013 17:28:11

Well they are back on , having cleaned and oiled them, and it's like a new car 😬 can't believe the difference. Happy days, no hesitancy at any revs, must have been missing a few horses as it feels and drives amazing again.

here oil is oil? 😬 I had to laugh, reminded me of the time a mate filled his hope mtb disc brake reservoir with olive oil instead of dot 4 , oil is oil he said. That'll be useless as a brake fluid we said, but he wouldn't listen, and crashed. Mine are drying out now so well have to wait a few days to see if I've cured the poor running, I'm ashamed to admit I've never cleaned them in 5 years 40+ k miles

Cheers Richard, I've actually bought the kit, used the cleaner and they are drying out now, very little crap came out compared to the first application of carb/ intake cleaner, that shifted loads of gack/ flies etc.

That's the one John . I'm picking up a cleaning kit from alfrauds later, if all fails I'll replace with new ones. Had a sniff of the KN filter cleaning kit last week and decided the cleaning fluid seemed amazingly similar in smell to the muck off I use on the mtb at half the price, which coincidently is the same as fenwicks caravan cleaner only a different colour , at half the price of muck off before you all shout tight Yorkshire git, I'm buying the kn kit at a extortionate 15 sovs as it includes the oil, which is probably olive oil anyway

Fingers crossed, I hope I have found the cause of a slight misfire/hesitancy when accelerating hard, I have been through checking; ht leads, plugs, checking fuel pump. fuel pressure, coil pack etc, not found any mention in searches on here of air filters causing issues but failing all else decided to remove them and see what effect it had, scared of sucking in debris and causing damage I bodged some of the wife's stockings over the trumpets for a test run, misfire a lot worse as the stockings allow less air in(wrong denier ) same issue as when filters fit only much more pronounced at all revs, jumped out, whipped off the stockings and blatted up through the gears, immediately smooth running, clean revs across the range. put the KN filters back on , back to old lumpiness and hesitancy, whipped em off , clean smooth running again.the carbs were adjusted on the dyno a couple of months back and were spot on until this latest issue, So seems the filters are clogged? They are for 45 webers by the way. I have searched K N suppliers but cant seem to find any the same size as mine 170mm long, 110mm wide and 80mm high ( just the filter not the housing.) so have decided to try cleaning them, given them a good blast with carburetor and intake cleaner which has loosed a lot of grime. is this a good idea? can they be dishwashered or am I wasting my time . , what are my options re filters? cheers folks

I have just collected a nice pair of new front wings for the 2cv from the paint shop, nice finish but before I wax oil the inners I want to seal all the inner wing seams, to hopefully prolong the life. Are seam sealers much of a muchness or can anyone recommend a particularly good product. While they are brand new and immaculate it seams a good idea to protect em as best I can.

Nb . Fan working fine by the way come on just about 95 degrees

After recent cooling issues ( nudging 110 on the gauge in stationary traffic but 85 /90 when moving ) I have discovered a empty expansion tank, no trace of a leak but since I fit an ally rad last summer I have noticed lots of gurgling hours after the car has been put in the garage , before I refill with fresh coolant I'm gonna run it up to temp where fan kicks in with just water to check for leaks again, them will drain and fill up with decent coolant, is there a secret to filling with coolant that I'm unaware of, I recall a thread on here describing the filling method for c20xe motors but can't find it in search topics, I fear this may all be linked to the recent rough running , hopefully it's not been completely empty for ages, it's always got hot ish when in traffic but never to the degree it has recently. would a very hot engine misfire? I had the front jacked quite high up I recall when I refilled it last time in the hope of getting rid of any airlock in the engine. But maybe not high enough

Thanks for that Bob, see if you don't ask you never find out.

I had a similar issue a couple of years ago, similar misfire when accelerating hard and that turned out to be a missing Venturi locking screw, that was the first thing I checked this time but they are all in place, haven't had chance to check if they are tight tho , will do when I get a minute. I have just noticed a tiny crack in the outer of one of the ht leads, just as it bends away from the coil pack, which is sited more or less between the cams so I hopefuly won't have a problem getting correct length replacements. One thing that has always puzzled me , at the rear of the exhaust cam is a ally blanking cap where I presume a distributor would have sat, there is a multi point electrical connection built into it but no wire connected and non hanging anywhere unconnected , what is this for? I'll be having a good old fettle over the weekend starting I think with another butchers at the carbs Venturi screws then onto filters and replacement leads, forecast is sh1te tho so chances of a test run look remote Edited by - Trotsky on 20 Jun 2013 16:48:10

Thanks all, I'm babysitting the grandson today, so ill have a butchers in the morning, will check fuel filters and will get a set of new leads, won't harm as I've never replaced these. And I'll take it from there.

Coil pack Jon