Recent content by Brown

The bolts and bushes typically need a lot of force to move them - a lot more than you'd usually need for Alfa Romeo maintenance, anyway. I've got a hydraulic press with a dial on it and it is not unusual to see 10 or 15 tons needed to shift rusted-in bushes. Even that was defeated by the task of...

I'm sure the organisers did say that. My experience is much more like your daughter's. It's lovely when the wind drops a bit and the sun comes out, but equally you have to be ready for the wind-blown rain driving its way through the seams of one's supposedly waterproof jacket.

That sounds very like the weather on Anglesey to me. It's a bit bracing at times. You don't even have to wait for the winter either - you can get incidents like that in the summer too. I used to live there in the early 1980s, mostly leaning over at an angle against the horizontal sleet.

Just had an email from my insurer about my renewal - it's due early next month. I was quite pleased to see that it's £311, for a 2006 TD5 model for 12,000 miles a year. That's good for the current climate. The company has a silly name - 'Quote Me Happy' - but at that price I'm prepared to put up...

Just looking at ECUs for sale on Ebay over the years, there are some that have been cleaned up and garnished with the supplier's stickers (and maybe with a pre-installed remap) which are more expensive, and others which are all dirty and appear to have just been taken out of a scrap car are...

The fact that it'll move in difflock suggests an axle problem rather than a gearbox or clutch problem. Yes, as above, splines can strip, and also halfshafts can break. Put it in neutral and have a look underneath and see if either of the propshafts can be turned by hand (with the handbrake...

Is that claimed bhp at the flywheel, or at the wheels? A difference of around 16% (which is what yours amounts to) between the two wouldn't be unusual.

I had something similar at the start of last year. The ECU has permanent lives and ignition switched lives. If one or other are disabled some of the functions work (such as the starter motor) but not others (warning lights, some ofthe gauges behave strangely). My story is here...

We've got semi-pet squirrels too @Hippo. Xylia spends a fortune on nuts now. The squirrels seem to spend a good deal of time begging. Ours prefer walnuts and will ignore lesser offerings like peanuts and Brazils now they know they can get walnuts with a little more effort.

I've had this situation with loved ones too - operations getting postponed, sometimes at the last minute. In a sense, once they're actually in theatre, it's somethign of a relief. Then they're in the recovery suite, and the process of being an informal carer starts all over again . . .

That's funny, there seems to be plenty of MTF 94 advertised for sale here in the UK, so it doesn't look like it's gone out of fashion just yet. Interestingly, whilst the old Difflock Evo overpriced transmission fluid seems to have diaappeared off the internet, pretty much exactly the same...

If they're rivnuts (or some other sort of self-expanding captive nut) once you've ground the outer flange off, you should be able to push them through so they fall down inside the chassis and then you can put new ones in. I should know, becuase I have this model, but it's several years since I...

Beware of stud or bolt extractors - they can snap off when force is applied, and as they're made of harder metal than one's drills this can be difficult to deal with. If you can get a hole drilled reasonably centrally, it might be easier to get a tap in and cut a new thread. At least you can...

I don't know what all the fuss is about myself. I drive thousands of miles in my TD5 and don't find it burdensome at all. The most miles I've covered in a day is around 700. My everyday motoring includes rural roads, motorway trips and the near-stationary traffic jam of the M6 through the west...

No doubt it'll be in the slow cooker as soon as it's expired.