inspiral

Been there done that. Do the drop links, little labour and cheap. Failing that do the banana bar, not that much labour and use a pattern part @ 1/3 of the OEM cost.

Hi All

A rather late update on this subject.

Last year's premium was £300 with Swift Cover and their quote for this years was £295. Both for 10k miles.

Tried the usual comparison sites for a 4K miles policy and best I could get was about £340. Rubbish when I'd more than halved the millage.

Got a requote from Swift for the reduced millage. Came in at £285 so I went with that.

FYI I'm 4X, have no claims or points and live in Glasgow city centre.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers

Hi All

Thanks for the feedback. I've been playing with the comparison sites and have been seeing a reduction of around 20% going from 20k to 4k miles. Maybe I'm being naive but was hoping for more....I'll keep looking and report back on what route I decide to take.

Cheers

The zed has just become a second car and will now do very few miles. Probably less than 4k.

Any tips on getting a good deal ?

Thanks

Couldn't watch it all, very uncomfortable viewing......idiot.

I bought a Toyo sports one. Quality looked fine, that only flaw in the plan was that it was 5cm too short ! I fixed it with the addition of spacers in the form of extra flanges source by me but paid for by them.

It's been on the car for around 9 months, looks fine so far.

Key doesn't disable the alarm, at least on mine it doesn't

You might find you have a broken micro switch in the key fob rather than the battery. A common fail, ebay has cheap replacements if you've a got a soldering iron.

Is the W brace available ?

Bargain, I have the same in my car. Works really well :-)

Good luck :-)

Not that I need to worry about any of this, my OEM currently lives in my loft, which quite frankly the best place for it.

If you have no tape in the cassette I don't really see how it would affect the sound quality other than the physical drive motor noise. Interesting though to hear there's an addition mod though to negate the need for the cassette, I didn't know that.

That'll be your problem there then :-)

Your aux cable goes to the line input from the tape heads, if it's not switched on it won't work.

Definitely ask them to stop feeding her although the damage is probably done.

Your chicken, your responsibility.

Clear, firm and decisive. one of the most ridiculous posts I have ever seen on this forum

I thought it was quite reasonable, no empathy whatsoever right enough !

Have you got a cassette with the tape removed in the head ? Sounds like the head does think it's worth switching to tape as there's nothing there.

Thanks for the pdf, got a warning on hand brake adjustment in my last MOT. Now I can try and fix it :-)

Got mine from a forum member here. Wasn't in perfect nick but pretty good all the same and knowing at least some of it's history is a big bonus. Bought unseen subject to being in described condition and came down from Glasgow to Lancaster to pick it up.

Buying cars like these from a real enthusiast is a big bonus imho

PM'd

it's only around £10-£15 for a tube of Molyslip so it can't hurt to put it in is what I'm thinking.

Currently £8.99 at Halfords.

As well as a worn and/or belt you may also have a battery on it's way out. It's this time of year your battery has to work hardest, therefor you altenator does too. It means it's harder to turn.

Done it today it's an absolute must

Not strickly, it's a bodge. You're essentially overdriving the amps and there have been examples of owners blowing them irreparably. You are putting a high level output into a low input.

Some heads do a high voltage low level phone out, so if you're buying new it'd be best* going that way. eg. Pioneer or Alpine.

*Strickly speaking there's nothing best about the bose amp setup, nothing will make them sound good.

so two months to go before they fail then ?

Oh you pessimist you

My previous car, a Fiat Coupe 20vt, had a habit of eating arms. In the twelve years I had it I put three sets on. One set of OEM and two pattern. Which ones lasted the longest ? A pair of pattern ones. Not exactly scientific proof but hey nobody got hurt in the experiment

Just returning to this topic with a mini review.

I found a UK source and ordered an arm.

Initial impressions: very well molded, no obvious flaws and rubber parts looked, errrr, well like rubber. All felt nice and stiff as much as I could tell by hand.

Fit: A doddle to change, went straight into place. Took less than an hour and this was my first one.

Conclusion: Solved my troublesome rattle and notice no difference to handling. Seems durable enough as it's now been on the car 10 months. Considering the price compare to an OEM part it's difficult to argue against using them.

Yep, need to have a good poke around and see how serious it is. Are they difficult to replace? at first glance I thought it was only a few bolts....

Very good, sounds like mine !

Unfortunately my garage mentioned it as an advisory on my last MOT so need to fix it as I may be selling up at some point over the summer.