davebrads

Looking at the ES figures which I think means all 6th gen 2 litre coupes (though apparently there were a few on the road in 1995 - how does that work?) there were 92 on the road at the end of last year, of which 21 were manual. My car is becoming something of a rarity, more reason to look after it.

Well I have finished one wheel. The first wheel was started using an assorted pack of abrasive sheets from Halfords, their "Project Pack". It soon became apparent that the sheets were rubbish, the coarser grades fell apart, and the wet and dry disintegrated when it was wet! I found a couple of sheets of Norton Abrasives in the shed and they were much better. So today I went to Wickes and bought a pack of assorted aluminium oxide paper that was actually Norton but it was branded differently, and some Wickes branded "specialist finishing sandpaper" which was actually quite good. So I made much better progress on the second wheel. I got it to a reasonable standard and gave it a coat of Collinite No. 845 Insulator Wax. I quite happy with the results. You can see light scratches if you look close up so not up to concourse standard, but acceptable, and hopefully fairly easy to maintain. I though about polishing, but I expect that would take quite a lot of maintenance to maintain the finish. This might be heresy to some on this forum but I am not the kind of person who wants to spend every weekend messing with his car :-)

Anyway this is what I did to my car today. It was transported home yesterday. I was driving on the A6 near Duffield when suddenly the nearside front wheel gave way and I screeched to a halt. It turned out that I had managed to lose the upper ball joint nut! So now the car is on my drive on an axle stand while I wait for some parts. Fortunately there wasn't any collateral damage, but we did notice that the tie-rod nut wasn't the original castellated nut so I am going to replace that too. I haven't been happy with the condition of my wheels for a while, they have been corroding under the paint as often older alloys do, and the paint had peeled off in places. So I have been spending a lot of my time this last couple of days polishing one of them up. Unfortunately I didn't take a before picture, but I have a picture of the offside wheel - the nearside wheel was just as bad, plus it had some deep gouges from being kerbed (by a previous owner I must add) It is by no means perfect, there are some scratches still visible from over-exuberant removal of the paint, plus there are some recesses where I haven't been able to remove all trace of the white primer (my fingers are raw, they need a couple of days to recover before I start on the next wheel), but I am happy enough for now. My thinking now is that I could lacquer them, but I would expect that since the factory paint failed, my attempt would most likely fail even quicker, so I will leave them bare, and simply use some metal polish on them when I'm cleaning the car and they should retain their looks. Anyone think that this might be a bad idea?

Press the auto button then press the AC button to turn aircon off, works for me. Regarding temperatures, I find that I have to have it set at 24-25 in winter, but then have to turn it down to 20-21 on a sunny summer day... I guess it depends upon the position of the temperature sensor. Mind you a friend of mine was boasting about the number of temp sensors in his Octavia, but he still had to mess with the controls to get it comfortable.

I've got the two original fobs and you have to get close to the car with both of them. It's always been this way. I've just assumed that it's just how it is with these fobs. The holding it to the head trick works for extending the range though.

As far as I can see everyone contributing to this thread is driving a V6 so I thought I'd add my experience of a 2.0. The worst I've seen is about 28. On the whole I am getting around 32. Mostly this is a combination of 10 mile commuting trips and longer journeys, the 28 will have been mostly the shorter journeys. Most of the time I have roof bars on the car, and usually a canoe on the longer trips and I am sure it takes 2-3 mpg off my average. The best I've seen is 38 and that was entirely longer journeys without the roof bars. I'm envious of Stu and his consumption figures in a V6! I use BP Ultimate since having trouble with the "hot start" problem which it seemed to mask most of the time. It seems to improve consumption by between 1 & 2 mpg which isn't enough to offset the extra cost, but there is enhanced performance and better general engine health to add into the equation.

I am halfway through taking my near side steering assembly apart in order to replace the lower ball joint. I am stuck at removing the ABS sensor, it doesn't want to budge. I gave up last night and sprayed it with plenty of WD40 in the hope that it will help. It's my wedding anniversary today so I'm not getting back to it until tomorrow night by which time I might be lucky and it's freed itself. Failing that has anyone any good tricks that could help me?

I just gave him (mine's a he, not a she, and he's called Larry) a wash and polish at the same time T-cutting some light scratches where I'd managed to reverse into a hedge. I also polished the headlamp lenses and they're looking a lot brighter now.

It's the B4391 that runs over to Bala through the Tanat Valley. It's a really nice road, quiet but wide enough and with decent visibility to have some fun around the bends. Just watch out for sheep, they can put a nasty dent in the front of your car . It's a great alternative route into North Wales avoiding the A5 which is often clogged up with pensioners and holiday makers and has few opportunities for overtaking once you are in Wales.

An answer rather than a question. Stu saw that I have fitted roof bars on my coupe and he told me that people were asking on here about them. I've used a Thule roof rack which I bought for a 2002 3-door Civic. The rubber mounting pads aren't an exact match for the roof of the coupe, but they sit well enough and I haven't had any problems with them, nor are they leaving any nasty dints in the roof. You will always get some light scratches from the rubber pads with this type of roof rack even if they are the right ones for your car unless you are really careful. You can see them in the picture below but it isn't very clear, it's all I've got for now.

This is the only picture I can find of mine, driving back from a canoe race in Bala a couple of years ago. Nice driving road this by the way.

I've had my Coupe for about 5 years now, and have only just met Stu despite only living 15 miles away from him for the past 3 years! I accidentally found mine when looking to buy a Prelude and I think I luckily ended up with a better car, at least for me. It was good to meet Stu today and got some good advice. Will be going back soon to sort out my suspension.