Silver S50 with ACS parts journal

[Fat Tony]

New Pirelli boots on the new ACS Type III rims that I've had in storage for a couple of years, since buying from Jonttt. Can't wait to fit them tomorrow

(The valves protrude further than those on my original Type III rims for some reason)

[Fat Tony]

Drivers window stopped working today, stuck halfway down but it's in for Inspection II next week, so will get that looked at then unless I get the chance to investigate tomorrow

[Fat Tony]

Car's currently in for Inspection II service and to replace the broken component rendering the drivers window inoperable - awaiting a part from the Fatherland to fix that at circa £170. Will post further details once I've got all the info

Valves didn't require much adjustment at all (car is on around 75k miles)

Can't wait to get it back

[Fat Tony]

I collected the car following the Inspection II service today. The Indy I use highlighted that the front o/s ARB mount is starting to show signs of surface rust, so that's now on the list of things to tidy up over the next couple of months, but otherwise it's all looking good (apart from the front brake discs that I already have on my to-do list).

Turned out that the window regulator had snapped apart in the drivers door (PN: 51 33 8 410 554) so new item now fitted

[Fat Tony]

Sailed through MOT test today with no advisories. Happy days.

[Fat Tony]

The annoying creek from the backend of my MC has worsened over the last couple of months, so like any good MC owner - you worry like hell about the chassis/boot floor/diff mount .

I've had the car looked at a couple of times but nobody's been able to see where the creek is coming from. I've given the boot floor an internal inspection regularly over the last few years to keep an eye out for issues developing there, and a couple of weekends ago inspected it again, and nothing out of the ordinary to be seen.

I stripped out all the interior fittings from the centre console backwards, to see if I could spot anything - nope. Rear top mounts (Rogue Engineering) are sound as are the mounting points for them. Boot floor all good and no issues to be seen.

So with nothing looking out of the ordinary on the interior, I had a look underneath again but it's impossible to see much with the car just ~30cm off the ground and your nose 1cm from the car floor. So I booked the car in at Track Torque for a couple of hours for them to have a good look underneath to see if they could spot anything that nobody else has now that the creak has worsened.

I picked the car up later in the day (stressing about the news of doom as you do) and it looks like it might just be the diff mounting bush that's started to fail. A small amount of the rubber has come-away from the metal surround and with a huge screwdriver inserted, it's possible to rock the bush a little which replicates the squeaking I've been hearing, so fingers crossed we'll have that replaced in a couple of weeks and we'll be squeak free.

I'm going to leave the interior stripped out until after the new bush is fitted just in case - what a pain to remove/refit that lot is. I've car interior panels all over the house - my wife's delighted

[c_w]

Rear interior is such a pain. About a million pieces for such a small car and designed in such a way that it feels like everything bar the dashboard needs to be removed to get essential rear quarter covers removed

[Fat Tony]

Rear interior is such a pain. About a million pieces for such a small car and designed in such a way that it feels like everything bar the dashboard needs to be removed to get essential rear quarter covers removed

When I swapped out the OEM rear top mounts for the Rogue ones, I hoped it would all never need removing again It's pretty easy, just a bloody nuisance

[Fat Tony]

Well that’s pleasant Saturday afternoon news... that bloody squeak from the tail end has only gone and stopped! I’ve not had the diff mounting bush replaced yet, but during the two inspections it’s had underneath trying to find the squeak, there’s been various penetrating/lubricating sprays gone here and there (mostly diff bush) and it seems that some of it has sorted the squeak.

I’ll still be getting the bush replaced because it has seen better days but happy days.

[c_w]

WD40 i'm sure fixes everything you car!

[Fat Tony]

WD40 i'm sure fixes everything you car!

Hahaha I wish mate.

I may have spoken too soon anyway. It’s coming back

[Fat Tony]

Annual interior boot floor check. Still just that one spot weld fail that hasn't changed since the day I bought the car in 2010. Car now stinks of white spirit, after removing the soundproofing adhesive

Boot interior all fitted back again now thankfully, and just one screw leftover... Goddamn it

[c_w]

I think it might be worth taking a closer look at the 3 or 4 spot welds on the top left just in front of the rubber loom grommet (its all about left of the diff bush and the left chassis rail). They look a bit rusty to me as does that bit on the left rail. I had a creak and it was one or two of those spotwelds that had welds fractured.

[Fat Tony]

All the brown you're seeing is just residue from the white spirit diluting the soundproofing material mate, which has also coloured the sealant, but I’ll get a toothbrush on those spot welds to really clean them up and take a look. Thanks

[c_w]

Ah I see! Couldn't really see from that photos. I do recall I only had one or two fracture spot welds in that group (which holds the crossmember/diff hanger) and it created a creak when setting off.