Scratching their heads cause you simply deserved the best

[martinholmesuk]

Hello Folks,

The day Daniel starts the diary idea is the day my Vader is sent on her way to scrap yard hell.

I told someone here that I did not care about Vader which is true yet I know that scrapping Vader is a shame after all the time and effort which I poured into her.

I also know I made myself sick after years of pushing and pushing to make it right and much better through replacing almost everything and watching it come apart almost as quick as it's sorted out.

Driving Vader was never a relaxing or enjoying thing for me to be doing. I would drive and keep an eye on all the gauges and how the car drove would be a constant on my mind.

Bumpy road? Well I was looking at the road to see if there was indeed bumps or was the engine was giving a rough power delivery which would turn my attention to how the gear change felt and cause myself more stress.

I test drove Vader with my dad and the garage man which is why I never pickup the power issue but once driving down the motorway I was well awares that something was very wrong.

The HT lead melted! Yes on the way home from paying out all that money on a minty late model 480turbo complete with aircon and full leather. I thought that now that's why it felt slow.

Wrong because after that the heater matrix and alternator failed in the same week! Vader went through at least 3 starters and 3 alternators and some window motors etc etc.


The good times where driving around chasing MatBat's blinky which caused a few good crashes and bent parts but always vader would manage not to be crashed by her ever careful driver (me)

I did some really dumb driving down country lanes in the dead of night doing 80+ and trying not to die or slide off the road into a ditch while racing with Mat. I went through a year of driving like complete twat and boosting it all over the place and how we never got caught i'll never know.

Don't forget fitting the supermod ECU/T25 and all the other crap to make it go faster I also had some nice times with my ex and taking her children to the lego shop which was a bigger treat for me I sometimes think.

The bad times and there are so many of them.

Breaking down working out it's not that quick a car, finding out the exhuast is wrong. Having my ex-wife attempt to jump out of vader while I was driving and going through a 4 year divorce.
changing at least 3 starter motors along with the alternator another 3 times. Blowing the mega fuse when on way to a 480 meet and never making it.

blowing the gearbox up thanks to 200bhp dumping 5lt of ATF at tesco car park / melting a piston/ taking the engine out a few times / changing the gbox / breaking down at least once a week / spending massive amounts on parts/ dropping atf all over the drive / being hit by a vauxhall / being molested by an ugly girl and stopping her breaking my door pockets / rebuilding the car at side of road / gaining over 4000 posts more then anyone else / Fighting to keep a car for the wrong reasons and getting depressed over it all.

Well it's now crushed so it can fuck right off along with all the shit it came with.

Now own a dark green 480 turbo which is a rare colour and comes with some toys.

It runs well and gets new oil and water from time to time and I never want to do anything major on it. I had to open the bonnet this week to check the oil and that was enough to make me go lay down and relax.

When my wife left me without ever giving a reason [edit... hang on i do remember why, it's because she was rather fucked in the head and had been in hospital for it b4 i met her] I got Vader to cheer myself up but ended up fighting to keep Vader alive where I had failed with my wife so the fight changed over and now it's over after I forced to stop and think about my actions and what it had made it.

Being depressed for all those years and just this year have I woken up and thought about it. I started stripping Vader last year and some said I would never do it.

I have but it took me a long time.

[martinholmesuk]

Replaced my rear clusters with Vaders and they look very very nice now

I was out clubbing last night and went home to my mates house after spending the night drinking whiskey and doing shots. Some girl was telling us about all the types of drinks she likes. We came out that she had a drinking problem lol.

Drove to work feeling rough and stopped off for chocolate milk then into supermarket for strawberry smoothy before landing my ass at my desk for a few hours of work.

Hang on I forgot about the drive. I done over 5000miles in RORO since late feb so I spend a lot of time thinking while driving which sometime is not such a good thing. My mood changes so the driving goes from relaxed to high speed. I also press for full power when leaving road works. I used to be really naughty driving but it's relaxed alot but your know when I need power because my arm gets back in the car from it's sunbathing and it's into drive mode and the gears are done like a manual box.

Yes I have just 120bhp but man it goes well and it's not stressing RORO to much.

I'm off to Zurich tomorrow so no friday until Friday night.

[martinholmesuk]

I'm back from the wonderful Zurich! It's a city which I gel very well with.
Whenever I fly to Zurich I feel at home and the only other place I call home is London.

I had an message left on this thread from a young lad called Steve which I will share with you all at home.

Man!
Ive known ya 4 years and know ya reasonably well.

The Black Death as I call it was a beautiful looking car.I didnt lke the red stripe but it would have looked wrong without it too

I hatethe fact that the shell is squished and now I have this barn to play in Im truly gutted to not have had the £50 at the right time to trailer it up to Cambs.

Oh well,whats done is done.Yer way healthier for it in my opinion,it shows on MSN let alone face to face!!

Funny thing is,with Roro (The green one!) its like it doesnt exist!.Ya never hear much about it.

Sod it,if yer healthier that way its gotta be goodus

Anyway,millions of car woners out there dont even bother to lift the bonnet and check the oil and theirs dont break down!That green car must be some holiday from Vader!!

Good on ya!

I reckon a real car enthusiast loves his car like another person.You took it to another level mate....

The pic of Vader at Mat's gate is the testament to your ownership and work put into that car.

Groomus

Steve has it right about RORO and lack of DIY.


This weekend I went over to Rachel's (my favorite forum girl who owns a rather tasty vw type 3 fastback which I do infact like but I'm more into driving fast then chilling it in the dub) and had a nice day of replacing her 480's aux water pump which was infact better then mine on RORO so maybe I should have kept the pump myself nah I'm not mean.

We wanted to get some 480 on 480 shots but it was raining come afternoon which sucked!

I drove home at 2:30am playing Isao Tomita's version of the classical 'The Planets' He is a Japanese electronic composer and I think i'll dig deeper into his music. I'm really getting into new music this week.

There was some chav saxo in the middle lane of M25 doing 60 so I drove up and flashed his ass! The chav refused to move over but while overtaking he put his foot down then came up behind so I slowed down and down just piss the fool off.


The 480 on Sunday went to the shops but today she has not moved and it's been a weekend of Rachel's 480 and then my Spitfire!

Look at my Spitty's calipers!!

[martinholmesuk]

Whoo Hoo what a 480 it's been.

Rolling with RORO this morning on my 33 mile drive to work on the M4 when I spotted a 480ES.

I slowed down and let it ride along side my 480GT looking turbo but no waves or anything.

There 480 was a most minty ES in lavender complete with mud flaps (i love the flaps ) bit odd on a M reg but yeah I liked there 480ES.

Tonight I had another date which was nice, We had wine and a meal in Twickenham then I drove her home and she liked my 480 (she used to own a Renualt 5 turbo which was modded)

Reminder to myself! Top the oil up on RORO tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm taking 480 to work and back but later I'll take the bus as it's a meal with a few friends so we are gonna get pissed as fish

Had another PM yesterday regarding my diary.

Just read your thread on the "dear diary" section and was about to reply when I realised I wasn't allowed so thougth I would PM you.

I'm Glad things are going well for you finally and you have gotten a project car that you enjoy working on, and a daily driver thats reliable...just what you needed really. I always read the threads involving Vaders problems and thought you must be really determined to carry on with the multitude of problems and like others have said, I think it was a good thing you finally giving up on the evil bastard that was Vader. I know it must of been tough! It definately seems to have helped you get back on track and start enjoying your car more as well as life by the looks of it (you have certainly seemed more upbeat on the forum!)

I feel I may even have a vader of my own... but not a 480. Due to my tight student budget next year, and the fact I would be doing 4 times as much driving as I have done this year, I decided I needed a diesel. After driving a 406 and hearing lots of good things, about them I went and bought a top of the range executive model. Relatively low miles, full service history, tatty bodywork but the price was right and I was after a work horse (12 months Mot and 6 months Tax also made it appealing).

Now it had a dodgy radiator fitted (as in patched up by the previous owner for the sell) and the headgasket has gone on it (not sure if it was like it or because of the radiator). So I decided to just change the whole engine and it has taken about a week to get the old engine out as every nut that could seize has done, drive shaft wouldn't come out, and shed loads of other problems!!! Finally got the engine out today after lots of work and hope to get it all back together over the next day or so but I really hate the car at teh moment. I drove 300 very good miles and then it has been on the drive over the last 3 weeks.

Now i'm hoping when the new engine is fitted, all will be well but I just have a feeling I have a Vader of my own here. Mainly because of all the trouble I have had taking it apart. I have angle grinded so many bolts off because of frustration!!!


Anyway that was a bit of an essay but basically I'm happy for you! You deserve a break and have offered advice (and parts) over the last couple years of 480 ownership and I have a real respect for how much you put up with Vaders problems. I have swapped the engine once and I'm pissed off. You have had your engine out about 20 times!!!! Anyway, Glad is all well and hope you keep updating the diary with pictures of the work your doing on the spitfire. I am going to look for a summer project I think. I have 4 months of free time lol!

Take it easy,

Rob

Thanks Rob for that!

[martinholmesuk]

It's leaking water via the rear light clusters! My own fault for not sealing them last week so looking like a Saturday morning job.

I don't want to go outside and do anything to my 480! I have lost the love for them now. The spitfire is nothing thing because I like it more which is odd because it's not moved since I got it

The 480 needs some oil changing really after it's 143c run a month ago but means I gotta get under the bloody thing.

ok im off to lunch

[martinholmesuk]

RORO went to Birmingham on Saturday.

I was stuck in traffic for hours so the drive took around 3.5 hours! I was going to pickup Spitfire body panels that I had won the night before.

That was 200 pounds out the cash machine but saved me around 200 but I also went to Moss-Europe that morning and got 211 pounds of new parts and now i'm skint.

Today I wanted to go out for the day but I really must address the oil issues.

I changed the oil and atf so all is good again.

don't get me started on the aux water pump!

[martinholmesuk]

Had a problem on the drive home from work...

The aux water was leaking and around 10miles shy of Heathrow it dumped almost all the water

I made it to Texaco and put two buckets of water in.

Removed that pile of shit aux water pump and bridged it!

Otherwise RORO is going really well

[martinholmesuk]

Thank god it's Thursday!

I had a crap week at work so far with bloody french people doing my head in with there demands then moaning when I say NO.

There was a couple of things I wanted to do this week driving related but was unable.

RORO and I went to Tesco yesterday for beer and you can watch the movie on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btyhAdXhszQ

I also got some milk and dinner which was a bonus.

The drive to work this morning was very good and no upsets which is nice I would rather not crush yet another 480

[martinholmesuk]

Bloody hell this 480 lark is so boring!

The fact the 480 meet is off does not bother me like it once would and that's a good thing. The forum now sucks hard core for me. The once great members have all but gone.


Vader is gone so the once great evil 480 has been replaced by a dark green 480 turbo which seems to work for the last 6000 miles which means I have nothing more to say.

I have so many answers and advice to give the new members but I don't want to help no more.

I now sound like the fucking wise one from karate kid (nooooo I'm more like the old git)

[martinholmesuk]

Today RORO hit 90100miles and this happens, Kids love it but it just pissed me off! pile of 480 that is a half brother of volvo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWyWl8N7Qxo

[martinholmesuk]

RORO is still having some headlight issues. I replaced the side bulbs and no change so right the lights are stuck up and motors unplugged.

I went out this morning into London and picked up my super light spitfire bonnet.







RORO is not sure about her new bonnet! Hat's don't suit 480's very well.

[martinholmesuk]

I have now fixed the pop ups! The pop-up relay looked just fine but once replaced with Vaders everything worked just fine.

(another part of Vader makes it's evil way towards RORO)

[martinholmesuk]

Hey the pop up lights are still working! not bad for 5mins work most of which I spent looking for the relay

Those standard speakers in the fronts (13cm) are OK so I stuck with them since Feb when I got RORO but I downloaded 1000meg of tracks which I found on http://www.renaissanceuk.com/index_ok.php but they sound bad on the Volvo speakers.

I have a pair of JBC speakers which I have now installed and they are so so so much better it's unreal.

My advice is to replace your standard speakers if your have £40 your laughing

Moving on from speakers to snails....

There was a dead snail on the bonnet this morning It was removed with much care and put in the grass for insects to feast on.

[martinholmesuk]

It's already Tuesday! I drove to work tojuthe tune of trippy tracks then the jungle tracks started and ruined it I know what's getting deleted next.

Stopped at SHELL and got some V-Power @ £1.02p then walked into the shop and looked around for the VIP queue but could not find it.

I was not happy that paying over £1 and no VIP queue so I had to settle for some fat chick serving with a spotty face.

People like VBB spending all this cash on high ron fuel should think about if it's a good plan still. It's not like his got a turbo 480 to take an advanage and at 7p more and it's alot to find in your wallet.

mpg they say. I'm not so sure.

[martinholmesuk]

Right folks!

My rear clusters are still leaking which blows but hey I will sort it this week as I would like to put my leather back in RORO.

The pop ups are up and I have unplugged the damn things! They where fine for a while but now the drivers side is being a retard.

I was out and about on Saturday afternoon and the drive was faultless and I had a really nice day and got home Sunday morning around 2am without problem which on the same run saw Vader brake down no less then 6 times.

This inc

Front water pipe undoing
Temp sensor wires falling out
Rad fan spinning and snapping off
Air leaks

You get the idea but with RORO it's been fine so far par a few silly things
but having fixed Vader a few million times. I can get a 480 home 8 out of 10 times

I been hearing and feeling a thumping sound for around a month now whenever I brake and it's got worse.

RORO was up on the jack last week and I could not source the problem until tonight!!! I had suspected gearbox mount causing the box to smack the subframe.

The outer wishbone bolt is loose!!!!!! which is causing the ball joint to move forwards under braking! I found the nut undone (just after midnight like you do lol)

It's been raining a lot this week so I'm using the wipers much and now I'm sure the wipers are crap.

Vader had the same problem so hmmmm maybe wipers from a new Volvo could be fitted? I know Raddo drivers fit Polo wipers

What's on the CD player.... Renaissance Ibiza, mixed by Deep Dish
What cool things did I see today.... Silver bug / renault alpina v6 (sic)
Worst thing... That dead fox is still rotting on the M4 fast line towards M25 and I now know what those splats are on the M4. It's baby ducks... very sad sorry when I saw one get killed last week! The need a fence to stop the little ducks following there mum across 3 lanes of motorway.

[martinholmesuk]

I'm sure weekends are meant to be relaxing however.

My weekend was spent waxolying a 480 then replacing dash bulbs only to find one of them still does not work (0.10v power) it's nice when helping someone brings them a smile

I drove 110 miles on Sunday then 200 today at some bloody crazy hours (my fault) that's almost my whole weeks driving and almost on the M25 I felt a large bang then no power and rolled to a stop.

After looking and seeing nothing amiss I got under the 480 and the bottom intercooler pipe has blown off.

Put it back on and did it up tight and no problems, Poured another £50 petrol into it's mouth and off we went. I was hmmmm racing a rich modded 480turbo this afternoon, I could see the other drive was up for some and went for it. I don't think I had much chance of winning any prizes apart from pulling more speed on the corners (other 480 rolls like a boat ) I never noticed but the 480 behind me rear lifts the nose high (maybe smelling my pure non modded exhaust of freshness?)

I'm very tired now and just wanted to sleep all weekend and now I'm back in Reading awaiting a company meal and I really want my bed!


Otherwise I had a nice weekend and hope to do it all over again but with more sleep.

[martinholmesuk]

It's already Thurs! The week is going really quick for me.

It's been a week of monkey side talk and hey RORO made 91600 today!

[martinholmesuk]

I got a rich mod!

Test drove it in the rain and thought yeah this is alright.

Next day went to work and it goes very well.

I'm now used to the power and will be switching back to my standard ecu on Saturday morning as this ECU is not mine. It's going to Malta for another 480 forum member.

Sure I like it but i'm happy keeping RORO on stock power. I know the power makes her so much better but I can't help but think why I got another 480 and that it needs to be normal and not power hungry.

Vader was fast, The stage 1 rich mod is not Vader fast but it's been fun having some of that fun back.

The spitfire is my toy for modding and the 480 needs to get to work and back at 66miles each day I need no problems.

I think you lot will understand my reasons.

[martinholmesuk]

Been back on standard ECU for a while now and can't say I miss the rich mod for these reasons

I kept putting my foot down and keeping to any known speed limit was harder.

I was speeding

Before I even needed to remove the ECU for posting I found myself removing it for the above reasons and there.

On standard power my 480 is fine on the roads.

When on the blue and then crazy red ecu I noticed I started scaring myself as the car could NOT handle the bends and twists of country roads.

Fine a straight road but scary on anything more.

My 480 has standard everything and the suspension is almost all new. Vader would hold the road much better at these speeds thanks to being lower etc.

Rich mod is great but don't push it like I have!

btw don't no one post in my diary because VBF is after you and will tell you off.

[martinholmesuk]

4 years, 10 months, 10 days since I joined forum and 8675 posts!

That's some going or

[7.40% of total forum / 4.89 posts per day]

RORO hit 92500 miles today.













Happy Days.