CurtisRider

It's irrelevant how Prawn had it, it still needs to go up somehow otherwise it just looks like every other A3 thats been modified with bolt on stuff. George, didn't I fit your exhaust?

Mine has improved significantly since the upgrades, it is a totally different feeling bike! Others have ridden it and not realised its a budget bouncer. The frame flex isn't evident (I notice far more from my Rebas) and the stability on the back wheel is good, quite happy doing manuals on it now. What wheels have you gone for? I'm pondering over buying some Superstar AM ones, although I may just buy hubs as these rims seem pretty alright, certainly taken some nasty hits already. Have you seen the new version of the 6.3? Looks really good for the money, and for a bit more theres a model with air forks and shock which looks like great value.

I said it was the resistor when you got it I have my money on your carb being dirty inside, consequently because the fuel lines will be manky as well. I was told its an easy job to drop the tank on the mk2 if you want to clean it out and then clean/replace the lines. People also fit mk3 tanks, something to do with going from 2 pumps to 1 being better... Might be worth looking into if you are going to drop the tank

Are those carbed or injected? I'm guessing its some crud somewhere along the line thats causing issues

Fiddlesticks. Jacked the E46 up and thought I had the axle stand under the steel mounting... turns out I wasn't paying enough attention and it was the alloy diff brace, which mixed with the jack sometimes being an awkward sod to control the speed when going down, ended up in me cracking the differential brace. Now to find somebody breaking an E46 locally for a replacement before I go back to uni On the plus side, I sucessfully replaced both the rear springs and the rear trailing arm bushes using my home made pressing tool, although one of them was so seized in I ended up using the sabre saw to cut the bugger out. Now to get the back end aligned (toe and camber) and hope the tyres dont wear wonkily again as dad's getting a little frustrated with how long they last! Also, why is the E46 so nasty compared to the E36 in every possible way? Such a nasty car in comparison and really doesn't live up to the BMW quality image

Had a play in the workshop Firstly I needed to modify my bike roof rack to fork mount as my suspension is too long for the racks arms to reach the downtube! I'm fed up with having to get the Saab mucky inside after muddy rides Far stiffer now, I will remount the arms now so the bike is held on even more securely and so it can be locked on. Still got the other rack to do as well. I also got a chance to play with the Commer today. I decided to scrap my first attempt at making an outer step, it was super messy as it was made of loads of bits of sheet welded togther, the angles weren't right and I just wasn't happy with it at all. I started again by making a cardboard template which helped me get my head around the folds and make a good chunk of it in 1 piece. The logical sensible way you might say... The 3 drivers outer steps (original, 1st attempt and start of new attempt) Clamped roughly in place, it fits! Then it was time to get the fluted part made And see how it looks against the old one The lower part isn't finished yet, the curves near the back aren't correct and I need to neaten up the edges as well as getting the bends in. The step still isn't great but its 100x better than my original and hopefully with a bit more fettling I can get a pretty reasonable end result that only needs a thin skim of filler to hide the hammer marks!

Test the battery and alternator with a multi meter, at least then you can see if either has issues It might just be a placebo effect but since changing my battery, my car seems to run better-perhaps the dogy battery was causing some ecu problems...I know 9-3s get loads of other electrical gremlins when the battery is shot

Eep, Sus forks on a trials bike are really fun, I used judy XCs back in the day and my street riding advanced rapidly! Then I got bored of bounce and went back to rigid

Like that, new bulbs come with all the cabling on them thats a typical aftermarket hid setup, you wont have trouble finding bulbs

The bulbs should unplug from the ballast....unless you have an even more rediculously cheap kit than mine

Yeah, all my bulbs have been different with my cheapy hid kits, you get what you pay for I guess! Kinda gutted my current ones need replacing as they were a proper white rather than nasty blue like some people have

At least headunits are pretty cheap these days, Halfords always have some sort of poverty deal on if you don't want to spend much. Usually when the resistor goes, you still get one speed from the fan (or at least in my experience) Could try directly giving the fan motor power to check that it isn't dead, at least that would help you rule it out

Your headunit should have a fuse in the back...check it! Blower might have a dead resistor, worth looking into as it's not uncommon on other cars

Whacking in another permanent live won't be hard, might be the best option, just remember to whack an inline fuse in! Can't you check the headunit in your mini again to be sure it functions still? The switch may have 12v going to it, but that still doesnt mean it takes the full current of the blower so it's worth checking to see if it has a relay. Switch could be at fault, i'm assuming you are testing it in both the on and off position yeah? I met an electrician who didn't know what continuity was, needless to say I requested that my landlord never sends him again

One should have voltage with ignition off, and both should have voltage with ignition on (red and yellow that is) as one is a permanent live so your headunit stores your settings and the other provides power when the ignitions on. It's unlikely the power to the blower comes from the switch, it'll prob go through a relay (or at least mine have...)

I found having hid mains to be absolutely horrible, and I can kind of see what Jardo means. Stuff kinda pops out suddenly as you don't really get a sense of depth and distance, and your eyes hurt like hell! I'm fitting halogens back on my mains again when i fit my new low beam kit

Going back to ramp stuff, i have found these: http://www.restorationramps.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/ramps?opendocument&part=3 Of which im thinking about making them lower profile with removeable ramps and a central jacking bar so that i can use my jack like this: but the car jacks up from the wheels instead, then the ramp part can be removed and put to the side and i can have height adjustable legs under the frames so it can be whatever height i want

They only come on when the doors opened, stock Saab setup. Halogen bulbs are so yellow and dull, looks rank!

They don't tend to last long if they are cheapy ones. I have been through about 15 pairs of 501s of different types, and 5 or 6 festoon types in multiple cars. I think my last pair were £1 posted from HK and lasted a year which is pretty good going! Worst I have had have lasted a week. My car has leds through the whole interior, sidelights and plate lights

Yeah it looks horrendous doesn't it I'm hoping I can grab some paint off you for easter time as thats when I have my next break when it will be warm enough to spray! Unless I find another cheap replacment bumper which unfortunately I missed out on the other day (£30 in great condition and included the grilles worth £80 for the set)

Yeah I think you are probably right, like I said I wasn't too sure about fitting them. I'll save them as cupboard lights for the camper

I just found some LED strips that I got off ebay a while back for a uni robot project but I didn't get round to using them. I linked one up to a 9v battery to see what they could look like on the car. I'm not totally convinced about them, I fear they may look a little too try hard like those fellas who zip tie a million to the front of thier cars and end up looking like they have rigged up christmas lights. These certainly look better than the strips with a million little leds but i'm not sure they work with my car...... Also please ignore the mismatched colour bumper (go halfords, it'll be resprayed when it's warmer ) and the dieing pink headlight bulbs (new HID kit is in the post).

Just to get rid of the garishness of the chrome rings (they stick out like a sore thumb now ) Get some black tint spray (stuff you use for light lenses) and spray the badge to give it a smoked chrome look, that should make the front end look so much better! On an Audi related note, I just spotted this on my travels....WHY do people do that? It's not even remotely convincing on a povo spec A6

Welding out of ally kinda goes against my budget haha! I may have enough steel to build one of these for just tool/time cost, I will have to check when i get back It is such a simple design, can't believe I hadn't thought of it before. Robin, you are right about the jacking beam, your rotating idea could work, it obviously needs to be as low profile as possible when you enter the ramp so maybe a detatchable one will be necessary. I will also make legs for it rather than using axle stands I think, a set at the back and another in the middle, rather be safe than sorry!

I have plenty of steel to make it just need the main lengths, got the rest! I just need to make it long enough for my camper/pick up to get on! I will go for beefier steel than what the company have used...look at the bow in the photo I put up The other option is those see saw designs, but I think I prefer this, I can also make different ends for different heights/angles depending on the vehicle going on Haha, Dan thats the only reason I want it... BUFFTING