It's been a while since I updated this blog. The site seems to be ticking away I get a couple of requests for discs a week but I've been making no real effort to promote it.
I thought I was doing well in the old SEO for the site as when i search for "replica tax discs" I was number one in the results forgetting that google optimises the results for you. When I got into incognito mode I'm half way down page 2. The way to build SEO is to have a network of references back to your site. You can either pay for a bunch of links, which google hates or you pay for google ads to get referrals to get links, which google loves. If you're offering a free service paying for google leads isn't a great idea as I'm already absorbing the cost of hosting etc. I really should do a better job in trying to promote it in the real world. When i post on social media it's about the cars and not the tax discs, which I think probably had a negative effect.
I have some ideas for the next development but need to build up some motivation.
Speaking of motivation I finally got my BMW 320si through it's MOT. If you don't know what that is, it's a 1 of 500 homologation special E90 3 series built in 2006 with a special hand built engine with a penchant for blowing up. I put a new timing chain on it and it needed new front struts, springs and suspension arms for it's MOT. It also made a god awful racket when running, which found to be a missing shim from one of the valve lifters. I replaced it and it sounds much better but by god that's a fiddly job. The e46 S54 M3 engine has 24 of these shims and when you're setting valve clearances you need to swap them out. I think you'd need counselling after trying to remove and refit 24 of these on the M3.
So it's MOT'd and now doesn't sound like a bag of ball bearings being dropped down the stairs but it's still not right. It has a whine I can't figure out and it's down on power. It revs freely, no misfires but it's slow. I did a 0-60 test and it should be 7.8 but mine it was 11.5. I've smoke tested the intake manifold, unplugged every electrical connection on the car, changed the spark plugs (which cost £10 each) and compression tested it and I can't find a fault. The only code I get is for an o2 sensor, it smells rich and when you rev it sometimes it pops on overrun, which to me indicates it's running too rich and a common fail point is the o2 sensors.
Just replace them right? Well there's 4 of them 2 upstream before the cat and 2 after the cat and they're expensive and the upstream ones are not easy to get to. See below.
I'm kind of getting to that enough is enough point so have put it up for sale at a horrendous loss. However these cars reputations proceed them and no one will touch it with 10 foot barge poll. Even with their pretty special pedigree only the very best with iron liner engines make decent money.
Speaking of completely unsalable cars I bought a Citroen C6. I've wanted one of these since they came out because of their over the top styling. I've had a Renault Avantime so i needed to complete the set of 2000's crazy french cars with the C6. The C6 was Citroen last gasp of the over the top big hydraulic suspension cars. After this they went to making conventional cars platform shared with Peugeot.
Even when they came out they had a reputation for being a bit flakey. As ever the French had high goals but maybe didn't execute it all that well. Don't get me wrong the interior is fantastic and it's a wonderful car to drive but if you own one of these 15 years on you need to expect some problems.
Look at the recipe:
- Take one large french car
- Add a sprinkling over overly complex electronics,
- Add suspension than runs at about 10 billion psi filled red fluid, which looks like blood.
- Add one Jaguar v6 diesel engine with it's own reputation for over complexity and a habit of snapping crank shafts
What you get out the end is one big delicious cake, which gives you a horrible head ache.
You see people trying to sell them for £4-5000 but in the reality a well looked after £2000 might be as good as one for big money. Mine cost £2000 and I think it's on the right side of good having had a gearbox rebuild, timing belt, suspensions arms etc. I made an effort to find one with no existing faults as I know fault find on these are difficult.
When I went to pick it up the bonnet wouldn't open, which was a great sign. However it drove the 250 miles homes absolutely fine.
Things that have gone wrong so far.
The digit dash doesn't like it when it's above about 22c and turns off. I live in Scotland so not a huge problem plus you can see the speed on the heads up display.
The passenger window cracked. I've no idea why other than it was a really hot day.
After driving it a short distance then restarting it again it has gone into limp mode and ran rough.
I reset the codes and or lock and unlock the car and it works fine. The fault indicates and EGR fault (a common issue). This engine has two of course one is easy the other is on the backside of the front wheel drive v6 and may as well be in Atlantis.
So far this is 100% worth it to drive around in this big barge with it's weird concave rear window and crazy styling. It's so smooth and quiet on the road one of my friends commented "my god it's almost like a normal car." Praise indeed for something this off the wall.
The poor old Megane R26 has been tucked away as I swapped it's insurance onto the 320si. Once that's gone then I'll be getting it MOT'd and sorted out as I really miss that car.
Here's all three of them together at a part held for my bad decisions.
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