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Fuelly
Fuelly
Fuelly
Fuelly
Fuelly
Fuelly
Fuelly

The 450SLC hits 300,000km

This evening I took my 450SLC for a drive up the old Pacific Highway. I wanted to check the impact of re-connecting the vacuum advance on the distributor. I had discovered the line was broken when doing some maintenance. With the advance enabled, mid throttle response seems a lot better. I do get a little pinging when cruising on the motorway, so I am going to try 98 instead of 95.

During the drive, the SLC reached a big milestone:

That’s right, the SLC has finally reached 300,000km. I purchased the car in 2003 with 262,000km showing. As there […]

March 30th, 2019 | Tags: , | Category: Mercedes | Leave a comment

USA Junkyard Visits

I am currently in the USA and had a few hours to spare in Cincinnati Ohio before I headed out to the airport. When I lived in the USA, I used to go to the self service junkyards to grab bits and pieces. These junkyards are larger in the USA and they have standard price lists for parts, no matter what car you remove it from. Most of the cars I own are too old to turn up in self service junkyards, but the two W126’s just fall into the range where they sometimes come up.

I ended up going […]

March 18th, 2019 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: Mercedes | One comment

2018 Chevy Malibu Review

My latest rental car was the 2018 Chevy Malibu. It is probably the best rental car I’ve had for a couple of years, but that is not really saying much. The Malibu is the latest in a line of cheap ‘full size’ cars that used to be the mainstay of the big 3. With buyer preferences moving to SUVs and raised hatchbacks, cars like the Malibu are a dying breed. The Malibu shares a platform with a few other FWD GM cars such as the Buick Regal, Opel Insigna and Holden Commodore. Both Hertz and I refer to the Malibu […]

March 16th, 2019 | Tags: | Category: Reviews | Leave a comment

The 560SEC has stopped smoking

My 560SEC had a problem where it would emit a puff of smoke after idling. This was rather embarrassing taking off from the lights. It did give me the advantage of keeping people back who got too close. My assumption was that it was cause by old valve stem seals. As the seals get old, they get hard and allow a small amount of oil to seep through into the combustion chamber when the car is at idle.

When the car is idling, the throttle is mostly closed resulting in high vacuum. The high vacuum causes oil in the heads […]

March 3rd, 2019 | Tags: , , , | Category: Mercedes | 2 comments

For Sale: 1954 Traction Avant Light 15

UPDATE: 30/4/19 – This car is now SOLD.

My Traction Avant Light 15 is for sale. It will go up on carsales in a couple of weeks. The asking price will be $22,500. The Light 15 was built in 1954 in Slough. As an English built Traction it has more luxuries than the cars built in Paris. It also has 12v Lucas electrics.

More than $20,000 has been spent on the car over the last couple of years including work on the engine/gearbox, front end rebuild, valve adjustment, new fuel pump.

The best thing about the Traction Avant is […]

March 2nd, 2019 | Tags: | Category: Citroen | 4 comments