Turbocharger

<thinking laterally mode on> The light came on after you fitted a new radiator and towed a trailer. The box will have been working slightly harder tugging a trailer, but my thoughts turn to the new rad. Did you move the cooler at all as you pulled the rad? Kinked a pipe or allowed some carp to get into the cooler lines at all? Worth a check, or else your new box (if that's what it comes to) could suffer the same fate. <thinking laterally mode off> Or else you could have stopped when it smelled funny. Shouldn't have left home really. Have you thought of a Mondeo?

It's fine- the cone profile is correct for the contact patch and thus Discos were sold with 4 alloys, a steel spare and no spare set of nuts. In my opinion the club were being over cautious.

Or just bash a wedge down from the top to stop it rattling. In the worst case, it drops out and you're back where you started with no discussion with the police/insurer/coroner over whether you modified the tow pack to a dangerous degree.

So long as the nut has a cone at the edge where it meets the steel wheel, it'll work although the nuts will sit proud and look a little odd.

Top plan - count me in, and I'd better screw my truck together properly!

Picture looks fine to me. Try not to touch the live metal bits... I'd suggest you offer to help your landlord out. Spec up what you want - number of sockets, strip lights and cable. Acknowledge to him that your requirements are over the top for a domestic garage, point out that the install isn't safe at the moment and that you'd like to share the cost of improving it. Get a tame electrician to suck his teeth and spec the new install, do the work yourself and then have him certify it before you wire it in.

If it's pretty old, I'd look at a motor for your current Dyson - you can buy almost every bit for them online and it all just clips or screws together. I've found that the dust filtration is fine if you keep it all dry (wet dust buggers up the cyclone cleverness and stops it filtering).

The downpipe is downstream of the turbo and valve stem seals. The only part that's in between is the head exhaust ports or the exhaust manifold before the turbo. If you pull the exh manifold and can't see any oil, it's probably the turbo - and as an added bonus, you're already holding it for a trip to the recon shop!

Rather than throwing money at it willy-nilly, start the engine from cold and run it for a couple of minutes, then pull the exhaust manifold and look for oil in the exhaust ports. If it's coming out of the engine, it'll be oily. If it's coming out of the turbo, it'll only be downstream of the turbine seal.

One day leaving Seven Sisters, someone put a zip tie on my propshaft and left the long tail hanging out to make a 'tick tick tick ticktickticktick' sound as I drove away. I dived underneath and spotted it quickly but the worst part was, I didn't have any sidecutters so had to live with it ticking until I got back to Bristol...

Pull a manifold and peer into the bores - you'll be able to see where the problem is. To be honest, if it's smoking for two minutes, it sounds like a turbo problem rather than a stem seal issue.

Definately not the same - I've got a V8 auto box behind my Tdi, and a big converter ring to match the two. Problem with a converter ring is that the whole thing ends up being longer, so you need to make up the gap between the centre of the flex plate and the end of the crank, too.

Nice one Nige. And you're telling me the situation wouldn't have been identical if he'd been in your shoes, so to speak?

You can get away with refitting the old tensioner if you're fully aware of the risks. If the belt snaps it'll cost you a round £100+ for rockers, pushrods etc. Depends whether the tow home and unplanned maintenance is worth the risk for you. Bear in mind that it won't show any excess movement until it's knackered. I'd find a few quid and change it.

Just to add my two-penneth, if you get a date together I'd better get on and add a snorkel / air filter / reliability to my silly turbo so I can join you all.

There are active and passive filters. Active need regen, usually a fuel injector just upstream of the filter to add fuel when the exhaust stream is hot and the filter's full. These need an ECU etc. A passive filter is more easily retrofitted, just bolt it on. They're not tolerant to tuned engines though and expect to cut 5% off your MPG though.

What about getting a simpler stereo? I'm thinking analogue tuning and a simple volume knob...

Lots of differing but very valid ideas on here. I think it depends on the type of competition you're doing. As FF put in another thread, "run the same as what the locals do"... ? Otherwise, lead the pack if you're looking to innovate. If you're REALLY keeping the weight down then it becomes a virtuous circle rather than a vicious one, ie: Big tyres need big axles and that needs a big engine to push it along, but you need a big heavy gearbox and t-box to make it reliable and a sturdy chassis to keep the whole thing together = Heavy Truck. Big tyres but geared down means lighter axles, so less engine required and then a smaller gearbox and less chassis stress through the same manouvres. So - set yourself a vicious target weight and go for a 1.9 XUD9 turbodiesel engine? Early models meet all the "hammer and tights" requirements, just need a wire to the stop solenoid...

Equally, it could have been me - as of tomorrow I'll be living in Wotton under Edge. <thinks quickly> And if you turn up to carry furniture on Saturday, you'll get free pizza too Seriously though, swing by if you'd like my own special brand of "help" with the electric string. Don't go to Matt Neale, you'll be lucky if he can reach up high enough to clip the wires on to your chassis...

They're also RIDICULOUSLY heavy, for no real benefit in any temperate climate, as far as I could see.

Well, I fabricated around the rust, letterboxed the whole bottom of the crossmember and welded a continuous piece across the whole thing. It's not pretty and I'm certainly not posting pictures but I now have an MOT so I can move house this weekend. I suspect a tappy-tappy inspection next year will reveal more plating needed by then, but I'll be settled in the new house and able to replace the crossmember next year. I wouldn't go for another standard item - too many mud traps, closed sections and double-layered pieces. I think the 'length of box section' approach is strongest and best, so that's the way I'll choose to go, when the time comes.

Si - you've been warned before, bringing credible facts into an otherwise entertaining discussion. I tell ye, one more transgression and you're Actually, since I'm the one with a truck with no MOT which is conceivably being kept on the public highway (I've no idea where the road stops and my rented driveway begins, it's all just block paving to my eye...) I might just duck out of this discussion quietly...

I contemplated just spattering a cover over the rust to get it through the test, but realistically I'm not going to tackle it again and it'll take just as long to get the welder out, bodge it and burn myself as it will to make it better. Not necessarily concours, but better. First step, remove the towbar and chop out the rust in the rear face. Then cut out the worst bits on the underside: Plate the rear face, and then wonder what to do next: The underside was rotten where it forms a box section, but the double-skinned relief on the rear is reasonably solid, although there's rust between the layers which has spread them apart in places. I'd like to cut off the lower skin and weld a closing plate across the box section and onto the upper 'skin' of the relief. Any ideas how to delicately do this with a flap wheel and grinding and cutting discs? Or should I just power-wirebrush it to get it clean and then try to get some kind of a weld onto it?

Diff - the spreader plate is roughly 5" square and was cut to fit within the square available in the crossmember - it's 5mm plate from memory. I'm stupid, but I'm not that stupid

The difference in fuel consumption over 20k miles a year pays for the insurance and tax on my MGF, so economically I'm just looking at covering the depreciation with the added value of having my hearing into middle age