Woe is me.....

[lee69]

Had a real adventure with the Ypsi over the weekend.  I had a meeting in Buckfastleigh at 9.30 on Monday (today), so decided to drive down from Shropshire on Sunday night and stay enroute at Tiverton.  All was well down the M54, M6, M5, even made it to Somerset, then ..... lots of noise and vibration from the nearside front wheel and severe pulling to the left  .  Luckily I was approaching Bridgwater services and managed to pull in. Oh dear, a loud click on right lock at any speed and clunking on full lock when stationary.  Anyway, AA man arrived, jacked it up and diagnosed the driveshaft bearing had broken up, great  .  The AA relay man that took me back to Telford entertained me with his stories of running his Toyota Lucida on Tesco Vegetable Oil and the adventures of the Lucida Owners Club races on welsh beaches  .  He reckoned it's a relatively straightforward repair - any thoughts on cost from anyone?  Hopefully, I should be able to get it fixed before Bristol!

I made it to the meeting, despite getting home at 1.30am - I turned round and drove back in our ever-so-reliable Aygo, getting there for 7am.

Just got back to Shropshire at 9pm after a long day learning about organic cauliflowers - I need sleep!

Lee

[sparehead3]

LOL @ cauliflowers .... best of luck sorting it out Lee

[lee69]

Finance has been tight, so the Ypsi was finally trailered off to my friendly local FIAT dealer last Friday.  They managed to look at it yesterday and its the CV joint.  So, hub end and not gearbox end as diagnosed on the roadside.

As the cars already there, I've let them order the parts and fix it.  £185 all in, parts will take a week, admittedly probably more expensive than elsewhere (eg Tanc, WAD) but at least I know the parts will be genuine FIAT-Lancia ones, it's very local and anyway, I need the car for Bristol on the 27th.  Praise to the dealer, TJ Vickers in Telford - they organised collection within 2 hours of me going in and they seem genuinely interested in working on the car. 

While the car was on the back of the recovery truck I was able to have a look underneath  , particularly at the 'sill to floor' corrosion that was picked up at the last MOT (as an advisory)  I expected worse, to be honest and the recovery guy said that he'd seen much worse (on his many Saab 96 V4s) and would be a relatively easy fix.  A job for the summer I think....

That just leaves the rear wiper motor, the electric windows, new exhaust, new poly-bushes and leaking sunroof !

Regards
Lee

[A1.6HPE]

Oh dear, oh dear!!
CV joints usually signal imminent failure by clicking when the steering is near full lock. Don't you do your own maintenance Lee ?  The joint would cost about 35 pounds from a motor factors and is messy to fit (loadsa grease) but simple enough.
What year is your car?? I thought that the second series Ypsilon (ie replacement fot Y10) was new enough to not have corrosion problems !!

Leo

[lee69]

Hi Leo

The car is 1997 on a P plate, so it is a decade old!  I think it was imported new, so has spent most of it's life driving on salty British roads.   I've had CV joints replaced before, on my Saab 900, Panda and the Y10.  This time there was no noise before hand warning of imminent expense.

Unfortunately, when it comes to anything more than washing the car, changing wiper blades and checking fluids I'm pretty useless when it comes to wielding a spanner.  I did change the discs on the Y10 along time ago and I've replaced trim and badges on the Ypsi, but that nowadays my weekends are filled with marking coursework and planning lessons!  I know that I'd get half way through the job and break something important.

By the way Leo, how did the Northern Weekend go?  I haven't seen any photos on the forum.

Regards
Lee

[A1.6HPE]

"I know that I'd get half way through the job and break something important"

That is all part of the fun !! Just spent 2 hours trying to remove the alternator from my Montecarlo - abandoned that and ended up removing the brush holder on its own. Found the brushes were in very good condition so put them back again - well it beats watching TV.

GNW was great - a really good location and hotel. Quite a big turnout , about 50 cars. I have pictures but none of the Lancia galleries are accessible just now (?).  Nice green "Ypsi" there from The Netherlands.

Will put some pics on Photobucket and create a thread. Ooops that reminds me that I should have sent some to Will How for the web site.

Leo

[chris_lancia]

Hi Lancia Y fans,
you probably have heard this question before, but I was wondering if there is any chance of getting the lights for the Lancia for driving in the UK. I have come over from the continent and brought my trusty Lancia with me. It was fine so far and passed the MOT with a little jiggling. Now they have changed the MOT rules and made things a lot more strict and stringend, and our MOT testing site won't pass it. I live in northern Ireland where they have dedicated MOT testing sites, and those guys don't mess around. You can't jsut go to some garage who will MOT the car for you

Funnily enought, everybody has told me so far that the Lancia Y was never sold in the UK. Now that I found your web site and comments I realise that it must have been sold here at some point.

do you have any suggestions? any chance of getting second hand lights anywhere?

thanks for you help,

Chris

[fay66]

Hi Chris,
I've answered your query in the other posting regarding headlights.
No Lancia have been sold officially in the UK since 1994.
Omicron did offer to get Y's as did Richard Thorne & a couple of others, most of them came here as personal imports, I bought my Elefantino Rosso new in Rotterdam & personally imported it, as did others, Trevor Nicosia must hold the records for importing himself as he's had a least 2 Y's a couple of Kappa, as well as a Kappa Coupe.
We didn't exactly lie but we didn't really volunteer the information regarding the lights, one good excuse was that when Y's first came out, the early importer of one was told by the dealer in Holland? that Y's had centre dip headlights & no bias, frankly it was a lot of nonsense, but I chose to accept that was the position & said it had RHD headlights, having said that, in over 3 years ownership I only once had someone flash me, but I used to keep the lights on the lowest adjustment setting.
Don't know if you will get away with it in Ireland but a friend , Alan Cooper bought in a new LHD Delta HPE, he cut slots in the bottom of the light casing & stuck beam benders on the inside, the mot people seemed to be happy with that.

Regards
Brian Hilton
8227

[chris_lancia]

Thanks for all the advice, Brian. It seems that the MOT is a lot more militant here in northern Ireland than on the 'mainland' UK . I remember getting MOT for my ancient Vauxhall Chevette, which really was a piece of junk. They passed it with the suggestion to get a new car next time...
I will go over to England next week and will have a local MOT look at it. The car is in really good shape, fun to drive around. It passed all aspects without problems, it is just the darn lights. But I won't give up that easily...

cheers,

christian

[rossocorsa]

on the delta hpe the beam benders worked of a fashion and by putting them inside they met the rule of durability BUT they didn't give a regulation pattern even though they don't cause dazzle so whilst my local friendly MOT station would let them go as meeting the spirit of the law if not the letter I suspect it just wouldn't do when dealing with government employed pen pushing mechanics.....

[chris_lancia]

hi lads,

just to let you know I managed to get the car passed the MOT! I added front lights that I bought from a vintage car spares company. They look like fog lights but can be dipped. Even though it is an unusual construction, the MOT guy could not see anything wrong with it...  hoooray. Not that difficult after all.

another year of whizzing around with the old Lancia Y.

happy trails,

chris

[fay66]

Hi Chris,
glad your sorted & Mot'D

Any chance of a few more details please & possibly photos?

Brian Hilton
8227