New owner here saying hello.
Our family wagon (of french origin which shall remain nameless) expired a few weeks ago and we had to pick up a car very quickly. I decided to buy something cheap (last car was £5k and dead in 2 years😢
to buy some time to look for a heavy duty replacement. Found a 2002 75 cdt locally with a year's ticket and picked it up for £550. Story was that the guy bought it for his wife but she found it too big so he was selling on after 5 weeks or so. Maybe. Obviously needed a couple of new tyres and was a bit sluggish, but pretty much unmarked inside and out. At that money I didn't go over it too closely. It had a lot of early history (up to about 45k stamped in the book), complete new suspension and brakes about 5 years ago and a few misc receipts since, with the mot history bearing out its 102k miles.
Anyway, here comes the nod to the forum. I don't do much spannering these days but have in the past including rebuilding and replacing chassis on triumphs (heralds/spitfires). When checking the car's fluids etc I saw a lot of oil near the bottom rad hose, and a search led me here and to 'how to' guides for intercooler O rings. Also advice on how to change the pcv filter. Air filter done at the same time of course. Just that Saturday morning's work has completely changed how the car drives and it is now very responsive and I'm viewing it as a longer term prospect. Pretty sure the pcv filter may have been original as it was the chunkier type and very black and oily.
With a new set of 4 uniroyals (plus tracking sorted, was 1 degree out) and a new battery to be on the safe side, this car is unbelievably smooth and comfortable and only stands me about £900. Just oil and filter to do (shows 3k to go on the display) and hopefully we are sorted. Plenums checked today and completely clear.
So....thanks to those who have contributed the guides, they must help a lot of people. I may be here for a while......