artdjones

Maybe there's some kind of security vulnerability there? There's a load of trouble with Kia and Hyundai in the States. Theft insurance claims increased 1000% from 2020-23.

What would they do if you said no?

A few spots from Portugal. A beautifully faded 190D in Lisbon Old vans in Sintra Three from Belém. I saw a couple more UMMs driving about. The Portuguese love English cars, and there are still a good number of Rover 75s and older Land Rover products around.

I went to the Carris museum in Lisbon today. It's just like a transport museum should be, with everything in good shape, well explained (with English translation), not trying to be painfully relevant. The vehicle section is buried in the middle of the Carris works right underneath the 25th April suspension bridge. So you pay just inside the works entrance, look around the first part of the museum, and are then taken down to the vehicles on the old red tram in the photos. There's a huge amount about the history of Carris as well, with lots of other equipment on display. Amazingly, only €4.50 entrance. The only disappointment was that they don't seem to have any of the rather wonderful locally bodied AEC Regent Vs they bought inthe sixties.

It sounds like normal operation of the wipers on a car with auto setting.

If men had to give birth they would be women, as that's the main difference between men and women.

There was also the prototype known as Gladys, the in-house design that could have replaced the Alvis TF.

When I was a postman in the 80s I got given lifts twice in GPO Sherpa vans, once they came out to me at 6am when my car broke down, to get me to work, once to A&E for a tetanus jab after a dog bite incident. The only times I've been driven at 70 in a 30 limit.

Manchester Goods, Manchester used to be famous for cotton and linen used to make towels, sheets etc.

The suckers are pretty good if the tube is inserted carefully i.e. make sure it hits the bottom of the sump, but don't push it too hard so it starts bending back up in a U meaning its sucking from a higher level, leaving an inch of the dirtiest oil behind. If I'm sucking out an engine I've never changed oil on before I push a meter long rigid wire down the dipstick hole after I've finished sucking, so that I can be sure all the oil is out. Having said that, the sump in a Berlingo is one of the easiest to change.

Those Lanchesters were very good cars - always priced at a tactful 50gn less than the equivalent Rolls chassis, but obviously with more power- the 20hp Rolls was pretty slow, although still very nice - more like 55-65mph with them. They did a 40hp Silver Ghost/Phantom competitor, too.

The thread on "how long should I take to repair my tenant's heating?"

Awful, but at least it's confined to one bolt on panel. If it was the quarter......

Rolls-Royces were alway everyday cars, just for rich people, instead of the fashion accessory they've become.

So the system is working as designed. HR recruiting more of the kind of people they are themselves.

A Lancia Flaminia.

Sort of the equivalent of Alvis, they stopped making cars in 1967, but kept on making military vehicles for many years.

They altered the map on the 1.2 for emissions reasons and messed up the low down pull. When you're moving from an uphill incline onto another road at a give way sign they need lots of revs or they can bog down dangerously, leaving you crawling along with a truck hurtling towards you at 50mph which you thought was well far enough away to pull out in front of.

I was parked having a coffee this morning when a friend with a 2005 Audi A4 1.9PD rang to ask about whether timing tools are really necessary on that engine, as the water pump had failed. I informed him they most certainly were, and told him that a mutual friend had them. I called by to see what was up later and helped him take the front end off the car. When we took the cover off the water pump had half an inch of play and the belt teeth had worn or been stripped away down to 1mm long, with the whole area full of shredded bits. We timed it up with a kit he had already bought and miraculously it sprang into life and ran fine. I think it had been within a second of disaster, because he had tried to start it up this morning before phoning me and it alreadyhad slipped enough to be a non starter.

I don't know about other Meganes but the Modus needed the front bumper taking off. In the end I got it down to about half an hour.

The Mk 3 Mégane is good. You pull out a strip of metal which secures the back of the light, and is also a 10mm spanner. You use it to undo the two screws on the top front of the lamp. Then the whole assembly slides forward far enough to change bulbs easily.

At least it wasn't an Su-35 or a Tu-160.

I think the conductors walked in front with a torch, but that would only be for getting back to base. It was like this, but sometimes worse.

Toyota CV joints are theoretically replaceable, but the spring clips in the driveshaft ends stick out so far that they can't be knocked off by normal means. They can only be removed by using a chisel to break up the cage that holds the balls in place.