dozeydustman

King of Queens is equal in terms of absolute dross. About as funny as receiving a kick to the one string banjo.

I'm fed up of the permanent snots, catarrh and sore throats I've had since my last lot of Covid (end of September last year). Know-all receptionist at the doctors' not interested as "that's something the pharmacy can help with". Pharmacy happy to sell linctus etc but "You really should see your doctor as your symptoms are persistent". I've tried home made honey, lemon and hot water, I'm drinking plenty of plain water (2-3 litres daily), I get my 5 a day, do anywhere between 15 minutes and 1 hour of exercise daily and it won't shift. Round and round in this loop since the start of January. Had a blood test in November and my liver function is not normal, but the GP says not dangerously so as only just out of normal ranges. To top things off the least crap programme available on the TV at the moment is 'Everybody loves Raymond'.

Arrived yesterday. I didn’t see what sweets came with mine as stepdaughter saw them and yoinked them away! Thanks again for sorting these Dan!

32mm shallow socket for oil filters. Possibly there is a baffle or something, but as the sump plug is so badly chewed up I will probably need to get a really grippy set of pump pliers on it. I do have a new plug waiting to go in but as the old one is forming a very good seal I’ll do more frequent changes than spec until such time I have managed to get the old plug out. The few bits and pieces I have changed on this car so far have been ridiculously tight, some well over their specified torque - when I had the Uniroyals fitted a couple of years back even the tyre place’s rattle gun couldn’t get the wheel bolts off, they had to use a breaker bar and scaffold pole.

I have no problems with the engine from a driving point of view. Decent torque and power, it’s just a sod to service lol

All the time you don’t need to go in a CAZ/ULEZ they are great old barges, pretty good on juice if you drive with a bit of care - managed to squeeze just under 60mpg out of the blue one I owned a few years back. This one has more oomph than the blue one ever did but is a bit juicier, my best being 54mpg between the South coast and Manchester. I’ve not driven a hot petrol version yet, one is on my bucket list.

Yes it's the 1.9 Fiat diesel. I've not known it fail a region for ages and the oil level when checked has always been between the high and low marks of the dipstick. It didn't smell of diesel either. Unfortunately I don't have an angled or floppy-head ratchet, but a 1m bar shouldn't be a struggle on a plastic oil filter housing. It was a little overdue by 3-4000 miles, but every other filter, even well overdue, has cracked off very easily, albeit not in such a shitty position. In the end the socket end was being held on by my assistant from underneath while I operated the ratchet - I had to put a hell of a lot of my ample bulk behind it.

New front pads and an oil change today. What is worrying is over the 4.3 litres of oil came out of this, total volume was nearer 5.5, and it only took 3.5 litres before it hit max on the dipstick. I know suction pump won’t remove all the oil but leaving a litre? Other possibilities include the suction pump wasn’t completely empty despite managing to fill a gallon container with waste oil before starting. The oil filter is also an utter pain in the arse to get to. Took longer than anything else with my chunky arms. Again I had some assistance from @Scrap who is keen to learn on how to keep cars in some kind of decent health. It was done up mega tight, needing my 1m ratchet to just crack it off. Hit a problem with the brakes, as the 2 disc retaining screws had turned to cheese. I’ve drilled these out in the past on other cars but these were stubborn. It’s a 6mm thread on this IIRC, and was hoping a 5.5mm drill would suffice, gradually building up from 3mm. Nope. 4.5 mm was the largest drill bit from a new set which was sharp, so they’re going back. Even the 10mm, which is marginally smaller than the screw head didn’t do owt. Put in my pillar drill and while they went through hard wood all bits from 6mm and above struggled with mild steel. Supposedly HSS. N/S calliper pin was partially seized not allowing the pads to release fully. I had 4-5mm remaining on both pads for O/S, but N/s was 3mm and ~1.5mm. All buttoned up and bled and no more brake pulsing and gentle tug to the left. I’ll order another set of pads and some cobalt drill bits and do the brakes again in a few months. If that doesn’t work friendly garage can have the job. Also found the cause of the lack of turbo boost last weekend, the vacuum pump for the wastegate actuator had a tiny tear in one end. I’ve made this good but ordered up some fresh tube 1mm larger as it was a tight fit over the end of the plastic pipe which runs along the top of the engine. Also found the problem with number plate light failure warning on dash. Old bulb was past its best as the glass was starting to blacken, but one end of the festoon was crusty. New part and warning has gone. Car is much quieter, service indicator is reset and showing 50% oil quality, as there’s probably half to a litre of old in there.

Spotted at Goodwood just now.

If you need to borrow a balljoint splitter I’m only up road.

The “Isn’t an MoT a service?”. Normally a newer car, but sometimes something pushing 25 years or older. Invariably has missing bits of trim, a bit of dangling exhaust and a number of failed lamps/lights. Unaware that the remedial work to get their car roadworthy* for another year doesn’t include an oil or filters change, despite this normally being quite a few hundred pounds.

On my way back home from Canterbury and the Saab keeps losing power. Hopefully it’s just the wastegate vacuum actuator pipe again as it’s intermittent.

Yep, can vouch for that. With lights and heater on the 2 electric trucks at work have a range drop from ~220km to 80km. If we’re lucky.

Most Peugeots from the 60s to the 90s float my boat. And Vauxhall Chevettes

Would appear to be a flip up terminal. Not my heavy breathing.

1 wall and 1 desk please.

Very sad to hear your news. Sadly asbestos used to be used in a lot of places you wouldn’t think. A lot of rail coaching stock and multiple units were insulated with it and most of it was hoiked out in the 70s; the pub I used to work in had a boiler and pipes lagged in it; old buildings used it under floorboards before glassfibre/rockwool/celotex, and it’s also in some old vinyl flooring. I hope, without wishing to be sounding harsh, any suffering your mum has is short lived, mesothelioma can be absolutely cruel.

This one from @kevins fleet thread, it’s not everyday you see a Minor towing a boat. and this one from @JMotor’s fleet thread.

Passed in 1996 in my own car, a Talbot Samba C229FKL

My brother is after something family and ULEZ friendly. What sort of moolah are you thinking?

800 metres. Which in miles would register at 0.5 or thereabouts. Haven’t swum that sort of length since I was 11!

That looks a real peach. Hopefully they get back to you

I'm about an hour's drive away from the seller's general location. I can collect and store if needed.

This was a universal one I got on eBay for about £140, since gone up in price. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113812043157

Today has been busy. I did a half day this morning due to lack of supervisors. 04:00 - 09:00. Then did 800m in the swimming pool. At the weekend @Scrap’s Saab 9-3 (ex @CaptainBoom) managed to hoover up some water in the air intake, thankfully no damage caused and a new air filter sorted out the rough running. Old one was drenched. I also showed Scrap how to do an oil change. Couldn’t be bothered to get all the undershields off, so I popped my vac-pump cherry. Glorious* carpet. The Saab now sounds a lot better with clean liquid dinosaurs running around its internals, and it’s a lot easier to get to the filter than the poxy Fiat lump in mine. After this I cleared out the remaining old shite in the garage that is either destined for the shed or tip, assembled to table saw I won on eBay for £30, and parked the Citroën under cover. Still some shed stuff in the garage, but once I put some hangers and hooks in the shed I can clear the deck. Yes, the wiring is terrible, but it’s one of my next projects. Yes, I have installed a garage door opener. Does this make me a tosser?