Rust Collector

I was just about to say, it's only a job half done - it needs rolling down the nearest hill now that it's hit critical mass.

Did you hoover anything up that you shouldn't have? 'No.' Opens hoover to find it clogged full of shite that shouldn't have been hoovered up...

It is a worry that they're closing though; where are we meant to holiday now if we want to enjoy mouldy walls and shit stained beds? I guess there's always Travelodge.

As if those poor folks haven't been through enough, just as they think that salvation has been reached they find out that they're going to Pontins.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've always thought that if there isn't a furniture shop out there somewhere that's called 'The Ottoman Empire' then it would be really disappointing.

A Bedford Astra van that's been converted into a an estate car to avoid the registration tax, in that insipid cream colour that they all seemed to come in.

I had a bash at replacing the capacitors this eve. I removed those three capacitors, cleaned the board as best I could and soldered 3 replacements on: Still not working though. Tested the other capacitors and there’s a short at the terminals of this one: but I’m unsure if that’s to do with the microcontroller. I removed a capacitor to look at the board damage again: I think I need to solder a jumper wire between these two tracks: It’s possibly too far gone to save, but I’ll still give it another go.

I've just had a big catch up on this thread; I'm really sorry to hear of the awful time you and your family are having at present. Wishing you all the best and keeping my fingers crossed for you all.

Newhaven, my usual lunchtime haunt.

I saw this at Sainsburys whilst getting my meal deal. The badge says ‘Daffodil’ and I’m too lazy to lookup the plate. Any ideas?

My brain just automatically filled in the blank on that one. One upshot is that when your own stuff breaks, you can trudge home, get the trailer and recover your own car. I've done that more times than I care to mention 😂

All the other stuff you mentioned is sortable, but in my experience this is definitely the main issue.

Makes you wonder where everyone is going. 'Lean' working is common in my industry post pandemic, I think there was originally an idea that companies would grow their teams again as things improved but where money has remained tight and people have been working harder there appears to be a reluctance to take on more staff to reduce the workload of existing staff. The more people I speak to in my industry the more I hear that people are exhausted and frustrated that they're not getting any further forwards. Interestingly, we were contacted by the company we buy currency from to use for international stock purchase. We weren't looking to buy any currently as we're reviewing what the new year may look like (it definitely doesn't look like what I would've expected it to had you asked me in March), but we had a chat, and he volunteered the fact that he's seen a slow down in his business since about July - the same time my figures show a marked slow down in our work against previous years. Whilst people say 'there's no cost of living crisis, I still see everyone is at the pub' etc., there's definitely something happening that's causing a lot of businesses to falter.

I do think we are really quite lucky in this respect. Most other countries require you to use a notary or visit the local police station with the seller, and often the tax on transfer of ownership is huge (especially for older vehicles). Whilst a lot of places have less frequent MOT equivalents, from what I've heard and seen most other countries have far stricter tests than us, and less flexibility on modifications. It can also be much harder to register imports, and in some cases impossible depending on where the vehicle originally came from. By comparison it's piss easy to register change of ownerships or imports here, and the MOT isn't really that stringent when compared to the rest of Western Europe. Insurance and the ongoing cost of road tax are the only things that we appear to pay more for, but even road tax isn't that much on most shite cars.

I can't speak for the Jag, but on a Disco 3 you ride along on the bump stops and knock your fillings out because there's no give in the suspension. On my LS430 you get the same, with the added excitement that you ground out on bumps. Better to wait and let it lift up.

I love that. 90’s American shite is hitting the spot for me currently. I think I might be moving out of my Eastern Bloc phase.

The reason I hate it is that I normally have more pressing things to sort, and so if it gets left to me to contact IT then it’ll get forgotten done later when I have a chance to sit on the phone. Meanwhile, my team member hasn’t been able to work efficiently/at all. It’s a complete waste of time, much better if the affected person gets in touch. Also, from a lazy employee POV: talking to IT is a doss… you look busy, but you’re really doing fuck all as it’s the IT person doing the work, you’re just explaining what’s wrong. Why wouldn’t you want to call them?!

As a manager, I emphatically encourage my team to contact our IT provider rather than bother me when their computer ‘doesn’t work’. It interrupts me from posting on autoshite.

Now that I know that it does it, it is kind of handy having a switch in reach to turn all the lights on. I'm really pleased with what a practical car it's turning out to be. It was the novelty appeal of a Dustbuster that drew me in, but it turns out that they actually do the job of being a useable family car really well. Whoever would've thunk it 🤔😂

I really don't think it's intuitive when you've driven loads of other cars where the dash dims slightly when the sidelights go on, and the 'click' position at the brightest setting locks the instrument lights on full brightness regardless of the sidelights. Glad it's not just me!! Although very happy that it was an easy fix* for the cabin lights. Thank you, I really appreciate that as sometimes when all the other motivation has disappeared, the compulsion to make some content to share here is what gets me out tinkering 🙂 Hope you're enjoying your holidays!

Well, it turns out I’m a twat. Whilst sitting in a carpark with engine idling and sidelights on (it’s not what you think @High Jetter, I promise I’ve stayed away from high and over), I noticed that on the dash light intensity slider there is a symbol that looks suspiciously like a dome light. I always have my dash lights on full intensity for maximum night blindness. Little had I realised that the top notch of the slider activates the cabin lights. Thats the ‘cabin lights always on’ fault fixed then. With this slider clicked back a notch, and the roof console switch on, we now have interior lights that work with the door switches. This many lights to be precise: The dome lights needed help; I measured the weird American bulb, and spent less than £2 at halfrauds. After bending the tabs slightly as they’d gone slack, we had this: Thats much better. It’s only a small thing, but it’s made the cabin a nicer place to be. I still need to sort the driver’s footwell light, the sliding door light and the cargo lights but at least the main lights are working now. Other things of note are that it runs quite cold, so I’ve ordered a thermostat. I’ll fit that once it lands and hopefully it’ll sit at a decent temp when running. I’ve also ordered this, as my mrs asked what I wanted for Christmas and to be honest it was all I could think of. Not because I have everything, more because I lack imagination: It was about €30 from Germany, and should be a nice addition to the car as the book pack is missing. I’m still waiting on the liftgate handle, although you can just poke your finger in the hole (snigger) and flick the latch to open it now, which in my opinion is perfectly workable and acceptable. I’ll order some gas struts for it soon as propping it up with my head is getting a bit tiresome - just need to figure out how to replace the fittings as I’ll be making up my own struts from universal parts. WCPGW. In other fleet news, the merc hit a screw and has been rewarded with a part worn Chinese death ring: And I’ve been told by my mrs to order a starter for the Lexus, so expect to see me enjoying* that job soon.

The replacement air filter arrived today, so that’s gone in. The new one doesn’t look as good quality as the old one but will do for now. 4 plastic wing nuts and you’re in and done, nice and simple. I’ve put the seats back in after using it as a van to move some stuff out my mate’s toolshed. This was mainly because my mrs kept mentioning that they were in the conservatory. I’ve test fitted the pram and some bits in the boot space behind the third row - this works way better as a 7 seater than the Land Rover, it should be perfect for when we have family visiting.

I went for a drive this evening and the heater fan has self healed and is working on all speeds. Ditto the rear fan. It now has me wondering if it was ok all along and I imagined that it wasn’t? 🤔

I’ve got some IPA sat around so I’ll give it a wash down once the new caps arrive and the old ones are removed. Hopefully it’s not too far gone! Cheers for the offer, the ones on there are rated 35v though - luckily I can get some that are specified for automotive use and they’re only about a tenner for a handful. As you say, they look noticeably smaller than the old ones, but I guess the manufacture/design of them has just become more efficient since the 90’s!

That's reassuring to know as having seen that water ingress had occurred, The Fear set in as I wondered if the wrinkling was the board deteriorating due to moisture.