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Datsuncog's Heaps: Sept 2023 - Another Year's T-Met Exemption Certificate...


Datsuncog

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As it happens the chap next to me in the office pointed out yesterday that Naked Noodles are 60 pence in Tesco:

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/search?query=naked%20noodles&icid=tescohp_sws-1_m-ft_in-naked%20noodles_ab-226-b_out-naked%20noodles

 

The garage offer still stands, obviously, and I might even stretch to a cup of coffee or tea!

I get the impression lots of shitters have lost their mojo. Perhaps it is the weather, perhaps it is age, perhaps it is both. Captain_70s' efforts do put those arguments to shame:

http://autoshite.com/topic/19442-rusty-triumphs-in-scotland-cold-tho-240119/page-46

 

I really cannot be bothered either and the CLK sounds like a jumbo on start up. I suspect I did not tighten the exhaust manifold up correctly despite using the official figure of 34lb/feet (which seems awfully low to me). My Jag really needs to be exhumed from my mother-in-law's garage. I even offered it up as a paid job to my brother-in-law, but he seems to have shied away from it. Oh, and the Land Rover needs its rocker shaft changing - it has been noisy for a while. All of this of course does not stop the Forrester from having a fit as you have not changed its fluids, but might make you feel just a little bit better for a very short while.

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With the rear diff anything make sure that you can undo the filler plug prior to undoing the drain plug.   

 

FTFY.

 

Mr Cog,

 

I think there is a separate drain & fill for the transferbox & gearbox on these. So that'll be four drains & fills for the transmission & a fifth for the engine.

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On 1/24/2019 at 11:38 AM, warninglight said:

That'll just be snow causing the worrying noise, my xc70 has been doing exactly the same!

Phew, that's good to know... I hadn't noticed it before and (as you can probably guess) am a bit of a catastrophist. I didn't notice anything this morning so here's hoping...

 

On 1/24/2019 at 11:45 AM, The_Equalizer said:

As it happens the chap next to me in the office pointed out yesterday that Naked Noodles are 60 pence in Tesco:

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/search?query=naked%20noodles&icid=tescohp_sws-1_m-ft_in-naked%20noodles_ab-226-b_out-naked%20noodles

The garage offer still stands, obviously, and I might even stretch to a cup of coffee or tea!

I get the impression lots of shitters have lost their mojo. Perhaps it is the weather, perhaps it is age, perhaps it is both. Captain_70s' efforts do put those arguments to shame:

http://autoshite.com/topic/19442-rusty-triumphs-in-scotland-cold-tho-240119/page-46

I really cannot be bothered either and the CLK sounds like a jumbo on start up. I suspect I did not tighten the exhaust manifold up correctly despite using the official figure of 34lb/feet (which seems awfully low to me). My Jag really needs to be exhumed from my mother-in-law's garage. I even offered it up as a paid job to my brother-in-law, but he seems to have shied away from it. Oh, and the Land Rover needs its rocker shaft changing - it has been noisy for a while. All of this of course does not stop the Forrester from having a fit as you have not changed its fluids, but might make you feel just a little bit better for a very short while.

60p for noodles? Luxury!

Afraid it's been 24p Koka noodles for me - although they're now all finished, so I've moved on to off-brand minestrone cup-soups paired with orange-stickered bread rolls... five days' worth of lunches for under a pound, total. Less than 20p per day.

20190124_131816.jpg

Yum.

Plus I just received a text from the bank to advise "you are close to using your overdraft" (aka 'my last £50' notification, which helpfully lets me know that I don't even have enough in the current account to buy myself another car*...

1982 Datsun Sunny B11 Coupé (Spares Car).jpg

Datsun Spares Car 2.jpg

* ^^^ The sort of car I paid £50 for)

No, it's not really that dire a situation - this has been a bit of an exercise to see if I could make my wages last for six weeks over Christmas without resorting to credit cards, overdrafts or robbing any of my assorted savings pots. It turns out the answer is yes, so long as I don't keep buying shonky diecast from market stalls.

Which, of course, I have.

I'll get the oils ordered and then see where I stand! A garage would be a handy thing (see upthread for December's Yaris oil change in a rainstorm for details), and I'd be happy to assist as best I can with any Land Rover/ Mercedes spannering which may be needed, in exchange.

 

On 1/24/2019 at 11:50 AM, C1am said:

Prior to the gearbox oil change  (if it's the same as the later Impreza engine), you'll need a T70 star bit to undo the plug. Refilling is through the dipstick. With the rear diff make sure that you can undo the filler plug prior to undoing the drain plug.   

That's good to know - I've a reasonable set of star bits, but I'll check to make sure I've a T70 in there, Cheers! And yes, it wouldn't be the first time I've done something dopey like drain something before I've worked out how to refill it - good advice.

 

On 1/24/2019 at 12:14 PM, Hooli said:

Mr Cog,

I think there is a separate drain & fill for the transferbox & gearbox on these. So that'll be four drains & fills for the transmission & a fifth for the engine.

Excellent stuff! I've been working on the naive assumption that it'll all be clear once I'm under the car, but as we all know, that ain't necessarily so...

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Blimey, a man after my own economic heart. My wife does a lot of eye rolling when I calculate the cost of the dinner I have just made. Anyway, do not worry about labour exchange. If you are interested just let me know of a weekend you would want to have a go and we can rock'n'roll (read: skin knuckles, get covered in oil and swear). Saturdays are good as the wife takes the kids to music, swimming, ballet etc. The only ones out are this one (the wife's away, but not the kids) and one mid-February. Oh, and the luxury 60 pence noodles were not too bad - I just had a pot.

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Excellent stuff! I've been working on the naive assumption that it'll all be clear once I'm under the car, but as we all know, that ain't necessarily so...

 

I think it was from laying under mine years ago doing a headgasket replacement in November on the side of a main road....

 

Just thought I'd mention it as if you've not had 4x4s before you might not think to look at the transferbox separately.

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  • 3 months later...

Finally decided to do something the other night about the fearsome amount of birdshit clabbering the Forester...

20190514_213326.thumb.jpg.3f56c4f73b449ef142b5bf1f44829126.jpg

20190514_213340.thumb.jpg.e0589ebee2aa2e0d14ce3ff92adb807c.jpg

It's tragic that giving this thing a wash counts as News.

Further analysis revealed that the two rear tyres which I had puncture-repaired in December are still losing a fair bit of air, while the front n/s clearly needs the tracking sorted as the outer edge of the Nankang is a lot more worn than the rest.

A local place can fit Yokohamas at £62 a corner, and at that price I'm quite tempted to just get a whole new set and be done with it for another while.

Ideally I'd get the wheels refurbished at the same time (dings/ground-in brake dust/heavy paint damage from previous owners), but that may have to wait a while longer.

I'm also tempted to ask the Mechanic of Choice for a price on a full fluid change (transaxles, gearbox, sump) as I simply have not had the time for any car stuff with all the house renovation work since November. A lack of garage, and nothing but somewhat flimsy Paddy Hopkirk ramps to support this two-ton lump also makes me a bit avoidant - plus buying specialist oils in small quantities is also stupid-pricey. Right about now I feel much more inclined to just raid the savings and pay to make a problem go away...

I may also bite the bullet and ask what sort of money he'd want to change the clutch, as it's now slipping noticeably under heavy acceleration and prone to feel a little grabby/jerky when moving off from cold.

Ah now...

Oh, and the twin cracks in the glass roof (presumed from storm debris) are now spreading impressively...

I'm not planning on opening it anytime soon.

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52 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Oh, and the twin cracks in the glass roof (presumed from storm debris) are now spreading impressively...

I'm not planning on opening it anytime soon.

Washing it certainly counts in my world!

Could the sunroof be done on the glass bit of your insurance?

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  • 1 month later...

So!

What do you do when you realise you still  haven't made a single bit of progress on the basic Subaru servicing you've been promising to carry out for MONTHS?

Get the finger out and order up the oils etc? (Which turn out to be pretty pricey for the transaxles etc.)

Book it into a garage and pay them to do the needful?

Make a detailed list of jobs, sort out a budget, and then tick the jobs off in order of importance, starting with a replacement clutch, then new tyres and adjusted tracking?

No!

You accept a free Honda NE50 Vision scooter from a fellow-shiter, which hasn't run since the Millennium Bug was officially a concern.

Well, obviously.

20190622_154842.thumb.jpg.dbc99f6ac576acc73a0717447cb6fafd.jpg

20190622_154853.thumb.jpg.3498de4b6fe211f320d43532753739df.jpg

Dealer Plates!

20190622_154858.thumb.jpg.c97a2a874d5399e93b54fe977b4bdb29.jpg

Less than 10,000 miles on the clock!

20190622_175924.thumb.jpg.3787d1a20dcf3a40393542dddb778ec8.jpg

Cat: "Are you fuckin' serious?"

20190622_174315.thumb.jpg.b71447c22505817c5fb6de685dec9ce6.jpg

I should probably point out that I have no experience with bikes or scooters beyond an unfortunate incident with a Honda monkey bike c.1990 - but I'm figuring that the motor on this isn't significantly more complicated than a lawn mower, and the blind optimist in me hopes that a new battery, spark plug and perhaps a snifter or two of Easy Start should see this fire up for the first time in two decades. The motor turns freely enough on the kickstart, and appears to have compression, so that seems a reasonable basis to start with.

Hopefully. Maybe.

Also on the list of necessities will be tyres, oil, mirrors, probably a drive belt, definitely brake cables and shoes, and doubtless sundry electrical parts and mechanical bits that I currently don't even know exist...

I've an HBoL on order, plus a Honda owner's manual that would have been supplied when new, so at least that may provide me with a starting point as to what should go where.

I fully intend to use this as a commuter hack to the station, by the way. The hitherto-unused AM category on my driving licence apparently permits me to ride a sub-50cc moped without passing a CBT or having to wear L-plates, so...

Fingers crossed.

 

 

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Old skool driving licence FTW. 

I was chatting to my mum about this last night and realised there are a fair few hitherto unexperienced categories of driving skill* I could deploy if  I were so inclined, a 50cc buzzmobile like this being one of them. 

I'm not so inclined at present, but will be following this story with  much interest.

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^^^ Yes, indeed... I missed out on being able to drive minibuses and road-rollers by a scant few months, but at least I do have the moped entitlement - which MrsDC's licence doesn't, to her chagrin. She's currently considering whether she likes the idea of this two-wheeled heap enough to go on a CBT course.

I'm hoping this should be a straightforward and reasonably fun little project, in an effort to reawaken my automotive mojo again...

...while trying to forget that's exactly what its previous owner thought, too.

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Pretty sure I've got minibuses and road rollers on mine. Mind you, that's the other thing isn't it. ? The writing on the back of the  new plastic licence is tiny. To me it's like the unreadable bottom line of the optometrist's wallchart before they do the Hallelujah moment with a plastic pince-nez of vision.

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3 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

I fully intend to use this as a commuter hack to the station, by the way. The hitherto-unused AM category on my driving licence apparently permits me to ride a sub-50cc moped without passing a CBT or having to wear L-plates, so...

I'm now not actually sure this is the case... because although I have licence classifications shown for AM, A, B1, B, and f,k,p and q, I passed my car test in March 1998, but I most certainly don't have a CBT cert. Hmmm. 

Becoming a moped rider

The minimum age to ride a moped is 16 years and you will need to:

  • complete Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) for the relevant motorcycle category
  • pass a theory test
  • pass practical tests

Once you have passed your tests, your moped entitlement will be shown on the driving licence as:

  • category AM
  • category Q

If you pass a test for a car or any of the motorcycle categories, you will also receive entitlement to ride a moped. However, a valid CBT certificate will still be required to ride a moped on the road if a full motorcycle test category has not been awarded. This moped entitlement will be shown as above (categories AM and Q).

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/information-moped-riders

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Or perhaps the below terms apply in my case, as someone with 'existing moped entitlement' (i.e. Categories AM, p & q) listed on the licence. 

20190624_160446.jpg.c03129b4a1c240453f65c253d37b9b1c.jpg

Existing driving licence holders with moped entitlement

Previously your entitlement was shown on your driving licence as category P and covered you to ride mopeds with:

  • an engine size up to 50 cc (cylinder capacity)
  • a maximum speed up to 50 kilometres per hour (km/h)

Category P entitlement is not lost from the licence but you will also be awarded categories AM and Q as detailed below.

Your entitlement is shown as:

  • category AM - gives you entitlement to ride mopeds with a maximum design speed over 25 km/h but not more than 45 km/h, small three wheelers (up to 50 cc and below 4 Kilowatt (kW)), and light quadricycles (unladen weight less than 350 kilograms (kg) and up to 45 km/h)
  • category P - extending the above to include two or three-wheeled mopeds with a higher maximum speed of up to 50 km/h (to retain your existing entitlement)
  • category Q - extending the above to include two or three-wheeled mopeds with a maximum speed up to 25 km/h (to retain your existing entitlement)

It really isn't made all that terribly clear... (and I'm still unsure exactly what Category A relates to - seems NI driving licences are a bit different to the rest of the UK in terms of categories - so the DVLA site doesn't quite match up).

 

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Having passed my car driving test before 1997, I am entitled to drive all sorts of cool things. Not that I ever do, mind:

IMG_20190624_181412_BURST001_COVER.thumb.jpg.c0e6017f086157f525359c3ccdb9e058.jpg

I plan to get my CE entitlement at some point within the next 12 months. Not planning to get my A1, A2, D or DE entitlements any time soon, although a 'full house' would be pretty cool :)

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So this arrived yesterday:

20190627_075520.thumb.jpg.440230f8d0f41ac26373a2739beea92e.jpg

It's tiny! Like, about A6 size - same as one of those old Matchbox Toys catalogues.

Still, I guess the scooter is also tiny, so... probably about right.

I always find it handy to have an original owner's manual for my assorted old nails - just to see what manufacturer recommendations are for tyre pressures, spark plugs etc... and so I can estimate how far I can deviate from this before something going terminally wrong. Parameter setting, you might call it.

Also useful so I know where everything's located...

20190627_075608.thumb.jpg.4925565a0fad94c2df31957656d04cf7.jpg

Ah.

 

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  • Datsuncog changed the title to Datsuncog's Heaps: 05/02/21 - Wake-Up Call; No Thanks...
  • 1 month later...

Ah don't you just love it when the penny drops that it was YOUR OWN STUPID FAULT the whole time? I feel your pain with the alarm fault, FIL's A-class got the right hump after the battery went flat, and with a new one fitted I had a christmas tree of warning lights, no central locking and a siren that would NOT shut up. After disconnecting the siren and removing the fuse for the indicators, it was about to go for scrap, but having driven it a few miles home, the warning lights went out and the central locking returned to normal function. I tentatively re-fitted the fuse and all was normal again. Still left the bloody siren disconnected though! I'm told there's a battery in the siren to thwart thieves who disconnect it, and if that fails the system has a strop - don't know if yours is the same but I'd look into it.

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Same as above. Took me all afternoon what with kids and wife and whatnot. Worth it, what a fantastic post.

But hey, I bet it felt good at the end. 

You mentioned my Passat trouble. Talk about pity party,  I think I just basically shat my knickers and ran around screaming 'don't panic' and 'we're doomed' and such, until my friend plugged his proper machine in and we discovered that it was what I had suspected all along and it was literally just a broken wire rather than a broken sensor.

But when it's your work car and it just decides to break the moment you get it then, well screaming chickens, it's stressful. 

But nice one, plus eleventy for the comedy post, the actual gremlin trouble you had and the fix. Simple though it was. Sometimes the simple ones are the best in the end. 

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Old cars and cold nights do not good bedfellows make. Mainly as the cold befuddles the brain of the owner.

 

Glad the resolution was simple, though arduous to effect.

 

There's a reason NONE of the 6.5 cars in fleet here have their interior lights set to anything but off 

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This is why on every car I can, I disconnect the alarm or at the very least the alarm siren. Renaults are much easier than Porsches! The Porsche siren is disconnected so should stay quiet, but the German overloads realised this and it uses the horns as a backup if it can't see the siren. Alternatively disconnecting the interior sensors, or the magic combination to disable them is a compromise that usually fixes them. Hopefully now I've said that, no one really knows where I live 🤣

Does the Forester have the little keypad where you can reprogram the cars systems like the alarm?

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1 minute ago, 320touring said:

Old cars and cold nights do not good bedfellows make. Mainly as the cold befuddles the brain of the owner.

 

Glad the resolution was simple, though arduous to effect.

 

There's a reason NONE of the 6.5 cars in fleet here have their interior lights set to anything but off 

It's not just the interior lights...

Ask Wife's ex-Polo. 

One thing I'm waiting to happen is the Passat lights being left on. It turns out that, unlike sensible cars that cut the headlights when the keys are not in the ignition unless you set the indicator to leave a parking light on, the vagshite let you leave the lights on when you're away with the keys in hand. Fortunately they give you a chime when you open the driver's door, then cunningly engineer the door- open sensor to fail. 

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Great update, I personally find it quite satisfying to discover that it was just me being a clot rather than the car being broken in some unsolvable way.

RE: 2019 moped musings, if you passed your test before sometime in 2001 and have category AM on your licence you can ride a 50 with no CBT or L plates and even carry a pillion. 

I mean you can't carry a pillion on that thing but anyway.

A CBT is probably still a worthwhile investment even if you don't actually need one, £100 or so they are but an actually useful day spent getting you up to semi-independent wobbling status.

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