The new news 24 thread

[320touring]

Blantyre - home of Dr Livingstone. I was there with the Royal Engineers in 1989 building an adventure playground in the grounds of the museum.

I lived about 500 yards from the museum, in one of the houses for the mill managers:) I was 8 when you built the playpark!

[hairnet]

The 2.6 is an Audi unit as found in the 80, Coupe, Cabriolet, and some very early (N plate) A4s. 

VR6s are 2.8s but I'm not sure what Audis got a VR6, in the case of the A4 the 2.8 V6 is either 12 or 30 valves, and VR6s have 24. The listed displacement for UK 2.8s doesn't match that of the VR either.

nope reihen motor different [/nerd]

[Bear]

The other day I saw a doctor about misaligned eyes.
Today I aligned the eyes on a DS

[SiC]

It's the best I've ever got out of it. Bristol to Preston, of which 170miles of the fuel in the tank (reset when it was passed filled) was 50 to 70mph m-way miles. Diesels may be filthy dirty things, but they sure are economical.

[dollywobbler]

Caravan has gone! Off to a new life in the north west. Towed by a petrol Freelander...

[scaryoldcortina]

I lived about 500 yards from the museum, in one of the houses for the mill managers:) I was 8 when you built the playpark!

I hope you had fun with it! Were you one of the kids on BMX bikes that hung around constantly watching us work? I looked on google, it doesn't seem to be there anymore - you can see the remains of some of it at the bottom of the field.

[Craig the Princess]

Retaxed the MGF for a trip to that there London tomorrow with lostnotfound. Needed a jump start (and will do again in the morning) and air in the tyres.

 

Looking forward to some autumnal roof down fun tomorrow.

Ungrateful bastard.

 

Not really, the FTP I think has more to do with me grounding out on a sloping drive than any fault of the car that was great fun on the drive to Stevenage. I can now only select 1st and 2nd gear so the three point turn was done by lostnotfound pushing it back.

 

Edit: Now loaded and being recovered home

[320touring]

I hope you had fun with it! Were you one of the kids on BMX bikes that hung around constantly watching us work? I looked on google, it doesn't seem to be there anymore - you can see the remains of some of it at the bottom of the field.

 

there's every chance:)

 

yeah a load of it was redeveloped..not been there in years

[M'coli]

After recent developments, I believe that my balls are toast (see the Puma roffle thread).

[hairnet]

I hope you had fun with it! Were you one of the kids on penny farthings that hung around constantly watching us work? I looked on google, it doesn't seem to be there anymore - you can see the remains of some of it at the bottom of the field.

[hairnet]

After recent developments, I believe that my balls are toast (see the Puma roffle thread).

just park it in the park and ride near you

[RobT]

I made the most of the ECP 30% weekend and did an oil, ATF, brake fluid and coolant change on the Cavalier today. I couldn't shift the gearbox drain plug though so resorted to the vacuum pump method. There's something quite satisfying seeing the old grubby ATF being drawn out whilst sitting down having a cuppa.

 

 

The gearbox was working OK before, but is even better now. Changes are barely noticeable and the slightly rough shift up to top it had before has now gone. The automatic 'boxes in these Cavs really are the bollocks, much better than a Sierra auto of similar vintage, and also superior to the one in my recently gone 405. The 405 'box was fine, just not as smooth.

 

The day wouldn't be complete without me breaking something though. It was all going well but then curiosity made me want to take the thermostat out and test it or whatever. I managed to shear a bolt off in the housing, fucking dick. There's now a tiny bit of moistness round the mating surfaces that wasn't there before. So that probably means the thermostat will stay in there forever now...

 

My bidding finger has also been busy today. Almost won a Jag but I stuck firmly to my limit and it sold for 12 quid more. Never mind, there's another I've got my eye on. Better colour, fewer miles, but it has no history, MoT is shorter than the other one, and is bloody miles away. Needless to say I want it. I fancy a roadtrip, and buying blind is all part of the fun.

[For Fiats Sake]

Fleet moving on the drive to release the WBoD Uno.  Parked two cars opposite side of the street.  Miserable Gas Bloke muttered something whilst working in neighbours garden "Haven't you got enough room up there".  "None of your business" replies I.

Took said Uno for a run after fitting new battery and was very pleased with performance, nippier than the hairdressers lump that I'm still lumbered with:

 

 

Took the dog for a walk at the local park and found an Autoshite Duck

 

 

Nice day for it

 

 

Ordered some new 4x4 tyres for the Orange 4x4 today, reckon I'll have it back after engine swap mid November!

 

 

 

 

[Kiltox]

Urgh. Prepping the Tragic for MoT (changing front drop links - just go straight to the fucking angle grinder folks) and noticed the front brake discs are utterly shot too.

[twosmoke300]

Careful when you change them . If they are rusty the rust flakes can drop down into the stupid cage thing on the inside of the wheel bearing . This cage also holds the abs sensor and the rust is magnetic enough to do screwy things to the abs . Took me fucking ages to diagnose the first one that did it to me

[Kiltox]

That's a fantastic tip right there, I'll be sure to check them over before reassembly, cheers!

 

They are rusty as fuck. Inside edge is really fucked which explains why it's not felt as sharp recently

[wuvvum]

I've got pretty much nothing constructive done this weekend.  My weekend has been spent mainly sleeping and finding (more) rust in the fleet.  I did give the lawn its last mow of the year, but that was about it.

 

Poking around the MG earlier I noticed a crack in the paint at the back of the offside sill.  Slightly concerned, I stuck a screwdriver blade in and prised it away, and the sill came with it.  More poking around revealed that the rearmost 8" or so of the sill are cornflakes.  The nearside isn't as bad but also has grot in it at the back, which had been hiding under a thick layer of schultz.  Not impressed.

 

I've also been poking around under the Hyundai, and that's gone downhill a bit since I bought it too - it's definitely going to need weldage on the inner sills and the inner arches at the back, and possibly other places once they get it up on the ramp.  At least the chassis and floor are still solid.

 

More out of morbid curiosity than anything else, I then decided to take the sill covers off the 620 to see what lurked beneath.  Imagine my surprise to find... sills!!  OK, there's a bit of rust around the rearmost mounting holes for the covers, but it actually doesn't look that bad under there at all.

 

That's about all I managed - I've been feeling completely knackered all weekend and also suffering from a distinct lack of arsedness - which has been a good thing in one sense as it has stopped me from bidding on a couple of hopeless projects on ebay, but it also means I haven't done hardly any of the things on my list for this weekend.  I hope it's just lack of sleep and not this shit weather getting to me.

[Skizzer]

I've got pretty much nothing constructive done this weekend. 

 

I've been feeling completely knackered all weekend and also suffering from a distinct lack of arsedness - which has been a good thing in one sense as it has stopped me from bidding on a couple of hopeless projects on ebay, but it also means I haven't done hardly any of the things on my list for this weekend.  I hope it's just lack of sleep and not this shit weather getting to me.

 

I feel your pain, brother Wuvvum.

 

I did open the bonnet of the Jaguar to have one last go at fixing the ignition before I resort to chucking a petrol bomb through the window or something, but then there was a massive downpour so I closed it again sharpish.

 

Shortly afterwards, driving over the hills to take Keith the Status Quo Dog to the kennels, we ran into the mother of all hail showers - complete and instant whiteout and a road full of marbles, genuinely scary stuff.  Lasted about 30 seconds.  I was glad we weren't on a busy motorway or something.

[HMC]

Spent any free time at the weekend chucking accumulated crap out of the garage. Im good at hoarding stuff that I willl never use, and I simply don't have much space as it is anyway. I'd somehow managed to accumulate about 40L of waste oil too that made its way to the dump in the 740.

 

The jag had been making sloshing noises going round corners; the main bulkead drain had been partly blocked by crap, and water had started coming into the interior through the blower motor housings on both sides. Actually there was so much water in there at one point that you could hear the blower rotors churning up the pool of water like propellers(!) I'd originally misdiagnosed blocked aircon condenser drains but after blowing those through with an airline I had to think again as I was still paddling around in the front footwells. Anyway I cleaned out and blew through all the draining points, and dynaxed the void which didnt look too bad but is a hangover from the later xj40s and is poorly designed and rot prone ( the base of the main drainage channel in the bulkhead is adjacent a body seam that starts corroding)

 

Unusually for me as the garage was now mega tidy and organised I could find all my tools and wasted minimal time cursing and trying to locate them. I predict this will last a couple of weeks at best!

[nacho man]

Diastravan problems.

 

My old man has had it three years, I have serviced it every year and last year it had everything changed.

 

I believe it's the 1.7cdti old Izuzu based lump? Was 100bhp 6 speed affair, but has had a remap.

 

Has always been a pretty nippy little thing but lately has lost its sparkle. No fault codes or smoking or what not.

 

What's the usual suspects that would make one of them feel a bit limp??

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kiltox]

EGR valve?

[SiC]

EGR / intake hose disconnected / boost vac hoses split

[Guest Hooli]

Fucking frog chod!

 

Parked the goona at work this morning and as I got out the sunroof opened on it's own. Doesn't matter where the switch is, the sunroof is up. Any idea how to manually wind it down? I don't care if it doesn't work afterwards, it's been sealed up for months to keep the water out as the drains are utterly blocked. Now I've got to seal it again once I get the fucker shut.

 

I knew I should have pulled the fuse months ago.

[Guest Hooli]

Ignore my last post.

 

I found this on google -

 

Switch on the ignition.

Turn the sunroof control knob to the left (Tilt Position) as far as it will go, the roof will open to its fully open tilt position.

Press in & hold the control knob, the sunroof will make a few movements then return to its maximum open tilt position.

Release the control knob.

Immediately Press in & hold the control knob again, after a few seconds the sunroof will slide to its fully open position then re close keep the control knob pressed all the time while it does this. Once closed release the control knob.
(If the control knob is released during this phase, the whole procedure must be repeated)

The control knob will still be in the fully left position (Tilt position) but the sunroof will be closed....just turn the knob to the closed position.

The sunroof should now work as normal.

 

@ http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/105-laguna/677-renault-laguna-ii-interiors-electric-sunroof-problem-reset-fixed-3.html

 

It didn't work, but leaving the switch at 'shut' & holding the button in has closed it. Later on I'll check if the roof has it's own fuse & remove the bloody thing.

[SiC]

On mine if you push and hold the lock button on the keycard, it'll close all the windows and sunroof up.

 

I'd disconnect the sunroof switch. The plastic trim for it should just pull straight off. Usually it's the switch is what plays up.

[cros]

Yesterday at a pissy wet 4am I was setting off for London when the P4 started to miss fire and finally came to a halt on the hill out of Stamford.

The car is still on points, but I fitted one of those transistor assist things as the contact sets on these cars are hard to find and repro ones iffy. After checking there was still a gap I unwired the electronics and the car started perfectly and I got there and back with no further dramas.

The electronic box is a recent UK made (expensive) Boyer and is another item advertised to make a car more reliable that actually causes it to break down. I'm going to write them a stiff letter on a piece of hardboard and send the fucker back.

[Six-cylinder]

Yesterday at a pissy wet 4am I was setting off for London when the P4 started to miss fire and finally came to a halt on the hill out of Stamford.

The car is still on points, but I fitted one of those transistor assist things as the contact sets on these cars are hard to find and repro ones iffy. After checking there was still a gap I unwired the electronics and the car started perfectly and I got there and back with no further dramas.

The electronic box is a recent UK made (expensive) Boyer and is another item advertised to make a car more reliable that actually causes it to break down. I'm going to write them a stiff letter on a piece of hardboard and send the fucker back.

IMG_20161016_181307625.jpg

Back in the early 1980s I used to run a motor parts store and we sold Sparkrite 2000 electronic assist, they had a terrible failure rate, the company admitted to 2.5 % at one stage but a count up at my branch was 20% including my own staff purchase.

[Guest Hooli]

Yesterday at a pissy wet 4am I was setting off for London when the P4 started to miss fire and finally came to a halt on the hill out of Stamford.

The car is still on points, but I fitted one of those transistor assist things as the contact sets on these cars are hard to find and repro ones iffy. After checking there was still a gap I unwired the electronics and the car started perfectly and I got there and back with no further dramas.

The electronic box is a recent UK made (expensive) Boyer and is another item advertised to make a car more reliable that actually causes it to break down. I'm going to write them a stiff letter on a piece of hardboard and send the fucker back.

IMG_20161016_181307625.jpg

 

I've been through THREE boyer ignitions on my Bonnie, none of them lasted over 3,000miles. Considering they cost £70, points cost £20 & don't breakdown. I upgraded to points to make the bike more reliable.

Oddly enough their reg/rec which allows batteryless running is rock solid.

[cros]

Fucking Ada, I always thought Boyer were good, probably because they cost so much. I've used them on a couple of Triumph Twins without problems, and those ones have to do the advance/retard business so you'd think the points assist type would be a piece of piss. I carried a Boyer in my toolbox for years as a back up on my T140v in case its unobtainable Lucas Rita system should die, but never had to resort to fitting it. At least Sparkrite had a switch so you could easily change back to points.

[dollywobbler]

Put a second hand Boyer on the Dyane. Ran a treat. Far better than the original points and condenser, which failed after eight miles...

 

Anyway, my news is that I went to West Bromwich, and I saw this.