The new news 24 thread

[Guest Hooli]

I prefer the threads on older chod, modern shite is boring.

[danthecapriman]

I prefer the threads on older chod, modern shite is boring.

That's one reason why I think it'd be good to have a specific part of the forum (like the modern shite section) for the old generation of stuff.

I find myself having to filter through most threads on here at times to find content of my taste. If all the old stuff, say pre xxxx year, was in its own place then I could go there and not have to scan through to find what I want?

 

Maybe??

[SiC]

Sorry to drag it up again guys, no harm meant by it.

It's just recently I've got the impression, and it seems I might not be the only one, that I've got less and less 'in common' with this place?

I dunno, it just seems there's little interest unless your poking about with a worn out Vectra or something similar. It's to the point where recently I've thought about not bothering to update any of my threads anymore since there doesn't seem any real interest other than a couple of 'likes'.

Or is it subject matter? Am I now not in the right place because I like old Fords?

Well put it this way, what was the most liked post and thread on this forum? The Renault 5 rescue thread. Not only was it the most liked, it got that status in the matter of days.

 

Even my thread about a hum drum GT cruiser (I don't really want to call it a sports car) that is a bit Marmite to many and actually still incredibly common (twice as many around than the Smart Roadster), seems to have a lot of interest!

[cort16]

Thats why moderns are in a different section. The only time I see moderns on the main board are when people are having problems with their daily drivers and looking for advice, which is fair enough.

[trigger]

It probably doesn't help that I only use my phone these days via tapatalk so I see all the new posts from all the sections.

[Pillock]

I could do, I didn't bother before as people don't seem to interested in older cars on here anymore, only the modern stuff.

Please let's have a thread! It looks gorgeous...

[r.welfare]

I think a well written and pictured project thread is a winner regardless of the age of the vehicle, so get on it Trig.

[trigger]

The babies gone to bed and Mrs T's watching Blue Planet so I'm now getting on it!

[HH-R]

Sounds like a JDM grey import. Should the regular K11 choptop not be obscure enough, there's always this version:

 

Nissan March (K11) Bonito Cabriolet by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Nissan March (K11) Bonito Cabriolet by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Yes, that's the one! I forgot about the strange front end.

 

The rear lights look like MGB items!

[D Spares & Tyres]

Sorry to drag it up again guys, no harm meant by it.

It's just recently I've got the impression, and it seems I might not be the only one, that I've got less and less 'in common' with this place?

I dunno, it just seems there's little interest unless your poking about with a worn out Vectra or something similar. It's to the point where recently I've thought about not bothering to update any of my threads anymore since there doesn't seem any real interest other than a couple of 'likes'.

Or is it subject matter? Am I now not in the right place because I like old Fords?

No your cars are interesting! Well except the Volvo, never really liked those but the others are great...(awaits abuse)

 

Some interesting threads on here, about some wonderful cars to read about. Renault 16, Morris Oxford, Tagora, Granada's,SD1,Ital, Samba, Invacar to name but a few. Where on earth else would I get to read about all these interesting vehicles?

 

I can't give much input to these threads and neither do I just press 'like' on everything I like, that would soon get tedious but keep it coming please, please be assured it is

read and appreciated ☺

[HH-R]

I rarely come on the "Autoshite" part of the board other than for this thread and grumpy because I just end up reading pages and pages of bickering and moaning about what is Autoshite or not.

[drivewaymyway]

Just a poke but instead of having a Old Autoshite or New autoshite why not have headings such as 70's autoshite, 80's autoshite, 90's autoshite ? Or how about by Manufacturer ? This would be a very long list of headings though..

 Just my uneducated 5p worth...

[danthecapriman]

I rarely come on the "Autoshite" part of the board other than for this thread and grumpy because I just end up reading pages and pages of bickering and moaning about what is Autoshite or not.

Well I've just fucked that for you then haven't I!

 

Sorry! I won't bleat on anymore.

[wuvvum]

10 years ago we was posting about Itals, Soloras and Dafs, now it's more about modern stuff that I'm less interested in but that's how things have changed, shite isn't cheap anymore.

I'd even venture to say that shite isn't shite any more.  My understanding when I joined here nearly 11 years ago was that the definition of "shite" was cars which were underappreciated / misunderstood / overlooked by the vast majority of society.  Eleven years on and a half-decent Allegro is now over two grand - I wouldn't call that underappreciated, quite the opposite in fact.

 

Looking forward to the Ital van thread (and to having a drive of it at Shotley next year ).

[Inspector Morose]

No, it's a perfectly legitimate thought. Thinking about it, we all seem to agree that Autoshite has moved on age wise and what we peeves over in the early days (10 years ago ffs) is now out of reach to some on here. Plus time moves on and away from our particular "era" of interest. However, this doesn't make it any less interesting. Nor is the more modern stuff less Autoshite. Time moves on.

Let's think about it, talk it over with the other staff and see where we go from there. Okay?

[SiC]

I still think appropriate tags would be useful (like roffle/sale/etc) if we could have pre-80s/80/90/00.

[cort16]

They broke the for sale section up on retro rides by decade and it killed it. It slows all the boards down and it means you need to trawl to find content .

[SiC]

That's why I think tags are better than multiple forums because the forum isn't split up. However it's still possible to quickly find content as you can filter quickly.

[DodgeRover]

They broke the for sale section up on retro rides by decade and it killed it. It slows all the boards down and it means you need to trawl to find content .

TBH I think the white room sellers and subsequent price hikes in everything else has killed it. I once asked on the general forum if maybe they could put some other content on other than just filling the for sale section but got put down.

RR seems to be dying a death anyway sadly as I thoroughly enjoyed some of the builds on there.

[danthecapriman]

TBH I think the white room sellers and subsequent price hikes in everything else has killed it. I once asked on the general forum if maybe they could put some other content on other than just filling the for sale section but got put down.

RR seems to be dying a death anyway sadly as I thoroughly enjoyed some of the builds on there.

I used to go on RR a fair bit, even did some threads for my cars but got absolutely no interest in them. Though, to be fair I'm more of a stock/standard type so maybe that's why? I don't really go on there much now, tis' a strange place!

[Craig the Princess]

Really don't want to Wade into another what is as debate but there has been done cracking content of late even if it does get a bit lost in the sea of threads sometimes.

[Lord Sterling]

I keep seeing a K11 Micra convertible around, branded as a March.

 

Would it be factory? It looks well done other than the utterly hideous rear lights which I'd imagine are aftermarket.

 

No photo as I'm always laden with Lidl's finest* shopping.

The Nissan March Convertible is basically a K11 Micra Convertible. They were never sold here and are all imports.

 

 

There are other versions of the March, some are even basic JDM specs of the same European model, but they seem fairly popular. The K11 has a LOAD of different cars using its floorpan, the Nissan Figaro is basically a K11 Micra with a funky bkdy but everthing else is the same. There is also an awful looking Mk2 Jag lookalike which is also basically a K11 Micra.

[HMC]

They broke the for sale section up on retro rides by decade and it killed it. It slows all the boards down and it means you need to trawl to find content .

THIS- I check occasionally to see if they've given up on it yet, but they haven't. Part of the fun was the variety, it's been ruined IMO. I would cite that as an example of where sub dividing topics further and further makes it less than the sum of it's parts.

[Tickman]

I pile all my stuff in one thread, it spans from a 1957 Morris Minor to my daughters '04 plate Clio and has too much in between. It doesn't get loads of comments but it sees some and I do it more to actually get myself to do stuff than anything else.

 

I don't comment on a lot of threads as I don't usually have anything useful to add and having 20 responses saying 'well done' dilutes the content more than just having shit content. 

[New POD]

I really don't think there should be any sectioning of content. Autoshite could be anything. Any age, any condition, any value, any brand. It could be owned, or PCP'd, or borrowed or rented, although prefer if NOT stolen.

 

Take my families fleet.

 

1) a 1997 mk1 MX5 with dodgy welding and a slow puncture, which doesn't get enough use. 2000 miles last year. This is autoshite because poverty spec and patina and NO airbags. V5 in wife's name.

2) a 2001 3.2 V6 omega Mv6 - Just done 23K miles in 13 months, this is autoshite because it's now done 185K with no LPG and parts rapidly becoming obsolete. V5 in my name

3) Bini Cooper From sept 2001 which is insured by my daughter, and in the 2 months she's had it, there's been more problems than in the previous 4 years.  Autoshite because designed by Rover engineers when they still thought BMW was their saviour. and because shite like Canbus and shite because electric power steering and midlands gearbox. V5 in Wife's name

4) Astra 1.6 16V club Mk4 2000 with 40K on the clock and FULL history. Was father in laws, now son's. He's not doing many miles now. But I have first refusal if he ever wants rid. Autoshite because CLUB and Mk4 astra. V5 in son's name.

5) Brother in Law (MikeR of this parish) has a mk1 focus. It's shite because is was shite when he got it and his wife hated it with a vengeance.

6) His wife has an old micra which MUST have been a Cat C. It's shite. because there is silicon sealant in white around the front screen.

7) His son, just bought a £300 1.2 R reg corsa in white off here. It's shite. I love the no airbag steering wheel.

His son's wife has a low mileage polo 1.4 on an X reg. Was cheap and has great history. Remarkable because NO pineapples.

9) Niece and her Boyfreind have contrasting mk5 astras. One's a diesel in black and the others a petrol convertible in gold. Both are autoshite because they paid over the odds for "all Vauxhalls are shit"

10) My wife has just bought a 40K 61 plate petrol Juke. from a dealer with a service history, with every conceivable extra. It's autoshite because it's ugly, and if anything goes wrong it looks like I'll need a team of software and IT specialists. And at the rate of use, it'll have done 100K by 2030. Given that it's rare for us to sell a car apart from to the scrap man, we might end up keeping it until cars are banned.

[SiC]

The babies gone to bed and Mrs T's watching Blue Planet so I'm now getting on it!

Do you have a thread on your Dolomite?

[Ghosty]

I don't mind the modern forum but as I've mentioned before it's not quite properly integrated with the rest of the board so I often forget to check it. 

There's also the fact that 'modern' is subjective. I do think tagging threads would work a lot better than subforums, as we've got one big board that way, and content can easily be filtered by just clicking the tags. 

 

If it wasn't for Davebeforeseven/Michael Fahl-us doing whatever he wanted based on what a few people were saying here and there, and him possibly agreeing with them, we wouldn't even have more than one board.

[trigger]

Do you have a thread on your Dolomite?

 

Yep, not updated it for a long time though, probably should now the cars gone, in fact i might do that now.

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/21505-dolomite-se-all-finished-for-now/page-1

[wuvvum]

This weekend I have mostly been fighting wheel bolts.  Yesterday's job was to swap the barely legal offside front tyre on the Stilo with the much better nearside rear, to give it a slightly better chance of getting some traction on the damp and muddy roads of Norfolk.  Seven of the eight wheelnuts came off eventually, although not without a fight, but the final wheelnut on the front wheel would not budge.  Using the weight of the car on the breaker bar only succeeded in splitting my 17mm socket; I then tried the original wheelbrace with a length of exhaust pipe on the end for leverage, and split that too.  It'd obviously been torqued up to about 500 lb ft by some Kwik Fit gibbon.  In the end I got pissed off, took the other three bolts out completely and took the car for a "spirited" drive round the village - that did the job.  The car was definitely noticeably better to drive in the pissing rain earlier this evening.

 

Today, in between downpours, I decided to have a bash at doing the same on the Relay van, which has two pretty shagged front tyres and two quite decent rears.  The wheel bolts on that were bloody tight as well, but jumping up and down on the end of the breaker bar eventually persuaded then all to come undone (although it was getting a bit old by the 20th bolt).  The nearside was made more awkward by the fact that I wasn't sure if the bolts were reverse thread or not (they aren't).  The original plan was to use the spare to go on the nearside rear (as that has a better tyre than the nearside front), but in typical Sevel fashion the bolts retaining the spare wheel carrier are rusted to buggery so that didn't happen.  I used the Relay's scissor jack along with another scissor jack borrowed from the Movano to jack up an entire side at a time, and pleasingly (given that bits of the underside are starting to get a bit frilly, another Sevel trait) all four jacking points held the van's weight without any signs of bending or ominous crunching noises.  I did however stick another jack under the rear axle beam and one on the front subframe before actually removing the wheels.  16" van steels are actually fucking heavy to lug about, but I'm glad I made the effort as the van is a way better steer now and has completely lost the wheel wobble it sometimes got at about 30-40 mph.  I'm going to saturate the spare wheel carrier bolts in GT85 for the next week and have another bash at getting the spare out next weekend.

 

The heater on the Rover of Doom continues to baffle me.  I decided to try backflushing it by running the inlet pipe into the outlet stub - this nearly didn't happen as the matrix end of the inlet pipe wouldn't come off for love nor money (and there's no room to get a decent set of pliers in there), but then I found a bit of pipe the right diameter in the boot of the Volvo so used that instead.  It made bugger all difference - there was plenty of flow going in, but almost bugger all coming out.  I thought the matrix must be blocked up solid, but when I took the inlet pipe off the valve I was able to blow through it with relative ease - there was some resistance there, but certainly less than I would have expected given the pathetic dribble of coolant coming out the other end of the matrix.  So I'm no further forward and the heater is still lukewarm at best.  I bought some soda crystals which I'm going to try flushing it out with anyway, but I'm starting to think the problem may be something else.

 

The other job I was hoping to do yesterday (but didn't get around to due to all the faff with the Fiat wheels) was taking the scuttle cover off the C4 in an attempt to get the inlet pipe off the throttle body and give it a good blast of carb cleaner to see if that gets rid of the TPS fault.  Another job for next weekend, weather permitting.

 

The Stilo is continuing to give sterling service - it does everything I need a car to do, and even the lack of a heater fan isn't as much of an issue as I expected, as most of my commute is at 50-60 mph, at which speed there's enough ram air effect for the heater to be plenty effective enough.  It doesn't seem to be a car that is prone to misting up either, which is a bonus.  I have however splashed out £9 on a second hand blower motor assembly - it's the wrong one for the car as it's for a car with manual aircon rather than climate, but it should still fit in the hole.  I'm going to take the old one out and see if it's possible to just swap the motor over, but if not the replacement one is getting bunged in there as is and wired up to a separate switch.  I'm determined to spend as little on the car as possible, as befits its comically low purchase price.  In fact I was trying to fathom out a way to make some kind of wheel arch liner for the offside front out of an old rubber floor mat, but eventually gave up on the idea due to too many brackets, wires etc. running here there and everywhere, and have splashed out a further £15 on a used liner from a scrapyard, which should hopefully keep the worst of the road shite off the ECU... 

 

Further expenditure this weekend has included a new rear hub and new glowplugs for the 45, and a 15" snow tyre to match the one I already have waiting to go on the Rover 25 wheels, which will be going on the 45 over winter instead of the silly 17s.  I still need to get the nearside rear trailing arm bush done though before I can test it, and I'm going to have to farm that job out as it's way beyond my DIY capabilities - I might get them to fit the hub as well while I'm at it, depends how lazy I'm feeling.

[wuvvum]

Fuck me that was a long post.