The new news 24 thread

[chaseracer]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Can I ask where you got it? 

From a nice chap in Great Barr, name of Ray...

[BL Bloke]

33 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

My car has a cassette player with auto-reverse and Dolby NR. Who needs this swanky CD stuff anyway?

 

My 205 doesn't even have a cassette player, just a long/medium wave radio. I can still get some tunes on it though. ? 

[Split_Pin]

Medium and Long Wave radio is for winners, especially when the signal is affected by the operation of another device like the alternator, wipers and so on. Just like old times!

[Brodders]

 

11 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Medium and Long Wave radio is for winners, especially when the signal is affected by the operation of another device like the alternator, wipers and so on. Just like old times!

Is that it? I get interference passing traffic lights and going under motorway bridges when listening to Medium Wave radio.

I love Long Wave radio though, it means I can listen to BBC Radio 4 in France and most of Belgium.

[Lord Sterling]

Back at the garage today for Micra fettlege:

Was meant to pick it up yesterday but was ill. However, I found today that the new battery was also dead which pointed to some severe battery drainage somewhere.  Some testing with a multi-meter whilst painfully pulling fuses out narrowed it down to a fuse labelled "INTERIOR LAMP" the problem was, this fuse also controlled the mile-meter, petrol guage and radio, so I couldn't really leave the fuse off. Time to narrow it down some more....

With everything in place:

Quite severe. Up to 1.38 at its highest reading.

With bulb from from interior lamp taken out:

Acceptable but still higher than it needs to be. I'd prefer 0.01.

The bulb was left in on the higher readings and despite being in for less than minute was quite hot when I took it off. Seems to me quite odd that an interior light can drain a battery so fast.

So some more investigating needs to be done.

[puddlethumper]

1 hour ago, puddlethumper said:

So, Vauxhall, all are shit etc, are offering four fucking bags scrappage if you 

buy a new one. Bit desperate innit ?

I would like to point out that I do own an all Vauxhalls etc and I'm not bothered about 

people saying they are all shit. Get them cheaper then.

[vulgalour]

Well one of my cars doesn't even have a radio.  So there.

[egg]

9 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Medium and Long Wave radio is for winners, especially when the signal is affected by the operation of another device like the alternator, wipers and so on. Just like old times!

Yes, my Mazda does a bit of that - ideal* for listening to Test Match Special.

[Split_Pin]

My 6 year old son said, after some deliberation, that speech on AM and LW radio sounded like "old talking". He must have heard a recording of something at school to know that.

[Kiltox]

11 hours ago, puddlethumper said:

So, Vauxhall, all are shit etc, are offering four fucking bags scrappage if you 

buy a new one. Bit desperate innit ?

It’s just marketing. Next month they’ll be offering a £2000 discount and £2000 deposit contribution without the trade-in  

I bet the £4000 is off full list price....

[wuvvum]

I wonder when was the last time someone paid full list price for a new Vauxhall.

I can't really fathom why anyone would buy a new Corsa now anyway - it's a 13-year-old design and you can pick up a decent used example of basically the same car for under a grand now.

[3VOM]

10 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

The bulb was left in on the higher readings and despite being in for less than minute was quite hot when I took it off. Seems to me quite odd that an interior light can drain a battery so fast.

So some more investigating needs to be done.

Wrong power bulb or crappy switches with high resistances? Other causes include another interior light somewhere in the car but fallen and hidden behind a panel, that sort of thing. Aftermarket radio using more power than OEM radio or wired incorrectly.

[holbeck]

12 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Can I ask where you got it? 

Ebay!

[Craig the Princess]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

I wonder when was the last time someone paid full list price for a new Vauxhall.

I can't really fathom why anyone would buy a new Corsa now anyway - it's a 13-year-old design and you can pick up a decent used example of basically the same car for under a grand now.

But that doesn't have Facebook connectivity.

[dollywobbler]

9 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Well one of my cars doesn't even have a radio.  So there.

None of my cars has a working radio. Not even the borrowed BMW! The Matiz has one, but it only takes USB/Aux and I can't be arsed sorting any music out. It doesn't like my old WMA files when I tried those, so I gave up. Don't think the aerial is connected as zero radio. The CityRover has one, but the controls are knackered, so you only get Radio 2 at a volume you can't actually hear. The Fox has one, but it's entirely dead. 

[Heidel_Kakao]

32 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

None of my cars has a working radio.

You are Alec Issigonis AICMFP

[loserone]

WMA!

[brownnova]

8 track players are for winners... 

None of this new fangled DAB tosh... 

[Mally]

Regret letting my 8 track go in the MGB, tapes as well

Could have used it in the Minor.

 

[Lord Sterling]

3 hours ago, 3VOM said:

Wrong power bulb or crappy switches with high resistances? Other causes include another interior light somewhere in the car but fallen and hidden behind a panel, that sort of thing. Aftermarket radio using more power than OEM radio or wired incorrectly.

Hmmm. Putting my thoughts on here. The radio is a proper Nissan jobbie but from a later K12. It doesn't switch on without the ignition. The wires behind the radio are standard connectors with possibly only a non-OEM connector. Can't remember.

There are no more interior lights in the car, its a fairly low-spec jobbie.

[DVee8]

Looking through a old tool box in the garage I found these.

I think the gingercator is from a micra also the cig lighter with the image on.

The toggle switches and the other cig lighter no idea.

 

[richardmorris]

something appears to be happening with the Mercedes a/c.

 

[richardmorris]

don't know what's happening now.

 

[reb]

17 hours ago, Alex66 said:

I quite like the look of that Duster, I think it has future classic in the line of other greats like old Lada and so on, its a bargain for what it is anyway and so unexceptional, I am tempted to get one (not new though). 

I drove one for the first time yesterday, the previous shape one, I've thought the same for a while and now know it to be true. I'm not sure if I'd have one, but they seem to do the job of being a car quite well.

[egg]

@DVee8 - that gingercator looks a bit Mondeo MK1 or other Ford to me...

Some people think Kent is all chocolate box cottages Darling Buds of May etc, occasionally that is actually true. Bonus MK3 Mondy Ghia saloon. Shame I cut the bike off!

[Cavcraft]

+1 on that indicator being off a Ford.

[DVee8]

31 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

+1 on that indicator being off a Ford.

 

1 hour ago, egg said:

@DVee8 - that gingercator looks a bit Mondeo MK1 or other Ford to me...

Some people think Kent is all chocolate box cottages Darling Buds of May etc, occasionally that is actually true. Bonus MK3 Mondy Ghia saloon. Shame I cut the bike off!

I'm not saying it isn't a Ford but it turned up in a polly box at work and I work for Nissan 

[egg]

Ah, ok! Probably Micra then..

[davehedgehog31]

Saab panic avoided. 

It was using coolant at a fairly distressing rate. Probably around 1L to 45 miles. No signs of HGF at all, no contamination, white smoke, etc but still worrying. 

Couldn't see any leaks underneath. Driving with heater on, coolant level stayed rock solid. Put the AC on and.... 

That's the heater bypass valve tucked down the back of the block on the bulkhead, pishes out with HVAC set to cold but seems to puddle on the subfrsme or evaporates off on the hot exhaust before hitting the ground. Nice, a £25 valve as opposed to terminal HGF. 

Just as well, as my diagnostic runs were reminding me just how lovely it is, absolutely effortless pace and a nicely appointed interior. Cruising at 60 it can return half respectable economy figures too. It's a car I fall in and out with, how much I like it offset by high tax and poor economy, but it's a nice tonic to the two French diesels from time to time. I'm moving house next week anyway, so it will earn its keep. 

It's done about 150 miles in the last three months or so, need to put that right. 

Envy;

[Alex66]

3 hours ago, reb said:

I drove one for the first time yesterday, the previous shape one, I've thought the same for a while and now know it to be true. I'm not sure if I'd have one, but they seem to do the job of being a car quite well.

I am quite tempted by the previous shape as it is quite big in the boot area and have a great utilitarian feel about them,  plus they come up at a quite good price.