The new news 24 thread

[Lord Sterling]

12 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Hmmm. I might* be able to sort out the clicking check-strap on the drivers door of the 407. Out of interest I was looking at it yesterday and noticed that one of the 10mm nuts were missing and other was very loose. I tightened up one with a handy 10mm spanner I keep in the car and the closing and opening the door was much quieter. I have some spare 10mm nuts so will try and fit one after work.

Edit*

Replacement wheel has just arrived:

The tyre is better than one currently on it.

Sadly the badge is missing but I could probably grab one off the current wheel or something. Its not important and can wait. This means I can take the car for a wash too on my next day off.

Yep! Sorted out the door. No more clicking for the check strap! All it needed was one nut tightening and another added and tightened. Silver nut at the bottom is the newly added nut.

Silent door opening and closing now in motion.

Wheel has been unwrapped, cleaned and put into the boot. I haven't got my breaker bar so will grab on my next day off and swap the wheel over.

The tyre on it is almost like new but one of those craply named 'Goodride' tyre. Its a lot better than the one on the incorrect alloy which is starting to crack along the sidewall.

[artdjones]

The engine loom is very complex.

This is the kind of job where you end up knee deep in parts. That's about half of it. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Just after taking the CX out for a run in the sun. Nothing noteworthy to report. 

 

[richardmorris]

Should anyone have watched top gear yesterday, the two lancias are looked after by All Italia in wrexham that now do my x1/9.

also, this is a link to car sos on the jenson interceptor that I saw at goodwood last November. Not watched it yet, but I may be in the background on the track.

 

https://dai.ly/x801mds

 

https://dai.ly/x801mds

[brownnova]

9 hours ago, stuboy said:

Found and old supplement from news of the world

Hang on, I own three of the cars featured in this article.... does that mean I’m cheap? 

[chaseracer]

Looks like we've nearly got us a racing car...

Shell (with aluminium roof) painted and permanently attached to the chassis, suspension connected, steering functional, braking system complete, gearbox checked and in, wiring well on the way, instrumentation mostly done.  That's a week's leave accounted for!

What else do we need?  Ah yes - an engine...

[richardmorris]

7 minutes ago, chaseracer said:

Looks like we've nearly got us a racing car...

Shell (with aluminium roof) painted and permanently attached to the chassis, suspension connected, steering functional, braking system complete, gearbox checked and in, wiring well on the way, instrumentation mostly done.  That's a week's leave accounted for!

What else do we need?  Ah yes - an engine...

Brilliant-you can now send me lots of information for the 2cv column due tonight! Otherwise it’s going to be very panda heavy!

[chaseracer]

Go with chauffeuse de taxi niecelet & pandas this time - I'll sort you out for the next issue!

[stuboy]

13 hours ago, brownnova said:

Hang on, I own three of the cars featured in this article.... does that mean I’m cheap? 

do you reuse tea bags after the 2nd cup made?

[Spurious]

2 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

 

It's like it's saying "please can we go on a run again"

[Yoss]

It does look like it's lurking rather than parked doesn't it. 

[SmokinWaffle]

3 hours ago, HMC said:

I drove the 280 today and held it in 2nd and 3rd along some favourite roads.

Verdict- much more body roll than a w210 but also a far more satisfying wail at higher revs.

 

Is that stock ride height? Looks so high?!

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Should anyone have watched top gear yesterday, the two lancias are looked after by All Italia in wrexham that now do my x1/9.

also, this is a link to car sos on the jenson interceptor that I saw at goodwood last November. Not watched it yet, but I may be in the background on the track.

 

https://dai.ly/x801mds

 

https://dai.ly/x801mds

I had Top Gear on in the background last night, wasn't really paying attention. Then those two Lancias appeared and my attention was aroused. I was very disappointed when they spent about 10 seconds on them and 55 minutes faffing about in their so called midlife crisis cars. Why go to all the trouble of getting them there and then practically ignore them. They have their priorities seriously wrong. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

11 minutes ago, Spurious said:

It's like it's saying "please can we go on a run again"

Get into her five times a day, and take her to heaven and back.

[dollywobbler]

Headed up to North Wales today for a bit of colour. In the Matiz. It's last long drive was up to North Wales in November. 500 miles between the two visits. Midlands tomorrow where the Matiz will receive some bodywork TLC.

 

[puddlethumper]

1 hour ago, dollywobbler said:

Headed up to North Wales today for a bit of colour. In the Matiz. It's last long drive was up to North Wales in November. 500 miles between the two visits. Midlands tomorrow where the Matiz will receive some bodywork TLC.

 

Would that be at DFTR ? I was round there a couple of weeks ago and they said that you were expected. They are doing a bit of welding for me the end of the month for the Mot. Great guys.

[brownnova]

2 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Headed up to North Wales today for a bit of colour. In the Matiz. It's last long drive was up to North Wales in November. 500 miles between the two visits. Midlands tomorrow where the Matiz will receive some bodywork TLC.

 

Hang on... I recognise those cars.... 

[wuvvum]

Had a 5-day weekend but didn't get as much done on the fleet as I might have - Thursday I was mostly playing with pushbikes (although I did finish installing the wiring for the diesel heater in the Trafic), Friday I did my annual spring clean of the house which I finished on Saturday morning, and today the weather was shite.

Saturday afternoon I jacked the petrol C2 up and took the wheel off to have a look at the brake and work out what tools I'd need.  The caliper retaining bolts were Torx and really fucking tight - I actually bent my expensive chrome vanadium T45 bit undoing the top bolt.  As it turned out I didn't actually need to take the caliper off, but hey ho.  Sunday morning I had a nice lie in, eventually got up and mowed the lawn, then went down to the car park to carry on with the C2 brake.  It turned out that what was causing the brake to bind was the pads being completely stuck in their carrier - the HBOL said "withdraw the pads" but didn't mention having to use a rubber mallet to get them out.  The problem was that the pads had gone rusty all round the edges - I imagine they'd been in there a long time, there's still plenty of meat on them but I don't think the rear brakes do a lot of work in a car like the C2.  So I sanded the rust off, re-greased the pads and refitted them - they went back in with just finger pressure so I'm going to call that an improvement!  It's going back in next Monday for the sill to be welded and then a retest, so I'll find out then if I've mended it or not.

While I was in brake mode I decided to try the vacuum bleeder on the front calipers of the 164, having had no luck with the rears last week.  The results didn't look particularly impressive with the fronts either - just a big stream of bubbles coming out of the bleed nipples, in fact a couple of them were only giving air.  I even took the offside caliper off to turn it "upside down" (technically the right way up as it's actually a nearside caliper fitted upside down) so I could bleed it properly, but that made little difference.  So I gave up, put the bleeder away and went on to the next task, which was to get the Innocenti out of the garage then shove the Volvo in there so the Innocenti could come onto the drive for a bit of fettling.  The Innocenti started up after a bit of cranking and drove happily out of the garage where it's been since October.  The Volvo also fired straight up and reversed out of the drive, but then as I drove off down the road I discovered, much to my surprise, that I actually had a brake pedal.  Not a brilliant one - I certainly wouldn't want to attempt an emergency stop from 70 - but for driving the few hundred yards to the garage at 15mph and then manoeuvring in the brakes were quite adequate.  I resisted the temptation to take it for a longer spin down the road, but it's certainly encouraging for whenever it comes out of the garage again (probably once the Innocenti is MOT'd).

Monday I got very little done due to the fact that it was howling a gale and snowing on and off - I did give the Innocenti a quick wash to clear the dust and cobwebs off, and had a quick rifle through the boot - finding, to my annoyance, that having just bought a set of front brake pads off eBay there was actually a set already in the boot - whether they were ones I'd bought years ago and forgotten about or ones that were in the car when I bought it I have no idea.  Anyway, the ones I've just bought are the same size, so that's encouraging...  About the only other thing I got done was to take the carb off the Spacy ready to be stripped, cleaned out and put back together again (properly this time, with the diaphragm that I forgot to put back in last time I cleaned it out ) which should hopefully see that running again.

[brownnova]

2CV out on parts collection duties today.... even drove through a snow storm to get to Rhyl to pick this up... 

 

[Split_Pin]

Well fuck. 

Another garage has let me down with the Cavalier.

Promised it would be ready today. I had been corresponding with the chap via WhatsApp so sent him a message at 3 o'clock today asking how things were going with the car.

I'll take the absolute radio silence to mean 'haven't even touched it'.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???

[loserone]

Two hours silence from someone who probably can't hear their phone for all the welding? I wouldn't worry about that just yet?

[Split_Pin]

I sure hope so!

[SiC]

11 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Well fuck. 

Another garage has let me down with the Cavalier.

Promised it would be ready today. I had been corresponding with the chap via WhatsApp so sent him a message at 3 o'clock today asking how things were going with the car.

I'll take the absolute radio silence to mean 'haven't even touched it'.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???

I know my favourite local garage is up to the eyeballs in work at the moment. MOTs have eased off massively but loads of general work and the results of deferred maintenance, now that people are starting to go out more again. 

[Zelandeth]

Two days ago I was working outside in a T shirt, and considered shorts as I was overheating.

Outside my bedroom window about 15 minutes ago...

Yep... that's the British weather being itself as normal then.

[Split_Pin]

Since I got the same excuse from my usual garage on week 1 and again on week 4, resulting in nothing done at all, I'm understandably irritated by this situation.

[artdjones]

Goodbye old friend.

[Split_Pin]

20 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Since I got the same excuse from my usual garage on week 1 and again on week 4, resulting in nothing done at all, I'm understandably irritated by this situation.

"Probably be Monday"  was his eventual response. 

I'll give it till Monday then its coming back and I'm selling it to someone that can fix it themselves. Its been one big pain in the arse, through no fault of the car but I just don't need the hassle.

[SiC]

Boxster went in for its MOT today.


It passed its with a clean sheet.


Emissions were respectable. Lukewarm engine going by the test time.


Also got fresh oil + filter and inspection service. 9 litres of the stuff. Cheapest Porsche C40 approved oil was a big tub of MANNOL. £30 for 10 litres - a good quarter the price of official Porsche branded oil.

[Zelandeth]

24 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Since I got the same excuse from my usual garage on week 1 and again on week 4, resulting in nothing done at all, I'm understandably irritated by this situation.

If what I've been seeing the last couple of days are anything to go by it's going to be the norm for a while...had to negotiate three broken down cars in awkward places today alone.

Get the feeling folks have just gone out again the millisecond they're allowed, and cars aren't too happy at having barely moved in months.

[puddlethumper]

I've had my 305 van for about twenty years and when I got it the drivers door would drop and the top corner would hit the frame. About 8 years ago I thought it was about time to do something about it so I purchased two new pins. After fitting it made no difference at all. Bugger. So I gave up for 8 years until yesterday, don't want to rush things, when I decided plan B would have to be dusted off. Off with the door card, a 5min job coz none of those pesky electrickery things, loosen the two bolts holding the hinge and slip a shim into the hinge. What a lovely thunk now. I must have opened and shut it twenty times just to hear it. You can't beat the sound of a car door shutting nicely. Why I left it 20 years when it took no more than an hour I'm buggered if I know. 

Oh, and another thing. When I imported it in 2010 I got an E prefix plate which is 1988, which it is, but mine is December 88 which would make it an F as E stopped in August. I wonder if I could get an age related plate. They've also put it down as a GLD which I reckon is wrong. I'm sure mine is a GRD, base model, as I don't have carpet, rubber mats, plain door cards, no decadent rear wash wipe or intermittent front wiper. Bastards, upgrading me from base. Who do they think they are ?

Just looked out the window. Kin ell ! It's a snow storm.