The new news 24 thread

[Burnside]

11 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

Aye, it's definitely not a 90. Feels like at least a 110.

Within 24 hours of buying, it had a boot full of potted plants.

It's a 110 I'm sure. It used to have the red on the TDI badge, but it faded off as the rear always faced the sun on his driveway. 

One of the reasons my Grandad brought it, was because of the generous boot space. As he was always doing some kind of DIY etc at home.

He brought this off a family member. Who had previously had this at about 2/3 year old, as his reps company car in Aston, Birmingham. For there engineer business.

Although they sacked him as he was skiving off in the Passat down Cornwall etc, when he should have bee working! 

[Cord Fourteener]

2 hours ago, brownnova said:

Went to an MX5 meet, number plate fell off... had to improvise using one zip tie and string from a disposable mask... 

Rhos on Sea?

[Cord Fourteener]

I decided to go home via the Llyn Brenig Road as seen on Wales Rally GB Brenig Stages.

Unfortunately I couldn't do a Scandinavian flick anywhere as there were too many walkers and cyclists around.

But still, it was nice.

[New POD]

2 hours ago, brownnova said:

Went to an MX5 meet, number plate fell off... had to improvise using one zip tie and string from a disposable mask... 

You know that boot rack is on arse about face, don't you ?  

 

[Cord Fourteener]

11 minutes ago, New POD said:

You know that boot rack is on arse about face, don't you ?  

 

The next car along has it the same way too...

[New POD]

Just now, Tim_E said:

The next car along has it the same way too...

Well it's Wales. They don't have the same education in Science and Technology....

 

[High Jetter]

2 minutes ago, Tim_E said:

The next car along has it the same way too...

2 wrongs don't make it right

[martc]

3 hours ago, sdkrc said:

Quick hop in, there's no time to explain

Can't see any alteration here, it all looks bog standard to me.

[Cord Fourteener]

1 minute ago, martc said:

Can't see any alteration here, it all looks bog standard to me.

It's a piss-take.

[Cord Fourteener]

6 minutes ago, New POD said:

Well it's Wales. They don't have the same education in Science and Technology....

 

No, its mostly music, rugby, farming and how to extract large amounts of cash from the English on school holidays. 

[brownnova]

30 minutes ago, New POD said:

You know that boot rack is on arse about face, don't you ?  

 

You’ve told me before... I did nothing about it that time either 😂😂

[stuboy]

Walked round garage behind work yesterday to ask about if they be able to quote for drilling out studs and nut/bolt the flange with new gasket, they said come round in week and put up on the ramps, but being a tight fisted bugger should I just do it my self..

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, New POD said:

Well it's Wales. They don't have the same education in Science and Technology....

 

Yep, the bar is there so the luggage doesn’t take your head off in a crash. Most on all cars are fitted incorrectly.

[Low Horatio gearbox]

Collected the XJ from my siters and a gentle 140 mile run home and it fits the garage with barely any swearing either.

 

[anonymous user]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

2 wrongs don't make it right

But two Wrights made an aeroplane 

[SiC]

Swapped my toys about. Clio needs an MOT this month, so taxed. Gone up to £330 a year ffs.


I know all my cars are only cheap vehicles and the combined value of all is less than a brand new base spec Golf/1-series/Focus/etc, but I do right now feel very lucky to own and run several cars that I really like.

[cort1977]

Amen.

[Sunny Jim]

The BX continues to baffle me. After FTP at the Shiteisteddfod I discovered the dizzy cap and rotor were both very worn. I tracked down NOS replacements and today was the first day I had a chance to fit them.

I'd carefully marked everything up to ensure I put the HT leads on in the correct order but when I went to start it it produced the same symptoms as before - span over fine but refused to start. I checked and there was fuel getting to the carb and I knew all the electrical connections were good as I'd gone through them all with contact cleaner.

It didn't make any sense to me that a car I'd managed to get running with a worn dizzy and rotor two weeks ago now wouldn't start with new parts. I'd wanted to move the car so I could strim around it so decided to do the rest of the garden and come back to it. So half an hour later I tried again and still no dice.

Thinking that perhaps there was something wrong with the new parts I put the old ones back on but still it wouldn't start even after checking and re-checking everything. At this point my lunch guests turned up so I left it for a few hours.

When I came back to it it started on the first attempt which is good but I've no idea why! I moved it and left it running while I did the strimming. Parked it up again and swapped out the old dizzy cap and rotor for the new ones and it started and ran fine!

Completely baffled as to what's going on but glad it's running again.

[brownnova]

Had a car shuffle today as I wanted to move the camper van by the house to do some interior bits on it. This meant moving much of the fleet on to the road... 

Nice little line up. (#not my twingo) All was going well (despite a mystery flat battery on the 9000 despite only having been sat a short time) until I tried to move this... 

It started first time off the jump pack, but the shouts of “stop stop there’s smoke” from Mrs brownnova were not expected.

I’d repaired the power steering leak with some putty, however it turns out that the pipe was clearly knackered and by putting putty in one place  all I had done was move the problem further up the pipe and now it was spraying on to the exhaust!

This means a new PAS cooling pipe is necessary. And that is one job I don’t want to do or get done as I don’t want to spend more on it. So it’ll be for sale as is, needing repairs for not that much as I just want it gone now.

Better news on the camper front, even after several months stood the battery was still fine and on the third attempt the van leapt into life. The brakes being stuck on was my worry, but a good bout of revs freed them off easily.

Time to go over it and get back camping! 

[Fumbler]

1 hour ago, Sunny Jim said:

The BX continues to baffle me. After FTP at the Shiteisteddfod I discovered the dizzy cap and rotor were both very worn. I tracked down NOS replacements and today was the first day I had a chance to fit them.

I'd carefully marked everything up to ensure I put the HT leads on in the correct order but when I went to start it it produced the same symptoms as before - span over fine but refused to start. I checked and there was fuel getting to the carb and I knew all the electrical connections were good as I'd gone through them all with contact cleaner.

It didn't make any sense to me that a car I'd managed to get running with a worn dizzy and rotor two weeks ago now wouldn't start with new parts. I'd wanted to move the car so I could strim around it so decided to do the rest of the garden and come back to it. So half an hour later I tried again and still no dice.

Thinking that perhaps there was something wrong with the new parts I put the old ones back on but still it wouldn't start even after checking and re-checking everything. At this point my lunch guests turned up so I left it for a few hours.

When I came back to it it started on the first attempt which is good but I've no idea why! I moved it and left it running while I did the strimming. Parked it up again and swapped out the old dizzy cap and rotor for the new ones and it started and ran fine!

Completely baffled as to what's going on but glad it's running again.

How old is the ignition module on the distributor? They like to fail and make hell break loose.

[Sunny Jim]

@Fumblergood call,  thank you. I'm not sure so I guess it wouldn't hurt to replace it.

[Fumbler]

Just now, Sunny Jim said:

@Fumblergood call,  thank you. I'm not sure so I guess it wouldn't hurt to replace it.

https://www.ignitioncarparts.co.uk/PartDetails.aspx?s_pc=PM00230&s_vid=

Here ya go.

[wuvvum]

Been running around in the Trafic this weekend.  I tipped in the two gallons of out-of-date veg oil that @Stanky gave me, plus 3 litres that I had at the back of a cupboard.  It seems perfectly happy running on the stuff, and it smells like frying.  I need to make a start on doing the bits it needs for an MOT though as it runs out soon.  I've tipped in a bottle of Lucas power steering shiz to see if that stops the leak, but it's also going to need weldage and some attention to the electrics.

I've also done a fair few miles in the Felicia.  So far it is still running fine and hasn't emptied its coolant, although I'm not venturing too far from home until I'm 100% sure it's OK.

Got the brake master cylinder off the Innocenti - that actually turned out to be a surprisingly easy job.  The less good news is that it's not the same as a Mini one - it's made by Bendix Italy so it's Innocenti specific - and I'm not sure whether a Mini cylinder would be a straight fit, although it should do in theory as the calipers are standard Mini as is (according to Wobbler) the pedal box.  I'm not sure if it is the seals that have gone though - the pushrod is very loose so I'm wondering whether it might have come apart inside.  I know there's some movement as there's a ball joint in the linkage, but it's not just pivoting around the ball joint, it's actually moving from side to side.  So I need to work out how to get the thing to bits to check what's going on in there.  It'd be useful not to have to fork out for a new master cylinder...

Had another crack at the rear brakes on the Carina this evening.  Both drums were a pain in the arse to get off, but I'm not sure why as the shoes weren't binding and there wasn't a visible lip.  The adjusters didn't seem to be in particularly great shape - the little spring loaded wedge thing that locks the toothed wheel in place wasn't springing very well.  I manually wound the nearside adjuster out a few notches, and that was enough to make the drum bind very slightly once it was refitted.  I wound the offside adjuster out by the same amount, and the drum went straight back on just with my fingertips, which was odd given how awkward it'd been to get off.  So I pulled it off again and wound the adjuster out quite a lot more.  Once everything was back in place it was still spinning freely so it was obviously well out of adjustment.  The pedal does feel better now but it's still not quite where I'd like it to be, so next time I get some free time when the weather's decent I'll have that drum off again and see if I can get it a bit better.  It's now nearly at the front of the MOT queue,  behind the Mondeo, so I want to get it sorted reasonably soon.

[New POD]

14 hours ago, brownnova said:

You’ve told me before... I did nothing about it that time either 😂😂

Saturday had me start to recomission our mk1 mx5 by putting a new battery and a new positive terminal on the battery, (As the old  one had snapped.) 

When I'd finished it started first time.  

Pumped the tyres up, and then fitted the boot rack correctly. 

Now do I chance an MOT with holes in the front wings and duct tape hidding them or swap them for the silver ones I bought second hand about 7 years ago.  I probably could rattle can them first. 

[Cord Fourteener]

12 hours ago, SiC said:

Swapped my toys about. Clio needs an MOT this month, so taxed. Gone up to £330 a year ffs.


I know all my cars are only cheap vehicles and the combined value of all is less than a brand new base spec Golf/1-series/Focus/etc, but I do right now feel very lucky to own and run several cars that I really like.

Lol my Fleet is less than one ten year old  low spec Golf/Focus/appliance with wheels in some cases 🤣

Better that way round, I think. I'm not sure I'd enjoy sinking large amounts of money into a modern that may still shit itself.

[barefoot]

This morning I have entered the Scirocco into the show n shine at the upcoming Camper Jam fest. I know the concours judge & the other judge so I'm hoping that a teeny bit of very light hearted, meat pie based bribery will go an awfully long way towards coming home with best in show.

...or possibly not.

[Cord Fourteener]

Neighbour's daughter bought this lovely I30 in bronze, 1.6 diesel. Its a modern I quite like. 75mpg ish combined, 110 ish bhp. Not bad, though pretty standard figures these days.

Neighbour's mother got jealous and bought one almost exactly the same, just a grey not bronze. Daughter is visiting from Uni so here they are lined up.

[Spurious]

6 hours ago, Tim_E said:

 

 

5 minutes ago, Tim_E said:

Neighbour's daughter bought this lovely I30 in bronze, 1.6 diesel. Its a modern I quite like. 75mpg ish combined, 110 ish bhp. Not bad, though pretty standard figures these days.

Neighbour's mother got jealous and bought one almost exactly the same, just a grey not bronze. Daughter is visiting from Uni so here they are lined up.

I rented one of them in Poland, thoroughly nice car. I'd probably have one with more horsepower but it was pretty good. 

We were getting an indicated 70mpg plus too. Makes jumping into a car doing 35 seem like it's robbing you in fuel. 

[Cord Fourteener]

6 minutes ago, Spurious said:

 

I rented one of them in Poland, thoroughly nice car. I'd probably have one with more horsepower but it was pretty good. 

We were getting an indicated 70mpg plus too. Makes jumping into a car doing 35 seem like it's robbing you in fuel. 

I dread to think what my Volvo 740 2.0 gets, I drive it hard on hilly back roads mostly.  I've got a broken odometer so I can't work it out, probably for the best!

The Passat gets 50odd normally and that's hugely* powerful so I can't complain there.

[Mrcento]

Think i've decided to sell the Cinquecento.

I love the little thing, but it's sat off the road for years and i don't realistically see me driving it again as a daily, it'd only ever be a toy and i think i've pretty much done what i want with it and would like a different sort of thing as a project.