The new news 24 thread

[richardmorris]

Two of these and a mclaren F1 this morning.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

A full lock set for the CX has arrived from Stan Platts, with keys!

[Six-cylinder]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Two of these and a mclaren F1 this morning.

It is a McLaren Speedtail, about £1.75 million each.

[richardmorris]

2 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

It is a McLaren Speedtail, about £1.75 million each.

It looks like the least user friendly thing I’ve spotted. No luggage space, huge overhangs and low ground clearance and huge turning circle.

[Split_Pin]

4 hours ago, Bren said:

I drove the vectra today - my wife's car so I don't use it every day. I noticed the brake pedal was spongy - normally it is very firm. Wife, as usual noticed no difference, cos wife. Pedal goes hard when engine not running.

Plenty of fluid in the resevoir but it is dirty. I wonder if the high temps have affected the fluid? It absorbs a fair bit of moisture.

I think you'd have to nail it around a track for about 10 laps before the heat boiled the fluid so I doubt the highish ambient temperatures would impact it.

It sounds as though air is getting in somewhere, have you had work done on the brakes recently? 

A bleed would help but to root cause would still be there.

[Bren]

15 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I think you'd have to nail it around a track for about 10 laps before the heat boiled the fluid so I doubt the highish ambient temperatures would impact it.

It sounds as though air is getting in somewhere, have you had work done on the brakes recently? 

A bleed would help but to root cause would still be there.

They havn't been touched. It crossed my mind one may be sticking - this would correlate with the poor economy we have been getting.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

3 hours ago, richardmorris said:

It looks like the least user friendly thing I’ve spotted. No luggage space, huge overhangs and low ground clearance and huge turning circle.

That thing isn't meant to be user-friendly. It's meant to show incredibly filthy rich the owner is. Nice work if you can get it.

[SRi05]

Cleaned and polished the Astra this morning, managed to buff out a good few scuffs so pretty happy with how it's turned out. It's always going to be a 6 footer but it's looking clean and tidy. I tried to get the get the front grille off but three of the screws are absolutely siezed on with rust, fighting with them is for another day. Replaced the done in number plates and a bit of trim on the passenger door. It's came up well. 

[brownnova]

After several months rusting resting, this came out to play today… 

After having been quoted three grand for the welding work by a 2CV specialist (they wanted to rebuild the back end essentially) I decided to try a more old school welder type instead.

I knew I had the man for the job when I saw this Asia Rocsta outside… 

Much more pleasing price, but small waiting list. Early September and the welding can be done, then we can fit the wings etc we have here waiting. On bringing it home Mrs brownnova decided to show her friend just how rusty it is by pulling on the seatbelt… which came off in her hand, bringing part of the inner wing with it! Told you it was Rusty! 

[MarvinsMom]

we had the mini out to play today, but the revels were sadly short lived.

seems our old friend "Mr Missfire" has come back.

its the same symptoms as before, stuttering under load. so i guess the culprit is going to be some crud floating around in the carb somewhere. 

so the days run over the wee back roads of north yorkshire got cut short, and we headed over to Kerrys as fast as 10 inch wheels and 3 cylinders could manage. only to find out that kerry had left her keys at home "cos i won't need them with me"

fucks sake.

i have decided that i am going to NAIL a fuckin' coat hook onto kerrys forehead so that there will be somewhere to put her fookin' keys!

well, now't else for it but to head for home. we made it too, though there were moments when i thought we weren't!

"get and old car, they said, it'll be fun, they said......"

so after that, well i doubt we will be running out tomorrow in the run from Middlesbrough to Pickering. 

we also found that the head gasket on that car is weeping, well more than weeping, dribbling, leaking, pissing out? oil too.

yep, i am REALLY loving the bloody thing at the moment!

and the Rover went for its test the other day.

it failed, of course. basically it needs the cataracts on the headlamps polishing back, a o/s track rod and the hand brake, which is shit on a 75 at the best of time encouraging back into something resembling working order on both wheels.

so not too bad for a 20  year old, 208,000 mile Rover!

now to get someone to just do the jobs above.

and the Toyota too has had a test what it failed with a "major defect", the repeater thing in the wing mirror had given up,

now this is not some wee bulb, like what it would have been in the olden dayz, but some sealed LED shit. the only one i could get was from the local toyota main stealer, for £90.

£90 FUCKING QUID!!!!

still, could be worse, a friend had the same thing with some piece-of-shit golf, and that was £800-odd plus VAT as they had to change the WHOLE DOOR MIRROR!

the LED nonsense wasn't available on its own, so it was a complete mirror job.

"german engineering" what a fuckin' joke!!

[stuboy]

Yesterday back to retirement weekend,  rip out the kitchen, scraped all fire encouraging ceiling tiles from lounge/kitchen/bathroom and bathroom walls. Found a nice duckhams jug probably worth 20p and a empty paint stripper that tin i thought was cool looking..

[Split_Pin]

Took the Cavalier down to the NE meet yesterday, it was a brilliant day.

Unfortunately the drive back was somewhat tense though! The Cav is overheating quite a bit. It's fine on A roads and around town but on the motorway the needle rises almost to the red, especially on inclines. I thought I wasn't going to make it home at one point.

On reading up on it when I got home, the 1.7TDs are known for this. I've bought a new thermostat (I've been told there are 2 though, no idea where the second one is!) and I will flush the cooling system out, hopefully that will cure the issue. The coolant in it looks spot on though so I'm not sure why it would be crudded  up.

My plan is obviously to fix this, get it MOTs again in September and then I will probably sell it.

[Six-cylinder]

56 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Yesterday back to retirement weekend,  rip out the kitchen, scraped all fire encouraging ceiling tiles from lounge/kitchen/bathroom and bathroom walls. Found a nice duckhams jug probably worth 20p and a empty paint stripper that tin i thought was cool looking..

 

In the early 1980s when I ran a motor parts store we sometimes were sent boxes of them to give them away with a 5 LTR Duckhams 20/50 oil purchase.

I used to have a couple but have not seen them for a while.

[Split_Pin]

Bridged both fans on the Cav this morning, both working.

I will get a new sensor as well as a thermostat. The housing doesn't look great but the only 2nd hand replacement on ebay doesn't look any better. 

I also shut a screwdriver in the wing channel, jamming the bonnet shut. Thankfully Mrs_Pin was on hand to help me get it open again.

My old car mojo  has taken a bit of a dive this morning.

[reb]

This arrived yesterday:

I have to admit I much prefer it over the previous generation, I wasn't expecting that. The interior is pretty Spartan in a "wipe it down with a damp cloth" kind of way, it rides well, the 1.3 turbo lump seems to propel it well enough (I'm not insured on it so I didn't get a go) and it has an astonishing amount of rear legroom and boot space!

I might buy one myself once they're a few years old and a bit cheaper!

[reb]

1 minute ago, Nyphur said:

Wtf is it?

Dacia Duster, the only acceptable modern car

[Spurious]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Bridged both fans on the Cav this morning, both working.

I will get a new sensor as well as a thermostat. The housing doesn't look great but the only 2nd hand replacement on ebay doesn't look any better. 

I also shut a screwdriver in the wing channel, jamming the bonnet shut. Thankfully Mrs_Pin was on hand to help me get it open again.

My old car mojo  has taken a bit of a dive this morning.

It's probably a sensor right? it's a bit basic for ECU trickery to be controlling the fan. Did you sort the issue with the oil filter?

It's also a bit hot to be messing with the car, I make more silly mistakes in the heat I find. 

[Split_Pin]

Possibly but I think other issues are afoot....

[320touring]

As noted elsewhere, I painted the passenger mirror on the Toledo today - taking it from green to the correct body colour.

 

Looks decent, doesn't it?

 

Obviously, being the base model, the drivers one is all black plastic.

 

FFS!

[320touring]

Resolved

 

They look ok on:

[EightMegs]

I'm due to get on the ferry over to the UK next week and Harris the Yaris has just decided to start leaking fuel.

[Split_Pin]

I bought a new Nissens Radiator and a new Intermotor fan switch all for £33 posted. 

Hopefully the radiator fits.

For that price it is easier to replace the radiator rather than faff about trying to get it flushed successfully. 

 

[Mrcento]

Had the civic out on some country roads yesterday, it's changed my opinion on how it drives.

I quite liked it before, but found it a bit nervy on things like motorways, would be easily unsettled by crosswinds, bumps etc, not bad, just not much 'waft' to it. Had a few more drives like that in it, and definitely feel more used to it, but that little edgy nature is still there, exaggerated by a ride that is just a touch too jiggly.

But, It works brilliantly on twisty stuff. It dives into corners, steering feels razor sharp, it's really agile, has tons of grip, feels well planted and balanced, you can throw it into corners in ways that feels like it'd be too quick for a lot of cars and it darts in so quick on turn in and hangs on so easily, it feels like it's begging you to give it more stick. Good fun. Helped by a lovely gearshift and the engine that just has dollops of torque out of corners.

Only real downside on those roads is still the ride. Not outright bad, but just jiggly enough often enough to think 'This is a good laugh, but i'd happily trade a little bit of sharpness here for a touch less jiggle'.

[Sunny Jim]

I got to do a glider flight yesterday. Winch launches you 0 - 60mph in 3 seconds up to 1000ft when the cable is released. Did the, "You have control" "I have control" bit while I frantically tried to remember what the instructor had told me and managed a few manoeuvres  for a few minutes, all in all a wonderful experience.

 

[stuboy]

13 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

I got to do a glider flight yesterday. Winch launches you 0 - 60mph in 3 seconds up to 1000ft when the cable is released. Did the, "You have control" "I have control" bit while I frantically tried to remember what the instructor had told me and managed a few manoeuvres  for a few minutes, all in all a wonderful experience.

 

 

stuff that

[stuboy]

16 hours ago, 320touring said:

Looks decent, doesn't it?

 

Obviously, being the base model, the drivers one is all black plastic.

 

for over 2 years my galaxy has matt black drivers mirror where passenger mirror is colour coded..

 

i do have a replacement that needs painting.. for last 2 years though.

[wuvvum]

My new welder has been getting a bit of a workout this weekend.  Not with me at the helm as I don't trust myself with it yet on thin stuff, I let my welding mate drive, but the result is that the floor of the Renault 6 now looks rather less like something out of the Flintstones.

The Innocenti has also had the hole in its nearside rear inner arch / floorpan welded up, although I didn't get a photo of that.

I had been hoping the replacement brake flexi for the Toyota would arrive on Saturday so I could get that done but it hasn't turned up yet, so it'll be one evening in the week.  Seems to be the week for Toyotas failing MOTs on brake flexis...

[Jamie]

Enjoying @Kiltoxvideo on the disastra

[High Jetter]

13 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

 got to do a glider flight yesterday. Winch launches you 0 - 60mph in 3 seconds up to 1000ft when the cable is released. Did the, "You have control" "I have control" bit while I frantically tried to remember what the instructor had told me and managed a few manoeuvres  for a few minutes, all in all a wonderful experience.

Why do I find myself idly wondering what would happen if the cable didn't release? I'm with @stuboy on this one.

[Sunny Jim]

There's a manual release in the cockpit and if that didn't work for some reason there's hydraulic cutters to cut the cable at the winch end. i.e. two back-ups. Stu was statistically more likely to come to harm doing his DIY than I was going gliding.