The new news 24 thread

[clayts450]

1 hour ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Michelin Crossclimate 2 fitted all round. Spendy. Cheaper than crashing. Well impressed so far... 

Great tyres the Cross Climates. Timed the fitting just right too, with OMGSNOKAOS forecast. Did you qualify for the cashback promo ? I'm due a whopping £25 off Michelin for spending £300 on Cross Climates.

[yes oui si]

2 hours ago, Urko said:

Right here mister - in my eyes - I can't unsee it now.

Poor little sausage

I'll try and keep the nasty car away from you. 

Do you need me to put trigger warnings up? 

[clayts450]

Today's been a write-off work wise as the Combo has been stuck at the diesel specialists all day to figure out my fuel pressure issues, and is now there for the night. Also had to empty the van last night, including removing the ply-lining (as a nice gesture to the guys, in case they needed access to the lift pump in the tank). My hallway is now the van - fuck me, that's a lot of shit I cart around with me every day. I am fed up of tripping over my own shit in my narrow passageway (missus) every time I go the front door, the back door or the kitchen.

Started the 600 up to move it along one parking space, next to my friendly neighbour's car ('er at number 12 with the two boys who always appear by magic just as I'm about to start something complicated mechanically). Primarily this is so that access to the megavalue catalytic converter is restricted to any ne'er-do-wells. This means 'them at number 11' can now park an extra van outside their home, to go with the other 5 wreckers parked at the end of our cul-de-sac (1 of which successfully leaked god only knows what all over the road, up the road, and all along the next road). Think there's some dodgy van trading going on. Until they get a Euro6 van I'm staying away.

 

[grogee]

1 hour ago, clayts450 said:

Great tyres the Cross Climates. Timed the fitting just right too, with OMGSNOKAOS forecast. Did you qualify for the cashback promo ? I'm due a whopping £25 off Michelin for spending £300 on Cross Climates.

OMGSNOKAOS - really? Have you been reading the Daily Express? 

 

Disclaimer: I'm not in Scotland.

[clayts450]

18 minutes ago, grogee said:

OMGSNOKAOS - really? Have you been reading the Daily Express? 

Yes, yes I have. And it's all true. Every day in every year that they report it. And it eventually becomes true.

TBF, I will be up in the Derbyshire Dales/Peak District on Saturday on a regular delivery run, and the white stuff might make an appearance up there. Cos the Express says so. And Sky

Quote

"There will be some snow on northern hills."

 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

2 hours ago, clayts450 said:

Great tyres the Cross Climates. Timed the fitting just right too, with OMGSNOKAOS forecast. Did you qualify for the cashback promo ? I'm due a whopping £25 off Michelin for spending £300 on Cross Climates.

They're brilliant! Snow is forecast around my way on Saturday. The road is rarely gritted, so I decided after having a little moment* in the snow last year, it would be best to get these! 

😎 

[clayts450]

You won't be disappointed - they absolutely rock in the snow. Cue me steaming past 20mph dawdlers on the M1 on the one day we actually had heavy snow earlier this year, with no loss of traction whatsoever. Gr8 in the wet too.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Just now, clayts450 said:

You won't be disappointed - they absolutely rock in the snow. Cue me steaming past 20mph dawdlers on the M1 on the one day we actually had heavy snow earlier this year, with no loss of traction whatsoever. Gr8 in the wet too.

Bang on! I did run winter tyres for a few years, but then a run of mild winters made it difficult to justify. 

Glad they performed well for you in the snow... 

My little moment is coming back to me now; approaching the end of the road on the brakes. Nice and gentle. Then oh fuck! Stop you cunt!!! We did. Just in time... I may* have released a pellet or two... 😅😅😅

[Urko]

2 hours ago, yes oui si said:

Poor little sausage

I'll try and keep the nasty car away from you. 

Do you need me to put trigger warnings up? 

Well yes if you plan on posting any more photos of that or if you plan on wrecking any more and posting pictures of the results.

[yes oui si]

1 hour ago, Urko said:

Well yes if you plan on posting any more photos of that or if you plan on wrecking any more and posting pictures of the results.

Caution! A silly car, because cars are silly things and you shouldn't take them seriously:

[stuboy]

12 hours ago, yes oui si said:

Caution! A silly car, because cars are silly things and you shouldn't take them seriously:

i think it looks great.

[dave j]

30 minutes ago, yes oui si said:

Caution! A silly car, because cars are silly things and you shouldn't take them seriously:

Are they 19's? They look huge! I have that same style wheel but 18's on my Octavia

[yes oui si]

3 minutes ago, dave j said:

Are they 19's? They look huge! I have that same style wheel but 18's on my Octavia

Nope, 18s. Audi A3 S-Line. 

[dave j]

They looks great on it. They don't look as good on my Skoda but I am a fan of simple 5 spokes... They are easy to clean as well! 

[wuvvum]

12 minutes ago, yes oui si said:

Nope, 18s. Audi A3 S-Line. 

Hmm.  They do look mahoosive, but the rolling radius probably isn't that far different to the 215/60x16s on my 75.  I suppose it's just that you don't often see them with big rimz so 18s look huge on them.

[wuvvum]

Today I have managed to massively improve the heater on the Charade, by the simple expedient of topping the coolant up to the correct level.  I R twat.

It's still not the best heater in the world but it's now good enough for the car to be properly usable through the winter.

[cobblers]

20 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Today I have managed to massively improve the heater on the Charade, by the simple expedient of topping the coolant up to the correct level.  I R twat.

It's still not the best heater in the world but it's now good enough for the car to be properly usable through the winter.

I remember wondering what the "water running" noise was under the dash of my 106. Spent ages looking for leaks etc, very confused for weeks til the heater stopped working and I finally checked the coolant and found there was nothing left 

[yes oui si]

23 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Hmm.  They do look mahoosive, but the rolling radius probably isn't that far different to the 215/60x16s on my 75.  I suppose it's just that you don't often see them with big rimz so 18s look huge on them.

I think that the lack of arch gap and them being 15/20mm further out due to adapters makes them look bigger, but the current wheel and tyre size is the same as stock for a ZT. The 16" steels were running undersized tyres which was fucking the speedo 😂

You could put 20s on without issue. Might do it if I can find some I like. 

 

32 minutes ago, dave j said:

They looks great on it. They don't look as good on my Skoda but I am a fan of simple 5 spokes... They are easy to clean as well! 

That looks great, they're a good design - a rarity for Audi. 

[cobblers]

Theres a garage about 100 yards from where we live now and they have a reasonable reputation. I'm mega busy so rather than piss about taking it to my usual place miles away, I just chucked them the keys to the camper (2017 boxer) and said crack on and give it an MOT,  and a service while you're at it.

It's the first time I've used a garage to do general work for about 15 years - They picked it up off the drive this morning and dropped it off all done at 5:45PM.

It's a class 7 so they had to drive it to Sheffield for the MOT, which it passed but with shit back brakes as an advisory, Can't argue really, they really were shit.

They did all filters, oil, new rear disks and pads plus the MOT.  £520 with the VAT which seemed a bit steep on the face of it, but broken down I can't really knock em too hard. It takes a shitload of oil (7 litres) the parts for the rear brakes were £120+ vat and they had to drive it 35 miles for the test so some dude was tied up all morning.

They've set the handbrake up nice, I'll give them that.

The cost still stings a bit but that's the price I pay, I suppose. I could have got the service bits for £90, the brakes for £110, took it for the test for £55 so I suppose I've paid £250 for what would have been about a day of my time to get all the stuff done myself. I don't really have a spare day and if I did I wouldn't want to use it servicing a modern van.

[dollywobbler]

9 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Today I have managed to massively improve the heater on the Charade, by the simple expedient of topping the coolant up to the correct level.  I R twat.

It's still not the best heater in the world but it's now good enough for the car to be properly usable through the winter.

Aye, sounds like it might be a bit clogged. On ours, you can't actually have it on full heat or it's an absolute volcano.

Speaking of which, hoping to start the engine overhaul on ours today. It's going to take some time, as tinkering is limited to a few hours here and there at the moment, but the head is coming off for valve stem seals and to allow us to replace the piston rings and relevant crank bearings. Probably. Have never done this sort of work before, so it'll be interesting. Thankfully we have a set of official workshop manuals.

[bunglebus]

Bit chilly today

 

[brownnova]

I’ve just bought the Merc, I’m happy with it, it’s a lovely lovely car.

Of course today I drove past a local garage and outside for sale is a dream car in an almost perfect spec and in my favourite colour for that model. Oh and it’s in great condition and within the budget I’d set myself.

Balls.

So do I a) ignore it and just keep faith with the Merc b) buy the other car and sell the Merc c) buy the other car and keep the Merc too… and have too many big luxury family cars? 

[loserone]

It has to be B or C..

[bobdisk]

I would go for C, then give them both a few weeks to see which I like best, then sell the other.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

How about part-exchanging the Merc for the dream car?

[brownnova]

47 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

How about part-exchanging the Merc for the dream car?

He’s Not interested in a part ex sadly…. I tried to flog him my MX5! I think b or c might have to win… I really need to sell at least one or two! 

[richardmorris]

22 minutes ago, brownnova said:

He’s Not interested in a part ex sadly…. I tried to flog him my MX5! I think b or c might have to win… I really need to sell at least one or two! 

 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Alison back from service. All she needed was a N\S\F Control Arm Balljoint. 

No advisories, but because I'm a fussy cunt, I'll replace the Droplinks because it is easy to do. 

Alison has 254,256 miles on the odometer. 😱

Amazing little tanks, these A2s... 

[stuboy]

Collegue asked me if his headlamps was working on his bini...um no fella they not work...let's take a look... 1st one blown... 2nd one had melted the holder and all connections were crusty...

[clayts450]

Combo is a go again, although I R disappoint that I no longer leave a trail of soot behind me every time I give it large on the loud pedal - used to be great showering tailgaters with black clouds of shite.

Anyroad, £170-odd quid got me some proper old school diesel specialist knowledge, some shit hot diagnosing, and a back street garage I will happily recommend and use again (Nottingham Diesel Services, off St Ann's Well Road). The issue was the fuel pressure sensor on the common rail - a £35 part. They noticed that even with the engine off, the sensor was still giving a reading, when it should have been a big fat zero. Anyroad, they swapped the part out, kept the van overnight and checked it started first time in the cold, ensured the readings were bob on (they were) and said 'that'll do it - if the problem comes back, call us, and we'll start delving into your wallet a bit more and do thorough injector/pump tests and all that shit'. 

How refreshing - imagine if I'd taken that to a non diesel specialist : probably would have been parts darts and a hefty bill.

No cold start/warm start/hot start/P0089 issues now. And, sadly, no black smoke out the exhaust.

Still sounds like a bag of nails, mind.