The new news 24 thread

[Spurious]

Who takes a wagon up Standedge during drifting snow and a gale. The Jimny was fine, locked in 4wd and mountain goated through the snow but a wagon got stuck coming up the other way at a temporary one way. Myself and a xtrail driver going to work managed to get the wagon to begrudgingly move to the side to let us through. 

Also not sure where all this traffic is doing on a Saturday morning, usually only pass a car or two up there. 

The Audi bugged out and the Astra did too. 

[Cord Fourteener]

Strong winds here last night, almost no roads open to get home!

A neighbour finished restoring a classic and rover last week.

what do you think, that will buff out, right?

 

[grogee]

2 minutes ago, Cord Fourteener said:

Strong winds here last night, almost no roads open to get home!

A neighbour finished restoring a classic and rover last week.

what do you think, that will buff out, right?

 

I'm no LR fanboi but that is an absolute tragedy, genuinely sad for your neighbour. Poor bloke

[grogee]

After confidently predicting no OMGSNOKAOS we're now battling through drifts* as high as 1cm here in Warwickshire. 

Am expecting traffic to grind to a halt shortly. 

[grogee]

15 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Brake or clutch? If it's clutch master, it's presumably a sod of a job, as it is on the Multipla.

Brake, but I'm sure the clutch wouldn't be far behind having sat for 20 years

[artdjones]

On 11/25/2021 at 11:11 PM, wuvvum said:

Aaand today the Scénic's wipers are working perfectly again.

I really don't understand this car.  It also puts me in a bit of a quandary - I was going to have a go at taking the wipers apart this weekend and cleaning the connections, but I'm now worried that if I do that they might stop working again permanently - that wasn't an issue when they weren't working anyway but would be a bit of a bugger now.  I really need to find a dry day to take it in for a retest so that I don't have to use the wipers, but looking at the forecast for next week that's not looking very likely.

Before I can take it in I need to replace the rear springs - this looks like it should be an easy 30-minute job (jack the rear of the car up nice and high, wheels off, bottom shock mounts undone, drop the axle, ping the old springs out, pop the new in, reassembly is the reverse of removal) but being modern, French and generally a bit temperamental you can guarantee it's not going to be that easy...

If it's an intermittent problem it probably is a bad connection, so worth at least a check of the plugs and motors. There's a procedure to resynchronize the motors with each other on the Renault forum is they do get out of synch.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Got the first snow yesterday and last night a month late after normal. So had to use the snow blower today for the first time this season.

[catsinthewelder]

Just a gentle dusting of snow so far on the hill but the wind is howling.  Fortunately the only cars of mine within tree range are the camper and maybe the Discovery both of which are a bit fucked.

Driving home last night from Wales was exciting in blizzards.

[Datsuncog]

Some hail yesterday afternoon turned everything white for a bit, but no snow over in these parts just yet... and fortunately the massive trampoline in the garden of the house behind didn't quite make it over our hedge to destroy the plants and saplings, instead getting stuck at an awkward angle.

Bloody trampolines.

[mintwth]

7 hours ago, DVee8 said:

nextdoor has a wheelie bin on her bonnet and front bumper of her 18plate Fiat 500

That's a bit of an extreme bonnet scoop. 

Did it improve the way it looks? 

[Noel Tidybeard]

18 hours ago, tom13 said:

Sure is. Early gym sesh, can park there while the town is quiet. 

don't forget coffee at the Clock Tower Café 👍

[tom13]

23 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

don't forget coffee at the Clock Tower Café 👍

Is it decent in there? I will have to try, never been in. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

Just now, tom13 said:

Is it decent in there? I will have to try, never been in. 

Mrs's daughter- only been open about a month or 2

home made cake that changes every other day

https://www.facebook.com/ClockTowerCafeStourbridge/

[tom13]

26 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

Mrs's daughter- only been open about a month or 2

home made cake that changes every other day

https://www.facebook.com/ClockTowerCafeStourbridge/

I'm there. Next time I will call in. 

 

[TheOtherStu]

No snow in Roundabout city. Was hoping to take a drive out in the MR2 with the hood down tomorrow as it's looking sunny (and cold). Unfortunately, we're isolating possibly until next Friday. We had a PCR on Wednesday, but they've lost it. So did another today. They're saying it's likely we'll find out Monday.

I think it's just a cold, but the Missus has the worst cough. I just feel as rough as old boots.

The dog has got the proper hump, because she's not getting a walk other than round the block. One of the disadadvantages of living in a village where you don't really know anyone. I've hinted at my son that the dog might fancy a walk, but he's not biting and I believe he's quite busy this weekend anyway.

At least we have food, or will have, when Morrisons rock up at 9pm. Have deliberately ordered a litre of rum and a couple of tubs of heroes with the weekly shop. Getting the priorities right 😂

Oh and annoyingly, the new S204 Merc definitely has a radiator leak. Not huge - bearing in mind I've done around 1500 miles, but it's lost about 100ml. I'm going to be chasing that one round forever aren't I. I'll see what the folk on the Mercedes forum think.

[clayts450]

On 11/24/2021 at 6:37 PM, clayts450 said:

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

So armed with my new Cross Climate Pluses, the van and I did the run from Nottingham to Mcr today. Annoyingly, an extra pick-up manifested itself, meaning I had to divert to Sheffield, right next to the A57. Sheffield was OMGSNOKAOS in parts but the Michelins made short work of that.

I knew Snake Pass would be fucked, so bobbed up the 61, then up to Stockbridge to meet up with the 616, with the aim of going over Woodhead. Nah, road closed. FFS.

Had to continue up the 616, through Last of the Summer Wine-ville, then Huddersfield and  onto the M62. Probably earned a speeding ticket too, as I battled to get past some dimwit who pulled out in front of me with zero notice, and then proceeded to dawdle at 20mph on perfectly clear and well sighted roads. Shot past him, only to be greeted by the 'bing bing bing - fixed camera' warning from TomTom. Ah fuck. Might just have lost enough speed, but with any luck the snow on the road may have wiped out the marker lines. 14 days of agony whilst I await the kiss of the brown envelope through the letterbox.

M62 hilarious - no snow (in spite of the 120 trucks that got caught out in Rochdale last night), but fuck me it was windy up there. The weekender drivers were struggling big time. Got to Salford at 1.30pm, having added 30 miles to my outbound trip - normally I drop around 12.30. 

Mind you, not as bad as being stuck in a jam at the Mottram end of the M67 last night. Enough time to listen to all of the A-side singles on New Order's Substance (about 75 minutes). Bah.

[Markeh]

In a slight* surprise to me, I'm now arranging a collection mission.

A good friend's mum sadly died after a lengthy battle with various illnesses last week, and they have a limited time to clear out the house. A discussion that started with "Can you help us get/wipe data off her old tech?" led to a jokey "Know anyone who wants a car?"... and now here I am booking train tickets. Paying a little less than scrap price to cover the cost of the tickets - did tell them they'd get more for it on marketplace/through cartakeback themselves, but given everything else on their plate at the minute they decided they were happy for me to just come and get it and no further hassle.

It's got 3 weeks MOT, it's not moved for 9 months, it's in Berkshire, I haven't seen any photos of it, and I only know what car it is (I'll save that for the inevitable collection thread) from reg lookup. What could possibly go wrong?

[Asimo]

Topical.

 

[stuboy]

I broke the autoshite rule... I spent more than £3.62..was in aldi and thought do these fuggers work, the galaxy is my 2nd motor so spends lot time parked up, and get steamed up so thought stop being a tight miser and get one... better work at £7.99...

[andy18s]

Friend of ours ended up with a new optional extra on their Disco

They have no idea where it's from as there are no immediate neighbours 

 

[DVee8]

No1 son was parked the other side yesterday 

[eddyramrod]

Snow in Barrow, as we speak... I doubt it'll last.

[grogee]

38 minutes ago, stuboy said:

I broke the autoshite rule... I spent more than £3.62..was in aldi and thought do these fuggers work, the galaxy is my 2nd motor so spends lot time parked up, and get steamed up so thought stop being a tight miser and get one... better work at £7.99...

Please report back and let us know. I hate misting up!

[barefoot]

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

I broke the autoshite rule... I spent more than £3.62..was in aldi and thought do these fuggers work, the galaxy is my 2nd motor so spends lot time parked up, and get steamed up so thought stop being a tight miser and get one... better work at £7.99...

I used to have them in my camper over winter, they used to fill with water but the van remained the same.

[wuvvum]

One down...

[wuvvum]

Offside fitted, shocks back on - just refit the wheels and we're done.

A fairly major job on a modern French car which was straightforward even for my modest skills.  I'm now worried I might have caused some kind of disequilibrium in the cosmos...

[NigeT]

On 11/26/2021 at 11:53 PM, Metal Guru said:

Can’t imagine you could detect the difference between 5 and 10% ethanol unless you were a trained wine taster / blender.

As a trained professional in such matters I'll volunteer to do a blind sniff test at any meet I end up in. 

[cort16]

I'm in the process of moving out half of my lockup and decided to build a big shelf in my council lockup I can drive the front of the car under so I can get the rest of the tyres, gold clubs and other large shite out of the other garage. I wish I'd done this before as this garage is water tight and this gives me quite a lot of extra space as all I've ever kept in here is a car.

When I went back to get some more stuff from the other lockup this beauty was in it. Not a gift unfortunately it's a customers car from the garage. It's very very tidy.

 

[clayts450]

1 hour ago, cort16 said:

I'm in the process of moving out half of my lockup and decided to build a big shelf in my council lockup I can drive the front of the car under so I can get the rest of the tyres, gold clubs and other large shite out of the other garage. I wish I'd done this before as this garage is water tight and this gives me quite a lot of extra space as all I've ever kept in here is a car.

 

What a brilliant piece of lateral thinking. I've lost count of the number of times I've tripped over, crashed into or kicked various bits and bobs around the surroundings of whatever car is in the council garage. You should patent that - the Shelf of Shite has a certain ring to it.

[clayts450]

Long overdue purchase of a replacement battery for the van, as the original one is deffo on its last legs (keeps chucking up stop-start unavailable, even though I have it permanently switched off). Love how all the retailers say 'you must purchase a stop/start battery or kittens will die'. What complete bollox. Just turn the stop-start off, and a normal battery is golden.

Ordered up an Exide Premium with OMG Maximum CCA (640 vs the 450 currently under the hood), but as I cannot fuck around waiting in during the week, I had to visit Euro Car Parts (sorry Tayna - deffo my goto battery supplier, but no good when you need one now). Anyway, could I get anywhere near the Lenton branch of ECP ? Could I fuck - doing some critical roadworks with every single access road to the site coned off. Had to park miles away then lug a heavy battery back to the Streetwise.  BTW Lenton ECP are really good - never had a bad part from them, unlike the one literally five minutes drive from my house - I have an attic full of Hyundai oil filters from when I had the Honda.

Got home and then it started snowing heavily. Not fucking about in that to change a battery, so my need for a battery now clearly wasn't as critical as I thought. Ah well, tis only money.