The new news 24 thread

[dome]

1 hour ago, dozeydustman said:

Is that an Atlantean or a Fleetline?

Taken from @Split_Pin on the old WhatsApp.

"I can't see the plate well but it looks like a PUA-W registered Roe Bodied Atlantean that would have started life with South Yorkshire PTE."

 

[LightBulbFun]

26 minutes ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Has anyone had or have any experience of a 2017(66) Ford EcoSport ZETEC TURBO,36,000 miles , 1 litre 3 cyl .

  Not for me ,asking for sis in law , thinking of getting one ... Anything to look out for or check . Having never bought a car that was worth doing an HPI check or any other online checks , does anyone know of a freebie website or cheap but comprehensive place that does the accident claims check etc etc.

Tia🤞

 

9 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

@LightBulbFun - are you able to help?

I sadly cant help much for accident claims and HPI stuff

my focus is the DVLA and what data I can get out of it for Invacar research  (so stuff like keeper changes, registration mark changes, any scrapped markers, chassis numbers and engine numbers etc!)

stuff like accident damage etc would be recorded outside the DVLA (apart from any insurance markers, but my fancy tool does not spit those out)

but you can find those if you start to make an advert on Auto trader when you shove the reg in, it will tell you if it has any insurance category markers against it

[cort16]

41 minutes ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Has anyone had or have any experience of a 2017(66) Ford EcoSport ZETEC TURBO,36,000 miles , 1 litre 3 cyl .

  Not for me ,asking for sis in law , thinking of getting one ... Anything to look out for or check . Having never bought a car that was worth doing an HPI check or any other online checks , does anyone know of a freebie website or cheap but comprehensive place that does the accident claims check etc etc.

Tia🤞

I use the this 1.99 check a lot.. It tells you if it's stolen, crashed, been in a salvage auction, no of owners etc.

https://totalcarcheck.co.uk/

If it's a private sale and it's a decent amount of cash then it's worth the 8.99 to do the check to make sure it's not on finance.

The 1.0 ecoboost didn't have the best of reputation in the early days. When things went wrong they went badly wrong quickly,  not sure if they've resolved it or not now.

[wuvvum]

I've been running around in the Mazda a bit and, annoyingly, the rear wheel bearing is getting noisy again.  I'm not sure whether it's because it's a duff bearing, or I didn't put enough grease in it, or I overtightened the hub nut (although I'm pretty sure I didn't do that), or what, which makes it awkward to know what to do to avoid it happening again.  I now have two spare bearing sets so it's not an issue to replace one, but I don't want to have to keep doing it every couple of hundred miles...

I've been looking to buy a modernish (as in this century) diesel luxobarge again - something like the W220 S-Class I had last year, but a bit newer.  Annoyingly though everything in that category seems to be over the Group 40 limit on my insurance policy, even though none of them are performance cars by any normal standards.  Even a V6 diesel Jag XF is too high.  I really can't justify taking out a separate insurance policy for what is essentially going to be a toy, so I think I might have to set my sights a little lower.  Not too much lower though or I'm not going to gain anything over the Rover 75, which is going to be pressed back into daily duty now it's passed the MOT.

[Fumbler]

I'm getting a bit bored of the Micra now that I'm commuting in it every day again. It's competant on the road- but not very comfortable, there's now a clonk in the nearside rear, the front crossmember is rotten from the inside out and the suspension is stiff. The trouble is, once I stop driving it for a month or two, I'll like it again and, economically, there's zero reason for me to get rid of it.

[mitsisigma01]

@Fumbler, its not French , that's good enough reason to keep it !!

https://www.centralpanels.co.uk/product/nissan-micra-k11-1993-2002-new-lower-front-crossmember/

£34.99 delivered , little bit of welding ... Job jobbed. 

Knocking from the rear ... Turn the stereo up 😁

[Sigmund Fraud]

12 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I've been running around in the Mazda a bit and, annoyingly, the rear wheel bearing is getting noisy again.  I'm not sure whether it's because it's a duff bearing, or I didn't put enough grease in it, or I overtightened the hub nut (although I'm pretty sure I didn't do that), or what, which makes it awkward to know what to do to avoid it happening again.  I now have two spare bearing sets so it's not an issue to replace one, but I don't want to have to keep doing it every couple of hundred miles...

I presume you're confirmed the origin of the noise is not the drum brakes ? I've been caught out before...

[Fumbler]

11 hours ago, mitsisigma01 said:

@Fumbler, its not French , that's good enough reason to keep it !!

https://www.centralpanels.co.uk/product/nissan-micra-k11-1993-2002-new-lower-front-crossmember/

£34.99 delivered , little bit of welding ... Job jobbed. 

Knocking from the rear ... Turn the stereo up 😁

Yes but time.

[tommotech]

When I serviced my daily Audi A4 recently I noticed the rear pads were looking low, but not an urgent job. Well, yesterday the job became urgent as the inner pad wore down to metal.

On replacing the pads (and now discs too) it became clear why the rapid rate of wear had caught me off guard, the upper slider pins were seized on both sides. All now freed off and reassembled the brakes feel so much better, we do get used to how our cars degenerate around us. Onwards and upwards............

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

I presume you're confirmed the origin of the noise is not the drum brakes ? I've been caught out before...

Replacing the wheel bearing temporarily silenced the noise, and it's still not as loud as it was when I bought the car.

[grogee]

14 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I've been running around in the Mazda a bit and, annoyingly, the rear wheel bearing is getting noisy again.  I'm not sure whether it's because it's a duff bearing, or I didn't put enough grease in it, or I overtightened the hub nut (although I'm pretty sure I didn't do that), or what, which makes it awkward to know what to do to avoid it happening again.  I now have two spare bearing sets so it's not an issue to replace one, but I don't want to have to keep doing it every couple of hundred miles...

I've been looking to buy a modernish (as in this century) diesel luxobarge again - something like the W220 S-Class I had last year, but a bit newer.  Annoyingly though everything in that category seems to be over the Group 40 limit on my insurance policy, even though none of them are performance cars by any normal standards.  Even a V6 diesel Jag XF is too high.  I really can't justify taking out a separate insurance policy for what is essentially going to be a toy, so I think I might have to set my sights a little lower.  Not too much lower though or I'm not going to gain anything over the Rover 75, which is going to be pressed back into daily duty now it's passed the MOT.

Saaaaaab.

[SiC]

Did some more VAG Turd Polishing last night.

Used some vanish on the minging interior to try bringing it up to an acceptable standard to sit on. Seats are still wet so not fully sure how it's come out yet. But initially looks better. Needs a pro going over it really.





Nice to see an A4 that hasn't got it's soft touch buttons completely worn off too


The warning triangle cover in the boot is broken and rattles around. As usual with this age VAG, it's full of crap thin plastic. In this case it's snapped off and no easy way to fix. Perfect time for a reusable cable tie.



Next up was the glovebox. The lid falls off when you open it. Hinge is broken - TADIS. Removal of the glovebox was 5x 8mm bolts.


The hinge breaks because the soft close damper siezes up and puts too much load on the hinge+lid. Of course the design being too weak is another shit point too.



I paid twice the price for the "better" repair kit. Tbh I can't see it was much better than cheaper kits and won't bother again.


Hinges came out by knocking these pins out.


Bodge kit is essentially a bent bit of metal that you screw self tappers into the plastic underneath.


The internet suggests making a hole in the back to put lube down.


I then took it apart to see how it worked. Basically it's a tube with a seal in. At this point I realised making a hole in it is stupid as it looses the damping effect. Oh well, at least it won't break again.



I stuck lube down it anyway and put it all back together.



Glove box then just pops back in. Interesting to note how easy it is to access most of the blend flap arms. On many cars are a nightmare.



A new drivers side window regulator arrived too. A fifteen quid eBay special, so we will see how awful it ends up being to fit.

[Spurious]

Bit pointless waxing at this time of the year but I found a bottle of autoglym I didnt know I'd had so a quick polish later and it's coming up pretty shiny. 

Ceramic coating is allegedly the better thing but its looking alright for the moment 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

5 minutes ago, SiC said:

Did some more VAG Turd Polishing last night.

Used some vanish on the minging interior to try bringing it up to an acceptable standard to sit on. Seats are still wet so not fully sure how it's come out yet. But initially looks better. Needs a pro going over it really.





Nice to see an A4 that hasn't got it's soft touch buttons completely worn off too


The warning triangle cover in the boot is broken and rattles around. As usual with this age VAG, it's full of crap thin plastic. In this case it's snapped off and no easy way to fix. Perfect time for a reusable cable tie.



Next up was the glovebox. The lid falls off when you open it. Hinge is broken - TADIS. Removal of the glovebox was 5x 8mm bolts.


The hinge breaks because the soft close damper siezes up and puts too much load on the hinge+lid. Of course the design being too weak is another shit point too.



I paid twice the price for the "better" repair kit. Tbh I can't see it was much better than cheaper kits and won't bother again.


Hinges came out by knocking these pins out.


Bodge kit is essentially a bent bit of metal that you screw self tappers into the plastic underneath.


The internet suggests making a hole in the back to put lube down.


I then took it apart to see how it worked. Basically it's a tube with a seal in. At this point I realised making a hole in it is stupid as it looses the damping effect. Oh well, at least it won't break again.



I stuck lube down it anyway and put it all back together.



Glove box then just pops back in. Interesting to note how easy it is to access most of the blend flap arms. On many cars are a nightmare.



A new drivers side window regulator arrived too. A fifteen quid eBay special, so we will see how awful it ends up being to fit.

Interesting that the repair* kit for the classic A4 glovebox broken hinge involves a piece of bendy metal. I made my own equivalent for one of my B6s a few years back with a bracket, decent adhesive and some self tappers. I'd forgotten how the B7 interior is near-as-damnit the same as the B6 too. Still like them though. 

[Ged]

The rusty shock mount on my Saab appears to have lost its rust, removed the shock to stop it doing more damage and bounced my way home

[wuvvum]

5 hours ago, grogee said:

Saaaaaab.

I'm really after something I haven't had before, and the only model of Saab I haven't owned is the new shape 9-5, which is still fetching (what I consider to be) steep money at the moment.

[grogee]

2 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I'm really after something I haven't had before, and the only model of Saab I haven't owned is the new shape 9-5, which is still fetching (what I consider to be) steep money at the moment.

In that case you have to have one of these. Sorry, that's all you're allowed. 

[SiC]

54 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I'd forgotten how the B7 interior is near-as-damnit the same as the B6 too. Still like them though. 

I thought you hated VAG? 🤣

B8 is much better and more durable product than the B6/B7. Instead of soft touch coating on the plastics, they have more modern soft touch finish into the moulding. So you don't get any of that wear as there is no coating to come off. Likewise the interior is much more beefed up durability wise and takes abuse much better. Engines, especially the diesels have far less potential to nuke themselves too. Also a lot more refined. Early diesels have much worse fuel economy but the later ones they fixed that. Electrics are a bit more complex but more solid and not exposed to water.

 

[wuvvum]

37 minutes ago, grogee said:

In that case you have to have one of these. Sorry, that's all you're allowed. 

Had one of those last year.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

23 minutes ago, SiC said:

I thought you hated VAG? 🤣

B8 is much better and more durable product than the B6/B7. Instead of soft touch coating on the plastics, they have more modern soft touch finish into the moulding. So you don't get any of that wear as there is no coating to come off. Likewise the interior is much more beefed up durability wise and takes abuse much better. Engines, especially the diesels have far less potential to nuke themselves too. Also a lot more refined. Early diesels have much worse fuel economy but the later ones they fixed that. Electrics are a bit more complex but more solid and not exposed to water.

 

Pm incoming 

[Supernaut]

20 hours ago, Fumbler said:

I'm getting a bit bored of the Micra now that I'm commuting in it every day again. It's competant on the road- but not very comfortable, there's now a clonk in the nearside rear, the front crossmember is rotten from the inside out and the suspension is stiff. The trouble is, once I stop driving it for a month or two, I'll like it again and, economically, there's zero reason for me to get rid of it.

I feel similarly about my 205 at times.

Mainly because when I set out to buy something in October I meant to get something like an estate! I had to take both wheels off my mountain bike to fit it in there today.

It's hilarious to drive and cheap to run but oh so smol.

[Fumbler]

2 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

I feel similarly about my 205 at times.

Mainly because when I set out to buy something in October I meant to get something like an estate! I had to take both wheels off my mountain bike to fit it in there today.

It's hilarious to drive and cheap to run but oh so smol.

Wouldn't mind a 205 sometime to be honest. Commuting 1 hour each way probably doesn't help my outlook on the car, although the 4 hour trip I make to college in it goes well enough, albeit noisily.

[Jamie]

Seeing as the logbook has come back for the tt, I can now actually spend the money I've got in the roffle pot. 

Spunked it on an Z4. It's a bit rough. 

No mot

Noisy tappets 

No brakes 

Christmas tree dash

Mould everywhere 

It's only done 80k though so how bad can it be 💁

[grogee]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Had one of those last year.

My deepest sympathies

[brownnova]

Was supposed to be doing a collection this week!

Had had discussions over buying this fine piece of shite! 

Story is that the garage which looks after some of my cars had this in for MoT and whilst it was with them the fella passed away. So it was sat in their yard. The family said they wanted it gone, and the garage fella asked if I wanted it… erm that’ll be a hell yeah! 

Price was discussed and agreed in line with what the daughter had originally said and he said he would confirm with the deceased’s family and pass her my number to discuss direct… but silence… 

Turns out she got a better price (£500 more than I’d agreed) from someone else. I was Gazumped!! I only found out when I saw it parked outside a house on Tuesday! I thought I was collecting this week!

Thats one which has slipped through my fingers. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

14 hours ago, Jamie said:

Seeing as the logbook has come back for the tt, I can now actually spend the money I've got in the roffle pot. 

Spunked it on an Z4. It's a bit rough. 

No mot

Noisy tappets 

No brakes 

Christmas tree dash

Mould everywhere 

It's only done 80k though so how bad can it be 💁

I don't miss mine!

[Jamie]

5 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I don't miss mine!

This is my 15th Z4 now

[bunglebus]

Got an odd problem. Changed the alternator belt on the FIL's Ignis a couple of weeks ago after it shredded itself. It started squeaking so I tightened it a bit - but it was still squealing and now it's snapped. Alternator and water pump spin freely so what's going on?

[Ghosty]

Winner. It's changing hands soon but staying on AS. 

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

Got an odd problem. Changed the alternator belt on the FIL's Ignis a couple of weeks ago after it shredded itself. It started squeaking so I tightened it a bit - but it was still squealing and now it's snapped. Alternator and water pump spin freely so what's going on?

Have a look at the pulleys from above and see if they're properly lined up.

If there's a harmonic balancer in the crank pulley and it's failed it can cause it to step out of line and put extra stress on the belt.

Here's the one from my Xantia where the outer of the pulley had "walked" towards frame left (they're facing each other in the photo).