The new news 24 thread

[Popsicle]

31 minutes ago, Bren said:

After trying for sometime to eke 60mpg out of the vectra I did it today. Easy for something with a PD engine - however this has done 159k and is coupled to badermatic box - there is also a weight penalty with it being an estate.

The trip from Warrington to Gronant gave an average of 56.3 mpg.

Still looking for a replacement - however this is dependent on how I go on at hospital on Tuesday.

Keep it plodding along Bren, ours is on 227k now and has been behaving itself, other than having to get the warped manifold skimmed as it sounded awful, it just keeps working. Its had a few jobs this year but all routine stuff like cambelt/water pump, gearbox oil change, servicing, tyres and such.

Hope it goes well at the hospital, I'm back there tomorrow, hopefully get this bloody cast removed from my arm after two months of the thing.

Oh and the offer still stands, give me a shout when you want to let the Vectra go 😃.

[Mally]

Roof is back on the Streetka. Just before the rain.

That can stay on until April. Surprising how better the radio sounds somehow.

There's only one speaker working, but it's on the same side as my working ear.

 

Makes me smile, whether looking at it or driving it.

Much in the same way as a 2CV or Minor does, but with more refinement and power.

[richardmorris]

This got quite loud. 

[lesapandre]

I had to go up into Essex this Sunday - my van is still full of rubbish so I took the mostly reliable W124 which was last in France. 

Great Dunmow and back without a problem. I stopped off, as I was passing, at P & A Wood - Rolls and Bentley dealers and repairs at their pukka premises. Closed but still nice stuff in the window...

The aero engine is Crewe made - 1942. The car 1908.

Mercedes is 1989. Just got back before the rain closed in.

Great Dunmow a pretty little town  but all closed on a Sunday except the massive Tesco which was busy.

Mine as is usual now is the oldest car I saw on the road on whole trip - only interest was a 4-door Lada Niva and a Peugeot 306. Notwithstanding their reliability everyone with a 4x4 seems to drive Landrover out there - they were everywhere.

[Bren]

 

Gave the vectra a wash.

And managed to stand in dog shit.

Good job I was wearing my wife’s trainers.

[Zelandeth]

First decent thunderstorm we've had through here in years.

Of course it had to be the weekend we're halfway through having the roof replaced.  The water took roughly ten minutes to find new and exciting ways into the house.

Edit: Sufficiently thoroughly that it's tripped out the RCD for one of the ring mains and the downstairs main lighting circuit.

[Pat Earrings]

Agreed a buy on a spaceship diesel civic. Looks a real good one and in the current market prices, a bit of a bargain. 

[camryv6]

2 hours ago, Bren said:

 

Gave the vectra a wash.

And managed to stand in dog shit.

Good job I was wearing my wife’s trainers.

Good job it wasn't her high heels this time 😲

[Bren]

7 minutes ago, camryv6 said:

Good job it wasn't her high heels this time 😲

I know. I would have stood a chance of avoiding the turd.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Found some photos from the Vauxhall Centenary Rally that were taken by my father, back in 2003 at Dunaskin, Waterside.

[wuvvum]

Didn't do much fettling this weekend.  Weather was shite today, and there wasn't actually much that needed doing.  The main job was to fit a new stereo to the Carina E - it had a Kenwood thing that my uncle had put in during his ownership which sounded good but was ridiculously over complicated and proper got on my tits because I could never get it to do what I wanted.

The replacement is this:

It fits in the dashboard reasonably well, is less blingy than the Kenwood and doesn't look too out of place I don't think.  It also does this:

Which is quite nifty.  There was also a reversing camera in the box, so I've installed that as the rearward visibility in the Toyota is pretty poor.  I haven't quite finished wiring it up yet - it came with a massive cable which would have been long enough to reach the front of the car but there was no way I could run the cable from tailgate to dashboard without taking half the interior out, and removing some grommets which would probably never seal again, so I'm going to go the wireless route again.  I already had to remove quite a bit of interior trim to track down the reversing light wire, which I've spliced another wire into to go up to the back of the stereo to tell it to change to camera view when reverse is engaged.  

The stereo itself runs Android 10.1 and has Wi-Fi connectivity, which was useful as I was able to bring the Spacy battery indoors and connect the stereo to it to power it up and download the sat nav maps over the house internet.  Overall I'm quite impressed for the 65 quid it cost.

Oh yeah, I also finally got round to running the Rover 75 down to the local tyre place to get them to fit the pair of part worns I'd had in the boot for about 6 months.  So the car now has the same size tyres all round for the first time in my ownership, and it's also got rid of the annoying slow puncture in the offside rear.

[RoverFolkUs]

Now in addition to the failing alternator, Focus has decided to start knocking on the rear suspension. 

I'm hoping it's just a drop link, but it's O/S/R and I put a Febi one on that side not too long ago, I'm dreading it's the upper trailing arm bush that's debonded or something. Given that it's onset suddenly and not gradually I'm preparing for the latter

Ho hum. I've got a chance to buy a cheeky £30 road tax Hyundai (diesel i30) for £scrap but it needs a gearbox as it's exploded .... Trying to weigh up if it's worth it ... Hmmm 🤔

[MJK 24]

Just found out this evening that my local motor factor that’s 1 minute away in the car or 5 minutes on foot is to close for good at 6pm on Friday.

It’s been serving our village for 56 years.  Very sad.

[Rust Collector]

I investigated my loss of clutch pedal in the BX this eve. Can’t say it was a job I enjoyed, had to go upside down in the footwell to remove the pedal box as the cable is hidden behind it. Turns out the cable was snapped clean at the clevis on the pedal.

I’ve removed it and found that it has the wrong clutch cable. It has a cable for a petrol/non turbo diesel. The 16v GTi’s and turbo diesels had a slightly different cable. Also, whoever was in there removing the pedal box last has fucked every fastener they touched so that was a giggle.

The removal of the old cable was tedious enough that I’ve decided against borrowing* the cable from my other turbo diesel BX. Also the cable on that one appears to have snapped as when I touched the pedal it shot to the floor. Bugger.

New part on order, hopefully it will be with me by Friday. I’ll look to get the welding done in the meantime but it means I’ll miss my MOT retest window. Can’t be helped though.

 

[JJ0063]

Whilst refreshing AS every 30 seconds and having withdrawal symptoms, I managed to pack one box for moving.

 

 

[richardmorris]

This time of year means you don’t have to be up mega early to see dawn on the commute to work. Across chobham common this morning as my usual road closed to fallen tree.

 

[Ghosty]

That's a shame. 

[SiC]

27 minutes ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

Go fuck yourself.

 

 

[SiC]

Dall-e 2 has some uses and is pretty darn good at making images. Even if it's probably used as much energy to make them to sink a few polar bears on icebergs. 

[reb]

If anyone asks, I died in a car crash.

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, reb said:

If anyone asks, I died in a car crash.

You alright dude? 

[barefoot]

I had to do an actual fix to my car yesterday - myself, this is practically unheard of. Whilst hoovering out the Rover - get me, I don't fucking hoover either. I noticed the smallest of damp patches in the passenger footwell. I checked to see that the coolant was up to level, there's 200ml between max & min. And then I removed the scuttle cover & rodded out the plenum drain with the special tool that I got from the owners club. A hot cup of tea was never so welcome, or so well earned.

[BorniteIdentity]

2 minutes ago, barefoot said:

I had to do an actual fix to my car yesterday - myself, this is practically unheard of. Whilst hoovering out the Rover - get me, I don't fucking hoover either. I noticed the smallest of damp patches in the passenger footwell. I checked to see that the coolant was up to level, there's 200ml between max & min. And then I removed the scuttle cover & rodded out the plenum drain with the special tool that I got from the owners club. A hot cup of tea was never so welcome, or so well earned.

I forgot you still have a 75!  Does the fair maiden still enjoy it?  

Rodding the plenums is one of the most satisfying of jobs - right up there with cleaning your children's ears and scraping out toe jam.  

[barefoot]

Given that my instructions were specifically not to buy an automatic or an estate for her commute, she's taken to it like a duck to water. She occasionally manages to nurse it from 28mpg up to 30, which is pretty good for a two & a half litre petrol V6/Baderbox combination.

[wuvvum]

Today is the Volvo's 50th birthday.

[reb]

4 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

You alright dude? 

Happiest I've ever been. I'm home and safe.

I'll give a proper update in a few days.

In the mean time I have 20 Marlboro and a tub of players to enjoy.

[Zelandeth]

14 hours ago, richardmorris said:

This time of year means you don’t have to be up mega early to see dawn on the commute to work. Across chobham common this morning as my usual road closed to fallen tree.

 

I miss the views from my commute at this time of year.

I do NOT however miss the fact that I was for several months driving due east for 40 miles at dawn or early morning and driving due bloody west for 40 miles every evening around sunset though!

[gm]

the little red smart car has a usb socket where there should be a 12v socket - handy for charging my phone but precisely sod all use when i need to inflate a soft tyre  

parking it next to the mazda and stretching the cable did work but was far from ideal. 

so i parked it up under cover

and got to work 

sorted

the fuse box is held in with cable ties, i’ll need to sort that next  

but then i got distracted and installed a bass box instead  

ridiculously loud in such a confined space 

[juular]

Van Vs stag.

We were away in the Trafic for a few nights. We were just past Lairg at around 9pm when I saw eyes in the distance. I turned off full beam and slammed the brakes on. I was going very slowly past the panicking deer, probably rolling at around 5mph on the wrong side of the road, when it decided to turn round and run head first into the passenger door.

Paint is cracked and the door is quite badly creased.

I did try to push and dolly it back out but it's still a bit fucked.

It'll do for now but I might replace the door, since it's the one vehicle we have that's actually in decent nick and worth anything.

Could have been a lot worse though.

[Pat Earrings]

So here it is, getting two new rear tyres as they were cracked to fuck. Other than a grubby interior it seems really strong mechanically , only 92k miles and really feels healthy. I had one of these a while ago off the forum and forgot how they sounded, smooth but also almost agricultural at the same time. Front bumper needs sorting though, the shitty Perspex grill hasn’t been seated properly and it’s loose, and you can see there’s a small bracket on the front right that’s bent back slightly so the old dear who I bought it off had clearly bumped something. No big deal. Small list of stuff to do, including a full service this weekend and demisting the headlamps etc. After a full wet vac inside it should be a nicer place to be.