The new news 24 thread

[grogee]

9 hours ago, brownnova said:

Following my 2 for 1 fix by changing one fuse I investigated the non functioning full beam lights on the Saab.

After checking fuses and bulbs my suspicions turned to the lamp control relay - so I ordered a replacement. Usually the first hunch is wrong, but on this occasion it was right, and we now have fully functioning full beams!

Admittedly the headlights are still by some distance the worst on the fleet, but at least we have full beam now. 

Are they xenon? My 9-5's were dreadful until I changed the "bulbs". Apparently xenon burners wear out, who knew. I think a semi-reputable brand was £25 the pair. 

[SiC]

Yeah Xenon bulbs generally don't just fail off (at least until very knackered). Before then they start loosing light output over time. As they can easily last 100k+ miles, by that point they could be on the original bulbs and very worn. Especially on something like a Saab where they're running all the time. Halogens dim over time to some degree too. Especially on modern vehicles where they control the power going to them and make them last longer. 

[somewhatfoolish]

15 hours ago, bigfella2 said:

I remember that Maestro being for sale in a rough area of Sheffield on eBay.

It was for sale for ages. I remember running its reg through one of those car data checks, what the bleeding hell is all that about!!

Either the old duffer worked at Swansea or bribed someone who did; it's not any kind of Cooper, not even Tommy Cooper.

[mercedade]

I'm a student* again.

Figured I've spent so long being annoyed at my lack of mastery of the dark arts (AKA welding), and the ever-decreasing supply of back street garages that do it, that I'd sign up to the local Adult Education college for their Intro to Welding (MIG and TIG) course.

So I officially enrolled this morning and - best of all - despite having budgeted a couple of hundred quid for it, they found the magic box on the form that brought the cost down to £zero. Not quite sure how, but I'll take that as a win.

10 weeks of Monday nights, get my head around the basics of sparkly sticks and decide if it's something I've got a handle on or not.

I've had years of looking at welding forums, 'try this, get stuck in' kind of advice, but needed something to force me to get started as I've never actually bothered. My only experience of welding was literally 25 years ago when I tacked a sill on my old Chevette under the supervision of the patient garage I was doing Saturdays and holiday work in. Quite looking forward to it.

[TheOtherStu]

25 minutes ago, mercedade said:

I'm a student* again.

Figured I've spent so long being annoyed at my lack of mastery of the dark arts (AKA welding), and the ever-decreasing supply of back street garages that do it, that I'd sign up to the local Adult Education college for their Intro to Welding (MIG and TIG) course.

So I officially enrolled this morning and - best of all - despite having budgeted a couple of hundred quid for it, they found the magic box on the form that brought the cost down to £zero. Not quite sure how, but I'll take that as a win.

10 weeks of Monday nights, get my head around the basics of sparkly sticks and decide if it's something I've got a handle on or not.

I've had years of looking at welding forums, 'try this, get stuck in' kind of advice, but needed something to force me to get started as I've never actually bothered. My only experience of welding was literally 25 years ago when I tacked a sill on my old Chevette under the supervision of the patient garage I was doing Saturdays and holiday work in. Quite looking forward to it.

When I first got my MR2, I tried to sign up for the "introduction to Mechanics" course and found it almost impossible to get a place.
I ended up following a YouTube channel that taught the basics (how to properly jack up a car and so on - a few years on, I'm happy to have a go at anything now).

I'd absolutely love to do one of these though. I'm hoping my MR2 never needs it, but it could mean that I could get a project car (I'd still love a Mk1 MR2).

[TheOtherStu]

So in my own news, I spent the weekend at Carfest. Lovely. I'll put some pictures up of the various McLarens that were enjoying their 60th anniversary at some point.
And the Ferraris in the stand up from ours. But that's not really shite.

What was amazing was the Car Club next to ours. They were from a mile up the road in Overton. A mixture of everything from the 1950s up to moderns (and genuinely, everything in between including a lovely old Volvo, a Bedford camper and a Fiat Barchetta!). I'll find some pics.
What I loved about them was that they allow absolutely anything to join them. They basically said they're a drinking club that collects cars. That sounds up my street.

In addition, was one of the guys on our stand. They "acquired" (for very few tokens) a Mk1 MR2 that had been sitting in a garage for nearly 30 years. At first glance, you'd think it was absolutely rotten. It had been sat under tarps, with all manner of sailing gear, lawn mowers and all sorts, gathering damp. But it's just damp that's caused the paint to lift.

Despite Mk1s being absolute rust buckets (and I genuinely expected to be using a dustpan and brush by the end of the weekend), the car is absolutely rock solid. It needs a teeny tiny bit of welding on one of the sills, but the wheel arches are as solid as I've ever seen a Mk1 and they've never been touched!

I really need him to join this place too. Apparently at home he has a large selection of vehicles, none of which work (including the transit that he towed this from Cornwall to Basingstoke which apparently doesn't like to start if the filler cap is fully closed). Including 9 (NINE) Land Rovers. He's also a Mini fiddler, has bikes and other stuff, some of which is quite rare. At least I don't think he's a member, but he'd definitely fit in here well.

[brownnova]

6 hours ago, grogee said:

Are they xenon? My 9-5's were dreadful until I changed the "bulbs". Apparently xenon burners wear out, who knew. I think a semi-reputable brand was £25 the pair. 

No, it’s a 9000… so they’re old school bulbs. The reflectors are knackered. 

[grogee]

31 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

Including 9 (NINE) Land Rovers

There's no hope for him I'm afraid. All we can offer is palliative care. 

[TheOtherStu]

3 minutes ago, grogee said:

There's no hope for him I'm afraid. All we can offer is palliative care. 

The story was one I'm sure you've heard before.
One would fail the MOT, so he'd buy another with an MOT in the hope that he could get the previous one fixed.

[grogee]

4 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Either the old duffer worked at Swansea or bribed someone who did; it's not any kind of Cooper, not even Tommy Cooper.

The mystery* is, it's registered as an Austin Cooper or some such. More internet lore reveals the last part of the reg = definite ARG test fleet car. 

All of which may or may not add provenance, but what definitely does not add value is £10 worth of Halfords stick-on silver lettering, Starsky & Hutch stripes and shit wheels. 

It's a bit sad really. If he had any balls he'd have come to the Maestro 40th at Gaydon in July. 

[grogee]

33 minutes ago, brownnova said:

No, it’s a 9000… so they’re old school bulbs. The reflectors are knackered. 

Might they respond to a spray of pound shop silver paint? 

[grogee]

3 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

The story was one I'm sure you've heard before.
One would fail the MOT, so he'd buy another with an MOT in the hope that he could get the previous one fixed.

Is that MR2 beige? 

[TheOtherStu]

2 minutes ago, grogee said:

Is that MR2 beige? 

🤣

I'm sure someone told me it's called something gold.
However, Toyota MR2s have a colour called "Beige Metallic" (4N3), I think you might have hit the nail on the head 🤣

I definitely need to get him to join this forum.

[somewhatfoolish]

1 hour ago, grogee said:

The mystery* is, it's registered as an Austin Cooper or some such. More internet lore reveals the last part of the reg = definite ARG test fleet car. 

All of which may or may not add provenance, but what definitely does not add value is £10 worth of Halfords stick-on silver lettering, Starsky & Hutch stripes and shit wheels. 

It's a bit sad really. If he had any balls he'd have come to the Maestro 40th at Gaydon in July. 

The launch date was spring 1983, so all launch Maestros would be Y Reg, Why and a look at the Doovla mot checker shows it was registered in March 1983. I suppose it might have been pre-production or early production so a little more notable than the average Maestro, but it just looks like an otherwise ordinary Maestro with a load of tat plastered on it. The only way to confirm/deny would be to get the chassis number and consult the keeper of the runes at Gaydon, assuming the records haven't been skipped.

[brownnova]

Chap that has it is a serial Maestro/Montego licker. So I am reasonably sure he will have done some research… 

[egg]

On 06/03/2019 at 11:35, egg said:

Alan Partridge's Lexus (From series 2 of 'I'm Alan Partridge') still has MOT and on 140,000 miles. But is SORN'd...

 

Good investment, better than a metro.

 

It is still SORN'd but no MOT since 2019. Wonder where it is? In the back of Coogan's garage?

[stuboy]

FiL has bought a reliant based trike, needs some light recommisioning, front tyre etc... im liking it...  add too the list of things he gotta do

[grogee]

14 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

You obviously didn't see the several posts I made early in July from my Trip to Turkey.

Here are a few again:

Those are not Regatas, they are Tofas Sahins, otherwise known as Murat 131s. They are based purely on the Fiat 131, although the front and rear do look like a Regata. They were made until 2000.

The Renault 12 is called the Toros, made until 2000 and the 9 was made in updated form until about 2004.

Enjoy your trip, there are thousands of Murats and Toros,  it's heaven.

I stand corrected. We went out of resort boundaries into The World tonight, here are a couple of Turkish turds. Also, I made friends with this cat by feeding him some of my chicken. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

5 hours ago, grogee said:

The mystery* is, it's registered as an Austin Cooper or some such. More internet lore reveals the last part of the reg = definite ARG test fleet car. 

All of which may or may not add provenance, but what definitely does not add value is £10 worth of Halfords stick-on silver lettering, Starsky & Hutch stripes and shit wheels. 

It's a bit sad really. If he had any balls he'd have come to the Maestro 40th at Gaydon in July. 

That gives me 11 months to source a Maestro, fuck it up royally and then abandon it at Gaydon?
I'll pass, thanks.
I'd not do what's been done to this car unless it was my brother's 'going away' car from his wedding (that we subsequently found he'd been loaned by his new father-in law  ) 

[grogee]

Also this: attempting to appeal to the typical British racists that frequent such resorts. Twats. 

[wuvvum]

14 minutes ago, grogee said:

Also this: attempting to appeal to the typical British racists that frequent such resorts. Twats. 

Sorry, you've lost me.  Is liking Only Fools & Horses considered racist now?

[Markeh]

I've found worse named restaurants in Turkiye... Spotted this in Side near Antalya earlier this year.

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, grogee said:

Also this: attempting to appeal to the typical British racists that frequent such resorts. Twats. 

SHOULD WE ALL BE OF&H RACISTS NOW?

HOW DID YOU GET INTERESTED IN THAT TYPE OF THING? 

I MIGHTN'T BE ABLE TO DEVOTE MYSELF FULL TIME TO THE OLD TROTTERISMS AS MY JOB TAKES UP MOST OF THE DAY.

 

[wuvvum]

IT ISN'T THE GREEKS, IT'S THE TURKS HE'S AFTER.

[somewhatfoolish]

Mangetout, mangetout.

[wuvvum]

Got a few jobs done on the fleet over the weekend, although nowhere near as many as I was hoping to do, for a variety of reasons.  Nothing unusual there.

First up was to check the ATF level on the Rover 75.  This is a slightly involved job, as the car needs to be level - so either up on a ramp (which I don't have access to) or on flat ground, which I do have access to but which leaves very little room to get under the car and undo the level plug on the bottom of the gearbox.  Also the ATF has to be between 35 and 40°C, with the engine running, having shifted the gearbox through every gear and back into park.  Fortunately my knock-off Delphi software can communicate well enough with the 75 to give a live ATF temperature readout.  The issue is that you have to leave the engine running all the way through so you have a relatively short timespan between the ATF being too cold and too hot, especially as you have to top up the fluid through a tiny hole in the top of the gearbox.  I think I got it about right though.  The little bit of fluid that came out was rather browner than I'd ideally like, so I might have to do another ATF change at some point soon, but the gearbox definitely feels smoother now.

The job I was least looking forward to was the rear brakes on the Ampera.  The offside actually didn't go too badly, although the caliper bolts were a twat to get out as they usually are (fronts are easier because you can turn the steering to give better access).  The new disc went on fine and the caliper slid straight over it, and everything was looking good until I tightened the caliper bolts up and the disc seized solid - turns out the piston was sticking out too far and pushing the inner pad against the disc.  So after I'd hammered the pads out of the clips (they were proper stuck), I had to dig out my hitherto unused brake caliper wind back kit and wind the piston back in, which thankfully was easy enough.  The old disc was probably the most fucked I've ever seen one though:

On Monday I attempted the nearside, and that fell at the first hurdle as the brake disc retaining bolt rounded out as I tried to undo it.  It then fell again at the second hurdle as whilst trying to drill the bolt out my mains drill burned out.  So I packed up my tools in disgust and put the cordless drill on charge.  Once that had finally charged up my Middle of Lidl special drill bits made short work of the bolt head, and this evening after work I finished the job - this time it really was just a question of fitting the new disc and refitting the caliper.  Unlike the fronts, all the rear pads still had plenty of meat on them (which is just as well as the new ones I ordered off eBay were wrong), so those went back in.  I'm glad the brakes are done (ish) but I'm rather pissed off that I had to do them.  The local "normal for Norfolk" lad came by on his bike this evening while I was in the drive, and he asked "So you're doing the brakes on the brand new one?".  Yes, yes I am.

I gave the Toyota a (somewhat overdue) oil and filter change - that went surprisingly well, with almost no spillage.  I didn't quite manage to get all the old oil out as the sump plug is at an angle on the front of the sump and with the car up on ramps the sump is sloping backwards somewhat, but it's good enough.  Only awkward bit was that the oil filter is right next to the exhaust manifold so I had to leave the engine to cool for an hour or so before changing the filter so I didn't burn the feck out of my hands.  The air filter still looked pretty clean so I've left that alone.  I'd also bought an oil filter for the Maxus and managed to cobble together enough 10W40 to give it an oil change, but my catch can is getting rather full so I'm going to need to pay a visit to the tip to empty it before I can do any more services.

I've now accepted that I'm not going to get any welding done on the Volvo this year, so I pulled it onto the driveway to have a go at the worst rusty bits with the grinder and the Hydrate-80.  I then fibreglassed over the holes in the boot floor in an attempt to stop it getting too damp in there - although it really needs a new seal as well, I might buy a roll of universal rubber seal off eBay and see if I can do something with that, the proper seals are available but prohibitively expensive.

I got the Spacy fired up for the first time this year.  It still won't crank over on the starter button but I found the workshop manual that came with the bike when I bought it all those years ago, and with the wiring diagram in front of me it was easy enough to work out how to bypass the button.  It's still not running right though - I took it for a quick spin up the road and it was fine, turned round at the end of the road and got back to the house and it was still fine, so carried on to the other end of the road where it conked out and wouldn't restart.  Seems it's not getting enough petrol through - it'll happily idle all day, but give it any revs and after a couple of minutes it starts to suffer from fuel starvation.  So that's another job to look into.

Things I was planning to do that I didn't get done: fit a new piston to the offside brake caliper on the Renault 6 (I appear to have lost the seal kit I bought for it last year, I thought I had it but it was a spare one for the 164 so obviously the wrong size), the aforementioned oil change on the Maxus, and getting the Mobylette out for a spin (it's barely been out since I fitted the new back tyre, mainly because the weather is so shit).

[RoverFolkUs]

4 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

The job I was least looking forward to was the rear brakes on the Ampera.  The offside actually didn't go too badly, although the caliper bolts were a twat to get out as they usually are (fronts are easier because you can turn the steering to give better access).  The new disc went on fine and the caliper slid straight over it, and everything was looking good until I tightened the caliper bolts up and the disc seized solid - turns out the piston was sticking out too far and pushing the inner pad against the disc.  So after I'd hammered the pads out of the clips (they were proper stuck), I had to dig out my hitherto unused brake caliper wind back kit and wind the piston back in, which thankfully was easy enough.  The old disc was probably the most fucked I've ever seen one though:

This is increasingly common on hybrids thanks to regenerative braking. The rears see less effort as it is, and if everything's a bit sticky, over time that happens because they effectively don't get used. 

[grogee]

8 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

This is increasingly common on hybrids thanks to regenerative braking. The rears see less effort as it is, and if everything's a bit sticky, over time that happens because they effectively don't get used. 

I think it might become the norm to do the occasional emergency stop (when & where safe to do so) do prevent this. A bit like making sure to use your AC in winter to prevent bork. 

Tbh most IC engined cars suffer from rear caliper issues. Luckily most of my shiters have drums. 

[Ghosty]

Bought carb trumpets for the hatch - DCOE bolt on ones fit!
They sent me push fit ones.

Fuck. Wanted it done for Radwood... coming down to the wire on Friday night then.

[wuvvum]

Seems to be a recurring theme these days, eBay sellers sending the wrong thing.  I ordered a pair of standard indicator bulbs, they've sent me the wedge type ones which don't fit anything I own.