The new news 24 thread

2,876 · February 3

Well then

Pulling away from a junction yesterday, changed up into second gear, foot on accelerator and..... BANG.... mega chuff noise, lack of power.

Pretty obvious that the plug on cylinder 2 had launched itself into ~~orbit~~ the underside of the bonnet.

I now see that this is a relatively common R53 issue.

I may have got lucky and the plug has slowly unwound, or it may have stripped the thread.

In the positive corner, we have the fact that for the last couple of weeks I've detected a bit of a fuel smell and a quite ticking - I'd assumed I'd be dealing with a dodgy injector somewhere (I don't drive this car a lot, so haven't rushed to get around to it), but it seems like I was probably dealing with a spark plug working itself loose. And even if it has stripped the thread, it seems common enough that repairs can be achieved more easily than with some engines.

In the negative corner, we have the fact it exited pretty swiftly, some may say explosively, and I would expect a bit of damage to at least the top few threads.

The plug itself was nowhere to be seen, and you can see the cap on the lead itself is pretty shredded by the experience, so as well as the plugs I'm picking up later I'll have to grab a set of HT leads too.

Exhilarating stuff

16,787 · February 3

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

No more pot-holes apparently...🌳

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/03/farewell-potholes-uk-team-invents-self-healing-road-surface

Might take a while...

35,294 · February 3

Some changes at the back.

New plates courtesy of @Kiltox, an absolute fucking bargain at £12 delivered.

The car also came with replacement '95' and 'Aero' badges so on they went. I'm not a fan of the debadged look and metal pressed plates even less so, so I am happy with this.

Also included with the car were a pair of brand new 'Saab Scania' badges which I'd love to fit but the ones on the car are new and look nice so I'll leave them for now.

Just need to remember to do the admin side of things before I drive it again!

64,771 · February 3

Ampera update: I ran it down to Yarmouth for the repair place to assess the damage. The chap's initial impression was that it was probably going to be a write off, although he did say that he couldn't tell for sure until he strips the back bumper off but he reckons the rear panel has definitely taken a hit.

He did offer me to leave it there and he'd give me a lift home but I've got quite a lot of crap in the car that I need to clear out so I drove home in it and they're going to come and collect it tomorrow.

Now to see what the insurance offers me for it. There is a comically large gap between what Auto Trader valued the car at and what it's actually possible to buy a roadworthy Ampera for, so I might have a bit of a fight on my hands...

14,499 · February 3

45 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Ampera update: I ran it down to Yarmouth for the repair place to assess the damage. The chap's initial impression was that it was probably going to be a write off, although he did say that he couldn't tell for sure until he strips the back bumper off but he reckons the rear panel has definitely taken a hit.

He did offer me to leave it there and he'd give me a lift home but I've got quite a lot of crap in the car that I need to clear out so I drove home in it and they're going to come and collect it tomorrow.

Now to see what the insurance offers me for it. There is a comically large gap between what Auto Trader valued the car at and what it's actually possible to buy a roadworthy Ampera for, so I might have a bit of a fight on my hands...

Save some screenshots of ads now, for bargaining ammunition.

6,962 · February 3

My eldest son had the same thing with his Pluriel when it was back ended.

He got the write off amount less a few hundred quid to have it as salvage and then used it for about another 3 years until the front suspension went and it wasn't worth repairing

64,771 · February 3

I am definitely going to ask about keeping the salvage if it comes to that.

64,771 · February 3

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

Save some screenshots of ads now, for bargaining ammunition.

Well the only Ampera for sale locally is £9,000. It's an immaculate late low-miler from a dealer though so I might* be pushing my luck a bit with that one.

Cheapest one on Autotrader is £3,750, although that is miles away.

25,128 · February 3

23 hours ago, alcyonecorporation said:

Tis a Falcon m9.
Looked a great show.

23 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Is that a Thunderbird? Looks more like a Falcon to me.

Ah… I stand corrected… 60s American tin is not my specialist area…

37,995 · February 3

6 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Some changes at the back.

New plates courtesy of @Kiltox, an absolute fucking bargain at £12 delivered.

The car also came with replacement '95' and 'Aero' badges so on they went. I'm not a fan of the debadged look and metal pressed plates even less so, so I am happy with this.

Also included with the car were a pair of brand new 'Saab Scania' badges which I'd love to fit but the ones on the car are new and look nice so I'll leave them for now.

Just need to remember to do the admin side of things before I drive it again!

Unsure whether they’re new badges or just the ones that @Crackerstook off. I didn’t like the metal plates either but was too tight to do anything about it.

I’m glad you’re enjoying the car.

14,290 · February 3

colleague at works fiesta econectic drizzle is coming too end of its useful life , it broke down, recovered to garage, garage said it was fpr so that replaced at £350, but garage said 3 out of 4 diesel injectors are failing, (£380 each ) plus labour so 2k and possibly fuel pump, so on a 60 plate with 120k on the clock theres no point wasting that kind of money, so she has her eye on this..............

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202501308574540?journey=DEALER_STOCK_LIST_JOURNEY&sort=price-asc&twcs=true&searchId=ea6c0132-0d58-41ef-bb7a-0c1d3e6b1b9a&oint=true&advertising-location=at_profile_cars&advertising-location=at_cars&page=2&postcode=tn235ur&fromsra&fromDealerSearchResults

looks ok, she was talking to the dealer about px and agreed £800 but hes run the vrn on it, and call her back, and he did saying that her car had been written off and is a cat N, to say she was surprised is and understatement, and they will only offer £200 px, so gonna try WBAC for a better price

64,771 · February 3

12 minutes ago, Tayne said:

Do you want it fixed or want rid?

the other party’s insurers cannot write your car off.

If they don't want to fix it then I'll see if they make me a half decent offer to include me keeping the salvage, if so then I'll repair it myself with secondhand bits from a breaker. If they take the piss with their offer then I will have to insist that they fix it.

64,771 · February 3

55 minutes ago, Tayne said:

Id put money on them taking the piss with their offer.

Oh I'm fully expecting them to, at least initially. I've done my CII exams, I'm fairly confident that I could hold my own in an argument about what constitutes indemnity...

64,771 · February 3

New caliper and disc fitted to the Eos, so that should now be usable again.

It could do with one more bleed as the pedal is still slightly soft but I need to top the brake fluid up before I bleed it any more, and the reservoir is a twat to get to and I ran out of daylight before I had a chance to dig out a clean funnel so that's a job for tomorrow.

I got the caliper put together yesterday (kept the original carrier as that's just a lump of pig iron so can't really go wrong, but fitted new sliders), but the disc didn't get delivered until today so I couldn't complete the job at the weekend.

I also couldn't fix the Visa as the part that was delivered was wrong, so I spent most of what was a rather lovely Sunday taking various fleet members for a quick spin. The Volvo and the Innocenti were both on the button, somewhat to my surprise given how long both have been stood up. The Toyota, Rover and Maxus all needed assistance from a jump pack although none of them was completely flat. I even dug my bike helmet out and took the electric scooter for a quick run round the block, which was enjoyable.

The Merc has been doing daily duties since the Ampera got hit up the arse, and it's doing a decent enough job although the battery is a tad weaker than I'd ideally like - it's not failed to start yet but it's had me nervous a couple of times. Also in the cold and damp it really struggles to get the power down at low speed, and I've had a couple of instances where I've gone to boot it out of a busy junction only for Mercedes' trademark nannying ESP to kick in and kill it dead, which is annoying. It's fine at higher speeds though, and having the grunt to get past dawdlers quickly is a bonus.

7,967 · February 4

16 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Some changes at the back.

New plates courtesy of @Kiltox, an absolute fucking bargain at £12 delivered.

The car also came with replacement '95' and 'Aero' badges so on they went. I'm not a fan of the debadged look and metal pressed plates even less so, so I am happy with this.

Also included with the car were a pair of brand new 'Saab Scania' badges which I'd love to fit but the ones on the car are new and look nice so I'll leave them for now.

Just need to remember to do the admin side of things before I drive it again!

Those are the original 95/Aero letters which I removed after accidentally jetwashing the "5" off and couldn't be arsed to replace it.

The bonnet and boot badges on the car are genuine Saab items I put on to replace very damaged originals - keep them on it IMO.

The Saab-Scania ones I bought thinking it'd be cool but they're repros and actually quite poor, OEM Saab-Scanias are NLA sadly 😕

You're owner no.3 to be on the fence on the metal plates, I never changed them as I'm a tightwad too, but ended up quite liking for some reason.

Can I have first dibs when your time is up with it pls?

35,294 · February 4

25 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Those are the original 95/Aero letters which I removed after accidentally jetwashing the "5" off and couldn't be arsed to replace it.

The bonnet and boot badges on the car are genuine Saab items I put on to replace very damaged originals - keep them on it IMO.

The Saab-Scania ones I bought thinking it'd be cool but they're repros and actually quite poor, OEM Saab-Scanias are NLA sadly 😕

You're owner no.3 to be on the fence on the metal plates, I never changed them as I'm a tightwad too, but ended up quite liking for some reason.

Can I have first dibs when your time is up with it pls?

To be fair the plates were stuck on WELL 😅 I managed not to bend them though!

Yes you can have first dibs although no plans to sell any time soon! My intention is to sort a few suspension rattles in the coming weeks.

13,804 · February 4

I had to make a difficult decision with the Corolla. Spend more than the car is worth on new suspension or put it out to pasture and buy something else (a modern).

There was only one sensible option.

I have opted to go for the non-sensible completely stupid option, obviously.

7,967 · February 4

36 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

To be fair the plates were stuck on WELL 😅 I managed not to bend them though!

Yes you can have first dibs although no plans to sell any time soon! My intention is to sort a few suspension rattles in the coming weeks.

Glad to hear it's getting plenty of love! It's definitely worth it... I still think about this car every day (be still my beating heart ♥️)

24,938 · February 4

Advisory for perishing tyres. And mot for car number two booked for tomorrow in a very poor scheduling £ wise.

38,744 · February 4

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Advisory for perishing tyres.

Last year a local tyre centre did not want to reseat a tyre for me that had a slow leak because it was more than 15 years old with no cracking. This was a year ago and they wanted to sell me a new tyre that would now have used 20% of it life and has not even been on the road yet

24,938 · February 4

18 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Last year a local tyre centre did not want to reseat a tyre for me that had a slow leak because it was more than 15 years old with no cracking. This was a year ago and they wanted to sell me a new tyre that would now have used 20% of it life and has not even been on the road yet

I'll keep an eye on them, but the tread is ok. four year old Falken - which isn't a brand I've seen for sale.

24,938 · February 5

All of 750miles last year.

14,084 · February 5

Kin 'ell, what a day.

It's literally 3pm and I'm now at home chilling. However, what a week.

Since I dropped off the Jag, I fell ill again with some form of mild flu which got me on half way through my 3rd day at work, everyone noticed my lack of enthusiasm (for some reason, depsite being an absolute introvert, I'm usually the loud funny guy at work cracking jokes and doing accents) and I looked so tired, so I went home and booked a couple of days off work so I can at least get paid. The flu is still lingering but is slowly peeling away.

The noise in the wheel of the Jag is still there so I'm trying not use it, which means that Vectra is on daily duties anyway.

Ma_Sterling decided a tip run was needed, as Bankruptingham City Clowncil still retains a booking system for tip runs, I usually take the rubbish and use my local area recycling centres that you can still drive into.

Whilst in Birmingham today, the power steering failed on the Vectra rendering it like a tank to steer, some of the junctions I had to turn into where a tad scary as you're reminded that the steering no longer has assistance.

I spoke to the garage MoT-ing the Vectra tomorrow and advised me to bring it down today so they could have a look at it. I loaded up the car with the rubbish and checked into a Bromsgrove recycling centre, I thought I'd try my luck and it worked, they let me in despite not having a permit.

Rubbish got rid of and I hooned it down to the garage, remembering to book a taxi to get me out of there, I really didn't fancy adding to my poor health woes, so back home now awaiting results of Power Steering and MoT, hopefully I'll actually get over this bastard flu malarky, this is the third or forth time I've had it since September last year.

64,771 · February 5

Got a phone call yesterday morning from the accident management company saying they were going to arrange for the Ampera to be collected. Then got a text from their contractor (a fairly reputable local recovery firm) saying they'd be with me just after 2pm. Two phone calls to say they were running late later, the truck turned up at 9.30pm (!). Anyway, the car's now gone off to be stripped down and the damage assessed - I await the results with bated breath...

10,910 · February 5

Front flexis on a FreeLander 1 - just what size is the flats on that union? 3/8"?
Nevermind, all the steel bits are shagged so, off they come - the grumpy bit is the nearside one (not shown) rust goes all the way up through a funnel shaped grommet and comes out under the battery and ECU box - that'll be a twenty minute job taking two hours tomorrow then :-( (assuming Craddocks get their fingers out and send the parts).
MoT expires 14th Feb .......

21,590 · February 5

Electricity level = 0.

Bums.

24,938 · February 5

6 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

Electricity level = 0.

Bums.

I thought the plate read BUM before I put the glasses on. Good luck.

16,787 · February 5

2 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Front flexis on a FreeLander 1 - just what size is the flats on that union? 3/8"?
Nevermind, all the steel bits are shagged so, off they come - the grumpy bit is the nearside one (not shown) rust goes all the way up through a funnel shaped grommet and comes out under the battery and ECU box - that'll be a twenty minute job taking two hours tomorrow then (assuming Craddocks get their fingers out and send the parts).
MoT expires 14th Feb .......

Happy Valentines!

40,713 · February 5

Spotted this near the Bristol BBC wildlife and old top gear offices on the way to the train station.

12,778 · February 6

My Granvia after sitting since Xmas has decided not to charge it's batteries anymore.

Its original alternator started draining the electrical system and getting smelly back in the summer and I found a nearly new recon one on the internet and once fitted I found the charge warning light wasn't coming on but fortunately it was self exciting and charging fine until the other day.

I checked the alt multi plug and warning lamp circuit which was all good.

The cheapest 'recon' unit I could find was £149 far to salty for me so went for plan B.

Rectifier,regulator and brush pack for £56.

Annoyingly the positive post on the rectifier was misaligned stopping me fitting the nylon insolation collar over it. I didn't want to try bending it straight so I cut a bit of alternator body away instead.

I'll bung it back on later and hopefully get it back on the road.

I've used this guy before when i fitted new solenoid contacts to the Granvia starter motor he has a decent eBay shop and delivery is quick too.

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