The new news 24 thread

[Bren]

Just seen that a temporary 7.5 tonne weight limit has been imposed on the old Severn Bridge due to the condition of some of the cables. Not good.

[junkyarddog]

Agricultural shitbox,doing agricultural shitbox things.😁

[Lord Sterling]

Vectra has been parked up for over a week now. It somehow looks quite miserable about it.

I've valeted the Jag and will park it up tomorrow evening. 

In the meantime, I might have sourced some alloys for it.

A similar Vectra is being broken up for parts at a breakers yard in Wolverhampton. I asked the price of a few bits including the alloys. All parts together incl. alloys came to just over what I'd pay for new tyres all round.

I'll also get the original backbox on asap.

I spoke to some Vectra sniffer yesterday in the view to getting the Vectra oil and coolant tight, but the lad came across as a bit of dick. So I'll be giving him a swerve and I'll use my usual local mechanics. I'm getting fed up of topping up the Vectras oil and water and it's getting a bit much now, yes, I know it's old and they do probably use quite a bit of oil but it would be nice not to worry about this.

[Metal Guru]

On 11/04/2025 at 10:01, New POD said:

Is royal mail still owned by the government?  Don't government agencies self insure, underwritten by the treasury....? 

I know NHS company vehicles definitely are. 

Most large companies / organisations   self insure . 

[brownnova]

Had a wedding to attend some 200 miles away. Having just passed an MoT and the promise of a warm and sunny drive down the Saab Convertible was steed of choice. I’d heard a slight creak from the steering the other day when the roof was down, but as the MoT tester said nothing to report steering wise I chalked it up and didn’t hear it again.

Dropping the children off with relatives I did hear it again. We pressed on for half an hour and it got louder and louder so it was now audible round roundabouts and at junctions. It does not sound good…. In fact it sounds expensive. So turn around and swap cars. 🙄

The XC90 had had an electrical gremlin around Christmastime which wiped the dash lights/blowers etc out. I did a fix which has worked for 3 months with absolutely no bother. Including full family trips on holiday. Somehow throwing the clothes onto the boot I managed to knock the wiring and re-occur this issue… which was not what I needed after one car failure already!

And these are the modern cars of the fleet!!! Cars… who would have them!

Still was not desperate enough to swap to the wife’s Renault Scenic. The Saab 9000 with no front number plate would have been the next one on the list 

Thankfully the electrics was easily remedied and bar one reoccurrence at the hotel it behaved perfectly. Need to perform a slightly better fix. 

As it turns out if we had arrived as early as planned we would have been waiting 2 hours for our room to be ready as the advertised check in from 3 turned to 5.30! Maybe the cars were saving us from that. 

[Split_Pin]

16 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Had a wedding to attend some 200 miles away. Having just passed an MoT and the promise of a warm and sunny drive down the Saab Convertible was steed of choice. I’d heard a slight creak from the steering the other day when the roof was down, but as the MoT tester said nothing to report steering wise I chalked it up and didn’t hear it again.

Dropping the children off with relatives I did hear it again. We pressed on for half an hour and it got louder and louder so it was now audible round roundabouts and at junctions. It does not sound good…. In fact it sounds expensive. So turn around and swap cars. 🙄

The XC90 had had an electrical gremlin around Christmastime which wiped the dash lights/blowers etc out. I did a fix which has worked for 3 months with absolutely no bother. Including full family trips on holiday. Somehow throwing the clothes onto the boot I managed to knock the wiring and re-occur this issue… which was not what I needed after one car failure already!

And these are the modern cars of the fleet!!! Cars… who would have them!

Still was not desperate enough to swap to the wife’s Renault Scenic. The Saab 9000 with no front number plate would have been the next one on the list 

Thankfully the electrics was easily remedied and bar one reoccurrence at the hotel it behaved perfectly. Need to perform a slightly better fix. 

As it turns out if we had arrived as early as planned we would have been waiting 2 hours for our room to be ready as the advertised check in from 3 turned to 5.30! Maybe the cars were saving us from that. 

My 95 made exactly the same noise when I got it, a new ball joint fixed it 😀

[brownnova]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

My 95 made exactly the same noise when I got it, a new ball joint fixed it 😀

Hopefully something like that rather than a failing steering rack! 

[comfortablynumb]

30 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Hopefully something like that rather than a failing steering rack! 

I take it these have some form of uj's in the steering column?

IME these can make strange noises/cause vague handling too

[Stanky]

1 hour ago, comfortablynumb said:

I take it these have some form of uj's in the steering column?

IME these can make strange noises/cause vague handling too

+1 on this, my old 93ss developed a sticky steering column UJ and felt like it was driving on ice.

It is accessible from the top with the bonnet open, get a helper to steer lock to lock while you poke grease into the joint and it'll be fine for 12m or more. I got my (then) 8 year old to do the steering bit, just need to be super clear with instructions

"Do not move the steering wheel until I tell you to"

Unless you want to trap your finger in the UJ

[17-Coffees]

A few of us NE Scotland folk were out at the Grampian Transport Museum for there Autojumble, nothing took any if our fancy, but the carpark had some great spots! 

[Missy Charm]

Yesterday's episode of Radio 4's 'From Our Own Correspondent' programme included an extended despatch about the history of the production of Enfield Electric cars at Syros, in Greece.  You can probably listen to the programme via BBC Sounds, if you want to hear it.  Interesting segment, which went into quite a lot of detail about technical stuff.  

[brownnova]

6 hours ago, Stanky said:

+1 on this, my old 93ss developed a sticky steering column UJ and felt like it was driving on ice.

It is accessible from the top with the bonnet open, get a helper to steer lock to lock while you poke grease into the joint and it'll be fine for 12m or more. I got my (then) 8 year old to do the steering bit, just need to be super clear with instructions

"Do not move the steering wheel until I tell you to"

Unless you want to trap your finger in the UJ

 

8 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

I take it these have some form of uj's in the steering column?

IME these can make strange noises/cause vague handling too

Drives spot on, just creaking.

[stuboy]

Swift cherry Pepsi max at local car themed booza

[HMC]

French locals curious about 96 year old tourist transport

 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, HMC said:

French locals curious about 96 year old tourist transport

 

Le parking, c'est questionable, n'est pas? 😀

[Lord Sterling]

Off to work Monday evening so I took then opportunity to change the cars places. Due to the poor parking situation around here, I often swap the cars late at night/early morning so no one comes and sweeps into the spaces whilst the cars are out. Both cars are parked at relatively opposite-ish ends of the town (a lot less than a mile from each other).

I thought that waking the Vectra out of it's several-day slumber might have made it quite grumbly. It was anything but. It started and sounded like I'd just parked it up yesterday. The coolant, whilst very low, didn't show up any warnings. The oil was all still there and happy. 

The only issues were I'd left the handbrake on so some light binding was heard which cleared up before it got to it's other space. And the passenger-side front light decided to that it no longer needed to be a light.

GR8.

I hate jobs like this. It's fiddly and as it's a tad cold at night, my nose decided it wanted to run. 

I changed the bulb to discover that the new bulb bluey-white and the other bulb was still orange-tinted. So, I broke out the other bulb and replaced it.

The bulbs weren't as difficult to replace as I thought. Once you understand how the clips work, it's a walk in the park. It took me less than 10 mins to replace both bulbs.

The problem is, you forget the next time they need replacing.

Now I have 2 identical bulbs with identical colours, as it should be.

On the way back I spotted this package of 90s-ness:

The hoarder side of me really wanted to bring this home and save it. I reckon it probably only needed a tad bit of fettling but whilst I have space, the idea of me actually doing anything with this just wasn't realistic. 

[barefoot]

The shadowy figure behind the UK's largest Comb & Paper festival, author of the staggeringly popular 'barefoot chef' column and editor of both Volkswagen Camper & commercial and VWBUS T4&5+ magazines is thrilled to reveal that his second book will be available on 'the Amazons' by the end of this week. 

Amongst more than a millionty tips, you too could learn how to pitch up a campervan; from levelling blocks to relaxing with drinks & amuse bouche in less than seven minutes. Change your approach to camping life for just fifteen quid.

I'll post up a link just as soon as it goes live

[stuboy]

Sunny frive too Gillingham to carry out a driving assessment, have some exciting views from the car park

[Datsuncog]

[🎵Ominous Music 🎵]

[🎵Music builds🎵]

[🎵Music intensifies🎵]

Yup, that time of the year already...

Gave the Corolla a Five-Star Luxury Deep Valet before bringing it over to the MOT station.

By which I mean I sprayed the very worst-looking bits with Cillit Bang, rubbed at it with kitchen roll and then scraped the biggest bits of moss off, before chucking the stagnant contents of a watering can over it.

Concours finish, you'll agree.

But will it be enough to please the testers...?

😬

[Split_Pin]

20 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

[🎵Ominous Music 🎵]

[🎵Music builds🎵]

[🎵Music intensifies🎵]

Yup, that time of the year already...

Gave the Corolla a Five-Star Luxury Deep Valet before bringing it over to the MOT station.

Definitely didn't*just spray the worst bits with Cillit Bang, rub it with kitchen roll and then scrape the worst of the moss off, before chucking the stagnant contents of a watering can over it.

But will it be enough...?

😬

🎶Carmina Burana🎶

[Datsuncog]

Booooooo.

Ah well, a bit of welding on the nearside drop sill's not too bad for a twenty-five year old hack that's received not very much in the way of cossetting...

I'll get onto a lad I know in the morning.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Ah well

Please tell me that sounds like 'Ach well'...and then a brief pause.

[Datsuncog]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Please tell me that sounds like 'Ach well'...and then a brief pause.

We're all pretty much Ulster Scots down the east coast of Norn Iron, so that'd be about right...

Certainly not scunnered about the fail; I had the offside pre-emptively welded up two years ago, so I'm not surprised the nearside could do with the same treatment.

[Metal Guru]

6 hours ago, barefoot said:

The shadowy figure behind the UK's largest Comb & Paper festival, author of the staggeringly popular 'barefoot chef' column and editor of both Volkswagen Camper & commercial and VWBUS T4&5+ magazines is thrilled to reveal that his second book will be available on 'the Amazons' by the end of this week. 

Amongst more than a millionty tips, you too could learn how to pitch up a campervan; from levelling blocks to relaxing with drinks & amuse bouche in less than seven minutes. Change your approach to camping life for just fifteen quid.

I'll post up a link just as soon as it goes live

Argh! “To Campervan” it’s not a f@cking verb ffs!

Similarly “To bingo” and even worse “to Butlins”

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Please tell me that sounds like 'Ach well'...and then a brief pause.

Datsuncog, earlier. 

 

[comfortablynumb]

8 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Argh! “To Campervan” it’s not a f@cking verb ffs!

Similarly “To bingo” and even worse “to Butlins”

Cinched it? 🤣

[barefoot]

8 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Argh! “To Campervan” it’s not a f@cking verb ffs!

Similarly “To bingo” and even worse “to Butlins”

 

32 minutes ago, comfortablynumb said:

Cinched it? 🤣

All ideas for a better title welcomed, even if they're grammatically wrong. I'm only trying to earn a few quid.

[comfortablynumb]

Think my suggestion might get you in more trouble @barefoot, it's already taken 😄