The new news 24 thread

[Split_Pin]

37 minutes ago, paulplom said:

five litres

As an apprentice I filled a Volvo FL10 all the way to the top of the dipstick. It's a great big long flexible thing and the level marker only takes up the first 5% of it.  After I'd finished for the day it was started up and moved.  I couldn't imagine whether the air was more blue with oily clag or the boss and no doubt everyone else cursing me 😂 

No harm done and I did apologise to the boss the next week but I never did that again!

[Split_Pin]

My wife came home from work and I noticed a small white bit of paper tucked under the wiper of the Audi. Since I'd already decided it wasn't going to say "Great car, I'd like to buy it, here's my number", my heart sank a wee bit.

I went out and looked for damage and there was indeed a big white stripe down the side of the OSR bumper. It was just paint transfer though and after a bit of work with G3 and Autoglym SRP, it was as good as new.

The writing on the note looked like it was an older person and the number was a landline. I did ruminate over whether to bother calling just to say it's OK, in the end I did and spoke to a nice older lady who had been worried about it, so I'd put her mind at rest. Apparently her car was OK as well.

There are still some honest people out there.

[reb]

I wrote this for elsewhere, but might as well put it here too: 

I suppose I should start this off by saying that I don't have an unhealthy sleeping pattern. I just don't have a sleeping pattern at all. It has been like this for as long as I can remember. Yesterday I woke up at 3pm having slept for 16 hours. The day before I woke up at 9am after 8 hours. I don't think I'm depressed or anything, it's just how things get when I don't have to conform to a modern fixed workday. All of this is to explain how it came to be the middle of the night, with me knowing that I would be coming to the cafe at 6am to get some writing done, when my friend in Canada suggested that I watch the same hockey game as them. After poor luck trying to find a hooky stream, I coughed up to get a legit subscription for a streaming sports package (which is a whole other Thing in itself) and with that I was watching my friend's local team with them an ocean and several timezones away.
Now, I've never been into watching sport. Here in Scotland the team sport of choice is football (soccer to you North Americans), which I have long associated with the sorts of people who relentlessly bullied me all through my school years, and I never found much fun in watching my sport of choice, cycling, since it was much more fun to just get out on my bike and feel the miles roll by myself. This is all to say, basically, I do not know enough about team sports to accurately relay any of the events of the game. What I do know though, is that the experience of watching my first hockey match was the most fun I have had in a very long time. My friend was on hand on Signal to answer any of my silly questions about what was going on, and to fill me in on where this specific game fits into the season (something about Game 1 of playoffs, whatever that means), along with being an enthusiastic viewing companion.
The experience had moments that took some of the shine away, but they were few and far between, the first being the fact that the very first advert shown was for a predatory sports betting app, along with the much more inconsequential lack of a timer during breaks to let me know if I have enough time to piss or not. Overall though the experience was absolutely fantastic, and seems to have reminded my terminally recalcitrant brain how to produce vast quantities of dopamine. The final ten seconds of play, ending with our team behind 3-2, going to a face off with exactly one second left on the clock, Rage Against the Machine playing as the players waited for the referee to signal, is the most tense moment I have experienced in a long time, and absolutely the closest I have felt to jumping off of the sofa in triumph in my entire life. And that's with the prospect of a draw! I can only imagine what the feeling would be like if it was to break a tie in a final!
I have long known that professional sports are the religion of the modern world, and it is certainly true that religion is the opium of the masses... With that in mind... I'm with Mark Renton. I NEED A FUCKING HIT.

[beko1987]

8 hours ago, Popsicle said:

The stars seemed to align so that four of the fleet were all do a service at the same time. As I'm a fat, old lazy lump, I decided to be like a shite version of Kwik Fit and blitz it all in one afternoon.

Mannol's finest potions and various filters at the ready.

First up on the ramps the couriering Caddy for an oil change.

All done nice and easy. These PD engines are so pleasant to service, everything is so easy to get at.

That was the 26th service in my ownership!

Once that was done, time to move on to the vehicle I hate working on the most, daughter number ones Beetle.

This thing always fights me, the huge, heavy undertray is a twat to remove to get to the sump plug, the oil filter is awkward to get at and it ends up with its contents running down your arm, the air filter is a pig to swap as half of it sits under the wing due to the stupid shape and the inlet fannymould has to come off to get to the spark plugs.

It also has a mard on if it doesn't get genuine VW oil filters, bloody arsey thing.

Once I'd sworn at it for long enough and spilt a load of oil over me and the drive it was done for another a year though.

It's been on fleet for about 5 years now and I suppose is doing alright for the miles.

Next up was the little sewing machine, daughter number two's Swift.

We've had this for 9 years now, it has been brilliant, so easy to work on, the complete opposite of the Beetle. Bought it on 50k miles as daughter number ones first car, then bought it back off her when she got the Beetle and gave it to daughter number two. All it ever needs is a service every year, so little else has gone wrong with it.

I realised I'd not changed the pollen filter for a while!

With that done just the Qashqai left to do, it had a full service last May, so just an oil change due this time around.

I don't actually mind working on this, its pretty easy to service and the parts are bugger all, £4.55 for a Mann oil filter from GSF.

I don't think it will be on the fleet much longer, @beko1987 has got me worried about rot - I dare not look at the mo, ignorance is bliss - its miles are creeping up a bit and nobody has really claimed ownership of it, it just gets used by whoever fancies it - which is normally the daughters when their cars are out of fuel!

So with four cars serviced that's my good deeds done for the week, I'll be sore all over tomorrow, I've said it before, but I'll say it again, how you guys in the trade do this day in day out is beyond me, fair play to you all.

If you don't try and find rot, you won't find it 👌

[paulplom]

After that he give it a good hoover out and gave it a sort inside with cockpit shine and the like. I hope he's getting the bug.

Note gf's shit parking in the background.

[chadders]

1 hour ago, paulplom said:

Owen serviced his C1 yesterday. Only advice I gave was to shift that coil pack bolt on the cam cover or he'll be having a really bad day.

He started it up and it bellowed out a rather large blue smoke screen. The silly fucker had put all of the five litres of oil in when the capacity is 3 iirc. Drained some out and normal service was resumed.

Look at the dafr mutt in front of the car.

Morty seems to be enjoying himself though.

[ruffgeezer]

40 minutes ago, chadders said:

Morty seems to be enjoying himself though.

Yes, where has that vacuum nozzle been?

55 minutes ago, paulplom said:

 

 

[reb]

found a tent in the cupboard 

garden camping time!

[Six-cylinder]

11 hours ago, stripped fred said:

I mentioned about my S type recently. The insurance was due to run out on 5th May.

On that same day I decided to get a quote as the renewal was about £408 for 6k mikes and business use. I reduced the mileage to 3k. Managed to knock £100 off the quote so I'm keeping it. Had a lovely drive today and it was like a new car to me after nearly putting it to death. Just feels a bit special and has always been a good drive.

It still stops quickly if you need to but I plan to replace the brake master cylinder / booster, as I want them right.

I tagged it to a £3 Tesco walk today and pumped up the tyres. Two were around 16 psi which will need watching.

I'm even planning some bodywork.. If something comes along that's going to cost £1000, such as a new engine or gearbox, or new sills, then I might need to reconsider but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy driving it, and tinkering.

I really liked my S Type 3.0 V6 when I had it.

Trouble is with these low mileage usage extra cars is the road tax. It hurts to pay out for a car I hardly use.

[Six-cylinder]

30 minutes ago, reb said:

found a tent in the cupboard 

garden camping time!

You must be well hard, it was down is 6ᵒ C here last night!

[reb]

3 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

You must be well hard, it was down is 6ᵒ C here last night!

I've only just put it up! it's boiling right now! though it was 3° when I left the house this morning, it didn't occur to me to wear anything more than a shirt and blazer (and trousers, obviously, before anyone thinks they're clever) and I did alright

[barefoot]

56 minutes ago, reb said:

it didn't occur to me to wear anything more than a shirt and blazer ...

Does your blazer have stripes or is it plain navy and like me, do you struggle to pull off wearing a cravat with it?

[reb]

5 minutes ago, barefoot said:

Does your blazer have stripes or is it plain navy and like me, do you struggle to pull off wearing a cravat with it?

it's tweed* and came from primark over a decade ago. I've never tried to wear a cravat, nor have I worn a tie since about 2016 despite having spent a year working in a job that mandated a tie. it turns out if you wfh and tape over your camera you can work in naught but a dressing gown and the very professional professionals you are providing phone support to are none the wiser.

[ruffgeezer]

MOT booked for the petrol XC70  for next week.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Today's lesson from the Land of Make Believe.

Slightly? That may also explain the little* bit of rotational vibration on the front end then?

 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

5 hours ago, beko1987 said:

If you don't try and find rot, you won't find it

[MJK 24]

3 hours ago, reb said:

found a tent in the cupboard 

garden camping time!

That’s a nice garden / general outlook.

[Lord Sterling]

10 hours ago, reb said:

I wrote this for elsewhere, but might as well put it here too: 

I suppose I should start this off by saying that I don't have an unhealthy sleeping pattern. I just don't have a sleeping pattern at all. It has been like this for as long as I can remember. Yesterday I woke up at 3pm having slept for 16 hours. The day before I woke up at 9am after 8 hours. I don't think I'm depressed or anything, it's just how things get when I don't have to conform to a modern fixed workday + stuff about sports

Sounds a bit like me. I work permanent night shift doing a 4-nights on 4-nights off shift.

When I came back after my last night on, I slept for near 16 hours (getting up every now and again to go the toilet) then the next day, I probably slept for a normal 7/8 hours. It happens to me every now and again where I just need to have a long multiple-hours of sleep. I don't think I'm depressed either.

Sports, I have literally no interest in, football, car racing, it just doesn't interest me and never has. It never bothered me at school but I do remember encountering a few people in various work places who simply could not believe or understand that I had no interest in sport.

[stuboy]

12 hours ago, paulplom said:

After that he give it a good hoover out and gave it a sort inside with cockpit shine and the like. I hope he's getting the bug.

Note gf's shit parking in the background.

wish my oldest was into cars not bloody football

[High Jetter]

45 minutes ago, stuboy said:

wish my oldest was into cars not bloody football

A football is cheeper than a car tho...

[stuboy]

3 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

A football is cheeper than a car tho...

i never been interested