The new news 24 thread

[RoverFolkUs]

On 12/03/2026 at 22:45, RoverFolkUs said:

Somebody has reversed into my Rover 45 today

Thankfully it was witnessed and they've left their details

Damage appears to be isolated to the rear bumper, not the end of the world and I'm glad the chap was decent enough to leave his details. Accidents happen, but it's still a bummer 

True to his word the chap has already settled up an amount we agreed to cover repairs to the (minor) damage 

It's nice to see there are some decent people out there 

[Brigsy]

My mates megane r26 that i fitted ecumaster black to a few weeks ago was in at EfiParts for mapping on the dyno on Wed. Went down incase of issues, all went well. Had to stop at 24psi as r26 oem throttle body was getting flappy at high rpm, needs an upgrade..

Swichable boost maps done. 350hp/300ft lb on 14psi/low boost. High boost 24psi at top 430hp/360ft lb.

Feels like a totally different car now its been mapped by Efi. Smooth and traction is good compared to the last map on stock ecu from elsewhere which was like on/off switch.

Need to get a throttle upgrade sorted and dial in boost by gear on the street, as ecumaster was reporting 159kmh with abs fault due to rear wheels not turning on dyno. Bit of head scratching on that one initially, but its simple to sort on the street.

[Lord Sterling]

There seems to be something about being in Belgium that allows me to find stuff I've been after for a while. 

Just this morning whilst browsing the Internet, I've managed to source a set of OEM rubber mats and OEM carpet mats for my S-Type:

Rubber ones are in Essex, so hopefully I can get these on the way home from Dover in a weeks time. The carpet ones are in Cannock, so again, not a million miles from where I'll be.

[richardmorris]

Lovely drive around Worcester Park and new malden- and all the places you hear on the traffic news- tolworth  junction etc. Then it stalled and battery (only a year old on may) wouldn't restart it. Pushed back into the garage eventually.  Will speak to Traction friend this evening after he's back from mother's day lunch. Only small thing I could find was a leak from the radiator.

 

ps. History from new, they’ve owned it from 1993 and the last owner had it from the police force when he retired as a brigadier in the 1960s.  Fully restored thirty years ago and always garaged. Stainless exhaust, new tyres and ( that ) battery and brakes rebuilt last year.  Still on 6v and dynamo, never had a radio. 

[Cookiesouwest]

I hate shopping for cars.

Also im not very good at sticking to my list of needs.

Went out today, looking for Petrol, MPV, good size boot for the wheelchair, not red, heated seats. 

Currently stood here seriously considering a diesel, 2010 Leon, small boot, no heated seats, Red, needs a cambelt.

Im shopping at shit end of market, sub 3k. To me, with my pre covid headspace, this seems like a lot. But no. Its not. The market has moved on. I havent. Ive seen some terrible lashed up shit today.

At least the Leon has been cared for.

 

This cpuld replace the Polo. Then I still need to find a replacement for the CRV too. Definately not looking forward to that.

 

[Jazoli]

They are decent cars, replacement injectors are pricy and frequently needed as they age mind but it wouldn’t put me off.

[Fat_Pirate]

After taking a frustrating 45 mins to install a simple junction box, I bought a Stanley Fatmax wire-stripper and bloody hell, it's amazing!  Took about 5 mins to do the next one, and it was a pleasure.  Should have bought one years ago.  £22 from Screwfix.

[Lord Sterling]

FFS, I hate bodges, I really do.

For a bit of context, Fatha_Sterling had his drivers side mirror unit smashed off presumably by a passing car/truck while it was parked out on the street. 

So he's been driving about with it looking like this for the past few months:

Bit despite my offering, in his infinite Arab father 'I know better' wisdom, he went and bought a replacement mirror unit, now I'm here, he asked me to try and fit it on. In the meantime, I bought some replacement items to try and make the car better. These included:

• Replacement OEM stereo unit, the one fitted is a chinseum unit, which is Ok, but like me, Fatha prefers OEM. 

• Floor mats (as the fronts had been replaced with cheapy items, yet the passenger original was found with the spare wheel)

• One of those Bluetooth thingies, which didn't fit.

Anyway, this mirror replacement unit that he bought turned out to be incorrect. The triangular bit which fixes onto the door frame was just a bit too big and the fixings where different.

Great 😒

So, I now the only thing I could do was gut the old one and the new ones out and somehow make one good one out of the two. Easier said than done given the new one was seemingly some cheapie chinesuem shite.

Fitting the new mirror involved removing the door card, I fucking HATE doing door card removals, they're a bastard to rekove and never, ever go back on properly. This door card was no better. Cunt.

Anyway, I got it off and took the old mirror off. Apart from nearly stabbing my finger badly, it went fairly swimmingly.

An hour later, I managed to transfer the good new parts over to the old unit, it went as expected. None of it fitted correctly.  At this point, I told Fatha_Sterling never to buy cheap parts ever again, and to leave this to me. It's so much fucking easier to find parts from breakers in the UK than in Belgium  

I'd bodged the parts on as best as I could, but this meant cutting off excess plastic that was causing the mirror cover to not fit on properly. It was another hour of trial and error. Fatherly_one decided to come and help and I'm glad he did as he was far more calm about it than I was. 

After more plastic cutting, the mirror did finally fit and clip together as best as I could get it. 

Everything works, but the surround frame doesn’t quite fit as it should. 

Anyway, I've bought Fatha another mirror, an original one from a breaker which is the right colour and will be plug and play.

At least he has a mirror that doesn't look so bad.

Whilst in the car, I fitted the proper drivers mat and had a look at the radio situation.

It looks like a fucking rats nest of wires in there:

I think I might just leave this one with Dad, he can send it to a car electrician of whom I'm sure he has a contact. At least the thing fits:

[Cookiesouwest]

1 hour ago, Jazoli said:

They are decent cars, replacement injectors are pricy and frequently needed as they age mind but it wouldn’t put me off.

Well when I measured the boot, the chair would'nt fit. If I dissasembled it, it will. Ok in summer. Bit shite in Winter when raining.

So I walked away. Was very nice though.

In a happy turn of fate, gumtree turned up a 2013 i30 estate. Diesel, Auto. 10 mins walk from the house. Sub 100k on clock. Full history. Very clean MOT history. Owned for last 12 yrs. £2750. 

 

Had a chat with the owner. Nice bloke. Viewing tomorrow.

A diesel is a bad idea, given my use case. Will just have to thrash it once a week. I figure something thats been looked after, is worth a small increase in budget and wrong fuel.

 

[Lord Sterling]

34 minutes ago, Cookiesouwest said:

In a happy turn of fate, gumtree turned up a 2013 i30 estate. Diesel, Auto. 10 mins walk from the house. Sub 100k on clock. Full history. Very clean MOT history. Owned for last 12 yrs. £2750. 

Midsomer....

You might meet that Bergerac bloke:

[richardmorris]

20 hours ago, Morris 63 said:

Looks like the Shonky Shogun of Shame's time as a conveyance is over. It also needs 5 decent tyres, a clutch, the cooling system sorting, and whatever is causing the "interesting" noises from the front end sorting as a minimum. 

Edit: no idea why the image is sideways!

Didn’t know they issued those!

[richardmorris]

4 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Lovely drive around Worcester Park and new malden- and all the places you hear on the traffic news- tolworth  junction etc. Then it stalled and battery (only a year old on may) wouldn't restart it. Pushed back into the garage eventually.  Will speak to Traction friend this evening after he's back from mother's day lunch. Only small thing I could find was a leak from the radiator.

 

ps. History from new, they’ve owned it from 1993 and the last owner had it from the police force when he retired as a brigadier in the 1960s.  Fully restored thirty years ago and always garaged. Stainless exhaust, new tyres and ( that ) battery and brakes rebuilt last year.  Still on 6v and dynamo, never had a radio. 

And it’s the car photographed in Stephen Bayley’s book CARS.

[EspenO]

53 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Midsomer....

You might meet that Bergerac bloke:

Well, I mean… the chances of him surviving the test drive is pretty much nil, given that they've got a 362% murder rate? 😄

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, Lord Sterling said:

Midsomer....

You might meet that Bergerac bloke:

That 75 still survives last time I checked.

[Jazoli]

2 hours ago, Cookiesouwest said:

Well when I measured the boot, the chair would'nt fit. If I dissasembled it, it will. Ok in summer. Bit shite in Winter when raining.

So I walked away. Was very nice though.

In a happy turn of fate, gumtree turned up a 2013 i30 estate. Diesel, Auto. 10 mins walk from the house. Sub 100k on clock. Full history. Very clean MOT history. Owned for last 12 yrs. £2750. 

 

Had a chat with the owner. Nice bloke. Viewing tomorrow.

A diesel is a bad idea, given my use case. Will just have to thrash it once a week. I figure something thats been looked after, is worth a small increase in budget and wrong fuel.

 

If it’s a close coupled dpf it’ll be fine for local journeys, I didn’t have a single issue doing short journeys in any of my cars with that setup.

looks like a nice thing, decent price too.

[Remspoor]

Took a boat now in the UK. Tomorrow is my dad's funeral. I have mixed emotions we did not have a great relationship.

Watch out for a Spanish registered car. It may be be and the wifey 

[auntiemaryscanary]

Glasto fella uses Minor van for job for 52 years

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq8gjdp3w9jo

[Somerset Suffolk]

2 hours ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

Glasto fella uses Minor van for job for 52 years

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq8gjdp3w9jo

Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury  - An excellent day out for kids of all ages !!

[HillmanImp]

Well if the actual pothole doesn't blow your tyre, then some cunt putting a spike in it certainly will.

What is the world coming to?

[richardmorris]

I’ve just come down the m3 on the way back from 2cv club night, and there’s a smashed up beige mk3 ( boxy one?) cortina at j3. In the middle of a three car shunt by the look of it. Glass over two lanes. Looked pretty bad - and stank of petrol.

[High Jetter]

Mk 3 is Coke can, Mk 4 squarer.

[Metal Guru]

7 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Mk 3 is Coke can, Mk 4 squarer.

Isn’t it Coke bottle? The original glass ones. A can just has straight sides.

[dozeydustman]

Given the jobs I have to do on the 205 I have decided when the MoT runs out to SORN it for a few weeks or months so I can get on with repairs. I don’t get much time other than weekends to faff with cars and house jobs.

 

[richardmorris]

8 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Mk 3 is Coke can, Mk 4 squarer.

Onlsow’s shape in keeping up appearances.

[High Jetter]

9 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Mk 3 is Coke can, Mk 4 squarer.

I sit corrected, coke bottle not can. 

[auntiemaryscanary]

Big orange taxi for Mrs amc...

Clutch master cylinder apparently.

RAC person looking perplexed: "I need to unload somewhere flat". Me: Er it's all hills round here, even the drive is on a slope.

Edit: Only took em 24 mins to arrive from call out so can't complain about that.

Edit,edit: the old faithful mint green Corsa B will the carrying out the Nurse Gladys Emmanuel duties tomorrow (Mrs amc is a community nurse).

[Spottedlaurel]

Of interest/relevance to us here: Woman, 18, not shortlisted for job at estate agents as 'car is too old' - BBC News

I'd have struggled with that in the past, indeed I'd fall foul of it now as the RX daily driver is nearing 12 years old.

Does seem a bit harsh on an entry-level vacancy, and surely an applicant's argument will be that if they get the job then they would 'upgrade' to something of suitable age? 

[Brigsy]

6 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Of interest/relevance to us here: Woman, 18, not shortlisted for job at estate agents as 'car is too old' - BBC News

I'd have struggled with that in the past, indeed I'd fall foul of it now as the RX daily driver is nearing 12 years old.

Does seem a bit harsh on an entry-level vacancy, and surely an applicant's argument will be that if they get the job then they would 'upgrade' to something of suitable age? 

Sounds like a company to be avoided. Ive used my own car for work for years and current/last 2 places have never questioned car age. My clio is 23 year old/210k, still plodding along for business use.

[captain_70s]

Estate agents are all about show.

Can't sell a £500k, mid-terrace, anthracite grey dream if you rock up in a Deliveroo driver's ride...

My work got very pissy with me the one time in 5 years I ever failed to get to work due to a breakdown because my car was old and strongly suggested I bought something newer so as to not let them down again.

[horriblemercedes]

I think I'm quite lucky with my work. Until recently, we had a 51 plate pool car. Replaced it with a 55 plate.

 

That said, we all like cars here