The new news 24 thread

[xtriple]

Post oil/filter change... forgot spark plugs as well, the car feels.... different.

It feels smoother and more sedate at low revs/tiny throttle openings but still goes like a stabbed rat if the pedal is prodded a tad. I long for the old days where when your Champion N9Y was 12000 miles old they were utterly fucked and looked it. These irridium/platinum things looked fine when I took them out, almost, just chuck them back in but I had the new ones so may as well... Old ones were burning a lovely colour as well...

So God alone knows how old those plugs were. Could the car have lived all this time without a plug change? 11years and 90.000? Been right through the service history and there is no 'tick' in the 'change spark plugs' box. Everything else has been ticked multiple times, even had a transmission oil change (at MB main dealer so that was nearly a grand alone!) so could they be the originals?

It is definitely running smoother at low revs and the idle is smoother but to be honest, it feels the same when you boot it (it makes a LOVELY noise above 3000 rpm ) but, I have noticed I am not having to push the throttle as much to get away so consequently it is always in higher gears as it is being driven in a more gentle fashion to go the same speed. Of course, the acid test would be fuel consumption increase/decrease s as I fill it up about every two months, I'll report back if I ever think about it again... which is doubtful!

[SiC]

As per my MGB thread I went down to the Haynes Breakfast meet today and saw a couple of mates. Because the MGB disgraced herself, the Boxster needs some suspension work and the Dolomite is in bits, I took the Laguna.

Not the busiest Haynes I've been to, but was busy getting in. As the standings was all muddy and churned up, many just abandoned their cars on the edge of the hard surfaces. I did try parking up on the embankment outside Haynes but managed to get stuck. Luckily I could get off on reverse - even if it did rip the offside of the front bumper out of its mounts. Oops.

Car wise, there was less classics than there is in the summer. A few nice fancy stuff that was very pretty but of course I took pictures of the less fancy stuff...

Dolly 1300


Granny with rust spots all over the body. I had forgotten how big these were. Not seen one in years. Interior looked pretty minging



Best we could figure is that this has a FWD setup in it. I guess a GT-Four or similar. The track is ridiculous on it. Not actually very wide tyres though. 185/60/13 iirc. Wide I guess to fit the engine.



I do like these. Helps that yellow is a great colour for cars.


Panel gaps so wide that you can literally fit your fingers in.




A great colour on this. Quite a lot of Midgets and Sprites at the meet today.


"Mini"



These were about the only vehicles that didn't have trouble.


I don't seem to have taken anymore pictures today. Probably just me being a bit too busy chin wagging.

[Eyersey1234]

@cms206 Good luck with the new job. Hopefully wife CMS will come round and not be too cross about the new car. 

[brownnova]

Second MX5 meet of the weekend!! Off to bunch of fives today.

 It’sa static’s meet in a services where there’s a Costa and a Maccies!

Brownnova the younger (the 11 year old not the foetus) took some photos... 

Bring a mk1 person my favourite was this tastefully upgraded one... 

There was also this nice clean and almost standard UK car one too... 

 

Another nice topless drive home in it too... 

[Cavcraft]

Good luck @cms206 Andy, what are you going to be doing now?

[Arthur Foxhake]

There was no escaping the horrible fact that the LDV Maxus had shat it's head/gasket.

As I need a van everyday for work, I believed myself to be quite fucked.

Not one to wallow in self pity, nor to blame anyone else for an old van to become incontinent, I had what can only be described as a "eureka!" moment!

My brother rang me to ask "when are you going to move this fucking van off my land?"

Aha! I bought a Peugeot expert last year and left it in his field! 

This would now become my daily transportation, with such issues as "it only blows hot air M8".

Along with, " Yeah, all the gears are in there, just some need encouragement, they're a bit shy."

Not to forget, "Oh, tyres aren't supposed to have wire and chord poking out?"

An excellent start, to what can only be, a brilliant year, of scrap wrangling.

[Broadsword]

A quick heads up for anyone considering buying a mk. 2 Mazda MX-5 very soon. I will have a W-reg MX-5 with long MOT for sale some time next week. It's dark green, drives really well, has a stack of receipts for important work done and most importantly has had all the important bits welded. All arches and outer sills solid, front chassis rails also done so it's a good one. I'm no MX-5 aficionado but I did about 35 miles in it today and it was the most enjoyable drive I've had in a smaller sized vehicle in a long long time. Anyway this is sort of a preamble. A full for sale ad will appear one some of the crud has been cleaned off the thing, and there is enough sunlight for a half decent photo.

[loserone]

How much, and where?

[wuvvum]

I sold two vehicles to shiters in November, and both have shat their head gaskets in the last week.  Neither was a vehicle particularly known for being prone to such issues, and neither had shown any signs of impending problems.

Weird.  And embarrassing.

[Broadsword]

24 minutes ago, loserone said:

How much, and where?

£999, location close to York, usual collection from station available etc.

[Craig the Princess]

2 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I sold two vehicles to shiters in November, and both have shat their head gaskets in the last week.  Neither was a vehicle particularly know for being prone to such issues, and neither had shown any signs of impending problems.

Weird.  And embarrassing.

Was thinking of resuscitating the MGF, think I may wait until this curse is broken.

[cms206]

3 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

Good luck @cms206 Andy, what are you going to be doing now?

Back to what I know Billy... just a different colour.

[hairnet]

9 hours ago, cms206 said:

In other news I may have bought a car on Friday night. WIFE_CMS is furious and she doesn't even know yet. It's out of test and I have nowhere to put it.

 

Situation normal.

do you have a space on yer body for a fresh bruise or 37 or do the boss just give up now

 

[SRi05]

2 hours ago, Broadsword said:

A quick heads up for anyone considering buying a mk. 2 Mazda MX-5 very soon. I will have a W-reg MX-5 with long MOT for sale some time next week. It's dark green, drives really well, has a stack of receipts for important work done and most importantly has had all the important bits welded. All arches and outer sills solid, front chassis rails also done so it's a good one. I'm no MX-5 aficionado but I did about 35 miles in it today and it was the most enjoyable drive I've had in a smaller sized vehicle in a long long time. Anyway this is sort of a preamble. A full for sale ad will appear one some of the crud has been cleaned off the thing, and there is enough sunlight for a half decent photo.

 

[Tam]

Old news from Friday! Small collection as I'm a shit shiter and not into public transport in any way. Agreed to buy an ex. raffle car a week or so go and had been procrastinating about the journey to get it. Mate was heading up to me on Friday to collect a car trailer then down to Glagow to drop me off. After that he was heading to Wigan overnight, next morning to Salisbury then across to Kent to pick up a non running Morris Minor, back to Wigan overnight and back to Glasgow (Better Shiter!)

Any way thanks to Andy CMS206 and Jamie Bangernomics for patience and general helpfulness. Great to meet Andy as he is proper Shiter and part of the Scottish contingent I hadn't met yet. 

First stop at an actual airport to pick up trailer.  

 

Bloody Ford invading!

Boot Full

Let it in eventually.

 

Still a handsome motor the Mk2 in my opinion. I owned an 1800 back in 2001 and always liked them. Only fault is it tramlines a bit with the low profile tyres on it. Also the windscreen scooshers were bereft of any scoosh on the front but I found a clue to that and likely just a pipe or something

 

[Split_Pin]

Keeping my old 75s company! 

Looks a nice motor this Mondeo. Quite fancied it myself but had no need for it (read: Management said no!)

[xtriple]

Nice selection you have there  

I have just become a 'druggy' bought CBD things to see if they can help Phoebe. Her legs are sooooo bad after two days out she cannot walk at all without help from me - another cripple. Also she has not kicked off at all at the fact that for the last twwo days I have taken Chester to the park without her, this I find worrying.  I don't mind if she doesn't want to go out anymore but I'd rather she has the choice.

[Eyersey1234]

Two days taster on National Express going well so far, had a night in Manchester last night. Start Nat Ex training tomorrow. 

[egg]

14 hours ago, Tam said:

Also the windscreen scooshers were bereft of any scoosh on the front but I found a clue to that and likely just a pipe or something

Assuming it is the same as a MK1, yes there are too little rubber pipes (for front and rear) that run off the screen pump that deteriorate over time and can pop off - quite exposed to the elements down there.

[Tam]

29 minutes ago, egg said:

Assuming it is the same as a MK1, yes there are too little rubber pipes (for front and rear) that run off the screen pump that deteriorate over time and can pop off - quite exposed to the elements down there.

Hopefully that means they are quite accessible then. I'm usually pretty ham fisted with wheel arch liners ?

[Tenmil Socket]

20 hours ago, brownnova said:

Second MX5 meet of the weekend!! Off to bunch of fives today.

 It’sa static’s meet in a services where there’s a Costa and a Maccies!

Brownnova the younger (the 11 year old not the foetus) took some photos... 

Bring a mk1 person my favourite was this tastefully upgraded one... 

There was also this nice clean and almost standard UK car one too... 

 

Another nice topless drive home in it too... 

I need to pop along to one of these MX5 meets as I'm only over the water...

[egg]

@Tam Yes, no need to touch the liner, it's right behind the front bumper from memory.

[brownnova]

32 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

I need to pop along to one of these MX5 meets as I'm only over the water...

You’d be very welcome! To be fair both are nice groups. I slightly prefer the Bunch of Fives meet as it’s a bit easier being in a car park but everyone’s friendly, most of them are proper petrol heads who like all sorts of cars not just MX5s! I met a guy who races 2CVs yesterday at the meet! 

[Tenmil Socket]

1 minute ago, brownnova said:

You’d be very welcome! To be fair both are nice groups. I slightly prefer the Bunch of Fives meet as it’s a bit easier being in a car park but everyone’s friendly, most of them are proper petrol heads who like all sorts of cars not just MX5s! I met a guy who races 2CVs yesterday at the meet! 

I always see the pictures on the Facebook group and say to myself that I'll go to the next one but it never happens. My MX5 needs a good run out as at the minute it only gets used for an hour each week...

[Parky]

On 1/4/2020 at 12:07 PM, Parky said:

Another oil change done on the daily - 106600 miles on it and having had a sumpful of decent synth every 6000 miles the engine should be reasonably decent inside.  Used the Pela as per usual and I know it might miss some but a 90% change should avoid a lot of sludge issues considering it’s done so regularly and I only use decent stuff.  

This time around I decided to use up a few odds and sods I have lying about so it has a litre of Total 5w30, a litre of Unipart 5w40, and two litres of new Quantum 5w40 so I now have a sumpful of 5w37 by my reckoning.  3 litres of Quantum left over so I will get another litre lined up so I have enough for a future change

Mrs P also complained that her Mini’s headlights are a bit shite so bought a couple of Halfords 50% brighter ones to try out when she gets home later.  They are poor but I reckon they are either shite bulbs or could be the originals.  I found my Leon’s lights were fine until one blew and the replacement standard bulb was about twice as bright.  Will report back on how that goes

Fuck it.

I can confirm that Halfords 50% brighter bulbs are, in fact, 50% brighter. Or at least they are on the drivers side of Mrs P’s Mini....

The passenger side has appeared to be misaligned and vibrates over bumps, unlike the drivers side so I thought the bulb was loose and moving around.  I was right, in fact the reason the bulb was moving was the entire inner light fitting was broken and held roughly together with cable ties. See this pic? All three adjuster lugs are kaput so a secondhand light is winging its way to me as we speak.  Or at least I hope it is as whilst the description was accurate (I think) the image was a library pic so fingers crossed whatever arrives is alright.  That said I have learned how to strip them with a hot air gun so I could still retain my own lens according to this lunatic - 

 

 

[Broadsword]

21 hours ago, SRi05 said:

 

 

[Amishtat]

On 1/4/2020 at 10:38 PM, HMC said:

Passed what I think is/ was the legendary  tytes yard on the way from Weymouth to Weston today in the new sprinter. Would have stopped as I could see a load of old lorries and a stash of AS worthy cars but was wary of being a trespasser/ tourist (which of course we would have been)

 

 

No idea whether it's still a going concern but I stopped there with a mate in 2003 purely because we were in the area and had heard about it. The old boy (who must be long gone now, he was well past eighty then) couldn't have been any more welcoming once he learned we liked old cars. Fuck, it was wonderful.. Got some lovely photographs that day. 

[HMC]

Pics please! @Amishtat

[reb]

Today is the only time I have to renew the struts and such on the Volvo.

This should be fun.

[reb]

It's pretty grim under here.

I think the technical term is "munted":

Shiny: