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1 minute ago, brownnova said:

Further googling suggests they hate the smell! Excellent. I’m off to Tesco! 

Yes, theory is that meeces use smell to detect predators, when there is one or two of these sheets in a cupboard, car or whatever, they can't smell the situation so they do one back to Disney land - apparently. Best defence, get a cat.

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3 minutes ago, Crispian_J_Hotson said:

Yes, theory is that meeces use smell to detect predators, when there is one or two of these sheets in a cupboard, car or whatever, they can't smell the situation so they do one back to Disney land - apparently. Best defence, get a cat.

Yup, get a cat, ideally several in case one or two of them aren't hunters. 

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1 minute ago, stuboy said:

get 2 keeps them hap

5 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Well I've taken the first tentative step towards converting the Trafic into a camper...I wouldn't be doing any cooking in there or owt like that so a kitchen would be a bit of a waste of effort.

 

Cold beans on bread with a packet of crisps then is it?

To be fair, you can always throw a camping gas stove in if you decide you need bacon butties and cups of tea.

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20210204_211111.thumb.jpg.91c495a3b74905e6767094fc800e11fd.jpg

Covid-compliant Clio collection caper.  2 miles away so it was a caper in miniature.  Forecast was wrong so I got soaked walking there too.  Fake pez shot as tank was half full.

RN spec so keep fit everything, and it'll do hopefully.  1.6 automatic for added peril.  Must admit, although the Morris has been performing main car duties well, it's nice to have something with a heater and de-misting properties.

It's also been five months since my last purchase.  It feels gooood...like having a drink after denying yourself all month or something!

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21 minutes ago, RobT said:

20210204_211111.thumb.jpg.91c495a3b74905e6767094fc800e11fd.jpg

Covid-compliant Clio collection caper.  2 miles away so it was a caper in miniature.  Forecast was wrong so I got soaked walking there too.  Fake pez shot as tank was half full.

RN spec so keep fit everything, and it'll do hopefully.  1.6 automatic for added peril.  Must admit, although the Morris has been performing main car duties well, it's nice to have something with a heater and de-misting properties.

It's also been five months since my last purchase.  It feels gooood...like having a drink after denying yourself all month or something!

Well bought! These early second gen Clios are starting to look really nice to me.

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My (Second generation) Clio is back on the road! Following the jump start last night, it started willingly this morning for my commute. It would probably have been ok for a while, but I got one of the mechanics to check and he said that it made sense just to change the battery. Which is what I said back in May, when this happened before!  

New battery fitted and he replaced the vandalised rear wiper as well! Wouldn't even take anything for it, although I will try and put a bit of work his way. (I paid for the parts)

Now I just need to be able to go somewhere.

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Went to a campus owned by my new University this morning to finalise my application. I never thought I'd get into Uni during Covid after a tough year of High School over remote learning (which was a pain in the backside), but I'm really happy I've made it to this point!

I also found out off a friend that Renoca Coastline vans (restyled Toyota Hiaces) are used in Japanese pornos.

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12 hours ago, brownnova said:

Had a work meeting... hmmm.... haven’t driven the 900 in a couple of months I’ll take that.

Battery: You wot M9... don’t think so.

So I go to work and come back and the. Run the battery charger on an extension, pop the bonnet and..... shit myself because a mouse sprints across the engine!

Little bugger goes and hides C926B4FF-3EDC-4A97-BBF7-397A927E075A.jpeg

Worried that it may have infested I hook the battery up to the charger and leave the bonnet up so it’ll go away.

I return to the car half an hour later... no sign of Mr or Mrs Mouse. Good.

Car starts, good. I reverse it from its spot and watch as a mouse jumps from the front of the car into the hedge... 

I put it on the proper part of my drive and get ready to check it over at which point another mouse makes a leap from the front bumper inches from me. Now I’m a proper bloke and don’t scare easily, but I jumped a mile and shouted fuck off you fucking fucker very loudly at it... 

Good news: no sign that they got into the car, and no obvious signs of damage under the bonnet.

Bad news: there were mice under my bonnet... were they living there? We are in the countryside and do get mice around but never had them in the cars before! 

Other bad news the Nova and MX5 are also both parked on that storage part of the drive and have been for a long time... I’ll take a bloody big stick and check them for critters at the weekend.

Ahhh countryside life! 

The bastards got into my shed and had a good go on my mower petrol cap. It also had a good go at a few used oil containers in there too, making a right mess. Presumably when it got a soaking of used oil, it decided to bugger off as no other damage in there.

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23 minutes ago, SiC said:

The bastards got into my shed and had a good go on my mower petrol cap. It also had a good go at a few used oil containers in there too, making a right mess. Presumably when it got a soaking of used oil, it decided to bugger off as no other damage in there.

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I suppose your mower and oil supply is not the best home, fortunately.

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Quick update on the Peugeot, Cambelt was loose as fuck as you turned the engine by hand you could see it go slack *shudders. It was a dayco item dated 1996 so after doing a bit of sleuthing on the .gov MOT page and seeing an extra unneeded MOT in the summer of 2006 I am guessing the car was sold at 50,000 miles with a new MOT and cambelt.  15 year old cambelts scare me as you could also see cracks in it here and there *shudders again. 

We also found a serious leak of oil from the camshaft oil seal so that was changed.  The bottom pulley was indeed fucked being coated with the tell tale iron filings and brown gunk.  The sump plug resisted all efforts to remove up to and including heat  and on closer inspection has received a hefty thump from underneath which might explain its refusal to budge. A new sump has been ordered and seemed remarkably cheap at under £40 delivered and in the meantime the old oil has been pumped out via the dipstick and the filter changed. Once the sump arrives it will get another dose of fresh oil as the oil in it was like black treacle. 

I now have more money in it than I should have really as by the time we have done the sump she will owe me just shy of £1500 but I am getting quite fond of the old bus and she will hopefully be good for a couple of years after all the work we have done...

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On 1/27/2021 at 3:56 PM, barefoot said:

I've had a shit time

Scirocco broke down & was repaired - but that's a comparatively simple story

The Rover was pressed into service & before long  I was putting in a pint of coolant a day!

Rover off to garage for weeping radiator - further investigation reveals radiator OK, suspect HGF - scrap it.

Enter a new garage,  a chap I've been acquainted with for a while - and this is where things take a dismal turn. Took it in for suspected HGF. Mmmm, HG no fail, is minor leak from back of block, very awkward, will sort. So I left the car with him... 

Suddenly phone call - 'I've has been broken into - 'animals' have stolen cats from several vehicles, inc yours, will resolve'. OK, ta for honesty...

Left him a few days..

Car returned and apparently drove OK,  but after being left a couple of days, it died completely. 

He turned up this morning, tested alternator - doing fine 14.4V - the battery was completely dead, but his tester revealed nothing actually wrong with it. Attached the boost pack & it fired up as good as gold.
I pointed at a new scratch which had appeared on the bonnet whilst it was in his garage.
'But look at that fucking scratch' I ejaculated
'If you say it wasn't there when you brought it down, I'll have to paint it for you,' he immediately capitulated.
 
He's collecting it tomorrow am, leaving his courtesy car & returning it Friday pm.
 
I promise that I'm not trying it on with this bloke over the scratch, it's down to the metal! 
I'm not a businessman & I know probably less about running a garage than anyone, but I took my car down for a coolant leak, which was resolved with a hose clamp & a drop of fresh antifreeze. But while there, it's had a catalytic converter, the front & middle sections of the exhaust, new O2 sensors, a partial respray and I've not paid a penny - without actually having to refuse to pay him - WT actual F?
 
I think this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
 

The 75 is back with a new battery, a new exhaust and new paint. I don't know exactly what the difference is between the original silent exhaust and this new example. It's certainly not as quiet, but that's not such a bad thing on a V6 and the car pulls much better & the auto box is far more responsive. He only wanted to charge me for the battery which was frankly ludicrous, so in addition I brimmed his courtesy car with petrol, re-filled its screen wash and forced a couple of hundred pounds cash into his hand. The chap advertises 'outstanding service' and I have to agree with him. The garage is also well within dog walking distance and there's a pub at the mid point. I'll be taking the Scirocco down to him for a service in the next couple of weeks & I think that I'll probably have a new cam belt while it's there.

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Went over to Enfield to pick up a cassette player for the Mondeo this morning. The one in there is absolutely fine, but this is the same unit and working and cheap, so I thought definitely worth picking up for the day when the belt snaps (as they are wont to).

Then returned for a bit of mooching around the garage. I'm still quite impressed with these tiles, they're essentially foam-based, someone was getting rid of them on Freecycle.

 IMG_20210205_134055.jpg.ac714cafa3f8ad38b9a9194e38e7cb7d.jpg

Bluebird reverse light switch investigated, I'm wondering if it could be the connector that's faulty. That would be nice, if I could avoid having to swap the switch out... also on the agenda is re-fitting the heat shroud on the exhaust manifold that goes to the carb - which needs two snapped off bolts drilling out first, which needs the radiator removing realistically. 

Also, to make things a bit easier when working under bonnet, I decided to up the illumination. A little heath robinson, but a bit of wood lying around, plus some LED strip light, all attached to the car batteries I have kicking around...

IMG_20210205_134515.thumb.jpg.bc50f4a811a2356c32c9825b678d2d0b.jpg

  

4 hours ago, barefoot said:

The 75 is back with a new battery, a new exhaust and new paint. I don't know exactly what the difference is between the original silent exhaust and this new example. It's certainly not as quiet, but that's not such a bad thing on a V6 and the car pulls much better & the auto box is far more responsive. He only wanted to charge me for the battery which was frankly ludicrous, so in addition I brimmed his courtesy car with petrol, re-filled its screen wash and forced a couple of hundred pounds cash into his hand. The chap advertises 'outstanding service' and I have to agree with him. The garage is also well within dog walking distance and there's a pub at the mid point. I'll be taking the Scirocco down to him for a service in the next couple of weeks & I think that I'll probably have a new cam belt while it's there.

I have a similar good relationship with a garage which is conveniently at the end of my street. I think he enjoys having something unusual to work on, but never gives me a bill. I've taken to giving him what I think roughly I owe him, primarily out of embarrassment.

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4 hours ago, barefoot said:

The 75 is back with a new battery, a new exhaust and new paint. I don't know exactly what the difference is between the original silent exhaust and this new example. It's certainly not as quiet, but that's not such a bad thing on a V6 and the car pulls much better & the auto box is far more responsive. He only wanted to charge me for the battery which was frankly ludicrous, so in addition I brimmed his courtesy car with petrol, re-filled its screen wash and forced a couple of hundred pounds cash into his hand. The chap advertises 'outstanding service' and I have to agree with him. The garage is also well within dog walking distance and there's a pub at the mid point. I'll be taking the Scirocco down to him for a service in the next couple of weeks & I think that I'll probably have a new cam belt while it's there.

Sounds like the last time I had work done at my usual garage on the Xantia. Changing a ball joint - simple enough job but turned into an absolute swine because the old one wouldn't come off.  Wound up with the whole suspension arm off to be sorted on the bench - car was on the lift for a couple of days, especially as they tore the CV boot getting the hub apart so had to wait for a replacement to come in.

They tried to charge me something daft like £40 and apologised for it taking so long.

Speaking of the Xantia, it gave me a mild heart attack today when a random orange light started flickering at me out the blue.

IMG_20210205_143942.thumb.jpg.dd8ff1de4cb60d5d8ad4a9d9a0ebd055.jpg

Oh.  Yeah, still haven't got used to the whole concept of having a car that's new enough to tell me about things like that.  It's also a very pessimistic light that comes on when the reservoir is about half full.  Will top if off at the weekend.

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In hire van news, I had the misfortune of a fake (PSA) Vivaro yesterday. 69 plate. You can tell it's really a Peugeot because of the wipers. We have this with our old Partners where the wipers don't come back on when you get back in the van. You leave the stalk in position 1 (or whatever) and when you get back in the wipers stay resolutely parked despite the stalk being where you left it. You have to move the stalk up or down a position and back again to get them to restart. This can get annoying when you're getting in and out fifty odd times a day and it's raining constantly. Our Partners are 11 and 12 reg but the thing I had yesterday is nearly new so they've had nearly a decade to sort this out and haven't so we can only assume they deliberately designed this in and actually think it's a good idea. We'll done Peugeot. 

But then when I flicked the stalk the wrong way I found this. 

IMG_20210204_125825.thumb.jpg.8dfd1b77b9633885db3a1a0aa0584146.jpg

Brilliant, I can just leave this on. Ha. Believe it or not every time you get out the van the automatic wipers deactivate and you have to switch them back on again when you get back in. Now, to me automatic wipers that you have to reactivate every time you get in are not automatic wipers, they're just wipers and we've all got those. We'll done again Peugeot. 

I didn't take a picture of the van itself as it was too depressing but I did this morning as they gave me this. 

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Much better but not perfect. All I'm marking it down for is the rear door handles. The first one is hidden under the black plastic trim over the number plate in the small space between the R and the lock. 

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It really is that tiny. 

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And the other door has an equally small handle that is flush with the contours of the door. 

IMG_20210205_140619.thumb.jpg.61ca111937a8511f32341ea6c37d6f62.jpg

What I want is a big chunky handle I can grab in a hurry. The side and passenger doors have these so they do have them, this is just style over substance. Apart from that it's a good van. Very flat in the corners, though I didn't push it too hard or else all the packets I had carefully placed in different piles for different areas wouldn't be in those piles next time I opened the door. 

So I think I've driven all the mid sized vans in our hire fleet now and have decided to rank them in the following order. 

1. Real Vivaro (still available in Renault/Nissan flavour). It still is the best overall. Just feels nice. Handles well, everything works as it should, controls are nice and intuitive. Stitched pleather steering wheel feels nice. 

2. VW Tranporter. It is probably as good as good for long journeys but for frequent drops but the rear handles let it down. Also has stitched pleather steering wheel. 

3. Turkish Transit. It's OK. That's all. Transits used to be the benchmark by which all others were judged. Not any more. 

4. Peugeot Expert/Fake Vivaro/Citroën Whatever. Last by a long shot. Not just the wipers. The seat is flat and slippery. Steering wheel is hard plastic. The dashboard is too high, if you raise the seat enough to see over it, getting in and out becomes awkward, you have to duck as you get in. Avoid. 

 

In other delivery van news I snapped this from the seat of my incognito white van. 

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DPD have at least one Nissan Env 200, though how recharging in a Lidl car park fits in with the duty I don't know. This is what we should be driving. As you know from some of my previous posts diesel is hopeless for start stop work ( I do about six miles in four and a half hours). I want to try one of these next. 

 

 

EDIT :

Just noticed bonus RX8 action in the background. 

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4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Sounds like the last time I had work done at my usual garage on the Xantia. Changing a ball joint - simple enough job but turned into an absolute swine because the old one wouldn't come off.  Wound up with the whole suspension arm off to be sorted on the bench - car was on the lift for a couple of days, especially as they tore the CV boot getting the hub apart so had to wait for a replacement to come in.

They tried to charge me something daft like £40 and apologised for it taking so long.

Speaking of the Xantia, it gave me a mild heart attack today when a random orange light started flickering at me out the blue.

IMG_20210205_143942.thumb.jpg.dd8ff1de4cb60d5d8ad4a9d9a0ebd055.jpg

Oh.  Yeah, still haven't got used to the whole concept of having a car that's new enough to tell me about things like that.  It's also a very pessimistic light that comes on when the reservoir is about half full.  Will top if off at the weekend.

Was trying to replace those very ball joints on my 406 on the weekend before the test with zero other transport that saw it sadly bridged, evil swine of a job! It was enough to make me actively avoid that style from now on, at least with the 3 bolts style ones you can smack them out of the wishbone. 

We failed on the first side (and wrote alot of the other end of life suspension stuff off as we went) and still had the side with the fucked boot still to go (change in pairs etc) 

Still makes me cross and sad thinking about it

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53 minutes ago, Yoss said:

In hire van news, I had the misfortune of a fake (PSA) Vivaro yesterday. 69 plate. You can tell it's really a Peugeot because of the wipers. We have this with our old Partners where the wipers don't come back on when you get back in the van. You leave the stalk in position 1 (or whatever) and when you get back in the wipers stay resolutely parked despite the stalk being where you left it. You have to move the stalk up or down a position and back again to get them to restart. This can get annoying when you're getting in and out fifty odd times a day and it's raining constantly. Our Partners are 11 and 12 reg but the thing I had yesterday is nearly new so they've had nearly a decade to sort this out and haven't so we can only assume they deliberately designed this in and actually think it's a good idea. We'll done Peugeot. 

Isn't this so that is doesn't activate if the screen is frosted up, therefore a good idea in my view as it stops damage.

I always have to remember to turn my auto wipers off before I start the car when frosty, as if I forget and don't pull the arms free first, a spray of de-icer near the sensor and the wipers try to activate and expensive sounding noises happen!

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43 minutes ago, R114 said:

Isn't this so that is doesn't activate if the screen is frosted up, therefore a good idea in my view as it stops damage.

I always have to remember to turn my auto wipers off before I start the car when frosty, as if I forget and don't pull the arms free first, a spray of de-icer near the sensor and the wipers try to activate and expensive sounding noises happen!

 

Hadn't thought of that, but I don't think the one time it might be useful makes up for the hundreds of times it isn't. Seeing as this all goes through some sort of ecu it wouldn't be that hard to make it do it once when you first start up but never again. No other vans do it. 

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1 hour ago, R114 said:

Isn't this so that is doesn't activate if the screen is frosted up, therefore a good idea in my view as it stops damage.

I always have to remember to turn my auto wipers off before I start the car when frosty, as if I forget and don't pull the arms free first, a spray of de-icer near the sensor and the wipers try to activate and expensive sounding noises happen!

 

My old (pre plex) 206 hard blew the wiper and lighting shared fuse if I wiped with a frozen screen... I always lift the wipers now (I quite like scraping, it's nice to clean the screen properly during winter) 

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On 2/4/2021 at 10:31 PM, RobT said:

20210204_211111.thumb.jpg.91c495a3b74905e6767094fc800e11fd.jpg

Covid-compliant Clio collection caper.  2 miles away so it was a caper in miniature.  Forecast was wrong so I got soaked walking there too.  Fake pez shot as tank was half full.

RN spec so keep fit everything, and it'll do hopefully.  1.6 automatic for added peril.  Must admit, although the Morris has been performing main car duties well, it's nice to have something with a heater and de-misting properties.

It's also been five months since my last purchase.  It feels gooood...like having a drink after denying yourself all month or something!

That is an incredibly handsome  wee motor. Renaults of this era are brilliant. 

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