The new news 24 thread

[Chris2cv]

Had to take the Clio on the M2 this afternoon (don't ask!) . Local roads had mostly been cleared, but not the M2! Have to say though, the little Clio really held it's own. On my last trip, the heater fan had jammed flat out at 24 degrees, which was rather toasty, but with the wonders of old cars, seemed to have fixed itself again! A few scary moments, but it handled well. Main concern was the imbeciles who kept sitting on the back bumper - one flashed me for having fog lights on  in a snow storm, which everyone else had on too, but they are quite bright when they are only 6 inches away! I think that it's a new entry to my all time top ten least enjoyable journeys.

[richardmorris]

As @willswitchengagehas already been rather disparaging in praising, I walked down to northmoor lock on the Thames today with my bubble. Much flooding and -3 degrees feeling!  At the moment there’s no need for the lock as the water either side is the same level.

 

[Split_Pin]

Beast from the East II appeared to be moving in this afternoon so only went as far as the garage.

I retrieved the old knocking Corsa engine from the spares pile  in the garage and got pretty far in to the tear down. Currently the 'keep' pile is smaller than the engine so space efficiency is currently being achieved.

The sump bore no metal shavings which was a surprise as the knock was quite pronounced. 

I'll pull the head and extract the pistons tomorrow for a look before calling my local scrap picker to collect the remains together with some other car parts.

[brownnova]

Managed to get the roof of the 900 to close pretty much properly.... which is good so it won’t get lots of water in it.... a quick facebook ask has yielded a couple of things to try... but I’m not hopeful.

Other than that I wussed out and decided it was too cold to play with cars this weekend. 

[ruffgeezer]

Cleared out the C220 ready for it to find its new home, I'll give it a quick lights and levels check at work tomorrow before floating it on ebay. 

[Yoss]

5 hours ago, Craig the Princess said:

 

Then extremely reluctant to leave 5th. Drove home like Michael Schumacher did that time he won a race stuck in 5th and left it until today.

 

I don't want to be picky, but I can't help it. Seriously, I'm saying to myself 'just leave it' but here I am typing away. 

I remember that race, though not enough to remember where it was, but I think you'll find he came second. But he was stuck in fifth gear for a good portion of the race so it was still quite an achievement. 

 

EDIT :

Had to look in to this for my own curiosity. It was Spain 1994. The gear problems started at the first pit stop on lap 22 and got gradually worse until he was only left with fifth gear. It was a 65 lap race and he even had to make another pitstop and pull away in fifth. Brilliant. 

[tommotech]

@Yoss I remember the race being in Spain but had to Google it to check the exact details. It was in ‘94, he was indeed stuck in 5th for the majority of the race and he finished second. Hill took the win, 24 seconds in front.  
As you say, a massive achievement - as you were.

[wuvvum]

The new battery for the 75 turned up and has been fitted.  The promised "upgrade" is a battery that is grey instead of black and says "prestige" on the sticker - I think it has a theoretical 2 extra AH but is otherwise identical to what I ordered - but then the delivery wasn't all that delayed in the end so I don't really mind.  It fired straight up and last I checked it hadn't started doing the self-locking thing again, but the driver's door switches still aren't working, which is annoying.  I'm not sure if it's possible to reset such things without the fancy (and very expensive) Rover diagnostic equipment.  It's not an issue this time of year anyway - I'll revisit it in the spring.

The new door locks for the Trafic also turned up, but those haven't been fitted yet.  The locks are correct for the van, but they come as a barrel only - the plastic arm which operates the door mechanism needs to be removed from the old lock and fitted to the new one.  The arm is held in place by a small push-fit steel pin.  Said steel pin has (presumably) been stuck through the alloy body of the lock for the last 24 years, and is hitherto showing very little interest in any suggestion - however insistent - that the situation should change.  The arms don't appear to be available on their own, and they also don't look the same as those on other Renaults, so I'm a bit stuck on that at the moment.

Got very little else done this week due to freezing temperatures and howling winds, but I did do a bit of pottering in the back of the Iveco - I improved the load bay lighting situation by removing the absolutely filthy lens from the rearmost light, blasting it with brake cleaner and then scrubbing it with a scouring pad, and fitting a 21w bulb in place of the 10w one that was in there.  Whilst this made the light a great deal brighter, it didn't actually do much for the light levels in the back of the van - however much light the lamp was throwing out, it was immediately being absorbed by the red paint and dark stained plywood so I really couldn't see what I was doing any better than I could before.  So I grabbed a tin of Poundland white gloss and a brush, and did a very slapdash job of painting the plywood on the sides of the van white to get it to reflect more light.  It seems to have worked, although it needs another coat.  Annoyingly the indicators started playing up again so I've now ordered an electronic flasher unit which will hopefully cure the problem.

The diesel C2 continues to give good service - it has a cracking heater and is reasonably competent in the snow given that it's on budget summer tyres.  I treated it to a pair of wiper blades this week and I've also bought a secondhand Kenwood stereo for it off eBay - the original stereo needs reprogramming with Lexia to stop it beeping, so shoving an aftermarket one in is quicker and easier.

[BL Bloke]

The 205 has been dropped off for its MOT. 

[loserone]

1 hour ago, BL Bloke said:

The 205 has been dropped off for its MOT. 

Bonne chance!

[BL Bloke]

The garage have just phoned to say that the 205 is ready to be collected. Looks like it's good news. 🙂

[wuvvum]

Glad to hear it.  Nice little car that 205.

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Glad to hear it.  Nice little car that 205.

Seconded.  It's everything a 205 should be and nothing it shouldn't be. 

Well in, Tim!

[Cavcraft]

Insurance is up on the bikes, took two off and replaced them with a couple of others.  13 bikes (includes scooters and mopeds) was £520 or something fully comp, changing them over is usually £30-£35.

Probably stupidly, one I added was the Burgman scooter. I'll tax it and try and get it for a decent run out to see if the problem/s occur, just to see what they're actually like. Don't especially want to get involved fixing anything to be honest, don't plan on keeping it long enough but it can be swapped for another on the insurance.

 

Corsa has now got 13 months MOT: The second hand (£50) eBay fuel pump has been fitted and works. The old one leaked and a previous owner had just tried to put silicone round one of the external seals without even removing the cover plate things that was leaking! £30 a year tax and mingebag running costs are GR8! 

[puntopaul]

Three or more years after failing the Mot, I've finally got my 93 Fiat Uno back on the road and through an Mot. Still some annoyingly niggly shiz to sort out, and then hopefully it'll be up for sale! Due to owning to much chod, I'm passing the savings on.. to you... 

 

 

 

[Split_Pin]

The old engine on the Corsa was knocking and it was replaced. I completely  stripped it down tonight and the piston which I thought was knocking has no play in the small end like I thought. 

However, I do recall taking the plugs out and an electrode was missing from the piston closest to the gearbox, looks like this is what it did:

This was the piston that I heard the knock from. The crown is also pretty howling and looks very chopped and potted, like its mashed something. All the bore looked fine.

Would that chip cause anything untoward?

[BL Bloke]

The 205 did have a few advisories that I'll need to get sorted out but overall not a bad result for a 34 year old. 

[wuvvum]

The diesel heater I ordered got delivered today, to my surprise - intrepid Hermes courier braving the snow in a Citroën C1, which I thought was an unusual choice of delivery vehicle.

It is quite slippery out there - I went to Tesco in the Iveco this evening and just coming off the accelerator in second gear was making the back wheels lock up...

[Zelandeth]

11 hours ago, wuvvum said:

The diesel heater I ordered got delivered today, to my surprise - intrepid Hermes courier braving the snow in a Citroën C1, which I thought was an unusual choice of delivery vehicle.

It is quite slippery out there - I went to Tesco in the Iveco this evening and just coming off the accelerator in second gear was making the back wheels lock up...

My 107 wasn't *too* bad in it - once I'd replaced the original plastic tyres and pulled the ABS fuse.

The main thing I remember from the first winter I had it when we had some mild slush was that the ABS made it absolutely lethal.  The system had always been somewhat hyperactive, but on an even slightly slushy road there was basically a 1/3 chance when you came to a junction that you would find that you essentially had no brakes, no matter how gently you feathered the pedal.

[N19]

11 hours ago, wuvvum said:

The diesel heater I ordered got delivered today, to my surprise - intrepid Hermes courier braving the snow in a Citroën C1, which I thought was an unusual choice of delivery vehicle.

It is quite slippery out there - I went to Tesco in the Iveco this evening and just coming off the accelerator in second gear was making the back wheels lock up...

A few of the fly by night couriers around here turn up in a variety of middle-aged tat... although I think because lots of them are falsely self employed, if their van breaks down they have to use their car or they get a penalty.

[wuvvum]

My usual Hermes dude uses a C-Max as his main delivery vehicle.

The C1 raised an eyebrow not because of its abilities in the snow but more because of the relatively low number of parcels that can physically fit in such a small vehicle.  The box the heater came in would have filled half the boot space on its own.

[barefoot]

14 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

The C1 raised an eyebrow not because of its abilities in the snow but more because of the relatively low number of parcels that can physically fit in such a small vehicle.  The box the heater came in would have filled half the boot space on its own.

When I used to direct couriers for UPS at EMA, one morning a driver turned up and had forgotten to bring the keys to his van which he stored at the airport. He offered to take the express packages in his car - a Corrado! We managed to get in a surprising amount with the seats folded, but I still had to use a second, chase vehicle.

[Spurious]

15 hours ago, BL Bloke said:

The 205 did have a few advisories that I'll need to get sorted out but overall not a bad result for a 34 year old. 

It's a good feeling getting something through an MOT for another year 

[Spurious]

On 07/02/2021 at 11:25 PM, wuvvum said:

.

The diesel C2 continues to give good service - it has a cracking heater and is reasonably competent in the snow given that it's on budget summer tyres.  I treated it to a pair of wiper blades this week and I've also bought a secondhand Kenwood stereo for it off eBay - the original stereo needs reprogramming with Lexia to stop it beeping, so shoving an aftermarket one in is quicker and easier.

when the OEM radio broke in the C5 (some sort of Clarion Citroen Unit), I replaced it with a Sony with Bluetooth and it wouldn't automatically power off with an when you turned off the ignition. It's a bit of a pain, you've to remember to knock off the radio as the wiring for the radio isn't exactly the standard ISO radio wiring because Citroen 

 

[New POD]

2 hours ago, N19 said:

A few of the fly by night couriers around here turn up in a variety of middle-aged tat... although I think because lots of them are falsely self employed, if their van breaks down they have to use their car or they get a penalty.

Falsely? 

[wuvvum]

58 minutes ago, Spurious said:

when the OEM radio broke in the C5 (some sort of Clarion Citroen Unit), I replaced it with a Sony with Bluetooth and it wouldn't automatically power off with an when you turned off the ignition. It's a bit of a pain, you've to remember to knock off the radio as the wiring for the radio isn't exactly the standard ISO radio wiring because Citroen 

 

Apparently you can swap the red and yellow wires around which is supposed to cure that.  You can buy a proper adaptor for about £12 but I'm not sure I can be arsed.  It also knocks out the dash display, but on a Mk1 that only shows the radio station and the time and date, and an aftermarket radio will show the station on its display and I have a watch to tell me the time.  It'd be more awkward on a Mk2 where the trip computer functions are on that display as well.

[Spurious]

5 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Apparently you can swap the red and yellow wires around which is supposed to cure that.  You can buy a proper adaptor for about £12 but I'm not sure I can be arsed.  It also knocks out the dash display, but on a Mk1 that only shows the radio station and the time and date, and an aftermarket radio will show the station on its display and I have a watch to tell me the time.  It'd be more awkward on a Mk2 where the trip computer functions are on that display as well.

Ah I remember googling it and finding that I could buy an adaptors and then not being arsed. 

Must swap the wiring about then so. 

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

My usual Hermes dude uses a C-Max as his main delivery vehicle.

The C1 raised an eyebrow not because of its abilities in the snow but more because of the relatively low number of parcels that can physically fit in such a small vehicle.  The box the heater came in would have filled half the boot space on its own.

Our usual Hermes delivery driver has been driving an early 00s Skoda Octavia - which we've been seeing regularly since the day we moved in here in 2014.  Given it's still on Polish plates and has had tyres down to the cords for at least the last two years I doubt they as an employer take any time to check things are in a suitable state.

They also regularly deliver packages for the wrong address.  Turns out trying to get Hermes to pick a parcel they've delivered incorrectly is nigh impossible so I've usually wound up just dropping them off myself.

You can get a surprising amount of stuff in a 107/C1/Auto with the seats down.  The thing which surprised me the most about mine was just how much air they had managed to fit in the cabin.  Was a huge amount of space in it for such a small (by modern standards) car.

[OM646]

The guy who delivered my new bonnet star today was driving a new Opel Insignia Estate and I was surprised to say the least

[busmansholiday]

Jump started the 206CC today and took it to the shops, first run since before Xmas.  Seemed pretty good actually. Got back and noticed that the oil pressure light was glowing dimly (did check there was oil and water in there before starting). Turned engine off and turned on ignition. Still glowing gently when it should be quite bright. Restarted and it went away, then slowly glowed.  As the oil temp sensor is also faulty I'm working on the principle that ;

a), it's probably the sensor,

b), it's French,

c), it's bloody cold so I'll wait before doing something, like checking the wiring or disconnecting the battery and reconnecting (in the correct sequence).