The new news 24 thread

[Steve79]

21 hours ago, GeorgeB said:

Did you really put it in for an MOT without checking the lights?

Definitely, the battery was on charge all night as it was totally flat and didn't have time to faff around before the mot.

Still have 12days left on mot and mate owns the mot station so have left him to sort it.

[spike60]

I planned to do some necessary fettling to the 2007 Merc E class daily this weekend but the suspension arm had it's post arrival date amended from 12/3 to 26/3 after being posted RM in the UK, the wheels weren't ready at the refurbisher as promised and the non vital impact gun battery pack took 5 days to send first class. Hmm. Won't be doing that then.

As we haven't seen a gritter for a week or so I fitted a battery on  the old S class which has been hibernating since the end of October and brought it out blinking into the light and gave it a run out of about 10 miles. All was well, or at least as well as most 36 year old cars. It pulls like fook to the left, the headlining is saggy and it is a little tappety at warm idle, - exactly like it was when I put it away. Oh, and the aeriel now sticks. Here it is with 5 month old work grot and fresh garage dust, the camera lies a bit.

All looks OK in the Merc world after it's first run of the year.

 

One odd habit it has is the gearbox leaks when parked for a good while though it's fine in regular use. Two oil slicks on the garage floor (car was turned round after 3 weeks) from the winter though drive is clean when the car is use. Any ideas?

[rainagain]

On 3/13/2021 at 8:45 PM, GeorgeB said:

Did you really put it in for an MOT without checking the lights?

I know you shouldn't feed the trolls but I couldn't resist this

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 hours ago, spike60 said:

...One odd habit it has is the gearbox leaks when parked for a good while though it's fine in regular use. Two oil slicks on the garage floor (car was turned round after 3 weeks) from the winter though drive is clean when the car is use. Any ideas?

Not that odd. Some Citroens do it as well - mine included, but it's never a consistent leak. If I park it on a paved driveway, there will be a stain underneath within a couple of days. But if I park it on the street, the tarmac stays bone-dry.

...and in the end, it wasn't a gearbox leak but a very slow weep from a LHM pipe or its connector above the gearbox. It was so elusive that it's taken me this long to track it down.

[Jmac]

2 hours ago, spike60 said:

I planned to do some necessary fettling to the 2007 Merc E class daily this weekend but the suspension arm had it's post arrival date amended from 12/3 to 26/3 after being posted RM in the UK, the wheels weren't ready at the refurbisher as promised and the non vital impact gun battery pack took 5 days to send first class. Hmm. Won't be doing that then.

As we haven't seen a gritter for a week or so I fitted a battery on  the old S class which has been hibernating since the end of October and brought it out blinking into the light and gave it a run out of about 10 miles. All was well, or at least as well as most 36 year old cars. It pulls like fook to the left, the headlining is saggy and it is a little tappety at warm idle, - exactly like it was when I put it away. Oh, and the aeriel now sticks. Here it is with 5 month old work grot and fresh garage dust, the camera lies a bit.

All looks OK in the Merc world after it's first run of the year.

 

One odd habit it has is the gearbox leaks when parked for a good while though it's fine in regular use. Two oil slicks on the garage floor (car was turned round after 3 weeks) from the winter though drive is clean when the car is use. Any ideas?

23 more miles and you will have 123456 on the mileage 😀

[Cord Fourteener]

7 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Fannying about on comparison sites recently.

Insuring a classic is about £200-400 a year with commuting included and no "other car for daily use", depending on mileage (having a daily car brings it down to £100-200 a year).

A post 1990 "modern" runs £500-700, I have 0 no claims due to running classic policies for years, but it seems that a year of NCD only knocks off about £30, then each year after takes a tenner of the yearly policy.

It seems it's mostly down to location, I'm looking at insuring old worthless shitters, but my mate lived a couple of streets over from me a while ago and his quotes for a JCW Mini and later a BMW 135 were similar to mine at £700 odd a year. I'm 29 now but it was cheaper to insure a fleet of three cars at 23 up in the rural north east than it is to insure a single car in Glasgow.

You lot are making me think I get cheap insurance. 

Classic Porsche 924 sdp 4000 miles per year: £100 (now swapped for Volvo)

'89 Volvo not on classic but on sdp limited mileage 4000 (odometer is not working though): £100

Pretty much all my recent early 2000s powerful cars including Saab 93 2.0 turbo and BMW 325i on full business insurance 20,000 miles:£200-£300

I don't have masses of NCB, a few years currently but I do have 22 years as a licensed driver and named driver. 

I also have a backwater rural Welsh postcode. Maybe that's the clincher. 

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

7 minutes ago, Tim_E said:

...I also have a backwater rural Welsh postcode. Maybe that's the clincher. 

That kind of helps. The sort of place where nobody can go (partly because Count Drakecula won't allow it)

[Cord Fourteener]

14 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

That kind of helps. The sort of place where nobody can go (partly because Count Drakecula won't allow it)

Literally the only crime in our area is organised farm machinery theft. And the occasional speeding ticket or car crash related offence. I don't even lock the house or car doors, sometimes I forget to take the keys out of the cars. 

[Carlosfandango]

Still up to me hole in Land Rover repairs and trying to get to the RRC restoration but in the meantime, got the Bonnie started today in anticipation of some better weather. 
 

CFD 

[wuvvum]

Got almost nothing done on the fleet this weekend, due to wind, rain and the fact I've been mostly playing with pushbikes.  The Renault 6 got its second halogen headlight bulb, and the petrol C2 and Rover 75 got a new driver's side wiper blade each, but that was about it.  Oh, I bought a new mini jump pack off eBay and it arrived on Friday, and got put more or less straight to work as the Felicia had a flat battery.  It's one of these:

It was only £25, but it's a lot chunkier than the last one I had, and it has an LED voltage indicator built into the lead assembly.  It spun the Skoda over very nicely.

Storm Whateverthefuckthisonewascalled has finally done for the car cover which has been on the Renault 6 for most of the winter.

I'm trying to decide whether to get another - maybe slightly more robust this time - or whether it's close enough to spring that I don't need to.

I went for a bike ride this afternoon on my new (to me) folding mountain bike that I'd spent half of Saturday afternoon fettling.  The ride was cut short because it started to rain, but I did come across this surprisingly tame pheasant - usually when I come upon pheasants whilst out on the bike they shit themselves and fly away in a panic, but this one didn't seem in the least bit phased by my presence - it was only about 5 feet away but was just wandering around quite nonchalantly.

[mitsisigma01]

Found this whilst scrolling thru tinterweb earlier, thought it could come in useful on some threads on here 😉

*NOTE: The following part of this article covers sensitive topics, including abuse*

[brownnova]

8 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

That kind of helps. The sort of place where nobody can go (partly because Count Drakecula won't allow it)

It’s Wales, Count Dracula can’t spell it either! 

8 hours ago, Tim_E said:

 I don't even lock the house or car doors, sometimes I forget to take the keys out of the cars. 

Are you sure you want to admit to this on a public forum? 

[Cord Fourteener]

1 hour ago, brownnova said:

Are you sure you want to admit to this on a public forum? 

I wouldn't write it on Facebook that's for sure. 

Actually I've stopped writing or reading anything on Facebook at all.  I'm only there for the direct massaging. 

[Fabergé Greggs]

@wuvvumdo you have a thread on your Renault 6? I want to know more about it! 

[brownnova]

2 hours ago, Tim_E said:

I wouldn't write it on Facebook that's for sure. 

Actually I've stopped writing or reading anything on Facebook at all.  I'm only there for the direct massaging. 

We all love a direct massage! 😂

[MrDuke]

13 hours ago, Tim_E said:

Literally the only crime in our area is organised farm machinery theft. And the occasional speeding ticket or car crash related offence. I don't even lock the house or car doors, sometimes I forget to take the keys out of the cars. 

I never locked the house when I lived on Anglesey. Whenever we went away on holiday, it would take me about an hour to find the keys.

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

@wuvvumdo you have a thread on your Renault 6? I want to know more about it! 

Not as such - just random posts here and there over the 13 years I've owned it.  It should be getting some fairly major fettling done on it this summer though so I'll be posting more about it once that happens.

[Zelandeth]

Postcode can make an absolutely massive difference in price on insurance.  I was staggered that when I moved from a central Aberdeen postcode and a communal car park to private driveway in suburban Milton Keynes that my insurance cost more than doubled.  Can't remember the exact numbers, but it ended up around the £1500 mark. 

That did come as a bit of a surprise as moving from the back end of nowhere about 35 miles away from Aberdeen to the city centre (was literally about two minutes walk from the main central street) only added about £20 to the policy...I was expecting that to make a huge difference.

[sdkrc]

https://www.theclayclothcompany.co.uk/car-insurance-post-code-ratings.html

My postcode is a 'refer' category. Nice.

[captain_70s]

6 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

https://www.theclayclothcompany.co.uk/car-insurance-post-code-ratings.html

My postcode is a 'refer' category. Nice.

Same. 👌👌👌 

Used to be an "A" in the Northern Wilds. Kind of ironic given the amount of folk up there who didn't bother with getting a license/insurance/tax or whatever.

[Zelandeth]

So the same code covers basically from the beach at Aberdeen damned near all the way to Inverness and everything in between.  Yep, that makes perfect sense.

So I moved from A to D*.  That would explain the premium hike then.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

13 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

....Kind of ironic given the amount of folk up there who didn't bother with getting a license/insurance/tax or whatever.

It's much the same in areas like Luton or Peterborough. I'm actually surprised that some of their motorists actually bother with insurance....

[beko1987]

57 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

https://www.theclayclothcompany.co.uk/car-insurance-post-code-ratings.html

My postcode is a 'refer' category. Nice.

I'm in A. 

And I still had my unlocked door opened and the change in my (stupidly open) ashtray nicked one night last year... 

[Cord Fourteener]

1 hour ago, sdkrc said:

https://www.theclayclothcompany.co.uk/car-insurance-post-code-ratings.html

My postcode is a 'refer' category. Nice.

This is fun. 

Mine is A, the good category. My parents are B in North Derbyshire, next best. 

My in-laws are in Refer! Birmingham. 

[sdkrc]

Although I'm in a refer category postcode, I've only ever broken into a handful of cars and made 1 whiplash claim.

[SiC]

I was in C at the last place, now in A. Tbh there wasn't much of a price difference going between the two. 

[stuboy]

Wasn't planning to swap the bumper over on the mondeo but missus said after taking her too the shops, but she said last time I had week off I spent it at deceased uncle house..all went well bar couple annoying bits, just need to get it wrapped 

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, sdkrc said:

https://www.theclayclothcompany.co.uk/car-insurance-post-code-ratings.html

My postcode is a 'refer' category. Nice.

I'm in A, unsurprisingly.  Slightly surprised to see that where my parents live is B as they're in a pretty well-off part of the country.  Where I used to live in Norwich is D - the worst postcode in Norfolk - which doesn't surprise me either...

[reb]

Yesterday marked a year since dad passed away, we went for a walk with Mum as some sort of memorial. What a year it's been, I often wonder what he'd have made of it all. I don't really know what to say without it extending to several paragraphs, which I'll spare for somewhere that's not News 24. I just hope he's happy I'm pouring inheritance money into keeping my (his old) Volvo a going concern.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

.....So I moved from A to D*.  That would explain the premium hike then.

You're well off, compared to my location in "E"