The new news 24 thread

[Cord Fourteener]

1 minute ago, cpjitservices said:

Oh u have the mighty Passat now? Great Car! I spent a lot on that car!

The same. I'm loving it!

I didn't think I would, but I do.

[cpjitservices]

Just now, Tim_E said:

The same. I'm loving it!

I didn't think I would, but I do.

Still a powerful beast? It was running around 170 BHP after its remap! 

[Cord Fourteener]

3 minutes ago, cpjitservices said:

Oh u have the mighty Passat now? Great Car! I spent a lot on that car!

It's a credit to you clearly. 

 

[Cord Fourteener]

Just now, cpjitservices said:

Still a powerful beast? It was running around 170 BHP after its remap! 

Its still a lunatic beast.

I've made it look more like a grandad wagon by replacing the stock grill and hammorite painting the steelys. But its nuts. 

[SiC]

11 hours ago, Fumbler said:

As the machine was insured by my grandparents, we thought it prudent to go the insurance route. They send a teccie from the manufacturer, teccie pronounces the machine dead or repairable and reports to the insurers. Insurers replace and take away for free.

We bought a (very affordable) second hand 2013 AEG for the interim because we could be looking at several weeks before a new machine appears on our doorstep. Doubles as my first appliance too!

We did have a look at John Lewis but they didn't have what we wanted. In addition to that, the markup on some models was insane.

John Lewis are a rip off for appliances. Simply shop around as there are loads of providers. AO, Marks Electricals, Appliance Direct, Currys to name a few.

Personally I always choose AO as their customer service has been second to none. Even have a 100 day return service where you can return unused items for free. If used, then they still offer 50% of what you paid if returning because you don't like it.

 

10 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Bosch all the way for appliances in my experience. 

Cheaply built shit that has cost down as much as they can, I've found. They don't even get a decent warranty either. Only good thing is that parts are readily available. 

Samsung for me. Pretty much everything they sell comes with at least a 5 year warranty. 

[cpjitservices]

1 minute ago, Tim_E said:

Its still a lunatic beast.

I've made it look more like a grandad wagon by replacing the stock grill and hammorite painting the steelys. But its nuts. 

The grill? it used to have a black, de-badged grill.

[Cord Fourteener]

3 minutes ago, cpjitservices said:

The grill? it used to have a black, de-badged grill.

Its now stock.

 

[Cord Fourteener]

4 minutes ago, cpjitservices said:

The grill? it used to have a black, de-badged grill.

 

[cpjitservices]

33 minutes ago, Tim_E said:

 

Cool not bad, not sure if you know the history but it has had recent cambelt ... that wont be due for at least another 8 years yet unless you over 80k in it lol

[Cord Fourteener]

4 minutes ago, cpjitservices said:

Cool not bad, not sure if you know the history but it has had recent cambelt ... that wont be due for at least another 8 years yet unless you over 80k in it lol

I was told its been done, along with a lot of suspension work too. 

I've only had to do a normal service and replace some broken or missing bits of plastic!

Cheers 👍

[Fumbler]

49 minutes ago, SiC said:

John Lewis are a rip off for appliances. Simply shop around as there are loads of providers. AO, Marks Electricals, Appliance Direct, Currys to name a few.

Personally I always choose AO as their customer service has been second to none. Even have a 100 day return service where you can return unused items for free. If used, then they still offer 50% of what you paid if returning because you don't like it.

If we found any of the machines to be good value and actually affordable, then we would have used AO. Unfortunately this problem crept up on us right at the time when money was short.

However, we managed to stumble across a little-used AEG from a few years back on eBay; very local and very cheap.

While the warranties with Samsung and other new machines is appealing, they offer way too many features and niknaks which we'll end up never using. It seems the new trend with washing machines as of recent is "Wi-Fi connect" stuff, which I still don't understand or want. Even machines which don't advertise it in the "about" section still have Wi-Fi connectivity in the small print.

11 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Bosch all the way for appliances in my experience. 

Our old fridge was a 32 year old Bosch, and our old washing machine was of the same vintage. Both were already second hand when my family bought the pair in the 1990s. Excellent and well made appliances shame the same can't be said for them now unfortunately.

[Ghosty]

Indesit Moon anyone? 😆

[Fumbler]

31 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Indesit Moon anyone? 😆

Eeek! Get it away!

[beko1987]

Being in the vacuum cleaner collecting community I have insight into other collections and illnesses. There's a fierce and avid washing machine collecting community, I've been to people's houses, where in their garden they have a big fuck-off building with 70/80 machines in, all plumbed in and ready to go (6 max apparently or the breaker trips). 

There's a few like me who fix and repair and are quite knowledgeable and their busier nowadays repairing older machines for people than before, some have done what I've done and made a little side hobby out of it. 

I've got Hoover service diagrams for 1980s and 90s washing machines and they go into fantastic detail. Pull out sections showing every trace, diode, connector in the thing. Maybe if right to repair goes itl lcome back. I've lost count of the people I speak to who would happily have changed the bearing in their washing machine, but find it's actually a single sealed drum/bearing/spider unit and not available anyway... 

I get people almost in tears that for £90 I've made their burnt out 20+ year old dyson brand new again so they don't have to buy another one. I get a fair few where people have had a go and fair play to them, I usually charge a bit less if its easily fixed just because I'm happy they tried. 

Some poor old giffer screwed himself over with a shark though, it stopped working and he had it apart and couldn't find it. Called shark, told them what he had done with all good intentions and they told him to fro with his 7 month old machine. 

When I had it open, something had just blown clean off the board, so he hadn't done anything opening it up anyway. Made me cross, told his wife how to play the system a bit and she did get a new head in the end I think just by calling up a week later and speaking to someone completely different! 

[Fumbler]

10 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Being in the vacuum cleaner collecting community I have insight into other collections and illnesses. There's a fierce and avid washing machine collecting community, I've been to people's houses, where in their garden they have a big fuck-off building with 70/80 machines in, all plumbed in and ready to go (6 max apparently or the breaker trips). 

There's a few like me who fix and repair and are quite knowledgeable and their busier nowadays repairing older machines for people than before, some have done what I've done and made a little side hobby out of it. 

I've got Hoover service diagrams for 1980s and 90s washing machines and they go into fantastic detail. Pull out sections showing every trace, diode, connector in the thing. Maybe if right to repair goes itl lcome back. I've lost count of the people I speak to who would happily have changed the bearing in their washing machine, but find it's actually a single sealed drum/bearing/spider unit and not available anyway... 

I get people almost in tears that for £90 I've made their burnt out 20+ year old dyson brand new again so they don't have to buy another one. I get a fair few where people have had a go and fair play to them, I usually charge a bit less if its easily fixed just because I'm happy they tried. 

Some poor old giffer screwed himself over with a shark though, it stopped working and he had it apart and couldn't find it. Called shark, told them what he had done with all good intentions and they told him to fro with his 7 month old machine. 

When I had it open, something had just blown clean off the board, so he hadn't done anything opening it up anyway. Made me cross, told his wife how to play the system a bit and she did get a new head in the end I think just by calling up a week later and speaking to someone completely different! 

I've been interested in washing machines (and machines and electricity in general) since being a toddler. I just find them cool!

We're rather impressed with the dead Siemens. None of us expected it would run for this long washing clothes nearly every day. Yes it was a fussy thing and wouldn't spin certain loads. It also needed a replacement door but it never needed anything else. It decided enough was enough when spinning my clothes last weekend.  Still, it ddn't live half as long as the Bosch that preceded it, so there's that. I do want an older machine one day because of their no-nonsense operation and relative simplicity. That kind of stuff is right up my street.

[beko1987]

[Split_Pin]

I need to stop spending quite so much on my fleet so I decided to DIY the  75s exhaust.

The existing one was only 3 1/2 years old.

New one was £88 delivered from ebay.

New vs old, good enough match.

Old one was an utter bastard to remove, worsened by my lying on my back in the drive which I dislike.

New one happily fitted like a glove. Handy strap on the backbox so you can install the mounts and then leave the backbox loose while you adjust everything else.

And this just had to be done.......

[Zelandeth]

On 5/5/2021 at 1:59 PM, artdjones said:

If you can stomach the wires at all get a Kranzle. Petrol ones that sit around always take too long to start when you do need them.

Completely by chance stumbled across a photo of the utterly unkillable Kranzle we had at the garage yesterday evening.

It really is just a pump, a top cover which houses a power switch and the motor capacitor and carry handle bolted onto an industrial motor.

Does show you how much of a nonsense some of the numbers quoted on domestic ones are though - the ratings on there look conservative compared to your average Karcher...but I'll guarantee this is a good deal more powerful in the real world.

This thing had been run dry when folks forgot to turn the water on (or parked on the hose) more times than we could count, had been dropped and driven into more times than the bollards by the disabled parking bays at Tesco and just kept going.  I think we had to replace one seal once when somebody left it outside in December one day and it froze...but otherwise it just did the job.  Pressure adjustment was dead handy too as you could vary it from "watering the plants" to "remove paint" and anywhere in between.  Only reason we had two was that this only did cold water.  So we had another one which did not water too - which cost several grand and was in bits to be fixed more often than a Range Rover.

Tempting...just wish they were a little bit cheaper!

[richardmorris]

7 hours ago, Fumbler said:

I've been interested in washing machines (and machines and electricity in general) since being a toddler. I just find them cool!

We're rather impressed with the dead Siemens. None of us expected it would run for this long washing clothes nearly every day. Yes it was a fussy thing and wouldn't spin certain loads. It also needed a replacement door but it never needed anything else. It decided enough was enough when spinning my clothes last weekend.  Still, it ddn't live half as long as the Bosch that preceded it, so there's that. I do want an older machine one day because of their no-nonsense operation and relative simplicity. That kind of stuff is right up my street.

My hotpoint is 20years old. Landlords bought it new when I moved into their granny flat in sunninghill. Original heating element died in 6months but since then it’s been great and I bought it for £50 when I moved out 11years ago as they were just knocking the whole place down.

[Jazoli]

I took the 9-3 cab to my local (ish, Carlisle, 60 miles away) specialist to have Aux-In enabled on the stereo so my Parrot kit will stream music, all done for £42 which was £70 cheaper than another 'local' (70 miles the other way) specialist wanted to charge me.

Happy days.

[vulgalour]

Ordered some new boots for the Maestro, £140 for a set of Uniroyals is cheap enough it's not worth going budgets really.  Up front I've currently got a pair of Enduro that date from 2010 with not a lot of tread on, and out back there's a pair of Champiro with slightly more tread that date from 2013, so they're about ready to be done really.  The car doesn't feel like it's on particularly old or worn tyres, the famous Maestro understeer hasn't really been an issue, and it stops very well so if I hadn't looked at them I probably wouldn't have thought to replace them.

[Cord Fourteener]

There has been little in the way of news here, fortunately. 

[BL Bloke]

A chap knocked on the door today asking if I wanted to sell the Rover as he ''buys them for scrap''. Bloomin' cheek, I know it needs a clean but it doesn't look that bad. 🙁  I'm sure it was the same chap who asked about it a couple of years ago and he got the same negative answer. Having said that if he'd come round last year when it had a blown head gasket, blowing exhaust and a Boris MOT he might have had a different response. 

[Fumbler]

Discovered the spare radio/cassette headunit works so that's a plus. All I need for it is a 5amp fuse (or a bodge wire) and an ISO/DIN adapter and I'm sorted for wanging it in the car.

[wesacosa]

had this on my eBay watch list for about a year.  Last week I decided there was no point keeping something I would never buy on my watchlist as it was in Latvia and not particularly cheap

 

a nice Latvian man has just dropped it off at my house. Its massive and weighs a ton and I have no fecking idea what I am gonna do with it. Its rather cool though. Need to convince Mrs Wesacosa how nice it would look in the back garden

[vulgalour]

Looks like a job for @RichardK or @Zelandeth

[Zelandeth]

10 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

had this on my eBay watch list for about a year.  Last week I decided there was no point keeping something I would never buy on my watchlist as it was in Latvia and not particularly cheap

 

a nice Latvian man has just dropped it off at my house. Its massive and weighs a ton and I have no fecking idea what I am gonna do with it

That would be on the back wall of my garage virtually before it had touched the ground!  Looks to be in astonishingly good shape.

[wesacosa]

4 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

That would be on the back wall of my garage virtually before it had touched the ground!  Looks to be in astonishingly good shape.

its needs a bit of a clean as some dirt and grime got between the red and the white layers but other than that its very tidy.

[MarvinsMom]

today i have spent an amount of money on poor old Marvin the Metro which must be twice what the car is currently worth.

all in the quest for a new MOT. With Wuhan Flu fucking the world up, the car has not been touched since September 2019.

when we last got it out of the garage, its nose was in the weeds, the hydragas cans, while not leaking were lacking in gas. a common thing, and not really a shock given the cars 30 years, especially as the cans only had a design life of 10 years.

so, given the sad state of a car i really like, there was only one thing to do.

and that is the foolish choice of getting the suspension overhauled.

today the lovely couple from Hydrolastic and Hydragas Services have come up all the way from Telford to Redcar, and put a set of refurbished cans on the car, Kerry put the battery leads back on, and the car fired up straight away.

along with a new rear link pipe. that has been an advise on the cars MOT for the last few years, and while they thought it in pretty good nick, the last thing i wanted was to have the bloody thing burst, or start to leak. 

save a couple of siezed up bolts and a couple of siezed up knuckle joints, but as these things have not been touched since 1989, that is to be expected. 

Kerry has had a quick drive round the yard, and says the car rides SO SO much better than before. which was firm to say the least!!

a brief examination of the car shows that everything is still working, though the hand brake wants adjusting, as do the brakes generally. with it been stood so long us having a wee looksie will not do it any harm.

and the old hydragas cans? well those, along with a pair off a scrapper which have laid in my shed for 5 or more years have gone back with them, for testing and hopefully reconditioning for use on another Metro. if those had not gone back with them, well in all honesty they would have ended up  in the scrap skip, so that they hopefully gone into the spares pool, and might well get used again is a good thing.

in other news, Kerry also got the Hardly Dangerous Sportser started. the first time that has run in more than a year. and we have found out why that bike was damn near impossible to move, there isn't alot of air in the front tyre! oops....

 

[derskine]

I was recently forced to emerge from my car fixing hiatus when some nob rear ended me.

It turned out okay given that mostly when I do this it turns out shit.