The new news 24 thread

[grogee]

38 minutes ago, stuboy said:

I broke the autoshite rule... I spent more than £3.62..was in aldi and thought do these fuggers work, the galaxy is my 2nd motor so spends lot time parked up, and get steamed up so thought stop being a tight miser and get one... better work at £7.99...

Please report back and let us know. I hate misting up!

[barefoot]

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

I broke the autoshite rule... I spent more than £3.62..was in aldi and thought do these fuggers work, the galaxy is my 2nd motor so spends lot time parked up, and get steamed up so thought stop being a tight miser and get one... better work at £7.99...

I used to have them in my camper over winter, they used to fill with water but the van remained the same.

[wuvvum]

One down...

[wuvvum]

Offside fitted, shocks back on - just refit the wheels and we're done.

A fairly major job on a modern French car which was straightforward even for my modest skills.  I'm now worried I might have caused some kind of disequilibrium in the cosmos...

[NigeT]

On 11/26/2021 at 11:53 PM, Metal Guru said:

Can’t imagine you could detect the difference between 5 and 10% ethanol unless you were a trained wine taster / blender.

As a trained professional in such matters I'll volunteer to do a blind sniff test at any meet I end up in. 

[cort16]

I'm in the process of moving out half of my lockup and decided to build a big shelf in my council lockup I can drive the front of the car under so I can get the rest of the tyres, gold clubs and other large shite out of the other garage. I wish I'd done this before as this garage is water tight and this gives me quite a lot of extra space as all I've ever kept in here is a car.

When I went back to get some more stuff from the other lockup this beauty was in it. Not a gift unfortunately it's a customers car from the garage. It's very very tidy.

 

[clayts450]

1 hour ago, cort16 said:

I'm in the process of moving out half of my lockup and decided to build a big shelf in my council lockup I can drive the front of the car under so I can get the rest of the tyres, gold clubs and other large shite out of the other garage. I wish I'd done this before as this garage is water tight and this gives me quite a lot of extra space as all I've ever kept in here is a car.

 

What a brilliant piece of lateral thinking. I've lost count of the number of times I've tripped over, crashed into or kicked various bits and bobs around the surroundings of whatever car is in the council garage. You should patent that - the Shelf of Shite has a certain ring to it.

[clayts450]

Long overdue purchase of a replacement battery for the van, as the original one is deffo on its last legs (keeps chucking up stop-start unavailable, even though I have it permanently switched off). Love how all the retailers say 'you must purchase a stop/start battery or kittens will die'. What complete bollox. Just turn the stop-start off, and a normal battery is golden.

Ordered up an Exide Premium with OMG Maximum CCA (640 vs the 450 currently under the hood), but as I cannot fuck around waiting in during the week, I had to visit Euro Car Parts (sorry Tayna - deffo my goto battery supplier, but no good when you need one now). Anyway, could I get anywhere near the Lenton branch of ECP ? Could I fuck - doing some critical roadworks with every single access road to the site coned off. Had to park miles away then lug a heavy battery back to the Streetwise.  BTW Lenton ECP are really good - never had a bad part from them, unlike the one literally five minutes drive from my house - I have an attic full of Hyundai oil filters from when I had the Honda.

Got home and then it started snowing heavily. Not fucking about in that to change a battery, so my need for a battery now clearly wasn't as critical as I thought. Ah well, tis only money.

[richardmorris]

2 hours ago, cort16 said:

I'm in the process of moving out half of my lockup and decided to build a big shelf in my council lockup I can drive the front of the car under so I can get the rest of the tyres, gold clubs and other large shite out of the other garage. I wish I'd done this before as this garage is water tight and this gives me quite a lot of extra space as all I've ever kept in here is a car.

When I went back to get some more stuff from the other lockup this beauty was in it. Not a gift unfortunately it's a customers car from the garage. It's very very tidy.

 

Where are all these damned allegros? You never see them on the road.

[TheOtherStu]

5 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Where are all these damned allegros? You never see them on the road.

Plenty of them at the NEC a couple of weeks back, plus Festival of the Unexceptional

[richardmorris]

3 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

Plenty of them at the NEC a couple of weeks back, plus Festival of the Unexceptional

Yes, but not in use on the road.

[auntiemaryscanary]

41 minutes ago, clayts450 said:

Long overdue purchase of a replacement battery for the van, as the original one is deffo on its last legs (keeps chucking up stop-start unavailable, even though I have it permanently switched off). Love how all the retailers say 'you must purchase a stop/start battery or kittens will die'. What complete bollox. Just turn the stop-start off, and a normal battery is golden.

Ordered up an Exide Premium with OMG Maximum CCA (640 vs the 450 currently under the hood), but as I cannot fuck around waiting in during the week, I had to visit Euro Car Parts (sorry Tayna - deffo my goto battery supplier, but no good when you need one now). Anyway, could I get anywhere near the Lenton branch of ECP ? Could I fuck - doing some critical roadworks with every single access road to the site coned off. Had to park miles away then lug a heavy battery back to the Streetwise.  BTW Lenton ECP are really good - never had a bad part from them, unlike the one literally five minutes drive from my house - I have an attic full of Hyundai oil filters from when I had the Honda.

Got home and then it started snowing heavily. Not fucking about in that to change a battery, so my need for a battery now clearly wasn't as critical as I thought. Ah well, tis only money.

Road closures might have still been due to this: 

[TheOtherStu]

Feeling sorry for myself. Every time Six Cylinder puts up asking for help, something gets in the way.

The wife and I officially have the plague. Not allowed out until next Friday. Annoyingly, we never got the results from the first PCR test back, so did another yesterday. Came back positive this morning.

I don't know for certain, but I think one of my work colleague's "colds" wasn't a cold. This is very much showing symptoms of a cold.

Eldest son came round this afternoon to take the dog for a walk. Have another friend who is going to take the dog for a few days tomorrow. Otherwise she isn't getting walked.

Feeling very sorry for myself. I had some jobs to do around the house and the car this weekend and just don't have the energy. On top of that, looking up the issue with the leaking radiator in the Merc, it's a common fault. Mercedes apparently around 2010-2014 put plastic water pumps on the cars. They're prone to leaking. I'd be shocked if after 180k this one's original, but it's still likely to be the source of the issue. Either that or the O ring on the thermostat.

[grogee]

7 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

Feeling sorry for myself. Every time Six Cylinder puts up asking for help, something gets in the way.

The wife and I officially have the plague. Not allowed out until next Friday. Annoyingly, we never got the results from the first PCR test back, so did another yesterday. Came back positive this morning.

I don't know for certain, but I think one of my work colleague's "colds" wasn't a cold. This is very much showing symptoms of a cold.

Eldest son came round this afternoon to take the dog for a walk. Have another friend who is going to take the dog for a few days tomorrow. Otherwise she isn't getting walked.

Feeling very sorry for myself. I had some jobs to do around the house and the car this weekend and just don't have the energy. On top of that, looking up the issue with the leaking radiator in the Merc, it's a common fault. Mercedes apparently around 2010-2014 put plastic water pumps on the cars. They're prone to leaking. I'd be shocked if after 180k this one's original, but it's still likely to be the source of the issue. Either that or the O ring on the thermostat.

Sorry to hear you've got the Rona. We had it in September. I was knocked out for a few days, Mrs Grogee was totally fatigued for about 2 weeks (we'd both been double jabbed before that). Bloody annoying being stuck inside, luckily we had friends making food drops on the doorstep which helped. 

Hopefully you'll feel well enough to get under the Merc and sort the leak soon. 

[grogee]

OMGSNOKAOS again in Warwickshire. Since this pic it carried on a bit and has semi-settled. Probably the worst outcome, as people will just carry on barrelling along the roads as if it's a summer shower. Then slither into an accident where the gritter missed.

Mrs Grogee is very blasé about driving to work in the snow but I'm extremely wary. Probably nothing* to do with my shoving my 205 GTI into a Tipo back in 2003.

[New POD]

There's snow in JCB town (Uttoxeter) 

I decided not to park the car on the main road outside the house, because it's predicted to be minus 4 tonight and the locals drive mostly like twats. 

[grogee]

4 hours ago, cort16 said:

I'm in the process of moving out half of my lockup and decided to build a big shelf in my council lockup I can drive the front of the car under so I can get the rest of the tyres, gold clubs and other large shite out of the other garage. I wish I'd done this before as this garage is water tight and this gives me quite a lot of extra space as all I've ever kept in here is a car.

When I went back to get some more stuff from the other lockup this beauty was in it. Not a gift unfortunately it's a customers car from the garage. It's very very tidy.

 

I like that a lot (the shelf and the Allegro). I too have a council box which is pretty tiny. For some reason I've always been reversing into it but I've just realised it would be a lot easier to reverse out of it.

Not sure I really need another hoarding  storage shelf and I'm telling myself the council garage is winter months only

[Yank Tank]

fabulous amount of snow in the peaks this weekend, to the point that even a 4x4 on snow tyres struggled foolow to  bradwell. 

I read countless posts on endless forums saying that 4x4s are pointless and all you need is a saloon with half decent rubber, and these posts are always made by well meaning but ignorant people from south of leicester. 

i love snow. unpopular opinion no doubt, but I do.

[cort16]

14 minutes ago, grogee said:

I like that a lot (the shelf and the Allegro). I too have a council box which is pretty tiny. For some reason I've always been reversing into it but I've just realised it would be a lot easier to reverse out of it.

Not sure I really need another hoarding  storage shelf and I'm telling myself the council garage is winter months only

I'd taken everything to the dump I could and desperately needed some space for all the shite I didn't want to chuck out. I was impressed the megane swallowed the 2.4 metre lengths of wood no bother too.

[clayts450]

2 hours ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

Road closures might have still been due to this: 

Turns out it was actually this

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/more-disruption-expected-update-issued-6268786

[grogee]

29 minutes ago, Yank Tank said:

fabulous amount of snow in the peaks this weekend, to the point that even a 4x4 on snow tyres struggled foolow to  bradwell. 

I read countless posts on endless forums saying that 4x4s are pointless and all you need is a saloon with half decent rubber, and these posts are always made by well meaning but ignorant people from south of leicester. 

i love snow. unpopular opinion no doubt, but I do.

I kind of like it. Growing up in Devon it was a rarity so very exciting when it did arrive. We'd all pile down Station Hill with our empty fertilizer sacks and barrell down it. Happy days. 

Nowadays it just tends to interfere with Plans, I've got next week booked off to do car stuff at a mate's house (he has a lift) so don't want to cancel, especially as I had to move it from last week. 

Saying that if we have a big snow and we're stuck at home, it's fun taking 7yo to the park with his plastic sledge.

[Zelandeth]

I enjoyed snow when I lived in rural Aberdeenshire and owned this.

Which was damned near unstoppable unless you did something stupid enough as to get yourself high centred.  Think I only ever actually put the diff lock in once, and that was more a precaution than requirement!

Best "Oh crap" moment in the snow I can recall was taking a run at a drift which I expected to be quite solid and to bounce over it like the last five...however that one was just loose powder...so the instant I hit it, it just exploded and the whole world turned white.  Was just a case of "keep straight and pray" at that point!

[stuboy]

Storm arsewipe... ment rain, dam windy and bloody cold ..

 

No damage to property or motas

[cobblers]

1 hour ago, Yank Tank said:

fabulous amount of snow in the peaks this weekend, to the point that even a 4x4 on snow tyres struggled foolow to  bradwell. 

I read countless posts on endless forums saying that 4x4s are pointless and all you need is a saloon with half decent rubber, and these posts are always made by well meaning but ignorant people from south of leicester. 

i love snow. unpopular opinion no doubt, but I do.

I took the fucking prop off my Syncro last week otherwise I'd have been out up the Sir William Hill way in it. 

I was out camping near Monyash and there was over a foot of snow in places.

It is amazing what good tyres will do though, there was a 4x4 audi absolutely skidding all over the place unable to get up a hill (with summer tyres on) and I drove past him in a 3200kg FWD van quite comfortably with a set of KO2s.

[wuvvum]

Considering how shite the forecast was I've actually had quite a productive weekend.  Got both rear springs changed on the Scénic and also fitted the temporary stick-on rear reflectors as the replacement rear fog lamp hasn't turned up yet (and it won't be a 5-minute job to fit when it does arrive as it's rivetted onto the bumper).  The weather stayed dry and sunny pretty much for the duration - it started hailing just as I was putting the wheels back on.  Just need to tweak the headlamp aim now and it should be ready for a retest.

I also upgraded the rather pathetic horn on the Mazda and got rid of the water in the spare wheel well which has reduced the sloshing noises and should also help with the condensation levels.  I haven't got around to Gun Gumming the exhaust - I'm going to wait until the ground dries out a bit before I go crawling underneath.  I had a look at replacing the thermostat but the housing looks a right twat to get to (jammed under the distributor) so I might have to just put up with the crap heating for now.

I got the shiny new mechanical fuel pump fitted to the Volvo - that wasn't too bad of a job except that the gasket / spacer was reluctant to part company with the old pump.  It's pumping fine but I haven't had a chance to take it for a run yet to see if it's running better.  I was thinking of treating it to a set of plugs but when I pulled the leads off the plugs look almost new - I must have changed them at some point, although I have no memory of having done so - they definitely haven't been in there for 17 years though.  Odd.

Next on the list is to fit an air horn to the Daihatsu and get the stereo working - then it'll be time to get the Rover MOT'd, I'm hoping that won't need too much as it's not really the time of year to be doing major surgery now.

[High Jetter]

Normal day here too, nowt to report but it's fecking chilly oot.

[Cord Fourteener]

14 hours ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

Road closures might have still been due to this: 

Some joke about evacuating, where is it again? Oh, Dunkirk. OK best not then. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

I've got even more snow so I probably have about half a meter of snow now. It is also cold today the first day this winter with below minus 10.

[N19]

18 hours ago, cort16 said:

I'm in the process of moving out half of my lockup and decided to build a big shelf in my council lockup I can drive the front of the car under so I can get the rest of the tyres, gold clubs and other large shite out of the other garage. I wish I'd done this before as this garage is water tight and this gives me quite a lot of extra space as all I've ever kept in here is a car.

When I went back to get some more stuff from the other lockup this beauty was in it. Not a gift unfortunately it's a customers car from the garage. It's very very tidy.

 

Fantastic idea! I definitely have some thinking to do as my lockup strategy* evolves...

16 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Yes, but not in use on the road.

One near me in daily use for sure

[cort16]

The guy who's fixing this one also has my old one. He had it sitting outside, which is what caught the attention of this ones owner.  Allegros attract Allegros

This one has just had brand new spheres I think from the same place that did MarvinsMoms mini.