The new news 24 thread

[cort1977]

We had a power cut from Friday night to Sunday at 1.30pm. I came home from being away for a few days at 1.35pm.  Wife was not amused.

Getting back to normal here now, schools are shut for two days but I think most services are now restored.

[fatharris]

We've had our midwife's house visit today to discuss the birthing plan for SprogHarris2.0 (since when has any birth gone to plan?)

Before MrsH went back to work though, I took her out for a quick spin in the Beat, as she was unlikely to be able to do so for at least a couple of years. Dropped the top too, which helped the noise levels in the cabin immeasurably.

Her verdict? She gets why I like it but it's not really for her.

Still, she said she's happy that I'm happy so that's something. Even took the boy to pre-school in it today which made his day, and now it'll sit outside the garage with a dehumidifier running to counteract the rain and the poorly soft top.

Still smitten though.



Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[Zelandeth]

Well today has started well then...

This is why I plan to leave for the MOT 30 minutes early despite the garage being 10 minutes away.

[Amishtat]

2 hours ago, cort1977 said:

We had a power cut from Friday night to Sunday at 1.30pm. I came home from being away for a few days at 1.35pm.  Wife was not amused.

Getting back to normal here now, schools are shut for two days but I think most services are now restored.

No power here since Friday either, beginning to get thoroughly pissed off with it too. It is beautiful out though. 

[Zelandeth]

Despite the comedy start to the day, that was fairly painless.

Will get a new battery picked up later today hopefully.

[cort1977]

57 minutes ago, Amishtat said:

No power here since Friday either, beginning to get thoroughly pissed off with it too. It is beautiful out though. 

 

It is, we were out on skis yesterday at Aboyne.

 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Well pleased with the set of four Michelin Crossclimate 2 tyres fitted last week! Felt secure and safe this morning in temperatures of minus two! 🥶🥶🥶

[richardmorris]

42 minutes ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Well pleased with the set of four Michelin Crossclimate 2 tyres fitted last week! Felt secure and safe this morning in temperatures of minus two! 🥶🥶🥶

-3 in Surrey this morning, below my cycling threshold. New fiat seems ok on the falken tyres.

[RobT]

AS Shatis update.  This glorious thing got us to Geneva and back last week no bother.  With the cruise set it's like driving my living room, but with more comfortable seating.

You'll have to believe me that Mont Salève is in the background and not the Malverns.

The trip wasn't without drama, as I managed to kill the battery whilst leaving the lights on during the day.  I knew that would be an issue at some point as there's no warning noise as you open the door.  Not surprised it happened whilst abroad either, as I was tired and relaxed which is often a recipe for fuckupery.  I engaged with the locals and managed to get a jump, so that was alright.  The jump pack I took with me wasn't up to the job, so lesson learnt I've now bought a NOCO GB40 that I'll take everywhere.  It's already been used once this week to jump the Skizzer Espace, which is my fault for not using it enough.  Stating the bleedin' obvious but old cars need to be used, don't they. 

Gratuitous shot with a pogweasel Corrado.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, RobT said:

AS Shatis update.  This glorious thing got us to Geneva and back last week no bother.  With the cruise set it's like driving my living room, but with more comfortable seating.

You'll have to believe me that Mont Salève is in the background and not the Malverns.

The trip wasn't without drama, as I managed to kill the battery whilst leaving the lights on during the day.  I knew that would be an issue at some point as there's no warning noise as you open the door.  Not surprised it happened whilst abroad either, as I was tired and relaxed which is often a recipe for fuckupery.  I engaged with the locals and managed to get a jump, so that was alright.  The jump pack I took with me wasn't up to the job, so lesson learnt I've now bought a NOCO GB40 that I'll take everywhere.  It's already been used once this week to jump the Skizzer Espace, which is my fault for not using it enough.  Stating the bleedin' obvious but old cars need to be used, don't they. 

Gratuitous shot with a pogweasel Corrado.

Fun fact: A mark 1 Espace was the first vehicle I ever experienced 100mph+ in.  My uncle was an ex copper who had pursuit training and... didn't hang around. 

Being used to our Metros, Novas etc it was uncanny how smooth and quiet this was sitting at an indicated 120 flying up the M1.  This was in the mid 90s, so before the days of speed cameras being everywhere!

Right up there on my "I'd love a shot at driving one" list. 

[barefoot]

6 hours ago, RobT said:

AS Shatis update.  This glorious thing got us to Geneva and back last week no bother.  With the cruise set it's like driving my living room, but with more comfortable seating. I managed to kill the battery whilst leaving the lights on during the day.  I knew that would be an issue at some point as there's no warning noise as you open the door. 

It used to have 'auto on' lights, which lit up on their own & had to be switched off manually. When pulling under a garage forecourt for example! An idiot idea that I disabled.

[RobT]

Fair enough, sounds irritating. A bit like the variable intermittent wipers that seem to have a mind of their own.  For example toggling the switch between frequencies doesn't have the desired effect.  Not sure if it's me being a twat or the auto wiper function getting involved when it shouldn't.

[dollywobbler]

If it has auto wipers, I'd expect the variable control to just be a sensitivity control. Auto wipers are great when they work, but sadly I often find they just don't get it right.

[dean36014]

The wipers do indeed work that way. Lights on warning doesn't work due to the sticky door switch. Really chuffed it made it there and back without mechanical incident. 

[Split_Pin]

On my 75, disconnecting the auto wipers sensor behind the rear view mirror restored actual variable intermittent wipe for which the rotating part of the stalk was, laughably, still there.

My Civic is the only car that I have owned with auto wipers where the function actually works extremely well. 

[wuvvum]

I only realised the other day that my 75 has the rain sensor behind the mirror.  Thankfully the auto wipers have never worked in my ownership, it just has variable intermittent - the only automation is that the delay becomes longer when the car is stationary, which makes sense.

In Renault-wiper-related news, the Scénic now has a full MOT - I picked a dry day to run it in for a retest just in case the wipers decided to go on strike, but they were working this morning.  Recently I've been finding that if the wipers aren't working, the old IT fix of switching the car off and restarting it will often get them going again.

[SiC]

11 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

In Renault-wiper-related news, the Scénic now has a full MOT - I picked a dry day to run it in for a retest just in case the wipers decided to go on strike, but they were working this morning.  Recently I've been finding that if the wipers aren't working, the old IT fix of switching the car off and restarting it will often get them going again.

I had that on my Laguna II wipers. If you switched them off and the park switch doesn't detect them parked after so long, it'll disable the wipers entirely till car is restarted. Not particularly handy and would have made much more logic to just stop them after timing out while still working when turned on. But that's Reno logic for you. 

I replaced the wipers mechanism and motor with a second hand replacement. Worked fine from then. 

[NigeT]

Spent yesterday doing stuff on an SLK that lives outdoors in rural Perthshire - having once been a decent car it's now starting to resemble something hauled up from the deepest oceans. Broken spring took a while to replace - no chance of removing the shock to free up space - nut on one side ready to disintegrate and bolt welded in.  Still, eventually got the coilf@cker out using a £70 made-in-China copy of the Mercedes compressor tool that seems safer than conventional spring compressors. Mercedes jack served a useful function of keeping lower arm in place whilst the compressing tool was wound in with a socket from below. Also took dash cluster out to remove annoying SRS light, got indicators working with some WD40 in fusebox, and reinstalled heater blower after water ingress had taken its toll on the connectors. 

[RobT]

2 hours ago, dean36014 said:

Really chuffed it made it there and back without mechanical incident. 

Same here!  Once home I was on alert for a few days, as the last 'modern' car I took on a long trip (a Volvo S60 to Sweden) shat its alternator a week later.

Next job is the MoT which I need to book for next week.  Possible fails are the front brakes and last year's TRE advisory, but I'll be getting the front discs and pads changed anyway.  Plus I need to clear that fault code again so the EML remains off for long enough.

[dean36014]

I pre mot'ed it at my usual place before I leant it my friend. Front discs and inner track rod joints an advisory. Actually would have failed on handbrake effort on I think the offside. It basically needed new rear discs and pads. Unless the trip has worn something out all the suspension and steering joints were fine.

[wuvvum]

30 minutes ago, SiC said:

I replaced the wipers mechanism and motor with a second hand replacement. Worked fine from then. 

I will probably need to do that eventually, but on the Scénic III there are two wiper motors and they go for around £300 a pair secondhand, so I'm going to put it off for as long as possible.

[TheOtherStu]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

My Civic is the only car that I have owned with auto wipers where the function actually works extremely well. 

I've had loads of cars since my 2004 Pug 307 SE where the auto-wipers just worked. Shit car to drive, but had every conceivable extra for a 2004 car - auto lights, wipers, fold-in mirrors, heated seats, Sat Nav and so on.

Every car I've had since, 2x Mercedes, BMW, 2 x Vauxhalls and a Prius (probably more, but can't remember them), none of them have had a decent auto-wiper.

[RobT]

2 minutes ago, dean36014 said:

I pre mot'ed it at my usual place before I leant it my friend. Front discs and inner track rod joints an advisory. Actually would have failed on handbrake effort on I think the offside. It basically needed new rear discs and pads. Unless the trip has worn something out all the suspension and steering joints were fine.

Thanks, yes I remember that from your FS thread.  I haven't had a rear wheel off yet to see what they're like, but obviously if they need doing I know what to expect.  Also @barefoot said this in the same thread:

I've also remembered that the parking brake is a two stage thing. If you just pull out the little lever, you get park. If you pull it out & hold it out for something like 2 or three seconds, you get something like 180 newtons of force, which makes it utterly immobile on the steepest of steep hills. 

I've tried it and you can hear the extra buzz when it engages fully, so hopefully the garage will know to do this.  Can't see why they wouldn't as they're a decent outfit.

[dome]

Gave the Jag a wash and wax before it gets parked up for the winter. It's now sorned.

I'd hate to see it deteriorate from being on the road all winter and it'll save me the £30 a month in tax 

I really should sell it but it is a decent example and I'll never be able to afford one as good again. Plus it's got history with me now after saving it from 20 years abandoned in a garage! 

[Ghosty]

1 hour ago, TheOtherStu said:

I've had loads of cars since my 2004 Pug 307 SE where the auto-wipers just worked. Shit car to drive, but had every conceivable extra for a 2004 car - auto lights, wipers, fold-in mirrors, heated seats, Sat Nav and so on.

My 2002 306 Meridian also had pretty good auto wipers! 

[TheOtherStu]

Just now, Ghosty said:

My 2002 306 Meridian also had pretty good auto wipers! 

Weird isn't it how the Pugs had stuff that you only got on the absolute top-of-the-range Mercs and Audis.

Even now, their bottom-of-the-range models include stuff that many manufacturers have as extras. They've had DAB as standard for years, for instance.

[SiC]

4 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

Weird isn't it how the Pugs had stuff that you only got on the absolute top-of-the-range Mercs and Audis.

Even now, their bottom-of-the-range models include stuff that many manufacturers have as extras. They've had DAB as standard for years, for instance.

Same with Renault. Pretty base spec Clio II would get auto wipers, lights, heated mirrors and such. 

I think it was a way of tempting buyers over to them rather than the usual German/Ford/GM purchase. 

[Mally]

19 degrees in Benidorm.

Sorry, not sorry.

[cobblers]

29 minutes ago, Mally said:

19 degrees in Benidorm.

Sorry, not sorry.

[Markeh]

52 minutes ago, SiC said:

Same with Renault. Pretty base spec Clio II would get auto wipers, lights, heated mirrors and such. 

I think it was a way of tempting buyers over to them rather than the usual German/Ford/GM purchase. 

Yep, my mid spec Megane II had auto lights and wipers and other kit you wouldn't have got on a mid spec Astra/Focus of the era.