The new news 24 thread

[Cord Fourteener]

Well, just coming out of hibernation and look at this...

No advisories! Woop!

[HMC]

Went out for a moorland picnic 

 

[wuvvum]

Fantastic!  What do Ms_HMC and the offspring (and step-offspring) make of Huggy?  And does it fit outside your house?

[Bren]

Van Der Valk on talking pictures.

Lots of Daf 33 police cars.

[stuboy]

I'm trying to source some brighter led brake/tail light bulbs in offset pin flavour, I ordered what I thought was correct and got opposite pins, so I thought other than obvious will it fall out the holder what about filling off one the earth pins??

[HMC]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Fantastic!  What do Ms_HMC and the offspring (and step-offspring) make of Huggy?  And does it fit outside your house?

Everyone loves it, including the dog. It’s longer than my house is wide, and in need of similar amounts of TLC so fits right in! 
 

I alao found the owners handbook hidden within a recess in the glovebox lid. Everyone was belted in our trip but the GM line in 1973 ( reading this book) was to recommend unbelted children to stand up on the floor behind the front seat to offer the most protection in a frontal impact. OK thanks for that tip GM!

[Split_Pin]

A productive evening helping a fellow 75 owner.

He had a pair of recently refurbished Xenon headlights he wanted to fit to improve the light output. 

As I progressed I wasn't sure these would work on car that didn't have them originally. Mine has them from the factory and they are self levelling via 2 ballasts, 1 on each offside suspension arm.  There's also no thumbwheel on the dash. However the pins on the plug were exactly the same and my theory was that it would not matter where the signal came from to tell the lights to adjust thumbwheel or ballast resistor.

Bumper off, fixings had all been greased in the past so it was quite easy, apart from pulling it out from the wing as it was stuck in its slots due to road dirt. Some persuasion saw it off though.

Lights are 4 10mms and 1 plug.

Thankfully I was right and they all worked perfectly. We checked their position off the garage door. They also self test their level when switched on,  as they should.

They really improved the look of the car over the old blotchy faded items.

Next I rodded and cleared the scuttle plenum to stop it flooding and killing the ECU, GR9 design.

The bonnet struts were also toast as can be seen in one of the pictures so I replaced those with good used ones.

Wiper blades were also prehistoric so those went in the bucket and a new pair of Bosch items were fitted.

Next I turned to the nearside sill which had some kerb damage. I found it to be minimal, the paint was not broken down to the metal and no rust had formed. Ruminations about how to proceed ended with the decision just to touch it in. I sourced the correct CEV Firefrost for the owner and sent him the link for him to attend to in the future.

Levels were checked, important on the K Series. I inspected and tested the coolant with a great Hygrometer that my neighbour gave me, much better than the rubbish ebay one I bought. Pink and translucent, very clean. The head gasket was replaced last year so all looks good on that front. 

It's going to be the owners wedding car in 2 weeks so it was good to get these things attended to.

A few pics of 2 75s on my drive.

[320touring]

Great work @Split_Pin!

Looks great!

[hairnet]

murder on the dancefloor?

no - madness on the driveway

 

[wuvvum]

Sorry to be a jobsworth but the owner of that fine Firefrost (?) example may want to bear in mind that headlight washers are compulsory with Xenon headlights.  I have a feeling the self levelling needs to be automatic as well.

[Split_Pin]

38 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Sorry to be a jobsworth but the owner of that fine Firefrost (?) example may want to bear in mind that headlight washers are compulsory with Xenon headlights.  I have a feeling the self levelling needs to be automatic as well.

So did I but the owner checked the regs and the washers and self levellers apparently only have to work if fitted. I just went with that although I still feel that maintenance of the beam pattern is important hence washers and levellers being required.

"Vehicles with high intensity discharge (HID) or LED dipped beam headlamps may be fitted with a suspension or headlamp self-levelling system. If these systems have been fitted, they must work".

Anyway, he was insistent and also, NMP 🤣

[wuvvum]

Hmm.  Apparently washers aren't needed if the lights are less than 2000 lumen.  Every day's a school day...

[Split_Pin]

Same here, I always thought you had to have the paraphernalia to accompany the HIDs.

What I might have been thinking of is from about 15 years ago when HIDs were all the rage and unscrupulous owners modified their standard headlights to accept HID bulbs, blinding everyone else  I do know that's definitely illegal and that you must have ellipsiod projector lenses for them otherwise you're basically illuminating most of the Solar system.

 

[Popsicle]

Couple of poor buggers have had a bad day out in Derbyshire at the weekend, Vauxhall Victor, Hillman Super Minx and a VW modern had a crash after the Victors brakes failed.

Link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-61143786

It must have been less crusty than my old Victor FE.

[Back_For_More]

28 minutes ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

So this "christ it's a CVT Micra " or "throw 240v through it", yes it's been a pain however a few days of driving it and thinking caused a moment of discovery.

Arrow for reference (not my car) on a part of the loom, it clips to the throttle body on a plastic connector and on mine the tape is sticky, gooey and loose and when the idle is at 1,800 rpm with the TPS sensor going beserk I found out tonight that applying physical pressure here triggers immediate return to desired behaviour of

800rpm tickover.

.48 showing on TPS sensor.

And of course letting go return to bonkers behaviour which I've been plagued with since I got it in 2017. 

Each time I replaced parts I would be moving the loom about and in time it would return to erratic behaviour.

Plan is to remove the shitty loom tape on the upper loom, and re-wrap it and check for bare wires and shorts etc.  

I plan to make my own thread on this if anyone is interested, but I do feel now the issue has been found, so long as it keeps running and me mobile I can save up, plan is atm for a W203 Mercedes as the next vehicle of choice, in the meantime if I can keep this bucket working it can be either sold on or part exchanged.

 

 

Great news ....... major step forward.

Can that part not be replaced to where it plugs in / attaches to the main loom? May be easier than chasing a broken wire - especially if it's only internal damage from flexing.

Good luck either way

[RoverFolkUs]

28 minutes ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

So this "christ it's a CVT Micra " or "throw 240v through it", yes it's been a pain however a few days of driving it and thinking caused a moment of discovery.

Arrow for reference (not my car) on a part of the loom, it clips to the throttle body on a plastic connector and on mine the tape is sticky, gooey and loose and when the idle is at 1,800 rpm with the TPS sensor going beserk I found out tonight that applying physical pressure here triggers immediate return to desired behaviour of

800rpm tickover.

.48 showing on TPS sensor.

And of course letting go return to bonkers behaviour which I've been plagued with since I got it in 2017. 

Each time I replaced parts I would be moving the loom about and in time it would return to erratic behaviour.

Plan is to remove the shitty loom tape on the upper loom, and re-wrap it and check for bare wires and shorts etc.  

I plan to make my own thread on this if anyone is interested, but I do feel now the issue has been found, so long as it keeps running and me mobile I can save up, plan is atm for a W203 Mercedes as the next vehicle of choice, in the meantime if I can keep this bucket working it can be either sold on or part exchanged once the time is right.

 

 

I can't quite imagine how tape could be causing an issue here. 

Might it be moisture has somehow got trapped and caused corrosion so when you flex the connector it is intermittently changing between a good/poor connection?

[captain_70s]

7 hours ago, Popsicle said:

Couple of poor buggers have had a bad day out in Derbyshire at the weekend, Vauxhall Victor, Hillman Super Minx and a VW modern had a crash after the Victors brakes failed.

Link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-61143786

It must have been less crusty than my old Victor FE.

A steep 1 1/2 lane road with a double hairpin. Not where you want to loose brakes...

[OM646]

So, my W203 Mercedes radio decided to quit working.

Only hangs in the Mercedes logo and doesn't do anything.

Everyone says "it's a break in the fiber optic ring, check your accessories fitted"

My car doesn't have any.

Fuck.

[grogee]

Trip to Think Tank in Birmingham today with Master Grogee. I'm not quite sure what the place is trying to achieve, but it would likely be more successful if all the exhibits worked and were accessible. 

Anyway there were various bits of BL effluent about the place, so not all bad. 

[grogee]

This is that solar charger I got. Does anyone know what the buttons do?

[NorthernMonkey]

23 hours ago, HMC said:

Went out for a moorland picnic 

 

Bloody hell…I presume I’ve missed one hell of a collection thread whilst being busy having a coronary!? 😂😂

[bobdisk]

10 hours ago, OM646 said:

So, my W203 Mercedes radio decided to quit working.

Only hangs in the Mercedes logo and doesn't do anything.

Everyone says "it's a break in the fiber optic ring, check your accessories fitted"

My car doesn't have any.

Fuck.

Try disconnecting the battery for 1 or 2 minutes.  That might reset it.

[The Vicar]

On 4/7/2022 at 9:04 AM, The Vicar said:

I've made my first purchase of 2022:

Unseen, and its 1500 miles away..

Two weeks later and finally this has finally arrived:

[cobblers]

13 hours ago, captain_70s said:

A steep 1 1/2 lane road with a double hairpin. Not where you want to loose brakes...

That's about half a mile from my mums house. Pretty treacherous bit of road.

[RichardK]

Considered doing a deal to change MX-5 for this:

But the seller seems utterly disinterested in me actually viewing it (after I said I was interested in buying outright and they asked about the MX-5 for a deal) and I've had enough time to think about it that an unappealing colour of cheapest-possible M62 V8 BMW seems like a terrible idea...

[aotb]

Retest success! Took it out for a quick drive in my test route and there’s a few niggles- suspension refresh and a thermostat are top of the list as well as a timing belt- No idea how old it is. Also a good clean up underneath to stop it dissolving. 

[auntiemaryscanary]

3 hours ago, grogee said:

This is that solar charger I got. Does anyone know what the buttons do?

I've got one  brand of these and basically they are all the same. The 3 buttons let you set the float charging voltage of your battery, what voltage it will disconnect and reconnect charging and also to show that any base/overload is working (for base/overload I've got 9 x T5 bulbs in holders wired in series & parallel). There is some sort of timer function which I've ignored.

Anyway these are the instructions, it takes a bit of fiddling to understand if you want to change settings but these solar charge controllers should work fine without changing any of the settings. If the download doesn't work here is a direct link

https://www.solorder.se/image/data/uploads/KLD1210.pdf

KLD1210.pdf

Edited April 20, 2022 by auntiemaryscanary
Direct link added

[trigger]

So recently I found that my wife's cousin works for a solicitors and deals with probate properties and often has old cars to get rid off, obviously I asked her to let me know if anything turns up that would interest me. 

The next day I get a WhatsApp from her offering me a Volvo 340... 

Armed with some rubbish photos and working out that it been parked outside a property in Potters Bar in since 2010 I decided it probably wasn't for me but Brodders of this forum stepped in and made a offer on it! 

I passed the offer onto my relative at the solicitors who said the family will have to pay £300 to dispose of it so give them £50 and they'll be happy. The car arrived late last night (which was a pretty eventful delivery by all accounts) so a few of us went over this evening to take a look at it. 

It turns out to have been a 1 owner locally sold car with only 53000 miles and under all the green is a really tidy car, sadly its missing its keys as the owner lost them in 2010 hence it being left on the drive but after some fresh fuel down the carb and hot wiring the ignition the car fired straight up and ran! 

Unfortunately a rear brake is locked on so we couldn't move it but instead spent a while pressure washing it, unfortunately no photos but it's cleaned up really well. 

All in all for £50 I'm gutted I didn't buy it now! 

[New POD]

6 hours ago, RichardK said:

Considered doing a deal to change MX-5 for this:

But the seller seems utterly disinterested in me actually viewing it (after I said I was interested in buying outright and they asked about the MX-5 for a deal) and I've had enough time to think about it that an unappealing colour of cheapest-possible M62 V8 BMW seems like a terrible idea...

I toyed with the idea of a 6 series as a replacement for my MV6.  Spent too much time on research and decided that a 1.4 Astra for more money was more sensible. I'm.not sure I recognise myself. 

[Split_Pin]

7 hours ago, trigger said:

So recently I found that my wife's cousin works for a solicitors and deals with probate properties and often has old cars to get rid off, obviously I asked her to let me know if anything turns up that would interest me. 

The next day I get a WhatsApp from her offering me a Volvo 340... 

Armed with some rubbish photos and working out that it been parked outside a property in Potters Bar in since 2010 I decided it probably wasn't for me but Brodders of this forum stepped in and made a offer on it! 

I passed the offer onto my relative at the solicitors who said the family will have to pay £300 to dispose of it so give them £50 and they'll be happy. The car arrived late last night (which was a pretty eventful delivery by all accounts) so a few of us went over this evening to take a look at it. 

It turns out to have been a 1 owner locally sold car with only 53000 miles and under all the green is a really tidy car, sadly its missing its keys as the owner lost them in 2010 hence it being left on the drive but after some fresh fuel down the carb and hot wiring the ignition the car fired straight up and ran! 

Unfortunately a rear brake is locked on so we couldn't move it but instead spent a while pressure washing it, unfortunately no photos but it's cleaned up really well. 

All in all for £50 I'm gutted I didn't buy it now! 

That's a really good find, the interior is impressively tidy and mould free for having sat so long.