The new news 24 thread

[GMcD]

Well done man 🥳.  

[Spottedlaurel]

I need to start doing something with this one:

It spent the entire summer elsewhere on the driveway, parked against a bush. Hence the soiling which Master SL is going to deal with today when he cleans the Yaris (which becomes his next month).

Had to have a shuffle around in readiness for a skip delivery, and the Lexus started and moved quite happily despite not having been run for months. My current thinking is to get it in for an MoT, do the basics to get it through then think about spending some ££££s. I couldn't go out and buy another LS for sensible money (certainly not a Mk1) and it's such a lovely thing to drive. I finish paying off the RX next year and I have no plans to replace that, so a bit of that car money can go in this direction instead.

[bunglebus]

You know those god-awful fake "vintage" cars based on Mustangs? Someone's built a drift car with one. Glad to see there are still some glorious lunatics left in the world

[SiC]

8 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Ford, what the hell were you thinking?

They were thinking "We save the cost of 16 push buttons here"

[Yoss]

9 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Just to reiterate my seething hatred of the centre console, here's the thing itself.

I thought when I first saw this that it was a rubber membrane keypad, nope...touch panel.

The worst of both worlds.  And I double checked, yes if you brush against any of the controls at all it interprets it as you having pressed it.  

Which in several cases changes the mode things are in requiring multiple inputs to get back to where you started.

Ford, what the hell were you thinking?

You want buttons? I got buttons. 

There's no pressing these by accident, you have to press them in about half an inch before you let go. And even if you did they aren't going to open some sub menu you didn't want. One day somebody will realise what a good idea these are. It's the future I tell you. 

 

[Metal Guru]

5 minutes ago, Yoss said:

You want buttons? I got buttons. 

There's no pressing these by accident, you have to press them in about half an inch before you let go. And even if you did they aren't going to open some sub menu you didn't want. One day somebody will realise what a good idea these are. It's the future I tell you. 

 

Especially the big button for fog lights . I know there’s a lot of people who turn them on at the first sign of drizzle, but I’m sure many are activated or at least not switched off , because it’s a tiny out of sight switch or worse hidden in a menu somewhere.

[Yoss]

19 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Especially the big button for fog lights . I know there’s a lot of people who turn them on at the first sign of drizzle, but I’m sure many are activated or at least not switched off , because it’s a tiny out of sight switch or worse hidden in a menu somewhere.

My MG ZT-T was like that (as I suspect are many newer cars but that is my only experience of 21st century motoring). A small button alongside the main headlight switch , not visible from the normal driving position, that was easily pressable when fumbling for the main switch. The Škoda also has much more prominent warning lights too, but then it has a lot less things to warn about so it can afford to make them bigger. 

[New POD]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

They were thinking "We save the cost of 16 push buttons here"

No. They were also thinking, "People will think are cars are posh, and we can charge more for less" 

[SiC]

59 minutes ago, New POD said:

No. They were also thinking, "People will think are cars are posh, and we can charge more for less" 

Nope. That would be a touch screen in the middle. 

[Lankytim]

Visited the In-laws today and fired up the Fusion that they’ve kindly allowed to be parked on their driveway.  I drove it forwards and backwards to keep the brakes free and allowed the engine to reach full temperature.

I inherited it from my Mother 10 years ago and immediately sold it to the in-laws who ran it for 6 years or so until the semi automatic box got stuck in reverse. They then gave it back to me, I converted it to manual and we used it until earlier on this year when I needed to do a lot of motorway miles and bought a Mk3 Laguna. Around that time my Dad gave me his Honda Jazz as he is unable to drive so the wife uses the Jazz and the Fusion is pretty much redundant. 

The Fusion should really be MOTd and sold on but being an old banger the next owner will more than likely run it into the ground which is difficult for me to think about as there’s a lot of sentimental value attached to the car. 
 

For the time being it’ll stay on the in-laws drive being run up from time to time until the in-laws get fed up and evict it. 

[andy18s]

I'm pretty sure Ford would have a certain trim level for hire/rental cars.

Auto Auction Rebuilds was checking out some ex Enterprise rental Jaguar F types and said they have a wierd interior for a US citizen to get used to.

[reb]

I haven't seen a Fusion that wasn't barrier in ages. Last one I was familiar with was somehow louder than my straight piped Volvo despite allegedly still having a cat and silencer. Not a day would go by where I didn't hear about how it was going to get a Jag V6 fitted. The owner was last seen dailying a Freelander 1 with the BL diesel in it. Either the fusion is bean tins or its in his unit getting major surgery to make it go fast. Honestly both are as likely as eachother.

[JakeT]

After replacing a headlight washer on the daily, the good lady being away at a wedding, and a very early rise to watch the F1, I took my mum out for lunch. Dad went to watch the football with my brother, which doesn’t appeal.

 

One old BMW looking resplendent in the sun

 
 

Cheeky Capri injection spot on the way out, too. 

[Split_Pin]

I slathered every grommet I could see on the drivers side of the brown 93 with red rubber grease. This approach worked well with the Audi. Sealant ends up cracking and then you have to dig it all out to re apply. 

Hopefully that will stem the water ingress.

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, SiC said:

Nope. That would be a touch screen in the middle. 

There's one of those as well!  Which while I'd far rather not have, is one of the less objectionable examples I've used.  Not that that's saying much.

It loses any points however for being fully equipped with satnav but not having it enabled.  Yes I know that's basically standard practice these days (certainly on VAG products anyway), but I wasn't aware of paying $1,000+ for a licence key being such a thing back in 2014.

Given the choice I'd absolutely rather drive the Favorit pictured above!  However we've been lent this for free by my in-laws for the visit, so I can't really complain too much.  Especially as we have needed all 7 seats on a couple of occasions.

[egg]

Harry M says taken in 1980 - but surely that plate looks too new? 1990?

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 07/10/2022 at 18:11, EyesWeldedShut said:

My better half would like to know what is the car in the garage with the carboard boxes on the bonnet?

I have no idea myself tbh

you mean the Dolloposhite he bought the white one for spares?

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Harry M says taken in 1980 - but surely that plate looks too new? 1990?

I'm pretty sure plastic reflective plates were in use well before 1980. My dads old 1980 Cortina MK4 had them from new.

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Harry M says taken in 1980 - but surely that plate looks too new? 1990?

Just watched that. It is the older style square-edged plate and not the later rounded edge ones.

[yes oui si]

Test fit. Went well, just need to roll the arches a bit. 

[richardmorris]

Just watched Jonny sideburns YouTube  on Gordon Murray’s Ford. Car was interesting but they’re driving a lot on my commute roads to work. The GMD HQ is in the old LInde BOC building in windlesham.

 

 

[cobblers]

25 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Just watched Jonny sideburns YouTube  on Gordon Murray’s Ford. Car was interesting but they’re driving a lot on my commute roads to work. The GMD HQ is in the old LInde BOC building in windlesham.

 

 

I was looking forward to watching this. Very amusing to hear the behind the scenes story of Jonny nearly treading a dog egg into that escort when he got given the keys to drive it himself.

[cobblers]

1 hour ago, yes oui si said:

Test fit. Went well, just need to roll the arches a bit. 

3 spokes on everything please!!  (But wheels should always be silver) 

I am constantly keeping an eye out for some 17" antera 3 spokes in 4x100. I don't have a car to put them on.

[wuvvum]

Some progress made on the Maxus this weekend, in that I took it round to my welding mate to get the two bits on the inner sill patched up.  While I had the van up on ramps to slap underseal on the new bits of metal I also rubbed down and rust treated the other rear brake pipe - it didn't fail the MOT but looked a bit manky.  When I give the welding a second coat of underseal I'll also run a fingerful of grease over the brake pipe.  I've also tightened up the handbrake.

The bottom ball joint and the track rod end however continue to resist my efforts to remove them.  While I was round welding mate's we tried putting a spanner on the TRE lock nut and then jacking the other end of the spanner up with the trolley jack.  It started to lift the van, then the spanner broke.  Fuck me it's on there tight.  The bottom ball joint taper also still won't come out of its socket.  I actually wound the nut back on to the end of the taper bolt and then got the jack on it and jacked the van up so the entire weight of the front end was on the taper.  It didn't budge.  I belted the shit out of the wishbone with the lump hammer to see if that would shock it free.  Nope.  So it's back together again and I'm trying to think if there's anything else I can try before giving up and asking the garage to do the work.

I gave the Mazda an oil and filter change this afternoon.  It obviously hadn't been done for a while, but to my surprise the old oil filter actually unscrewed by hand - which was a relief as it was going to be awkward to get my BFO pliers in there and I couldn't find my strap wrench.  So it now has a sumpful of nice clean 20w50.  I also chucked in a bottle of STP stop leak stuff that I've had in the shed for ages - it might help slow down the leak around the rocker cover, we shall see.

I finally got round to changing the battery for the remote in the Peugeot key - the remote locking has been getting more and more temperamental.  It'll now unlock from the other side of the car park, which is a definite improvement.  I also found out that the spare key will quite happily unlock both doors via the keyholes - the main key will only do the passenger side, despite being ostensibly the same key.  Useful to know if the remote locking ever packs up.

As it was a nice warm (for mid October) evening I went for a ride on the Mobylette.

It was running well today - it had been bogging down a bit when pulling away last time I used it but it was fine this time.  I don't think the throttle slide is quite opening all the way though, I'll have to tweak that at some point - it seems to be maxing out at about 38 on the flat when it used to do more than that (although admittedly that was 25 years ago).

Then I went for a (push)bike ride to the beach.

It was starting to get dark by then - they'd even switched on the lighthouse.

Big ole moon on the way home too.

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Some progress made on the Maxus this weekend, in that I took it round to my welding mate to get the two bits on the inner sill patched up.  While I had the van up on ramps to slap underseal on the new bits of metal I also rubbed down and rust treated the other rear brake pipe - it didn't fail the MOT but looked a bit manky.  When I give the welding a second coat of underseal I'll also run a fingerful of grease over the brake pipe.  I've also tightened up the handbrake.

The bottom ball joint and the track rod end however continue to resist my efforts to remove them.  While I was round welding mate's we tried putting a spanner on the TRE lock nut and then jacking the other end of the spanner up with the trolley jack.  It started to lift the van, then the spanner broke.  Fuck me it's on there tight.  The bottom ball joint taper also still won't come out of its socket.  I actually wound the nut back on to the end of the taper bolt and then got the jack on it and jacked the van up so the entire weight of the front end was on the taper.  It didn't budge.  I belted the shit out of the wishbone with the lump hammer to see if that would shock it free.  Nope.  So it's back together again and I'm trying to think if there's anything else I can try before giving up and asking the garage to do the work.

I gave the Mazda an oil and filter change this afternoon.  It obviously hadn't been done for a while, but to my surprise the old oil filter actually unscrewed by hand - which was a relief as it was going to be awkward to get my BFO pliers in there and I couldn't find my strap wrench.  So it now has a sumpful of nice clean 20w50.  I also chucked in a bottle of STP stop leak stuff that I've had in the shed for ages - it might help slow down the leak around the rocker cover, we shall see.

I finally got round to changing the battery for the remote in the Peugeot key - the remote locking has been getting more and more temperamental.  It'll now unlock from the other side of the car park, which is a definite improvement.  I also found out that the spare key will quite happily unlock both doors via the keyholes - the main key will only do the passenger side, despite being ostensibly the same key.  Useful to know if the remote locking ever packs up.

As it was a nice warm (for mid October) evening I went for a ride on the Mobylette.

It was running well today - it had been bogging down a bit when pulling away last time I used it but it was fine this time.  I don't think the throttle slide is quite opening all the way though, I'll have to tweak that at some point - it seems to be maxing out at about 38 on the flat when it used to do more than that (although admittedly that was 25 years ago).

Then I went for a (push)bike ride to the beach.

It was starting to get dark by then - they'd even switched on the lighthouse.

Big ole moon on the way home too.

I'd definitely just get the garage to do it.  They've got all the tools (and an oxyacetylene torch) to deal with it and will probably take them half an hour.  

I've had a rule for a few years now that any jobs which involve unbolting bits of suspension or steering are jobs for someone else.  I've had too many rounded off or snapped bolts in critical locations which immobilised the car in my time to make it worth trying to save a few quid.

Ball joints were definitely one of the first things which got on that list after the absolute hell I've had changing them on several old Saab 900s!

[yes oui si]

4 hours ago, cobblers said:

3 spokes on everything please!!  (But wheels should always be silver) 

I am constantly keeping an eye out for some 17" antera 3 spokes in 4x100. I don't have a car to put them on.

They're getting repainted when I have the fitment sorted. 

I've got a set of 17x8 Antera 145s...

[reb]

8 hours ago, cobblers said:

(But wheels should always be silver) 

I respectfully disagree, white or gunmetal are both acceptable too.

 

Purple can get in the sea though.

[yes oui si]

2 hours ago, reb said:

I respectfully disagree, white or gunmetal are both acceptable too.

 

Purple can get in the sea though.

Gunmetal wheels always look dirty. 

Some purples are nice. These are a shite pinky purple with glitter in, and loads of runs and orange peel and bits flaking off. God knows what the previous owner was thinking... 

They were never going to stay this colour. 

[Rustybullethole]

Borrowed the newly fixed focus today as need to go in the ulez for a knee appointment and the ungrateful fucker has broken a spring on me. On the plus side it didn’t go through the tyre so has got me to appointment. Just ordered a set of springs looks old like me old knees will be getting more physio then haha

[davehedgehog31]

14 hours ago, yes oui si said:

Test fit. Went well, just need to roll the arches a bit. 

Assuming you have four of them, if you pop one at the bottom of your black wheelie bin each time it's emptied they'll be gone by Christmas.