The new news 24 thread

[egg]

Raised from my sick bed to hand over the keys for the Ford Fusion as it had its MOT retest today after new bearing and brake pipe fitted. All sorted. May be up for sale soon *I can hear your excitement* (you know its good future shite thou')

[Cavcraft]

Was it a picture of Bill Oddie and The Red Dwarf crew taking down the Sith from Star Wars with Matilda and Sir Killalot from Robot Wars?

The day I have science fiction pictures on my cars, especially anything to do with that dreadful crock of shit Red Dwarf will be the same day I declare my love for fox hunting, have Maggie Thatcher's face (micro) tattooed on my bell end and start an Iveco dealership up.

[outlaw118]

Not car related.... if anyone fancies a beer this weekend, I'm working at The Theobald Arms in Grays where we have a real ale/ beer festival on. https://whatpub.com/pubs/ESW/10932/theobald-arms-grays

 

GUARANTEE of Alfa in car-park, and probably the landlord's M3 in Dakar Yellow. Other shite may be visible.

[AlabamaShrimp]

Put a new steering wheel cover on today. They get chewed up by the disklok even though it's got some protective stuff on the inside. 

 

 

Forgot to take a pic while it was off but the normal low spec wheel is proper skinny and weird feeling. 

[xtriple]

Just tried to help a chap who was struggling to get an old Standard 10(?) up the road towards my gaff. It was coughing and stuttering and pouring out some very noxious fumes. Went and got him some fuel but it didn't  help, so had to leave him to it. Felt really guilty...

[sierraman]

Annual service completed on the Mondeo. Hour and a half oil changed, brake pipes cleaned up and waxoyled, brakes, tyres and suspension inspected. I suppose I could have saved myself an hour and a half a year and spent it all waiting for the RAC when it's chucked a leg out of bed on the M5 after a few years.

[andy18s]

.

[Bren]

I tracked down some eBay company who said they would do any graphics I wanted for my van.

Told them what I wanted and got 'We can't do that, sorry' as a response.

Tell them you want it for somebody else's van then.

[taxi paul]

Done my speed awareness course last night. Have to say it was very good and much nicer than £100 fine and three points. The chaps doing the course were very good and made it entertaining and not boring. It was at the holiday inn express hotel in Kirkby. I went to the suites hotel opposite at first. Now you know why I gave up Taxi driving 😊

[wuvvum]

DVLA are on the ball at the moment - V5 for the Alfa arrived in the post today.  I bought the car on Saturday.

[xtriple]

The dollop is going to have all its brakes skimmed on the car. There is a very (VERY!) slight vibration through the pedal at higher speeds that annoys me (what me, a fussy twat? Never...) and as new discs are £400 each for the fronts (big brake car) and 6 hours to change and the rears are the complete hubs with bearings and all sorts and are mega loads and 2 days labour to change, I thought this was the best option. Still £70 plus VAT per disc!

 

I have no idea how much this stay at the 'Spa' is going to cost and I am getting... worried!

[anonymous user]

Another example of how to run a Bentley on a shoestring (assuming your shoes are laced with uranium coated platinum)

[cort16]

It seems quite common practice to skim discs in the US and other places but you don't seem to see it happening much here. They have machines that can skim them on the car so you don't even need to take the discs off. A lot of discs get killed off because they have a ridge or a vibration when  there's still plenty meat on them so it seems like a decent idea especially for more expensive stuff.

 

[panhard65]

The garage I used to work in had one of those disc re-facing machines. I think it only came out of the box once when I used it to do the rear discs on my Jensen 541. It was such a faff to set it up that new discs were always the cheaper option if they were available.

[cort16]

It does look like a faff. I just thought it was odd it's quite common in the states where they;re so keen on just chucking stuff away if it's even 1/2 done in.

[cort16]

In other news my Randy Panda 100Hp is done. The running total is getting pretty close to what I would have paid to buy a decent one in the first place but ho-hum. It still needs the door fixed but I might nip up to the scrappies and see if they have one in black I can swap over.

[BavarianRetro]

The garage I used to work in had one of those disc re-facing machines. I think it only came out of the box once when I used it to do the rear discs on my Jensen 541. It was such a faff to set it up that new discs were always the cheaper option if they were available.

The slowest part of skimming discs on a lathe is truing them up. I'd be interested to see how they true them up to the (obviously not fixed)lathe on the car.

[panhard65]

The slowest part of skimming discs on a lathe is truing them up. I'd be interested to see how they true them up to the (obviously not fixed)lathe on the car.

It was a long time ago that I used it but it bolted on in place of the caliper and you set the grind stone against the disc then rotate the disc. I only used it to clean the discs as the car had been sat for 30 years. I really didn't trust it to do a decent job and only took the minimum off, it did however work with no noticeable judder afterwards.

[loserone]

A few months ago my father took his Auris to a local (chain) garage as the Toyota dealer had insisted he needed to spend a grand on discs all round, as they had a 'lip' on the outside.  Local garage declared the discs fine, and offered to take the lip off.

 

When I next saw the discs, the lips had been pretty carelessly taken off with an angle grinder, and they were scored randomly across the entire face.  

 

A re-facing machine or a lathe seems like a much better idea..

[spike60]

While the marks from the grinder don't sound very professional if it brakes ok they won't matter. The cast disc is soft and will soon wear away the marks, discs are pretty much disposable these days. I reckon skimming and grinding dates dack to old hard discs which were probably meant for asbestos type pads.

[cort16]

I've taken the lips of discs with a grinder before and it worked fine. That edge is the bit the pad never really gets to so if you're careful you can do it without really grinding the contact area. I think the proper re-facing lathe tools will fix warped discs, which seems to be the reason I always end up changing them.

[spike60]

Unless it's catching the wear sensor or wire the lip doesn't matter as far as I know but it is a handy guide to how much disc has worn away! Most car discs I change are worn thin or corroded, the only times I've had warped ones is the only times I bought Mintex. I change quite a lot of discs at work on commercials, they start 45mm thick, 1 or 2 pad sets take them to the  37mm must change thickness.

[xtriple]

There are quite a few of these 'on car skimmers' around. I was recommended a chap in London who I did ring but he didn't fancy a trip to Torquay! He suggested a few down here and Pollits of Exeter are doing it. Looking on the website, there are LOADS of garages with the machine locally.

 

It's got to be better than 2 or 3 grand on new discs? Fucking ridiculous prices for discs. I should learn to live with faults - I'd be both happier and better off!

[cort16]

I mean how they do they justify  3 grand for discs, it just doesn't compute? It's not like they're carbon ceramic or anything

[xtriple]

I mean how they do they justify  3 grand for discs, it just doesn't compute? It's not like they're carbon ceramic or anything

That's with the two day (for the rears) labour.  £400 for each front disc, £300 (ish I think, not looked for a while) for the rears, 6 hours labour to change the fronts, two days to do the rears.

 

So,

£1400 for discs.

£1760 labour

£632VAT

£3792. All in.... FUCKING OUCH!

[Lacquer Peel]

Are the rear discs inboard?!

[dave21478]

Inboard or not it shouldnt be taking TWO DAYS to change a pair of discs...I dont care how complicated the rear suspension is, thats taking the piss.

[cort16]

just do what classic bodgers of old did on jags and cut s hole in the boot floor then weld it up once the discs had been changed

[Lacquer Peel]

Inboard or not it shouldnt be taking TWO DAYS to change a pair of discs...I dont care how complicated the rear suspension is, thats taking the piss.

I've looked at pictures online and it doesn't look beyond DIY. I think the wheel bearing is in the disc like millions of Hondas.

[twosmoke300]

Even jag irs ones don't take 2 days - complete piss taking there I'm afraid