The new news 24 thread

[Talbot]

Just did my online MOT assessment- if I didn't do it before the end of March, I'd lose my ticket. Never want to go back to MOTing stuff, but don't want to lose the ability to.. a bit daft I suppose. Anyway- I had to revert to the manual a few times and managed to pass. Cost £35 quid too!

There are several garages near me that are advertising for MOT testers, and have been for a while. They simply cannot get anyone. The money they are offering is amazingly good too.. I was briefly tempted by it, only to discover that you need a bare minimum of 4 years experience working on the vehicle type that you're going to be testing. Nope.

[SierraMikeHotel]

Are you sure he hasn't sold it to you?

Still no reply to my message so I'm guessing not. Ah well, there will be another.

[oldcars]

Today I finally managed to get over to FORMER_CMS_TOWERS to finish the last of the cleanup before handing the house back - this should have been done last week but snow meant I couldn't get out the street.

 

Not that it mattered because the housing association offices were shut as well.

 

Anyway, this also meant the last of my stuff had to move from the old house.

 

Needless to say, boost pack on, check levels, key in... vroom! Decided to haul it up the garage tomorrow morning for a pre-MOT bellyrub as it's needed welding the last two years, but so far the only grump looks like a sticky brake on the nearside rear.

 

Are these 1.3 8v Mazda lumps non-interference? I seem to recall they are.

 

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I think they are, the B series on my Kia is. It has had one belt on mine but due another with age rather than miles.

[Parky]

I don't even know what engine you get in those things. Hate to be a whingy Top Gear post type, but I'm really trying to like it, but I'm just not really. The scripts are weak, and it's presented by an actor, who can only do one character. Also, the b*stards didn't include the 2CV segment that's causing much excitement amongst my friends.

Likewise I am trying to like it. I perked up a bit for the citycar segment (Ibiza, Fiesta, and Swift in the studio) but instead watched Reid and Harris have a reverse race and leaned NOTHING about the cars.

 

The electric motocross bikes looked good though although again it would have been nice to have learned about speed, range, charge times, and what licence you would need for one.

 

I dunno, Harris can drive, Reid is likeable, and I really want LeBlanc to do well with it but they just aren't really gelling to my untrained eyes. All the super budget stuff is fine but a little bit of reality would be good.

 

Ooh, just watching Bergerac and a nice early Supercinq just appeared. All distracted now

[Parky]

Jesus, first time I have seen Bergerac since a distant Sunday night in 1983 or thereabouts and it's French chod central! Like a Jean Marie Le Pen wet dream!

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Jesus, first time I have seen Bergerac since a distant Sunday night in 1983 or thereabouts and it's French chod central! Like a Jean Marie Le Pen wet dream!

 

John Nettles was a lot thinner back then......

[Parky]

Not sure Nettles would feature in Le Pens dreams but each to his own...

[MikeR]

FFS

 

the guy in the factory only had one job to do !!!

 

the dogs and I even saved the planet by walking to the shop !

 

[Guest Hooli]

The weekend was fun. That OMGSNOWCHOAS wasn't an issue really. Two hours stuck on the A69 due to an accident but the rest of the drive was ok going up on thursday. Nice blizzard too, I could see about 20ft for a few miles, but the good old Saab just plodded through it.

 

Coming back was just a lot of mist & fog.

 

Typical winter then & just panic on the news. All shops on Bute had sold out of bread though, so we had pies instead of sandwiches for that meal.

 

 

ETA: The Callpilot DAB thing is shite, it didn't manage to keep enough signal to play an entire song in either direction.

[xtriple]

Just had to apologise to Central Garage as I wrongly 'suggested' they fitted the strut brace the wrong way round. When you open you effin' eyes and not look when trying to stay upright in snow, you can see they fitted it perfectly correctly.

 

I am such a dick!

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

Chod bothering continues........... just landed at home. I'll get on it this evening I hope.

Flat tyre, none starting and trim coming away the top of the list. Interior is supposed to be in top notch state - pic's will be taken asap.

[Ghosty]

Volvo is losing its brakes on long runs. I think a vac hose is leaking.

[MikeR]

Volvo is losing its brakes on long runs. I think a vac hose is leaking.

on a 240 the vac hose to the servo would collapse on it self due to it getting hot and going soft  , stopping the flow of vac to the booster

 

try another vac hose

[Ghosty]

Sounds about right, it does it after about 20 miles when the car is up to temp.

[iainrcz]

Concerns arise for the old Peugeot on my drive after glancing at my security camera (I live in Grimsby) and noticing a pool of fluid.

Hmm.

 

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[beko1987]

Old? Where?

[iainrcz]

Old? Where?

It's an 11, ancient in today's financed must have new shit now world.

 

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[PhilA]

Just had to apologise to Central Garage as I wrongly 'suggested' they fitted the strut brace the wrong way round. When you open you effin' eyes and not look when trying to stay upright in snow, you can see they fitted it perfectly correctly.

 

I am such a dick!

Au contrère, that puts you in the not-a-dick category really. Being a dick would have not to have apologized to them. Far too many people wouldn't own up and fess up these days.

[DeeJay]

Just did my online MOT assessment- if I didn't do it before the end of March, I'd lose my ticket. Never want to go back to MOTing stuff, but don't want to lose the ability to.. a bit daft I suppose. Anyway- I had to revert to the manual a few times and managed to pass. Cost £35 quid too!

If you failed would get a free retest within a week?

[strangeangel]

Trevor Baylis has died... I have wound up my Baygen clockwork radio by way of a small tribute. They were used extensively in Africa for disseminating sexual health information in the days before satellite internet & widespread solar power. I wonder how many lives were saved by this relatively humble invention?

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Trevor Baylis has died... I have wound up my Baygen clockwork radio ...

Given that he never made much money from it, I wonder how many times his ideas were plagiarised by those who had no intention of paying any royalties?

[strangeangel]

Given that he never made much money from it, I wonder how many times his ideas were plagiarised by those who had no intention of paying any royalties?

 

Loads, which is why he went on to advise inventors on protecting their intellectual property. He got a CBE for that when, perversely, he should have had a knighthood for inventing the radios in the first place.

[twosmoke300]

If you failed would get a free retest within a week?

10 working days

[Bren]

Slaters of Abergele to close. Their vauxhall franchise will continue.

They are blaming a pension defecit.

[egg]

I check in with the ex-forum Favorit now and again, it's 'doing well'...

 

[richardmorris]

Sunday night, eight o'clock, BBC2 - yes it's Top Gear....

Another fucking McLaren first thing. Why can't they get Goffey back to review the Supercars, that'd be far less cliched. And I'd know how big the boot was

Both those mclarens were outside work at some point- p1oov is a regular. I’m quite blasé about them now, much preferring things like the mk1 xj6 on Italian plates they had last Wednesday.

[HH-R]

If you failed would get a free retest within a week?

And were there any advisories that the answers were close to the legal limit?

[cort16]

I just removed the radiator, Water pump and thermostat on the cortina in less time than it took me to remove about 2 hateful vag electrical clips when changing the rad on Mrs c's leon. I only needed 3 spanners it was actually quite pleasurable.

[twosmoke300]

Push in the connector to remove the pressure on the clip then pull the tab back . Vag connectors are fine once you have the knack

[cort16]

Not in my experience unfortunately