The new news 24 thread

[Fumbler]

With a page border of warning and hazard triangles.

[xtriple]

Odd I commented right after xtriple and my post was aimed at him. I didn't get a warning anyone else had posted like I normally do.

I saw it and liked it. I did wonder the same myself but googling has just thrown all manner of nasty (expensive) circuit board faults - poo!

[Kiltox]

Surely you should get some kind of special award if a car fails its first ever MOT?

If my van doesn’t fail it’s first in Jan I’ll be amazed

[xtriple]

Oh yes, while we are having a grump, I took the heap for a run round the block just to see what's what and the roof lining, already sagging on one side, fell completely upon ones swede!

 

I wouldn't mind so much but this roof lining is one of the new fandango fibreglass jobbies that is supposed to be 'excellent'!

 

It fair flattened my spikes...

[Guest Hooli]

I saw it and liked it. I did wonder the same myself but googling has just thrown all manner of nasty (expensive) circuit board faults - poo!

 

Time for a posh soldering iron & an enjoyable* evening of sorting it then? Something to look forward to about as much as I did when I had to cut open the fuseboxes on my XJ40 to fix them.

[xtriple]

Time for a posh soldering iron & an enjoyable* evening of sorting it then? Something to look forward to about as much as I did when I had to cut open the fuseboxes on my XJ40 to fix them.

Sadly oh great and wise Hooli, I cannot solder to save my life! I have tried and tried with a variety of cheap/expensive irons and I would be better off just setting fire to the item to be soldered at the outset! I can weld with Gas, Mig and stick, I can braze with gas, but soldering is one of those 'blindspots' we sometimes have. Oh yeah, I have also had some small (very small) success welding aluminium fins back on a 2 stroke engine casing!

 

In other news, I have had a pretty shitty day so while buoyed by my lack of success I have attacked my hair with the hedge trimmers (clippers) and sorted out my rampant beard back to my usual scruffy goatee. I have been a trifle 'down' of late and so I tend to let my appearance go (no great loss) and forget to eat. When my son came down at the last weekend, he gave me a severe bollacking for how thin I am, I must admit, I am beginning to look a little like a starvation case - well under 11 stone now and my 32" belt, which already had an extra hole punched thru, is too loose again.

 

Obviously, while shaving I actually had to look in a mirror (not for the feint hearted) and it seems my face is disappearing into my cheeks and wrinkles are now adorning my previously smooth and unlined face   Oh well...

[Guest Hooli]

Ahh I'm the other way. I can solder ok but welding is a black art of the impossible that I can not fathom.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

...When my son came down at the last weekend, he gave me a severe bollacking for how thin I am, I must admit, I am beginning to look a little like a starvation case - well under 11 stone now and my 32" belt, which already had an extra hole punched thru, is too loose again....

It may not be too late to retrain as a jockey....

 

Ahh I'm the other way. I can solder ok but welding is a black art of the impossible that I can not fathom.

Same here. I solder etched brass and nickel-silver kits - lead-free solder is useless and I avoid it; only traditional poisonous solder for me.

 

 

 

[HMC]

Me too. Reminds me of a very old Des quote about welding being like trying to shove something up a badgers bum. Or something like that.

[Guest Hooli]

Wet spaghetti wasn't it?

[Kiltox]

ECP/CP4L strike again

 

Was going to order one of those AC cleaning bomb things - aerosol you let go off with the AC and recirc on.

 

CP4L being an online only outfit offer free delivery, nice.

 

“Sorry, we can’t deliver this item. Our couriers class it as “Dangerous Goods””

 

Why offer it?!?

[Kiltox]

...... just ordered the same thing for delivery on eBay...... from ECP

[cobblers]

Every time my Abarth was in the garage they tried to sell me an air con cleanse for £69, which was just one of these bombs. Even when it went in at a few weeks old for some warranty work "Recommend aircon cleanse £69"

 

 

They do work OK on old stinky cars mind, but change the pollen filter first

[Kiltox]

I’ve used one before on an old stinky car and it did work well - £69 is a joke though. They’re £5 and you run them unattended!

[stuboy]

Nothing exciting other than friend not used his car for 9 days and wanted me to drive it from ashford to canterbury so he could go into morrisions

[BavarianRetro]

Ahh I'm the other way. I can solder ok but welding is a black art of the impossible that I can not fathom.

If you (XTriple) can weld and braze with gas, you can solder.

[wuvvum]

Off work today so got a few bits done - not as much as I'd intended as despite getting up early (to go to the dentist - all good on the tooth front thankfully) I didn't actually get off my arse and start doing stuff until about 12.

 

Fitted a split CV boot to the Rover 45 - a lot of people seem to think that these are the spawn of Satan but I've never had a problem with them - the one I fitted to the Rover of Doom is still doing sterling service four years later.  The old boot was a bit of a twat to get off and because it had been split for quite a while there was grease everyfuggingwhere, so I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up bits of suspension, but the new one went on easily enough.  Except that the two jubilee clips I'd bought to hold the fat end on (couldn't find a single clip long enough) wouldn't fit together - they were the same size and on the same rack in the shop, packaging was slightly different but I didn't take a lot of notice of that, but turns out they are completely different threads and thus not compatible - so I'll have to go and buy another one tomorrow, but that should be a 10 minute job.  Then I can book it in for a test - hopefully get it in this week so I have time to sort out whatever it might need by the weekend.

 

I just managed to catch the courier delivering the new wishbone for the Audi before he buggered back off up the road, so I fitted that this afternoon as well.  It was a perfect fit and would have been another 10-minute job were it not for the fact that the (separate) ball joint is adjustable (presumably to enable some camber adjustment) and it took me a while to get it fixed in the same place as the old one - especially since tightening the bolts was a two-handed job ('cos Nyloc nuts) so I didn't have a free hand to hold the thing in place.  Got there eventually though.  Tomorrow's job is to whip the NS wishbone off and see if that's any more receptive to the idea of being fitted with new bushes than the OS was.

 

I've also been having a bit of a poke around my fancy* new* van.

 

 

It's a bit scruffy and the paint is somewhat pogweaseled in places, but that bothers me not a jot - in fact I prefer my vans to be slightly on the scruffy side.  It's surprisingly dent free for a Maxus though. 

 

It does have a few issues which will want sorting - the heater fan doesn't work (which is less than ideal at this time of year), it needs a tyre, and the offside back door needs sorting as it's rather bent and the latch mechanism is off (it had to be broken into when the previous owner's apprentice locked the keys in there), and it's currently held more or less closed with a padlock.  Also the EDC light is on, but the code reader isn't showing any faults and the van is not down on power, so I'm going to assume it's the diesel filter which needs changing (it does look pretty ancient to be fair).

 

None of those are complaints - the seller was up front with most of the issues, and for what I paid for the van the fact that it's MOTd and capable of forward motion is more than enough - anything else is a bonus (including the DAB radio - the first time I've ever had a digital radio in a vehicle - can't tell you if the sound quality is any better though as it's playing through the original LDV speakers which are shite).  The seller reckoned he'd taken it to a garage who had looked at the heater fan and determined that the motor is OK, it's the switch / resistor pack which is FUBAR - so I'm probably going to just wire in a separate switch for now anyway.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

The AA are just after bringing the CX back home (grand service, fellas!), so it'll sit here until the workshop calls it in, which leaves me with the problem of getting it there without another gearbox FTP.

[New POD]

Sadly oh great and wise Hooli, I cannot solder to save my life! I have tried and tried with a variety of cheap/expensive irons and I would be better off just setting fire to the item to be soldered at the outset! I can weld with Gas, Mig and stick, I can braze with gas, but soldering is one of those 'blindspots' we sometimes have. Oh yeah, I have also had some small (very small) success welding aluminium fins back on a 2 stroke engine casing!

 

In other news, I have had a pretty shitty day so while buoyed by my lack of success I have attacked my hair with the hedge trimmers (clippers) and sorted out my rampant beard back to my usual scruffy goatee. I have been a trifle 'down' of late and so I tend to let my appearance go (no great loss) and forget to eat. When my son came down at the last weekend, he gave me a severe bollacking for how thin I am, I must admit, I am beginning to look a little like a starvation case - well under 11 stone now and my 32" belt, which already had an extra hole punched thru, is too loose again.

 

Obviously, while shaving I actually had to look in a mirror (not for the feint hearted) and it seems my face is disappearing into my cheeks and wrinkles are now adorning my previously smooth and unlined face Oh well...

I have a soldering certificate from Lucas Automotive.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Nothing exciting other than friend not used his car for 9 days and wanted me to drive it from ashford to canterbury so he could go into morrisions

 

 

But the road from Ashford to Canterbury can be very exciting if you boot it...

[Richard]

Surely you should get some kind of special award if a car fails its first ever MOT?

 

It's still quite common, one in six cars fail the first MOT according to the article I've just looked up. I think it was over half at one time.

[SiC]

I think the TT needs a new battery. This is after not being used for the last couple of days. Admittedly ignition is on in this picture, but with ignition off it was 11.97v.

[Guest Hooli]

That's just a fluke.

[DodgeRover]

Have you tried giving it a good charge off the car? If there is a smart* alternator fitted it may not want to charge a flat battery..

[davehedgehog31]

Beaten to it on the suspension arms........ deathly bad so please do check! 

Inner wings lower down rust through too - subframe mounts go quite badly and result in great* handling quirks. 

Ex had one - it was rotten and fucked underneath by the time it was 5yrs old - she bought it new!....... of course I wasn't there when the garage ripped her off for repairs*. They didn't put it back together again properly - the welding they did was horrendous - and the entire intake manifold came off while we were on the motorway....... Managed to get into a services and buy an adjustable and socket set  and bodged it together. It had mullered the cable to throttle so I ripped apart the rear wiper and used the metal strip insert to mangle it. Got us the 50KM home. 

 

Sadly it was stolen* and burned out - right in front of the garages workshop access - that had done the previous work...... legal case for shoddy/not done work went on for almost 4yrs..... 

 

Understandably I can't stomach the little fuckers now - worst vehicle I have ever come into contact with......... 

 

Hope yours is a good one! 

 

At a glance *touch underseal* it looks OK but I'll certainly be keeping a beady eye on it.

 

It just went through it's MOT. It doesn't owe me much, if it can soldier on through the winter and bring me scrap money then it isn't the end of the world but I think there's a lot more life in it than that. 

 

I'm really taken by it, in contrast to your unfortunate experience, the heater/ventilation is magic and it's about the narrowest thing I've driven so can be parked anywhere you wish. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I'd bought it new over a three year old Fabia or something right enough.  It's pretty rustic.

[alcyonecorporation]

 

Ex bramz7 605 serr dert has turned out to be something of a gem.

[panhard65]

My 806 went for mot today. I really thought it was the end after nearly 3 years of ownership, but it looks like it will live again !!!!!. This year it actually failed on the power steering leak (I will admit it had got a little worse lately) and a ball joint gaiter. So for the sake of a couple of o rings on the steering pipes and a ball joint boot the poor old thing lives for another year. It has been such a great car after buying it off here for £150 (I think). It looks rough as a badgers arse but just keeps going and going. Maybe this year it will get a bit of love and the new exhaust that has been bodged up for the last year or so. I might even send the instrument panel off to fix the rev counter and mileometer that packed in a couple of months ago. (I am sending a Focus one off for repair on Monday so might get a better deal having it done at the same time). I really thought it would die this year and even went as far as buying a C8 to replace it with. Now I don't know what to do but suspect the C8 will be up for sale if anyone wants one.

[Ghosty]

Old Man is busy rattle canning knackered wheeltrims and sticking the GSi's headlining back up with contact adhesive. It's an improvement, it needed doing. Not a perfect job but passable. The car is a bit rough around the edges anyway so it's not out of place.

 

Anyone in need of a WBoD?

[Richard]

 

Ex bramz7 605 serr dert has turned out to be something of a gem.

 

Is that New Lanark?

[andy18s]

Took a ru up into the mountains today

No issues with the Legacy over some rough roads even by Bulgarian standards

Cracking views at the top too!