The new news 24 thread

[Guest Hooli]

Had to abandon the Jag in Tesco's car park there because it decided not to start 15 minutes before I was due to start work. The central locking fob works when it wants so I've just been using the key, unlocked it as normal, go to turn it on and it won't let me turn it to start, it's locked in position 2, I'm assuming the immobiliser has kicked in. Tried locking and unlocking the car again a few times but nothing, had to just phone an uber and go back to it tonight. Will try and research the problem in work. Fucking motors...

I forget which jag it is but wiggle the gearstick, it might be the interlock.

 

My old XJ40 required a tiny bit of back pressure on the stick if it'd been put into park too roughly.

 

They should start in N as well as P so that's worth a try too.

[SRi05]

I forget which jag it is but wiggle the gearstick, it might be the interlock.

 

My old XJ40 required a tiny bit of back pressure on the stick if it'd been put into park too roughly.

 

They should start in N as well as P so that's worth a try too.

Cheers mate, it's an XJ300. Will pass the message onto the missus who is en route to the bastard

[egg]

The PA is at Sandringham in the museum with quite a few other old Royal cars, including Charlie's MGC 18th birthday present and Phil The Greek's Alvis , still wearing OXR1. Which incidentally is now on his Windsor Freelander which was transported to Sandringham yesterday and he s been spotted out and about in today.

Wonder if he's got another spare at Balmoral?

 

OXR1 had done 26k miles at it's last MOT May 2018. Clean pass.

[DodgeRover]

Had to abandon the Jag in Tesco's car park there because it decided not to start 15 minutes before I was due to start work. The central locking fob works when it wants so I've just been using the key, unlocked it as normal, go to turn it on and it won't let me turn it to start, it's locked in position 2, I'm assuming the immobiliser has kicked in. Tried locking and unlocking the car again a few times but nothing, had to just phone an uber and go back to it tonight. Will try and research the problem in work. Fucking motors...

Waggle the auto selector. It might think it's not in park.

[SRi05]

Waggle the auto selector. It might think it's not in park.

Problem solved,  it was a loose battery terminal thank fuck. My missus has more brains than me and checked it before calling rescue. I'm a fanny, should have checked it myself this morning but in my defence, it was 6 in the morning, I had about 3 hours sleep last night, and immediately thought fuck this when it wouldn't turn over. The guy I was taking over from was on a 12 hour shift last night so didn't want to leave him waiting whilst I fucked about with my old shite. But anyway, the Jaaaag is back in action.

[Broadsword]

Good save. Your car never presented a problem with the park inhibitor switch but that will afflict them all at some point. On X300s the P on park must illuminate before you try starting the engine. Otherwise it work turn over. This is much more obvious in the dark. So if anyone suddenly sees their X300 suddenly not turn over, the last the P symbol on the gear selector illuminates and wiggle till it does if not.

[BorniteIdentity]

You know when you procrastinate for so long that things mount up into a mahoosive overwhelming wall of shit, and whatever the original issue was is now 1% of the drama you now face?

 

FML.

 

I will explain later once I’ve recovered from minus 5 and 3 hours of buggering about.

 

Meantime... have a little Sierra teASe.

 

[stuboy]

Decided id put new discs to go with the new pads i fitted last weekend.. time to christen the car park where misses moved too...

[RayMK]

I mentioned in another thread that I had bought back my son's Fiat Tipo 1.4ie which he had sold to a friend last August.  Its MOT was due on 23rd Jan, so it was put in for an MOT last week.  It failed on a few things and had a few advisories. After a further injection of cash (expected), the problems were sorted out and it now has a fresh MOT.  It was relatively easy to find new rear brake cylinders, rear brake shoes, new rear drums ('cos they were cheap, so why not?), new front discs and pads, a new front nearside spring and top swivel joint and a clip to re-clamp a cv boot - all for about £180, then about £200 to get the parts fitted.  In my more agile days I would have done all except the spring myself.  Now, I'm getting old and it's cold outside. Paying a garage is therefore a pleasure.

 

My enthusiasm for driving the Tipo was considerable after having parted with my Stellar last June and being confined to a modern hatchback with CVT.  Driving the Tipo home during the evening rush hour last week made me wonder whether I had taken leave of my senses.  The Tipo felt heavy - power steering and clutch in particular feeling much heavier than I remembered.  Since then, I've been driving it every day and have adjusted to the greater effort (or my muscles, pampered by modern lightness, have reawakened).  I like it.  It is so nice to be able to see out of the car, rather than the head waggling which is required when peering around the numerous blind spots in a modern.  I took a couple of photos in its winter grubbiness plumage during the brief appearance of some sun this morning. 

[puddlethumper]

In Halfords today purchasing diff oil and lady comes straight up to member of staff wanting to know about steering locks.

 

Story was that her keyless entry car had been nicked and recovered and now her insurers had said she needs to fit additional security. Wonder how often this had happened?

 

Oh and been watching a YouTube video about RS running gear in transit connect.. nice

Saw that vid as well and remembered having a 1969 Scrote van with all the running

gear from a Mk 2 Rs 2000. That was in 82. Just saying like.

[brownnova]

That feeling when you find another piece of chod in a car park, so you go all the way round again so you can park next to it!

 

[JJ0063]

Went to The Range this afternoon to buy a sponge to wash the cars because I’m skint and couldn’t justify £7 each for them at the Polish wash & go. Came out £43 lighter because there was a rug Amber likes for the lounge.

 

Washed the Mini and the Golf, got dark before I could hoover them.

 

I really want to sell the Golf and get a T5 day van, I also really want to sell the Golf and get a Discovery. I’m too skint to fuel either in all honesty. Got a loan finishing this year meaning I’ll be £214 a month better off so maybe then.

[New POD]

Daughter's Bini Cooper has been brought home from a weekend away on the back of an RAC truck.

Clutch failed at 97k

It's a 2001 car. How much do you reckon to have it fixed.???

[richardmorris]

Daughter's Bini Cooper has been brought home from a weekend away on the back of an RAC truck.

Clutch failed at 97k

It's a 2001 car. How much do you reckon to have it fixed.???

Is this a sweepstake? £250?

[RayMK]

Daughter's Bini Cooper has been brought home from a weekend away on the back of an RAC truck.

Clutch failed at 97k

It's a 2001 car. How much do you reckon to have it fixed.???

 

Before Googling it, I would not have expected it to be less than £400.  A brief Google without looking at details or dates suggests that a BMW main dealer would be after more than £1k, while a backstreet garage using non BMW parts might charge £450 or so.  DIY probably less than £100, but think of the suffering and cursing.

[stuboy]

Anyone want any large ford oval badges? Around 5" wide

any pic>?

[MikeR]

vid

 

 

 

looking at that , left arm , wallet rape and a lot of waiting

[RayMK]

vid

 

 

 

 

looking at that , left arm , wallet rape and a lot of waiting

 

'kinnell  .  Transverse engines are a real pain - there's so much clobber to get off before even starting the clutch replacement. I've only ever done two clutches: Reliant Regal - awkward because I did not have ramps, but straightforward enough, and a Renault 12.  The R12 was not too bad either because, although front wheel drive, it had a longitudinal engine and heaps of access.

[clayts450]

Finally got around to getting the crankshaft position sensor out of the 214 today, with the help of some dinky flexible head ratchet thingies. Twat of a place to get access to, and very undignified in getting it out with both feet off the ground and much stabbed wrists/arms - the new qualitee tools worked spendidly.

 

I'd heard horror stories of the main plug (which has a magnetic tip on it and is next to the flywheel, with two cutouts at 180 degrees, thus the position reading) refusing to come out, but it popped out perfectly.

 

Trying to fit a non-OE replacement, however, was not so straightforward. It was clearly something like a zillionth of an inch out because it simply did not fit, no matter what I did.

 

Sighed to myself, cleaned up the old one (covered in little engine shavings), popped it back in.

 

Took it for a razz and running a lot better, not sticking at 2000rpm. Of course the proof in the pudding was, would it restart, as a failing CPS hates a hot engine. First time, no bother. Two minutes later, struggled a bit but then fired. So a slight improvement, but still not a guaranteed win.

 

Will get a proper OE one from Rimmers and replace again.

 

Also have to work out what is sapping the battery - something is (my bet is the boot light) as the battery was down to 10.8V, which ain't good at all. Luckily my conveyor belt of ready charged 063 batteries had a willing replacement.

 

Hoping this week to get it up on a lift at local garage, to see if the rumbling/resonance/vibration below 2000rpm is just the exhaust and nothing more sinister.

[HillmanImp]

I can't get Meg running right. It's smoking like a tart and is unhappy when it's cold. Redid the timing today, as last time I did it with a misfire and didn't realise it had a vacuum advance but even after that and fecking around with the carb, I was still getting fumes galore out of the back.

 

I reckon it might be time to hand it over to someone who knows what they are doing for the sake of a few quid rather than me with all the gear but no idea. Hopefully easily sorted and nothing serious.

[TheClutchBasketPodcast]

My enthusiasm for driving the Tipo was considerable after having parted with my Stellar last June and being confined to a modern hatchback with CVT.  

 

This just made me sad...

[Mally]

Economy sponges are 50p in Halfords.

And they don't sell rugs.

[bramz7]

Don't suppose anyone on this fine forum is planning on selling an E36 this year? 6 cylinder preferred....

 

No rush at all, just want one to pair my E34.

 

 

I think I've gone the longest without buying a car since early 2017 now. Is that good or bad?!

[New POD]

vid

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bzOCWOmvgk

 

 

looking at that , left arm , wallet rape and a lot of waiting

I dare not watch. Cavalier was a 30 minute job. Why aren't all gearboxes like the Vauxhall F16-5

[wuvvum]

Been attempting to do some house fettling this weekend - the storage heater in the master bedrom wouldn't turn on as the switch wouldn't budge, so I took it to bits to see what was what.  Nothing obviously stuck, and when I put it loosely back together it was switching fine, so screwed it all back to the wall and lo and behold it was stuck again.  Pressed a bit harder and the switch flicked over but felt "wrong", so back off the wall it came - turned out that by pressing hard on the switch I'd snapped off the two little spring-loaded plastic nubbins on the back of the switch rocker which move the contacts.  I think they may have been what caused the problem in the first place, as they are supposed to be spring loaded but the springs didn't seem to be doing much.  So I went out and spunked £2.79 on a replacement switch, which I'm going to wire up next weekend.  I'm not a sparky and I've never done owt with storage heaters before, but there's only six wires so WCPGW (apart from burning the house down obvs)?

 

Took the battery off the Audi and put it on charge as it's going in to have its tracking done first thing tomorrow.  Battery back on the car and it only just managed to fire up from cold, so I think the battery has had it.  I swapped it with the battery off the Rover of Doom which is a similar-ish size, and it's fine now.  The Rover won't even attempt to start on the Audi's battery, which suggests that the Audi is a better starter in cold weather - I think the Rover could probably do with a set of glowplugs, I did them a couple of years ago but they were cheap eBay jobs and I don't think they last very long.

 

The Lancia had been worrying me a bit as it had been losing a significant amount of coolant the last few times I took it out, which is rarely a good sign.  However a bit of poking around revealed that the culprit was a jubilee clip on one of the coolant pipes which had rusted through and given up the ghost - obviously it was one of the least accessible ones, but after a fun half hour of crawling around under the car on the freezing cold ground it's now been replaced with a nice shiny new stainless steel clip, and normal service will hopefully now be resumed.

[GeordieInExile]

 

Heh...stupid modern.

 

Nice clamp on the other side of it.

[New POD]

I dare not watch. Cavalier was a 30 minute job. Why aren't all gearboxes like the Vauxhall F16-5

2 quotes this morning.

 

£425 Done on Thursday. (Probably means it will be done on Friday)

Or

£500 We'll bring it in Tomorrow and as soon as there's a space on the lift we will do it. We have someone off sick but he should be back tomorrow. (I don't like the vagueness)

 

Have dealt with both previously and feel that the 1st is a better bet, regardless of price.

[bramz7]

Speak to Supernaught.

 

Good call. Let's see what 2019 brings....

[dozeydustman]

Not done much over the weekend as I've had no inclination to do bugger all since our shitty news last Thursday.

 

At least I've managed to get my Commodore 64 working and adjusted the new drive belts on the Corolla as stepdaughter is embarrased by the squeal they made.

[New POD]

Clutch on my Maxi was about a five minute job from memory - but that was when we still had the whole gearbag under the engine (rather than off one end) thing.

But the General Motors gearboxes from the 80s and nineties had an access plate and could be done fairly quickly.

There was a shaft that had to be pulled out at one end of the gearbox which meant removing a wheel.

It makes me erm......shudder to think how far we have regressed.