The new news 24 thread

[RayMK]

Today I was presented with this excellent edible Reliant by my son, made by one of his colleagues from work. It made reaching 70 with a Reliant more bearable (i.e. possible ?).   

[richardmorris]

Happy birthday.  How old is the reliant? ( and who is in better shape?!).

[RayMK]

Just now, richardmorris said:

Happy birthday.  How old is the reliant? ( and who is in better shape?!).

Thank you. The Reliant is 58 years old and probably more stable?.

[richardmorris]

Anyone else see car journeys last night with Christopher Timothy and  Peter Davison? Driving who1 round Beaulieu and the Jurassic Coast in amorgan.

[High Jetter]

MHROTD! I'd say that edible Reliant is very passable - a bit like real ones are!

[Cord Fourteener]

57 minutes ago, RayMK said:

Today I was presented with this excellent edible Reliant by my son, made by one of his colleagues from work. It made reaching 70 with a Reliant more bearable (i.e. possible ?).   

Gorgous!

[Cord Fourteener]

59 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

Man, the early unmolested 924 is such a nice design.

Yes, quite the tear-drop lines and wide stance. Feels like you are sitting on the road at first, then you forget then you pass another vehicle and you remember. I remember looking up to talk to my friend in a Kia Piccanto like I was talking to a lorry driver.

It's a joy to drive around.

[Amishtat]

A few from a local meet this morning. 

 

 

[xtriple]

After my prophecy of the other day re the battery, I was proved a damn sight more clairvoyant than Mystic Meg as the car refused to start this morning - half hearted churn for a second or two and then, nuffin   As Chester was dancing around on the end of his lead and making irritated noises (he makes noises for everything!) I was going to leave it and walk to the shop, but as the pain in the old spine has been fairly horrendeous of late, changed my mind and got the jump pack out of the boot. Nice neat port on the drivers side to connect leads to so should be a piece of piss, but no, for some reason, the jump pack leads wouldn't mae a decent connection so had to dig out the battery itself.

Once I did that, battery was found, all connected up and away she went.

And away we went to Halfords. I could have waited until tomorrow but why bother? They open today purely for the benefit of the likes of me (lazy old fuckers) and so I bought a new battery and had a very nice young lady fit it for me! Cost £15 to have it fitted and £120 for the battery but after judicious use of the 'Trade card' the whole bill was £88.60 which I thought was a bargain. She was nice but slow and told fibs- I asked her to connect a 'code saver' which I could have done myself and so after faffing about fetching another battery she plugged into the OBD port (?)  wich surprised me somewhat. She made a meal of changing the bad  boy but got there in the end but of course, all the codes had gone and the roof wouldn't work.

Ho hum...

Still gave her a tip though and didn't make a song and dance about it, usually on Mercs it's a case of the windows need to be reset before the roof works which is really REALLY difficult - you put the windows to the top and hold the buttun up for 5 seconds and then one touch works and so does the roof. That was the case today and so 30 secods and all sorted (though the radio has lost its codes for station presets which, as I never listen to the radio is hardly heart breaking   and saved the poor lass from having a melt down as she looked proper sttressed by it all.

 

[dollywobbler]

Bye cars.

CityRover will also get a cover, but it's still got one run to the unit to do. That'll be at about 7am tomorrow morning. Then I'm on a coach for a scary number of hours on the way to that there London. Not sure what my comms will be like once I fly on Tuesday, but will try to report in.

[SierraMikeHotel]

Anyone here own two Talbots, a Solara and a Horizon? One had RAC in the reg, didn't have my phone on me for a pic.

[stuboy]

Positive delivered tools to get on with the shalaxy driveshaft...

And for bacefook page I'm on took some pics of the car and missus( who thinks  she's fat and ugly, the female mind..lol )

[BorniteIdentity]

Happy Birthday, @RayMK ! Brilliant cake. Hope you’ve had a good day.

[barefoot]

I have just seen the future, in the daily mail.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7592485/Father-eight-invents-electric-car-battery-drivers-1-500-miles-without-charging-it.html

[Cord Fourteener]

1 minute ago, barefoot said:

I have just seen the future, in the daily mail.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7592485/Father-eight-invents-electric-car-battery-drivers-1-500-miles-without-charging-it.html

Sounds just epically awesome, shame it's in the Daily Hate Mail because I simply don't believe anything they write. The article doesn't even cite any sources, which means that I have to dig to see if it's utter codswallop or not.

I hope it's actually based on something (Which for the Daily Hate Mail would be a refreshing change) as a leap forward in battery tech has been mooted and is long over-due...

[LightBulbFun]

6 hours ago, RayMK said:

Today I was presented with this excellent edible Reliant by my son, made by one of his colleagues from work. It made reaching 70 with a Reliant more bearable (i.e. possible ?).   

Happy birthday

I love the cake! I hope it was as yummy as it looks 

[busmansholiday]

6 hours ago, RayMK said:

Today I was presented with this excellent edible Reliant by my son, made by one of his colleagues from work. It made reaching 70 with a Reliant more bearable (i.e. possible ?

 

The first car my dad bought was a Mk 6 Reliant in that very same blue. Reg was, IIRC, 6307WA, think it was about 1961. I can remember the first trips in it with my younger sister, and her being car sick. Went all over in it ( and broke down a few times), four adults (mum, dad, grandad and grandmar) sis and I plus the dog. 

That pic really does bring back many happy memories.

Happy birthday, may you have many more.

[RobT]

The alternator in my S60 packed up last weekend.  Being 100 miles away I needed recovery home, and Autoaid did the job.  Kiltok of this parish also assisted by giving up his Sunday morning and helping with diagnostics.  A+ shiter, cheers m8.

£73 later for a refurbed replacement and I was dreading doing it, but cracked on today.  Ancillaries moved/removed.

Interesting* photo of the shiny new one in situ.

Despite the fact it took me all fuggin' day because I'm a slow coach, there were no major dramas and the process was quite logical.  Thank you Volvo.  I was almost afraid to start the car in case the aux belt shredded or slipped off, but all seems well.

Now the electric boot release doesn't work, but I'll leave that for another day.  I also noticed it needs a ball joint, after investigating the occasional front end knock last week.  It never bloody stops, does it. 

However, I mustn't forget this car took us to Sweden and back recently without fault, so I feel lucky the alternator decided to shat itself in Lechlade rather than Malmo...

[wuvvum]

Got a new front drop link fitted to the A2 on Saturday - fairly drama-free considering, in fact it would have been a 10-minute job had some gibbon not torqued the nuts up to about 400 ft-lb.  Still probably the easiest droplink swap I've ever done - and it's cured the knock from the front suspension.  I haven't managed to sort the slight hesitation yet - it was previously showing up a code for the MAP sensor, but I cleared that code and it hasn't returned.  I did have a look for the MAP sensor but couldn't spot it in the engine bay - anyone have any ideas?

I'd also bought a drop link for the V70 which was also clonking from the nearside front.  Last time I drove it though the clonking had got a lot worse - too loud to be  a drop link - and the steering was feeling odd and occasionally going into a wobble. 

Didn't take too much investigation to find the issue:

That was just with me pushing against the front wheel with my knee, with all four wheels still on the ground.  So I need a strut top mount.  Unfortunately in order to get the strut out I need to remove the drop link anyway - had a go this afternoon and got the top nut about half way undone before the Allen socket in the end of the bolt rounded out.  To be fair there wasn't much thread left on that bit of the bolt.  So I think the dremel will have to come out, but that can wait until I've got the new top mount.

The other thing I was hoping to get done this weekend was to trace the source of the battery drain on the LDV.  Except that when I connected the multimeter with everything switched off, it was showing a drain of 70 mA, which is not going to drain a 95AH battery in the space of a few days.  So that's going to need some more thought, which is annoying.

[Royale80]

Clutch on the wife’s Focus has started slipping quite a bit-been nursing it for 8 months. Had the car 7 years and 70000 miles-it’s now on 110000. Apart from the clutch, power steering pipes and a wheel bearing its been super reliable. Also a petrol. In for a clutch on Wednesday. The car is not worth much- but if hopefully I can get a few more years out of it. Paid £2000 for it 7 years ago.

[andy18s]

9 hours ago, RobT said:

The alternator in my S60 packed up last weekend.  Being 100 miles away I needed recovery home, and Autoaid did the job.  Kiltok of this parish also assisted by giving up his Sunday morning and helping with diagnostics.  A+ shiter, cheers m8.

£73 later for a refurbed replacement and I was dreading doing it, but cracked on today.  Ancillaries moved/removed.

Interesting* photo of the shiny new one in situ.

Despite the fact it took me all fuggin' day because I'm a slow coach, there were no major dramas and the process was quite logical.  Thank you Volvo.  I was almost afraid to start the car in case the aux belt shredded or slipped off, but all seems well.

Now the electric boot release doesn't work, but I'll leave that for another day.  I also noticed it needs a ball joint, after investigating the occasional front end knock last week.  It never bloody stops, does it. 

However, I mustn't forget this car took us to Sweden and back recently without fault, so I feel lucky the alternator decided to shat itself in Lechlade rather than Malmo...

Is that belt fitted the right way round?

Or am i missing something?

[barefoot]

944 with shitty idle, no power & curious water consumption collected and taken away for repair this morning...

[RobT]

5 hours ago, andy18s said:

Is that belt fitted the right way round?

Or am i missing something?

There are grooves either side, as it loops around various pulleys.  I think the way it goes over the alternator means it has to be.

@wuvvum I'm sure you know this already, but the internet recommends getting the more robust XC90 strut top mount and bush as a replacement.  From memory it was only a few quid more.  I wimped out and gave that job to my mechanic.

[Bren]

Dropped the 545 off this morning - took me 3 hours to get to Nuneaton from Warrington. I hope they don't find anything amiss other than the valve stem seals....

[17-Coffees]

In the undercover parking at the other half’s apartment, I saw this in the space next to hers

The grill and way the cover sits around the front wings caught my eye, as well as the long bonnet. Asked her about it and said it’s been parked there undercover for as long as she’s been here (a few years) which got me interested. More so as could see the years of cobwebs around the wheels.
Im respectful so as much as I wanted to lift the cover a bit for a peek I resisted, also it’s rural USA and I don’t fancy getting shot. But had an idea of what it could be...

Yesterday it was clear so have a quick walk around and my suspicions were correct, as could make out the badge under the cover!

I’m 99% sure it’s a early model of the 2000’s gen Maserati Quattroporte!

Considering the fact this is rural Oregon, my guess is bought cheap, something broke and now it’s became a 2 tonne luxobarge paperweight as it’s too much to repair? Low cost, but liability much? 

[skattrd]

Not really news, but potential news... There are two cars on my ebay watch list which I am considering bidding on tomorrow. No spoilers, but they have a few things in common, both being many hours away by train and £70 being the cheapest advance split ticket train fare away. 

[wuvvum]

Coincidentally, I'm currently kicking myself for not bidding on something on my eBay watch list which was many hours and £70+ away by train, and which went for such an absurdly low price that even with the cost of collection it would still have been a bargain.

[egg]

Not that big Merc on the tat thread?

[wuvvum]

The very same.  300 quid for an MOT'd and running diesel M-Class is just silly.

[stuboy]

Today's plan is to fix the shalaxy...

Hoping for an early start... but missus needs me to take youngest stepson to his swimming class booster session... 

 

Not like I'm busy ffs