The new news 24 thread

[dozeydustman]

Doing something vaguely car related for the first time in a while

[andy18s]

Renewed the Ml270's insurance on friday for the outrageous amount of £150 all in

Decided to give it an early xmas treat

 

[320touring]

Have you ran said tub on veg? I'm tempted to try mine on it. Apparently they can take 70/30 veg/derv

[andy18s]

Not yet but with diesel only costing 88ppl I doubt there's much saving....

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Just after running the CX up the M1/A5183 to Kensworth, to drop off some mobility aids for recycling, and back. Nothing happened, apart from an occasional tendency for the coolant warning light to come on, and then go out again.

Quite relaxed at 60mph (2700/2800 rpm); no need to go quicker. Not particularly economical anyway - 55 miles takes a quarter tank.

Will run again tomorrow. 

[wuvvum]

Got the strut top mount changed on the V70 this afternoon.  It actually went relatively smoothly, only thing I struggled to get undone was the top nut which holds the mounting onto the strut - I had to put the strut back on the car temporarily to get enough leverage.  Also the drop link was a twat to get off - ended up having to hacksaw it, except that I couldn't get a hacksaw in at the strut end due to mounting lugs being in the way.  So I bought one of those handles that just holds a hacksaw blade at one end, and went at it from an angle - the blade now has a permanent bend in it where it was going round the strut, but it cut through it eventually.  The ARB end was a bit easier, although that involved having the track rod end through the middle of the hacksaw so still not ideal.

I had to get everything back together fairly quickly though - there is the 21mm hex nut at the top of the strut which holds the mounting on, then below the mounting plate there is a "star" nut which holds the spring seat in place - except it didn't appear to be doing a particularly good job and once the top mount was removed the spring seat began to take on an increasingly jaunty angle - so I put everything back together loosely then got the strut back on the car before tightening everything up, as I was slightly worried that I was going to end up with a coil spring pinging across the car park.  The new drop link went on easily enough.  I'm going to take it for a proper test drive tomorrow to see if the knocking / wobble has been cured.  I'm not entirely happy with the condition of the top spring seat though - it's looking decidedly crusty in places.  If I end up keeping the car long term I might look at fitting a complete secondhand strut.  (The alternative to that is replacing the spring seat, but that involves using spring compressors which give me teh fearz.)

Sadly I think this might have been the last rodeo for my trusty old trolley jack.

I bought it from Aldi for a tenner about 15 years ago and have been using and abusing it ever since, so I think it's fair to say I've had my money's worth.  I've asked for a new jack from Santa.

[Cavcraft]

Bee in a biscuit tin ride out today, toy run to the hospital.

 

 

Possibly the only GS425 left on the road, didn't get to speak to the owner. Two t-shirts, one hoodie, two coats and still fucking freezing.

[clayts450]

Nail in 214 tyre - looks like borderline (probably not IMHO) for a repair - what do we think:

[Cavcraft]

Anyone do vulcanised repairs by you, Clayts? That would certainly fix that. You'd quite possibly get it repaired by the usual manner, too. Definitely worth a try.

[BorniteIdentity]

[stuboy]

Trip to see some friends and couple cars in front had near miss with some overseas drivers..

 

 

[Saabnut]

Today was the 12th annual UKSaabs Christmas meet. 27 attendees and examples of 96, 99, 800, 9000, 9-3 and 9-5. A great day out.

[richardmorris]

44 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Trip to see some friends and couple cars in front had near miss with some overseas drivers..

 

 

Language Timothy!

[egg]

@stuboy - hate that roundabout - it is easy to be in the wrong lane. But still awful driving!

[adw1977]

I can never understand people diving across lanes to take an exit at the last moment.  Just go round the roundabout, the exit will still be there second time around!

[Amishtat]

Went to a local meet this morning, better turnout than I was expecting all things considered but I didn't get many pictures. Unrestored 38 Ford absolutely entranced me, it sounded sweet as a nut when it departed. 

[wuvvum]

Well the strut top replacement on the V70 hasn't exactly been a roaring success.  It seems to have lost the death wobble through the steering, even when driven at mildly illegal speeds down thunderously shit back roads, but it's still clonking like a bastard over bumps.  I'm still debating whether to buy a replacement spring seat piece and fit it myself, which involves scary spring compressors (which I don't own but can borrow off a mate) or buy a complete secondhand leg off eBay - there's always the risk that a used leg won't be a lot better than the one I've got, and it's also a bit more expensive to do it that way, but on the plus side it's a 30-minute job to just swap legs over.  We shall see.  For an MOT it also needs the nearside rear door looking at (won't open at all), the handbrake is pants and the rear silencer has fallen off - plus whatever else MOT man finds.  On the plus side it seems mechanically fine and still GLF when asked.  But at the end of the day it's a battered 18-year-old Volvo with 270K on the clock so not worth spending vast sums of money on.

My attempt to bleed the clutch on the Sonata was also a failure - I couldn't get the bleed nipple undone.  They're a concentric slave cylinder on these which lives inside the bellhousing, but there's a bleed nipple at the end of a bit of pipe that sticks out through the bellhousing.  Problem is that said pipe feels a tad flimsy, and the bleed nipple is rather tight, so I'm pretty sure the pipe would have snapped before the nipple came loose.  Ho hum.  Guess I won't be driving it down to my parents' at Christmas then - it'd be a right twat if I got caught in traffic.

On a more positive note, the seat cover I bought for the Elantra arrived and has been fitted - it's a decent fit and definitely takes the chill off the leather when it's cold (as it was today).  Also the sat nav in the 75 has started working again.  And my washing machine randomly decided it was going to work today, which saved me a trip to the launderette and £4.50 - I'm leaving it switched on now as it seems that once it's on and behaving itself, it will continue to behave until it's switched off again.  I don't understand washing machines.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

15 hours ago, egg said:

@stuboy - hate that roundabout - it is easy to be in the wrong lane. But still awful driving!

It is a  bit of a twat and when I used to do it regularly you'd see shit like this fairly often.  I still maintain that the Whitfield roundabout is worse (where the last McDonald's before Dover is) but that's to do with the lorries jumping in front of cars randomly.  Seen a fair few closures and recoveries there and nearly come a cropper myself...

[anonymous user]

Today I saw a car that I really, really, want. Unfortunately it wasn't for sale but coming the other way on the road. It was a Mitsouka Galue, never seen one in the metal before and it confirms that they are just as shonky as I thought, but in an acceptable/different way. I was outbid on a cheap ish one on Ebay a while back, they do seem to ask silly money for them when they come up for sale, so I'll have to keep a look out.

 

Just looked on ebay, there's one for £7k, I'm out (for now)

[JeeExEll]

My Mrs. came in from work at 2pm and said 'A lorry full of Brussels sprouts has crashed'.  I stopped what I was doing to listen to what she was going to say next, expecting her to carry on with one of her Christmas jokes.

But, 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-50811266

There's probably a joke in there somewhere, - 'spilled all over the cabbageway', etc,.

[Eyersey1234]

1 minute ago, JeeExEll said:

My Mrs. came in from work at 2pm and said 'A lorry full of brussels sprouts has crashed'.  I stopped what I was doing to listen to what she was going to say next, expecting her to carry on with one of her Christmas jokes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-50811266

Bloody hell. At least no one was hurt. 

[hairnet]

20 minutes ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Bloody hell. At least no one was hurt. 

at least noone can eat them now

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

What a waste!

[JeeExEll]

Scoop most of them up into the boxes again, they'll be fine.

Fried sprouts and bacon

[M'coli]

On the left, a rear wiper motor for a ph.1 Peugeot 106, of c.1993 vintage.

On the right, a rear wiper motor for a ph.1* Peugeot 106 c. 1994 vintage - but it's different enough that I can't swap it for the one on the left without butchery to the wiring. Fiddlesticks.

* from now on, I'm calling it a ph. 1.5...

[dozeydustman]

2 hours ago, JeeExEll said:

Fried sprouts and bacon

Best way to do sprouts! Blanched for a minute, knob of butter in the frying pan, lardons, the sprouts and a glass of white wine.

[hairnet]

51 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

 and a glass of white wine.

drink the wine forget about the sprouts

[dozeydustman]

9 minutes ago, hairnet said:

drink the wine forget about the sprouts

What about the butter and bacon lardons?

[DeeJay]

That'll be strong wind.

[MikeR]

That news story is sprouting up everywhere !