The new news 24 thread

[Pete-M]

I hope the top coat is going to be beige and that it'll wear Popular badges.

 

Heh, Trying to find front drums, static seat belts, a low compression 1.1, vinyl seats and 12" wheels as I type.

[cort16]

I've been offered a E38 740i with a years ticket for £400. It's got pete-m E39 Megamoon miles but it's still tempting unfortunatly I'm at max capacity.

 

Oh and it doesn't have any wheels.

[Station]

That's looking great Pete, stonechip applied on lower halves makes such a difference over none. Is he still using a lung-powered airbrush to paint it?

 

I had some time today, and to continue what I started last summer (driveway respraying my Astra), I spent five hours giving one side the flatting/G3'ing/polishing, I think it turned out quite well.

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson learned - don't re-spray a car on your driveway. Especially metallic paint.

I've had this car for 10 years come July, incredible!

[Cavcraft]

I like the way your house has a tidemark!

[Pete-M]

That's looking great Pete, stonechip applied on lower halves makes such a difference over none. Is he still using a lung-powered airbrush to paint it?

 

Heh, didn't have much choice with the front panel as it had been stonechipped back in the middle ages and he's had to replace a fair bit of the front panel to exorcise rot.

 

 

I've been offered a E38 740i with a years ticket for £400. It's got pete-m E39 Megamoon miles but it's still tempting unfortunatly I'm at max capacity.

 

Oh and it doesn't have any wheels.

 

Give it a good coat of looking at, shove some unfashionable eBay wheels on, use the bugger til it dies.

[myglaren]

DAF is in for its MOT today. It wont pass but at least I will have an idea of what I need to do before the retest in the next 2 weeks.

 

True to form, I was driving in when I heard a banging noise I had not heard before. Odd, I don't remember it doing that. What can that be? I thought to myself, 'Did I have the front O/S wheel off? No, its not been off' so continued driving along and the banging continued.

 

Suddenly remembered I had taken that wheel off and swiftly pulled over into the Co-Op car park. Yup, wheel nuts are loose and the wheel is about to fall off.

 

Made a quick call to my mate who pops over with the wheel brace out of his garage but this is not the first time this has happened (which actually proved to be an advantage as I knew the noise). I MUST do up the wheel as soon as the car hits the floor.

 

Happened to me a few years ago - driving through the Tyne Tunnel - one of the worst places it could happen. Made it through and pulled in at the exit to tighten them up.

In an Hillman Imp, coincidentally

[Station]

Had it happen on a Proton, I thought it would be the wheel bearing. The wheel trim was holding the nuts in place.

[dollywobbler]

My wife's AX almost lost a wheel once. She pegged it back from Oxford (at her typical 80mph thrash) and said there was an odd noise coming from the front. I drove the car as far as the end of the driveway, reversed and my diagnosis was correct. Finger tight wheel nuts! We reckon the local garage forgot to torque them up after having it in for some work. She did a round trip of 70 miles!

[Timewaster]

All I willl say is: "Don't mini front brake drums make a big groove in the road surface?!"

[barefoot]

... The wheel trim was holding the nuts in place.

 

...only a couple of wheel falling off situations in my life, the first, as a kid, Arthur driving the tractor between villages, the other 4 of us in the trailer with the grain when the tractor & trailer part company at speed down the steepest of steephills...

A big, fuck off gouge, that remains (to the trained eye) in the tarmac to this very day - some 30 years later...

Arthur, despite at 16, being a shed load older than the rest of us, practically shitting himself at the thought that we might tell his old man.

 

And the other, my own home made, half a beetle trailer, towed behind a VW T2, how cool can a chap be?

...'til the wheel drops off the trailer on the M1

luckily 'twas the nearside & the wheel rolled onto the hard shoulder.

 

no-one told me that there was a split pin missing!

 

Phoned AA who said 'we don't do trailers'

I expressed some disappointment that they'd not explained/mentioned this to me

when I purchased their valuable/quality/premium service

 

they arrived surprisingly briskly!

 

\

[ashmicro]

Mate phoned me this morning "Andy, HELP! I went to move the bus (Merc Viano Traveliner) and there was a bang and a big bit of metal has fallen off" I went round to see this mystery component - busted front spring. We got 2 new OEM Merc springs for £70 all in, which I thought was cheap as they're big buggers. So, guess what I'm doing tomorrow!

[The Moog]

Changed Air filter, windscreen wipers, Spark Plugs and Thermostat on Volvo. Runs a lot smoother and much more responsive.

Car is heating up properly now.

Managed to sort the bonnet out with a full can of plus gas and opening and shutting it about 25 times. Now clicks properly and pops properly.

 

Also found the locking wheel nut remover in the boot. Will take them off and revert to normal nuts I think.

 

Left to do

 

Windscreen washer sensors looks to be borked so will sort that when I get a chance.

Car is still squeaking intermittently when turning right. Not sure if it is the suspension or steering column.

Climate control has a mind of its own, this morning it would only do cold, this afternoon only hot.

 

Will stick it in for MOT this week.

[155V6]

Had a front wheel come off a Mk 3 Cortina Estate once while being towed ,luckily my mate saw what was happening in his mirror & we didn't even break the rope.We had to crawl down a steep embankment to get the wheel though.

[ashmicro]

The wheels definitely came off this pile of dung

 

 

Had to reflash it twice to get it working. It belongs to the bloke mentioned above who had a busted spring in his Merc. He's not having a good day!

[messerschmitt owner]

The wheels definitely came off this pile of dung

 

 

Had to reflash it twice to get it working. It belongs to the bloke mentioned above who had a busted spring in his Merc. He's not having a good day!

I'm about to send my old one in for £117 of Elizabeth Duke vouchers - it works fine but no wifi anymore!

[R9UKE]

To do list for tomorrow:

 

Pick up my latest purchase - Rover 416 struck down by head gasket failure.

Change oil and filter on Mum's Mégane

Work out where the bastard relay that keeps clicking is in the W plate Clio.

Try to extinguish a few of the warning lights on the Volvoi's dash

Get the fuel gauge working on the Clio Auto.

 

Then it's off to Dublin on Monday morning to pick up another new member of my shite collection. A Citroen BX. The worrying part is..... I'm driving it back to Belfast!

[ashmicro]

^ "Ah go on go on go on sure ye'll be grand". I went to collect a car in Kesh some years ago, and knew I was lost when I saw a Gard. He took pity on me and gave me directions as he knew where I was talking about! I had managed to cross the border without seeing the MASSIVE sign with "Fáilte go hEireann" on it, and the old one before it that said "You are now leaving The United Kingdom"

[wuvvum]

Phoned AA who said 'we don't do trailers'

Really? I only have their boggo roadside / relay service but they were happy enough to come out when I blew out two tyres on a Brian James car transporter trailer while dragging the Saviem tipper back from Gloucestershire. Had to pay though the nose for the tyres mind, but then it was Sunday and a bank holiday weekend.

[Lacquer Peel]

To do list for tomorrow:

 

Pick up my latest purchase - Rover 416 struck down by head gasket failure.

Change oil and filter on Mum's Mégane

Work out where the bastard relay that keeps clicking is in the W plate Clio.

Try to extinguish a few of the warning lights on the Volvoi's dash

Get the fuel gauge working on the Clio Auto.

 

Then it's off to Dublin on Monday morning to pick up another new member of my shite collection. A Citroen BX. The worrying part is..... I'm driving it back to Belfast!

 

Out of interest, how do you manage to buy, run, insure and tax so many cars? I can barely afford to keep one 16 year old car going.

[R9UKE]

 

Out of interest, how do you manage to buy, run, insure and tax so many cars? I can barely afford to keep one 16 year old car going.

 

I live in them.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Interesting day out today. Went to Desborough, Northants, with a mate to buy a Granada.

 

The negotiation process could've been described as 'interesting'. It had been lingering around £200 on e-bay, I offered £400 BIN, he countered £450, I said 'let's agree on £425', he came back saying he couldn't manage to cancel the auction and could I just bid on it. I didn't, the auction ended at £300 then he sent me a message asking whether I was still interested (no doubt delighting the auction winner). I said "ok, but I am annoyed at this and I'll only give you £350" and he replied that it was 'to[sic] low' and he was going to sell the alloys and interior on ebay and scrap the rest. By which point, I really wanted to tell him to fuck off, but my mate wanted the car so I just said that I'd come round and have a look.

 

He wasn't nasty in person, but it still makes my blood boil, especially considering that he lives in a newbuild house that he bought for £260k (it's a very new area, so we got chatting about housing developments, prices etc). How fucking miserable can you be, reneging on a contract for the sake of an extra £50 and spending hours taking the interior off just to make an additional £20 by breaking a perfectly good car when you happily paid over a quarter of a million quid for a crappy Persimmon box???

 

1989, F-reg, top spec, £400 with MOT till June. Seems to run alright and all the important bits and most of the toys work (not sure about the air-con), but there are a few jobs to be done... Didn't take a camera with me, but there might be pics sometime soon.

 

Interestingly enough, that's the same mate of mine who thought Ian's 309 to be "a bit of a wreck". I can tell you that the Granny is nowhere near the 309 in terms of overall condition and recently done jobs. Having said that, it probably is more appropriate for him as he's been given a work van, so the car is more for leisure than anything else and the fuel consumption doesn't matter.

[Pete-M]

He wasn't nasty in person, but it still makes my blood boil, especially considering that he lives in a newbuild house that he bought for £260k (it's a very new area, so we got chatting about housing developments, prices etc). How fucking miserable can you be, reneging on a contract for the sake of an extra £50 and spending hours taking the interior off just to make an additional £20 by breaking a perfectly good car when you happily paid over a quarter of a million quid for a crappy Persimmon box???

 

Have you even considered that the poor sod may be skint because he's just bought a house?

 

Chipping £50 because the bloke didn't bend over backwards to flog you a car that was still running on ebay at the time you made your back-door offer because the chap has the sheer cheek to have bought a house in the middle of a recession?

 

[autofive]

 

no need for photos, heres one

[Negative Creep]

Sold the Mazda. Couple of lads came down to collect it, as one of them was having it for a first car. Since it has no insurance, tax or mot, their plan was to A frame it back but by putting a lighting board on the back turns it into a trailer. I somehow doubt it, but hey ho, not my car anymore. After a while faffing around with the A-frame (not that I know anything about them) and attaching said lighting board with shoelaces. They got it to the end of the road before sanity prevailed and it was decided this wouldn't work. So they've now arranged a recovery truck for tomorrow.

 

Seems like the alternator is shagged which would explain the intermittent starter but they were nice lads and hopefully get some use from it. In retrospect, using a car 3 times then having to spend £70 to cancel the insurance doesn't represent my best purchase ever

[dollywobbler]

I've had a very lovely day. Was leading a 2CV Convoy around North Wales. Day started badly as the 2CV was so frozen that I couldn't get into it, then it wouldn't start - I think because I accidentally filled it with 20w50 oil (still not sure why I put it in a 10w40 can...). Out with the starting handle. Success at the third attempt!

 

Convoy went nicely. Heater was managing to keep my toes warm. All was good. Pub for lunch, then disaster. The ignition lock seized. Reasons to be cheerful - I binned the steering lock when I rebuilt the car in 2002. Some clever use of hotwiring (the exact details of which are not for a public forum) got me on the move again. 180 miles covered though, with a good hoon on the way back. The pace of the 2CV surprised my BX-driving pal, who was sure I was going to bin it a few times. Perhaps the bodyroll just makes it look faster than it is?

 

Pal came back to mine because he was eager to help solve some issues with the BX. However, it was dark by the time we got back, and below zero. This didn't stop him and we (he) reseated the hydraulic regulator ball bearing, resulting in the accumulator actually holding pressure. Then we replaced the wiper motor and linkage. The wiper now no longer bashes the bodywork. The two remaining glow plugs were changed for new ones (I'd changed a pair before it went in for welding). The tailgate wiring was tackled. Number plate lights and central locking now work. HRW went a bit funny and we gave up before wiring up the rear wiper. A lot done though. Intermittent PAS still remains (unsurprisingly as Jonathan Dyane has already pointed out, the PAS doesn't use the regulator) and we reckon its either a duff pump or clagged up filters. I'm going to try and clean them out tomorrow.

 

It's been a long but enjoyable day.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Have you even considered that the poor sod may be skint because he's just bought a house?

 

Well, that wouldn't make him any more sensible, would it?

Although it probably isn't the case (see below).

 

 

Chipping £50 because the bloke didn't bend over backwards to flog you a car that was still running on ebay at the time you made your back-door offer because the chap has the sheer cheek to have bought a house in the middle of a recession?

 

No, that wasn't the problem. The problem was:

i) he said he agreed to a BIN price but didn't want to actually go ahead and do it (presumably in case it made more at the auction)

ii) he then went on to shaft the poor auction winner (not me, I never bid on it...The auction ran until the end, so my understanding is that he was contractually bound to sell) even though (ii and a half) he had been too cheap to put a reserve price in and

iii) he was going to break the car, spending time dismantling it etc for the sake of making a total of e.g. £320, i.e. 20 quid more than what he would've gotten doing the right thing and selling to the auction winner.

 

I am certainly not perfect and I don't expect others to be perfect towards me. I could understand that sort of behaviour from someone who is obviously having trouble making ends meet, but he seemed to be doing quite alright (and that's the feeling I got, although the house price was what really shocked me. That and the fact that he didn't even think the house had been expensive).

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

 

no need for photos, heres one

 

Yes, but this is Autoshite. You lot want to see the RUST!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Dismantled my broken seatbelt buckle just out of interest. Now I'm not even happy with the functional one, having seen how flimsy they are internally.

 

Saying that, it's a long shot, but does anyone have one of these Kangol buckles lying around they'd sell me for next to nothing? I don't want to have to replace all the belts for the sake of this one broken bit.

 

[Cavcraft]

Looks like my funky little CG125 will be departing CavCraft tomorrow and being replaced by something a) totally unsuitable and that I've owned before.

[Volksy]

..............replaced by something a) totally unsuitable and that I've owned before.

 

A Mondeo?