The new news 24 thread

[KitKat]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

Some things are sent to try us

More so when this is printed on the part

 

#BecauseClio 🤣🤣

[Zelandeth]

So much for having plans to actually get stuff done today.   Ended up in the loft all afternoon chasing a water ingress issue.

[brownnova]

2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Not got a spare swan neck sorry. It is the bit that has rusted most on mine though - the muck is kicked up from the road and water collects there on the inside. My garage’s courtesy car had three point belts in the back. They had made a steel frame to fix the innertial reels to so that the belt was above the seat back. My reluctance to do this is why I have my sister’s 2cv and my nieces haven’t been in it.

I swapped the exhaust on the yellow 2CV last week and discovered the swan neck was holed too... so can’t even cannibalise that one! I’ll order one tomorrow from ECAS, need a few bits anyway. 

Ive seen steel frames, but the ones at the front are mounted onto a reinforced bit on the main shell, I’m wondering if that can be recreated on the front... if not I’ll shell out for the steel frame... 

[richardmorris]

3 minutes ago, brownnova said:

I swapped the exhaust on the yellow 2CV last week and discovered the swan neck was holed too... so can’t even cannibalise that one! I’ll order one tomorrow from ECAS, need a few bits anyway. 

Ive seen steel frames, but the ones at the front are mounted onto a reinforced bit on the main shell, I’m wondering if that can be recreated on the front... if not I’ll shell out for the steel frame... 

The main issue is that there isn’t a strong enough place to mount the top anchor on the back Of the car body.

[meshking]

17 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

The main issue is that there isn’t a strong enough place to mount the top anchor on the back Of the car body.

That's the reason I sold my 2cv and replaced it with a van. My kids would never travel in the back (well they did once and given they've never travelled in a car without belts, they were not keen) so it seemed pointless having a four seater. 

[richardmorris]

1 minute ago, meshking said:

That's the reason I sold my 2cv and replaced it with a van. My kids would never travel in the back (well they did once and given they've never travelled in a car without belts, they were not keen) so it seemed pointless having a four seater. 

When we were young my sister and I happily travelled over France etc in the back of dyanes with the lap belts. Times change. Well safety and perception of such change.

 

 

[brownnova]

38 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

The main issue is that there isn’t a strong enough place to mount the top anchor on the back Of the car body.

Ah ok, thanks, it did seem a little too simple. Was thinking just on the pillar like the front. But if it’s not strong enough that’s why I’ve never seen it done. I’ll revert to plan b... unless I find a suitable plan c! Any particular reason you’re against the frame in yours? 

[brownnova]

15 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

When we were young my sister and I happily travelled over France etc in the back of dyanes with the lap belts. Times change. Well safety and perception of such change.

 

 

The 12 y.o. is fine with the lap belt, sadly it’s car seats for the baby which don’t fit.... 

[dollywobbler]

I must concede I've not done anything about belts in the back of my 2CV yet. I did find the belts the other day! But I'm still not sure how happy I am about just lap belts. Not a problem this year as I have plenty of other cars, but I don't want them to miss out on 2CV stuff next year.

[wuvvum]

My faithful, if decrepit, "upstairs PC" died today.  It's had a good innings - I bought it second hand 7 or 8 years ago, and it really is hopelessly slow nowadays, but it'd never gone wrong until today so I'd never got round to replacing it - although I did frequently swear at it when it would sit there for ages with the hard drive grinding away as the swap file struggled to make up the countless gigabytes of RAM that every website seems to take up these days.

I think it's the PSU that's gone.  I've found a replacement on eBay, but I've decided to bite the bullet and splash out on a newer PC.  The logical thing to do would be to move the downstairs PC upstairs (downstairs PC is a lot newer and has a quad core CPU and Windows 10) and then just use my work laptop as the downstairs computer, with a proper keyboard / mouse / monitor plugged in, but that'd be far too sensible, plus I can't really use the work laptop to visit adult-interest websites.

Got very little of any interest done on the cars this weekend because the weather was so crap.  I found the source of water ingress on the Carina - it was getting past the lower door window seals - so I've run a strip of the narrow Gorilla tape along the bottom of the window which should hopefully stop the worst of it - then I ran an extension lead out and had a fan heater pointing at the carpet for a couple of hours to dry it out.

I had the Rover 75 up on ramps to look for any obvious MOT fails, and found none apart from a couple of discoloured indicator bulbs.  The height adjustment also doesn't work any more on the nearside headlight (I disconnected it as it was only working intermittently anyway) so that might get picked up on - it'll be new headlight time if it does.

Then the Granvia went up on the ramps so I could have another play with the gearbox sensors - I pulled all the multiplugs off and gave them a good clean with contact cleaner, all except the main plug to the gearbox ECU which was full of some kind of grease (presumably a conductive kind).  It hasn't made any difference - it still gets stuck in third gear.  Although I took it out a few times earlier in the week and the 'box was behaving perfectly, for some reason.  I'll do a fluid change as soon as it stays dry for long enough - next thing to look at after that will be the mph conversion chip for the speedo.  I also noticed that the outer sill below the passenger door is looking rather bubbly - now that I can get to the inside of the outer sill, what with the inner sill having gone the way of all flesh, I'll try to give it a clean out and rustproof / underseal it so it doesn't dissolve completely over the winter.

I have so far failed to find the source of the water ingress on the Renault 6.  I cleared out the scuttle drains (the scuttle was full of water), but that doesn't seem to have stopped it - nor does spraying the seal rejuvenating shiz round the door seals.  That does seem (touch wood) to have done the trick on the C2 though - the carpet in that has stayed reassuringly dry through the latest bout of shit weather.  I really need to get the Renault indoors for the winter, although there seems to be a dearth of cheap garages at the minute and I can't afford an expensive garage.  It's going to get a cover over it for now to keep the rain out, although I don't know how long that will last before some pisshead nicks it...

[Cord Fourteener]

Wearing finest Gimp tyre, normal wheel in the boot taking up too much space, we have a date with the tyre shop.

I thought I could get a plug repair, but having now seen the size of concrete deeply embedded in the tyre it's going to have to be a new tyre.

I'm going to stoop low and go with the garage's suggestion of a budget tyre. Shame when the car came with nearly new Bridgestone all round. I bought the tyres and got a free car this summer!

[richardmorris]

Fiat has a pass. I was wrong about the mileage this year though - 28miles!

That's £2 a mile just for the MOT fee!

[loserone]

That wouldn't get me to an MOT station and back!

[clayts450]

Just juggled the wheels on the Combo van ahead of a fitting of four Michelin Cross Climate+ tyres on Wednesday. I'd secured a spare set of Doblo steelies with half decent Michelins on for £50 on Friday, so have replaced the rear wheels with the excellent Toyo Nano Energy 3 on (7mm tread left, done 33K miles) with two of the Doblo steelies with Michelin Duragrip on (4mm of tread).  This leaves me with a spare set of wheels for the van with those two Toyos and a couple of Michelin Efficient Grip with 6mm on.

And what about this for a deal ? CC+ x 4 for the price of four mid-range tyres. F1 Autocentre online only, £22.60 off each tyre when you buy four. Bonkers

[davehedgehog31]

@gm very kindly sent me a stereo surround for the 107. 

Finally fitted it properly today. Looks neat enough. Not a big fan of aftermarket head units normally but Bluetooth and a USB port for charging adds a fair bit of convenience. 

[Cavcraft]

Handed my notice in about 25 minutes ago. Don't know how long I've got to do, hopefully not too long.

[Saabnut]

14 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

Handed my notice in about 25 minutes ago. Don't know how long I've got to do, hopefully not too long.

The work/hours you were doing for that pay rate, this is the sensible thing to do.

More time to chase scooters......

[N19]

Capri dash has been refitted, took it out today for a proper run as it hasn't had one in ages. Speedo seems to be sitting a bit lower and I reckon it's reading low by 10mph throughout. 

[Cavcraft]

1 hour ago, Saabnut said:

The work/hours you were doing for that pay rate, this is the sensible thing to do.

More time to chase scooters......

 

Slight change of plan: Going part time in a couple of weeks, which is all I ever really wanted. 

[richardmorris]

Surrey road cops posted this earlier. Lack of talent on the a3 near Guildford.

anyone able to identify the car as it’s got us stumped at work.

https://twitter.com/SurreyRoadCops/status/1328185361592430592?s=20

[Zelandeth]

Hyundai coupe by the looks of it.

[richardmorris]

27 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Hyundai coupe by the looks of it.

Thanks - the badge had me stumped. 

[beko1987]

5 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

Handed my notice in about 25 minutes ago. Don't know how long I've got to do, hopefully not too long.

You used to do that to yourself on a Thursday, take yourself out for a stern talking to and a few* drinks on the Friday then re employ and forgive yourself on Sunday afternoon... Should be used to it by now! 

[brownnova]

Went for a drive into the mountains yesterday, because we can... took the modern for family carrying purposes, but even that looks good in the Snowdonia scenery... 

[Saabnut]

Well, that is this evening not having gone to plan. Was happily sitting watching shite TV and eating the end of my tea when the phone rang. My MOT tester and all round good egg (he comes over and fixes things I have broken) was on his way home in his neighbours 10 plate Yaris Diesel. As be passed  my turn off on the dual carriageway, he noticed a hum, and his neighbour had mentioned he thought a wheel bearing was on the way out. That does not really sound like a wheel bearing thought my friend just as there was an almighty bang and the front locked up at 60mph. Dipping the clutch made no difference but fortunately he made it to the slip road.

Just back from collecting it with my Disco and trailer. No drive at all now, oil mist up the back and a pool of gearbox oil on the floor! First impressions are we think we can see the diff sticking out of the gearbox, but will have a look at it in the daylight. My friend has gone home in my AX.

Could be worse with the Yaris, that could have been my car!  

[Zelandeth]

13 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Well, that is this evening not having gone to plan. Was happily sitting watching shite TV and eating the end of my tea when the phone rang. My MOT tester and all round good egg (he comes over and fixes things I have broken) was on his way home in his neighbours 10 plate Yaris Diesel. As be passed  my turn off on the dual carriageway, he noticed a hum, and his neighbour had mentioned he thought a wheel bearing was on the way out. That does not really sound like a wheel bearing thought my friend just as there was an almighty bang and the front locked up at 60mph. Dipping the clutch made no difference but fortunately he made it to the slip road.

Just back from collecting it with my Disco and trailer. No drive at all now, oil mist up the back and a pool of gearbox oil on the floor! First impressions are we think we can see the diff sticking out of the gearbox, but will have a look at it in the daylight. My friend has gone home in my AX.

Could be worse with the Yaris, that could have been my car!  

What is it about that bit of road?  That's almost exactly where I had the gearbox detonate in a shabby LDV Convoy many years ago.  Nothing like scampering around a dual carriageway (albeit mercifully quiet then) sweeping up as many larger bits of gearbox and diff as you can find as you don't want them winding up getting thrown through someone's windscreen.

We never did quite figure out if the diff locked up and killed the gearbox or the gearbox locked up and the diff was simply a victim of that.  It also managed to rip the hub completely out of the clutch disc which was quite impressive to see.

[Cord Fourteener]

I did make something work!

Got the fuel pump and sender hooked up in the BMW and not only do we have brum brum but we have what I hope is an honest guage reading, though that is yet to be tested properly.

[clayts450]

Well, another six weeks have passed, must be time for another Combo oil/filter change.....yup, another 10K done......

Getting very efficient at doing this now - the fifth change it's had since I acquired it in February.

Oil of choice this time was some Tesco's own brand fully synth which they were knocking out at £6 for two litres a couple of months ago. Combo/Fiat/Alfa etc 1.3 diesel only needs 3.2L. Will be looking at getting one of those BFO vats of the stuff next, as suggested by @320touring

[richardmorris]

Photos from yesterday’s mot video at the Citroen dealer. They’d not seen an x1/9 before.

oil leak looks like it’s from the sump plug but how bad do the front suspension control bushes look?

Also what are people’s thoughts on original rubber (£4 each) or a polyurethane set for £42? Presumably these are what is needed? https://www.eurosport-uk.net/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_11&products_id=244&zenid=2qikf6sgrcl7vqm2hl8omq6og3

 

[Cavcraft]

My Astra has come back 'off hire' from my local takeaway. It's actually solved a problem, as the Corsa is too small for long term ownership.  Trouble is, absolutely over run with motors here.