The new news 24 thread

[HillmanImp]

That seems harsh. Whats caused that? You going to be sleeping in the car?

 

Hope you can get something else soon.

[Mr Livered]

Just jacked my job in. Tossers.

Congratulations! It takes balls to walk away from wanker employers, but when you do so you keep your dignity. Nice one

[Sigmund Fraud]

Hope it wasn't related to the cooking DAF incident ?

[rml2345]

So do I! It does take balls to tell them to jack it though.

[cms206]

It's been simmering for a few weeks but the final straw came a couple of weeks ago when accusations were made; made enquiries so will be finishing here next Friday, taking probably a week off then starting back driving - oddly enough with the company whose DAF I roasted.

 

Didn't see the last bit coming tbh but last night after I wrote the letter I slept better than I have in months.

[rml2345]

That's good at least, particularly that there's another job in the offing. Being in the wrong one can be just as bad as having no job at all...

[Spiny Norman]

Always a good feeling telling an arsehole where he can stick his job. My only regret in life is not doing it more often.

Good to see it's panned out OK for you in the long run.

[Cavcraft]

Corsa failed MOT for second year on the row. This time significantly less painful: windscreen washers, rear bumper not fully attached, side light bulb and brake imbalance, that was about it.

 

The 306 estate is being a bastard to start as it's colder now and it's running on the fumes of the veg oil. Reluctantly had to put actual, genuine real diesel from a petrol station in it. That hurt a bit. Anyhow I think sadly it's days are numbered now: MOT looming and it's going to want some attention. I know a few piddly things it will fail on but I sort of CBA doing them in case it wants something else. It's been a brilliant servant and acted as a van for the last few months, so it will be reluctantly that it goes.

 

I think the trouble is as it stands it isn't worth much, but (and I'm going to sound a right knob here) I don't want to let it go for less than sort of £250 as the engine is worth keeping for a spare (veg oil friendly), the gearbox is fine and the clutch has only covered a few hundred miles, plus the front end has snazzy foglights AND it's the same colour as my hatch. That sort of convinces me to strip it and weigh the remains in, but what a waste of a car. Hmm, dilemma, dilemma...

[vulgalour]

Dad's investment of time and money into his turn of the century Omygod has actually paid off.  Instead of feeling like a car that's done 80,000 it feels like a car that's done 8,000.  He's replaced some expensive stuff like the wish bones and the whole exhaust and he's kept on top of all the jobs as they're needed often at the expense of other luxuries but now he has a car that drives and feels like a new one.  And for that reason I don't enjoy driving it as much.

 

It now feels twitchy and overly precise and that in turn makes me feel twitchy driving it.  I can't regulate the braking as it has this weird Citroen-y bite when you're coming to a full stop that just makes things hesitant.  The auto box feels lazy setting off, but put your foot down to compensate and it surges.  The steering is far too light and gives you no sense of the size of the vehicle you're piloting and there's no real feel from the tyres which gives one the impression that by the time things are about to go pear shaped it'll already be too late.

 

So all in all, it's a very Dad car and he loves it to bits as is evident by the battering it's given his wallet that he's not even worried about.  He's been on a mission to make it drive and look like a brand new car as much as possible and on the driving front he's definitely managed it.  All horses for courses and I'm sure if I had Dad's mobility issues I too would want something that was easy to pilot, above all I'm happy he's found a car he has really got into and plans to keep.  For all his big talk of getting an Austin 3 Litre or a Mercedes or whatever, it turns out my Dad's retirement car is actually an early 2000s Omega saloon with an auto box and for that reason alone I suspect he is a winnah.

[Cavcraft]

Can I be the first person to say OMG OLL VOXHAWLS R SHIT M8!

 

Yes, yes you can. I will join in your merriment if/when the bloody thing sells!

[R9UKE]

That sort of convinces me to strip it and weigh the remains in, but what a waste of a car. Hmm, dilemma, dilemma...

Sometimes it just has to be done though, and the fact that you could store yourself a frig load of 306 spares will always be handy and pay off in the end. The length of the MOT failure list would decide it for me!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I would just sack it off complete or you'll be tripping over load of bits for ages, none of them will get used and they'll go in the bin as well in the end. Some doofus will give you a couple of hundred shekels for it. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Took my embarrassing Megane daily for it's test today, and it passed with flying colours !

 

I'm really impressed with the bloody thing, especially considering the reputation of modern Renaults. I've had it for almost a year now, and am using it to commute 80 miles a day. Apart from oil changes it has only needed a thermostat (£30), an exhaust rubber (£3) and a set of front pads (£17). It returns a fairly constant 48mpg and runs happily on a 20% SVO mix. Economy motoring at its finest !!!

[saucedoctor]

Tescunts are selling this for a quid.

 

[cort16]

The Alpinaising of my E39 continues as I put on the Alpina stripes. I hate doing stuff like this as you only get one go at and I'm notoriously shit at measuring stuff up.

It went on reasonably smoothly so I swapped over the nasty wooden trim with the nice ebony one I got out a scrapper for £7. Much nicer.

My final job of the day was to get the m-parallel alloys I recently re-painted shod in the finest 2nd hand rubber £160 can buy. It started pissing it down though so I couldn't change them over. Just need to sell it after that.

 

In other new the garage next to mine had an e46 320d that needed a new clutch and flywheel last month. That cost £1000 and the fella had it back for 2 days and it started running rough. The AA diagnosed a dodgy injector so the garage door pulled all the injectors and got them tested. No fault found. He couldn't find anything so shipped it to a specialist who found low compression in a cylinder, took the inlet manifold off and it'd NOM NOM NOM'd it's swirl flaps. One was embedded in the piston and the other 3 are MIA. That can't be good. That'll be a new engine then.

[vulgalour]

I'm sure 'swirl flap' is somehow an anagram of 'liability' because that's all they seem to be.

[Cavcraft]

Aye, it is a pain when you strip bits and think 'Oh yeah, I'll sell them at a later date', and then stand on them smashing them to bits several months later. I still reckon the engine is worth pulling out though, I still hanker after a Berlingo van at some point and the motor would be ideal for the veg oil.

[Lacquer Peel]

Berlingo HDis are rapid, I'd love one with a 1.9/2.1 TD.

[saucedoctor]

 an e46 320d

 

Utter shit those things. Davy at Railway Auto Spares, a BMW breaker, told me that many of the issues on those cars are caused by the "official" oil change interval, which is far far too long @ 15k miles. The swirl flaps are just a problem waiting to happen. The version of that engine used by Rover doesn't have them.

[cort16]

It's good to see that the Rover got one over on BMW there although it was probably a result of BMW trying to cripple that engine so it wasn't as good as the one that went in the 3 series. I wonder how many BMW's that's taken out I believe it's also on some of the newer 5 series 530ds?

The swirl flaps don't do anything really other than let the fuel and air mix a bit better. It's just BMW over engineering it for no real good reason.

[cms206]

Just picked up the 940; finally got one with an inoperative fuel gauge!

[Jim Bell]

Just picked up the 940; finally got one with an inoperative fuel gauge!

 

 

Sounds crazy, but try pressing the trip meter reset button hard. I had a 740 thats fuel gauge kept dying, but if I pressed the trip reset button hard, it would spring back into life for another week.

[scruff]

After it dropped a valve last month I have not had time to do anything to my Land Rover. I moved it from home to farm a couple of weeks ago and it's currently sat looking sorry for itself while I decide what to do. Fix the Prima (new big ends, mains, pistons, rings; have another head) or do what my heart is telling me to do and put a 2 litre petrol back in. The diesel was only ever supposed to be a temporary installation to have some fun and do a few big trips with, it's done that now and TBH the racket it makes does my head in.

 

Have got a 2 litre petrol but it needs a good check out before dropping it in. Might fetch it and set up a engine stand in the nice warm shed, could be a pleasant winter project.

 

80" in the woods by sparkright, on Flickr

[Lankytim]

Just won this on e.bay

 

 

Looks OK, a bit leggy at 142k but I like the colour. Just a non-working climate control to sort, it was cheap mind...

[vulgalour]

CPT Challenge over on the YouTubes.  I reckon it could be an Aston Martin Lagonda.  Over to you shiteists

 

 

here's a link to the video (sorry for the distressing image of a mangled Pug there):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7tQ-BCLx8I

[Mr_Bo11ox]

 

I've had a 'sesh' down the garage fettling Ms_B's Astra today. New radiator, track rod end and outer CV boot (horrible job that) Should be getting a re-test this week. This car cost £6000 in 2004 from the Network Q garage in Skelmersdale, 10 years later its got 145k on the clock and is pretty worthless although i am going to try and swap it with someone for a few hundred quid. So its basically cost £600/year in depreciation to own it. That sounds pretty expensive to me but I guess thats just what motoring must cost most non-shiters. I shall remember this statistic when Ms_B is going off on one about 'all these shite old cars you've got'

 

 

Its still leaking coolant despite the new radiator so I will have to chuck on a new water pump when i do the cam belt.  Anyone got a cam belt diagram for this? Its a 1.6 16v.

[Barry Cade]

Worth a read Mr B

 

http://www.gates.com/europe/file_display_common.cfm?thispath=Europe%2Fdocuments%5Fmodule&file=TB%20001%5FE2%5FGM%5F16V%2Epdf

 

[cobblers]

Aren't those the bastards with the thermostat behind the crank pulley as well? I know one of the MK4 astras is like that cos my mate drove one round for about 5 years without a working heater and getting about 20MPG because changing the stat meant doing the cambelt while he was at it.

[beko1987]

That's the 1.6 8v that does that

[dollywobbler]

Love that Landy Scruff Edition. Either option is fine. 

 

Nice Multipla.