The new news 24 thread

[gm]

This has been abandoned outside my place for a few days, no one seems to know who it belongs to (although I suspect the neighbours probably blamed me at first)

taxed and insured but the mot is a month out of date 

[beko1987]

That's gonna be there forever! 

And youll probably be the only person to enjoy looking at it... 

[somewhatfoolish]

There are only two things better than a pogweaseled ex-RM sherpa; two pogweaseled ex-RM sherpas or one pogweaseled ex-RM sherpa with shit vinyl flame decals up the side. Is there someone living in it? The rooflight makes it look like a stealth camper.

[stuboy]

Popped up to Milton regis to pick up a mondeo zetec s bumper in the right colour for my v6.

 

Not fitted it yet

 

Did get the rear for beer tokens but that needs repainting

[camryv6]

14 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

There are only two things better than a pogweaseled ex-RM sherpa; two pogweaseled ex-RM sherpas or one pogweaseled ex-RM sherpa with shit vinyl flame decals up the side. Is there someone living in it? The rooflight makes it look like a stealth camper.

There is nothing stealth about that camper

[DVee8]

3 hours ago, gm said:

This has been abandoned outside my place for a few days, no one seems to know who it belongs to (although I suspect the neighbours probably blamed me at first)

taxed and insured but the mot is a month out of date 

That normally parks round the corner to you along from the doctors,towards Dovecote farm .

[gm]

I wonder why he's chosen to dump it round here ? Parking is bad enough already (I am suprisingly not the worst offender  )

[Tadhg Tiogar]

7 hours ago, gm said:

This has been abandoned outside my place for a few days, no one seems to know who it belongs to (although I suspect the neighbours probably blamed me at first)

taxed and insured but the mot is a month out of date 

Are those parcels in the front seat?

[gm]

hmm, quite possibly - I shall have a nosey in the morning 

[LabRat]

I'm finally allowed back outside again tomorrow- been stuck in isolation for the last 2 weeks, as my wife unfortunately caught a dose of the 'rona. (She's back in work again and feeling almost human- it's left her asthma playing up so she's on steroids and inhalers again, but no sign of the long Covid thank fuck)

So at some point today I should go out and attempt to start the 6 as the temperamental fucker has been stood sulking at me. (Better check in daylight, rather than at 5am tomorrow when trying to go to work)

It was running fine when I parked up, but standing and chinese electronics mean that I'm going to be spinning the wheel of fortune, especially since you can't jump start one of these- it's a guaranteed way to fry the bcu.

Nice of the council to sweep some of the leaves up around it though

[xtriple]

Got me Merc back. Yay!

£2063 though which was a tad 'ouch!' but that was a hundred quid less than they quoted and... They have also done all the advisories -tyre valves (which was annoying as the tyres were new at Christmas) handbrake (only just met required effort), front wheel bearings (slight play). Done a full alignment on the old girl, new subframe, all new bushes/bolts/arms and a new loom (£46 for a bit of MB wire!) new discs and pads, also painted all the callipers (which pleases me greatly!) and the service and gave me back the unused Mobil fully synthetic oil I requested they use.

So while it's a fucking lot of dosh at least MY SuLKy is one of the few that HASN'T got a rusty rear subframe!

As I am so quick to say nearly all the garages in Torbay are utter shit/robbers/useless I am also quick to point out that some place do go above and beyond, do what they say they will, do it on time and with courtesy. That is why, I have used Central for 20 years. Yes, I occasionally use other people (Pete down the road) when people recommend them, but when they prove to have variable time scales (like Pete - he's noted for having his own ideas of 'days and weeks') then I have to give them the elbow as it drives me fucking mad when they say 'today' but mean 'next week'!

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, LabRat said:

you can't jump start one of these- it's a guaranteed way to fry the bcu.

Zuh???  WTF are you supposed to do if the battery goes flat then?

[louiepj]

Just checking the Renault Megane over before MOT....
This is the correct way of doing things around here i believe.

[LabRat]

38 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Zuh???  WTF are you supposed to do if the battery goes flat then?

It's a convoluted process that involves keeping the key fob as far away as possible from the car after opening the doors, waiting 10 minutes for the bcu to switch off again, hoping that you don't accidentally activate any electronics until after you've connected any booster pack up and prayer.

Lots of prayers. 

Maybe even a blood sacrifice to be sure.

Then put the key fob in the dock and hope that it's not lost connection to the car on the resultant power on. 

Or in the words of the manual "consult your local mg dealer if an problems occur"

On the plus side, it fired straight into life and only forgot to unlock the rear doors until it had idled for 5 minutes. 

[wuvvum]

Sounds like a right ballache.  Bloody moderns...

[LabRat]

Indeed. But at least the headgasket won't fail... Small mercies and all that. 

[DVee8]

20 hours ago, gm said:

I wonder why he's chosen to dump it round here ? Parking is bad enough already (I am suprisingly not the worst offender  )

There is/was a blue Peugeot van parked where this parked,maybe he has bought the blue one and wants you to take that one.

[artdjones]

My neighbour has had a Toyota Starlet parked up for 4 years. It's filthy. He asked me to see if I could get it moving so that  he can make a decision about what to do with it.

I put my spare battery on it and gave it a couple of good long cranks, whereupon it sprang to life. The clutch started working after some pedal pumping. The hand brake had locked on, but one side freed when I attempted movement. I jacked up the other side and rocked the wheel back and forth until there was a loud ping. After that I moved it out onto the drive .Good old Toyota.

Now he's getting back to me with a decision. It's a good car, only 90k miles, genuinely owned by a nun for many years,so hopefully it will get back on the road one way or another.

[Zelandeth]

Well that's an improvement.

My fears of the front end alignment being miles off appear to be slightly less now as she actually tracks in a straight line now - which given how unevenly both tyres were worn (they were *badly* out of round too) it was downright astonishing the car was even driveable.  Then a high speed evansive manoeuvre wound up putting a massive flat spot in both, that was last time the car was driven save for a 1/2 mile 20mph trundle to our nearest supermarket to make sure the brakes didn't seize a couple of weeks ago.

[KitKat]

55 minutes ago, artdjones said:

My neighbour has had a Toyota Starlet parked up for 4 years. It's filthy. He asked me to see if I could get it moving so that  he can make a decision about what to do with it.

I put my spare battery on it and gave it a couple of good long cranks, whereupon it sprang to life. The clutch started working after some pedal pumping. The hand brake had locked on, but one side freed when I attempted movement. I jacked up the other side and rocked the wheel back and forth until there was a loud ping. After that I moved it out onto the drive .Good old Toyota.

Now he's getting back to me with a decision. It's a good car, only 90k miles, genuinely owned by a nun for many years,so hopefully it will get back on the road one way or another.

That's prime-rib winter beater material. Hardly surprising it sprung to life,  another testament to the Starlet's cockroach reputation 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Meanwhile, it looks like @purplebargeken is missing all the fun and games in Edmonton....

[stuboy]

15 hours ago, xtriple said:

Got me Merc back. Yay!

£2063

bloody hell

[louiepj]

Mot went well only advisory was the n.s.r. tyre, which is the only tyre I haven't replaced.
The Tester loved the low mileage and general condition of the car.

[clayts450]

Gave the Combo some love today as it has been thrashed mercilessly in the last few weeks. Got a slow puncture (nail in the tyre) sorted out at my local indie tyre place for £20, did all the other weekly checks, gave it a good wash, Rain-X'ed the windows, and just waiting on my cheeky offer on eBay for a set of 4 Doblo steelies to be accepted so I can take advantage of a good offer on Cross Climates at my local F1 (£50 a corner - are they mad ?). The front tyres currently on the van are close to 4mm, the rears are still at 7mm, (set of 4 purchased new in March - that's 43K miles for you - no, I didn't rotate the wheels somewhat foolishly) so the plan is to swap everything around so I can keep the two good summer tyres for next year.

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, louiepj said:

Mot went well only advisory was the n.s.r. tyre, which is the only tyre I haven't replaced.
The Tester loved the low mileage and general condition of the car.

That looks lovely.  Can't remember last time I saw one!

[wuvvum]

I still can't get the Rover 75's sat nav to work.  I bought a new map DVD in case it was the disc that had gone south, but that hasn't helped.  The disc came with a separate CD to update the firmware, so I tried that - it's changed the logo that shows on the screen when the system starts but it hasn't made the navigation work.  It will bring up a map, but the map doesn't move - it's stuck on the residents' car park.  It seems to be getting a signal from the GPS antenna as the compass still works after a fashion, so I'm now suspecting that it must be the navigation computer itself which has carked it.

So next thing to try is plugging the original CD-type nav back in to see if that works - it'll mean bunging out another 12 quid for a map CD, but that's cheaper than the 80-100 quid that secondhand DVD units seem to be making at the moment.

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I still can't get the Rover 75's sat nav to work.  I bought a new map DVD in case it was the disc that had gone south, but that hasn't helped.  The disc came with a separate CD to update the firmware, so I tried that - it's changed the logo that shows on the screen when the system starts but it hasn't made the navigation work.  It will bring up a map, but the map doesn't move - it's stuck on the residents' car park.  It seems to be getting a signal from the GPS antenna as the compass still works after a fashion, so I'm now suspecting that it must be the navigation computer itself which has carked it.

So next thing to try is plugging the original CD-type nav back in to see if that works - it'll mean bunging out another 12 quid for a map CD, but that's cheaper than the 80-100 quid that secondhand DVD units seem to be making at the moment.

have you tried running a cleaning disk through the optical drive or cleaning the laser directly if you can?

I often find from my computer tinkering that when ODD's go bad because of dirty optics or such they tend to lose the ability to read DVD's first before CD's and going by the fact it read the update CD fine but seems to refuse to play ball with the map DVD makes me wonder if thats whats happening

[wuvvum]

Not a bad shout actually - I'll give that a whirl.

[ChampionRabbit]

One of the many things I hate about myself is my complete inability to disbelieve the AMAZING, LIFE-CHANGING PROPERTIES of snake oil products GUARANTEED TO MAKE YOUR CAR 100% MUCH MORE FASTERER AND TOTAL SMOOTHNESS OR YOU MONEY NOT BACK, EVER (terms and conditions apply and you can't have your money back, so shut up).

Since the TT is now behaving itself very well indeed, and also I ruddy-well-love-it-top-down-awesomeness, I thought it time to put some over-priced snake oil in it as I always do with a new car. I will then be semi-convinced that the snake oil will cause the car to JESUS CHRIST IT'S ON FIRE AND IN THE SEA at some point over the next week or so.

I chose (on the basis that it's one of the few I haven't drunk yet) Liqui-Moly 'fuel system cleaner'. It's made in Germany don'tchaknow and all the Germans use it. I doubt this very much. 

What I will say in it's favour is that it comes in a very, very well designed can which unusually for this nonsense didn't spill all over my hands, the car and a passing procession of ducklings. Unfortunately this has resulted in even higher suspicion than normal of impending HOLY CRAP IT'S MELTED.

Stupid human. 

[clayts450]

19 hours ago, clayts450 said:

just waiting on my cheeky offer on eBay for a set of 4 Doblo steelies to be accepted 

Cheeky offer of £50 accepted and I drove over to Little Ouse, nr Ely, to pick them up this afternoon, in my capacity as a same day courier. The only down side is, as I took the van, I had to charge myself £50 for the privilege. Still made a profit, mind. £1... Net cost still works out to me as £50, as the wheels will be paid for by the business, the shipping I'll have to fork out.

Very pleased with the wheels, and more specifically the tyres on them which are decent Goodyears all with a fair amount of tread on them, certainly more than advertised. I may have to revise my thinking on all season tyres.....hmm. I also have some nice Fiat hubcaps now too.