The new news 24 thread

[Leyland Worldmaster]

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/retro/mitsubishi-auctioning-its-entire-heritage-fleet

 

Might be of interest to some! 👍 👍 👍 😎 😎 😎 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/retro/mitsubishi-auctioning-its-entire-heritage-fleet

 

Might be of interest to some! 👍 👍 👍 😎 😎 😎 

Anyone wanting to place a bet on how many of those will be in a neglected state five years later?

[clayts450]

While I was away being 5g-ed the 420 failed its MOT, then passed a few mins later - brake light out.

Happy days, my fave car is road legal again.

[New POD]

On 19/03/2021 at 21:50, Tim_E said:

If it's in the cellar all you need now is a big fuck-off wine rack...

I do. 

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Anyone wanting to place a bet on how many of those will be in a neglected state five years later?

I reckon quite low as many of those vehicles are worth a decent amount now. 

[clayts450]

As noted earlier I got the vaccine today, but now have da fear about side effects. Conundrum is, do I dare risk quoting on a job for tomorrow morning, being wary that I may feel totally poo ? I think I'll have to give it a miss, just to be safe.

I've decided to give myself the rest of the day off today, so will give some lurve to the van (get funky with the bumper and trim gel to smarten up the plastic tat)

[Kiltox]

26 minutes ago, clayts450 said:

As noted earlier I got the vaccine today, but now have da fear about side effects. Conundrum is, do I dare risk quoting on a job for tomorrow morning, being wary that I may feel totally poo ? I think I'll have to give it a miss, just to be safe.

I've decided to give myself the rest of the day off today, so will give some lurve to the van (get funky with the bumper and trim gel to smarten up the plastic tat)

You know if you take the job you’ll be fucked and if you don’t you’ll be fresh as a daisy. Sod’s law. 

[Zelandeth]

I do love this car, but the fuel economy never ceases to make me wince!

Cruising on the level at 50 for instance, which is about the best you expect to see...23mpg shown on the instantaneous readout...

Do I really care though?  Not really!

[Ghosty]

23 on the instant isn't bad for a V12, that's the same I got from my S3 XJ6. 

[wuvvum]

I got 19mpg out of mine on the run back from Buckinghamshire when I bought it - I didn't think that was too bad, although I was driving sensibly.

My use of it after that was either nipping to Tesco or going for a hoon up the local B-roads so I gave up calculating the fuel consumption.

[HMC]

Red sky at night...

And I’ve got a bulb out. 

 

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

I got 19mpg out of mine on the run back from Buckinghamshire when I bought it - I didn't think that was too bad, although I was driving sensibly.

My use of it after that was either nipping to Tesco or going for a hoon up the local B-roads so I gave up calculating the fuel consumption.

That figure quoted was on level (or slightly downhill) at 50 on the cruise control.

Even breathe on the throttle at any speed and the instantaneous reading plummets into single digits.

My calculated average during ownership (~4500 miles so far) is 12.9mpg if memory serves.

Could be worse...could be an XJ12 on carbs!

I reckon based on the behaviour I'd probably be seeing mid teens as an average anywhere other than here...90% of my driving is in Milton Keynes, which is murder on economy in any car...but especially one like this!

Roundabouts every 0.9 miles and 1700kg of 5.3 litre V12 car with a 3-speef auto = inevitably poor economy.

[Yoss]

23 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

tis a shame you dont have the Routemaster anymore, can you imagine the fun if you turned up in that

 as a side note through a chain of association, I wonder do blue badges have vehicle limits? if you have a blue badge and a bus, could you apply it to your bus, then park on double yellow lines somewhere entirely inappropriate but that your blue badge technically allows you to LOL

Didn't really need a blue badge, you could just park on a bus stop, or near a bus stop or anywhere else really. Several times I took Mrs Yoss into town with it and parked on the bus stands in the city centre. Though that does seem like a lot of time, cost and effort just to save £2.50 on parking. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

The CTEK has been reconnected to the old test battery for 2 days now on the "Recond" programme. Currently sitting at "Float" stage, bubbling away merrily like a cauldron. All it needs is to have three wizened oul hags around it, muttering incantations. Another 8 days of this to go....

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

Can you get it to show 0mpg though?

Likely!  1 is easily possible with any vaguely liberal amount of right foot from slow or a standing start.  2-4 basically means "throttle pedal in use."

[bunglebus]

I asked on another thread about getting a bayonet fitting put on the capped gas pipe in our kitchen. It's been a long drawn out story involving our useless housing association not knowing their arse from their elbow.

Found a guy to come and do the job, couldn't fault him as he had to do a lot more than expected, the pipe was too low for regs so put an elbow on and extended it. 

The cooker was free off Facebook and appeared to be almost unused, and the gas side of it works fine. Unfortunately when plugged in it would trip the breaker after a short time. Fitter went out of his way checking the sockets etc but we concluded it was a fault inside the oven. Not the end of the world but I lost all the hair on the back of my hand lighting the grille a few times.

There's not too much electrical wizardry inside a gas cooker, just a clock/timer and the ignition system. Knew it couldn't be a dead short as it didn't trip the RCD immediately, so after a chat with my electronics engineer dad, we narrowed it down to the interference suppressor which is just a few capacitors across the mains. Whipped the back off the cooker and disconnected it, fault cured. Happy days, it's safe without it (I have ordered a replacement).

Last night I had a pasta bake cooking and the timer set, watching TV when suddenly all the electric goes off and we're plunged into darkness. Bloody cooker! Checked the fusebox but everything's on - took a minute before it dawned on me to look outside where all the street lights were off and all the other houses were black. Power cut, had to laugh...

[Floatylight]

One out! Buyer arriving imminently...

 

 

[Cord Fourteener]

Tried to change the offside track rod end on the Passat, failed. I watched how-tos and everything but I could not get the thing to come off no matter how hard I hit various bolts and pins. Going to have to book it in. 

At least I was able to go round and torque each wheel nut on each wheel to 120nm so I know they are all good. 

[bunglebus]

I usually undo the top nut until it's flush with the thread and hit it with a soft faced mallet (having undone the pinch bolt of course).

Does it drop at all or is it stuck in the taper?

Oh and try and source a genuine track rod end, the pattern ones don't have a rubber insert and transmit a load of vibration through the steering 

[Cord Fourteener]

6 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I usually undo the top nut until it's flush with the thread and hit it with a soft faced mallet (having undone the pinch bolt of course).

Does it drop at all or is it stuck in the taper?

Oh and try and source a genuine track rod end, the pattern ones don't have a rubber insert and transmit a load of vibration through the steering 

I tried tapping, whacking, battering, etc. The top nut started to move but only so far.  The pin would not budge,no matter how much force I dared hit it with. 

[barefoot]

You know how sometimes in older cars, the hooter sometimes does a little comedy honk when you turn the steering wheel?  Our little old German motor car is fitted with a pair of incredibly loud and intentionally dischordant, autobahn-storming HORNS.

This morning as usual, we set off to walk the dog at 06:15. I fired up the Scirocco on the drive, it was parked backed in against the side wall with a nice couple of armfulls of lock. PAPPERTY PAP & indeed PAPEROO! Off up along the street we went, turning PARP left & then left PARP again. We turned into the lovely village of Hemington with a BLARE of the horns & then turned off towards the sleepy hamlet of Lockington where there's a really tight & high walled Z bend, (which we negotiated amongst an absolute fucking riotous fanfare of horns) between the church & the vicarage. 

I am as blind as a fucking bat up close in the half light of dawn, but the fair wife managed to read the words on the fuse box index, I counted from right to left, pulled out a 15a bluey and silence was restored.

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, Tim_E said:

I tried tapping, whacking, battering, etc. The top nut started to move but only so far.  The pin would not budge,no matter how much force I dared hit it with. 

If by the pin you mean the thread behind the pinch bolt - it doesn't come out. You just loosen it and undo the top nut. They can be a little bitch, can you get a wedge of some sort in the split in the hub (on your left as you look at the offside)? Might help open it up a bit 

[bunglebus]

1 hour ago, barefoot said:

You know how sometimes in older cars, the hooter sometimes does a little comedy honk when you turn the steering wheel?  Our little old German motor car is fitted with a pair of incredibly loud and intentionally dischordant, autobahn-storming HORNS.

This morning as usual, we set off to walk the dog at 06:15. I fired up the Scirocco on the drive, it was parked backed in against the side wall with a nice couple of armfulls of lock. PAPPERTY PAP & indeed PAPEROO! Off up along the street we went, turning PARP left & then left PARP again. We turned into the lovely village of Hemington with a BLARE of the horns & then turned off towards the sleepy hamlet of Lockington where there's a really tight & high walled Z bend, (which we negotiated amongst an absolute fucking riotous fanfare of horns) between the church & the vicarage. 

I am as blind as a fucking bat up close in the half light of dawn, but the fair wife managed to read the words on the fuse box index, I counted from right to left, pulled out a 15a bluey and silence was restored.

Slip ring thingamijig behind the steering wheel?

[Sh'Eds]

A quick 10 minutes of tinkering today whilst taking a quick break from work. New pinion seal turned up yesterday (on the left in the picture below) and is thankfully the correct one so got it installed. 

 

 

Next up is wrestling the diff back onto the car, which is a job for another day.

 

 

[Stanky]

My brother-in-law's Fiesta Zetec S (2006) catastrophically failed its MOT yesterday which is a shame, but one of the MOT major defects was a little puzzling

• Front Tyre(s) with different structures are fitted across the same axle (5.2.3 (c))

Initially I thought this meant the tyres were different widths (e.g. 195/50r17 and 205/45r17) but thats not it at all. I'm fairly sure he's not running a crossply on one of them! This is a very long way away from the worst major defect on the list so is a fairly moot point but wondered if anyone can shed any light on what the issue is in laymans terms?

MOT garage is the same one I take all my cars to and they are entirely fair, I wasn't surprised by the fail (though he was). I suspect they weren't overly impressed by the knee-deep litter, wet clothes from early 2020 and roving mould on all the upholstery, and this may have made them a little stricter than normal. I'd just not seen this actual defect before?

 

 

[Sh'Eds]

54 minutes ago, Stanky said:

My brother-in-law's Fiesta Zetec S (2006) catastrophically failed its MOT yesterday which is a shame, but one of the MOT major defects was a little puzzling

• Front Tyre(s) with different structures are fitted across the same axle (5.2.3 (c))

Initially I thought this meant the tyres were different widths (e.g. 195/50r17 and 205/45r17) but thats not it at all. I'm fairly sure he's not running a crossply on one of them! This is a very long way away from the worst major defect on the list so is a fairly moot point but wondered if anyone can shed any light on what the issue is in laymans terms?

MOT garage is the same one I take all my cars to and they are entirely fair, I wasn't surprised by the fail (though he was). I suspect they weren't overly impressed by the knee-deep litter, wet clothes from early 2020 and roving mould on all the upholstery, and this may have made them a little stricter than normal. I'd just not seen this actual defect before?

 

 

Is one a winter tyre and one a summer?

[richardmorris]

as I was going to post mail at work today saw a superficiality nice 2002  jag 4 litre v8 at fairoaks airport for sale. Blue, cream leather, new mot and 74000miles. ££4950 I think. Forgot to get the reg so will look again tomorrow for the mot history. Bonnet needed a polish or paint though.

[Split_Pin]

A while ago we were ripped off by a landscape gardener for £2500. We were supposed  to get our boggy ground excavated, all new drainage installed, new slabs, planters built and raised brick beds.

We asked for Eldorado, he gave us Ypres:

We are on good terms with our electrician and his mate, who carries out the groundwork on new build housing sites. His mate owes him a couple of favours so they both came out to survey the damage.

For a small cash sum and with some help from my wife and I, over the course of 3 weekends we now have this:

 

For a girl, my wife is not afraid of hard work. She's also freakishly strong for someone who's 5 ft 5. She handballed 3 tons of gravel today with 1 barrow and 1 shovel, while I was working.

Our electrician built the planter at the back from 6 railway sleepers and it looks great.

Had we put turf down again, the grass would have died again in a couple of years and become a mossy mess so we had no choice but to lay artificial grass. The electrician had done his own with some help on the ground preparation so between the 2 of them a grand job was done. The sand underneath was planed and  whacked in 3 thin layers until it was like a billiard table, almost a shame to cover it!

Thank goodness the whole episode is behind us now.

[Mrs6C]

5 hours ago, barefoot said:

You know how sometimes in older cars, the hooter sometimes does a little comedy honk when you turn the steering wheel? 

Oh yes, also newer cars... our P38 Range Rover used to do that if it had been a cold night... we assume it was some condensation getting to places it shouldn't... it was only about six years old at the time...

[BorniteIdentity]

2 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

A while ago we were ripped off by a landscape gardener for £2500. We were supposed  to get our boggy ground excavated, all new drainage installed, new slabs, planters built and raised brick beds.

We asked for Eldorado, he gave us Ypres:

We are on good terms with our electrician and his mate, who carries out the groundwork on new build housing sites. His mate owes him a couple of favours so they both came out to survey the damage.

For a small cash sum and with some help from my wife and I, over the course of 3 weekends we now have this:

 

For a girl, my wife is not afraid of hard work. She's also freakishly strong for someone who's 5 ft 5. She handballed 3 tons of gravel today with 1 barrow and 1 shovel, while I was working.

Our electrician built the planter at the back from 6 railway sleepers and it looks great.

Had we put turf down again, the grass would have died again in a couple of years and become a mossy mess so we had no choice but to lay artificial grass. The electrician had done his own with some help on the ground preparation so between the 2 of them a grand job was done. The sand underneath was planed and  whacked in 3 thin layers until it was like a billiard table, almost a shame to cover it!

Thank goodness the whole episode is behind us now.

That looks magic; something to be really proud of. Artificial grass has come a long way eh? Once upon a time it was like the shelves in a greengrocers! The back looks as good as the front now, lovely stuff. 

Any chance of seeing the scammer or the 2k again?