The new news 24 thread

[omegod]

4 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Got a refund in the post today from DVLA for the unused tax on the C2.  £6.66!  It'll cost me nearly that much in fuel to drive into Norwich and pay the cheque into the bank...

You can pay cheques in by taking a pic of it with some banks ! I didn't know this until young un showed me recently

[Split_Pin]

And to make matters worse, the Mini has just shat its coolant all over McDonald's car park. Currently waiting on the AA coming out, ETA 20.30.

[Split_Pin]

[SRi05]

13 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Burn it with fire. 

[Split_Pin]

HGF. Getting towed home.

 

[Mrcento]

On 7/6/2021 at 11:51 AM, Mrcento said:

Sick to death of their near unrivalled ability to throw up total unobtanium issues. Doesn't seem to matter how common they are, or what they need, there's always at least 1 bit you can't get, need to spend hours cross referencing part numbers, only to find it's mega specific, dealer only and north of £300 for something that should cost about £20.

Case in point.

This part, for a Range Rover? £40.

For a Bentley? £140

For a Lamborghini Urus? £150

For a Honda Civic?

That's without VAT, btw.

It's turning into a right fucking charade. Not a Daihatsu either.

Word of advice to anyone buying a spaceship Civic.... get one without factory fit Xenons. The sensor or the bracketery has any issues, you're fucked.

Been around 11 Scrapyards over the past few days, found 5 Civics with Xenons, the rear sensors are all fucked in the same sorts of ways. Siezed arms snapped brackets. Even buying 2 or 3 of the better broken ones, i'd not have been able to cobble together 1 good one. Suggests that it's a mega common issue so chances of failure are near certain. Best avoided.

This is how it came off the car. Like it was plucked off the Titanic.

Top bracket is fine. Sensor seems ok. seems to just be all the lower bracketery and linkages rusting, seizing, disintegrating and snapping. Have freed the top arm up and it now moves nicely, cut off the upper ball joint.

The solution from the other parts are to make a new link arm via threaded bar and screw on ball joints (which is what someone else did years ago because Honda will not sell that part, it's whole assembly or nothing) and lower bracket replaced with and adjustable L bracket adapted and fitted at an angle onto the axel. Might need to make use of other holes on it to secure at that angle because the original, snapped one has a little tooth on the edge that locks it at a set angle to stop it rotating. I might get away with bolting it down TIGHTASFUCK but can probably do something better so there's no issue with the MOT man saying it's insecure.

Not that i think he will, he basically said he'd be fine with it as long as it was vaguely connected.

All in going well, it'll be a £10 repair rather than a near £400 one.

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, omegod said:

You can pay cheques in by taking a pic of it with some banks ! I didn't know this until young un showed me recently

Not natwest unfortunately 

[DVee8]

6 hours ago, Spurious said:

Someone's going to be in some bother. Letting off a little more than steam... 

It's  the Chester-le-Street Steam & Vintage Fair, this weekend at https://www.facebook.com/lambtonparkuk

[stuboy]

Seems mini-stuboy has now declared the standard 8  his car, not sure how his grandad feels about it as was planned to be sold eventually

[Split_Pin]

So that's the end of the Mini adventure.

The Patrolman asked me to keep it at 2 k revs with the cap off and great big blobby bubbles were coming out and the coolant was rising and spewing  out. 

Weirdly no mixing with the oil or exhaust smoke but the coolant did look petrolly. 

I could see right away it was HGF and he also said this was likely.

It didn't overheat as there was still some coolant left when I opened the bonnet and the 'it's fucked' light didn't come on. 5 minutes later with the engine off the level had risen again. 

It's never used any water since we had it so it must have been the wait in the queue at the drive through that finished it off.

We were straight barred home and we nearly died on the way home.  On the Wilderness Brae a wee young hoor in a huge black Range Rover, who had also been at McDonalds, tried to pass us at huge speed as we moved into the outside lane to turn right. She braked so hard her hazards came on and almost hit me on the offside. Fucking shat myself as I couldn't steer away. As my wife gave her opinion on her driving out the window she just laughed. When we got home the Patrolman said as it was a Range Rover he'd be out to her soon enough.

Glad it happened where it did and that I was there.

I'm gutted though as I was about to put it up for sale but I'm hugely more glad that I didn't sell it yesterday to some poor person.

[High Jetter]

26 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Seems mini-stuboy has now declared the standard 8  his car, not sure how his grandad feels about it as was planned to be sold eventually

Grandad wanted to sell mini Stuboy? Mebbe fair, if you can keep the car.

[anonymous user]

35 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Seems mini-stuboy has now declared the standard 8  his car, not sure how his grandad feels about it as was planned to be sold eventually

Those Standard 8s were real misery spec. It does look quite solid there though and I'm sure a session with some tcut and polish would have it looking quite smart.

[HMC]

24 minutes ago, anonymous user said:

Those Standard 8s were real misery spec. It does look quite solid there though and I'm sure a session with some tcut and polish would have it looking quite smart.

IIRC the earliest ones didn’t even have a boot lid as such. MINGEBAG. 

[Spottedlaurel]

News just in, Camry estate failed MoT but nothing too significant:

Repair immediately (major defects):

• Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault (1.6 (b))
• Nearside Headlamp not working on dipped beam (4.1.1 (a) (ii))
• Offside Windscreen wiper does not clear the windscreen effectively (3.4 (b) (ii))
• Offside Front Service brake excessively binding (1.2.1 (f))

Repair as soon as possible (minor defects):

• Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.2 (a) (i))
• Nearside Registration plate lamp inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (4.7.1 (b) (i))
• Nearside Windscreen wiper blade defective (3.4 (b) (i))

Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):

• Offside Rear wheel arch corroded
• Nearside Rear Lower Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement front bush (5.3.4 (a) (i))
• Offside Rear Lower Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement front bush (5.3.4 (a) (i))
• Nearside Rear Inner Anti-roll bar pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement (5.3.4 (a) (i))
• Offside Rear Inner Anti-roll bar pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement (5.3.4 (a) (i))
• Rear Lower panel corroded
• Nearside Rear Inner Suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive sill (5.3.6 (a) (i))
• Offside Rear Inner Suspension component mounting prescribed area is corroded but not considered excessive sill (5.3.6 (a) (i))

I knew it was going to fail because of the ABS light. Nothing there otherwise that's too concerning, and to sort it will still be cheaper than hiring a van for all the moving stuff I need to in the next 2-3 months so it looks like it lives for another year

[flat4alfa]

@wuvvum

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[Leyland Worldmaster]

Probably newsworthy; not many around! 👍 👍 👍 😎 😎 😎 

[brownnova]

In the ring with Les, the legendary Chumley commentator… 

[Sunny Jim]

Relieved that the gasket and head appear to be ok but still no idea where I'm losing coolant to. Losing approx. 1/4 to 1/2 litre per hour when running so I guess the next stage is a pressure test - I don't have the gear for that so I'll have to farm it out.

In the picture you'll notice the fluid is rising towards the left-hand chamber indicating positive pressure however although I held the revs steady at times the fluid rose towards the right-hand chamber - is that significant or does it just indicate air being drawn into the system from the same place fluid is leaking out?

 

[MarvinsMom]

well we got marvin out today, so a guy could test on it a bit, and see what if anything was going on with the brakes.

jacked it up, wheels off and have a look at whats going on.

well, there was a vibration i wasn't expecting, and some odd sounds but it all seems to be working. strangely there isn't anything that i could feel rattling ir cluncking with the wheels back on and on the floor!

same with the backs too, though i have dosed the hand brake cables and the adjusters in WD40 just in case.

then down the lane a bit, well the  back brakes are locking up and the nose of the  car is  dipping underheavy braking so  i guess they are working, if the garage wasn't in town then i would have run it round the block for a proper try.

so i have formulated a plan, i'm going to pop a new set of pads in the front, the ones in there are getting well down, and then  i;m going to get it tested. 

but i want someone sympathetic to old cars to do it, so either i get it booked in at Cropton, or give George Allerton a call and get it in there, and see what it needs to pass.

 

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Sunny Jim said:

Relieved that the gasket and head appear to be ok but still no idea where I'm losing coolant to. Losing approx. 1/4 to 1/2 litre per hour when running so I guess the next stage is a pressure test - I don't have the gear for that so I'll have to farm it out.

In the picture you'll notice the fluid is rising towards the left-hand chamber indicating positive pressure however although I held the revs steady at times the fluid rose towards the right-hand chamber - is that significant or does it just indicate air being drawn into the system from the same place fluid is leaking out?

 

Odd one that.  You'd expect a leak that big to show up pretty easily.  Getting some UV dye in the system and a blacklight might be a good call too.

I do seem to distantly remember mystery coolant loss on a friend's Renault 21 being eventually traced to a heater hose connection down the back of the engine.  The hose had gone soft to the extent the clip was no longer tight enough and the water was running down the back of the engine.  Position of the exhaust meant it was evaporating rather than dripping so took us a while to find.

As it memory serves this is the same 1.7 engine might be worth a look.  I think in our case it looked fine until we actually pulled on the hose at which point it was obviously loose on the fitting.

[Sunny Jim]

Thanks @Zelandeth.  I've just found some car ramps on FB marketplace for a tenner that I'm picking up tomorrow night. When I get a chance I'll get under the car, remove the under tray and investigate all the hoses thoroughly as you suggest - probably wouldn't hurt to replace any tired looking clips while I'm at it.

[Supernaut]

I'm sitting here using my laptop in a room full of boxes.

I move to Stirling tomorrow. Eep.

[stuboy]

Another day back on the Isle of sheppey, told missus she had to drive as she wants to come with the kids one day... yo stay weekends etc etc, she don't like driving over the bridge

[Split_Pin]

2 hours ago, Supernaut said:

I'm sitting here using my laptop in a room full of boxes.

I move to Stirling tomorrow. Eep.

Good luck man!

[gm]

4 hours ago, Supernaut said:

I move to Stirling tomorrow

Good move - hope it all works out 

[horriblemercedes]

This is certainly not new news, but chatting to a friend earlier, I remembered something that I thought might be worth sharing.

 

My mind links the Ford Escort RS Cosworth to Warhammer. And I can explain why.

 

When I was at secondary school, I made friends with a kid in the class who was a great guy. A  bit nerdy, obsessed with Warhammer. I wasn't into Warhammer but he was happy to do my stuff (mostly car museums and car shows) so I was happy to go to Warhammer with him.

One day, his mum was giving us a lift on a Saturday morning to play Warhammer together, and then his mum would pick us up and take us to the cinema. An Escort RS Cosworth overtook us, doing a serious speed. It's a long time ago, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was 130mph+. At the time, Cosworth was a BIG DEAL. I thought this was really cool, but before I could say anything, his mum said, "Maniacs. Don't they know they won't get there any faster?"

 

I've just always imagined that the two young men in the Escort were in a hurry because they were late for a Warhammer game.

 

As it happened, we couldn't play Warhammer because the place was booked up for a Warhammer tournament. I said we should go for a walk, maybe sit in the park with a can of pop. He said that he didn't want to leave the shop because that was where his mum was going to pick us up, so we sat on the floor outside the Warhammer shop for 4.5 hours

 

In hindsight, the Ford might well have been stolen

[artdjones]

4½ hours is a long time at that age. The days before mobile phones seem a very long time ago. 

Actually, your friend's mum was wrong. If you drive at 130mph you do get there quicker than most people.

[MondeoBlues]

Had the Porsche tickled with the sparkle stick with fresh stonechip

[juular]

14 hours ago, Supernaut said:

I'm sitting here using my laptop in a room full of boxes.

I move to Stirling tomorrow. Eep.

@SupernautGood luck with the move. If you need any help PM me, I'm 10 minutes down the road. (Edit: and I have a van!)

[Asimo]

All the magic smoke has escaped from my angle-grinder. And some buzzing, blue, electric flames.
It was almost 20 years old and the cheapest of Wickes own brand so 10 / 10, would buy again.