The new news 24 thread

[BL Bloke]

The Rover has been dropped off for its MOT. I did have to stop and have a fiddle under the driver's seat on the way there as the airbag light came on. ☹️ Hopefully it'll stay off during the test as when it was in a couple a couple of years ago it was was going on and off while the test was being carried out. 

[Cheezey]

4 hours ago, mitsisigma01 said:

I thought it was one of these, excuse my one and only shite potato cam shot in hazy sunlight in the leafy lanes near Gatwick 

When I’m on the train from Gatwick I sometimes notice an American car specialist in an industrial area. Absolutely no idea where it is though. 

[bunglebus]

Amazing what I find at mother bungle's house. Right next to the Rocket WD40

[Split_Pin]

The war restarted with the Cavalier today.

The design of the thermostat housing is SHITE.

Its sits at 90 degrees relative tonthe head and there's nothing to hold it in its groove whilst you get the gasket on and the top bolted up. Obviously it had slipped down, stopping the top from seating and it was lashing out coolant unbeknownst to me.

The gasket was naturally mullered and they're not available separately. 

No matter how hard I tried, the thermostat simply would not stay in place to allow me to bolt the top on. Every time I thought I'd got it, the top would not seat at the bottom leaving a gap, as the edge of the thermostat was stopping it. I could have been brutal and tigersealed it there but I felt that was wrong. 

Instead I put a thin smear of instant gasket round it which held it in place just enough. More instant gasket applied to the top of the housing and I got it bolted down. No idea if it's sitting where it should as the instant gasket is covering any potential gap.

I don't want to take the whole housing off as the gasket for that will be even harder to find but potentially that might be the only method to getting the thermostat seated properly. 

The 75 is mostly difficult to work on so I don't even try but this car lulls you into a false sense of ease as some tasks are really easy and others look like Chris Eubank  designed the whole thing.

[barmatt]

Received this letter today stating that my Honda won't be ulez compliant come October 25th.

but I don't live anywhere near London or go anywhere near it. Had the car over 18 months and I'm sure the previous owner didn't go there either. 

Anyone had this? It's not asking for money or anything and it's return address is a dvla postcode in Swansea. 

All a bit fishy to me. 🤔

 

[HillmanImp]

Finally decided to do something about the Porsche today so went to a garage that someone on Facebook recommend to talk over what it needs with them. 

But they were closed. 

Hopefully it'll be less than 8 months before I muster up the enthusiasm to try again. 

[Joey spud]

41 minutes ago, barmatt said:

Received this letter today stating that my Honda won't be ulez compliant come October 25th.

but I don't live anywhere near London or go anywhere near it. Had the car over 18 months and I'm sure the previous owner didn't go there either. 

Anyone had this? It's not asking for money or anything and it's return address is a dvla postcode in Swansea. 

All a bit fishy to me. 🤔

No my son got a letter today too.

But his was for a 2001 Mitsubishi FTO that he recently bought from north London (Edmonton?).

The FTO has been broken up for parts so wont be going anywhere the place ever again.

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, barmatt said:

Received this letter today stating that my Honda won't be ulez compliant come October 25th.

but I don't live anywhere near London or go anywhere near it. Had the car over 18 months and I'm sure the previous owner didn't go there either. 

Anyone had this? It's not asking for money or anything and it's return address is a dvla postcode in Swansea. 

All a bit fishy to me. 🤔

 

I would say that the car has certainly payed ULEZ or CC at some stage. If the gov are writing to every single registered keeper in the UK of non compliant cars - there will be an absolute shit fit. 

[richardmorris]

Horrendous drive up to north wales. 5 and a quarter hours to do 185miles!  New car was fine, just the motorways that had failed.

[cort16]

I needed to go and get 10 bags of stone chips from the local garden centre at lunch time. There wouldn't be room in the BMW so I thought I'd bust out the Granada. I went to the garage and it fired right up, I reversed it out the garage and it stalled. When I went to crank it it, it cranked slowly then just clicked and the windows etc are really slow. I had to push the bastard back in the garage, which wasn't much fun.

No loose battery connections or anything to was as if the battery just failed.  When I got the battery someone* may have left the transit plugs in and swelled up like a balloon . This could be that event coming home to roost.

[stuboy]

spent an hour digging through my shed looking for my angle grinder,  then realised i put it in a new tool box that i been staring at all the time... early signs of Alzheimer's... 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Wheres the thread gone about silly questions that buyers ask? I was enjoying that. Has it been moderated away into a dark corner of the forum somewhere?

[stuboy]

12 hours ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

Wheres the thread gone about silly questions that buyers ask? I was enjoying that. Has it been moderated away into a dark corner of the forum somewhere?

new stuff has bumped it along the line ..

 

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Ah thanks Stuboy. I think its had a load of recent posts deleted out of it which has sent it miles back down the queue! Ah well.

[Split_Pin]

It had better not, that's one of my favourite threads on here.

[brownnova]

2 hours ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

Ah thanks Stuboy. I think its had a load of recent posts deleted out of it which has sent it miles back down the queue! Ah well.

Nope… just checked, no posts have been deleted from that thread… 

[Noel Tidybeard]

23 hours ago, tooSavvy said:

Were there not stories of Rover 800s being TWOCd as you could 'puff off' (..oooh, err) the pneumatic deadlocks by smacking a tennis ball (with a small hole in it) onto the keyhole >> and popping the locks??

Mebbies..... 🤫

not sure about 800s i'm sure they were electric

aldis & porsche 924/944 springs to mind with the tennis ball trick tho

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Hmmmm. Well I was defo looking at some funny posts from FOAD yesterday or the day before..... Ive just realised it wasnt in this thread at all, but the one he had in the FS section for his old 305 estate. Looks like that whole thread has vanished. My mistake!!! Carry on!

[loserone]

6 minutes ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

vanished

Has it sold @DodgyBastard?

[High Jetter]

Local house had a girl's bicycle and several multi-compartment storage boxes on the front lawn, marked 'free'. Rude not to, but not the right sort of bike for me.

[DodgyBastard]

10 hours ago, loserone said:

Has it sold @DodgyBastard?

Is that a serious question? I felt I'd derailed the thread enough so best thing to do was delete it. I'm sure if someone on here really wanted it they would contact me.

I've stuck the screenshots in the other thread for entertainment.

[adw1977]

21 hours ago, Cheezey said:

When I’m on the train from Gatwick I sometimes notice an American car specialist in an industrial area. Absolutely no idea where it is though. 

I think it's this place, situated in the arse end of Redhill:

American Auto Parts

[EightMegs]

@iambatterypowered vomited out of my Yaris's window onto a Ford Transit Connect in Snake Pass earlier.

[TheOtherStu]

21 hours ago, barmatt said:

Received this letter today stating that my Honda won't be ulez compliant come October 25th.

but I don't live anywhere near London or go anywhere near it. Had the car over 18 months and I'm sure the previous owner didn't go there either. 

Anyone had this? It's not asking for money or anything and it's return address is a dvla postcode in Swansea. 

All a bit fishy to me. 🤔

 

As it happens, I've had both of mine reclassified.

Euro 4 didn't come in until 2005, so it's a bit of a minefield. Some cars could well be ULEZ compliant, but don't show up on the checker.
As an example, some 2000 MR2 Roadsters show up as being compliant for Birmingham, Bath, London and so on.  Some 2004 don't.

2005 onwards should be fine, because they were signed off as Euro 4.

My 2  2003 models (which have a slightly improved engine) showed up as being non-compliant for Birmingham. I filled out the form on the .gov website and a couple of back and forths and they now show as being compliant.

Helps more than anything if, like me, you're trying to sell a car!

[Barry Cade]

On 8/19/2021 at 10:50 AM, Zelandeth said:

Wasn't there an Alfa which used a strip for both tach and speedometer, but mounted at an odd 45 degree angle in the cluster?

Alfa 90..

[richardmorris]

Some small tinkering this afternoon. Replaced the cracked door lens and swapped the old roof clips for non broken ones. Still have the door hinge stops to do, but need a locking pair of pliers to do that.

[richardmorris]

I will mention that it is almost exactly two years since I’ve seen the car and may have sat in it making brum brum noises. It’s too wet to get it out today, but maybe tomorrow...

[Tadhg Tiogar]

After a fashion, some overdue work happened on the CX earlier, and about 20 minutes later, a replacement ignition lock barrel was in place....

DIRAVI restored....and whilst I was down there, a brand new gear indicator went in as well:

....with some mystery plugs discovered along the way...

...but all straightforward:

....and it's all fully backlit now:

Went for a drive to North Watford and back to celebrate. The new key works. Nothing else notable to report, except for one Merc driver at Sainsbury's who said he liked the car. 

[PhilA]

Ok, what does A stand for, if it's not Drive?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

8 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Ok, what does A stand for, if it's not Drive?

Avant, as in en avant, = forward.