The new news 24 thread

[beko1987]

What's the unused bulb hole for? The secret mode? 

[juular]

On 8/20/2021 at 6:04 PM, 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 just got the same letter and I live in Scotland.

My thinking is that I'm registered on the Dartford Crossing database as I use it quite a lot enroute to France.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

On 8/22/2021 at 7:21 AM, beko1987 said:

What's the unused bulb hole for? The secret mode? 

No idea. Didn't notice until you pointed it out....!

EDIT: looked at it again. I think the unused hole is for additional backlighting, not that the indicator strip needs it since the bulb at the other end does the job of lighting up all the letters and numbers.

If I find out which strips on the PCB are negative and which are positive, then a conversion to LEDs is possible.

[MarvinsMom]

kerry's bestie has got a new  toy......

.....lucky devil!

[brownnova]

You go to an event… thinking yours will be the only Pontiac Trans Sport there… 

[mitsisigma01]

Any interest in an Audi A6 1.8t saloon, 2002, I think, I need to clear my garage to make way for a longer term project. It's been sat for a few years apart from occasionally up and down the garage block and to run up to temperature, all appears to work but trailering probably best. Interior is a fine layer of Jack Russell and blue, exterior is blue with a dent behind the n/s yellowed headlight. Located in Sussex. 

Please form an orderly queue, need gone asap, pictures when I get a chance to get up there

[louiepj]

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

Definitely the place there is a Euro Car farts next door I sometimes have to use on a Sunday in desperation.

[richardmorris]

Sunny enough this afternoon to get the car out. Quick blast down the dual carriageway to marford and back through Gresford ( it’s original home) before having a long overdue vacuum ( spider webs and loads of silver birch seeds).

[stuboy]

Today I did the gasket on the mondeo v6 , fortunately 1 fixing was nut and bolt, but other still stud and it was stuck solid,  chopped as much with disc cutter, the set about using many drill bits working up in sizes. It took ages, but got there in the end, ginger bearded one is missus brother, I christened his new drill(made it oily), and my son come down with his tools too help too..

[Barry Cade]

4 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Sunny enough this afternoon to get the car out. Quick blast down the dual carriageway to marford and back through Gresford ( it’s original home) before having a long overdue vacuum ( spider webs and loads of silver birch seeds).

Can't be many GF's left with that seat material in such good condition!

[stuboy]

Scroll past if u squeamish, though not that bad, drill the stud out the drill bit broke and my thumb 'kissed it's... it pumped blood out.. misses says it may need looking at that I said I need to finish the car, ran under the tap, kitchen roll and some out of date plaster, it throbbed like crazy, and it ran out... oh and I wacked my hand using drill punch...  

[beko1987]

Ouch! Small stuff like that always bleeds more than actual major injuries, then it mixes with the oil and you've got to do the full wash up covering everything in claret just to see wtf you've done, 

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, Barry Cade said:

Can't be many GF's left with that seat material in such good condition!

No, there is a perfect one in the club with very low miles and perfect seats, but you can’t see them as they are under covers all the time. I have a spare set of seats in the fabric too, along with four door cards so that when I need to get them retrimmed I have the correct material. Most are done in leather or plain alcantara. I don’t think any cars with the  red pattern material still survive.

while you’re here @Barry Cade! the expansion tank was noticeably down on coolant ( below the central tube pressing). No visible marks in the garage and no leaking pipes. Heater matrix looks ok too. The only drip it’s had for years is from the automatic choke temperature thing.

after the run the tank was certainly pressurised as I released the cap after twenty minutes or so so the cap seems to be ok.

not sure what else to check for leaks?

[Barry Cade]

17 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

No, there is a perfect one in the club with very low miles and perfect seats, but you can’t see them as they are under covers all the time. I have a spare set of seats in the fabric too, along with four door cards so that when I need to get them retrimmed I have the correct material. Most are done in leather or plain alcantara. I don’t think any cars with the  red pattern material still survive.

while you’re here @Barry Cade! the expansion tank was noticeably down on coolant ( below the central tube pressing). No visible marks in the garage and no leaking pipes. Heater matrix looks ok too. The only drip it’s had for years is from the automatic choke temperature thing.

after the run the tank was certainly pressurised as I released the cap after twenty minutes or so so the cap seems to be ok.

not sure what else to check for leaks?

X1/9s tend to find their own coolant level, and I've always found its just below the plastic tube bit in the reservoir.  Doesn't seem to matter if you fill it higher, they just seem to settle at that level. There is  a lot of coolant,  so quite a bit of expansion, so they just chuck out what they don't want. If you ever get the chance of a 1300 stainless tank, grab it as the plastic ones can split.

They really have to be bled carefully and in an order as this can cause the level to rise and fall.

Worst case scenario is the underfloor pipes, a BIG job but rare. Check the heater valve next to the clutch pedal as they can leak here but if you are getting pressure I wouldn't worry, just normal X1/9.. excersise the heater valve often because they sieze.. just move the temp lever back and onwards every few weeks.. most X1/9s have broken heater controls because people force them when the valve is stuck... someone really needs to get these 3D printed..

[stuboy]

12 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Small stuff like that always bleeds more than actual major injuries

ran out like tap, sorry to my missus dad his concreate has pretty patterns on it..

[anonymous user]

I managed to trim my left hand with a secateurs years ago. I found that wrapping it around and around with masking tape until the blood stopped coming through was the way to go. My hand did look like a lump hammer by that point. The trail of blood was linked up by my Spaniels, who were looking up at me expectantly for more, as I was binding my hand up.

[wuvvum]

On 8/21/2021 at 5:21 PM, Barry Cade said:

Alfa 90..

See also: Talbot Horizon. 

[dollywobbler]

On 8/20/2021 at 7:08 PM, BorniteIdentity said:

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. 

I've had one for the 2CV, which has never paid a congestion charge. I live in Wales and the M25 is as close as I ever get to driving in London...

[sdkrc]

The Insight has been having some driver side window problems for a little while. Today picking up some emergency medicine for the boy I wound it down and it got stuck in this position.

The most common thing to fail is the switch. I took apart the dash and rebuilt the switch a couple of months back so it's probably not that. The next most common is the motor.

Took apart the window, removed the motor and runner and put the glass on wooden blocks. Now to see if I can diagnose and salvage

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, dollywobbler said:

I've had one for the 2CV, which has never paid a congestion charge. I live in Wales and the M25 is as close as I ever get to driving in London...

Queer. I guess that you’ve owned the car since the CC was started in Feb 2003. Weird. 

I can’t for a moment think that they will write to every registered keeper of every non compliant car in the British Isles, so something surely triggered it? Maybe even an ANPR near London, and LEZ camera or possibly a database of car parking or something. 

Odd, as the Sierra lived in London for years and I’ve not heard a peep! 

[HMC]

 

[wuvvum]

250 miles done in the Merc over the weekend - mine to Somerset via the FOD.  The run from FOD to here yesterday was pretty good - the car didn't go into "limp" mode until about 10 miles from Swindon, then I stopped for fuel and it was fine again until about a mile from my parents' house.  Got the best average mpg figure so far from the old barge too.

It really is a great old motorway wafter.  I just need to sort out how to fix the loss of power after an hour or so of driving.  I'm still convinced it's the tuning box, but we tried unplugging it at the FOD and the car wouldn't start at all with it disconnected, so further investigation will be required. 

[Split_Pin]

Checked the Cavalier this afternoon, coolant was visibly dripping out the thermostat and all the  coolant has disappeared out the header tank. I haven't even driven it!

The whole housing needs to come off and the thermostat installed on the level. I've ordered some gasket paper so will get that done hopefully by the end of the week and then that's that.

[GingerNuttz]

13 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Checked the Cavalier this afternoon, coolant was visibly dripping out the thermostat and all the  coolant has disappeared out the header tank. I haven't even driven it!

The whole housing needs to come off and the thermostat installed on the level. I've ordered some gasket paper so will get that done hopefully by the end of the week and then that's that.

Put some permatex No.3 on the paper gasket and it'll seal it up no probs. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254414117464?epid=9017006844&hash=item3b3c435a58:g:ReMAAOSwUrZdxFIB

All I use on paper gaskets these days 

[catsinthewelder]

8 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

I've had one for the 2CV, which has never paid a congestion charge. I live in Wales and the M25 is as close as I ever get to driving in London...

Perhaps they were hoping you would talk about it on a video and save them 60000 stamps 😉

[vulgalour]

It's weird that so many folks seem to be getting the London letters from the DVLA except for those people I know who live in or near London.  I mean, we've got four cars here and of all of them only one is exempt from the charge, I think, and one definitely isn't exempt, so you'd think we'd get a notification since we're close enough to be likely to go into that there London town.

[LightBulbFun]

On 21/08/2021 at 23:10, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Also replaced the rear 21+5w dual filaments with Osram red LED equivalents. Surprised to find they do work like original bulbs and don't trigger the "bulb out" warning. The Osrams are the only LEDs which have managed this so far.

you might want to put the original bulbs back for reasons explained at 15:47 in this video

 

[LightBulbFun]

9 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

I've had one for the 2CV, which has never paid a congestion charge. I live in Wales and the M25 is as close as I ever get to driving in London...

this photo says otherwise!  (ahh memories, I look forward to hopefully recreating it with my own Model 70 at some point )

55 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

It's weird that so many folks seem to be getting the London letters from the DVLA except for those people I know who live in or near London.  I mean, we've got four cars here and of all of them only one is exempt from the charge, I think, and one definitely isn't exempt, so you'd think we'd get a notification since we're close enough to be likely to go into that there London town.

yeah funnily enough I have not had any letters with regards to ULEZ despite living in Central London next door to the Congestion Zone/current ULEZ zone LOL

 

strangely any historic vehicle I punt into the ULEZ Checker still says it has to pay despite them being exempt

I wonder if thats because the ULEZ checker cant check what taxation class a vehicle is in, but the ANPR cameras can?

or are a load of 40+ year old vehicles going to be falsely charged come the 25th of October because someone at TFL forgot to make historic vehicles exempt like they say they are

 

certainly on the TFL website they say it goes by what taxation class a vehicle is in,

which brings up an interesting problem because a Car in the disabled tax class is Congestion charge exempt, but wont be ULEZ exempt, however a car in the historic vehicle taxation class will be ULEZ exempt but not congestion charge exempt

so what do you do if your disabled person running a historic vehicle, you cant have it in 2 tax classes at once LOL

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, GingerNuttz said:

Put some permatex No.3 on the paper gasket and it'll seal it up no probs. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254414117464?epid=9017006844&hash=item3b3c435a58:g:ReMAAOSwUrZdxFIB

All I use on paper gaskets these days 

I was looking for that, is that the stuff that's like treacle?

[vulgalour]

25 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

so what do you do if your disabled person running a historic vehicle, you cant have it in 2 tax classes at once LOL

Hooray for British Bureaucracy! *waves tiny counter-signed-documents-in-triplicate flags*