The new news 24 thread

[Lacquer Peel]

I hear there is a nice automatic one for sale. 

[reb]

1 hour ago, Lacquer Peel said:

I hear there is a nice automatic one for sale. 

"Nice" might be pushing it...

[Lacquer Peel]

It's quite charming in its own way. 

[Split_Pin]

I changed the front pads on the Civic in the summer because the wear indicators were squealing but the rears looked OK. 

The car received an advisory  for rear pads at the MOT in October and @Supernaut gave me new pads foc that he had been going to fit to his now scrapped Civic.

Nearside was well past it.

I also got to try out my new caliper windback tool - works great.

Discs were fairly recent so left alone although I do have a pair that also came free with the pads too.

[meggersdog]

With the workshop to myself thought I'd have a tinker with the Discovery. First up was patching the nearside outer sill. With the cover off the B pillar needed a piece letting in too. All done and everything packed away it was time to tackle the fuel tank guard/ under-tray. I was supposed to be out playing in the mud tomorrow so thought it wise to replace the rotten guard with a solid one I acquired a couple of months ago. Started to hammer an impact socket on the bolts when.............. Oh bugger

That's the whole cross-member completely rotted out.Just behind the axle so tank out. The fuel tank is just sitting on the chassis legs so won't be too hard to do.

[dozeydustman]

On 25/12/2021 at 20:55, Lacquer Peel said:

 

This would make a cracking calendar shot if you’d parked next to the sign 

[junkyarddog]

My 205 aka the Peashooter was starting to become a bit crispy around the top drivers side door hinge.

I've been meaning to do something about it for a while,seeing as it's test is due this seemed like a good time.

Still a bit more to do on the inner wing,but I guess for the age of it,it's not doing too bad.

Had to remove the wing,which on a 205 is a ball ache. 

Just hope I've welded the door hinge in the right position 🤣

[somewhatfoolish]

41 minutes ago, meggersdog said:

With the workshop to myself thought I'd have a tinker with the Discovery. First up was patching the nearside outer sill. With the cover off the B pillar needed a piece letting in too. All done and everything packed away it was time to tackle the fuel tank guard/ under-tray. I was supposed to be out playing in the mud tomorrow so thought it wise to replace the rotten guard with a solid one I acquired a couple of months ago. Started to hammer an impact socket on the bolts when.............. Oh bugger

That's the whole cross-member completely rotted out.Just behind the axle so tank out. The fuel tank is just sitting on the chassis legs so won't be too hard to do.

TADTS. Ask me how I know. 😬

[vulgalour]

Looks like it's new battery time for the Princess.  Slightly sluggish starting today and wipers slowing down when I had to have brake lights, headlights, heated rear screen, and demister running today.  Alternator appears to be charging properly so I don't think that's the issue.  I'm pretty sure this is the same Lion brand battery the car came to me with so it's lasted at least ten years and has been roundly abused over that time with several charges from flat and demands to jump start other cars so I reckon it's earned retirement.

I know Lion have a reputation for being a bit rubbish but honestly this one has been so good I'd definitely be tempted to go with another.

[stuboy]

nothing exciting driving home from missus house thought christ my lights are crap, turns out 1 was knackered

[ruffgeezer]

Alternator, auxilary belt and upper engine mount changed successfully. 

[loserone]

6 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

This would make a cracking calendar shot if you’d parked next to the sign in a Subaru

FTFY

[beko1987]

I've not checked the fluids in the car for a fair while, and have done a fair few trips recently. The coolant was slowly going down... 

All spot on 😂 Might have to donate one of my 5l bottles of ready mix (the free one) to the FOD emergency spares stash if this carries on, not touched a drop of the 2l squash bottle full I've been keeping in the car just incase. 

Hopefully the old pink goo I saw on the subframe is historic and it just had a small air bubble which it's worked through. Meh

Burnt zero oil over many many cold starts and cold journeys either which is good

[grogee]

Been putting a nice shiny cleaned cylinder head back on @Cluffy 's Corrado. The VR6 is clever in many ways but the two sets of timing chains on the gearbox side can get in the bin. Anyway they're new now so with a new clutch that 'side' should be good to go for another 100k.

 

[stuboy]

Changed bulbs in the mondeo forgot to turn off the sidelights, until my son noticed not even two hours it wouldn't start, had to jump it off missus car, so ordered a new battery via ecp and there never ending sale, ordered an exide one i hope its good one at 74quid... finger crossed its here tomorrow..

[artdjones]

5 hours ago, grogee said:

Been putting a nice shiny cleaned cylinder head back on @Cluffy 's Corrado. The VR6 is clever in many ways but the two sets of timing chains on the gearbox side can get in the bin. Anyway they're new now so with a new clutch that 'side' should be good to go for another 100k.

 

 

A reliable transmission side timing chain- the Holy Grail of German motor engineers. Maybe one day they will do it.

[wuvvum]

Got back this evening from my usual Christmas trip to Somerset to see my parents.  I took the Scénic, and it did the 500-mile round trip with no issues at all - the wipers are still working and it has used about £65-'orth of diesel, which I work out to be about 51mpg - I'll take that, it's not bad going for a 7-seat MPV.  It was comfortable enough and even the cruise control worked most of the time.

My uncle also came down for the Christmas weekend, and he gave me a full set of these:

He found them in the attic when he was clearing out my grandparents' house, they belonged to my Grandad when he was a lad - as far as I can ascertain they date from 1936, and they're in surprisingly good nick for 85-year-old magazines.  I'm going to enjoy reading them.

[High Jetter]

Stunning. Value there.

[wuvvum]

Oh yeah, I also bagged myself a decent part worn Goodyear Eagle in the right size for the Rover 75 for the princely sum of a fiver.  It was collection only and in Swindon, which is bloody miles from me but I was going to be passing through on my way back from Somerset so stuck a bid in and I was the only bidder.  I picked it up on my way home this afternoon.  It's a bit of an odd size and my local garage didn't have any available, so I'll just get them to fit the one I've bought when I take the car in for a test.

[Rod/b]

14 hours ago, stuboy said:

Changed bulbs in the mondeo forgot to turn off the sidelights, until my son noticed not even two hours it wouldn't start, had to jump it off missus car, so ordered a new battery via ecp and there never ending sale, ordered an exide one i hope its good one at 74quid... finger crossed its here tomorrow..

My mind’s gone blank - who is it makes the Mondeo? 

[Schaefft]

Not really personal news but still very relevant:

https://jalopnik.com/used-car-prices-are-now-rising-faster-than-bitcoin-oth-1848277810

We are all smart investors now.

[Asimo]

Jetwashed my Ford’s last badge off.

A clean screen has revealed this weird crack. Hope it doesn’t spread into the MOT area…

[LabRat]

Mrs LabRat has found a cheap runabout whilst we wait for the Tivoli to be shipped off for repairs, there are 2 downsides to this- it's French and in Goole... But she's insistent that she wants to go and look, so time to fuel up the Shanghai Express and go kick some tyres. 

[LabRat]

Behold, £400 of finest french brie. It's a 2006 c4 1.6i sx with 134000 miles and test until next August. It's rough around the edges, but serviceable... 

Now we hope it makes it back to Oldham.

Double the tat, double the misery

[wuvvum]

Looks like a decent buy for 400 quid.  The 1.6 I had was a bit undergeared but otherwise not a bad steer.

[richardmorris]

16 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Looks like a decent buy for 400 quid.  The 1.6 I had was a bit undergeared but otherwise not a bad steer.

My mechanic has one but doesn’t like it. I think he said the engine was bmw shared and known for coolant issues.

[LabRat]

Well, we're back. To be fair to it, apart from a comedy respray on one door, it's tidy and seems to be a decent steer. The main thing is, she's happy with it. 

It just about kept up with the mg on the way up the m62, apparently it can feel a bit flat if you let the revs off but soon picks up again. Think I'll give the spark plugs a check once I've got 10 minutes spare. 

[Rod/b]

8 hours ago, Asimo said:

Jetwashed my Ford’s last badge off.

Here you go, I fixed it.

[stuboy]

New battery delivered but car still starts... shall I change it or autoshite way and wait till old one finally gives up...

[SiC]

Today I was trying to buy a modern car as Mrs SiC Audi A4 is very dead. Budget £10k but flexible on a bit more if necessary - should be plenty right? Focusing on Civics as decent amount of stuff for the money. So many Focus's don't even come with Climate Control even for that money. Golf/Leon/etc for that money has bland interiors and usually wind-up windows in the rear too ffs.

Local dealer (with poor reviews) has a 90k 2012 Civic 1.8 Petrol for £6.5k. It's ok but smelt a bit funny - not sure if thats what they cleaned the car with.

Another local dealer had a 2014 (64) 41k Civic 1.8 Petrol for £10k. Good spec and even had the panoramic glass roof. Interior is what you expect on a 41k mile car. Mrs SiC loved this but its very hard to stomach that sort of money on pretty much a 7 year old car. Plus I'd like the facelift front to be honest.

Weston Carbase showed a car in stock. Turned out it hadn't even arrived from BCA yet. Apparently it needs to be "Ready to view" as its status. I could reserve for £299 and wait around 21 days for it to arrive+prep though.

Bristol Carbase showed a car as "Ready to view". Turned out it was in their Avonmouth depot as they had too many cars on site. I could reserve for £299 and have it delivered to branch in a couple of days though...

Bristol Carshop ... jesus fucking christ. Walked in, led to a computer and asked for details. "I want this car, show it to me" I said. Nope need details first. So gave them. Their system struggled with me wanting to pay cash (bank loans at the moment are far better than most car finance) as they needed to fill in monthly budgets (i.e. in my own words, scabby poor people into super shiny at ridiculous high finance deals for impressing others). After all that he disappeared to sort seeing the car. Turns out they drive it into a indoors viewing area. Probably because their lighting in there hides the swirl marks and other such imperfections unless you look much closer.
Half hour of my life I'm not getting back.

Bristol Honda had a car just in but not prepped. Sold yesterday before they even prepped it. Left my details if they get any other part-ex in. Apparently his 17k Civics sit there while he can sell 10-12k Civics all day when he gets them. Said it was very quiet this week when usually busy with brand new/nearly new sales, so don't expect too much.

A rather unproductive day.

Its grim out there. Very grim.

Mrs SiC in theory could keep driving the Boxster for work until we find something decent, but she needs to start doing some home visits again soon. Apparently driving to vulnerable families/children homes, even though its old and not worth a huge amount, turning up in a Porsche doesn't set a good presence or image to them...