The new news 24 thread

[phil_lihp]

Exactly, I think the old one was the original as repaired by Mr B so its done well to last 20 years and 136k miles.

[panhard65]

It seems people who can repair radiators are a dying breed. I thought I had found a sensible company who would clean out the rad for my truck. It used to be easy just take the top and bottom tanks off and rod it through. No such luck apparently it was really bad and trying to do it they have punctured the core. Now its a full re-con and a couple of hundred quid. Anyone want to buy a money pit R2087. At least it will be driveable when the rad gets back though

[twosmoke300]

My experience with radiator repairers is that they ring around for a new one and give you a quote of 79p less . Same with most rotating electrics people , although I know a good one . Took a bosch alternator into him the other day having been quoted 150+ for a shitty recon from the factors. Fitted a new reg/brush pack while I waited , tested it in front of me for the total of £20 . Happy days.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

When the Mini's radiator sprung a leak I took it to a place in Droylsden who repaired, painted and tested it for £25. I was well pleased with that. 

[Inspector Morose]

http://www.westmerciaradiators.co.uk

 

Used these for years for rads on cars and buses. Shit website but they'd always try and repair instead of replace. Been going for as long as I can remember and I'm as old as fook now.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Theres an ace guy in stoke on trent for radiators, though he might be dead now to be fair, looked like he had just about had enough when I went there last (maybe 3 yrs ago?)

[red5]

This week, I am mostly being philosophical about the Discovery sale. Yes, it's a car I've wanted for years. Yes, it's a fairly good one. Yes, I enjoy driving it. But at the same time, I'm not sure I'll miss it all that much. I never seem to have time or funds to actually go off-roading in it, which makes it an unnecessarily expensive road-only car. 

 

Offers for it continue to come in, but aren't tempting me so far. They're not insulting, which is nice. 116 watchers so far. Maybe I should add a ranty bit stating how many are watching it and expressing annoyance that more aren't bidding. That seems the done thing. 

 

In other news, I have repaired* the 2CVs rotten windscreen panel with aluminium tape. The upper section is completely rotten - as in the paint seems to be structural. I found rot in the lower section too, which means I need one of these.

 

£243.70 before my tame welder has a go at fitting it. Yup. I really do need to sell the Disco!

 

Did I miss the ebay link? I can't see it...

[wuvvum]

Just had to be rescued from the car park at work as had left the lights on when I drove the Visa in this morning.

 

I hope I never get a car with automatic lights as I will be dead within a week of getting back into an old banger.

 

Funnily enough, my Visa was the first car I ever drove at night having forgotten to switch the lights on - probably because it was the first car I had where the instruments were illuminated all the time, not just when the lights were switched on.  Bloody newfangled motors!

[wuvvum]

In other news, I'm still baffled as to why the Sirion wants to cut out on left-hand bends. I could try cornering more slowly, as it doesn't happen when my wife is driving...

 

Didn't J-reg Protons do something similar?

[Lord Sterling]

Well, the nsf balljoints on the Sterling have finally been replaced. Spent yet another day at the garage driving even more cars including wierd Japanese import Honda that was really likeable, loads of newish VAG Diesesel crap, some newish Vauxhalls and a couple of E46 beemers

 

Apparently I managed to scrape underneath the front bumper of one of those BMs as it was too low to get it up the ramp despite me taking it easy and being guided on, thankfully my garage owner mate was understanding but he did tell me to take it easy next time, they'll rectify the "damage".

 

I also spent a good part of the day driving an '03 plate Renault Magane 1.9dci . The thing was falling to bits inside, the door card had partially fallen off, I could hear the wind from the drivers door when driving it and the rear seats were mouldy, garage_fella is using it and will be tidying it up before selling it on. Tomorrow it looks very likely I'll be driving a 1.4 Renault Megane thats a damned site lot more tidier than the one I drive today.

[The Moog]

Forte Stop Leak certainly does. Lobbed it in the Xsara, quick blast on motorway and no more leaking matrix at the moment.

 

Also had one of those "you know when you are a shiter when..." moments. Pissing down last night and I had the windscreen wipers on intermittent at some points. They would go fast then slow etc with no rhyme nor reason. First thing I think is that water has got somewhere it hasnt and start mentally making a job list. Took me 20 minutes to work out that the car has rain sensing wipers!

[Jim Bell]

Yaris passed its Mot today with only the seat bolt requiring a tighten. God knows how they've loosened off.

 

Sunny goes in for mot after the weekend, then a full suspension replacement/upgrade shall begin.

 

I hope Overruns had his Weetabix.

[cms206]

Been offered a 2.6 V6 Omega with no T&T for "about a hundred quid". I've not seen it, no idea what state it's in, spec or mileage. Needless to say I am tempted.

 

Serious question time; WCPGW?

 

[Mr Livered]

For a hundred quid, the serious answer to your serious question is: absolutely nothing.

 

Looking forwards to an update in due course.

[skattrd]

Been offered a 2.6 V6 Omega with no T&T for "about a hundred quid". I've not seen it, no idea what state it's in, spec or mileage. Needless to say I am tempted. Serious question time; WCPGW?

 

Buy it, stick it in for an MOT, if it fails, bridge it, you've lost nothing.

[garethj]

It seems people who can repair radiators are a dying breed. I thought I had found a sensible company who would clean out the rad for my truck. It used to be easy just take the top and bottom tanks off and rod it through. No such luck apparently it was really bad and trying to do it they have punctured the core. Now its a full re-con and a couple of hundred quid. Anyone want to buy a money pit R2087. At least it will be driveable when the rad gets back though

 

If you can't get the old radiator repaired you've got nothing to lose by having a go yourself.  Can you see where the water's pissing from?  If so, clear the hole out so it's clean and shove some araldite rapid in there.  Hosepipe through afterwards to see if it's worked.

 

If the leak is somewhere difficult like just under the header plate... hang on, in case you don't know what a header plate is, look at the left of this picture in the box

http://www.microficher.com/wp-content/uploads/download.php?img=Microfiche-Teardown-Picture-Tool-Engine-Fuel-Radiator-Water-Outlet-Toyota-2005-CAMRY-JPP-.png

 

The main bit is the radiator core, that's got tubes running from top to bottom (or side to side on some cars) and they're arranged in rows.  An average car might have a double row, bigger engines might be 3 rows.  The water runs through these tubes, it's hot from the engine in one tank, flows through the core and gets cooled, then taken from the other tank and pumped around the engine again where it heats up.

 

Brazed, soldered or otherwise joined to these tubes are the fins, they're made from very thin metal bent into the world's longest concertina, usually they get clogged up with leaves and stuff.  The air flows over these fins, and as they're joined to the water tubes that cools the water.

 

At each end of the tubes is a header plate.  That's brazed, soldered, whatever to the tubes.

 

On the header plate is a rubber gasket, then a plastic header tank which is crimped in place by the header plate.  Clear on the names and stuff?  Off we go....

 

If the leak is visible from the outside of the radiator then firstly have a go at plugging it without taking everything apart.

 

If the leak is coming from where the header plate joins to the tubes (a prime place) and you can neeeearly see it, cut and pull off the top inch of fin so you've got access to the tube and get in there with the araldite.  With adhesives, cleanliness is next to Godliness so wipe it with degreaser and let it dry before glueing, otherwise the glue will fall off.

 

If the water is coming from between the header tank and header plate, get your biggest pair of pliers and crimp it down a bit more just in that area.

 

If it's still pissing out, use a screwdriver to lever the crimps from the header plate so you can remove the header tank and investigate for corrosion.  Treat it as you see fit depending on what's in there.

 

Sometimes a tube is so knackered that you can't glue it in one spot, maybe it's been hit by a stone or something.  In that case you take off the header tanks and araldite the end of the tube (both ends) so water can't get into it from the tanks.  You've still got about 30 tubes of water so losing one or two doesn't matter.

[fordperv]

Theres an ace guy in stoke on trent for radiators, though he might be dead now to be fair, looked like he had just about had enough when I went there last (maybe 3 yrs ago?)

 

if your talking pk radiators on king street, the crazy old guy with the shite tastic moggy he is still going strong, his work is top 

[Lord Sterling]

Today was supposed to be a bit of a lazy day, but also to spend a bit of time for my interview tomorrow. A mate of mine called me last night asking if I would help him recover his car to which I was happy to do so. So I met him at his house and jumped into his rented Astra. We went off to Telford where he works as thats where he left his car.

 

Apparently his 1.4 Renault Megane had been running a little juddery and the electrics went haywire after he'd gone through some water in the road. We managed to get it started and it was my job to drive the Megane back to Birmingham. The felt quite juddery at stand still, then suddenly as I was driving, the wipers started to work themselves as did the central locking and indicator lights (but only the on the dash binnicle, outside they worked as normal) all sorts of stuff appeared on the dash from 'electrical fault' to 'checking steering'. There was no power at all so it took an ice age to get up anywhere near motorway speeds.

 

So now I can sympathise with all Renault owners who suffer electrical maladies in thier cars. It was an interesting drive to say the least.

[nacho man]

Just got back from spending New years in the midlands and grabbed a few photos of the scimitar while I was at it.

 

The First two photos were taken at the former Bean Industries works, Bean produced cars and light commercial vehicles until 1931 when they became a parts maker, a few years later they became part of British Leyland. After the sell of in 1988 they owned Reliant until 1994 When Haynes took the company on. Beans folded in 2005 after the collapse of MG Rover. The works pictured below were originally built as vehicle production sheds. The sign reads Bean ____ Commercial Vehicles.

 

This website has a bit of history on bean If you've not heard of them: http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/Museum/Transport/Cars/Bean/Cars.htm

 

 

These next few were taken round the corner from Beans.

 

 

Cheers, Joe

 

Was this in Nottingham uni today?

[nacho man]

/\ /\ not the photos the scimitar.

[HillmanImp]

Funnily enough, my Visa was the first car I ever drove at night having forgotten to switch the lights on - probably because it was the first car I had where the instruments were illuminated all the time, not just when the lights were switched on.  Bloody newfangled motors!

 

Yeah, that keeps catching me out too as I suddenly think, shit have I actually turned the lights on or is the dash just lit up as it always is. Obviously if the lights are on the dipped sign is lit up but it takes me a couple of seconds each time.

[cms206]

Been offered a 2.6 V6 Omega with no T&T for "about a hundred quid". I've not seen it, no idea what state it's in, spec or mileage. Needless to say I am tempted. Serious question time; WCPGW?

Apologies for quoting myself; it's apparantly silver with a leather interior on an 03-plate which seems mega late. It comes with some spares. I suspect I may be about to purchase a new car.

[skattrd]

03 means it is probably subject to new road tax rules, which may be a few more quid than an old Volvo, it's probably worth checking what band it's in.

[Mr Livered]

Wow. Surely there must be something wrong with it...?

[vulgalour]

Omega prices have crashed for no good reason.  You can imagine how happy my Dad is that his car he paid £1000 (nearly) for last year is now worth about £250 even though it's in better condition than when he bought it.

[Lord Sterling]

£100 Omega.....

Scotland is the place to find cheap shitey cars. I got my Sterling for free from there and Andy McCMS is about to embark on buying an Omega fae £100!

[wuvvum]

The prices of pretty much any large non-premium petrol-engined saloon have crashed in the last year or so.

[cort16]

There was someone on here who put me on to a 2001 facelift 2.2 Sport with 30k on it a couple of years ago for scrap money in Glasgow. I went to look at it and it had a really bad internal water leak, the battery was stone cold and the airbag light was on. By the time I got it transported down the road, cleaned up the moulldy interior, put a battery in it and mot'd it, it just wasn't worth it so I passed, Shame as they're nice cars to drive.

[Barry Cade]

On holiday this week, but fitted a towbar as a favour*on a 63 plate Mazda 6 2.2SE Nav Skyactiv saloon GLS SE Ghia Sport Diesel. Noticed he's getting 58.5 MPG on the trip...from a 2.2... Free tax too! Puts my 52.3 to shame from a 1.6 Diesel. Mazda had POWAH too, and was ferkin massive!

 

 

 

* I said favour, but half a weeks wage for 3 hours work, and still 500 quid cheaper than the dealer. Both happy!

[coalnotdole]

 

Only if someone's nicked it and I've not noticed...!