The new news 24 thread

[stuboy]

12 hours ago, JJ0063 said:

 

Amazed that this was owned by a school until 2021, typically a place where cosmetically I can’t think much care is usually taken. This thing looks brand new, it’s fantastic.. look at the engine bay!

drove one at the college... noisy and slow.

[EyesWeldedShut]

21 minutes ago, stuboy said:

drove one at the college... noisy and slow.

Drove a slightly different one for The Met, noisy, slowish and evil in the wet - think LDV Convoy (OK Sherpa 3500) with the Rover 3.5 V8 mated to the three speed auto box they used at the time (ZF I think - same one as my 1983 Range Rover had).  Empty it was nippy but the rear brakes would misbehave;  laden it stopped better but was certainly a bus. Sounded great, drank petrol like it was going out of fashion and shed water pumps at a rate (no idea why).

Back to the topic (ahem) I think they're flying a kite - you can pick up a much more modern 'bus for that sort of money and you'll not have the possible spares problem and something that has a bit more 'go' - stack 3.5 tonnes into the Convoy and you'llknow it

[Ghosty]

Type R's tyres are sorted, Kwik Fit came back, sent another guy to fit the other two, with a trainee in tow. 

This guy was good and had the two tyres done in 20 minutes each. He said the compressor on the van was too weak to work on 19" wheels, and that the other guy didn't know what he was doing. 

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

My dad's 1960/70 Triumphs had numbered keyed (FS---) and the boot key for his Herald was the same as the ignition key for the Toledo

Yup. Working for Longlife Accessories in the 80s we stocked keys. Not blanks, but cuts. FA, FS, FT single sided and some others. I may* have a smoll stock still.

[Zelandeth]

20 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Been out today driving for the first time in five years in the US.  Pleasingly it feels far less alien than last time I was here. 

Guess being in an area I actually know my way around rather than the Florida Keys helps - Miami rush hour traffic is not something I ever want to experience again.  Especially that bit where dropping the rental car off where I merged into the freeway on the left - then had less than 500 yards to merge SIX lanes to the right to get to my exit.  That was not a pretty manoeuvre.

Things I have reaffirmed.  

I am still not a fan of this bloody thing.

Sorry, don't have a current photo...so have one from out an upstairs window from 2015.

Things I dislike:

[] Indicators/wipers.  It has those STUPID stalks that just toggle up/down and don't latch in place.  Trying to cancel the indicators without signalling in the opposite direction is near impossible.  Plus it seems to be a complete crap shoot as to whether you will get three flashes or whether the signals have actually latched on.

[] Suspension.  It's a big, heavy lump of a seven seat SUV.  It is never going to handle anything like well.  It corners like a pregnant hippo.

So WHY the bloody sodding hell did Ford find it necessary to fit Audi style shock absorbers?!?  It just about knocks the fillings out of your teeth every time you hit a joint in the road or a pothole.  It also makes it skip really unnervingly on freeway ramps where there are undulations in the surface.  It makes what could actually be quite a comfortable car (the seats aren't half bad actually) incredibly tiring to cover distance in.

[] Central control panel.

*Sigh.*

Screen ain't actually bad by the standards of touchscreen interfaces, though I'd really rather not have one for ANYTHING beyond the reversing camera and sat nav if given the choice.  The controls for the media system are pretty easy to follow, many are duplicated on the steering wheel/multifunction screen on the dash for the driver.  I also like that when you have the phone linked to it that there's a gigantic "do not distrurb" button to just automatically divert calls to voicemail and to silence notifications.  No need to hunt through menus, it's just there on the home screen.

Below the screen there are a plethora of buttons.  Quite a few as there is a modern stereo and pretty comprehensive quad zone climate control to deal with.  Grouping is pretty logical and the layout isn't by modern standards terrible.  

However they're not buttons...the whole damned thing is a touch sensitive panel!  There are mouldings to pick out the button locations by touch...which is precisely zero use as you'll then trigger every button you touch on the way to find what you're looking for.

It may as well just be controlled through a touch screen as it's completely impossible to use without actually looking at it.  I hate it.  It's an absolute abomination of UI design, the worst of both worlds.

[] Drivetrain.

No idea what size the engine is, I'm guessing somewhere around 3.0 litres, it's a V6, and is matched to an automatic gearbox with completely the wrong set of ratios for it, and some seriously dim witted control logic.  If you absolutely boot it from a standing start it will gather speed acceptably well.  It only really produces any decent power at high revs though.  Trying to accelerate for instance from 45mph to 55mph (two common speed limits here), requires it to think about it for a good second before dropping at least two, maybe three gears and thrash around frantically trying to use torque that just doesn't exist.  Increasing the cruise control from 65 to 70 produces similar levels of panic.

I really miss it's predecessor.

That was a 2000-ish GMC Envoy.  Roughly four litre straight six which had plenty of torque to make progress effortless at any speed, conventional controls, and nice squidgy suspension which dealt with concrete slab construction roads excellently.

There's nothing the Explorer does better aside from having bigger rear seats.  It's even appreciably worse on fuel.

 

Has reminded me though how much I really do want to own a proper old Jeep Cherokee though.  They're everything I like about US vehicles, the whole "high velocity squidgy leather sofa" idea just appeals to me.  Just wish I could find one that hasn't A: Dissolved, B: Been modded into an off-road toy or 😄 Is priced at the best part of ten grand.  Had kinda hoped that the recent fuel price madness might have hurt their values a bit, doesn't seem to have though.

Just to reiterate my seething hatred of the centre console, here's the thing itself.

I thought when I first saw this that it was a rubber membrane keypad, nope...touch panel.

The worst of both worlds.  And I double checked, yes if you brush against any of the controls at all it interprets it as you having pressed it.  

Which in several cases changes the mode things are in requiring multiple inputs to get back to where you started.

Ford, what the hell were you thinking?

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

Passed my hgv class 1 CE driving test on Friday. 

Far More difficult than i initially thought, driving around Guilford and Woking not hitting any kerbs with the trailer.

Even more respect now for hgv drivers and the far too frequent idiot car driver !

With only 7 days training Rightly or wrongly i have gone from zero experience of anything bigger than a transit to a first time pass. 

And 1 of those days was spent getting my head around reversing the thing.

Just waiting for final easy module 4 test ( using straps, chains etc and checking for illegal immigrants) and then the real learning can start.

[GMcD]

Well done man 🥳.  

[Spottedlaurel]

I need to start doing something with this one:

It spent the entire summer elsewhere on the driveway, parked against a bush. Hence the soiling which Master SL is going to deal with today when he cleans the Yaris (which becomes his next month).

Had to have a shuffle around in readiness for a skip delivery, and the Lexus started and moved quite happily despite not having been run for months. My current thinking is to get it in for an MoT, do the basics to get it through then think about spending some ££££s. I couldn't go out and buy another LS for sensible money (certainly not a Mk1) and it's such a lovely thing to drive. I finish paying off the RX next year and I have no plans to replace that, so a bit of that car money can go in this direction instead.

[bunglebus]

You know those god-awful fake "vintage" cars based on Mustangs? Someone's built a drift car with one. Glad to see there are still some glorious lunatics left in the world

[SiC]

8 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Ford, what the hell were you thinking?

They were thinking "We save the cost of 16 push buttons here"

[Yoss]

9 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Just to reiterate my seething hatred of the centre console, here's the thing itself.

I thought when I first saw this that it was a rubber membrane keypad, nope...touch panel.

The worst of both worlds.  And I double checked, yes if you brush against any of the controls at all it interprets it as you having pressed it.  

Which in several cases changes the mode things are in requiring multiple inputs to get back to where you started.

Ford, what the hell were you thinking?

You want buttons? I got buttons. 

There's no pressing these by accident, you have to press them in about half an inch before you let go. And even if you did they aren't going to open some sub menu you didn't want. One day somebody will realise what a good idea these are. It's the future I tell you. 

 

[Metal Guru]

5 minutes ago, Yoss said:

You want buttons? I got buttons. 

There's no pressing these by accident, you have to press them in about half an inch before you let go. And even if you did they aren't going to open some sub menu you didn't want. One day somebody will realise what a good idea these are. It's the future I tell you. 

 

Especially the big button for fog lights . I know there’s a lot of people who turn them on at the first sign of drizzle, but I’m sure many are activated or at least not switched off , because it’s a tiny out of sight switch or worse hidden in a menu somewhere.

[Yoss]

19 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Especially the big button for fog lights . I know there’s a lot of people who turn them on at the first sign of drizzle, but I’m sure many are activated or at least not switched off , because it’s a tiny out of sight switch or worse hidden in a menu somewhere.

My MG ZT-T was like that (as I suspect are many newer cars but that is my only experience of 21st century motoring). A small button alongside the main headlight switch , not visible from the normal driving position, that was easily pressable when fumbling for the main switch. The Škoda also has much more prominent warning lights too, but then it has a lot less things to warn about so it can afford to make them bigger. 

[New POD]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

They were thinking "We save the cost of 16 push buttons here"

No. They were also thinking, "People will think are cars are posh, and we can charge more for less" 

[SiC]

59 minutes ago, New POD said:

No. They were also thinking, "People will think are cars are posh, and we can charge more for less" 

Nope. That would be a touch screen in the middle. 

[Lankytim]

Visited the In-laws today and fired up the Fusion that they’ve kindly allowed to be parked on their driveway.  I drove it forwards and backwards to keep the brakes free and allowed the engine to reach full temperature.

I inherited it from my Mother 10 years ago and immediately sold it to the in-laws who ran it for 6 years or so until the semi automatic box got stuck in reverse. They then gave it back to me, I converted it to manual and we used it until earlier on this year when I needed to do a lot of motorway miles and bought a Mk3 Laguna. Around that time my Dad gave me his Honda Jazz as he is unable to drive so the wife uses the Jazz and the Fusion is pretty much redundant. 

The Fusion should really be MOTd and sold on but being an old banger the next owner will more than likely run it into the ground which is difficult for me to think about as there’s a lot of sentimental value attached to the car. 
 

For the time being it’ll stay on the in-laws drive being run up from time to time until the in-laws get fed up and evict it. 

[andy18s]

I'm pretty sure Ford would have a certain trim level for hire/rental cars.

Auto Auction Rebuilds was checking out some ex Enterprise rental Jaguar F types and said they have a wierd interior for a US citizen to get used to.

[reb]

I haven't seen a Fusion that wasn't barrier in ages. Last one I was familiar with was somehow louder than my straight piped Volvo despite allegedly still having a cat and silencer. Not a day would go by where I didn't hear about how it was going to get a Jag V6 fitted. The owner was last seen dailying a Freelander 1 with the BL diesel in it. Either the fusion is bean tins or its in his unit getting major surgery to make it go fast. Honestly both are as likely as eachother.

[JakeT]

After replacing a headlight washer on the daily, the good lady being away at a wedding, and a very early rise to watch the F1, I took my mum out for lunch. Dad went to watch the football with my brother, which doesn’t appeal.

 

One old BMW looking resplendent in the sun

 
 

Cheeky Capri injection spot on the way out, too. 

[Split_Pin]

I slathered every grommet I could see on the drivers side of the brown 93 with red rubber grease. This approach worked well with the Audi. Sealant ends up cracking and then you have to dig it all out to re apply. 

Hopefully that will stem the water ingress.

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, SiC said:

Nope. That would be a touch screen in the middle. 

There's one of those as well!  Which while I'd far rather not have, is one of the less objectionable examples I've used.  Not that that's saying much.

It loses any points however for being fully equipped with satnav but not having it enabled.  Yes I know that's basically standard practice these days (certainly on VAG products anyway), but I wasn't aware of paying $1,000+ for a licence key being such a thing back in 2014.

Given the choice I'd absolutely rather drive the Favorit pictured above!  However we've been lent this for free by my in-laws for the visit, so I can't really complain too much.  Especially as we have needed all 7 seats on a couple of occasions.

[egg]

Harry M says taken in 1980 - but surely that plate looks too new? 1990?

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 07/10/2022 at 18:11, EyesWeldedShut said:

My better half would like to know what is the car in the garage with the carboard boxes on the bonnet?

I have no idea myself tbh

you mean the Dolloposhite he bought the white one for spares?

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Harry M says taken in 1980 - but surely that plate looks too new? 1990?

I'm pretty sure plastic reflective plates were in use well before 1980. My dads old 1980 Cortina MK4 had them from new.

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Harry M says taken in 1980 - but surely that plate looks too new? 1990?

Just watched that. It is the older style square-edged plate and not the later rounded edge ones.

[yes oui si]

Test fit. Went well, just need to roll the arches a bit. 

[richardmorris]

Just watched Jonny sideburns YouTube  on Gordon Murray’s Ford. Car was interesting but they’re driving a lot on my commute roads to work. The GMD HQ is in the old LInde BOC building in windlesham.

 

 

[cobblers]

25 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Just watched Jonny sideburns YouTube  on Gordon Murray’s Ford. Car was interesting but they’re driving a lot on my commute roads to work. The GMD HQ is in the old LInde BOC building in windlesham.

 

 

I was looking forward to watching this. Very amusing to hear the behind the scenes story of Jonny nearly treading a dog egg into that escort when he got given the keys to drive it himself.

[cobblers]

1 hour ago, yes oui si said:

Test fit. Went well, just need to roll the arches a bit. 

3 spokes on everything please!!  (But wheels should always be silver) 

I am constantly keeping an eye out for some 17" antera 3 spokes in 4x100. I don't have a car to put them on.

[wuvvum]

Some progress made on the Maxus this weekend, in that I took it round to my welding mate to get the two bits on the inner sill patched up.  While I had the van up on ramps to slap underseal on the new bits of metal I also rubbed down and rust treated the other rear brake pipe - it didn't fail the MOT but looked a bit manky.  When I give the welding a second coat of underseal I'll also run a fingerful of grease over the brake pipe.  I've also tightened up the handbrake.

The bottom ball joint and the track rod end however continue to resist my efforts to remove them.  While I was round welding mate's we tried putting a spanner on the TRE lock nut and then jacking the other end of the spanner up with the trolley jack.  It started to lift the van, then the spanner broke.  Fuck me it's on there tight.  The bottom ball joint taper also still won't come out of its socket.  I actually wound the nut back on to the end of the taper bolt and then got the jack on it and jacked the van up so the entire weight of the front end was on the taper.  It didn't budge.  I belted the shit out of the wishbone with the lump hammer to see if that would shock it free.  Nope.  So it's back together again and I'm trying to think if there's anything else I can try before giving up and asking the garage to do the work.

I gave the Mazda an oil and filter change this afternoon.  It obviously hadn't been done for a while, but to my surprise the old oil filter actually unscrewed by hand - which was a relief as it was going to be awkward to get my BFO pliers in there and I couldn't find my strap wrench.  So it now has a sumpful of nice clean 20w50.  I also chucked in a bottle of STP stop leak stuff that I've had in the shed for ages - it might help slow down the leak around the rocker cover, we shall see.

I finally got round to changing the battery for the remote in the Peugeot key - the remote locking has been getting more and more temperamental.  It'll now unlock from the other side of the car park, which is a definite improvement.  I also found out that the spare key will quite happily unlock both doors via the keyholes - the main key will only do the passenger side, despite being ostensibly the same key.  Useful to know if the remote locking ever packs up.

As it was a nice warm (for mid October) evening I went for a ride on the Mobylette.

It was running well today - it had been bogging down a bit when pulling away last time I used it but it was fine this time.  I don't think the throttle slide is quite opening all the way though, I'll have to tweak that at some point - it seems to be maxing out at about 38 on the flat when it used to do more than that (although admittedly that was 25 years ago).

Then I went for a (push)bike ride to the beach.

It was starting to get dark by then - they'd even switched on the lighthouse.

Big ole moon on the way home too.