The new news 24 thread

[Matty]

Just now, junkyarddog said:

 

Lovely stuff. I swear a lot (blame work) but that word still has a lot of power. I try to use it sparingly 😄

[Cluffy]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Leaving a V12 Jag idling for 30 minutes probably cost more than a year's AA membership too.

There was also the nerves that the thing was going to overheat too!

[artdjones]

2 hours ago, Yoss said:

I've never owned a car where it is possible to pre lock the drivers door as you get out but at work on both the Sherpa (and LDV Pilot etc) and the later Transits it was possible. So I had a routine where the second I stop the keys went in my shirt pocket then I push the button in the way out. This was marginally quicker and easier than locking the door with the key from outside but when you are getting in and out  a hundred times a day it all adds up. This was long before central locking obviously, I mean central locking existed but not at Royal Mail where everything is ultra base spec. 

This worked fine until you get a distraction, like waiting to see what three in ten was on Popmaster, where you have to leave the key in to keep the radio on. Did that a few times and would have to ring the office to get them to bring the spare out. Although a couple of times I was near enough to just walk back to the office. 

I had a 55 plate Transit and I reckon it was less than five years old. One day I came out of the office and got in what I thought was my van except I'd forgotten I'd parked it somewhere else in the yard. It wasn't until I got in I realised it wasn't mine because it had more rubbish in it. That's odd, I thought, I'm sure I just unlocked it. Maybe it wasn't locked in the first place. So I tried the key in the door and sure enough it worked. So, being curious, I walked over to another Transit and found I could unlock that too. So by the time they were five years old the keys and door locks were completely interchangeable on the whole fleet. I expect that sort of thing with my old Leyland stuff but not by the mid 2000s. 

One day, I'm out doing packets and there's another RM Transit sitting outside a local post office with the driver stood outside looking bored. He was doing collections so came from a different office to us. I stopped to see if he was OK and he'd managed to shut his his keys in the back of the van. It was a Transit like mine so I thought let's have a go. Fiddled with the key in the back door for a while but to no avail. So moved to side slidey door. It didn't like it but I could feel a bit of movement and after a bit of wiggling it gave way. The other guy was so relieved as he'd come from the big mail centre up by the airport and it would've taken ages to get a spare key out to him.

I kept an old Transit key on my home keys after that, you never knew when it might come in handy. It's not an issue any more as we've entered the late 20th century and now have central locking on our vans. We still have some 08 plate Combos with windy windows and tape players though. 

Back in the day it was Fords that were notorious for completely interchangeable keys. Cortinas especially.

[brownnova]

My gran had a Metro, one day she parked it in a multi storey car park, and forgot where she parked it. Eventually she was relieved to find it, and unlocked it and drove off towards the exit… at which point she realised it wasn’t her Metro as it had different coloured seats!

She carefully returned it to its spot and found hers!

Or so she says… 

[Yoss]

31 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Back in the day it was Fords that were notorious for completely interchangeable keys. Cortinas especially.

Yes Fords had a reputation for it but in reality all cars at the time were as bad as each other. I suspect they got their locks from the same supplier. I can start my Triumph with anything that will fit in the lock, doesn't even have to be a key. Or at least I could if it worked. 

[Rust Collector]

I've just updated my insurance ready for tomorrow's colekshun. It's the first time in a while that I'll be driving a purchase back; since buying a trailer I've mainly been doing colekshuns on the 'easy' difficulty setting. Luckily I'm buying something sensible* and not at all known for mechanical hissy fits, so what could possibly go wrong?

[Zelandeth]

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.

[JJ0063]

 

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!

[paulplom]

13 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I went through a phase of getting out of my van and locking my door leaving the keys in the ignition. Had to get handy with wire coathangers on a few occasions. I always have 2 sets of keys in my pocket (1 for home and a bigger one for work) so solved the problem by putting a spare key on the work set.

I used to have a habit of throwing my van keys in the door bin when I got out. I just finished a job about 20 miles from where I live and went to get my wallet for my bank card details for payment. I shut the van door and something must have hit the lock button on the keys in the door bin locking the fucker. I had to get a mate to come and get me and take me 20 miles all the way home for the spare and then take me back to the job. I was sick as fuck.

I've never kept the keys there since.

[Yoss]

39 minutes 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!

Are they special seats for primary school children? Ours used to be three across and they were cozy to say the least. 

[LabRat]

On a road trip from Oldham to Skegness to visit the parents. The weapon of choice for a 130 mile run?

 

2 people, a basset hound and a weekend worth of luggage, with room to spare surprisingly. Though may the Gods have mercy on my spine, cos the suspension certainly won't!

[GMcD]

1 hour 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!

There is some light distortion to the rear bumper corners. 🙄🙄

this example outclasses its contemporaries by miles....

Salesman's speak is strong with this one.  I forgot there was a huge market for 16 year old LDV Convoys. 

NSR light is an older version with ambers? 

 I mean if I was offered it for £4k I might say yes given how tidy it is, but £10k for a Convoy! 

[MorrisItalSLX]

12 hours ago, brownnova said:

My gran had a Metro, one day she parked it in a multi storey car park, and forgot where she parked it. Eventually she was relieved to find it, and unlocked it and drove off towards the exit… at which point she realised it wasn’t her Metro as it had different coloured seats!

She carefully returned it to its spot and found hers!

Or so she says… 

A chap I work with told me a story from his youth. He had a blue 1980 Holden Commodore Manual saloon and took a lady friend to village fair. Late in the evening they returned to the car, unlocked it, got in and started it up, only to discover that the blue 1980 Holden Commodore saloon they were in was an automatic!

[Split_Pin]

"Welcome to old convertible ownership in the winter" I said to my wife this morning.

The drivers footwell is absolutely soaking wet after all the heavy rain. Thankfully its not coolant though!

I had a very similar problem with the Audi convertible when I first got it  and taking off the scuttle panel and sealing up everything in sight worked well.

[MrGTI6]

I set myself a resolution at the start of the year that I would have a full motorbike licence by Christmas. Being the procrastinator that I am,  it's been put on the back burner most of the year and only this morning have I taken the theory test, which I'm pleased to say I passed! 

Upon arrival at the test centre, for the first time in my life I felt old! While waiting to be checked in, I had a brief chat with a visibly nervous lad who arrived at the same time as me. When the lady at the desk called him over and asked for his date of birth, I'm sure I overheard he said 2005! I thought that can't be right, then did the maths and realised it probably was!

 

[Jazoli]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

"Welcome to old convertible ownership in the winter" I said to my wife this morning.

The drivers footwell is absolutely soaking wet after all the heavy rain. Thankfully its not coolant though!

I had a very similar problem with the Audi convertible when I first got it  and taking off the scuttle panel and sealing up everything in sight worked well.

Is that the brown one? The scuttle drain blocked and killed the heater blower and flooded the passenger footwell when I first got it but it never let a drop in anywhere else.

[Split_Pin]

2 hours ago, Jazoli said:

Is that the brown one? The scuttle drain blocked and killed the heater blower and flooded the passenger footwell when I first got it but it never let a drop in anywhere else.

Yes it's the brown one. Passenger side is bone dry, I'm fairly sure it's just the drain on that side.

[andy18s]

18 hours ago, artdjones said:

Back in the day it was Fords that were notorious for completely interchangeable keys. Cortinas especially.

My old man told me a tale of falling out of a pub with his mates,piling into his mk1 Cortina and then driving into the nearest town (Oswestry)

It was only when they got there that some asked when he had switched his horizontal speedometer for round guages.   

[Split_Pin]

I found both drain holes, one in front of the pollen filter and another buried under the wiper motor. The former was clear as expected but the latter had a small bit of dirty water come out. There's also a grommet further over to the drivers side where the loom for the wiper motor goes through. It looks fine but water is sitting where the wire goes in so once its dried I'm going to fire some red rubber grease all over that area.

[RoverFolkUs]

Decided to do a bit of tinkering to the Focus this afternoon

Started off replacing the rear speakers. Then discovered one of the fronts wasn't working either, thought it sounded a bit quiet!

The door panels are off and speakers accessible within a few minutes on the mk2 focus which is nice

Fitted the rears, still didn't work, oh. Fitted the front and it did work. Swapped speakers round and only the fronts still worked so knew all the replacements were ok.

It then occurred to me to check the fade settings and they had disappeared. I suspect because the factory head unit is designed to work both with and without rear speakers depending on the vehicle it's fitted to, as soon as the rear speakers went open circuit it thought they weren't fitted so hid the option

So I reset the unit by pulling fuse 58 from the BCM and then re-entered the code and bingo, they started working and the fade option reappeared. 

Only slight issue was that I ordered a set of 4 speakers out of a MK3, the rears were the same but the fronts are different on the MK2. I didn't think it would need a front speaker so I'm going to have to try and modify one of the spares to fit in the front. Other than that, I'm happy. 

Then I thought I'd check the tyre pressures as the N/S/F was looking low, it had gone to 12 psi

There was the remnants of a screw in it. Fortunately it was repairable so that's what I've done. Hassle I could have done without though as I had better things to be doing than going into work on my day off and fixing a bloody puncture 🤦

Still got the cabin filter to replace but I ran out of energy so packed the tools away for today 

[EyesWeldedShut]

21 hours ago, brownnova said:

My gran had a Metro, one day she parked it in a multi storey car park, and forgot where she parked it. Eventually she was relieved to find it, and unlocked it and drove off towards the exit… at which point she realised it wasn’t her Metro as it had different coloured seats!

She carefully returned it to its spot and found hers!

Or so she says… 

I had a Mk 2 Escort (BWT772S) in ~1982/83 and the worn key for that could be used to open many other Fords - it wouldn't always turn in the ignition barrel though.
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.

[HMC]

[stuboy]

Nothing eggciting today just washed it in my lunch break...

[Split_Pin]

1 hour ago, Nyphur said:

Is this something I need to concern myself with on my "og 9-3"?

Probably on any older car really.  The same happened to my Audi 80 and keeping the 75s drains clear is also critical as the ECU lives under there.

[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.