The new news 24 thread

[Bren]

10 minutes ago, brownnova said:

It’s been fairly constant for the last week! We had a silver birch tree down last weekend, I was out trying to chop it up today… been so nervous about the other birch, and the rest of the trees ever since as some of the others might hit a neighbours house!!

Blowing a hoolie again tonight… worse to come midweek apparently 😫

We have been there for seven years - the last seven days have been the worst we have seen.

[Saabnut]

Forecast here (North Sea) for Friday is 70 knot (77 mph) winds with a significant sea of 9m and a max wave height of 15m. Should be fun if I am still here 😀

[stuboy]

Replaced reversing camera,  and numberplate ( old camera had a surround and plate was taped on and it had lifted the yellow backing ) I've wedged the camera bracket after bending it so it looks down at the rear bumper so I get Better idea when I'm near something. Probably fall out knowing my luck...

[GMcD]

My cousin sent me a photo from her local supermarket in NZ.

That's £45 for a watermelon 😂. 

[loserone]

He's put those stickers on, as well you know. It's a matter of taste.

 

A bit like, you know, your taste in footwear 

[wuvvum]

Weather was lovely this weekend but I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, partly because Friday night was my works Christmas do so I was feeling slightly* jaded on Saturday morning, and partly because the replacement front hub I ordered for the Z4 hasn't turned up yet.

Saturday I didn't get up and running until about 2pm, and even then I didn't do much more than get the Renault 4 and the  Visa fired up and take them for a spin.  I then attempted to ride the folding electric scooter in to Norwich, to pick up the Getz that I'd left there the night before because too pissed to drive home.  It nearly made it - it got as far as the Norwich northern bypass, but then pulling up the long hill after the bypass it overheated (I'm assuming) and cut out.  This was less than ideal as I was on a busy unlit A-road in the dark and it didn't cut just the motor, it shut the bike down completely so I had no lights.  Fortunately the indicators are powered off their own internal batteries so I was able to keep one of those flashing. 

After a bit of buggering about I found that if I unplugged and reconnected the battery, it'd reset and the bike would work again, but only for about half a mile before it conked out.  I made it to the outskirts of Norwich with another few stops but after that I gave up and pushed it to where the car was parked - fortunately it's no heavier to push than a bicycle.  So I've discovered its limitations - Hoveton / Wroxham is fine but Norwich is too far.  To be fair there was quite a headwind which probably didn't help.

Today I fitted a new stereo to the Getz.  The original stereo still works but I was browsing eBay a week or two ago and found a stereo in a spec that I'd been wanting for a while but not seen before - a single DIN Android touch-screen radio but with a single DIN-sized screen - most of them seem to have a massive great screen tacked on the front which gets in the way of switches and vents.  Installation was actually pretty easy - it came without ISO plugs fitted but I found a wiring harness in my stash which had the correct plug at the stereo end, ISO plugs at the other and the wires more or less in the right place - I just had to snip one wire which had a different function on the new radio (reversing lights - I'm not using that wire as there's no point fitting a reversing camera to a tiny car with a vertical tailgate).  The GPS antenna isn't quite as neatly fitted as I would have liked but it'll do, and it all works fine.

[Tenmil Socket]

A colleague has just mentioned that he picked up a full english Fray Bentos pie from B&M!

[Split_Pin]

2 hours ago, Tenmil Socket said:

A colleague has just mentioned that he picked up a full english Fray Bentos pie from B&M!

I have seen those. Also the full English in a can.

[Tenmil Socket]

13 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I have seen those. Also the full English in a can.

Yeah I’ve seen that but don’t fancy it!

There’s one with chips in too 🤮

I’ve also seen Christmas dinner in a can but don’t think it’s real. 

[richardmorris]

[Stinkwheel]

4 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Bicester heritage site?

[Six-cylinder]

3 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

Bicester heritage site?

No this is Richardmorris's personal parade so he doesn't get bored at work!

[Zelandeth]

11 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Yes please.  I'd happily daily that in the summer.

[richardmorris]

3 hours ago, Stinkwheel said:

Bicester heritage site?

It’s a car storage and transport place on the business park site. Sothebys move a lot of cars through here, and there’s a couple of supplementary businesses doing maintenance and paint protection too. ( Denyer classic cars for example who is the guy driving this Bentley).

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/lf23/london/lots/r0036-1929-bentley-speed-six-le-mans-tourer-in-the-style-of-vanden-plas/1400159

 

[richardmorris]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Yes please.  I'd happily daily that in the summer.

It sounded very impressive. In the single figure mpg impressive. 

[richardmorris]

20 hours ago, GMcD said:

My cousin sent me a photo from her local supermarket in NZ.

That's £45 for a watermelon 😂. 

9kg though!

[vulgalour]

Postal services continue to baffle.  Ordered some replacement mirrors for the Princess from Thailand not expecting them to arrive until January and they got here last week.  This is the peril of buying aftermarket parts and having to remember what you searched for when you bought them a decade ago.  I'm astonished I could find exact replacements so easily.

Today the replacement rear light lenses arrived from America, again an item I wasn't expecting until the new year.  An acquaintance in the States had to help out with this one because while I could find plenty of '64 Galaxie rear lights, hardly anyone would post them even within the States, let alone to the UK.  There's also about as many variants of '64 Galaxie rear lights as there are Mazda 323s so these have a different chrome trim to the ones on the car.  Modular units though, so I can chop and change as I wish.  The little bonus Lego* car was a surprise.

Not going to disturb anything on the Princess that might disable it in any way before the house move now for fear of opening cans of worms all over the place.  Still undecided about driving it or having it transported, it'll come down to funds in the end I think.  I'm just paranoid it's going to break down on the 200 mile drive and I'll be stranded at the side of a smart motorway in the rain/snow/sleet/dark for six hours waiting for recovery and you don't need that on top of a house move as well.

[Ghosty]

I've gone to visit Reb in Fife, I got here late last night. 

Late, because I came up in the Cav - which got six miles short of Reb's after driving all day, then seized the nsf caliper on. Car would reverse most of the time, but not drive.

Fuck.

Managed to get the 6 miles done in about an hour by rocking it back and forth and neutral dropping it to twat the pads off, combined with engine braking and the limited travel on the handbrake (needs adjusting).

We have no car, hardly any tools, and the Cav is dumped on a verge on the farm track. I don't know if it'll move, going to find out shortly.

Need to go back to Manchester by the end of the week. We're going to try and source a caliper but I'm not sure how easy that'll be given proximity to Christmas and location - and about £100. ECP have them but I can't get to Kirkcaldy to collect, and I don't know if Brakes International's next day shipping will get up here next day. There's a factors in Cupar that I could try, but who knows what they'll say, and I've still got to get there somehow.

If anyone has any ideas, chuck me a message.

[Ghosty]

Yeah, it won't move. 

[Metal Guru]

16 hours ago, richardmorris said:

9kg though!

Asda would send you that as a substitute if they didn’t have water cress!

[Mr Pastry]

20 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Yeah, it won't move. 

Lever between caliper and disc to force the pistons back?

[beko1987]

Having a mooch around our company intranet for something else and I found our rewards page. Signed up for a few! 

Free accident cover/if I get into an accident (not breakdown) il get recovered by the service at zero cost, excess refunded, onward travel paid for, curtosey car and other promises. They didn't moan about the age of my car which seems promising, although the gumph about like-for-like replacements and being repaired made me chuckle. Hopefully I don't have to use it, but it's free for a year

Next I found a fuel card scheme we can apply for! 3p min off fuel, and I chose 3 cards that cover my local stations. Acts as a payment card, then direct debits me at the end of the month so my plan is to just move any money for fuel I spend into a pot (Monzo talk) as I 'spend it' then the dd can come out of that. I barely use £100 a month so I doubt I'll save much but every little helps! 

Should waste time on the intranet more often! I'd get cycle cover if I owned a bike too

[gm]

1 hour ago, Ghosty said:

I've gone to visit Reb in Fife, I got here late last night. 

Late, because I came up in the Cav - which got six miles short of Reb's after driving all day, then seized the nsf caliper on. Car would reverse most of the time, but not drive.

Fuck.

Managed to get the 6 miles done in about an hour by rocking it back and forth and neutral dropping it to twat the pads off, combined with engine braking and the limited travel on the handbrake (needs adjusting).

We have no car, hardly any tools, and the Cav is dumped on a verge on the farm track. I don't know if it'll move, going to find out shortly.

Need to go back to Manchester by the end of the week. We're going to try and source a caliper but I'm not sure how easy that'll be given proximity to Christmas and location - and about £100. ECP have them but I can't get to Kirkcaldy to collect, and I don't know if Brakes International's next day shipping will get up here next day. There's a factors in Cupar that I could try, but who knows what they'll say, and I've still got to get there somehow.

If anyone has any ideas, chuck me a message.

sounds like a right pain  i’d be tempted to free it off then clamp the flexi to get you mobile again and find a local garage to drive (very carefully) to.

hope you get it sorted 

 

[The Moog]

I am in Glasgow today but can come and help after work.  

Might have a car you can borrow if needed - will just have to stick you on insurance.  

 

Also heading back down to Accrington on Sat - so could give you a lift if none of that works 

[beko1987]

2 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Yeah, it won't move. 

FFS I edited your OP not quoted it, sorry!

Is it beyond some big smacks of the caliper with a bar and bfo hammer?

I've only had calipers violently sieze once (smoke pouring out the wheel, the office building I pulled up infront of nearly evacuated) and some huge smacks with the handle of my jack and a lump hammer popped them free. They seemed to work ok after too although I drove to work and back barely using them at all

[Ghosty]

Weirdly there wasn't not much smoke/heat - but whatever's jammed is well jammed. After getting off the Forth bridge something went bouncing along the left side of the car - first thought was 'shit, there goes another centre cap' but it's still there. The brakes then started to judder and got progressively worse with each application until they stuck on, only freeing off with a big bang after an hour or so - having repeated this twice more it's now completely stuck. Either something's mangled or the caliper is f*. Brake fluid is all there... 
Have sourced a caliper for tomorrow for £reasonable. 

The main problem is that I need to move the car somewhere I can jack it up, as it can't move itself. That's if I do manage to get it moving which is pretty unlikely given it's now on grass and can only reverse, and if it works any application of the brakes at all seizes it right back up.

The handbrake isn't enough to stop it either as it needs adjusting  

[Zelandeth]

3 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Weirdly there's not much smoke/heat - but whatever's jammed is well jammed. 
Have sourced a caliper for tomorrow for £reasonable. 

The main problem is that I need to move the car somewhere I can jack it up, as it can't move itself. If I do manage to get it moving, any application of the brakes at all seizes it right back up.

Get a Flexi line as well.  Only time I had a brake behave like that it turned out to be the flexible line had swollen up internally and was acting like a one way valve, letting fluid in to the caliper but not back out.

Of course I only figured that out *after* I replaced the caliper.

If you crack the bleeder off, there's a bunch of pressure in there and the brake suddenly frees off, you've found your culprit.

[beko1987]

Plus if you've got a new flexi to go on you could chop+clamp that line and try not to need emergency braking to get you onto nearby hard standing? 

[Popsicle]

While I'm laid up at home recovering from an operation at the start of the month Mrs P took the couriering Caddy for its MOT.

Woohoo all good for another year.

I've managed not to catch the advisories on the pic,

Corrosion on exhaust rear box - meh had that one for the past 3 years.
Front brake discs worn, pitted or scored - yea that will be from it being parked up for the last 3 weeks.
Front wishbone rear bushes splitting - yea they need doing again, they were last done at 213k, a mere* 127k miles ago, cue rant about nothing lasting these days!

[Ghosty]

As an aside, does anyone want to buy a Civic?