The new news 24 thread

[SiC]

Oo juicy.

Looking at her profile, it looks like she's going out with someone that works at KD MOT too. Probably can guess what is and why it's happening. 

It isn't just her who runs the garage. There looks to be at least 2 other mechanics there too. 

[High Jetter]

Piaggio van failed MOT today on O/S headlamp and 2 front tyres (which I knew were low) with an advisory on the N/S headlamp. Headlamps are made of unobtanium - but I have a pair squirrelled away for just such a contingency. MOT place's tyre suppliers don't now list 155x12 8-ply - no problem, said I, I'll go to my usual tyre place (estd 1925) as I've done for decades: "Sorry, none of our suppliers list that size now". Bollocks. Black circles, here I come - unless someone recommends anywhere else?

Edit: BC only do car tyres in that size, not 8 ply. Found Nankang cw25s on Camskil, £171.40 for 4 delivered. Am happy with Nankang, anyone had problems with Camskill?

[barefoot]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

Our team is here for you and happy to help, we are:
 
* Kayleigh (Sole Owner & MOT Tester)
 
* Paul (Service Manager, MOT Tester & Technician)
 
* Martin (Technician & Electrical Fault Specialist)
 

It was Paul who worked on my car. He seemed a nice bloke & gave me a lift back to the bus station however, I suspect that he may be just a little prone to exaggeration. He told me that he'd previously worked as a chauffeur. Now pay attention to the numbers. He told me that he'd been provided with a Mercedes S class which had 200k on the clock. When he returned the car a year later it had 160k. So that's 960,000 in 12 months. I went home & got out my calculator and assuming he worked 48 weeks of the year, he'd have been driving 20,000 miles a week, which is 4,000 miles a day. Assuming that he drove everywhere at 70 mph without stopping for fuel, he'd have to put in 57 hours a day...

[SiC]

Surely there can't be much of a market left for K-series HG replacement? Almost all MG Rovers must nearly all had them done at least once by now and they're really thinning out numbers now too. 

[Erebus]

41 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Piaggio van failed MOT today on O/S headlamp and 2 front tyres (which I knew were low) with an advisory on the N/S headlamp. Headlamps are made of unobtanium - but I have a pair squirrelled away for just such a contingency. MOT place's tyre suppliers don't now list 155x12 8-ply - no problem, said I, I'll go to my usual tyre place (estd 1925) as I've done for decades: "Sorry, none of our suppliers list that size now". Bollocks. Black circles, here I come - unless someone recommends anywhere else?

Edit: BC only do car tyres in that size, not 8 ply. Found Nankang cw25s on Camskil, £171.40 for 4 delivered. Am happy with Nankang, anyone had problems with Camskill?

I've used them a few times and they've been fine.  Sure I've heard others on here suggest them as well

[Stanky]

26 minutes ago, barefoot said:

It was Paul who worked on my car. He seemed a nice bloke & gave me a lift back to the bus station however, I suspect that he may be just a little prone to exaggeration. He told me that he'd previously worked as a chauffeur. Now pay attention to the numbers. He told me that he'd been provided with a Mercedes S class which had 200k on the clock. When he returned the car a year later it had 160k. So that's 960,000 in 12 months. I went home & got out my calculator and assuming he worked 48 weeks of the year, he'd have been driving 20,000 miles a week, which is 4,000 miles a day. Assuming that he drove everywhere at 70 mph without stopping for fuel, he'd have to put in 57 hours a day...

Pah, you're obviously wrong! He would only have needed to work 40 hours a day if he worked 7 days a week, or he could have only worked 24 hours a day if he'd worked 12 days per week.

Honestly, this is basic stuff man. This exact question was Q1 of my GCSE maths exam. 

Q. "Paul works in a MG Rover specialist in <somewhere northern>, he moonlights as a chauffeur in a 200k mile Mercedes S-class, how many days a week does he have to work to put 960,000 miles on the S-Class in 12 months assuming he never stopped for fuel or food, pissed in the footwell on the move and did 70mph everywhere, all the time? Show your working"

A. 12 days per week (crude drawing of a stick man pissing in a Mercedes footwell)

93 marks

[Ghosty]

Yaris has had a slow flat since I bought it. Goes down every 3 days. 

Asked the tuning shop to sort it with the exhaust, they couldn't find an issue. 

It was audibly leaking...

 

Anyway there's a local car guy I see around a lot that's recently bought an EG Civic. I've spoken to him on Instagram but that's it. It transpired he was a tyre fitter at my local Ford dealer and was happy to do a repair in exchange for a set of EG wheeltrims I had knocking about. Win win. He found the hole easily, but it hadn't gone through the tyre completely hence why they couldn't find an issue the first time. Drilled out and plugged, sorted. 

 

 

 

[Ghosty]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

anyone had problems with Camskill?

Quite the opposite, they're brilliant. If you have a tame fitter it's about the cheapest way to do tyres.

[RoverFolkUs]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Piaggio van failed MOT today on O/S headlamp and 2 front tyres (which I knew were low) with an advisory on the N/S headlamp. Headlamps are made of unobtanium - but I have a pair squirrelled away for just such a contingency. MOT place's tyre suppliers don't now list 155x12 8-ply - no problem, said I, I'll go to my usual tyre place (estd 1925) as I've done for decades: "Sorry, none of our suppliers list that size now". Bollocks. Black circles, here I come - unless someone recommends anywhere else?

Edit: BC only do car tyres in that size, not 8 ply. Found Nankang cw25s on Camskil, £171.40 for 4 delivered. Am happy with Nankang, anyone had problems with Camskill?

Camskill are fine as far as I know, I've only ever heard good things about them

[RoverFolkUs]

7 hours ago, RayMK said:

Update: 1994 Tipo 1.4ie which FTP'd last July and was recovered to a garage:    Don't get too excited.  Hardly anything has happened except that I've had a brief discussion with the garage.  We agreed that as it was a 'back burner' job in a busy garage it was unlikely to receive attention in the foreseeable future.  In the next week (+/- a few days) it will be made accessible to a trailer or whatever so that I can have it transported to my house where I can tinker with it and generally ponder its future.  Towing is not possible because it is SORN'd and no longer MOT'd or insured. Although I've missed having the option of driving a vaguely interesting, practical, manual car, in all honesty it has been quite convenient to have just two cars outside the house.  My '61 Reliant is still with me and roadworthy/road legal but requires considerable enthusiasm to clear its way out of my garage, something which is lacking these days. It rarely gets driven.

Rather than just give up on the Tipo (it was tempting), I'm hoping that circumstances will allow something favourable to happen in the next several months. I can always polish it to improve my morale and extend its period of grace for a while.   

Has the crank sensor been checked/replaced yet? Despite it's age I believe they have one. 

[RobT]

Bought this last week as something to do.  It came with half a tank of pez so have a viaduct shot instead.

1.2 HLX with working City mode.  Paint is thoroughly knackered but it drives fine, and will do as a stop gap whilst I sort the Xedos out come MoT time next month.  I initially thought the tow bar was for trailer tip runs, but the seller used it to occasionally shift his MG Midget about.

[Popsicle]

4 hours ago, barefoot said:

So that's 960,000 in 12 months.

Pah - bloody part timer.....

 

[RayMK]

1 hour ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Has the crank sensor been checked/replaced yet? Despite it's age I believe they have one. 

The AA chap said it was pulsing so he suspected the coil or ignition ECU.  Lack of sparks caused the FTP.  Replacing the coil with a new one made no difference and has, I think, been sent back by the garage. We replaced the ECU with an identical one salvaged from a scrapped but running car by a dealer.  That made no difference either. I have a NOS crank sensor but have not fitted it yet.  Battery voltage was too low to conduct meaningful ECU pin-out checks. When it is back home I'll fit the crank sensor and a decent battery and see what happens, then do pin-out checks if further clues are required i.e. it  still does not run.  I may buy a new coil of the correct type as they are less than £30. If I can get it running (mojo permitting and decent weather) I'll check its vitals, insure it and submit it for MOT.  No urgency on this, although it makes sense to get it running again before the summer if possible.  I had hoped that a garage would be better placed and willing to do the work but understandably bread and butter work comes first.  I've used them before many times. Certainly no hard feelings in either direction there.    

[High Jetter]

13 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Quite the opposite, they're brilliant. If you have a tame fitter it's about the cheapest way to do tyres.

 

12 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Camskill are fine as far as I know, I've only ever heard good things about them

Thanks, have placed an order.

[goosey]

Just found noticed this on some rag is was using, anyone else remember the Camel Trophy?

 

[Spottedlaurel]

Ex- @BorniteIdentity Avensis SR had an MoT today, not immediately great news but it'll depend how weldable it is.....

Most of it seems to be the back of the sills and rear inner arches.

For something  that's done 282.5k there's a lot it didn't fail on, so hopefully they can do something as it'd be great to get it to 300,000 miles.

[BorniteIdentity]

Bollocks.  

If you decide to abort the mission, please let me know and I'll come and fetch it.

[Spottedlaurel]

41 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Bollocks.  

If you decide to abort the mission, please let me know and I'll come and fetch it.

Don't go making plans for the journey just yet, bits of fresh metal are being welded-in right now!

[richardmorris]

[richardmorris]

[barefoot]

22 hours ago, barefoot said:

I'll have it recovered to a bloke down the road who has no fear of anything...

This is not entirely true.  I took it to him and asked if he'd be able to sort it. I said that he needn't worry if he couldn't because I knew where there was a nice Citroën C6 that I'd replace it with and he could work on that instead. 

[stuboy]

I know its being a bugger but washed it after being neglected, 

[Spottedlaurel]

Avensis sorted for another year!

[cort1977]

On 20/03/2024 at 22:14, Nyphur said:

That means he drove it for a year and clocked it by at least 40k

I was going to say, I think he was discreetly offering to clock your car as a homer...

[richardmorris]

[chodweaver]

I'M ALIVE!

Ahem, sorry. This is newsworthy because i have been trying, on and off, for weeks, to compress a front spring on the Chrysler Voyager, after the top mount and the top of the strut parted company (how, I'm not yet sure, as the top is still covered up by scuttle, sound insulation, assorted wires and pipes).

Whatever, the strut, top mount and spring have to come out to find out what needs replacing, so the spring, a quite stout item, supporting as it does, over a quarter of the GVW of a (Grand) Voyager, needs to come out. 

Anyway, everyone who has been aware of this has shaken their head and expressed what widow makers non-hydraulic, non-floor mounted spring compressors are - even the man in the local parts shop who sold me a beefier pair for this job. "I really don't like selling these" he goes. "Everyone i know who has ever used them has been injured. Haven't they Bob?"

Bob, the other customer present, replies:

"Oh, aye. That young lad at the garage next door, he's been using them years. Still, had one slip on him and now he's got a plate in his head"

Etc etc..

So it is with some surprise and not a little jubilation that i have at least completed the first stage of this apparently potentially life threatening or at least life-changing-injury-rich pastime...

Wish me luck

[egg]

On 20/03/2024 at 23:32, RobT said:

Bought this last week as something to do.  It came with half a tank of pez so have a viaduct shot instead.

Enysford viaduct. Those Puntos have thinned out a lot, but still a few around.

[egg]

On 20/03/2024 at 15:42, RayMK said:

Rather than just give up on the Tipo (it was tempting), I'm hoping that circumstances will allow something favourable to happen in the next several months. I can always polish it to improve my morale and extend its period of grace for a while.   

Does your son have any interest in taking it on Ray?

[RayMK]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Does your son have any interest in taking it on Ray?

He bought the Tipo in February 2013 after I'd mentioned seeing an advert for it.  In mid 2018 he sold it to a friend after acquiring a V70.  The friend had been desperate for a means of transport because his VW was having problems but by January 2019 the Scirocco was running again and the Tipo's MOT was due.  It needed a fair bit doing, including floor and inner sills welding.  The friend was not willing to spend on this temporary steed and scrapping beckoned.  I stepped in, bought it back for a nominal sum, funded the considerable MOT work and slowly grew to like the Tipo.  Meanwhile, my son had a few company cars before buying a new diesel Tipo which after 3 years was ultra reliable and economical but hardly an inspiring drive. He therefore passed his full motorcycle test, bought a succession of bikes (he now has three) and was lured away from his new Tipo by a low mileage sporty BMW 5 series diesel which he loves. So, in answer to your question, NO 😄.

[High Jetter]

Ordered 4 tyres from Camskill yesterday, had a couple of emails, oe of which said a tracking email would be sent at 6pm. Nothing received so I guessed they'd arrive on Monday.

Got home to find them outside the front door, soaking wet. Wife was unaware as courier made no contact. 30 mins later I got the tracking email!

Went to put them in the ZTT but the battery was flat and not unlocking. Bugger.