The new news 24 thread

[vulgalour]

Cars are a pain in the bum!  A little while ago a friend and I welded up the back end of another friend's Rover, this white one.

All sorted, the car has been here for a couple of years (it didn't take that long to weld it, it's just been here a long time before I moved in and got hired to do the work) and it now needs to go back down south to Kent.  No bother, owner can head up and drive it home.  Friend and I did all relevant checks the day before, made sure it was running fine and all that and we were good to go.  Owner turns up after the several hundred mile trek on a glorious day, all ready to take his newly repaired car home and it refused to start.  He's not the most mechanically inclined, but fortunately there was a whole barbecue's worth of men in their forties with tools and Rover experience to hand so we set to trying to diagnose the problem.  No joy.  We took many things apart, checked many things, and nothing was wrong.  Cleaned some things that probably didn't need it, reassembled, scratched our heads, tried jumping it from the Princess - which then decided the radiator fan switch didn't need to work anymore and nearly overheated, good job - so we reluctantly had to admit defeat.  Owner had no alternative method to get the car home, not even breakdown cover, so had to schlep off back to Kent.

I gave it another go yesterday and no dice, nothing.  Managed to flatten the battery in the attempt.  Never mind, popped the battery off and left it to charge overnight and put it back on today and what do you know the sodding thing fired up just like it had the day before the owner was due to collect.  I've no idea what was wrong with it, it didn't have a flat battery on collection day (until we flattened it trying to start it) so there's problem an intermittent issue somewhere.  This is firmly in Not My Problem territory, somehow a fully charged battery has fixed it so maybe it was simply a matter of turning it off and back on again has resolved an issue somewhere... or maybe there's a bad wire that's been jiggled just so... Not My Problem.

Will it run when the owner attempts another collection?  That's anybody's guess.  The weird thing is this is a car that has for the past few years been totally dependable, it's almost like it didn't want to go back to Kent...

[stuboy]

Anyone else run a fleet and have magical goblins that come in at night and damage vehicles?  Seems they visited my place... fortunately I managed too make it prettier as insurers won't pay to do it...

[lesapandre]

Cazoo-goo-goo-d

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjq55333xg9o

An important thing here is this:

Never made a profit just big losses supported by banks. When it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2021, was valued at a whopping $7bn. Now, its valuation has dropped to just $30m...

Someone somewhere has lost all that money - but it's gone somewhere. I once asked a hedge fund manager how folk felt about stuff like that - he just shrugged it off.

Shows how much money there is floating about.

[MrGTI6]

For some reason I bought an R-reg Corsa last week. Both sun visor clips were broken. The visors flapping about was driving me insane so I ordered a pair of clips from eBay at the weekend. 

 

They turned up in the post this morning. 

 

Sorted! 

 

I also finally managed to work out how to enter the radio code on the Grundig CAR 200, so that's up and running as well now! The sound quality is exactly as you'd expect! 

The wipers were smearing, so I stuck some new wiper blades on it too. 

Really quick and easy jobs that have made the car so much nicer to use. I think I'll take it to work tomorrow! 

[lesapandre]

"Electric cars more likely to hit pedestrians than petrol vehicles, study finds"

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/21/electric-cars-more-likely-to-hit-pedestrians-than-petrol-vehicles-study-finds

[High Jetter]

21 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

"Electric cars more likely to hit pedestrians than petrol vehicles, study finds"

Seems likely. I'll stick with 'old-fashioned' for a while longer, I think.

[Floatylight]

Nice to hear our own @motorpunkget a mention on Smith & Sniff podcast this week.

Good luck with the book. 

[grogee]

10 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Cazoo-goo-goo-d

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjq55333xg9o

An important thing here is this:

Never made a profit just big losses supported by banks. When it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2021, was valued at a whopping $7bn. Now, its valuation has dropped to just $30m...

Someone somewhere has lost all that money - but it's gone somewhere. I once asked a hedge fund manager how folk felt about stuff like that - he just shrugged it off.

Shows how much money there is floating about.

Interesting. 

Am I right in thinking they just sponsored the snooker? 

Sorry for the staff who are losing/have lost jobs. But not sorry to lose the all-pervading marketing. 

Just Cinch to go now, then we can all get back to normal. 

[reb]

Just done the form to get my driving licence back after I let it expire back in January last year. I probably still won't use driving as my main means of transport, so I'm now trawling the internet for interesting yet (relatively) cheap to own chod.

A big part of me wants a 4x4, but I can't help but feel that would bankrupt me rather quickly.

Another Volvo estate is probably just the thing.

[EyesWeldedShut]

38 minutes ago, reb said:

Just done the form to get my driving licence back after I let it expire back in January last year. I probably still won't use driving as my main means of transport, so I'm now trawling the internet for interesting yet (relatively) cheap to own chod.

A big part of me wants a 4x4, but I can't help but feel that would bankrupt me rather quickly.

Another Volvo estate is probably just the thing.

Checkout the Shite For Sale section 4x4 and a Volvo estate all-in-one offer?

[loserone]

Why not lift a 205?

[adw1977]

6 hours ago, grogee said:

Am I right in thinking they just sponsored the snooker? 

Yes, they sponsored the World Snooker Championship just this month.

[dozeydustman]

Not car related but just picked this up on Freecycle.

Gas bottle is empty but the piezo sparker still works!

[mercedade]

7 hours ago, grogee said:

Interesting. 

Am I right in thinking they just sponsored the snooker? 

Sorry for the staff who are losing/have lost jobs. But not sorry to lose the all-pervading marketing. 

Just Cinch to go now, then we can all get back to normal. 

They sponsored seemingly dozens of major sporting events.

Maybe that's all the $7bn was really used for

[wuvvum]

8 hours ago, grogee said:

Just Cinch to go now, then we can all get back to normal. 

Cinch have been proper going for it with the advertising recently.  Which probably means they're struggling.

[grogee]

6 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Cinch have been proper going for it with the advertising recently.  Which probably means they're struggling.

We live in hope. It'll be nice to not be continually exposed to that Essex gimp's main-beam teeth

[SiC]

Isn't Cinch owned by the same company that owns WBAC and BCA? If so, they'll be able to bankroll them a little longer if needed as I imagine the rest of the business is doing alright. Plus they get the pick of the stock at the best prices. 

[Ghosty]

22 hours ago, vulgalour said:

I gave it another go yesterday and no dice, nothing.  Managed to flatten the battery in the attempt.  Never mind, popped the battery off and left it to charge overnight and put it back on today and what do you know the sodding thing fired up just like it had the day before the owner was due to collect.  I've no idea what was wrong with it, it didn't have a flat battery on collection day (until we flattened it trying to start it) so there's problem an intermittent issue somewhere.  This is firmly in Not My Problem territory, somehow a fully charged battery has fixed it so maybe it was simply a matter of turning it off and back on again has resolved an issue somewhere... or maybe there's a bad wire that's been jiggled just so... Not My Problem.

It's not a Honda engine perchance? Coil (in the dizzy) and ignition relay (behind centre console) can fail cause them to crank but not fire, and nobody ever thinks of it. Sometimes the coils randomly work after a load of cranking if they get hot enough. Sounds a lot like that.

[Bren]

I obtained this yesterday for the SD1.

 

New they very expensive  - £300 +. Too much for something that will be used infrequently. I have had to adjust the timing as the current lucas item is past it's best and will not start the engine with the correct timing. Just psyching myself up to fit it - lack of access means it is a ballache.

[Ged]

305 estate ive put back on the road and tidied up a bit.

 

[barefoot]

4 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Not car related but just picked this up on Freecycle.

Gas bottle is empty but the piezo sparker still works!

Did they leave all that food on it for you?

[Christine]

5 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Not car related but just picked this up on Freecycle.

Gas bottle is empty but the piezo sparker still works!

I picked this up of marketplace for 30 quid ! Sausages  will be a bit gritty though

 

 

[dozeydustman]

Just now, Christine said:

I picked this up of marketplace for 30 quid !

 

 

That’s a bargain!

[Christine]

I know ...    Went to Hastings yesterday eve to get it 

 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Christine said:

I know ...    Went to Hastings yesterday eve to get it 

 

You got out alive????

[puddlethumper]

27 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

You got out alive????

I've heard that the lucky ones do.

[vulgalour]

7 hours ago, Ghosty said:

It's not a Honda engine perchance? Coil (in the dizzy) and ignition relay (behind centre console) can fail cause them to crank but not fire, and nobody ever thinks of it. Sometimes the coils randomly work after a load of cranking if they get hot enough. Sounds a lot like that.

Nope, it's a good old K series and an early R8 that's pretty basic.  Single point injection, no immobiliser, no alarm, no electric front windows even.  Trouble is now it works fine and I can't replicate the problem so I can't diagnose it.

[gm]

i got a lift home from work tonight, and so did the car !

nothing major, just the crank pulley i should have changed months ago !

 

[MorrisItalSLX]

You find the strangest things in charity shops.

‘Anyone for an audio guide to your new Australian market Petrol 1982 Peugeot 505? It’s only $1!’

Now I need to find the car to match.

[barefoot]

And a cassette player...