The new news 24 thread

[richardmorris]

Just turned over 53,000miles. For some reason the battery was dead ( despite being on a conditioner) so had to get a replacement from Halfords.

[Pat Earrings]

Long day sorting out the Clio estate bought from @Kiltox today as it needed a full service. Rain kept stopping play multiple times.

finally sorted the rear exhaust mount as unluckily on the same day acquiring it it just failed. The replacement is a Febi part and somehow the old one was missing the actual second metal bracket, as the rubber had just broken off making me think that the exhaust fitter bodged it into the hole rather than use the correct mount! You can see in the pictures old v new.

the timing belt and water pump was done by a mechanic last week, so the service was my turn. Spark plugs easy as, and the oil and filter too along with the air filter. The pollen filter wasn’t that old but fitted upside down! In went a carbon Febi one.  
 

also managed to fit a new temic module to the front drivers door, as it has failed. Quite an easy job once I figured out the tiny screw on the top was keeping it on. Now fully functioning. It’s a great little car this. I was then moving onto doing the discs as the pads were new but discs old, however I suffered a broken wheel bolt sheared in the hub. Tried everything and wasted so much time,and gave up so she will be taking it to the mechanics near her to sort, absolutely gutted at that. 

the qashqai also got another service as it was done almost 5 months ago. Oil/filter and air pollen and spark plugs. That’ll do for another 5 months or so 👍

[Kiltox]

Ha - my bad on the exhaust mount, that’s the second one it’s been through in the past few weeks! The one I replaced had been put on in exactly the same way, so I guess the exhaust fitter did it wrong and then I copied them 😂 

[Pat Earrings]

12 hours ago, Kiltox said:

Ha - my bad on the exhaust mount, that’s the second one it’s been through in the past few weeks! The one I replaced had been put on in exactly the same way, so I guess the exhaust fitter did it wrong and then I copied them 😂 

Actually laughed out loud at this 😂😂

[wesacosa]

I had another go at bleeding the cooling on the Favorit after the coolant loss/possible overheat and the erupting coolant when trying to bleed. This time I didn't rev the engine I just let it idle. I also left the coolant level on minimum to so there was room in the header tank to minimise risk of spillage 

last week I put the pressure tester on and it seemed to hold pressure for the four hours I left it connected so hopefully no leaks 

After about 5-7 minutes of idling the coolant suddenly rises from minimum to maximum on the tank and starts bubbling so I shut the engine off where it immediately goes down.  So I am assuming its at the point the stat starts to open 

it seems to be rising from hose 14 rather than spilling in from the small return hose. So I am guessing maybe air from the engine cooling circuit is getting into hose 3 as the stat opens and forcing coolant back up hose 14 

Now of course it still could be pressurised coolant from a HG but given there is nothing coming through the return hose before the stat opens I am hoping it might just be a big slug of air somewhere.  Trouble is where it's parked now the header tank is next to the pavement so I don't want to leave it running and spitting out coolant on passeres by.  I might have a go at extending the header with a coke bottle and some gaffer tape to try and contain the liquid, or failing that I might have to drain the coolant and vacuum fill

 

[IronStar]

I’m so rooting for this to be just a trapped air bubble somewhere so Favorit lives on. The last cool* Skoda IMO. 

[richardmorris]

Eek.

 

 

 

Luckily had a spare.

[lesapandre]

Out and about in France today. Dodging the weather which is awful and very wet.

No local village event is complete without some interesting vehicles and stuff.

Early 2CV 'rear opening' - front doors here on sale.

[bramz7]

Just back from swapping the Panda (and a small bit of money) for this:

 

I've never really driven any Clio bar a MK1, having owned three. This is a huge car in comparison. It feels quite well put together, and I think everything works. I know Renault had a bit of a 'ummm better sort out our issues' period after the early 00s. 

 

Must avoid buying anything for a while now. I say that, but a friend offered me an E class diesel last night for £notmuch, which is, from most angles, a terrible idea, but I suspect resistance is futile. 

 

[lesapandre]

O L D S M O B I L E French style.

These even still have little fins

This thing is B I G

[lesapandre]

Art Deco murals - church of Saint-Christophe

Patron Saint of Travellers 

[JJ0063]

Can’t remember the last time I used a hand car wash but both cars were hanging, Mrs JJ is going to a wedding next weekend so wanted hers doing inside as there was a fair amount of pug hair she didn’t want getting on her outfit. 
 

Popped down to the local foreign car wash place, sure it used to be £12 inside and out last time I used them! £23 for the fiesta, £25 for the BM.

Did a good job in all fairness. Inside looks great on them both too and I didn’t have to break a sweat. Win.

 

[HMC]

3 hours ago, lesapandre said:

O L D S M O B I L E French style.

These even still have little fins

This thing is B I G

I nearly bought one of those a fair while ago for £3k. “oldsmobile custom cruiser” IIRC with a lower tailgate that retracts down into the floor. 6 weeks later it was at a dealer for £7.5k

[wuvvum]

In what is becoming a drearily familiar situation, I didn't get very much done this weekend because of the effing weather.  I did get the non-welding MOT fails sorted on the Innocenti - there weren't that many as some of the things I fixed last year were still working, but it does now have a full complement of warning lights (apart from the indicators, but it has a clicky relay which is enough for the test) and a nice secure battery.  The exhaust had started to blow around one of the many joints so I slathered it in Gun Gum which will hopefully hold for long enough for it to pass the retest - I'm going to have to have a proper look at some point as it looks like the front pipe might be holed but I haven't got time to drop the exhaust at the moment.

I charged the Z4's battery but that hasn't cleared the ABS fault.  I was able to clear it with the Delphi but it came back again as soon as I started driving.  So I've ordered a new wheel sensor and I'm hoping that'll cure it - although it seems a bit odd that the speedo has packed up too, surely that can't get its reading from the nearside rear ABS sensor?

This afternoon I got the new (secondhand) starter motor fitted to the Maxus.

It wasn't quite as much of an arse of a job as I had feared, partly because the top mounting bolt, which was completely inaccessible and which I was dreading having to try to get a socket on, was actually only in finger tight - so obviously someone's been in there before.  The starter came out easily through the gap between the subframe and the driveshaft, the replacement went in the same way (and I managed to get a ratchet spanner on the top bolt to tighten it at least slightly more than finger tight...) and the van fired up straight away, which was a relief as I had a slight worry that the issue might have been caused by Maxus electrics rather than the starter itself.  The replacement starter also seems to turn the engine over noticeably faster than the old one did even when it was working, which should make starting the engine from cold somewhat easier.  So that's one vehicle back operational again at least.

Then at about 4pm the weather seemed to suddenly realise that it's the middle of June - the sun came out, the clouds disappeared and the temperature went up by about 5 degrees.  So I went for a bike ride along the cliffs.

[Ghosty]

14 hours ago, wesacosa said:

After about 5-7 minutes of idling the coolant suddenly rises from minimum to maximum on the tank and starts bubbling so I shut the engine off where it immediately goes down.  So I am assuming its at the point the stat starts to open 

Having bled a certain Favorit at the roadside due to a leaky core plug dumping the coolant (and doing the Golf after flushing its matrix), this sounds like it's operating as intended to me: I'd be inclined to say it's an airlock.

I hear the HGs aren't that hard to do...

[bunglebus]

Might have already been posted, but the rather well known Dominos Morris Minor is up for sale.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/972721137666682/

[High Jetter]

Tasty, I'd have a slice

[Datsuncog]

Not really a fan of Thin & Crispy, myself...

[vulgalour]

Stumbled across a little charity shop last week.  One of those places that's absolute chaos until you find someone who works there and seems to have a little bubble of calm around them.  Usual mix of Tom Clancy books, DVDs nobody wants, cheap old jackets, and fast fashion with a sprinkling of random furniture.  No real rhyme or reason to the place and absolutely packed to the gills, super!  I've been looking for an armchair, something that is comfy, old, and easy to transport and found this.

It had a FREE label on it but, since it was in such good condition and it was a charity and they delivered, I convinced them to let me make a donation.  There's not a mark on it, the fabric still looks new and it's incredibly comfortable.  It also weighs nearly nothing at all which is a bit strange because it doesn't feel cheaply built.  There is a clue to the construction under the seat cushion.

Englender have been around forever, if you live in the North you've probably seen their stuff and not even realised it, probably the tiled top teak nesting tables in fact.  This chair is probably from the mid-80s about when Englender stopped making domestic furniture and went into commercial stuff.  The reason for the lightness is also because it's likely an expanded polystyrene body to give it the shape, where other companies were using fibreglass.  The nice thing is the material has been employed sensibly to solve a problem other than cost, that being weight, without making the chair feel fragile or so light it moves about whenever you sit on it.  That's going to make the next house move a lot easier since I can lift this thing on my own, it weighs less than my office chair.

[r.welfare]

10 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I charged the Z4's battery but that hasn't cleared the ABS fault.  I was able to clear it with the Delphi but it came back again as soon as I started driving.  So I've ordered a new wheel sensor and I'm hoping that'll cure it - although it seems a bit odd that the speedo has packed up too, surely that can't get its reading from the nearside rear ABS sensor?

It’s been a few years but pretty sure I had the exact same symptoms (including dead speedo) with my brother’s E46 3-series coupe, and normal service was surprisingly resumed with a cheap Amazon special NSR ABS sensor.

[captain_70s]

3 hours ago, vulgalour said:

It had a FREE label on it but, since it was in such good condition and it was a charity and they delivered, I convinced them to let me make a donation. 

Is it maybe old enough that it doesn't have the fire safety tags it would need to be legally sold?

[richardmorris]

190miles non-stop in the x1/9. £9.70 on the m6 toll now!

[vulgalour]

2 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Is it maybe old enough that it doesn't have the fire safety tags it would need to be legally sold?

Do you know what, I bet that's what it is now you mention it.

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

190miles non-stop in the x1/9. £9.70 on the m6 toll now!

That's almost a pound for every inch of its length 😂

[richardmorris]

28 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

That's almost a pound for every inch of its length 😂

I just wanted to avoid stop start traffic on the m6. It’s shot up a lost in cost since the last time I used it. When I was near handy cross on the m40 going about 65 on the satnav I was passed by a pickup towing a trailer with two bikes on the back closely followed by a policeman on a motorbike who have me a thumbs-up. I caught up with them at handy cross lights and passed them going  down the hill towards Marlow. They then shot past again before the cop put his lights on and pulled the rig over. Presumably thought 70mph in front of a policeman who was following for a few miles was taking the piss.

[Stinkwheel]

22 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

I just wanted to avoid stop start traffic on the m6. It’s shot up a lost in cost since the last time I used it.

I use it in the mornings when I'm working in the office, I hit it at just such a time that the M6 is at a crawl for 2 or 3 junctions. £9 at that time of the morning and worth every penny 

[beko1987]

43 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

I just wanted to avoid stop start traffic on the m6. It’s shot up a lost in cost since the last time I used it. When I was near handy cross on the m40 going about 65 on the satnav I was passed by a pickup towing a trailer with two bikes on the back closely followed by a policeman on a motorbike who have me a thumbs-up. I caught up with them at handy cross lights and passed them going  down the hill towards Marlow. They then shot past again before the cop put his lights on and pulled the rig over. Presumably thought 70mph in front of a policeman who was following for a few miles was taking the piss.

Or they got caught out by the downhill stretch and didn't brake 😂 I rarely go that way because it can be a frantic squeeze into a gap that isn't there for Marlow, or you stay in l1 and do whatever l1 does. I go 1 junction further and into Marlow bottom, although have scampered down l3 of the a404 when safe at the last minute when there's been a bus just vanishing off down the road. 

I had my one and only blatent follow by a policeman once leaving work going up the bypass. I shot across the roundabout at bang on 30 then shot up to 70 and stayed there. He followed me the whole way up and I could see them pushing buttons in the rear view. Then they overtook to go towards Wycombe and gave me a hard stare 😂

[richardmorris]

More car juggling - this morning involved moving three cars around to get the x1/9 out and dad’s DS4 back off the grass. New daily ready for action, or at least the manifold gaskets getting done tomorrow.

[Marshall2810]

Nice mk3 Astra GLS spotted in a surprisingly sunny Blackpool this afternoon 

 

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, richardmorris said:

More car juggling - this morning involved moving three cars around to get the x1/9 out and dad’s DS4 back off the grass. New daily ready for action, or at least the manifold gaskets getting done tomorrow.

Mmm shiny!