The new news 24 thread

[IronStar]

On 23/11/2024 at 21:48, IronStar said:

I left 156 sitting outside without driving it for a bit too long. Went to pick something up from it the other day…oh, no remote unlock. Right, nevermind I’ll just jumpstart it

Nope. Battery completely flat. 
Left it like this for 5 minutes, tried to start. Nope. Try locking with no cables. Nope. Tried a few more times. Nope.

So I set there idling for half an hour, and the result is it can lock and unlock on remote. Took the battery out, plugged in Lidl charger expecting it to say no as usual. It’s actually detected and charging! 
Let’s see if it actually gets charged to start the car.

Left it charging for 48h, it still didn’t go to 4 bars (IDK, me neither 🤷‍♂️)  but voltage went up. Took it to the car, plugged it back in, and it fired right up! Threw a scary MOTOR CONTROL SYSTEM FAILURE warning message with fans on full blast, but turns out I forgot to plug a sensor that was in the way back in. Took it for a spin, drives like a dream. I really need to use that car more often.

Lidl’s charger delivers! 🙌

[Metal Guru]

11 hours ago, MikeR said:

the old sx200 printer scaner has finally bust , despite new inks it proceeded to print in only black and red ...

£50  quid I paid for it 15 or so years ago , been hammered by various kids school and uni work  ..

they dont build them to last ??? 😂

I’ve had an SX235 since 2012, cost £35 new. Still going strong , only fault it has is occasionally rejecting non Epsom cartridges but I can live with that given the price of genuine ones.

[andy18s]

Just watched the latest teardown from The Humble Mechanic on a VW V10 tdi.

The level of engineering is incredible with not a single drive belt anywhere, it's all gear driven..over 20 gears in total. https://youtu.be/0buvNjbQww0?si=dkckZ7-K-J8q-Yu2

hat large disc at the "front" is the fluid filled crankshaft vibration dampener..

[LightBulbFun]

13 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

but I do care that so few are willing to take on a basket case or a risk. 

13 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Maybe you're right. I just don't feel like I see the big adventures any more. A bit of 'faux jeopardy' with people buying what are actually perfectly sensible and serviceable cars, but little seems to be stupidly daft or being run on a shoestring or risking marriage/marital harmony etc.

so you admit REV is perfectly sensible then?

 

lets see in the past few weeks, I went across London, and through the Rotherhithe tunnel to pickup an old computer I won off eBay

I then took her for a 50Mph blat down the A12 and back again  

then went across London again this time via Tower bridge to pick up some old computer hardware  

who says Invacars are not practical!  

name another forum where a 25 year old is using a nearly 50 year old Invalid car as their daily-driver and sole means of transport/only car!  

 

[wuvvum]

24 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

so you admit REV is perfectly sensible then?

I suspect that BorniteIdentity would rather cut off his own knackers with a pair of rusty tin snips than admit that.

[BorniteIdentity]

32 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

so you admit REV is perfectly sensible then?

 

lets see in the past few weeks, I went across London, and through the Rotherhithe tunnel to pickup an old computer I won off eBay

I then took her for a 50Mph blat down the A12 and back again  

then went across London again this time via Tower bridge to pick up some old computer hardware  

who says Invacars are not practical!  

name another forum where a 25 year old is using a nearly 50 year old Invalid car as their daily-driver and sole means of transport/only car!  

 

Can you see how the thread was about what people were driving 18 years ago, and you shoe-horned in what you did last week? You can see that, right?  How the thread has meandered onto us miserable old shits regaling tales of how we bought cars for loose change, and you posted about and old Mac you fetched from the city within which you live?

Come on man.  This is old LBF in action again.

FWIW I didn't say, and would never claim, that nobody is running old heaps.  My observation was just that the great stories don't seem to be here any more.  During COVID, a few people dragged up some old threads to re-read - and there's just not so much of that any more.  It might be my perspective, but I don't think so.  

The problem with discussions like this is nobody can be objective.  It becomes a tribal who can get the most likes  competition to decide who's won the argument.

 

[IronStar]

16 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

[KanyeMode] 18 years… 18 years… [\KanyeMode]

2006 I was 23 and knew I wasn’t quite right. I’d get a funny, fizzy feeling in my willy whenever I saw an undesirable car. My boss and I nearly went halves on an Xr3 cab for a grand but in the end I spent £400 on this from Wuvvum Country. 

What I struggle to comprehend- even as someone who does fiddly maths every day - is it was only 32 years old at the time. The same age as the Sierra, give or take, when I took that on. 

2007 was when the shite bug bit. I sold that capri for a modest profit and bought a Volvo 340 for £80. It was absolutely BOB on - the young fella sold it to me cheap as he knew I loved them. The Clio was a bit of fun as my ex wife had one as her first car; I still love them now. 

Yes, things have changed a bit here. My greatest frustration is that everyone’s standards seem to be a bit boojie these days. For me, the only standard I set (for the toys) is it must be better than walking. 

I don’t care that it’s now MK2 Foci and Laguni - but I do care that so few are willing to take on a basket case or a risk. 

The fact that I couldn’t despatch a running car for £100, I think, reinforces that. 

Anyway, here’s to the next 18 years. I hope to still be complaining about rot in Sierra doors and extolling the virtues of 90s Toyotas. 

I am so so so sorry I didn't get talked into joining sooner. Sounds like I'd love the stories.

I'm also sorry I didn't join sooner to do a PBP of BX Break #2 collection, you lot would've probably loved it.

It included talking a scrapper into letting go of one of his cars from the yard, finding the 80-something years old previous owner to get the paperwork, buying a starter motor sight unseen with plans on replacing a starter motor in the field on 40-degree heat, just for it to be-wrong starter, than the previous owner showing up with a spare he had in a garage, collecting plastic bits of the car around the filed, priming the diesel pump for 25 minutes because it was vapor-locked, than driving a car with no tailgate, leaking hydraulics, locked up turbo wastegate and a single functional brake on bald tyres 60km through a rush hour.  All because it had everything you need for an aircon in terms of plastics and wiring, but no compressor and the engine bits. All technically legal because the car had a month of registration left on it. Oh, I managed to drag that car through a technical inspection a few months later, which I still find nothing short of a miracle. 😄

EDIT: Found a photo (I'm taking the photo not putting the fuel in)

 

[barefoot]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

so you admit REV is perfectly sensible then?

 

lets see in the past few weeks, I went across London, and through the Rotherhithe tunnel to pickup an old computer I won off eBay

I then took her for a 50Mph blat down the A12 and back again  

then went across London again this time via Tower bridge to pick up some old computer hardware  

who says Invacars are not practical!  

name another forum where a 25 year old is using a nearly 50 year old Invalid car as their daily-driver and sole means of transport/only car!  

 

I don't want to get into an arguement, but I think you've done less than one hundred miles in about a month. We'd all have been surprised if it had broken already.

[grogee]

On 24/11/2024 at 09:45, stuboy said:

For 2 months I've been tell er'indoors I think the battery is dying but ignored (typical female not listening to the man/expert [ joking before the soap boxes get took out the cupboard ] and now suddenly she's taking notice and saying think there something wrong )..

 

Master Grogee Sr has a Ibiza with the three pot VW diesel, I am constantly surprised at how it manages to start with a weak battery much like that video. 

[Split_Pin]

I carried out an oil change on the grey A4 Cab today. Based on my 6 monthly schedule it's not due till next month but it was a lovely day today, I had the day off and the oil and filter were there. Easiest oil change in the world on these although you need the cap thing for the oil filter housing with the right number of flutes.

I've also had the pleasure of regular visits from a very tame Robin. I was eating a biscuit and even managed to get it to take a few crumbs from my hand. It's very inquisitive though, I'll need to put a piece of cardboard over the oil basin in future as it was on the edge of it at one point and my heart was in my mouth for a moment. At one point it even came inside the car as I had the door open as I wrote up the service book!

I've heard it said that when a Robin visits like this it's someone who's no longer with us. If that's the case then I think it might be my Dad  ❤️

[IronStar]

159 finally got washed after 4 months or so of utter neglect. 
Jesus that car is pretty when shiny! ❤️

On closer inspection age and the fact it’s well on the way back from the moon is starting to show. Paint on front bumper started peeling, there’s some lacquer peel where it’s been hit by million or so stones on the front of the hood, and there’s a matte patch above the turbocharger.

If I was a sensible person, I’d sell it and buy a 2.4 or 3.2 in better cosmetic nick. As its luck would have it- I don’t do sensible. So I’ll look into getting those resprayed when sill gets replaced.

For a car I was unsure of buying when I first drove it, it has really grown on me. Chodspeed Mighty number 9, looking forward to seeing 999999 on the odometer at one point in the future.

[Zelandeth]

What WAS I driving 18 years ago?  According to my photos it was split between the £60 Saab 900 with the noisiest camshaft I've ever come across and the first car I ever spent what to me was a really substantial sum of money, my Lada Niva - which was £850 at the time as I recall.  My usual budget up till then was usually £100-200.

The Saab really was one MOT away from the scrap yard as it was an absolute dog of a car and was both utterly mechanically worn out and really rotten in a lot of places (albeit really solid in several areas that 900s like to rust - so a few chunks were cut out of it to repair other cars before it went for scrap). 

Don't let the photo fool you - it was really a rot box!

The Niva went on to be one of my favourite of all the cars I've owned and is one of the few cars I really do regret selling.

Unfortunately as I was commuting the best part of 80 miles a day on entry-level temp wages having come out of college and found an actual job, by then I just couldn't keep up with the fuel consumption and had to find something better on fuel.  Which I think was back to my usual price range, and was a 140K mile L plate Corsa 1.5TD bought for £200. 

Actually was a surprisingly fun little car, though it was pretty crispy underneath so only made it through one more MOT after I bought it.  Though at that end of the market you really didn't mind - so long as you got a full year of relatively uneventful motoring out of it you were happy, two was always a bonus. 

[danthecapriman]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I carried out an oil change on the grey A4 Cab today. Based on my 6 monthly schedule it's not due till next month but it was a lovely day today, I had the day off and the oil and filter were there. Easiest oil change in the world on these although you need the cap thing for the oil filter housing with the right number of flutes.

I've also had the pleasure of regular visits from a very tame Robin. I was eating a biscuit and even managed to get it to take a few crumbs from my hand. It's very inquisitive though, I'll need to put a piece of cardboard over the oil basin in future as it was on the edge of it at one point and my heart was in my mouth for a moment. At one point it even came inside the car as I had the door open as I wrote up the service book!

I've heard it said that when a Robin visits like this it's someone who's no longer with us. If that's the case then I think it might be my Dad  ❤️

Strangely enough, I’ve had a fat little Robin living somewhere in the front garden for the last few months. I regularly see it using my Volvo’s front wing as a perch to spot food on the lawn. The door mirror is clearly his toilet! He also seems to like trying to run up the windscreen and sliding back down the glass! No idea what he’s doing there unless he sees his reflection in the glass and tries to attack it? 
Cute little chap though. 
Today I was putting air in the tyres and he was sat on the fence behind me singing. Almost like he was pissed off I was interfering with his Volvo!😆

[Split_Pin]

Well that was a waste of time:

New Gates thermostat on the red A4 has made no improvement to the protracted warm up times.

This was after about 6 miles of mixed driving from cold.

It warms up well on the motorway and if I had stayed on it would have got to 90 but as soon as I pulled off and back to 30mph roads the needle dived back down to the marks half way between 50 and 90. This was as far as it recovered.

I don't know what else to do, this is the FOURTH thermostat its had.

[grogee]

18 years ago - 2006 - I had a Nissan 200 SX, but because I was Autoshite before my time I sold it and bought a P11 Primera 'Spunk' or some special edition. 

Both cars came from a mate of mine who worked at Nissan, coincidentally I start work there on Monday. The Primera was a staff discount special that his Dad had bimbled about in, it was pretty much faultless apart from a gummed up radiator. 

It didn't get driven much because I was working at Which? Magazine in the Cars Team so regularly had test cars to bring home. Cars of that vintage are now current shite so I've now got a 2006 Partner and a 2008 Avensis. 

And a 1988 Maestro which is hibernating. 

And a 1988 NS125R that's in bits. 

[chadders]

26 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Strangely enough, I’ve had a fat little Robin living somewhere in the front garden for the last few months. I regularly see it using my Volvo’s front wing as a perch to spot food on the lawn. The door mirror is clearly his toilet! He also seems to like trying to run up the windscreen and sliding back down the glass! No idea what he’s doing there unless he sees his reflection in the glass and tries to attack it? 
Cute little chap though. 
Today I was putting air in the tyres and he was sat on the fence behind me singing. Almost like he was pissed off I was interfering with his Volvo!😆

Ours attack their reflections in windows and door mirrors.

Apparently they're very territorial.

[Split_Pin]

11 minutes ago, chadders said:

Apparently they're very territorial

Yes they are indeed. They might tolerate another Robin in the garden during the winter but come breeding season they'll fight off any other on their patch. Blackbirds are exactly the same.

[IronStar]

32 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Well that was a waste of time:

New Gates thermostat on the red A4 has made no improvement to the protracted warm up times.

This was after about 6 miles of mixed driving from cold.

It warms up well on the motorway and if I had stayed on it would have got to 90 but as soon as I pulled off and nack to 30mph roads the needle dived back down to tje marks half way between 50 and 90. This was as far as it recovered.

I don't know what else to do, this is the FOURTH thermostat its had.

Is the gauge reading right? Is the temperature sender ok? Did you try reading temperature from the OBD?

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Well that was a waste of time:

New Gates thermostat on the red A4 has made no improvement to the protracted warm up times.

This was after about 6 miles of mixed driving from cold.

It warms up well on the motorway and if I had stayed on it would have got to 90 but as soon as I pulled off and back to 30mph roads the needle dived back down to the marks half way between 50 and 90. This was as far as it recovered.

I don't know what else to do, this is the FOURTH thermostat its had.

It's not one of these stupid modern setups where there's more than one thermostat is it?

[Split_Pin]

34 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Is the gauge reading right? Is the temperature sender ok? Did you try reading temperature from the OBD?

I'm going to try that next, on my way home from the station tomorrow after the car has sat all day.

[Split_Pin]

6 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

It's not one of these stupid modern setups where there's more than one thermostat is it?

No I don't think so. My old Cav TD was like that though.

I'm thinking this is just a VAG TDi thing.

[stuboy]

3 hours ago, grogee said:

Master Grogee Sr has a Ibiza with the three pot VW diesel, I am constantly surprised at how it manages to start with a weak battery much like that video. 

splashed out on an 027 battery, 

[Snake Charmer]

22 minutes ago, stuboy said:

splashed out on an 027 battery, 

Tayna Batteries?

[SiC]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Well that was a waste of time:

New Gates thermostat on the red A4 has made no improvement to the protracted warm up times.

This was after about 6 miles of mixed driving from cold.

It warms up well on the motorway and if I had stayed on it would have got to 90 but as soon as I pulled off and back to 30mph roads the needle dived back down to the marks half way between 50 and 90. This was as far as it recovered.

I don't know what else to do, this is the FOURTH thermostat its had.

Does it have an additional thermostat? VAG like doing that. My A4 B8 had two. One on the block and another inline elsewhere. 

All modern VAG sit bang in the middle when up to temperature. Anywhere else and there is something wrong. 

[Rust Collector]

18 years ago I was probably barricaded in my bedroom wanking.

Now that I’m in my 30’s I occasionally I release the vice grip on my cock and do some car stuff, then post it in my fleet thread.

I found the main thing stopping me from buying and driving home completely fucked cars is that as I’ve gotten older I’ve realised how lucky I’ve been not to get myself in the shit with some of the nails I’ve driven on the road/towed on a rope whilst in bits etc.

Everything is still run on a shoe string, mind. Some things will never change.

[beko1987]

Drove my mum up north today to go see my gran and grandads grave, then my aunt and uncle/her brother then my grandparents. 220 miles done in the Xsara with no issues! 

Tomorrow I'm going back to go to a funeral with my dad. So another 200. 

Relating it back to joining autoshite, mine was 12 years ago, I'd just bought my first 1.4 zx and found this place through a Google. Now I'm still in a zx technically and it's only 5 years newer than my first citroen 🤣

[Split_Pin]

47 minutes ago, SiC said:

All modern VAG sit bang in the middle when up to temperature.

Once it gets up to 90 it doesn't move from there regardless, which makes me think it's just a thing.

I'm not aware of there being 2 thermostats but I do know that some examples have some kind of coolant heater but I think that might just be for the cabin.

[HMC]

Took the Samara into university- my only working vehicle- Mainly as the xk8 is gone, and the fiat 500 is stuck at the garage whilst they await the coolant pipe to the oil cooler to turn up. This samara is way less sophisticated than that-  but this also means theres a lot less that can go wrong!

[SiC]

Once it gets up to 90 it doesn't move from there regardless, which makes me think it's just a thing.
I'm not aware of there being 2 thermostats but I do know that some examples have some kind of coolant heater but I think that might just be for the cabin.

If it stays at 90c marker and the coolant temperature through the OBD port stays in that sort of ballpark then it's almost certainly fine.

Diesels always do have a longer warmup due to having more metal in their blocks (higher compression pressures) and more efficient burning (better fuel economy).

Now I think about it, I seem to remember to speed warmup on my B8 2.0TDI it had that extra thermostat to bypass coolant circuit sections when cold. Shorter circuit meant more heat going in. Maybe they had complaints on the B7 generation about it being too slow to warmup and they re-engineered it (i.e. make it even more complex) for the B8.

[Split_Pin]

16 minutes ago, SiC said:

Diesels always do have a longer warmup due to having more metal in their blocks (higher compression pressures) and more efficient burning (better fuel economy).

Good shout, the 75 diesel warms up a little quicker but my e46 petrol temp guage reaches the middle after about 4 or 5 minutes.