The new news 24 thread

[richardmorris]

5 hours ago, brownnova said:

Important collection undertaken in the most suitable vehicle. 

I’d have been tempted to bungee cord it to the rack. I have offered tree collection services to my sister…

[Dyslexic Viking]

Found something I had been given as a gift and forgotten about. So unpacked it and put it on and this is quite nice in the winter darknes.

[Split_Pin]

I had a free day today as the new season of Fortnite is out and my wife's next dolls house project arrived (she's in her 3rd now and counting) so we all stayed home and did hobby stuff.

Before changing the bonnet on the E46, I did an oil change on the red A4.

The Pela is just there to suck out the old  oil from the bottom of the filter housing, the change was done through the drain plug as it doesn't like the extractor.

[wuvvum]

The main job on my list this weekend was to get the replacement exhaust section fitted to the Merc.  That didn't happen, because the part I bought was the wrong one.  I naïvely assumed that the part for a W204 would be the same as for a W203 - same engine and similar underpinnings - but this turned out not to be the case, the end where it connects to the cat is different - of course this wasn't visible until I'd removed the clamp.  If I'd thought about it a bit more I probably would have realised they'd be different - the W204 has a DPF whereas the 203 doesn't.

So I've now ordered the correct bit - hopefully the weather next weekend will be clement enough for me to fit it.  I just about managed to get at the bottom mounting bolt with my flex-head ratchet, but it doesn't seem to want to undo very far - fortunately the bottom mounting point on the pipe is a slot rather than a hole so once everything else is undone I should be able to wiggle it out.

I haven't refitted the dash yet either - the GPS antenna adaptor hasn't turned up yet so I haven't finished fitting the stereo.  I did get one job done though - I bought a secondhand tuning box off eBay, it'd come off a W642-powered Vito but in this instance it did fit the C-Class, so that's now installed.

It's a bit more sophisticated than the usual cheapo resistor-in-a-box tuning devices you see on eBay - it controls both the fuelling and the turbo boost, and has four different maps each with two power settings.  It would have been quite an expensive bit of kit new.  Quoted power is 270bhp - obviously I can't vouch for that as I don't have a rolling road, but the car definitely feels more responsive (not that it was slow before) and the way it lit up the rear Falkens when I floored it out of a junction suggests there's more low-down torque as well.  It doesn't seem to chuck out clouds of smoke and it hasn't put the engine light on, so I'm counting that as a win - it's 80% of a Celtic Tuning remap for 10% of the price...

I also fitted a new bonnet strut as the bonnet wasn't staying up very well.  I ordered a pair of struts but for some reason the eBay seller sent me 4, so one of the extras has been repurposed as a tailgate strut for the Visa - it's not quite as long as the original but it holds the tailgate up without resorting to a 2x4, so I'm calling that an improvement.

That's about all I got done because of the shite weather.  I was hoping to get the Merc up on the ramps this afternoon to try and retrieve the screwdriver that fell into the engine bay when I started the engine after fitting the tuning box, but much as I love that screwdriver I wasn't going to roll around on the floor in the pissing rain, so that will have to wait.

[IronStar]

On 30/11/2024 at 20:30, LightBulbFun said:

very interesting find! especially the Tripti Indian made lamps, I wonder if the Bush ones are Indian as well? since Tripti is an Indian domestic market brand (possibly made their own lamps, not 100% sure tho)

£3 a bulb is a bit strong, but i'd probably have the indian lamps and maybe (some of) the Bush depending on where they where made/who they where made by, if they where all different colours (I am also curious what the one in the blue box behind is?)

 

India is fun in that they never had incandescent lightbulb bans, and they have a fair few factories made with ex British lamp machinery, so in India, from Surya for example you can still to this very day in 2024, get high quality Coiled Coiled 100W Bayonet lightbulbs! I admit I am pretty jealous of that, its gotten surprisingly hard to get decent quality tungsten lamps in quantity these days...

100W Tungsram readily available over here AFAIK (not that I bought a non-LED bulb for ages). Interesting for you maybe?

[Lankytim]

6 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I had a free day today as the new season of Fortnite is out and my wife's next dolls house project arrived (she's in her 3rd now and counting) so we all stayed home and did hobby stuff.

Before changing the bonnet on the E46, I did an oil change on the red A4.

The Pela is just there to suck out the old  oil from the bottom of the filter housing, the change was done through the drain plug as it doesn't like the extractor.

What sort of Dolls houses is your wife into? My mother was into minatura (sp?) for ages and built up quite a collection, she’s been dead for 12 years and the things are still all over my Dads house. 

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, IronStar said:

100W Tungsram readily available over here AFAIK (not that I bought a non-LED bulb for ages). Interesting for you maybe?

 

interesting indeed  did you mean to type Tungsram, or did you mean Tungsten? as Tungsram is the Ex-state-run Hungarian lamp manufacture, taken over by GE in 1992, and eventually made their return when GE spun off their European lighting devision in the late 2010's, (although in the in between years GE kept the Tungsram brand around in Central and Eastern European countries for brand recognition reasons)

sadly all their Hungarian factories are now closed, but I do believe they are still sourcing tungsten lamps from Brest Electric Lamp plant in Belarus for sale to countries that have not banned them

https://brestlamp.by/

what sort of fluorescent tubes are available over there out of curiosity? 

[Split_Pin]

5 hours ago, Lankytim said:

What sort of Dolls houses is your wife into? My mother was into minatura (sp?) for ages and built up quite a collection, she’s been dead for 12 years and the things are still all over my Dads house. 

She makes 1/12 scale modern houses with a theme, so she's done a Scandinavian winter cabin, a (huge!) 4 floor Parisian town house, she's now making a beach hut and after that will be a larger beach front house.

1/12 scale means I've only 2 cars suitable, a Vullierme Citroen BX and AX but I'm not allowed to park them outside her houses!

[IronStar]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

interesting indeed  did you mean to type Tungsram, or did you mean Tungsten? as Tungsram is the Ex-state-run Hungarian lamp manufacture, taken over by GE in 1992, and eventually made their return when GE spun off their European lighting devision in the late 2010's, (although in the in between years GE kept the Tungsram brand around in Central and Eastern European countries for brand recognition reasons)

sadly all their Hungarian factories are now closed, but I do believe they are still sourcing tungsten lamps from Brest Electric Lamp plant in Belarus for sale to countries that have not banned them

https://brestlamp.by/

what sort of fluorescent tubes are available over there out of curiosity? 

Tungsram, the Hungarian one.

Boxes like this

I’ll check the country of manufacture next time I see one. What are you interested in? Non-Belarus? Either? 

As for the fluorescent tubes, I saw some Phillips branded ones when we were replacing them in the garage, but I have no idea on the specifics or what’s available. 

[richardmorris]

[Lankytim]

Spotted this on Facebook, can anyone identify the hard top? 
 

M4 J6 apparently. 
 

[Lankytim]

9 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

She makes 1/12 scale modern houses with a theme, so she's done a Scandinavian winter cabin, a (huge!) 4 floor Parisian town house, she's now making a beach hut and after that will be a larger beach front house.

1/12 scale means I've only 2 cars suitable, a Vullierme Citroen BX and AX but I'm not allowed to park them outside her houses!

My Mum made loads of 1/12 Edwardian dolls houses and dioramas etc. she was into it for years! 

[Volksy]

5 minutes ago, Lankytim said:

Spotted this on Facebook, can anyone identify the hard top? 
 

M4 J6 apparently. 
 

Scimitar GTC perhaps?

[Split_Pin]

49 minutes ago, Lankytim said:

My Mum made loads of 1/12 Edwardian dolls houses and dioramas etc. she was into it for years! 

I'm rather taken with it all myself, I love anything in miniature!

[richardmorris]

56 minutes ago, Volksy said:

Scimitar GTC perhaps?

You'd think they'd notice it going!

[richardmorris]

https://www.hk-engineering.com/en/sales/300SL

[320touring]

Took the Corsa for an MOT today.

Failed on what was expected so will get it back in ASAP, then it can live on

[Split_Pin]

51 minutes ago, 320touring said:

Took the Corsa for an MOT today.

Failed on what was expected so will get it back in ASAP, then it can live on

Excellent result for the money.

I was right about the spring then, shat myself when it went bang on his driveway.

The exhaust was tied on with some kind of wire for a few months, I thought he'd fixed that.

[320touring]

Just now, Split_Pin said:

Excellent result for the money.

I was right about the spring then, shat myself when it went bang on his driveway.

The exhaust was tied on with some kind of wire for a few months, I thought he'd fixed that.

It's had a new back box but not been sealed properly at the join apparently!

[Split_Pin]

Just now, 320touring said:

It's had a new back box but not been sealed properly at the join apparently!

Nice one, not too bad then. I knew this thing was too good to throw away, just had too much on myself to take it on.

[Lankytim]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

You'd think they'd notice it going!

I’ve seen a hard top at the side of a motorway before, I imagine they fall off cars on the back of “Shiply” recovery trucks doing the job for £25.

[Asimo]

This made me smile.

 

[stuboy]

Me again... December meet.. 

 

 

The kit car looked ace...

[stuboy]

and this..

 

 

 

[Yoss]

15 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

She makes 1/12 scale modern houses with a theme, so she's done a Scandinavian winter cabin, a (huge!) 4 floor Parisian town house, she's now making a beach hut and after that will be a larger beach front house.

1/12 scale means I've only 2 cars suitable, a Vullierme Citroen BX and AX but I'm not allowed to park them outside her houses!

 

6 hours ago, Lankytim said:

My Mum made loads of 1/12 Edwardian dolls houses and dioramas etc. she was into it for years! 

Mrs Yoss has a dolls house upstairs. The latest acquisitions are a gong  and a gramaphone. White metal kits, they need painting obviously. 

And she's been working on this for a, while. A spiral staircase covered in wisteria. 

Even the wisteria comes in kit form. The leaves, and petals are individual pieces that have to be folded and glued. 

 

She also buys cheap bigger dolls from charity shops and gives them the Mexican day of the dead treatment. 

[Split_Pin]

That staircase is amazing!

[Yoss]

3 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

That staircase is amazing!

Again, it's a white metal kit. Each stair is an individual piece that slides over a central pole. Each pole is individual and the banister came in four pieces. But it's the wisteria that has been so time consuming. She could only do so much at a time before she had to have a break or else she would go mad/blind. 

My contribution was the two wooden stairs at the bottom which were needed to make it the right height for her house. 

[danthecapriman]

Any plumbers or knowledgeable heating engineers or even boiler enthusiasts… @paulplom???

Just moved into the new house and started looking into stuff, but found a few weird things about the boiler and heating system. 

This is the boiler,

And this contraption is next to it and part of it!!

 
Im no expert but I have never seen anything like this thing before! 
The boiler itself looks reasonably normal but the mass of pipes and tanks/gauges etc etc is all linked to it and a radiator type thing up on the roof outside. From what the house survey said it’s basically a solar water heater on the roof to help the boiler heat the water (a joke in a country that sees about 5 mins of sun a year!). 
Weirdly though, when you run the cold water it can start off cold but almost always then gets hot until you run off a considerable amount of water before it gets cold enough to use. We’ve also noticed that sometimes when you flush the toilet the water from the cistern is actually hot water!

This can’t be right surely!? 
Seems incredibly wasteful and inefficient to me.

Anyone know anything about these things?

[GeordieInExile]

£120 to sort the Panda's exhaust, happy with that. It didn't need a new one, but it did need some fabricating and welding of a flange. That done, the exhaust volume is now at an acceptable level and it'll be a perfectly pleasant place to spend a drive to and from Manchester tomorrow.

A few other minor* issues identified in the course of fixing the exhaust...

- The coolant is like strawberry milkshake in the expansion tank. Presumed condensation as there's no mayo in the oil, and the oil level is fine and it isn't using any. Trusted mechanic suggested leaving it be lest flushing and refilling should create other problems. That's free of charge, so I'm happy with this. It doesn't overheat and the heater is working great.

- The sills have been bodged with fibreglass and slathered in underseal, presumably to get it through the last MOT. It failed one, including on knackered jacking points, and then passed cleanly a couple weeks afterwards. I'll worry about this later.

- Three engine mounting bolts are absolutely fine. One, less so. I'm choosing to ignore this on the basis it's been fine so far, there's no vibration or movement of the engine. 

Otherwise, it's being a very well behaved little thing. Doing the weekly shop in it the other day was great fun - didn't even need to put the rear seats down.

[reb]

There's two asteroids in close proximity to earth right now. One is 70cm across, the other is the size of a football stadium.

Which is due to hit us, do you think?