The new news 24 thread

[GeordieInExile]

The Panda is back. And I'm £385 down. The centre section the garage acquired wouldn't fit properly onto the back box fitted to the car, so they replaced both. 

The good news is it still sounds nice, but at a far, far more civilised volume than with the straight through exhaust. I'm going to get the straight pipe back later so if/when I sell the Panda I can include the sporty exhaust in case the new owner wants to refit it. 

Took it down the Beehive Road to celebrate and kept pace with a Fiesta ST the whole way. Magic. 

[Pete-M]

Needed something spacious, not powered by Dr Diesel's evil invention, ULEZ happy and fairly nippy. 

So bought an 06 plate S-Max 2.5 turbo Titanium. 

Unusual spec car with pan roof, Half leather, active suspension and a few other bits.  In a truly awful colour.  "White Grape" allegedly.

I like it, but the sound system is crap. I don't think Ford have ever done a car with a genuinely good sound system. 

Goes well though. 

[meshking]

I had an 08 plate smax with the Sony upgrade package, was still shite but new speakers brought it to life. Finally replacing it with an alpine head unit was the only way to get reasonable sound quality.

[Popsicle]

Couriering caddy is good for another year.

Well pleased with another pass.

I only changed the front shocks at 140k miles, so they've only lasted 242k miles, nothings built to last these days 🤣.

Not sure about the gearbox oil leak, it doesn't look like gearbox oil to me and I had a coolant leak on that side of the block so probably just a bit of that.

As for the back box corrosion advisory, thats 4 years on the spin, I'll wait for it to start blowing or fall off before worrying about it.

[Popsicle]

4 hours ago, Popsicle said:

Not sure about the gearbox oil leak, it doesn't look like gearbox oil to me and I had a coolant leak on that side of the block so probably just a bit of that.

Now I've had a proper chance to look at this leak, it is deffo gearbox oil, slight weep from the passenger side driveshaft seal. Glad that its been picked up by the MOT, I'll get it done over Christmas/New year.

[davehedgehog31]

On 23/06/2024 at 00:46, davehedgehog31 said:

Not been active on here for quite a while, despite some car movements there's not been anything particularly happening with them other than using and enjoying. My posting tailed off around October last year, so an update of comings and goings since then.

In October I sadly inherited a car, a 2018 Kia Cee'd Estate in 1.6 diesel flavour. It's a really good AN CAR, really just about the perfect form factor for a car as far as I'm concerned, big enough to do 99% of everything you could ever need, but compact enough to never be a pain to park etc. Other than slightly disappointing fuel economy compared to some similar cars I've owned, it's been great. It has been pretty much appropriated in the style of the British Museum by Miss Hedgehog on account of it's featherweight steering and general presentable modern-ness.

Once it had been fully commandeered, it meant her C30 was for the chop, it exited to @gm, a painless transaction as always after only a short period dealing with the finest minds of the West of Scotland on Gumtree.

Another exit was the GSA, I had bought this project with the best of intentions, but found my time and motivation sorely lacking, as I was in a "too many cars" situation it was decided to move it on.

Having not learned my lesson, in late March I picked up this very cheap, low mileage Kia Cee'd with a brief MOT fail list. I quickly set to work on it and a mere three months later it still sits in bits under my car port, should really get the finger out.

In another incoming, I bought this Peugeot RCZ 2.0 HDi from @Jazoli of this parish, a top seller. Other than a wheel balance it has simply been used and enjoyed. I'd always fancied one of these and when his well looked after example with the diesel engine came up my jimmies were suitably rustled. This was very much a heart over head decision, but it has actually turned out to be a very sound and actually reasonably sensible purchase. It's comfy, fun on the twisties and economical to run. It was bizarrely cheap for me to insure too. Cracking car and my son absolutely loves it, christening it the "race car". It's definitely one of those cars you can't help but look back at, it's an amazing design. 

Have had a boomerang moment with my old Kangoo, having sold it to @Jim Bell several months previous my dad decided he was after a small van and he bought it from him. It recently shat it's power steering pump and my dad not being particularly mechanically minded and fancying something a bit newer replaced it and bequeathed the Kangoo back to me. It has AC and as a consequence has some god-awful electro-mechanical power steering setup hidden down behind the front bumper. Pumps are ££££.

The two non-movers on the fleet have been the Lexus and Skoda. The Fabia has been kind of replaced by the Kia, but I can't bring myself to part with it as it's such a well sorted little thing, even the AC is ice cold. Lexus continues to do as it does, 40mpg in total serenity with tons of performance on tap and a cracking stereo, I don't see it going anywhere for a long, long time.

As it stands a six car household is at least one too many. The grey Kia was really meant as a flip so I just need to get that finished off and some degree of equilibrium can be restored. Finding it quite hard to motivate myself to finish a car I don't particularly want to drive at the end of it though, cars are definitely a hobby for me rather than a profit making exercise which is just as well!

 

Time for my bi-annual Autoshite update. Sad that my posting has tailed off to such an extent, but the last few years have saw scant time for cars, despite me hoarding plenty of them. I'll try and contribute more actively in 2025. 

Following a bit of a moment of post wank clarity in July I got rid of a load of toot, first of all, the grey Kia become bean tins:



Then the Fabia left me, this was a bit of an unexpected move as I'd projected it as a keeper, but went for a bit of a change of approach which will become clear. Fabia is now with @blackboilersuit:

The Kangoo also left:

Most recently the Peugeot RCZ left to live with @cort16

In terms of "ins", we had one very quick in and out (quiet in the back), in the form of the Audi Cabriolet which I won in a roffle from a ticket kindly* supplied by @Jim Bell, cabriolets historically haven't been for me, given it was November this one was really no different and it left for sunny Fife and @RetroShite

In the most significant "in" I went remarkably sensible and bought my first electric car, this 41kwh Zoe from @Kiltox, I think I'll detail my experiences living with an electric car elsewhere but suffice to say it's covered 6.5k since it arrived in July and I've been extremely happy with it. 

The order of this post is a bit all over the shop, but after the Zoe arrived and then the RCZ subsequently left I was left with an alarmingly modern household fleet of the Zoe, the white Cee'd and the Lexus GS. I didn't even have  a car without keyless start FFS. I spotted this 207 for sale on the Peugeot forums, it's the later 8 valve 1.6 HDI in "sport" trim, a fairly unremarkable car, but this one had lived in the deepest South of England most of it's life and then been completely spoiled (in the good sense) by the extremely fastidious seller. Has had a huge amount of work done and seems extremely well sorted. It arrived at 1am on Tuesday morning after delivery had been scheduled for Sunday early afternoon, a standard shiply nightmare. Anyway, really happy with it:

So the household fleet stands at Kia Cee'd, Lexus GS, Renault Zoe and the new 207 with the 207 and Zoe rotating between driveway and lockup to keep things manageable. I'll head over to the Moderns section to give my thoughts on the Zoe and my balanced opinions on EV ownership at some stage. 

[grogee]

On 05/12/2024 at 16:15, Rust Collector said:

To clarify, the terror I’m experiencing in relation to the cam belt is brought on by the section of my commute which includes climbing a 12% gradient at 3,500rpm whilst nervously waiting to hear the engine go bang 🤣 I’m not too worried about the work itself, so should really crack on and do it.

Mechanics lore says that the strain on the belt is highest at idle. 

So save your worrying for when you're stuck in traffic. Also, it's French, so watch the temp gauge also

[Rust Collector]

8 minutes ago, grogee said:

Mechanics lore says that the strain on the belt is highest at idle. 

So save your worrying for when you're stuck in traffic. Also, it's French, so watch the temp gauge also

I just find that higher you rev it, the harder it is to stay in unhealthy levels of denial. I’m conscious that it could fail at will, but at least it’s easier to ignore when quiet. I’ve ordered an INA kit to replace it, so watch it shit itself in some other way once completed...

The thermostat is stuck open at present, so the OMGHGF stress can wait until I’ve replaced that - it barely gets warm with my current usage in winter.

[D.E]

Starts, runs, drives well. But doesn't really stop now, which is inconvenient. I'm sure I have a new brake master cylinder *somewhere* in the shed that I could try...

[2flags]

I have finally got the Jag back from having the MoT done. It has taken a while because my mate does first class work and is very reasonably priced. Consequently, he is very busy. But it's done now, and we can look forward to another year of wafting around in the Jaaag

[Heidel_Kakao]

It just fell over for some reason....

[JJ0063]

Finally got round to getting an IPTV set up on my firestick today, been meaning to do it for months and with the Fury fight tonight, it prompted me to sort it.

For the cost of a VPN and the tv subscription, it seems fantastic.

[stuboy]

Decided to change the battery on missus leon, off course the wind, drizzle rain suddenly grrr... swap was easy.. but battery jacket was an arse...  jump inside.. plug in the vcds scanner i treated myself too ... to register the battery... it offered a few manufacturers names but not the one ni have so just set it as 000, then 70ah selected, then serial number.. umm I not have one so just used all ah/cca etc numbers and added some 000... and hopefully be ok.. 

 

[2flags]

5 hours ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

It just fell over for some reason....

It's the new Russian car, runs on vodka. Can have a few teething problems. 

[HMC]

Speaking of which…

[wesacosa]

11 minutes ago, HMC said:

Speaking of which…

Broken or departing?

[Rustybullethole]

Drop links. Dig the shite out and wang the allen key in. Hit it with the 17 yay they loosen. 

Predictably they stop doing that. 

Of course ive left my batteries on site so the cordless in the boot is useless. Lets use 240 death wheel then. Where's the extension lead to run power from my flat. You guessed it. The cunts on site too. 

Fucksticks.

In other news clio rear light disco is now fixed. 

Dirty and slightly burnt out from too much party time contacts. Sandpaper and some straightening out fixed that. 

Best go find hack saw. 

[Rustybullethole]

So this was all i could find.

Being optimistic i thought it may be just right given the working space.

It wasn't and as you can see other issues came to light. It then started raining.

Fixed the loose boot with a cable tie and then noticed there was a chance of gripage on the back side.

Other quality tools came into play 

Boom

Drivers side just undid in a way i've never encountered in my life. Was up sorted and back on the tarmac in 5 minutes.

Quick lap of the block and no clonks. I feel like I deserve to own my halfords pro kit today. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

This about sums up the highs and lows of the past ten days or so:

Freelander pollen filter = high (I set the bar low, as you can tell)

 

Fuckin' Bini alternator + 60mph breeze last night = low
The bonnet never blew away last night but it's still gusting around 50mph mixed with hail so I think cheesey Christmas TV shite for now and revisit the wee beastie tomorrow - start  the Six Million Dollar Man thing  and see if it can be rebuilt by Christmas Day......

 

[comfortablynumb]

Have you seriously only got one extension lead @Rustybullethole?

I must have about 100

Whether I know where they are is another matter..

edit - glad you got it sorted 

Edited December 22, 2024 by comfortablynumb
Additional

[Rustybullethole]

14 minutes ago, comfortablynumb said:

Have you seriously only got one extension lead @Rustybullethole?

I must have about 100

Whether I know where they are is another matter..

edit - glad you got it sorted 

Cheers, it had been bugging me for a while and now sorted for less than a tenner.

Think i'm down to three now. Two MIA one of which is just the cable as the reel broke, not seen either in ages possibly left on a job. 

Only the one on the current job is long enough to reach from the window of my top floor flat to the road. Did consider buying a new one though ruled it out as can wait till it goes in a clients bill. 

Every one i have owned seems to have one inoperable socket which i tape over. They do get battered though. 

[richardmorris]

Rather depressed as usual this time of year. Cold I’ve had since middle of November has made another bid for supremacy too.  Anyway, Washed the car this morning as a tipper truck on Friday straight out of a site sprayed it with muck, that was fine and checking the wiper blades because the left was leaving a weird missing pattern showed it was coming detached from the blade bit. 25,000miles and 3.5 years old. Checked GSF and ECP - £28 both v £38 for Bosch and Valeo.  Ordered Bosch from amazon as I had some books to get too.
 

police delivered posh card from the neighbours - the envelope is heavier gsm than my cards!

 

 

[wuvvum]

I fitted a new stereo to the recently acquired Eos this weekend.  I hadn't particularly been intending to do so, but I was browsing eBay as one does and I spotted a listing for a touch screen stereo to fit various Volkswagens, including the Eos, for a price that was so low it almost looked like a scam - especially when I noticed that other sellers were selling ostensibly the same thing using exactly the same photos and for a variety of different prices.  But then again the price was so low that I didn't really mind losing the money even if eBay buyer protection failed for some reason, so I clicked the buy it now button, and a couple of days later my friendly local Evri driver dropped off a box which, to my mild surprise, contained exactly what had been shown on the listing.

Here it is fitted to the car:

It's a touch screen Android unit - it runs Android 12 so it's not the latest bit of kit but close enough.  It came with a GPS antenna, which I've installed, and a reversing camera, which I haven't - the Eos has parking sensors which do the job well enough.  It even came with a 32gb memory stick plugged into the USB port on the back so I can download choons without clogging up the internal memory.  And, unusually in my experience for cheap Android radios, the built-in sat nav app actually works, which saves having to bugger about logging onto the Play Store and downloading one.  The sound is reasonable as well; the touch sensitive buttons at the bottom aren't the most responsive but they're all duplicated somewhere on the touch screen menus anyway.  For £14.99 delivered I ain't complaining.

While I was playing with the Eos I thought I'd whip the timing cover off to check the state of the belt - the service history suggests that it was done at 60K, but the official interval is 110K, so it's either been done early and not due yet, or I'm playing cambelt roulette.  The belt looks absolutely fine though so I'm going to assume it was done and leave it.

I also had the always joyous* task of fitting a new dipped beam bulb to the Rover 75.  Even though it's a pre-Project Drive car with the access flap in the inner wheel arch liner, it's still an awkward fecker of a job.  It would have been easier if I'd jacked the car up and taken the wheel off, but it was freezing cold and windy and I just couldn't be arsed.

The Merc seems to be driving better since the tracking was done - the steering doesn't feel quite so vague around the straight ahead, although it's still no MX-5.  It's also now pretty much vibration-free at motorway speeds - apparently the front wheels were well out of balance before.  I'd actually quite like to take it to Somerset at Christmas, but that will depend on whether I get time tomorrow to refit the original stereo, as the aftermarket unit in the car at the moment loses its radio signal after about half an hour, which is less than ideal on a 6-hour drive.  I did try to get my iphone to connect to it via Bluetooth so that I can play the radio via the Global Player app, but it didn't want to pair for some reason.  My Android phone pairs with it fine but for some reason I can't download the Global Player app from the Google Play Store without proof of ID - which wasn't required for the Apple Store.  Weird...

[Popsicle]

41 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

For £14.99 delivered I ain't complaining.

Jeez thats crazily cheap, was it a one off or do they have any more?

[High Jetter]

47 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

For £14.99 delivered I ain't complaining.

Linky?

[wuvvum]

5 minutes ago, Popsicle said:

Jeez thats crazily cheap, was it a one off or do they have any more?

They have one left but they've put the price up to £19.99 - still a bargain mind.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/356278984171

[Snake Charmer]

13 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Cold I’ve had since middle of November has made another bid for supremacy too.

That's the George Foreman cold, keeps making a comeback.

[tooSavvy]

1 hour ago, Snake Charmer said:

That's the George Foreman cold, keeps making a comeback.

Ahh... Fury 'fights the flabb' (.. and losing!) 😐

🚙💨

[junkyarddog]

Someone took this rather flattering photo of my 205 yesterday at a local Cars and coffee meet.

😁

[Tenmil Socket]

7 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

Someone took this rather flattering photo of my 205 yesterday at a local Cars and coffee meet.

😁

That’s a lovely looking thing!