The new news 24 thread

[hairnet]

omg

kiltox of the east?

[wuvvum]

Nah, he won't touch one of these again - couldn't sell the one he had.

(Although mine was cheaper.  And is a nicer colour.  Remains to be seen whether the battery is in better condition though.)

[wuvvum]

Also - night photography mode on this new phone is bloody impressive.  It wasn't anywhere near that bright outside when I took the photo.

[wuvvum]

9 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Ooh, esse-vu-bi, very nice!  That's a few million quid's worth there.  One of my favourite Ferraris, much better looking than the overrated GTO imho.

[loserone]

4 hours ago, wuvvum said:

And home.

Holy shit you pulled the trigger 

[Metal Guru]

9 hours ago, JakeT said:

Gosh, funny you should say about the cost. My Mrs booked us a surprise trip a couple of years ago for my birthday, in the middle of December. We were lucky and got lots of cold. Example…

But the cost of stuff was high. An example being, my suitcase got stuck locked shut. I mean nothing would unlock it. After resorting to destructive methods to get it open, I needed a new bag. Finding a samsonite shop was proving difficult, so I looked for the next next thing. A sports shop, an Icelandic company called 66° north. They had a nice little duffel bag which I bought. Not caring about the exchange rate I didn’t check until I saw on the bank statement it was £110…

The worst bit being their stuff is great, and Ive bought a couple of jackets. On sale mind, else I’d need to sell a kidney.

 

Gorgeous country though, and I’d like to go back again.

I went there several years ago at this time of year. Just before we left they had their highest one day snowfall for 80 years. Luckily I’d booked a 4wd car ( with studded tyres) which was brilliant. You could drive at 50mph where you’d be lucky to do 20 in normal tyres, but then a tour bus would overtake doing 60+.
Had a whole week of sunny days and clear cold nights with the northern lights every night. 
Really recommend going, especially as it’s just 2 hours away (Edinburgh) by EasyJet.

[Six-cylinder]

11 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Ooh, esse-vu-bi, very nice!  That's a few million quid's worth there.  One of my favourite Ferraris, much better looking than the overrated GTO imho.

250GTLusso for me please. Only 240bhp V12, but who cares when they look so good.

[hairnet]

11 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Also - night photography mode on this new phone is bloody impressive.  I wasn't anywhere near that bright when I bought the car.

 

[hairnet]

26 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

250GTLusso for me please. Only 240bhp V12, but who cares when they look so good.

308 gt4

330gt

400gt lambo 

please

grazie

[vulgalour]

Did a tip run in the ex-@Amelia van today and it performed perfectly.  I was a little concerned the overheating issue might reappear since we were loaded with scrap metal and broken furniture, and got stuck in heavy traffic.  Happily we didn't get any overheating issues at all so I think we can consider that particular malady cured.  We did have to do a little emergency stop when someone in one of those Mercedes vans converted into a minibus things for a family of presumably 18 kids pulled out in front of me, which the van also did well at happily!  My apologies to the person behind me who must have wondered wtf was going on when I accidentally put it in reverse to set off afterwards because of that lack of lock-out between first and reverse and the gate being so very narrow.  I'm hoping that, as suggested on the Clementine forum, the gear change issue is just worn bushes and some new ones will put it right again, it's really the only thing that makes the van unpleasant to pilot.

Princess is more comfortable though, I do miss my velourious loungemobile already, have to crack on and get that welding sorted this weekend.

[Asimo]

On 26/02/2025 at 16:01, wuvvum said:

Now all I need is for the accident management company to tell me where they've put the car!

Wherever it is, check they didn't put it there with a forklift!

[uk_senator]

To me, this is good news, a 1-Owner from new Dolomite 1850 that lives near me just went past my CCTV, whys this good news? Well, I checked it a couple of months ago & saw that it had had a log book change last November, so, I assumed that the owner had finally hung his driving gloves up (or worse), & it had finally got a new owner after 52 years, but no, maybe he`s it put into disabled use?

Whatever it is, I`m really happy its stayed with him!  
 

Some not so good news, there was a a guy a few miles from me, he was a good age & long retired, but loved his old chod. I`d spoken to him a few times, He had a Mk4 Escort van he got from his old workplace (it had failed its first MOT on rust in its rear chassis legs, he purchased it from his employer, repaired it & kept it), he also had a Mk5 Escort, + was restoring a Morris Oxford MO which was completely stripped & under a cover on the drive (which was where the van is in the pic below last time I went). I`d knocked a few times in the last 18 months or so, for a yap, & the see if he fancied doing a bit of welding, but got no answer, then the cars went off his drive, & the house started looking abandoned. Sure enough, the van & car changed log books in Nov/Dec 2024.. God knows whats happened to the Morris. I assume he`s left this mortal coil. He was a nice bloke. R.I.P. mate.. 😔




 

[stuboy]

My son is in Amsterdam and these everywhere.. what are they?

[catsinthewelder]

 @stuboy Canta or something like that, there was one on here recently.

Edit 

 

[Split_Pin]

11 hours ago, stuboy said:

My son is in Amsterdam and these everywhere.. what are they?

I don't know what they are and don't care to learn but the red one looks like it has Fiat Panda MK1 facelift rear lamps.

[RoverFolkUs]

Just about to drop the MG down for it's MOT, fingers crossed 🤞 for a clean sheet

[RoverFolkUs]

1 hour ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Just about to drop the MG down for it's MOT, fingers crossed 🤞 for a clean sheet

I'll take that!

[richardmorris]

St David's day...

[Cookiesouwest]

Little Cookie's car has arrived via Shiply, from @RoverFolkUs

She hasn't seen it yet.

Delivered to her works car park.

[RoverFolkUs]

32 minutes ago, Cookiesouwest said:

Little Cookie's car has arrived via Shiply, from @RoverFolkUs

She hasn't seen it yet.

Delivered to her works car park.

I hope it does her proud, thank you for the hassle free sale 🙏

[Bear]

I am now bereft of joy (machine)

[richardmorris]

Tom baker, city of death. 

[Wgl2019]

Full service with all new Mann filters (oil, air, fuel and cabin) and Mannol oil for the ex @Ghosty C30.... Now up to 135k miles and going strong.

Just need the inclination to do the swirl flaps now along with some associated decoking 🐈‍⬛.

This is my wife's car and she will shortly be qualifying and getting a new job which will need a bit more of a usable boot (carting occupational therapy stuff to clients homes) so may unfortunately have to end up in the for sale section soonish.

[Snake Charmer]

2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Tom baker, city of death. 

Chod Franceaise?

[richardmorris]

7 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

Chod Franceaise?

Mai ouis. octobre 1979

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Death 

City of Death features the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companion Romana (Lalla Ward). Set primarily in present day Paris, the plot concerns a scheme by Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover), in reality an alien called Scaroth, to steal the Mona Lisa to finance experiments in time travel in the hope of averting the accident that killed the remainder of his race four hundred million years previously, which began the existence of life on the planet as well.

one for the death list really, as he’s 91.

[mercedade]

On 03/02/2025 at 14:06, mercedade said:

Well then

Pulling away from a junction yesterday, changed up into second gear, foot on accelerator and..... BANG.... mega chuff noise, lack of power. 

Pretty obvious that the plug on cylinder 2 had launched itself into orbit the underside of the bonnet.

I now see that this is a relatively common R53 issue. 

I may have got lucky and the plug has slowly unwound, or it may have stripped the thread. 

In the positive corner, we have the fact that for the last couple of weeks I've detected a bit of a fuel smell and a quite ticking - I'd assumed I'd be dealing with a dodgy injector somewhere (I don't drive this car a lot, so haven't rushed to get around to it), but it seems like I was probably dealing with a spark plug working itself loose. And even if it has stripped the thread, it seems common enough that repairs can be achieved more easily than with some engines. 

In the negative corner, we have the fact it exited pretty swiftly, some may say explosively, and I would expect a bit of damage to at least the top few threads. 

The plug itself was nowhere to be seen, and you can see the cap on the lead itself is pretty shredded by the experience, so as well as the plugs I'm picking up later I'll have to grab a set of HT leads too.

Exhilarating stuff

Well fuck.

Threads definitely stripped. A replacement plug wouldn't even start, let alone bite.

Internet seems reasonably confident that it's doable via helicoil or (US equivalent?) 'Time-sert'. I have to say, I'm not feeling especially thrilled about it, but is this a case of 'nothing to lose by trying'?

[Spottedlaurel]

Who cares about the redline? I find it satisfying when I can 'flatline' all the gauges on a car:

This was in the Carina E yesterday (on a section of private road, honest), which continues to do a great job for me. Seems to be running and driving even better after that long trip to Lancs and back in January. The slight 'bobbliness' when locked-up in overdrive has pretty much gone now.

Started the Laurel today, for the first time in ages. Had a slight wet patch underneath, presumably a coolant leak somewhere, but still ran well. Ventured no further than the driveway so I could pump up the tyre which always goes a bit soft and I look forward to using it once there's less salt on the road.

LS400's battery is on charge. Poor thing desperately needs a clean and to get used every so often. MoT time on it next month, I need to think about its long-term future.....

Speaking of which, the ex- @BorniteIdentity Avensis SR is back down here, due an MoT soon. Miss SL and her BF have swapped it over with his LS400 for their last few months at uni, and all being well with the Avensis's MoT I'll be custodian of it for a while. It's now up to 288, 200 miles. They were talking about going to view a P-reg RAV4 which came up for sale down here, but it seemed like a bit of a project so they'll hold their fire until the right Land Cruiser comes along.

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Who cares about the redline? I find it satisfying when I can 'flatline' all the gauges on a car:

This was in the Carina E yesterday (on a section of private road, honest), which continues to do a great job for me. Seems to be running and driving even better after that long trip to Lancs and back in January. The slight 'bobbliness' when locked-up in overdrive has pretty much gone now.

Started the Laurel today, for the first time in ages. Had a slight wet patch underneath, presumably a coolant leak somewhere, but still ran well. Ventured no further than the driveway so I could pump up the tyre which always goes a bit soft and I look forward to using it once there's less salt on the road.

LS400's battery is on charge. Poor thing desperately needs a clean and to get used every so often. MoT time on it next month, I need to think about its long-term future.....

Speaking of which, the ex- @BorniteIdentity Avensis SR is back down here, due an MoT soon. Miss SL and her BF have swapped it over with his LS400 for their last few months at uni, and all being well with the Avensis's MoT I'll be custodian of it for a while. It's now up to 288, 200 miles. They were talking about going to view a P-reg RAV4 which came up for sale down here, but it seemed like a bit of a project so they'll hold their fire until the right Land Cruiser comes along.

Every time you tag me my heart flutters! In the absence of any Toyota product on my driveway, I’m hoping to view a Corolla imminently. But if there’s a chance that the Avensis may become available I’ll bite your arm off. 

[Popsicle]

I've been offered a high mileage hero for possibly cheapish. Its pretty minging and unloved, I know the guy well who owns it, he's bought a newer Passat estate and just wants it gone with minimum hassle. No history, so no idea when the belts were last done, ditchfinders all round, but long MOT and to be fair it drives lovely.

Tyre pressures all over the shop, was easy enough to fix and reset the warning light, couple of bulbs out, just a sidelight and DRL, so nothing major, passenger wing mirror was hanging on for dear life but again was easy enough to rectify. I've put 48 hours insurance on it to see what I think about it, I don't need another car, but I do like it. 70 mpgees and £35 pa tax is pretty convincing too. Whoever bought it new ticked a lot of boxes, 3 stage heated leather, massive sunroof, electric release tow bar, its got a lot of kit on it and surprisingly it all appears to work.

£15 later at the local car wash and its even more tempting.

The DAB radio reception is poor and two of the wheels are really scabby, nothing major though, engine is quiet, compared to my van and it goes well. 

Price is up for discusion, what do you folk think its worth? For reference its a 2014 Passat estate 2.0 tdi executive bluemotion.

[Jazoli]

3 minutes ago, Popsicle said:

I've been offered a high mileage hero for possibly cheapish. Its pretty minging and unloved, I know the guy well who owns it, he's bought a newer Passat estate and just wants it gone with minimum hassle. No history, so no idea when the belts were last done, ditchfinders all round, but long MOT and to be fair it drives lovely.

Tyre pressures all over the shop, was easy enough to fix and reset the warning light, couple of bulbs out, just a sidelight and DRL, so nothing major, passenger wing mirror was hanging on for dear life but again was easy enough to rectify. I've put 48 hours insurance on it to see what I think about it, I don't need another car, but I do like it. 70 mpgees and £35 pa tax is pretty convincing too. Whoever bought it new ticked a lot of boxes, 3 stage heated leather, massive sunroof, electric release tow bar, its got a lot of kit on it and surprisingly it all appears to work.

£15 later at the local car wash and its even more tempting.

The DAB radio reception is poor and two of the wheels are really scabby, nothing major though, engine is quiet, compared to my van and it goes well. 

Price is up for discusion, what do you folk think its worth? For reference its a 2014 Passat estate 2.0 tdi executive bluemotion.

If you could get it for sub £2k you'd be doing well, although I'd bid a grand and work up! they are great cars, don't think you'll get anywhere near 70mpg though.