The new news 24 thread

[Dave_Q]

In France scrolling through hotel room telly, happened on a show called Top Mechanic.

2 French mechanics are given a crash damaged car (Renault Scenic Vs Grand Picasso in this one) and they appear to be competing to fix them up in 5 days.

Frederic just lucked out finding the locking wheel nut key for his amongst the in car detritus, Christophe was stuck hammering a smaller socket onto his enabling Fred to get a head start going to Le U-Pull-It to find a Megane to rob the engine out of.

Brilliant viewing, way better than wheeler dealers or car SOS.

[Dave_Q]

Oof, Christophe has now made it to Le U-Pull-It and found another Grand Picasso, opening the bonnet to find a DV6 and declaring it a "bonne moteur". Sounds like a result but he goes to the desk only to be told that the motor Ne Marche Pas. A second one is found but he's told he can't have it for some reason. This is amazing stuff, high stakes, could watch all day

[richardmorris]

Nothing remotely exciting, but got four new tyres on the TIPO today. F1 auto centres at camberley were efficient and I now have Goodyear efficient grip performance all round after 29,000miles on the original falkens. Tread still legal but cracking was becoming noticeable and an advisory in Feb for the mot. 

dot codes are 1025 so quite recent.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, SiC said:

Dragged it's sorry arse out of the bay and pump up the tyres. I'll do a walk around/poking video in a sec. 

Even in those colours, it's such a well balanced, crafted design. 

[SiC]

An important purchase for someone who dailies two 2000-era BMWs. 

And I didn't even buy it for oil changes. 

[Split_Pin]

6 minutes ago, SiC said:

An important purchase for someone who dailies two 2000-era BMWs. 

And I didn't even buy it for oil changes. 

Weirdly, mine is bone dry. Well, oil anyway. It has the obligatory coolant leak 😂

[stuboy]

1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

In France scrolling through hotel room telly, happened on a show called Top Mechanic.

2 French mechanics are given a crash damaged car (Renault Scenic Vs Grand Picasso in this one) and they appear to be competing to fix them up in 5 days.

Frederic just lucked out finding the locking wheel nut key for his amongst the in car detritus, Christophe was stuck hammering a smaller socket onto his enabling Fred to get a head start going to Le U-Pull-It to find a Megane to rob the engine out of.

Brilliant viewing, way better than wheeler dealers or car SOS.

wonder if on youtube

[SiC]

9 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Weirdly, mine is bone dry. Well, oil anyway. It has the obligatory coolant leak 😂

BMW undertrays are phenomenal engineering masterpiece. I don't know how they can hold and disperse so much oil without it dropping onto the ground.

(I think in both of mine its the oil filter housing leaking out the front and gettings the oil atomised by the fan + belts. Z4 also on occasion makes an impressive oil cloud on cold startup - but TADIS on M54 and iirc its short journeys filling the CCV with oil making it worse. Plus that engine has done 180k miles.) 

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

In France scrolling through hotel room telly, happened on a show called Top Mechanic.

2 French mechanics are given a crash damaged car (Renault Scenic Vs Grand Picasso in this one) and they appear to be competing to fix them up in 5 days.

Frederic just lucked out finding the locking wheel nut key for his amongst the in car detritus, Christophe was stuck hammering a smaller socket onto his enabling Fred to get a head start going to Le U-Pull-It to find a Megane to rob the engine out of.

Brilliant viewing, way better than wheeler dealers or car SOS.

What channel? I’m going in a couple of weeks and will search it out.

[IronStar]

Temu has no shame 🤣

~35€ delivered. Seems decently made.

Now to find a hub adapter for Alfa 155….

[Dave_Q]

@richardmorris the channel is called RMC.

 

@stuboy looks like there are some episodes but dunno if they will work in the UK. 

Full episodes here but suspect you need to have a France IP.

https://www.rmcbfmplay.com/chaine/top-mecanic?subMenuId=RefMenuItem::c67c4f5e-73ae-40fe-b562-35391a9f5931

Now watching what looks like a sister program called Vintage Mecanic. Not a race, they are fixing up a 2CV.

[Popsicle]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Nothing remotely exciting, but got four new tyres on the TIPO today. F1 auto centres at camberley were efficient and I now have Goodyear efficient grip performance all round after 29,000miles on the original falkens. Tread still legal but cracking was becoming noticeable and an advisory in Feb for the mot. 

dot codes are 1025 so quite recent.

Good tyre choice, I reckon for cost, comfort, life span and wet ability, the Efficient Grips are the best all round everyday tyre available at the moment.

[gm]

milestone mileage day today :

on the mighty mazda 

and

on the former @davehedgehog31 C30

 

 

[stuboy]

Morning all you shiters..  I've come to show you my pictures and slide shows from Sundays meet .. I held back 2 pictures I know some you would need a minute alone with in a dark room...

And now for the other pic n mix..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Christine]

11 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Nothing remotely exciting, but got four new tyres on the TIPO today. F1 auto centres at camberley were efficient and I now have Goodyear efficient grip performance all round after 29,000miles on the original falkens. Tread still legal but cracking was becoming noticeable and an advisory in Feb for the mot. 

dot codes are 1025 so quite recent.

 We're still  only at   05 25 .... ? 

[Dave_Q]

3 minutes ago, Christine said:

 We're still  only at   05 25 .... ? 

Week 10, not month 10

[Christine]

Oh yeah of course ! 

 

Edit  , anyway, zoom in .... its 09  25  !  ....

[Lord Sterling]

On 03/05/2025 at 18:03, bramz7 said:

Went to Brooklands today, as it was Auto Italia day....

Lots of memories of these cars for me

I've always loved the Quattroporte, they are, by far, my most favourite of Italian cars. Fast, classy and a saloon.

The first one reminds me of the James Bond 'Licence to Kill' bad guys' Quattroporte. Same colour too.

The second later Quattroporte reminds me of a late 90s/early 00s Syrian TV comedy series called "Four Seasons" the head of the family, a wealthy successful businessman drove one of these around quite extensively, his son initially had a Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo, but later that changed to a late 90s black Alfa Romeo Spider TS.

I remember the 156 estate that I collected from London from @purplebargeken and delivered to @Cavcraft. A really nice thing to cruise about in, it had a lovely 5-pot burble to it.

I used to to see a lot of Alfa 33s in Brussels. One thing I remember about them is that distinct acceleration sound they made, they sounded an awful lot like a 1.6 or 2.0 Montego.

I had an uncle who lived in London in the late 90s, he had an Alfa 164 and let me drive it one time when he came up to Birmingham.

I'd honestly considered one of these as one of my first cars (well, I wasn't going down the usual small car route)

The Lancia Kappa was something seen in Brussels/mainland Europe but rarely if ever seen on British roads.

Toyota Avensis - Last year I stuck up a pic of one of my uncles' latest acquisition; a Toyota Mirai:

Back in the day, his first brand-new car was a Toyota Avensis. 

Despite the lack of Italian cars in the UK, especially around the Midlands, the original Fiat Tipo wasn't a rare car around there.

Years ago in Telford, where I used to walk to school along a busy thoroughfare, there used to be Lancia Delta parked on the side of the road there. One day as I was passing, I remember seeing it had been smashed into.

[richardmorris]

3 hours ago, Christine said:

Oh yeah of course ! 

 

Edit  , anyway, zoom in .... its 09  25  !  ....

I think there must be a mix of 09 and 10 then. Will check this evening - am in the 2CV today.

[Lord Sterling]

Well, today didn't quite go as planned. I'd loaded my old sofa into the car yesterday to take to a charity shop. Also, I wanted to get the nail on the tyre sorted. Both places were located on the same road which meant I could kill two birds with one stone. None, however worked out 🤨

The charity shop made excuses about my sofa not having the right label/batch number etc... so unfortunately off to the dump it went. I hated doing that as I felt it was still had life in it 😠

Then I went to my local tyre place, they were closed and no one was around.  FFS, really?

So off to the dump I went.

Got chatting to a nice chap at the skip who helped me dump the sofa into the container. We spoke about the Vectra and other 'cooking' models such as the SRi/GSi RS/ST Fords etc...

Then off to another local tyre place I went. They did the tyre and cost me more than I was expecting, but, better safe than sorry. All that because of fucking a nail sitting there in the road 😡

Still, got back and actually found a few parking spaces! So I spent a but of time tidied the boot. Hopefully it'll actually stay like this:

 

[richardmorris]

[IronStar]

26 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

 

 

I can highly recommend these for tidying up the boot

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parkside-Ultimate-Speed-Boot-Compact/dp/B0CTTWPJN8

They cost a few quid equivalent in Lidl when available. Much tidier than random boxes, and have the velcro thingy to stick to the carpets.

How much is patching up the tyre over there? It's about a fiver-equivalent at a local non-chain shop here. 

[Lord Sterling]

 Cheers. They look nice those bags, there are/was some on eBay that also carried a manufacturer's logo if you wished. I will be considering them, but for now I like the random boxes.

19 minutes ago, IronStar said:

How much is patching up the tyre over there? It's about a fiver-equivalent at a local non-chain shop here. 

It depends where you go. The closed place I went to (if they were open) would patch up a tyre for £10. The place I went to charged £20. Both non-chains as there are many non-chain tyre suppliers here.

[chadders]

3 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Well, today didn't quite go as planned. I'd loaded my old sofa into the car yesterday to take to a charity shop. Also, I wanted to get the nail on the tyre sorted. Both places were located on the same road which meant I could kill two birds with one stone. None, however worked out 🤨

The charity shop made excuses about my sofa not having the right label/batch number etc... so unfortunately off to the dump it went. I hated doing that as I felt it was still had life in it 😠

Then I went to my local tyre place, they were closed and no one was around.  FFS, really?

So off to the dump I went.

Got chatting to a nice chap at the skip who helped me dump the sofa into the container. We spoke about the Vectra and other 'cooking' models such as the SRi/GSi RS/ST Fords etc...

Then off to another local tyre place I went. They did the tyre and cost me more than I was expecting, but, better safe than sorry. All that because of fucking a nail sitting there in the road 😡

Still, got back and actually found a few parking spaces! So I spent a but of time tidied the boot. Hopefully it'll actually stay like this:

 

"Charity shops cannot accept upholstered furniture for resale unless it has a valid fire safety label attached. This is a legal requirement under the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988."

We've scrapped a few suites because of this.

[richardmorris]

20 hours ago, richardmorris said:

2cv was because my mechanic was coming over after work as I thought the clutch was getting progressively noisier over the last few long journeys.  Good news- he doesn’t think it’s the clutch ( replaced 2007 30,000miles). Bad news, he thinks it’s the gearbox bearing. 
it’s growling in neutral, and particularly 4th gear. 
he’s meeting rick pembro next week at the 2cv racing so will talk to him about it.

 

[Lord Sterling]

On 05/05/2025 at 19:45, Dave_Q said:

In France scrolling through hotel room telly, happened on a show called Top Mechanic.

2 French mechanics are given a crash damaged car (Renault Scenic Vs Grand Picasso in this one) and they appear to be competing to fix them up in 5 days.

Frederic just lucked out finding the locking wheel nut key for his amongst the in car detritus, Christophe was stuck hammering a smaller socket onto his enabling Fred to get a head start going to Le U-Pull-It to find a Megane to rob the engine out of.

Brilliant viewing, way better than wheeler dealers or car SOS.

Je suis aussi en train de regarder un documentaire qui s'appelle "Arnaque Auto" or "Scam Autos". Je suis watching this on YouTube rather than terrestrial TV (I no longer watch) 

It's actually a long collection of French car/road documentaries put together (different voice overs) that looks at different aspects of motoring, such as illegal car race meets, badly repaired cars that are sold through the trade by unscrupulous people, dangerous roads and my most fave, street mechanics, in which a bunch of (mainly immigrant) clandestine car mechanics of whom have their own specialities (everything from changing brake pads to head gasket work and body work) are all done on the side of the road.

It is apparently illegal to punt out work like this on the street. (these documentaries were made around the mid 00s) I love the fact that they use public carparks and high-rise flats carparks and sometimes underground 'box' garages (or 'lock-ups' as we sometimes call them here) to punt their trade around. It's a bit like going to a prostitute. Go up to a mechanic, ask how much for whatever work is required, and as long as you can supply the bits (sometimes the mechanic will come with you to the shop if you don't know much about what you're looking for) they'll do the work for less than half of what it costs in a normal or even back-street garage who'll have overheads.

[stuboy]

Decided that I'd change the spark plugs on the V6, thought I'd start on the rear bank.... struggled to get it leads off on all bloody 6!!, stupidly after 30mins on no1 plug i remembered to unbolt the coil pack... ffs !! Easy after that.. this work was sponsored by prescription medication Zapain and gabapentin... lol

[SiC]

2 hours ago, stuboy said:

Decided that I'd change the spark plugs on the V6, thought I'd start on the rear bank.... struggled to get it leads off on all bloody 6!!, stupidly after 30mins on no1 plug i remembered to unbolt the coil pack... ffs !! Easy after that.. this work was sponsored by prescription medication Zapain and gabapentin... lol

At least it's not a inlet manifold job off like most traverse V6's. Saying that, it was only a half hour job at most to get my Laguna V6 manifold removed. 

[Six-cylinder]

I watched a review of the new Renault 4 electric yesterday and it came out pretty well. Then the price from £27,000, £4,000 more than even the Renault 5 Electric.

That started me thinking my 1983 Renault 4 GTL cost £3425 new, but the bank of England inflation calculator says adjusted to 2025 that is £11,472.

I know the new car is safer, quieter and faster but still how are they affordable basic transport?

[richardmorris]

On 06/05/2025 at 10:34, richardmorris said:

I think there must be a mix of 09 and 10 then. Will check this evening - am in the 2CV today.

More a case of not putting my glasses on it seems - all are 0925. Happy with them so far (18miles ). I used the Goodyears on the merc coupe for years.