The new news 24 thread

[Bren]

Just seen that a temporary 7.5 tonne weight limit has been imposed on the old Severn Bridge due to the condition of some of the cables. Not good.

[junkyarddog]

Agricultural shitbox,doing agricultural shitbox things.😁

[Lord Sterling]

Vectra has been parked up for over a week now. It somehow looks quite miserable about it.

I've valeted the Jag and will park it up tomorrow evening. 

In the meantime, I might have sourced some alloys for it.

A similar Vectra is being broken up for parts at a breakers yard in Wolverhampton. I asked the price of a few bits including the alloys. All parts together incl. alloys came to just over what I'd pay for new tyres all round.

I'll also get the original backbox on asap.

I spoke to some Vectra sniffer yesterday in the view to getting the Vectra oil and coolant tight, but the lad came across as a bit of dick. So I'll be giving him a swerve and I'll use my usual local mechanics. I'm getting fed up of topping up the Vectras oil and water and it's getting a bit much now, yes, I know it's old and they do probably use quite a bit of oil but it would be nice not to worry about this.

[Metal Guru]

On 11/04/2025 at 10:01, New POD said:

Is royal mail still owned by the government?  Don't government agencies self insure, underwritten by the treasury....? 

I know NHS company vehicles definitely are. 

Most large companies / organisations   self insure . 

[brownnova]

Had a wedding to attend some 200 miles away. Having just passed an MoT and the promise of a warm and sunny drive down the Saab Convertible was steed of choice. I’d heard a slight creak from the steering the other day when the roof was down, but as the MoT tester said nothing to report steering wise I chalked it up and didn’t hear it again.

Dropping the children off with relatives I did hear it again. We pressed on for half an hour and it got louder and louder so it was now audible round roundabouts and at junctions. It does not sound good…. In fact it sounds expensive. So turn around and swap cars. 🙄

The XC90 had had an electrical gremlin around Christmastime which wiped the dash lights/blowers etc out. I did a fix which has worked for 3 months with absolutely no bother. Including full family trips on holiday. Somehow throwing the clothes onto the boot I managed to knock the wiring and re-occur this issue… which was not what I needed after one car failure already!

And these are the modern cars of the fleet!!! Cars… who would have them!

Still was not desperate enough to swap to the wife’s Renault Scenic. The Saab 9000 with no front number plate would have been the next one on the list 

Thankfully the electrics was easily remedied and bar one reoccurrence at the hotel it behaved perfectly. Need to perform a slightly better fix. 

As it turns out if we had arrived as early as planned we would have been waiting 2 hours for our room to be ready as the advertised check in from 3 turned to 5.30! Maybe the cars were saving us from that. 

[Split_Pin]

16 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Had a wedding to attend some 200 miles away. Having just passed an MoT and the promise of a warm and sunny drive down the Saab Convertible was steed of choice. I’d heard a slight creak from the steering the other day when the roof was down, but as the MoT tester said nothing to report steering wise I chalked it up and didn’t hear it again.

Dropping the children off with relatives I did hear it again. We pressed on for half an hour and it got louder and louder so it was now audible round roundabouts and at junctions. It does not sound good…. In fact it sounds expensive. So turn around and swap cars. 🙄

The XC90 had had an electrical gremlin around Christmastime which wiped the dash lights/blowers etc out. I did a fix which has worked for 3 months with absolutely no bother. Including full family trips on holiday. Somehow throwing the clothes onto the boot I managed to knock the wiring and re-occur this issue… which was not what I needed after one car failure already!

And these are the modern cars of the fleet!!! Cars… who would have them!

Still was not desperate enough to swap to the wife’s Renault Scenic. The Saab 9000 with no front number plate would have been the next one on the list 

Thankfully the electrics was easily remedied and bar one reoccurrence at the hotel it behaved perfectly. Need to perform a slightly better fix. 

As it turns out if we had arrived as early as planned we would have been waiting 2 hours for our room to be ready as the advertised check in from 3 turned to 5.30! Maybe the cars were saving us from that. 

My 95 made exactly the same noise when I got it, a new ball joint fixed it 😀

[brownnova]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

My 95 made exactly the same noise when I got it, a new ball joint fixed it 😀

Hopefully something like that rather than a failing steering rack! 

[comfortablynumb]

30 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Hopefully something like that rather than a failing steering rack! 

I take it these have some form of uj's in the steering column?

IME these can make strange noises/cause vague handling too

[Stanky]

1 hour ago, comfortablynumb said:

I take it these have some form of uj's in the steering column?

IME these can make strange noises/cause vague handling too

+1 on this, my old 93ss developed a sticky steering column UJ and felt like it was driving on ice.

It is accessible from the top with the bonnet open, get a helper to steer lock to lock while you poke grease into the joint and it'll be fine for 12m or more. I got my (then) 8 year old to do the steering bit, just need to be super clear with instructions

"Do not move the steering wheel until I tell you to"

Unless you want to trap your finger in the UJ