The new news 24 thread

[Popsicle]

As mentioned in the grumpy thread last week, the couriering Caddy decided to no longer want conditioned air. I was treated to a burning smell as I got to the end of the M4 around Hammersmith, the aircon compressor had seized up, I suppose 419k miles is a reasonable innings. With me being a fat sweaty mess this wasn't acceptable. The van didn't seem to like it either as the odometer starting fainting in the heat.

Spoke with my regular garage, they said pop it round Monday and I'll get it back same day - they're brilliant lads and I must admit to being very grateful of how they fit me in at short notice.

So van dropped off at the garage, Saturday I let all my customers know that I'm only available in the Passat on Monday. Gets a job from Barnsley to Hertford, nice one, remind customer of not being in the van, no probs he says, just a box of LED lights to deliver, happy days.

He kinda forgot to mention the six 3 metre chrome poles that also needed delivering! Luckily the mighty Passat just managed to swallow the load.

Mrs P and daughter number 1 picked the van up in the afternoon for me as I was still pissing about on the A1 going to Hertford, £350 lighter, but one new shiny compressor and a full quota of refrigerant.

I was booked for a little job out of Birmingham up to Manchester this morning. I was looking forward to beautiful cool conditioned air on my travels.

And it pissed it down pretty much all the time and never got warm enough to need the aircon, FML 🤣.

At least its all good to go for the next heatwave.

[SiC]

38 minutes ago, Popsicle said:

And it pissed it down pretty much all the time and never got warm enough to need the aircon, FML 🤣.

At least its all good to go for the next heatwave.

Aircon also dries the air and keeps the glass mist free in humid environments.

I find HVAC in most modern cars don't really work properly unless the Aircon is working - especially climate control systems. 

[Erebus]

39 minutes ago, Popsicle said:

As mentioned in the grumpy thread last week, the couriering Caddy decided to no longer want conditioned air. I was treated to a burning smell as I got to the end of the M4 around Hammersmith, the aircon compressor had seized up, I suppose 419k miles is a reasonable innings. With me being a fat sweaty mess this wasn't acceptable. The van didn't seem to like it either as the odometer starting fainting in the heat.

Spoke with my regular garage, they said pop it round Monday and I'll get it back same day - they're brilliant lads and I must admit to being very grateful of how they fit me in at short notice.

So van dropped off at the garage, Saturday I let all my customers know that I'm only available in the Passat on Monday. Gets a job from Barnsley to Hertford, nice one, remind customer of not being in the van, no probs he says, just a box of LED lights to deliver, happy days.

He kinda forgot to mention the six 3 metre chrome poles that also needed delivering! Luckily the mighty Passat just managed to swallow the load.

Mrs P and daughter number 1 picked the van up in the afternoon for me as I was still pissing about on the A1 going to Hertford, £350 lighter, but one new shiny compressor and a full quota of refrigerant.

I was booked for a little job out of Birmingham up to Manchester this morning. I was looking forward to beautiful cool conditioned air on my travels.

And it pissed it down pretty much all the time and never got warm enough to need the aircon, FML 🤣.

At least its all good to go for the next heatwave.

It'll be warm again tomorrow and you'll be glad you had it done

[Erebus]

1 hour ago, Brigsy said:

Love the supervan/supervan 2. Had supervan 2 matchbox toy when i was a kid.

 

Dropped my spare compomotive mo6 off to be refurbed by Temas Wheel Corrections onFriday, and got some pics through today when finished.

Quite a tale behind these wheels. Compomotive made a few custom sets for the pre production megane 225 for testing when a company called Ricardo developed the 225, they were sold off after the 225's development was finished and renault used speedline wheels instead. I was told by compomotive they were made by them in 2001.

I bought a nice set of 6 in 2020 for my Kangoo, and started looking for another pair to make 2x sets. They are et66 18x8 5x108 so perfect fit, but odd offset makes them rocking horse shit to find.

One came from ebay on a random spot (actually couldnt believe id found one) put feelers out on megane forums and one was loated deep in Scotland, 6 mile away from John o Groats and colection only. I drove 16hour round trip to collect it in the blue clio van doing nc500 in the process. 

Epic road trip.

That was 2021 and as im a bit of a wheel hoarder stuck them in the garage with a view to refurb. 

Last week finally pulled finger out and took them to Temas. The ebay wheel was basically rough as old boots and had some metal filler on it for some unkonwn reason. I actually was unsure if it could be made decent but has turned out real nice.

Before

During

Done. Went for stealth silver in a matt finishas i already have a set in anthracite, and a set in white.

Pretty excited to pick them up. Set of michelin ps4s to fit for road use.

Gorgeous wheels and love the colour

[flat4alfa]

On 14/07/2025 at 13:49, bramz7 said:

This is my new everyday car, the 147 I alluded to on my MiTo sale thread. 

First time I've ever had a diesel 147, and the first time I've ever had a 147 with two keys which is why my first one went sour! 

It drives really well. The JTD 120 (8v?) is such a good engine even at advancing age. I think the previous owner kept on top of the important stuff so it feels good for 142k. Obviously some Alfa foibles remain, the door glass rattles for example and both sills are like this:

The tyres are good on tread but quite terrible. I often wondered what tyres created bearing noise and it's these ones. Yuck. 

The interior is fairly good. I don't like the leather seats but they're ok on a shorter run. The ABS light is on but the cruise still works, which is very welcome.

It's only a stop gap, I'm planning on getting a newer (or new) car by the end of the year. 

It’ll start and run and get you where you need to be for years. The glow plug light just teases and probably didn’t know what it was meant to be doing anyway. The ABS light is common and just down to grubby connection.

The oil level never moves, unlike the petroleums

Apart from that, you could* do a plate spacing fiddle and pretend you are the captain of a culinary beef stock empire

Drive and enjoy and forget about DNA selectivo 

[Yoss]

1st MOT in my ownership for the Up! today. It was as painless as I was hoping it would be. 

 

[Yoss]

Also today, I have been a Postman for 35 years. 

[dozeydustman]

I have finally got round to building the £55 press from wherever I bought it 2 months ago! (Robert Dyas?)

No instructions included on how it goes together, just a diagramme of parts, no labels.

Only took 5-10 mins to suss out though. It feels sturdy enough to press out wheel bearings on at least 2 of the fleet, but I will source a piece of thin grippy material to go between the bottle jack and the plate it presses on, as it twists about while pumping

[dozeydustman]

The addition of an old Grippaz glove has made a marked improvement on keeping the jack stationary.

[Lord Sterling]

4 hours ago, Yoss said:

Also today, I have been a Postman for 35 years. 

Happy...er....postday @Yoss and also, where's my bleedin' post! 😂

[Lord Sterling]

Today, I took a nice drive to Shrewsbury to pick up a genuine boot tray for the Jag. 

Then popped into Telford to drop off some stuff that had been cluttering up my flat.

Then whilst having a little drive around Telford, I spotted this UTTERLY GORGEOUS S2 Jaguar XJ6 4.2. Had a little chat with the guy, it was his Dad's car, he appears also to have a couple of Austin A35s, one on the driveway and one in the garage.

[MrGTI6]

1 hour ago, Lord Sterling said:

Then whilst having a little drive around Telford, I spotted this UTTERLY GORGEOUS S2 Jaguar XJ6 4.2. Had a little chat with the guy, it was his Dad's car, he appears also to have a couple of Austin A35s, one on the driveway and one in the garage.

I'm not even into Jags particularly but that looks incredible.

[Yoss]

4 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Happy...er....postday @Yoss and also, where's my bleedin' post! 😂

Thanks. I have to say the job has changed massively in those 35 years but it's likely to change out of all recognition again in the next year as they try to implement the new changes. This involves first class going every day but second class only every other day (on paper anyway, in reality some places are lucky if they get anything at all once or twice a week) 

This will involve three posties covering four walks (deliveries) every day. Two posties will do a delivery each, the third will take only the first class on the two other walks. The next day they swap places. At least that's what they've worked out on the back of a fag packet. What happens when one of those three is off is anybodies guess, and I mean scheduled days off or holidays, I'm not even getting in to sickness. Because we don't have enough staff to even cover the normal day off cover duties. 

So I've got another 8 to 10 years to get through but I must admit the last 35 seem to have gone pretty quick so another 10 should be a doddle. That's what I'm trying to convince myself anyway. 

[richardmorris]

2 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Thanks. I have to say the job has changed massively in those 35 years but it's likely to change out of all recognition again in the next year as they try to implement the new changes. This involves first class going every day but second class only every other day (on paper anyway, in reality some places are lucky if they get anything at all once or twice a week) 

This will involve three posties covering four walks (deliveries) every day. Two posties will do a delivery each, the third will take only the first class on the two other walks. The next day they swap places. At least that's what they've worked out on the back of a fag packet. What happens when one of those three is off is anybodies guess, and I mean scheduled days off or holidays, I'm not even getting in to sickness. Because we don't have enough staff to even cover the normal day off cover duties. 

So I've got another 8 to 10 years to get through but I must admit the last 35 seem to have gone pretty quick so another 10 should be a doddle. That's what I'm trying to convince myself anyway. 

Most of the post (people ) I’ve spoken to at home and work have been great.  When I’ve asked about their work changes, they’ve said that they’re the last to know.  The home / work pick up is great by the way, if your powers that be ask. There’s no post office we can get to in work hour.

[Yoss]

48 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Most of the post (people ) I’ve spoken to at home and work have been great.  When I’ve asked about their work changes, they’ve said that they’re the last to know.  The home / work pick up is great by the way, if your powers that be ask. There’s no post office we can get to in work hour.

I've only learnt as much as I have in the last fortnight as they are planning to put it in to our office by September. 

The parcel collection service is marketed as convenient for you but it was started to take money from The Post Office. Royal Mail and Post Office are now completely separate companies so if you take a parcel to them they, not unreasonably, take a cut. But if I come and pick it up from you the Post Office don't get a penny and Royal Mail keep all the money. It's just a happy coincidence that it is also more convenient for you. 

But thanks anyway! 

[loserone]

Yup from a usability perspective it's a game changer.  I posted all the Christmas cards and had the labels brought to the door. Everything I post goes out RM now.

[Metal Guru]

3 hours ago, loserone said:

Yup from a usability perspective it's a game changer.  I posted all the Christmas cards and had the labels brought to the door. Everything I post goes out RM now.

I accidentally posted most of our Christmas cards without stamps last year. ( My mother had just died so I was a bit pre-occupied to say the least).

They did get delivered, although  the last one took until May.

[comfortablynumb]

Made me laugh when they were saying about post being every other day in future.

Ours has been like that for years 🤔

[beko1987]

I only get letters once every 1.5 weeks. The small packets come through though.

My postman is a lovely guy and it doesn't bother me much that it's only so often I get letters (probably makes me part of the problem).

Dare I mention leaflets? I was helping gather our national data to be exported into Hubspot and we've sent over 36 million leaflets through rm this fiscal year already! Most of them probably got delivered nested 🙄😂

The collection service isnt great though, for me at least. Posting big bulky but not heavy stuff ebay defaults to it and I'd feel so bad making him put some stuff on his trolley Ive had to play the simple postage bollocks so much to make it let me do a parcelforce collection for a biggish box.

[Split_Pin]

Just now, beko1987 said:

leaflets

My postie calls those 'important information'*, with the emphasis on the asterisk 😂

We've always had great posties round our way and it helps that 2 of them are into cars so we are always blethering. 

[comfortablynumb]

Yeah I should say, on the occasion I do see the guy who's presumably supposed to be out regular, he's great.

Part of the problem is that they seem to stick him on other rounds, and then we get someone who doesn't know the layout of the road.

Doesn't help that in my road, no house has a number, because it's so old, they're all names.

Took us a while to work it out when MK1 son had a paper round 

[barefoot]

I drove a 330 mile round trip to speak at the funeral of my best mate yesterday. We went in the 75 which as you'd imagine made it almost effortless, but the endless fucking traffic queues on the M25 and the M42...

[Split_Pin]

Sorry to hear about your best friend. I could not possibly manage a speech at any funeral, well done man.

[comfortablynumb]

When my godparents died, their eldest son did a great eulogy for both of them

There's no way I could do something like that.

Sorry about your friend @barefoot

[barefoot]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

 I could not possibly manage a speech at any funeral, well done man.

1 hour ago, comfortablynumb said:

There's no way I could do something like that.

Thank you both, it was a first for me and not something I was looking forward to. I despise speaking in front of a large crowd, but my words were intentionally very funny and I forced myself to think of it as a simple exercise in reading out loud.

[Metal Guru]

3 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

Made me laugh when they were saying about post being every other day in future.

Ours has been like that for years 🤔

We never get anything on a Monday. 

[Yoss]

7 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

We never get anything on a Monday. 

Don't ask me why but Mondays and Tuesdays are always lighter anyway. So much so that my finish time is 40 minutes earlier on Monday than it is on Wednesday or Thursday. So you are statistically less likely to get mail on Monday. 

 

[barefoot]

I meant to post this earlier, but the weekend before last I was pissing about at CamperJam and this guy pitched up next to me. Obviously it's a personal plate, but he tells me it was a press car and very few were made like this. It's apparently the full 180S spec, but it's a diesel. Whatever, bloody nice, bog all miles on it and part of his 'yellow fleet'. A newbie, an SLK, this & something else I forget.

It was towing an Eriba.

 

[brownnova]

9000 locked me out/wouldn’t deactivate the immobiliser at work on Monday until I dismantled the fob and poked metal bits with a biro. It was enough to get me home, and then used the wife’s MG EV to get to work on Tuesday & Wednesday. Tues night I had a play with the spare fob, and it wouldn’t play ball, on Weds night I had another go, and read that sometimes the fob is forgotten by the car,  and it needs 5 presses. Nope that didn’t work either… so I read up on other Saabs and came up with a routine involving engaging the ignition 5 times and then hitting the button 5 times. Amazingly after the 5 ignition cycles the key fob is as re-linked to the car! That wasn’t on any of the forums!

Good news was that I could go back to retro powered commuting for the last day of term.

I celebrated by patching up the air intake on the Pontiac which is broken until I can get a new one, and taking that for a quick spin. 

[egg]

Like the old school nature of the look of this place.