The new news 24 thread

[jonathan_dyane]

Note (probably mainly to my future self).

If you have a B5 Passat (or most probably any VAG shit from that era, certainly Golfs and Octavia's) with a deadlocked shut back door you can make a hole in the door as per picture and undo a torx bolt from the lock which will disengage the locking mechanism and allow the door to be opened to replace or repair the lock.

Much less destructive than I feared would be necessary, I even got the door card out without wrecking it

[Spottedlaurel]

After it spent several months at the garage getting a recored radiator and almost full set of new coolant and heater hoses, plus new plugs which made it run much better, for various reasons I haven't used the Laurel very much. Also hasn't helped it being buried under a pile of coats and other stuff which got chucked on top of it when I started work on another room in the house. Slightly ashamed to find it'd only done 200 miles since turning over 100,000 last September.

Finally made time to extract it this morning and put it to 'an car' use, popping into town and collecting eggs on the way home.

[Snake Charmer]

Trip to Poole last night with the missus from Heathrow to look at a Mercedes S204. She took it for a spin round the block and decided it was for her despite being an automatic. This will be replacing her trusty MkIV Golf the grandchildren have outgrown.

Trusting seller let us take it with just a deposit, l was expecting to go back in the week! 🙂

[HMC]

i have bought a £500 city bug

DD tax is 1.70 a month 😂

[wuvvum]

The second set of new (and incredibly thin) HT leads for the Toyota arrived today, and I fitted them after work - the plug leads went on OK with a bit of buggering about, and with a bit of precision* modification involving a screwdriver I was able to connect the two coil leads together and get a connection 'twixt coil and distributor cap.

Somewhat to my surprise it fired up first time and ran fine - it's obviously going to need a more permanent solution for the coil lead but at least it's mobile again.  Remains to be seen whether the intermittent misfire has been cured though...

[EightMegs]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

The second set of new (and incredibly thin) HT leads for the Toyota arrived today, and I fitted them after work - the plug leads went on OK with a bit of buggering about, and with a bit of precision* modification involving a screwdriver I was able to connect the two coil leads together and get a connection 'twixt coil and distributor cap.

Somewhat to my surprise it fired up first time and ran fine - it's obviously going to need a more permanent solution for the coil lead but at least it's mobile again.  Remains to be seen whether the intermittent misfire has been cured though...

I didn't realise the Carina E has the coil mounted on the bulkhead, my Carina II and both of my Starlets had Denso IIA distributors with the coil mounted under the cap, which had an integrated king lead.

[artdjones]

10 hours ago, Rustybullethole said:

There's always a Maccys chip.

 

At least it's not diced carrots.

[angle]

On 09/08/2025 at 16:16, angle said:

Shitbox Picasso has managed 900 miles in two days and made it to Italy.

And back. Fair to say it was just a tiny bit slow over the Gotthard pass, but in the last 12 months it's done something like 4000 miles on trips to Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands loaded up like this (with five of us on board)

[stuboy]

4 hours ago, HMC said:

DD tax is 1.70 a month 😂

didnt wanna go all rothchild and pay in 1 lump sum?

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, EightMegs said:

I didn't realise the Carina E has the coil mounted on the bulkhead, my Carina II and both of my Starlets had Denso IIA distributors with the coil mounted under the cap, which had an integrated king lead.

Some Carina Es have that setup as well - depends on the engine / year / what they happened to have on the shelf at the time.

[robt100]

On 21/08/2025 at 20:12, EyesWeldedShut said:

Fake Taxi AMG day today. Thanks @Brigsy for the painting tip.
(painted calipers are like Marmite. My wife likes both.)
Followed by:
Still has a smol vibration - not really through the steering but kind of in the footwell. 
Disc out of kilter, other front wheel needs a balance, propshaft? 
All for another day, for the moment it goes and goes rather well.

Let me know if you solve the vibration. Got the same on the 5 series, changed rear arms and all discs/pads and its still there at 70mph. One rear tyre looks a little feathered on the edge, so going to try new ones of those. Between us we can solve footwell vibrations! 😅

[Lacquer Peel]

17 hours ago, MrT said:

Where was the An22 (ASCC/NATO reporting name 'Cock'), together with the Mil8 'Hip' , Mil24 'Hind D' , Aero Commander, what I think is a Kamov Ka25 'Hormone' and a bit of an F15 visible.

Technik Museum Speyer as recommended by @davehedgehog31, highly recommended. 

Made it to Austria. 

[comfortablynumb]

9 hours ago, stuboy said:

didnt wanna go all rothchild and pay in 1 lump sum?

He won't own it for long enough to pay for a year.

Probably won't own it long enough to pay for a month.. 🤣

(Yes I know it's refunded)

[Matty]

Before

After.

Had to be done. Original alloys were way past a refurb.

 

[Dyslexic Viking]

It was +30C on Monday and this morning I had ice on the windshield and had to find the ice scraper.

[Lacquer Peel]

[stuboy]

We gave our niece a belated birthday present an all in turntable... but she has no records.. did I have 1... oh off course.. 

[ProgRocker]

13 hours ago, wuvvum said:

The second set of new (and incredibly thin) HT leads for the Toyota arrived today, and I fitted them after work - the plug leads went on OK with a bit of buggering about, and with a bit of precision* modification involving a screwdriver I was able to connect the two coil leads together and get a connection 'twixt coil and distributor cap.

I did wonder if you still had the Carina E. Best colour ever.

[richardmorris]

[High Jetter]

On 14/08/2025 at 19:08, High Jetter said:

Returning to Post office Vans, I saw a transporter full of 25 plate signwritten Pug vans approaching our local sorting office yesterday. I wonder how many were being dropped off here.

Saw one on the road today in mail collection mode. Not leccy, unlike the ones @Yoss has got at work now, and has the Pug front end:

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, ProgRocker said:

I did wonder if you still had the Carina E. Best colour ever.

Heh, that must have been a time I managed to get on the booking app at 18:00:01 to bag one of the spaces right outside the door!

Yeah, the Carina E is my grandad's old car so that won't be going anywhere.

[andy18s]

Andover storage spotted,nothing to do with me though..

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Saw one on the road today in mail collection mode. Not leccy, unlike the ones @Yoss has got at work now, and has the Pug front end:

Yes we have some 74 plate ones of those. And they have nice big badges on the back so you can see which of the Stellantis sub brands pretended to make them. 

These electric ones are unmarked on the rear. 

They are also noticeably shorter than our diesel versions. You can see the difference on both sides of the rear wheel arch. You would have thought the long wheelbase platform would have been better for electric to squeeze more battery in. 

Also our diesels are proper red vans and not grey vans in a red wrap. 

[hairnet]

3 hours ago, richardmorris said:

 

 

2cv doh

[alcyonecorporation]

23 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Yes we have some 74 plate ones of those. And they have nice big badges on the back so you can see which of the Stellantis sub brands pretended to make them. 

These electric ones are unmarked on the rear. 

They are also noticeably shorter than our diesel versions. You can see the difference on both sides of the rear wheel arch. You would have thought the long wheelbase platform would have been better for electric to squeeze more battery in. 

Also our diesels are proper red vans and not grey vans in a red wrap. 

That second pic looks like you sneaked off the shot, upskirt style, while the driver was taking a slash or something.

[Yoss]

22 minutes ago, alcyonecorporation said:

That second pic looks like you sneaked off the shot, upskirt style, while the driver was taking a slash or something.

I mean it wasn't my van but I was trying to emphasise how grey it was. 

[dome]

9 hours ago, Lacquer Peel said:

@Lacquer Peel hopefully you're all sorted and back on your way?

[loserone]

1 minute ago, dome said:

@Lacquer Peel hopefully you're all sorted and back on your way?

He's dodging Germans 

[dome]

11 minutes ago, loserone said:

He's dodging Germans 

In my head he's like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape but more successful 

[Lacquer Peel]

1 hour ago, dome said:

@Lacquer Peel hopefully you're all sorted and back on your way?

Aye, the big Merc loves* steep uphills. 

Slovenia is something else