The new news 24 thread

[artdjones]

13 hours ago, Popsicle said:

The paint flaking off the bumper?

Let's have a closer look.....

I reckon it could be a dragon saying 'beyond here lies rust'.

 

I'm always amazed how well paint can be made to stick to waxy surfaced plastic.

[Popsicle]

3 minutes ago, artdjones said:

I'm always amazed how well paint can be made to stick to waxy surfaced plastic.

It's held up pretty well for saying it was done by the previous owner, which is some 4.5 years/335k miles ago. I've a few rattle cans to redo it with, it's just finding the enthusiasm. 

[stuboy]

The missus is considering a house swap and potential 3.. I said let's just go do a drive by ad hoc just to see the areas are like 50 mile drive round some tiny roads and ended up heading home past my favourite pub, no i didn't stop for a drink but spotted a real nice 90s classic and some alternate reality shite.. and a red VW..  thought I share ..and some crappy mondeo...lol

[Brigsy]

On 13/12/2025 at 16:50, Popsicle said:

As an additional treat for the Caddy it had a bossman £15 special brick acid wash and dry earlier.

Before:

After:

It always looks nice for a day or two, but being black it soon shows up the dirt. TBH I wish I'd left it dirty now, I'd forgotten the paint was coming off the back bumper 😂.

Wears its miles well. Insane mileage out of the rear pads, out of interest how many have the discs done?

[Popsicle]

1 hour ago, Brigsy said:

Wears its miles well. Insane mileage out of the rear pads, out of interest how many have the discs done?

Thanks. The rear pads and discs were both changed at 306k miles, 152k ago. Again caused by a knackered caliper, prior to that at 160k miles, again because the caliper had failed. I've never naturally worn the rear discs or pads out, it's always been sticky calipers/sliders that have made me change something.

The fronts, well believe it or not, they were changed because of a failed caliper at 138k miles, changed a few months ago at 425k miles, so 287k miles from a front set of pads and discs 😂.

In all my years of couriering that is a PB.

[Brigsy]

Mega that. I bet its the same trw caliper on the rear as my megane runs, as i believe they are shared with the vag stuff. Always seize, nightmare for it.

[Popsicle]

3 minutes ago, Brigsy said:

Mega that. I bet its the same trw caliper on the rear as my megane runs, as i believe they are shared with the vag stuff. Always seize, nightmare for it.

Probably is the same, I can't remember the brand. The OSF is the only original caliper, it annoys me slightly as the previous owner painted them all orange, I thought no point rubbing it down and wafting some paint on it as it'll fail soon.......

[Brigsy]

Motivation low to do car stuff in this cold weather so picked up a china spec build it yourself 3d led xmas tree to kill a few hours.

Circuit diagram in chinese.

One done.

Both done.

150 solder joints and 2 hours later.

Works. Flashes, camera missed a few leds for that reason.

Not a bad way to kill a couple of hours.

[alcyonecorporation]

On 13/12/2025 at 19:19, Heidel_Kakao said:

Does anyone else have a thing for buying missing owners handbooks for cars? It seems kinda pointless as I normally just look at it once then stick it in the glovebox to never see it again but I like knowing it's there. Just spent £50 for the XJR's and the Corrado cost more than that.

I'd love a UK book for my SVX - but I can't find one anywhere. 

Please let me know if you see such a handbook. 

[comfortablynumb]

Just a thought @Popsicle, obviously you're not using your brakes much, and I know you do mega runs with the caddy.

Do you think the fact that you're not constantly on the brakes like some drivers, or doing stop start runs, is contributing to the calipers seizing?

Not much you can do about it, even if it's true 😕

 

[New POD]

12 hours ago, Brigsy said:

Mega that. I bet its the same trw caliper on the rear as my megane runs, as i believe they are shared with the vag stuff. Always seize, nightmare for it.

When you say TRW? Would that be the ZF owned TRW that owns what used to be Lucas Car Brakes and would the caliper be a "Colette"? 

https://www.vehicledynamicsinternational.com/news/braking/zf-trw-produces-one-billionth-brake-caliper.html

Would it be one of a billion Colette brakes they have made? ( some of them in Pontypool and Koblenz ) 

(Note: my Lucas DB pension is with ZF and my AVCs are with TRW) 

There must be lots of interchangeable parts https://www.buycarparts.co.uk/brake-calipers/m-trw 

 

[vtec-e]

13 hours ago, Popsicle said:

Thanks. The rear pads and discs were both changed at 306k miles, 152k ago. Again caused by a knackered caliper, prior to that at 160k miles, again because the caliper had failed. I've never naturally worn the rear discs or pads out, it's always been sticky calipers/sliders that have made me change something.

The fronts, well believe it or not, they were changed because of a failed caliper at 138k miles, changed a few months ago at 425k miles, so 287k miles from a front set of pads and discs 😂.

In all my years of couriering that is a PB.

It was the same with my Civic. I drove 280K, mainly on motorways and it used 2 sets of front pads. The rear linings were never changed, but it did suffer from stuck caliper pins.

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, vtec-e said:

It was the same with my Civic. I drove 280K, mainly on motorways and it used 2 sets of front pads. The rear linings were never changed, but it did suffer from stuck caliper pins.

Isn’t it just corrosion from constant exposure to salt and all the other crap on the road?

[artdjones]

This isn't a boast, but in 25 years and probably over 400k miles, none of our main cars (7 of them)have needed a caliper. Only one car had back drums.

I think it's because I've always been very fussy about making sure the pads are a sliding fit in the carrier, even grinding the pad backplate edges to make that happen, and cleaning and lightly lubricating the slides. And I've always made sure the handbrake cables aren't stiff or worn, and that the handbrake mechanism on the caliper moves freely and sits up against its stop when the handbrake is released. 

It's worked for me, anyway. 

[lesapandre]

On 14/12/2025 at 20:09, stuboy said:

The missus is considering a house swap and potential 3.. I said let's just go do a drive by ad hoc just to see the areas are like 50 mile drive round some tiny roads and ended up heading home past my favourite pub, no i didn't stop for a drink but spotted a real nice 90s classic and some alternate reality shite.. and a red VW..  thought I share ..and some crappy mondeo...lol

Those raised exhausts look very injudiciously located. Very easy burn someone on start-up.  

We are not so evolved from monkeys 😂

[Popsicle]

15 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

Just a thought @Popsicle, obviously you're not using your brakes much, and I know you do mega runs with the caddy.

Do you think the fact that you're not constantly on the brakes like some drivers, or doing stop start runs, is contributing to the calipers seizing?

Not much you can do about it, even if it's true 😕

 

I dunno, it's one of lifes mysteries that I've not overly thought about. I am a fairly sedate driver 99% of the time, having a 104bhp van that corners like a blancmange kinda makes you that way. 

I tend to have a short blast of using the rev range/braking late once every week or two to keep things from seizing/clear the soot out.

[lesapandre]

Speed camera issues:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70rk80p9eqo

Buried in the article is something much more interesting -  6 million activations of speed cameras on motorways since 2021. 😳 

[wesacosa]

Rustival date announced and tickets on sale

 

[stuboy]

You think the pollen / cabin filter needed changing. . It was surprising weighty...

 

Dunno how old it was..

[junkyarddog]

This antiquated shitbox has been deemed roadworthy for the next two years.

Wasn't all plain sailing though.

Failed the first time on rear brake imbalance. 

New rear shoes fitted.

Old ones,clearly passed their best,had started  delaminating.

Next was the main suspect,Rear load sensing valve.

Ooh shiny....and expensive. 

Get in!!!

Whew.

First tester was quite complimentary about the old girl,especially the smoke test,said it runs really clean.

Happy with that.😁

 

[stuboy]

You all know me .. adding tacky and pointless tat.. hows about a stonechip thing for the bonnet.. cheap fixings ..crap brackets...  

[lesapandre]

ICE ban - BBC:

"EU waters down plans to end new petrol and diesel car sales by 2035"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crk78y7k8ezo

[richardmorris]

29 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

ICE ban - BBC:

"EU waters down plans to end new petrol and diesel car sales by 2035"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crk78y7k8ezo

I don’t think it matters, car manufacturers will already be geared up to ev. 

[Schaefft]

1 minute ago, richardmorris said:

I don’t think it matters, car manufacturers will already be geared up to ev. 

I think it very much will as the world isn't just Europe. It means ICE models produced for other markets, which will mostly be on the high end of the price spectrum, are still obtainable by people who want to afford them. It was always absolutely pointless to entirely ban ice vehicles full stop when manufacturers who built their image on their heritage, like Ferrari and Porsche, would be locked out of their own home market to a significant degree. Almost 7 out of 10 members of the public who were recently asked about their opinion on this in Germany agreed, which just once again proved how much out of touch politicians were a few years ago when this was decided, including the German government coalition between SPD, FDP and the green party. Guess who paid the price for that at the last elections.

Change is necessary but banning technology just for the sake of it isn't going down well with people.

[richardmorris]

But the high end Aston/ Ferrari and low volume morgan etc were just going to add the 25k tax per vehicle for not obeying on to their sales price.

[Schaefft]

54 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

But the high end Aston/ Ferrari and low volume morgan etc were just going to add the 25k tax per vehicle for not obeying on to their sales price.

I'm not aware of any loop holes that would have allowed any of them to sell anything non-electric before today's news.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Schaefft said:

I'm not aware of any loop holes that would have allowed any of them to sell anything non-electric before today's news.

I’m sure they could come up with something as their lawyers will be earning a lot more than their engineers.

[IronStar]

Oh Serbian DVLA equivalent, why is it so hard for you to make models make any sense in our official documents? 

Both cars are Alfa 155 1.8 Twin Sparks. 

What the fuck, and how did you manage to mess it up this badly? Sincerely, everyone.

 

[stuboy]

When too change headlight bulbs and looked and thought h7... easy i have some...

 

 

Nope there h1 ffs..

[stuboy]

Hot date booked for tomorrow.. gonna make sure i take a rubber...

Tried to carefully remove the spare wheel cover to find the zips are seized so with my mighty mouse strength I ripped the fabric off, to be greeted by a saggy flat tyre, was gonna get it repaired but after see 3 holes.. few slices... I thought best go get a new one.. which is booked for tomorrow...

 

More money and too think was gonna put my private plate on the hondurex