The new news 24 thread

[JakeT]

37 minutes ago, The Vicar said:

Sad one doing the rounds in the Irish classifieds this week:

‘79 e21 was for sale last week 

Now it’s being broken for parts looking like this:

A tale as old as time. Man buys BMW with semi trailing arm rear suspension. Man thinks he is driving god and it only has 90HP so can’t go wrong. Man doesn’t realise old BMWs spin more than a dead or alive track. Man blames BMW ‘for being shit’.

[robt100]

1 hour ago, The Vicar said:

Sad one doing the rounds in the Irish classifieds this week:

‘79 e21 was for sale last week 

Now it’s being broken for parts looking like this:

Well, this brings back bad memories of selling the Capri! Ended up going up for sale just in the major price dips in 2022/23, sold for cheap, within 3 months he had written the car off after I'd had a full restoration and engine swap done on it😪

[chaseracer]

4 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

It’s spare parts for such a large, valve powered transmitter. Rumour has it the BBC bought up just about every spare part going over the last twenty years or so but they simply don’t exist. Anywhere.

When I finally clear the Owd Giffer's garage and workshop, I'm almost certain to find some kit Auntie Beeb will be pleased to have.

[HMC]

Took some dead batteries to the scrapyard earlier

[davehedgehog31]

Santa has arrived early at my house.

I've fancied a cordless ratchet for a while, have done a couple of jobs recently which have been a fuck about and would have been made much easier with one. Have also fancied a light duty 3/8" impact gun. I also need a new rotary tool, so I got mission creep and ended up with this lot.

The kit was £249 delivered, I only ordered yesterday afternoon and it showed up about an hour ago.  First impressions are pretty good, the tools all feel nice in the hand and the variable speed triggers all work really well.

They're just 12 volt tools, but they're really going to be used for more precise work than full on brutalising of fasteners, heavy drilling etc. I have some heavier duty tools for that stuff, a 1/2" impact gun that weighs several KG isn't always the tool for the job.

Seems decent value for money, will see how they fare over time and with usage.

 

[jim89]

50 minutes ago, HMC said:

Took some dead batteries to the scrapyard earlier

The guy on the left's clearly well hard ... Two Fags McGeezer I think

[Jenson Velcro]

7 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

If you can build a 500kw LF transmitter for them I’m sure they’d listen. (Pun intended)

Nobody’s ever said it’s not possible.  Not once, not ever. They said that replacement valves for the existing transmitter are NLA. They are. 

But investing large sums of money in legacy infrastructure is folly. The world changed. I don’t much like it either, but we are where we are. 

I get what you’re saying about the old tech , but do you have any industry insider intel on DAB broadcasting upgrades. Big noise was made of it being the future with LW, MW and even FM being phased out. However we have no DAB signal locally and driving around the signal is forever dropping out. Mobile signal can also be patchy with sometimes 3G at best so streaming isn’t possible either.

[Brigsy]

6 hours ago, davehedgehog31 said:

Santa has arrived early at my house.

I've fancied a cordless ratchet for a while, have done a couple of jobs recently which have been a fuck about and would have been made much easier with one. Have also fancied a light duty 3/8" impact gun. I also need a new rotary tool, so I got mission creep and ended up with this lot.

The kit was £249 delivered, I only ordered yesterday afternoon and it showed up about an hour ago.  First impressions are pretty good, the tools all feel nice in the hand and the variable speed triggers all work really well.

They're just 12 volt tools, but they're really going to be used for more precise work than full on brutalising of fasteners, heavy drilling etc. I have some heavier duty tools for that stuff, a 1/2" impact gun that weighs several KG isn't always the tool for the job.

Seems decent value for money, will see how they fare over time and with usage.

 

Decent gear. My mate has the same kit in his lockup and have used it a few times.

[Brigsy]

My orange clio dci went straight through its mot today. 10th mot in my ownership and 10th anniversary of saving it from a trip over the bridge.

[lesapandre]

Event:

'New Years Autojumble' - on the 4th of January 2026 at the Whitewebbs Museum  of Transport in Enfield - though the Museum itself is closed that day.

https://www.whitewebbsmuseum.co.uk/events/new-years-autojumble-2026

Note: It is inside the London ULEZ Zone

[davehedgehog31]

In sorting out the Bini's back box I disturbed the centre heat shield, it had done the classic thing of corroding away around the bolt heads. In lieu of big washers I carried out the below fix, distressingly competent if I do say so myself, I even put copper grease on the bolts. 

Also, this thing is class, should have bought one years ago.

[Fat_Pirate]

The roffle SLK has had a problem with bogging-down when given a bootful of throttle - it would be fine if you accelerated gently, but seemed reluctant to go above 4K RPM.  My code reader showed 'fuel trim' but nothing more useful, so it was parts-darts time.  New plugs - nope.  Tried it with the MAF sensor disconnected... was generally unhappy, but no bogging-down and it (eventually) span beyond 5K RPM, so fitted a new Bosch one (£54 from Parts-in-Motion, against £250 for the same from GSF), and it's fixed! 

Goes pretty quickly now, maybe too quickly for a W202 derivative with the usual nautical-style steering precision.

[Gaffer]

As a little Christmas treat to myself, put some pretend race car tyres on the pretend race car. My inner 19 year old is happy 😁

[Lord Sterling]

Recently, I've noticed that the Vectra seems to be bottoming out on the suspension on the left-hand side. So when I go over undulating road surface, I can hear some momentary scraping coming from underneath on the left hand side. That'll need sorting.

After getting back home yesterday,  I parked up and locked the Vectra, but forgot my phone inside the car, so when I went back for it, the remote key wouldn't unlock the door, the key seemed dead, no red light. So opening it with key made the alarm go off. I got home and opened the key only to find it did work anyway. 

However, the key decided to de-sycronise itself from the car, I followed a YouTube video on how to resync it and it worked, I took it for a wash and replenished the petrol.

I did the same with XJ, took it for a quick spin, a wash and petrol replenishment and parked it up again. I'll have to keep it running as I need to take it for an assessment on how much welding work it'll need.

[catsinthewelder]

8 hours ago, davehedgehog31 said:

 In lieu of big washers 

 

My local garage uses worn out cutting disc centres for this.

[EyesWeldedShut]

27 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

My local garage uses worn out cutting disc centres for this.

On our Bini I used bits cut out of a sheet of  gasket sandwich stuff (steel mesh with a bitumastic filing). That’s because I am a numpty and didn’t consider corrosion ☹️

Swapped them for converted beer cans 👍

[cort1977]

On 24/12/2025 at 09:52, davehedgehog31 said:

 

Also, this thing is class, should have bought one years ago.

Yeah, second that. Got one a while ago and it makes awkward stuff much easier once you've cracked them free.

[Sigmund Fraud]

The tachometer of my reliable Japanese daily has been misbehaving, so I escaped family festivities for an hour today and removed the instrument cluster to see if anything obvious was amiss.

The cause of the problem became immediately clear when I had a look at the back of the cluster : "SAGEM".

FFS, if I had wanted temperamental French electrics in my car, I would have bought another Citroen !

 

[Barry Cade]

14 minutes ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

The tachometer of my reliable Japanese daily has been misbehaving, so I escaped family festivities for an hour today and removed the instrument cluster to see if anything obvious was amiss.

The cause of the problem became immediately clear when I had a look at the back of the cluster : "SAGEM".

FFS, if I had wanted temperamental French electrics in my car, I would have bought another Citroen !

 

A dodgy tach used to be a good indication of a bad igniter in the dizzy on Hondas,  or a bad connection on the crank sensor.

I just punch on oil can lids to hold on a droopy heatshield,  until I can get big repair washers.. I keep a stock of metal I've drilled out with a hole saw for grommets as a better fix.

[Sigmund Fraud]

1 hour ago, Barry Cade said:

A dodgy tach used to be a good indication of a bad igniter in the dizzy on Hondas,  or a bad connection on the crank sensor.

Thanks, this is a Toyota and luckily the engine electrics are fine. Cleaning the instrument cluster connectors seems to have fixed the tachometer issue for now !

[The Vicar]

The man in red had been to the vicarage (and I don’t mean a cardinal!)

I don’t really know what I’m going to do with it but I’ve had three of these little things and I love them! Tough little cars they are. This was my last one:

[Wibble]

I guess that’s a Carlow reg? I have cousins there but that’s a hell of a stick to expect your dog to fetch!

[BorniteIdentity]

21 minutes ago, The Vicar said:

The man in red had been to the vicarage (and I don’t mean a cardinal!)

[Wibble]

It’s Bishop Brennan, kick him up the arse!

[The Vicar]

26 minutes ago, Wibble said:

I guess that’s a Carlow reg? I have cousins there but that’s a hell of a stick to expect your dog to fetch!

Carlow reg yes. Local car all its life. I bought my Domino from the same seller last year 

[auntiemaryscanary]

2 hours ago, The Vicar said:

Carlow reg yes. Local car all its life. I bought my Domino from the same seller last year 

Great little things, I loved mine. The kids hated it, the youngest took to covering her head with her coat so she wouldn't be recognised. 

[bunglebus]

Boxing day classic meet at the local pub

[Wibble]

Looks familiar!

 

[Out Run]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Boxing day classic meet at the local pub

Love the GTR. Such a rare car and a cool plate. I traveller from Durham to Felixstowe years ago with my friend when she bought a fresh import, black one. J101 JKR. A fun car. We ended up changing the clutch, turbo and other things and it was stolen, involved in a police chase and recovered, in her ownership!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[junkyarddog]

2 hours ago, Wibble said:

Looks familiar!

 

It was won by a guy in Norfolk.

Who already owns a Sierra.