The new news 24 thread

[comfortablynumb]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

Not a surprise if you've ever owned a genuine Mk2 Escort.

Tbf, the youngest original shell is , what, 40+ years old now?

How much has metal forming come on in that time?

I had two MK2 estates, apparently they were good enough to get nicked, and I only got one back...😕

[artdjones]

3 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

Tbf, the youngest original shell is , what, 40+ years old now?

The one I owned was 10 years old. 

[comfortablynumb]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

The one I owned was 10 years old. 

Yeah, so was mine at the time, my point was modern construction methods should result in better quality 

[stuboy]

Busy and cold car meet but worth it..

 

 

 

 

tia

 

 

[SiC]

VP1300 went this morning. Despite sat on the drive frozen up, she started up on the second attempt. Good ol' A-series.

 

Unlike this thing which took a hell a lot of cranking before eventually persuading to come to life! 😄

I pointed out to Mrs SiC, imagine having to do this every morning 50+ years ago just so you could get to work!

 

The reason I was attempting to burn out the starter motor and get her running was to move it to storage and put to sleep again. 

Honestly really enjoyed the short journey over and I'm quite happy it's the VP that went not the Spitty. While I really liked the VP, my heart is much more into the Spitfire. Still listed for sale but I'd find it hard to let go. Especially with no other classic that is working for me. 

Hopefully won't be too long in storage as I fancy pulling it back out and going for a few crisp winter drives in it soon. Even if the engine really doesn't enjoy the cold.

 

Also probably should pull this out again soon and give it a good drive. This I'm a bit more fussy about with salt though, so maybe a few months more.

 

I now have a much larger work area to get started back on this. First things first will be to have a clean/clear/sort out to make my working area a bit easier to be in. Right now I need to trip over everything to even get there.

Bought the Midget hardtop back too as I didn't really want it resting on the Spitfire like I did with the other cars. Paintwork is in much too good a condition to risk scratching it. Need to figure a way/place to hang it up on the garage roof joists and get it out of the way.

Hopefully I'll get some time this month to crack on now. Never have enough of the bloody stuff at the moment 😒

[cort1977]

So following on from my Berlingo woes (on the way to being solved albeit slowly) I have been using my T5 van in the snow.

It's great for that but yesterday I didn't clear all the snow off the wipers, switched them on and fried the relay. Turns out due to quality* German engineering instead of a separate wiper relay it is incorporated in to a Body Control Module (BCM) that takes half an hour to remove and then has to be sent off for repair. In the middle of the heaviest snow for a decade.

Not the end of the world but will make the next couple of weeks awkward. If anyone knows a good place to repair the module please advise as there's a few around.

[Sigmund Fraud]

13 minutes ago, cort1977 said:

So following on from my Berlingo woes (on the way to being solved albeit slowly) I have been using my T5 van in the snow.

It's great for that but yesterday I didn't clear all the snow off the wipers, switched them on and fried the relay. Turns out due to quality* German engineering instead of a separate wiper relay it is incorporated in to a Body Control Module (BCM) that takes half an hour to remove and then has to be sent off for repair. In the middle of the heaviest snow for a decade.

Not the end of the world but will make the next couple of weeks awkward. If anyone knows a good place to repair the module please advise as there's a few around.

Heritage ! 1990s VWs did the same, but there was no BCM to fry so you would normally get away with just replacing a fuse.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

I pointed out to Mrs SiC, imagine having to do this every morning 50+ years ago just so you could get to work!

Is that when Mrs SiC pointed out forcibly that she's not 50 yet? 🤣

[Cord Fourteener]

After a flat and knackered tyre on the new-to-me Dodgy Audi and the spare being equally shit I've managed to take the wheel to the local tyre shop.

Predictable though every man and dog wants all-seasons this week and the deliveries are delayed, for some strange reason

Also in picture, my mums Suzuki Balerno and her all- year- round winter tyres. 

[stuboy]

An exciting journey to dartford too complete a driving assessment for a recent rtc before xmas

[Snake Charmer]

1 minute ago, stuboy said:

An exciting journey to dartford too complete a driving assessment for a recent rtc before xmas

What does that entail?

[Zelandeth]

Still remember bricking myself when one of those on the M1 or M6 showed "Caution, oncoming vehicle!"

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

An exciting journey to dartford too complete a driving assessment for a recent rtc before xmas

I hope that's for tomorrow, and goes well.

[EyesWeldedShut]

On 27/10/2024 at 08:40, grogee said:

I suspect it was a combination of reasons:

Cost considerations: Skoda's high-tech 1.6 OHC would probably have cost more per unit than the plodding VW 1.6 they were churning out in huge numbers. It may also have required new investment in tooling/factory to make it. 

Marketing reasons: VW would have felt the Favorit/Felicia threatened its small car line up, but if the Skodas were only available with low power engines that means Polo and Golf could exploit the upper ends of the market. 

In other words, VW used the existing Skoda line-up to plug the gap at the very bottom of its range, and it probably opened doors to increased volume in the then Eastern Bloc markets. 

+ VW needed/needs to keep it's very unionised German workforce happy?

[stuboy]

Another exciting time driving up a very slippery m20, bluebell Hill, m2 to ebbsfleet.. slippery when frozen ( wet wet wet )

[Imhotep]

Not sure if this is news or grumpy. Could be both. 
 

Had to drag this thing out of its slumber of 4 days today and buy new brakes because the reliable modern daily driver I bought has decided to not be that so I now have to get the fragile mid 00s MGR product that hasn’t let me down once out and tested. Not sure why I bother buying other cars, honestly. Sometimes the stuff you don’t expect to ‘just work’ does just that. 
 

 

[barefoot]

Yesterday I watched Trafic, a Jacques Tati film. I've never seen it before, it was very odd and very good.

[davehedgehog31]

After four months of paying for this lockup I finally put a car in it. I think I'll get the 207 back out in the spring when working on cars is a bit more tolerable, it's taking a while to heat up so not sure if stunning thermal efficiency, or sticky thermostat. It could also do with the tracking doing so I'll do that and stick the set of good summer tyres I have on the (possibly refurbished) wheels.

I feel a bit overburdened with cars at the moment but in the annoying position of really liking them all and not having a clear option to sell. This second lockup buys a bit more space.

[Wibble]

Garage just called to say it will be £720 to repair the Yeti, plus another £140 if it needs programming. I feel sick 🙁

[robt100]

3 hours ago, Wibble said:

Garage just called to say it will be £720 to repair the Yeti, plus another £140 if it needs programming. I feel sick 🙁

What was it they were fixing that may need programming? Surely there is a local 'shiter who has VCDS that could do the programming, or is it something even deeper down?

[Wibble]

7 minutes ago, robt100 said:

What was it they were fixing that may need programming? Surely there is a local 'shiter who has VCDS that could do the programming, or is it something even deeper down?

I’ve only met two local shiters and neither are VAG guys.

It’s a broken clock spring and I’ve seen a comment on a Skoda forum where they had to have it coded in on their Yeti of same year and model.

What’s extra annoying is, apparently VW did a recall in the US for models with these clockspring modules.

[comfortablynumb]

Jason Plato's BTCC team will be running Mercedes for this season.

Anything that brings another manufacturer into the series can only be a good thing👍

[artdjones]

4 minutes ago, Wibble said:

I’ve only met two local shiters and neither are VAG guys.

It’s a broken clock spring and I’ve seen a comment on a Skoda forum where they had to have it coded in on their Yeti of same year and model.

What’s extra annoying is, apparently VW did a recall in the US for models with these clockspring modules.

They can be very expensive parts if bought genuine.

Probably too late, but they can be rebuilt with a new strip, and as it's your original electronics, no coding is needed.

Sorry, £140 for coding is a complete rip off for the amount of time it takes.

[Wibble]

2 minutes ago, artdjones said:

They can be very expensive parts if bought genuine.

Probably too late, but they can be rebuilt with a new strip, and as it's your original electronics, no coding is needed.

Sorry, £140 for coding is a complete rip off for the amount of time it takes.

Yes, it’s being replaced with a main dealer part. I’d seen examples of repairs to the strip but I’m not up for that. Yep, coding sounded dear to me but I’m stuck with it now. Needed the car fixed asap too.

[Jazoli]

42 minutes ago, artdjones said:

 

Sorry, £140 for coding is a complete rip off for the amount of time it takes.

Well yes and no, they have a multimillion pound building to build and run, staff to pay, probably £50k in diagnostic equipment to buy and continously license, have to train staff to use it, pensions etc etc, it is not always black and white as you suggest.

I've never had to pay for coding as I'm reasonably proficient with the knockoff kit that I have, actually I have now I think about it, I paid a Saab specialist to code aux-in with their tech2 kit, it took them ten minutes and cost £75 as that was their minimum charge, I was happy with that.

[bunglebus]

Power's been out since 2am, briefly reappears then off it goes. I can see the guys working in the next road trying to fix it

[comfortablynumb]

Yet another artic in the ditch on my road, local village with a weight restriction.

Weather isn't even that bad round here, just a bit wet🙄

[Metal Guru]

25 minutes ago, comfortablynumb said:

Yet another artic in the ditch on my road, local village with a weight restriction.

Weather isn't even that bad round here, just a bit wet🙄

Never driven a lorry, but I understand the tyres don’t have the water dispersing bits (sipes?) that car tyres have and rely on the weight of the lorry to displace water and stop aquaplaning instead. 
Does that not make them virtually like slicks on snow and ice?

[comfortablynumb]

31 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Never driven a lorry, but I understand the tyres don’t have the water dispersing bits (sipes?) that car tyres have and rely on the weight of the lorry to displace water and stop aquaplaning instead. 
Does that not make them virtually like slicks on snow and ice?

Would do, if there was any snow or ice here!

Main problem is the road is way too narrow for heavy traffic, so when two large vehicles meet, one of them puts a wheel onto the verge, which is mud/grass, and we're fenland, so everything is ditches alongside the roads, verge collapses and in you go....

Hence the weight restriction.....😕

[Hawkeyethenoo]

LUNATIC! 

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