The new news 24 thread

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, Momentary Lapse Of Reason said:

M6 opens half a day early after successful railway bridge installation

But wasn’t it closed further down due to a car on fire?

[lesapandre]

Out and about in London today in the rain - and saw this Honda Coupe.

Got me thinking that there was a time when Honda's were cool - or maybe they just get old and become cool - or maybe they are cool these days and I've not noticed...But anyway it was a nice car that prompted me to stop, take a look and grab a pic. 😎 

[richardmorris]

@Six-cylinder

 

[Brigsy]

Engine and box sold off the megane breaker today which give a slight bit of motivation to do some more car stuff.  Got small heater on in garage and mocked up my new turbo setup for 500hp kangoo.

[Six-cylinder]

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

@Six-cylinder

 

I didn't get anything like that even for my 50k mile convertible!

[ruffgeezer]

Freelander gone, replaced with an XC90 - it's not perfect but I know roughly what I'm on with a Volvo, it certainly wants engine mounts checking. 

[grogee]

On 08/01/2026 at 16:42, Wibble said:

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.

You could buy your own diagnostic kit and the part for less, Shirley? 

That said if you need it in a hurry, they have you over a barrel. 

Could an indy not do a clockspring for less £? 

[Wibble]

22 minutes ago, grogee said:

You could buy your own diagnostic kit and the part for less, Shirley? 

That said if you need it in a hurry, they have you over a barrel. 

Could an indy not do a clockspring for less £? 

Probably but irrelevant now as all fixed. Needed the car back for work. Like a numpty, I posted the outcome on the grumpy thread, instead of being consistent and putting it here🤦‍♂️

[IronStar]

On 12/12/2025 at 16:11, IronStar said:

It's a good fucking thing I dropped it off in the shop today before I buy more shit for it. 😆

The shop called to tell me that they want to get engine out, which is always a good sign that everything is mint* 🤣  Also we can do this, but am…you have…some welding needed here. 

It’s fucking fucked m8, totally. Initial estimate over 2k, or as my friend puts it “ah, so they’re preparing you to tell you 3 once they tally it all up”.  That’s without bodywork.  Way more than the car is worth, even as a low mileage minter, not at 360k km.

So, end of the road then? Fuck no, it’s getting fixed! I authorized the repairs, and I’m popping by for a chat tomorrow.

I really love that car, I would be very very sad if it ever went away and I could help it. 

[wuvvum]

On 10/01/2026 at 11:44, richardmorris said:

One of the remoter neighbour's gardens here. 

Is that where Andrew is living now?

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, IronStar said:

It’s fucking fucked m8, totally. Initial estimate over 2k, or as my friend puts it “ah, so they’re preparing you to tell you 3 once they tally it all up”.  That’s without bodywork.  Way more than the car is worth, even as a low mileage minter, not at 360k km.

So, end of the road then? Fuck no, it’s getting fixed! I authorized the repairs, and I’m popping by for a chat tomorrow.

[wuvvum]

The Rover got a new battery today.

The battery on the Toyota died a while ago and I was just going to buy it a new 063, but then I thought for the sake of an extra tenner I might as well do things semi-properly, so I bought an 096 for the Rover and put the 075 from the Rover in the Toyota.  (If I'd been doing it "fully" properly I would have bought an 019 for the Merc and then stuck the 096 from that in the Rover, but am I bollocks going to manoeuvre an 019 into the cramped battery housing buried deep at the back of the engine bay under the cabin filter.  Getting the old 019 out nearly put my back out.)

On the subject of the Merc, it pinged up a message on Friday night advising me to check the oil level at the next fuel stop.  I checked it on Saturday and it was indeed just above the minimum level, so I tipped a litre in which brought it back up to just below max.  It's done just under 3,500 miles since I changed the oil - 1 litre per 3,500 miles is more than the Rover uses but still within the limits of what is considered "normal" for a high mileage OM642, so I'm not going to worry too much about it.

Not much else has happened on the fleet as it's been too bloody cold.  I gave the Leapmotor a wash and treated the paint with some Diamondbrite ceramic coating stuff to try and give it a sporting chance against seagull shite, but that's about it.  It's still a little odd to me to have a car that not only needs no fettling, but that I technically wouldn't be allowed to fettle even if I wanted to...

[EyesWeldedShut]

CLK - that'll do nicely. Aiming for the 200,000 mile club for next MOT then?  🤔
Advisories on arse end rust (as usual), inner track rod (cheap as chips) and the two rear tyres are at 2.2 and 2.9mm.
Full set of tyres ordered for fitting this week, track rod from CarPartsInMotion (will fit once W203 is alive)  and I may chuck some fluids around the rear subframe in better weather.  Other than the aircon condenser it's not needed any parts since the last MOT - Happy days

[goosey]

when Screwfix said relaxed fit they wasn’t wrong 

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 minute ago, goosey said:

when Screwfix said relaxed fit they wasn’t wrong 

Chillout trews?

[IronStar]

On 12/01/2026 at 21:14, IronStar said:

The shop called to tell me that they want to get engine out, which is always a good sign that everything is mint* 🤣  Also we can do this, but am…you have…some welding needed here. 

It’s fucking fucked m8, totally. Initial estimate over 2k, or as my friend puts it “ah, so they’re preparing you to tell you 3 once they tally it all up”.  That’s without bodywork.  Way more than the car is worth, even as a low mileage minter, not at 360k km.

So, end of the road then? Fuck no, it’s getting fixed! I authorized the repairs, and I’m popping by for a chat tomorrow.

I really love that car, I would be very very sad if it ever went away and I could help it. 

Got a call back, new* injectors are good, clutch is away to get reinforced. New* high-pressure pump is being checked for leaks, and they're asking for approval to send it away for resealing if they suspect anything.

The engine is out.
Is there a seal that isn't leaking and fucked?
We're bathing the fucker in degreaser so we can see what exactly is leaking, but probably not. Jesus man, this car was seriously neglected. 
Sorry? 🫣

To be continued

[stuboy]

As established i have no EML, so i thought after clearing the last code id see if its returned and woop woop its stayed away..

[catsinthewelder]

I've got a terrible habit of parking up a car that I know will fail its MOT and moving onto something else 'temporarily' while I fix the first one.  The new car soon needs x, and I never get around to fixing the old one.  A conversation on here recently reminded me that I own a Discovery 200tdi which has been off the road since 2016  and hasn't moved since 17 or 18.  The thought that I should sell it meant it would make sense to see it could still start.  Figured this would be tricky but ever the optimist I fitted the battery that I'd just replaced on the girlfriends Corsa, checked the oil,  connected some cheap jump leads to my Focus and got in.  First issue was getting the key into the siezed up ignition barrel and the second one was turning it.  Force and persistence won in the end and I was pleased that the starter did its thing.  On the 4th go it fired up in a cloud of unburnt veg oil and spiders.  Helpfully I'd left the handbrake on so it took a few sharp taps on the transmission brake and a bit of jiggling to and fro in low box to get it moving but move it did, really quite pleased 😎

[loserone]

That is fit.   Don't fancy putting it back on the road?

[comfortablynumb]

200tdi's are practically bombproof, and worth a pretty penny now.

Everything is available for discos now, how good are you at welding?

[catsinthewelder]

2 hours ago, loserone said:

That is fit.   Don't fancy putting it back on the road?

I think it's time to admit that I won't get round to it.  Anyone else who fancies it get in touch by PM.

[andy18s]

2 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

I've got a terrible habit of parking up a car that I know will fail its MOT and moving onto something else 'temporarily' while I fix the first one.  The new car soon needs x, and I never get around to fixing the old one.  A conversation on here recently reminded me that I own a Discovery 200tdi which has been off the road since 2016  and hasn't moved since 17 or 18.  The thought that I should sell it meant it would make sense to see it could still start.  Figured this would be tricky but ever the optimist I fitted the battery that I'd just replaced on the girlfriends Corsa, checked the oil,  connected some cheap jump leads to my Focus and got in.  First issue was getting the key into the siezed up ignition barrel and the second one was turning it.  Force and persistence won in the end and I was pleased that the starter did its thing.  On the 4th go it fired up in a cloud of unburnt veg oil and spiders.  Helpfully I'd left the handbrake on so it took a few sharp taps on the transmission brake and a bit of jiggling to and fro in low box to get it moving but move it did, really quite pleased 😎

Do like that,I need to try get another 1 before they get priced out of my reach...

[stuboy]

3 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

I've got a terrible habit of parking up a car that I know will fail its MOT and moving onto something else 'temporarily' while I fix the first one.  The new car soon needs x, and I never get around to fixing the old one.  A conversation on here recently reminded me that I own a Discovery 200tdi which has been off the road since 2016  and hasn't moved since 17 or 18.  The thought that I should sell it meant it would make sense to see it could still start.  Figured this would be tricky but ever the optimist I fitted the battery that I'd just replaced on the girlfriends Corsa, checked the oil,  connected some cheap jump leads to my Focus and got in.  First issue was getting the key into the siezed up ignition barrel and the second one was turning it.  Force and persistence won in the end and I was pleased that the starter did its thing.  On the 4th go it fired up in a cloud of unburnt veg oil and spiders.  Helpfully I'd left the handbrake on so it took a few sharp taps on the transmission brake and a bit of jiggling to and fro in low box to get it moving but move it did, really quite pleased 😎

love the discovery, isnt it the 200tdi the put in 90's?

[catsinthewelder]

Yeah, same engine.  Became the 300tdi later with a more modern injection system.

This one used to belong to @dollywobbler

[Angrydicky]

I completely forgot you owned that! I remember when Wobbler owned it. They are renowned for rot though, be interesting to see how the rear chassis has fared with all those years parked on grass.

[Wibble]

Thank fuck for that!

[EyesWeldedShut]

After snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by cutting back the sound end of a crusty brake pipe too far .... (see grumpy thread) ....

Found that if you pull all the stuff off the side of the engine above the turbo (OM646) you can unclip the steel pipe from around the engine bay and pull it forwards and up enough to get some decent access for the flaring tool if you work from above/over the radiator. Cue a MFM session (ooh, err). Happy Days.

Bled it all through, reassembled all the plastic bits.
Happy days?
Nope - I've Pansy Potter'd the small feed pipe moulded into the top of the coolant expansion tank whilst MFM'ing - ballache, only a few quid and replacement should be here Saturday.  Another forgotten lesson re-learned (clear the work space, keep it tidy). New lesson also learned - LED head torch may be shite to work with as sole illumination but it does show up fluorescent coolant leaks really, really well 🤷‍♀️

Stuck some new pads in too - buggered if I could get one of the O/S (Brembo style) pins out - cut the sod into bits and then cold chiselled the stub out with one tap from the lump hammer. But we're still waiting for the original order of new pad pins - looks like the courier (Evri) has 'returned them due to inclement weather' but hasn't actually told anybody ???  seller is, understandably, not taking my word for this at the moment. Ebay are as much help as a chocolate fireguard.
Brakes International (bless 'em) spoken to this afternoon and there's a set of pins currently tracking RM24 for tomorrow - I think I can live with the £10.95 there  

[artdjones]

I had a lift in this on Wednesday. Very clean and tidy, and drove well. 385k miles on the clock. It's had one new hybrid battery, but I believe all other major units are original.

If the styling and interior had been made desirable, Toyota would have scooped the pool.

[IronStar]

On 14/01/2026 at 10:03, IronStar said:

Got a call back, new* injectors are good, clutch is away to get reinforced. New* high-pressure pump is being checked for leaks, and they're asking for approval to send it away for resealing if they suspect anything.

The engine is out.
Is there a seal that isn't leaking and fucked?
We're bathing the fucker in degreaser so we can see what exactly is leaking, but probably not. Jesus man, this car was seriously neglected. 
Sorry? 🫣

To be continued

Add to the list:

- Your brake caliper sliders were sticky (all 4 of them), brake hoses are perished, the rear right bearing was dead, driveline vibration was left halfshaft, and tripod joint there left the chat. Front shocks are leaking. Why are you fixing this car and not buying another 156 again?
- I really, really like that particular one.
- Well, it's gonna be literally brand new soon at this rate. 😆

 

[wesacosa]

free exhibitor tickets now available for the Touring car rewind (formerly Super Touring Power) at brands and oulton park.

If you have a classic you can bring it and get free tickets for the race event (although numbers are limited)

https://www.msv.com/news/2025/dec/5/touring-car-rewind-tickets-now-on-sale-for-2026