The new news 24 thread

[alcyonecorporation]

10 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

This is recently put up and I wonder if this is real.

 

He's done quite a few shows and has been on the Maestro Montego Owners' Club stand at the NEC at least once. 
I interviewed him for CCW in 2021. 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

This is recently put up and I wonder if this is real.

 

Yup, rings a bell. Why, do you doubt BL Engineering? 😀

[wuvvum]

My camellia bush appears to have decided that it's spring.

Let's hope it doesn't come to regret that decision.

It's definitely been springlike this weekend though - 14 degrees today and a bit of sunshine.  So I was able to tweak the handbrake on the Rover - it's definitely better than it was, it's still not fantastic but hopefully it'll be good enough to pass the test now.  At some point I am going to have to fit new shoes, and probably a cable as well as it's more or less at the limit of its adjustment, but I'm putting that off for as long as I can as it looks a bit of an arse of a job.  I also Captain Tolleyed the hell out of the GPS shark fin on the roof, which will hopefully at least reduce the inflow of rainwater.  I need to re-silicone the base at some point, but my cartridge of black silicone has dried out so that will need to wait for the next dry weekend.

I also touched up some bits of paint on the Maxus and fitted it with DRLs - a bit of a waste as I don't use the van at the moment, but I had the bulbs lying around getting in the way so I thought I might as well fit them to something.  They might end up in the Rover yet, but I can't decide whether or not that would look silly with DRLs.

I took the Merc out to get some bits from Roys of Wroxham and found that the offside rear brake caliper was sticking on.  I thought that was going to be another job to try and fit in, but it seems to have responded to judicious application of a large rubber mallet so I'm going to call it fixed unless it does it again.  It's never done it before.  I do really need to start using it more often though - it's a pain not having commuting cover on my classic policy as it means all the other cars are evening / weekend use only, and I don't go out in the evenings much in the winter so they just sit around most of the time.  I'll see if I can get it added when the policy renews at the end of June.

[High Jetter]

The King may be interested, in that. 

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Yup, rings a bell. Why, do you doubt BL Engineering? 😀

I used to drive one of those occasionally as a pool car. It was a pretty miserable experience even as a nearly new car. I can’t imagine how grim it would be to do a million miles in one, especially in that state.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Sprog's innate ability to compromise anything vehicular continues...
Sunday lunch visit yesterday, spotted a small nick in her outer tyre wall.

Looking a bit closer found that the wall is delaminating off the casing - she went home with a pair of CLK wheels on hers and I get to visit my favourite tyre man later this morning. He likes selling low profile tyres.

[EyesWeldedShut]

10 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Yup, rings a bell. Why, do you doubt BL Engineering? 😀

I owned a 1.6 Estate on a J reg and I doubted the engineering every time I drove it 

Best bit was when the main battery earth started to fail and the engine decided to earth down the throttle cable. That melted the nylon inner and stuck the throttle half open, interesting drive along the M6 that day. Came home with a BX diesel instead - much better car.

[Brigsy]

Couple of jobs on this weekend.

Sat - Ecumaster black standalone ecu install on a high powered megane r26.

The car has been recently mapped at 458hp, built engine/large garrett turbo , oem ecu which was pretty crap as boost was too agressive, so needs more flexibility of a modern ecu to control using boost by gear etc and traction strategies.

Up and running in 2 hours on base map with 3krpm limiter.  I done a few small tweaks to the fuel ve map so it does not foul the plugs when loading onto trailer for mapping and it idles / revs lovely. Quick shot round the block to check vehicle speed etc was working for boost by gear. Prepped for dyno tuning. 

 

Clio 2 airbag fix sunday. A customer reached out asking for diag/fix on a low miler 49k 1.4 auto. The car was decent, noted a few modifications done to it. On inspection had been fucked about by a few bodgers trying to fix the issue, chopping airbag wiring etc. I use dealer level diagnostics, but in this circumstance it would not connect as ecu vin numbers were incorrect/i.e. cloned wrong on replacement.

Into the ecu's via the tradesman entrance with renolink, its all in french but not my first rodeo.

Issues resolved. Turned out the issue was due to previous owner knackering the clock spring when fitting a cliosport steering wheel and had tried to bodge seat wiring/chopping airbag wiring off at ecu to disable the light which never works.

[wuvvum]

55 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I owned a 1.6 Estate on a J reg and I doubted the engineering every time I drove it 

Best bit was when the main battery earth started to fail and the engine decided to earth down the throttle cable. That melted the nylon inner and stuck the throttle half open, interesting drive along the M6 that day. Came home with a BX diesel instead - much better car.

My dad had a couple of diesel Montego estates as company cars back in the day - a 1990 DLX in dog dick red and a 1993 Countryman (with aircon if you please) in BRG.  His reasoning was simple - they were by some margin the most economical largish estate available at the time, which meant that he got to pocket more of his fuel allowance.

They were pretty OK reliability-wise I have to say - the only major issue I remember dad having was the wiper linkage on the DLX failing in a rainstorm in Italy.  They weren't the most refined of things, but generally they made a pretty decent family hack for us.

[Royale80]

On 20/02/2026 at 23:06, wuvvum said:

Spoke too soon - rain is getting into the boot round the GPS antenna again.  I'll squirt some Captain Tolley's around it which will hopefully help in the short term - it's going to need re-siliconing though which will have to wait for a dry day.

Mine is leaking around the light as well. Put some silicon around-but rained straight away. I'll use CT1 when the weather gets dry. Handbrake is a pain on these-mine had two new cables two years ago-may fit the Mini compensator before MOT in 2 months to make sure.

[Bren]

I manged to get oil pressure on my SD1 engine. Using my cordless drill I had some oil to the rockers - I fitted the battery and had the warning light go out while spinning the drill. Tomorrow I will refit the dizzy / plenum and rocker covers.

[Lonestar]

The Astra J hit 47k miles earlier this month. Not bad for a 13 year old car.

Passed its MOT today with one advisory for a corroded rear coil spring, so very happy with that.

Having the oil cooler changed tomorrow to hopefully finally cure its irritating intermittent coolant leak, followed by it's driver's airbag on Wednesday as part of a recall.

Meanwhile, the Carlton is still languishing in the garage awaiting some major TLC. Still a while off, but going to start accumulating parts soon.

[Datsuncog]

On 22/02/2026 at 20:09, Dyslexic Viking said:

This is recently put up and I wonder if this is real.

 

I got a bit excited as I thought I might have spotted that Montego on the outskirts of Belfast last January:

L registration? Check.

Alloy wheels? Very similar.

Load of grey primer round the rear wheelarches and door bottoms? Apparently so. 

Only the one I saw has black rubbing strips along the doors with matching black bumper inserts, while the car in the video has no rubbing strips and thin red inserts on the bumpers, so... it's not the same car. 

Never mind, as you were. 

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

I got a bit excited as I thought I might have spotted that Montego on the outskirts of Belfast last January:

L registration? Check.

Alloy wheels? Very similar.

Load of grey primer round the rear wheelarches and door bottoms? Apparently so. 

Only the one I saw has black rubbing strips along the doors with matching black bumper inserts, while the car in the video has no rubbing strips and thin red inserts on the bumpers, so... it's not the same car. 

Never mind, as you were. 

the chap who owns UOI8850 owns and daily drives a White Montego Estate tho...

[Llessur]

Finally got the engine back in on the Dolomite 1850 after changing out the clutch. Reinstallation appears to have happened somewhat on a whim - I'd had a few beers on Sunday afternoon and don't really remember much about how or when I decided to whip out the engine crane, or exactly what I did with it. But the important thing is that no-one got hurt (to the best of my knowledge).

[New POD]

9 hours ago, Lonestar said:

The Astra J hit 47k miles earlier this month. Not bad for a 13 year old car.

Passed its MOT today with one advisory for a corroded rear coil spring, so very happy with that.

Having the oil cooler changed tomorrow to hopefully finally cure its irritating intermittent coolant leak, followed by it's driver's airbag on Wednesday as part of a recall.

Meanwhile, the Carlton is still languishing in the garage awaiting some major TLC. Still a while off, but going to start accumulating parts soon.

Our Astra J 1.6 snapped both coil springs.  Probably best to replace them in pairs. 

[New POD]

So the other Astra J. This one a 1.4T auto GTC is proving I'm a useless mechanic.  I noticed some coolant loss the other weak. 

Eventually spotted it was coming from the plastic housing on the side of the engine. 

Internet wisdom said to replace with alloy housing. 

Which I did. 

And ran up to temp to check it was okay.

Next day after 19 miles It threw up a stop now warning. Most of the coolant had disappeared. Coming from behind the aluminium housing. 

I Let it cool before adding some extra coolant to finish my journey. 

At lunch time I tightened it a little more, and took it for a drive.  Seemed to be holding. 

On the way home I stopped twice to fill up. Its still pissing out once its up to full pressure. 

Expert** wisdom told me I should have reassembled with blue hylomar in the first place.   After checking the face of the new housing.  I'm working from home today so will spend lunchtime doing just that.  

 

**Expert wisdom?  I wandered into the Emgine Development team at Work and after they realised I didn't want to talk  about work especially Euro 7 or Cummins, gave me their undivided attention. 

Pictures of the old plastic housing. 

[Pete-M]

Golf today had its yearly extraction from the garage and wash. Came up pretty well. Always does. 

Need to give it a full Haldex service, including repairing or replacing the Haldex controller. 

This should be fun. 

Aim is to get it usable and right, then road trip to Germany and back in the summer. 

[Bear]

I think local wildlife dropped something

 

[lesapandre]

Aston Martin woes continue:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/25/aston-martin-to-cut-workforce-in-effort-to-save-40m#img-1

Job cuts and a pre-tax losses of £363.9m for 2025.

That's a £66,000 loss for each car made. 

[loserone]

The poor lad cannot even buy a house at the moment.  It's all gone down the pan since he got that electric pick up truck 

[BorniteIdentity]

On 21/02/2026 at 17:35, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Hit this number yesterday. These cars are fucking amazing. 

 

I beg to differ. Spiteful bloody things 😂😉

I’m pleased you have a good one though!! 

[The Vicar]

So happy to be making some meaningful progress on this old thing:

That bit of rust on the inside was/is a bit worrying. I gave it an albeit gentle poke with a screwdriver and it didn’t go through, so cleaned it up as best I could and left it alone. Out of sight out of mind 😃This will give it a few more years yet anyway..I hope 

[chadders]

13 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

I beg to differ. Spiteful bloody things 😂😉

I’m pleased you have a good one though!! 

I agree.

We bought ours new and it was the worst car we've ever had.

A great idea in theory ruined by cost cutting and trying to be too clever.

[Joey spud]

I've always loved these little things so when this mostly rust free one came available my son bought it.

It had been standing for three years and got towed to a friend's barn where it was serviced,rust proofed and a two inch lift kit added along with the more aggressive rubber. It's a work in progress toy and it ran whisper quiet until yesterday when it developed a rattle that was quickly diagnosed as a failed/unbonded crank pulley.

We had a good spare pulley so a couple of hours were put aside this morning to swap it over. What could possibly go wrong...

How about the Woodruff key decided to shear when undoing the stupidly tight crank bolt. To add to the annoyance the key also drives the cam drive gear too.

So no choice but to lift the cam cover up,drop the sump down and pull the timing cover off.

I've undone 100's of crank pulleys over the decades and never sheared the drive key before and to be honest for a Japanese manufacturer who are usually excellent having one small Woodruff key to locate two separate drive systems is a bit pants.

Awaiting fresh parts to arrive now.

Lovely and clean internally and the chain and guides are still great after 90k miles.

[stuboy]

This subaru crossback has appeared at work to step in where a broken MG is , but its not very pretty and seems small..

[auntiemaryscanary]

Went out for lunch with Mrs amc (aka my desert flower - if I want to receive a withering look) today and spotted this:

Whilst I'm not keen on the bonnet writing it was good to see something pre-war that appears to be in regular, practical use and not a show pony/concourse condition. I imagine it's a hoot to drive.

The radiator badge said Morris Minor. Is that right? I only know Minor's as the 50's to early 70's jobs.

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

8 minutes ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

Morris Minor. Is that right? I only know Minor's as the 50's to early 70's jobs.

Yes the original Morris Minor was pre-war

"When launched in September 1928, it competed head on with the Austin Seven."

https://www.prewarminor.com/the-minor-story

"in the summer of 1934 the Minor ‘passed away’; born to fight the might of Herbert Austin, it ‘died’ as a result of competition from Henry Ford."

[auntiemaryscanary]

10 minutes ago, Momentary Lapse Of Reason said:

Yes the original Morris Minor was pre-war

"When launched in September 1928, it competed head on with the Austin Seven."

https://www.prewarminor.com/the-minor-story

"in the summer of 1934 the Minor ‘passed away’; born to fight the might of Herbert Austin, it ‘died’ as a result of competition from Henry Ford."

Thanks, an interesting read, I've learnt something today. A full 8hp to propel it along!

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

4 minutes ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

A full 8hp to propel it along!

That is 8 RAC HP, a tax class.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_horsepower

The MM engine produced about 20bhp.