The new news 24 thread

[Lankytim]

Just had a brainwave and realised that the MOT on the Astra ran out in September. Ooops! We've been all over the place in that Astra without an MOT. Does the police ANPR not pick it up or something?

[Cavcraft]

Supposedly it does Tim, but it's not always the case. Allegedly.

 

Right, due to financial woes I've not actually purchased a car for a few days. This, of course, is pretty dire, so after a word with the seller making sure I can collect/pay at the weekend if I won his listing he agreed.

Come the weekend I shall be ROLLIN WITH MY SHIT OFF SAFETY in this

 

I'll not be driving it back from Oswestry unfortunately but I will attempt to lob it into the boot of the Corsa. £12.50 seems a fair amount I think though sadly I don't own the required Toyota Previa or live close enough to a mega shite British seaside town to use it as it should be.

Anyone know if HGV batteries will lead to speed or just incur some Renault levels of electrical melt down?

[warren t claim]

WTF????

[RoadworkUK]

Drove the Audi all the way to London on Saturday, to visit an exhibition at Excel that was a bit shit but will go unnamed lest I acquire an unfortunate reputation.

 

Random fault of the month:- Temperature gauge functionez nes pas. Every now and then it suddenly works again, reading 90 (what it should read) for split seconds, then zero again. Some fiddling with wires is required.

 

That's as exciting as life gets in Audiland.

 

Other news:- Mended Rover clutch slave cylinder is on my desk at work mixing it with faulty MB Injectors and COMAND units awaiting warranty return.

 

EDIT:- Billy:-

 

Eh?!

[ashmicro]

Trust me Cav, that isn't on Autodata!

 

oh, and WHY THE FUCK did you buy that?

[Cavcraft]

It looks shit and I need cheering up.

[cort16]

Ha ha, that mobility scooter is class. GR84Driftin. Seems reasonable at £12.50. Does it go?

I wonder if you could hook up a little lawnmower engine or something else suitably shit to it?

[wuvvum]

Hey Wuv, have you still got the taxi?

Yep - it's currently wedged in behind the 164 outside the garage. MoT runs out in 10 days' time - currently trying to decide whether to fork out £50 to see if it'll pass.

[cms206]

It looks shit and I need cheering up.

 

 

That quote has cheered me up immeasurably Billy... my favourite quote of this week so far, beautifully summing up the Autoshite experience.

[Tayne]

Cavette - will we soon see something like this?

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/cuda2266#p/ ... 3eKmMwcVCA

[cort16]

I see the guy I sold my old Cortina to is now selling it again after fully restoring it. I mean fully restored. New doors, sills, wings, frontpanel, lower quarters with rebuilt suspension and brakes. He's also had it painted and mot'd. I'd love to have it back but I can't really justify spending the money especially with the Rover so near to being finished.

[Cavcraft]

Cavette - will we soon see something like this?

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/cuda2266#p/ ... 3eKmMwcVCA

 

Especially at the Landrover tyre

[messerschmitt owner]

Supposedly it does Tim, but it's not always the case. Allegedly.

 

Right, due to financial woes I've not actually purchased a car for a few days. This, of course, is pretty dire, so after a word with the seller making sure I can collect/pay at the weekend if I won his listing he agreed.

Come the weekend I shall be ROLLIN WITH MY SHIT OFF SAFETY in this

 

I'll not be driving it back from Oswestry unfortunately but I will attempt to lob it into the boot of the Corsa. £12.50 seems a fair amount I think though sadly I don't own the required Toyota Previa or live close enough to a mega shite British seaside town to use it as it should be.

Anyone know if HGV batteries will lead to speed or just incur some Renault levels of electrical melt down?

 

if only I'd known - I just dumped one of these at the tip - without batteries of course!!!

[Cavcraft]

Apparantly the batteries are 'only running at 50%' so I expect they either won't hold the charge for long or it won't do 6mph or whatever. Seller said 'Not car batteries,sealed lead acid or gell batteries. Car batteries would spill acid all over the ocupant if they were laid down or tipped over.

Which sounds like a challenge to me. Whatever happens a trip round the Co-op in my pyjamas is one defo one of the first trips planned.

[messerschmitt owner]

the ones I have are gel filled, sealed for life jobs. Haven't tried to see if they hold a charge but the battery size is only slightly larger than a messerschmitt one (a 12N 24-3 or 695 in new money)

 

Billy, a disabled buggy is slightly more stylish than a Corsa, with a lot more street cred (down the social)!

 

I now have five batteries in various states of deadness. It is almost time for a visit to the scrappy.

[Lankytim]

The Astra is at the MOT station now, booked in for 4pm. Everybody, stand in a circle, hold hands, close your eyes and chant with me-

 

Pass you bastard, Pass you bastard, Pass you bastard.....

[barefoot]

Whatever happens a trip round the Co-op in my pyjamas is one defo one of the first trips planned.

 

Do it barefoot at Tesco.

They hate barefoot & pyjamas but interesting to see whether they'll throw you out armed with one of those...

...especially if you dribble a bit & mumble...

[Albert Ross]

Whatever happens a trip round the Co-op in my pyjamas is one defo one of the first trips planned.

 

Do it barefoot at Tesco.

They hate barefoot & pyjamas but interesting to see whether they'll throw you out armed with one of those...

...especially if you dribble a bit & mumble...

What do you mean, "IF"!!!????

[Rocket88]

Whilst you're in there dribbling, could you pick me up a wheel nut for a Rover 75. Some twat with a windy gun has mullered one of my locking wheel nuts. I'm in the process of hammering a smaller mechanic over it..............

[cort16]

You should park the car up, get out in your pyjamas, do a couple of stretches, heave the scooter out the boot of the car in full view of the shop then get on it and drive around crashing into baked bean displays and the like.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

You should park the car up, get out in your pyjamas, do a couple of stretches, heave the scooter out the boot of the car in full view of the shop then get on it and drive around crashing into baked bean displays and the like.

[image]George Costanza running with his mobility scooter[/image]

[Lankytim]

The Astra has passed! Well, it needed a front brake pipe to get its 12 months cert but i'm still well chuffed!

[cms206]

Had to nip down to the local car breakers today to procure a front bumper for a Fiat Punto my mate's daughter helpfully drove into a rock.

 

Amongst the yard's inmates were these, pictured in happier times... the Astra only last week

 

C371 BHY by cms206, on Flickr

 

G250 TYL by cms206, on Flickr

 

... and MJM 977P... a Rickman Ranger (still to download the pic from the phone). Most of the other stuff was pretty shite, though notable were an 06-plate Ford Transit Connect, about fourteen Rover 75s and a trio of Kia Sedonas.

[Cavcraft]

The Astra has passed! Well, it needed a front brake pipe to get its 12 months cert but i'm still well chuffed!

 

Result! Rusty brake pipes are pretty common on these but hopefully it didn't cost you much to sort.

[myglaren]

Hope this hasn't already appeared in another thread.

 

Illegal clampers jailed.

[Pillock]

Leon lost power on the way home. Didn't actually notice for x miles of A46 roadwork drudgery but when it opened out to dual cabbageway and I went to overtake something, sod all happening. Struggled to get past 70mph - yes I know that's the NSL but it's also bloody scary to have that little acceleration!

 

Nursed it a little and tried to diagnose whilst moving - turbo spooling up nicely, no noises like when it grenaded the engine. Stopped in a layby and popped the bonnet, can't see anything wrong. Got back in the car and the glowplug light is flashing....? Reseated the flimsy glowplug connection rail thing (seriously, that feels like part of an airfix kit), still flashing. Pulled away onto the A46 and made a mental note to clean the brown mark off the drivers seat as I struggle through the gears with commuters in Xenon'ed Audis bearing down on me.

 

Finally got to within 10 miles of home so called the AA and sat and waited - I don't have homestart, but they'll only recover me 10 miles so that seemed to make sense. Whilst waiting (25 mins, not at all bad) I Googled the issue and found a few tales of woe - spending £1000 and not managing to fix it, another had all sorts of blocked pipes and clogged sensors and as we all know - sensors mean endlessly chasing faults by waving £20 notes at them. Then found one claiming it was a #3 injector issue - on the TDI engines, #3 has the lift sensor wire on it. Popped bonnet, looked at wire, looked at the other end of the wire that had chafed through, and looked at the gap between the two bits of wire that was causing my grief.

 

10 minutes for the AA man with his handy 12v soldering iron (that is GENIUS) - drives wonderfully. Just got to take it to a dealer to reset the light, his box wouldn't do it but he did tell me there were no more fault codes, which is handy when some tossbag has taken out the EML bulb in order to sell a knackered car as working.

 

I do hate the SEAT habit of making lights do silly things - a glowplug light meaning there's a non-critical engine issue? And the traction control light coming on means there's an issue with the mas airflow sensor.... obviously.

[dollywobbler]

Clocked up another 360 miles in the shed of dread today. I needn't have worried. She barely broke a sweat. Must do something about the side window seals though as I got wet when it started raining...

 

Also, indulged in a little green laning because my sat nav considers this a road...

 

 

Trust in meeee...

[Lankytim]

The Astra has passed! Well, it needed a front brake pipe to get its 12 months cert but i'm still well chuffed!

 

Result! Rusty brake pipes are pretty common on these but hopefully it didn't cost you much to sort.

 

 

£70 including the MOT. When I picked it up they'd even valeted it . I'll have to use this MOT centre again!

It had advisories for a corroded exhaust and rear springs, plus the brakes need servicing (I think that means new discs and pads?) but i'd call that a result for a £200 clunker.

 

Now the million $ question. Do we flog it and get something a bit newer and shinier, or just run it for another 12 months (not 18 this time) and see how it goes.

[Cavcraft]

It doesn't really owe you anything, you know the car well and it's just passed an MOT for next to nowt. I'd vote keep it and see what happens.

[Guest]

As per Cavettes advice keep it - any spare money can go on the maxi or buy another toy / keep the Mrs happy.