The new news 24 thread

[barefoot]

Can you still MOT it in 6 months time & depending on the result,

Keep it with another years ticket / flog it with 6 months remaining?

[cobblers]

Just decided to have an hours break from work and finally fix the temperature gauge on the t25. Typical "The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes" only despite my username I do wiring, not shoe repair.

 

It's never worked since I had it, and there was a sender in the glovebox. About 6 months ago fitted this sender and realised it had the wrong plug on, so I cut the wires off and bodged it in. Still didn't work.

 

I've just broken a van and took off it what I though was the temp sender, along with 6" of wire and the connector. It was certainly plugged in the same hole on the thermostat housing.

Fitted the sensor, soldered the connector to my loom and started the van up. Showed the van as boiling hot, then after about a couple of minutes the guage goes to zero.

I checked the gauge itself by substituting the right resistance in, and that works well enough. About 6.5 out of 8 on the Autoshite GR scale. Voltage regulator in the clocks works spot on, too.

 

Tested the sensor itself and it did strange things - had roughly the correct resistance, but when warmed up a bit it went "ping" and turned open circuit.

No idea what I've got here, but it's not a normal temp sensor! I guess it's some kind of warm up enrichment thing.

 

After looking online and almost ordering a new sender I remembered that I'm taking the engine out in a few weeks and the whole exercise was a complete waste of time so I came inside and made some cheese on toast.

[Cheggers]

Just decided to have an hours break from work and finally fix the temperature gauge on the t25. Typical "The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes" only despite my username I do wiring, not shoe repair.

 

It's never worked since I had it, and there was a sender in the glovebox. About 6 months ago fitted this sender and realised it had the wrong plug on, so I cut the wires off and bodged it in. Still didn't work.

 

I've just broken a van and took off it what I though was the temp sender, along with 6" of wire and the connector. It was certainly plugged in the same hole on the thermostat housing.

Fitted the sensor, soldered the connector to my loom and started the van up. Showed the van as boiling hot, then after about a couple of minutes the guage goes to zero.

I checked the gauge itself by substituting the right resistance in, and that works well enough. About 6.5 out of 8 on the Autoshite GR scale. Voltage regulator in the clocks works spot on, too.

 

Tested the sensor itself and it did strange things - had roughly the correct resistance, but when warmed up a bit it went "ping" and turned open circuit.

No idea what I've got here, but it's not a normal temp sensor! I guess it's some kind of warm up enrichment thing.

 

After looking online and almost ordering a new sender I remembered that I'm taking the engine out in a few weeks and the whole exercise was a complete waste of time so I came inside and made some cheese on toast.

 

Sensor for an electric fan maybe??

[Cavcraft]

Not sure where to put this and pointless starting a thread about it:

 

Just weighed in five batteries. One was a big heavy duty thing, another was slightly smaller and he other three were small-ish car ones. £25.00 the lot which isn't GR8 but there you go. The metal yard said alloy (car wheels) was paying 80p per kilo (which is £800 a tonne by my calculations) so once I've stripped all the tyres from the ones I have they're going over the scales too.

Hopefully that info will be of some use to fellow shiters who may also be looking at cashing in their scrap pile/s.

[Lankytim]

Do you drain the batteries? I've weighed a few in and always drain the acid out of them. I think I get about £4 each or something.

[cobblers]

wouldn't they be heavier with the acid in? I'd be filling them right up to the brim! Or do they pay less/kg for them full?

[Cavcraft]

I didn't know you had to Tim! Tbh I'd considered trying to be sneaky and filling them with something heavier than acid, but it doesn't sound like that's going to work!

[barefoot]

... so I came inside and made some cheese on toast.

 

So temperature gauge experience crap, how was the cheese on toast?

[cobblers]

... so I came inside and made some cheese on toast.

 

So temperature gauge experience crap, how was the cheese on toast?

 

 

Outstanding. I was feeling wild and we had run out of Leanne Perrings, so I put some American* Chip Spice on it and it turned out well. Thanks for asking!

 

*Made in Wigan, sold only in Hull

[Lankytim]

I didn't know you had to Tim! Tbh I'd considered trying to be sneaky and filling them with something heavier than acid, but it doesn't sound like that's going to work!

 

I just drain them to avoid any spillages in the boot of my car. Battery acid makes a right mess of carpet!

 

The wife rang me today from work to say they are selling off a couple of their reps company cars, one of them is a Pug 307 estate diesel (we think!!) Think its on a 54 plate or thereabouts. No idea on price, but it promises to be cheap for what it is. Sounds ideal, but these Pugs get a right panning on owner review sites- they make Fiat Stilos sound positively brilliant! Or we could keep the Astra and be ££££££'s better off. Humm... I'm still a bit of a sucker for a bargain though!

[fiatdaft]

You can't keep the vauxhall as they are shit.

[eddyramrod]

Maybe so FD, and it's not exactly pretty either, but have you looked at a 307? Ye gods and little fishes, who the fuck let that out? I say keep the Astra.

[fiatdaft]

That was a poke at the 8 page long shit thread Eddie!

[cobblers]

Keep the Astra and wait 10 years and buy a 307 when they are a novelty rather than just an awful motor that still holds some value cos they aren't that old.

[Split_Pin]

Not sure where to put this and pointless starting a thread about it:

 

Just weighed in five batteries. One was a big heavy duty thing, another was slightly smaller and he other three were small-ish car ones. £25.00 the lot which isn't GR8 but there you go. The metal yard said alloy (car wheels) was paying 80p per kilo (which is £800 a tonne by my calculations) so once I've stripped all the tyres from the ones I have they're going over the scales too.

Hopefully that info will be of some use to fellow shiters who may also be looking at cashing in their scrap pile/s.

 

Bums, I have just taken some to my local tip - didnt know they were worth something!

 

My mate Alan just wieghed in some alloys he had from his old Lexus. The milled finish on them was goosed. He got £40 for them so he was well happy!

[fiatdaft]

307 and holding value in the same sentence does not make sense?

[Lankytim]

I've seen some 61 plate 307's on ebay for 1p buy it now!

[cobblers]

307 and holding value in the same sentence does not make sense?

"some" value, only through people going "Oh that's on a 56 plate its got to be worth more than £350"

[fiatdaft]

It's a scam then! The 308 came out 5 years ago !

[cms206]

It's a scam then! The 308 came out 5 years ago !

 

 

Late registration madness then?

 

[fiatdaft]

Very!

[Lankytim]

Ok, This PUG 307 estate is a 56 reg, 1.6 110hp manual and they want £2900 for it. Is that much of a rip off? We buy any car offered £3150 when I punched the reg in, so it must be cheap!

 

Its a bit over our budget really, but I could tap my parents for a bit of money "just knock it off the inheritance, Dad"

 

They also have a 58 reg 308 for £3900. Way too much for a froggy runabout.

[Cavcraft]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=5 ... m270.l1313

 

Reasonable price it would seem but doesn't strike me as desperately cheap. Done many miles?

[dollywobbler]

I seriously wouldn't go for a 307. 07 Pugs tend to be a nightmare, though I will concede that my F-i-L's 307 SW has generally behaved itself.

 

In my news, it's been an eventful day today. Went to go shopping in the 2CV but the ignition barrel wouldn't accept the key. Couldn't be arsed trying to swap the wires over to my spare barrel, so I just took the Mav instead. Then, despite me not touching the wiper stalk, the wipers changed from intermittent to normal speed and refused to turn off. Great. As the rear wiper's intermittent setting sometimes doesn't work, I guess the switch is borked. Switching to fast and then to off does stop the wipers, but this quickly gets annoying in changeable Welsh rain.

 

Despite all the omens suggesting a day away from cars is a good idea, I gave the Mini an oil change as it's due to head to Cornwall tomorrow - which will be a bit of a shock for it. All went smoothly, apart from the hideous access to the oil filter (I couldn't be bothered to remove the eleventy twelve screws that hold the grille in place, some of which always end up lost). Then, while I was topping up and checking the oil level, I heard a trickling noise. I did put the sump plug back in didn't I?

 

Yes, I did. But half a litre of oil had still poured over the driveway. This baffled me. It was clean, fresh engine oil. Where did it come from?!

 

My conclusion is that the rocker cover gasket is knackered (it shows signs of seeping) and that I must have filled the rocker area with oil when filling up, pushing it out of the rocker gasket. I can't see how else it would have poured out in such a way as a test drive has revealed only the usual leaks! (driveshafts, gearshift gaiters). It has caused some fear for the 300 mile trip tomorrow, but I think it'll probably be alright...

[cobblers]

I couldn't be bothered to remove the eleventy twelve screws that hold the grille in place, some of which always end up lost.

 

Man, I'm so glad my mini came with a set of grille buttons fitted (http://www.minispares.com/Product.aspx?ty=pb&pid=35124)

 

I can't imagine what a ballache access would be with the grille on!

[dollywobbler]

I just pretended I was working on a van. It's what Issigonis (the sadistic bastard) would have wanted.

 

Got a pic of yours? I'm keen to see what these buttons look like fitted.

[cobblers]

Here's a picture of the hateful little thing from before I sold it:

 

[dollywobbler]

Nice. Doesn't look like they do them in black though. Proper Minis have black grilles and bumpers!

[Pete-M]

Jeep fettling today. Had a ball joint repaired. That's a mad trick. Removed the panhard rod and took it to the ball joint centre then watched how they do it. Bloody clever, they empty all the shit out of it, heat it up, inject some fancy liquid polymer stuff into it at mentally high pressure and it sets quite quickly. Put the ball joint back together, clean it up, paint it, re-grease it and Bob's your not so distant relative. They guarantee it for a year and it's cheaper than buying a complete replacement panhard rod.

 

10 mins to pop the rod back on and it's made one hell of a difference.

[Rocket88]

Here's a picture of the hateful little thing from before I sold it:

 

 

Seconded.....the spawn of Satan