The new news 24 thread

[Shep Shepherd]

Charging The Wentworth's battery, due to it going completely flat after the car's hazard warning lights reportedly came on by themselves over the weekend (I arrived home this afternoon after being at an event in Birmingham with The Volvo since Friday). Either the car doesn't like me very much, I need to buy a replacement hazard warning light switch assembly for it, or both.

[stuboy]

Show him where Llandrindod Wells is and tell him that broadband hasn't got there yet. He'll soon consider Ashford as the promised land.

 

i told him they not got electricity yet too

[rml2345]

Glad it went well Vulg, I'm sure your mum would have been proud.

 

Either the car doesn't like me very much, I need to buy a replacement hazard warning light switch assembly for it, or both.

It's the missing part of the service schedule that should read, "Every 20 years/200,000 miles - Rewire car".

Speaking of Volvos, I finally fitted the rear mudflaps to mine yesterday. Coming home tonight they appear to have made precisely fuck all difference to how much spray it kicks up but they do look quite dashing. Hoping to tidy up some of the rusty bits soon.

[Shep Shepherd]

Glad it went well Vulg, I'm sure your mum would have been proud.

 

 

It's the missing part of the service schedule that should read, "Every 20 years/200,000 miles - Rewire car".

Speaking of Volvos, I finally fitted the rear mudflaps to mine yesterday. Coming home tonight they appear to have made precisely fuck all difference to how much spray it kicks up but they do look quite dashing. Hoping to tidy up some of the rusty bits soon.

 

I have a brand new set of OEM front and rear mudflaps to fit to The Volvo at some point; the old-but-serviceable ones currently on the car will end up on The Wentworth shortly afterwards.

[barefoot]

I don't think I like mudflaps, they play havoc with the aerodynamics and cripple your mpg, or something.

[Sloth in a bowl]

i told him they not got electricity yet too

Step 2 - 'It's like Folkstone but without the good bits'. That should scare him.

[Cavcraft]

Yesterday my Vectra did it's first 'doing a Vectra'. Handily* enough, we were out shopping on my daughter's 18th birthday at that hell hole Matalan, and upon returning to the car it wouldn't start. Seemed like an immobilisor thing as it was turning but not firing up, so locked/unlocked the doors etc, all to no avail and as the EML and a picture of a car with a spanner or a key on it flashed up.

 

Rang my lad, got him out of the gym, pissed off to another shop and returned about 20 minutes later. 'I bet the silly thing starts now' says Mrs C, just as my las is pulling up with the fault code reader.

Any guesses as to what happened next? Yep, bloody thing started without complaint and wouldn't re-enact it's dummy spitting episode of previous.

[bub2006]

Vectra c? We had that with our 53 plate a day or so after we bought it. Just kept cranking,not trying to fire and below rev counter was a yellow car/spanner. We did same as you,just left it and it was fine and not put a foot wrong in 3k. Don't suppose you filled up with fuel not long before did you?

[cort16]

That fault with the vectra will never come back*

 

I'm using this 318i as my daily just now as while it's nice car it's got a really annoying sticky accelerator peddle. When you come fully off the throttle then go to press it in again it won't push down without a fair bit of pressure so when it does engage you're at 60% throttle and either accelerate uncontrolably or do big kangaroo bounces down the road.

I've oiled the unions on the pedal, lubricated the cable, oiled, cleaned and blew the pedal spring out with wd40 and it doesn't help. It's like there's a magnet on the end of the throttle spring so it takes a certain amount of pressure for it to release then once it does it's fine. It's pretty annoying.

[overrun]

The day has been superb, amazingly.  There were at least 15 cars (there were about 20 cars in the crematorium car park in addition when the procession from the church arrived), all of which had ribbons applied by the passengers/drivers in them.  Every car had at least 3 people in, some had even more.  We packed out the church, packed out the crematorium, stopped the traffic (well, initially a police officer stopped the traffic so we could all get out on the first roundabout) and Mum would have been very proud of what was achieved.

 

As Mum led the procession in the utterly beautifully turned out Daimler she looked like a very, very important person, people seemed to react almost like it was some sort of state funeral.  Normally a funeral procession is a hearse and two limousines, maybe three or four cars following, but this was a cavalcade of cars of all shapes and sizes from Dad's Lexus LS400 used as the family limo, my Xantia estate as the flower car, a brand new Mercedes mpv, an ancient Corsa van, an MG with bows all over it and even a Mazda Bongo with butterfly decals all over it.  Truly, it was the Autoshite of processions and every person taking part was happy and willing to put ribbon on their car.

 

I'm on something of a bittersweet high at the moment.  Mum has been given a send off fit for a state dignitary and the love people had for her that she gave in spades has been shown as much as we possibly can.  The generosity of those that have helped with all the practical things, the well wishes, the cards, the lighting of candles (and other flammable materials), raising of glasses and general toasting of Mum have been such that I really am overwhelmed by it all.

 

I wish I could share the experience with everyone I meet, it has been a singularly impressive event.  Everything today has been purple and white, even the rhododendrons at the crematorium were colour coded and there were so many flowers.  I almost feel bad that the funeral party arriving after us (brand new Jag hearse and limo) had to wait for all the cars and people to finish leaving before they could park up.

 

 

Glad to hear the send-off went well, mate.

 

I only learned of your loss, yesterday, when travelling with Barry Shitpeas, to collect his new car.

 

I offer my belated condolonces.

[Luckythirteen]

Run oil down the cable from the engine end? I used sewing machine oil to do that on my Ka, because it was the only bottle handy with a little dropper. Takes a while, a few drops at a time but it gets into the cover in the end.

[Cavcraft]

Vectra c? We had that with our 53 plate a day or so after we bought it. Just kept cranking,not trying to fire and below rev counter was a yellow car/spanner. We did same as you,just left it and it was fine and not put a foot wrong in 3k. Don't suppose you filled up with fuel not long before did you?

 

 

I did actually, yes!

[Bobthebeard]

That fault with the vectra will never come back*

 

I'm using this 318i as my daily just now as while it's nice car it's got a really annoying sticky accelerator peddle. When you come fully off the throttle then go to press it in again it won't push down without a fair bit of pressure so when it does engage you're at 60% throttle and either accelerate uncontrolably or do big kangaroo bounces down the road.

I've oiled the unions on the pedal, lubricated the cable, oiled, cleaned and blew the pedal spring out with wd40 and it doesn't help. It's like there's a magnet on the end of the throttle spring so it takes a certain amount of pressure for it to release then once it does it's fine. It's pretty annoying.

Found this on't internet:

 

Quote

Just bought the car and this was a tiresome fault... after hours of reading through forums and threads I went with the clean and adjust at the throttle body...

Fine sand paper and WD40 in the TB barrel and around the butterfly and a wee twist of the slow running control on the Acc. cable... Sorted!

I think the TB-butterfly was fine and the accelerator cable was to fault, no Kangaroo starts or gear changes!

Quote

[bub2006]

I did actually, yes!

We filled up not long before too. Looked into it myself and not sure if it could be same thing seeing as yours is diesel but ours looks like sediment either in fuel or disturbed in bottom of tank made its way to filter and a sensor had a hissy fit causing it to go to a failsafe mode

[bub2006]

And no fault codes where shown on ours,i keep the reader in the rear seat pocket as our last Vectra had a tendency to throw Eml up if sat in traffic too long

[Cavcraft]

We filled up not long before too. Looked into it myself and not sure if it could be same thing seeing as yours is diesel but ours looks like sediment either in fuel or disturbed in bottom of tank made its way to filter and a sensor had a hissy fit causing it to go to a failsafe mode

 

 

Makes sense even more, as I'd parked on a hill a few days ago and had to roll to the bottom (in reverse) because there was so little fuel in it, it wouldn't start on an incline! 

[bub2006]

We put 40 quid in tank,previous owner had run it on light a lot. Light was flashing when we picked it up so that shows how low it was! Drove home parked up and wouldn't fire next morning after fill up. Too many sensors on vectras now!

[Cavcraft]

It's been ok since though? I had put £25 in mine a few days ago, and had (ironically) been marvelling at the economy (especially since I was reminded about the cruise control) and then put £30 odd in it yesterday before it's 'moment'.

[Bobthebeard]

And no fault codes where shown on ours,i keep the reader in the rear seat pocket as our last Vectra had a tendency to throw Eml up if sat in traffic too long

What we need* is some kind of OBD to USB converter plug ( in beige with shite software ) so we can just connect the car directly to Autoshite via our mobile phones....

Dave?

[dollywobbler]

Have just loaded the BX with spare parts. Quite a lot of them, including the wheel trims RobT acquired for it years ago! All set for collection tomorrow. We'll be down to two cars. Scary.

[vulgalour]

You put the BX in

You take the BX out

In, out, in, out

Shake it all about

You top it up with LHM and watch it rise

That's what it's all about!

 

Oooh, do the BX shuffle!

 

&c. ad infinitum

[Junkman]

 We'll be down to two cars. Scary.

 

That's what we are now and initially the thought scared me, too.

But only a short five Months later, I find the situation quite liberating.

Getting rid of a lot of other stuff cluttering my life strongly considered now.

[Bobthebeard]

That's what we are now and initially the thought scared me, too.

But only a short five Months later, I find the situation quite liberating.

Getting rid of a lot of other stuff cluttering my life strongly considered now.

'That's so heartwarmingly First World, I love it.'

Backatcha!

Lol!

[dollywobbler]

I'm already seeing an improvement in my garage! I need to undertake a tip run to take it to the next level. Perhaps I should have done that before filling the BX with all of the parts...

[Shep Shepherd]

I don't think I like mudflaps, they play havoc with the aerodynamics and cripple your mpg, or something.

 

I find them invaluable for keeping Volvo estate tailgate windows relatively clear of road spray in wet weather. The OEM Volvo ones are shaped to properly fit the car, so I imagine that the difference that they make to the MPG is negligible

[bub2006]

It's been ok since though? I had put £25 in mine a few days ago, and had (ironically) been marvelling at the economy (especially since I was reminded about the cruise control) and then put £30 odd in it yesterday before it's 'moment'.

Ours hasn't done it in nearly 4 weeks since. Not run it low enough for light to come on though. Its had between a fiver and 40 put in tank since as and when it needs it. Our cruise control top button don't work but can turn it on by resume button. Have to use back cancel button to set a higher top speed.

[phil_lihp]

That's what we are now and initially the thought scared me, too.

But only a short five Months later, I find the situation quite liberating.

Getting rid of a lot of other stuff cluttering my life strongly considered now.

 

Go for it.  Not that I ever had a lot of clutter but I've been on a drive to get rid of as much excess 'stuff' as possible and it's remarkably liberating.  My philosophy is the less possessions you 'need', the happier you can be.

[vulgalour]

And then someone says "I've got this car for free, does anyone want it?" and all the hard work of clearing out the crap is undone.

[overrun]

I find them invaluable for keeping Volvo estate tailgate windows relatively clear of road spray in wet weather. The OEM Volvo ones are shaped to properly fit the car, so I imagine that the difference that they make to the MPG is negligible

 

I like them as well and reinstated the ones on my Escort, after some misguided, previous owned decided against them - or they fell off.

 

Probably the latter.

[Junkman]

'That's so heartwarmingly First World, I love it.'

Backatcha!

Lol!

Yeah, it's the thought of that bleedin 7.5 ton sized tip run that sucks.

First World, ay?