The new news 24 thread

[vulgalour]

Yup, that all sounds like standard Princess problems, it's done well to only have that at the mileage, really well.  Must've been very well cared for by that one owner.

[Timewaster]

MMM

[dollywobbler]

You should have said Rich! You would have been welcome to pop in for a brew. Did you avoid the thunderstorms and torrential rain?

[garethj]

My better half's S Type Jag has had a few issues recently.  I bought it 2 years ago and it's been bloody brilliant up until a couple of months ago.

 

The passive alarm sounder was going off in the night, it's not the full noisy alarm but a quieter one, but not quiet enough at 2am.  My fix was to run downstairs in my Rupert Bear pyjamas and plug a battery charger onto it.  That mostly worked.

 

Until it didn't.  The problem wasn't happening all the time, but it got more frequent and even after a new main battery, a few more nights and I couldn't shut the thing off.  Off to the garage for a new sounder module which didn't fix it, and then they found some part of the wiring with high resistance that did fix it.  A few hundred quid, by the time you've put labour, VAT etc on there.

 

Last month there was a rattling from the front, turned out that the local mechanic who MoT'd it fitted brake pads without anti rattle springs, new pads and all was well.  At the same time, the aircon was getting feeble.  It would cool the car down once you were up to speed, but when trundling about the air from the vents wasn't cold.  The compressor was getting weak but a new one (kerching) fixed it.  Best part of £150 for the brakes and £400 for the aircon.

 

And the battery has been discharging overnight sometimes.  It hadn't done it for ages, but 2 weeks ago it did again.  Not just a bit flat, but not enough power to flip the central locking or even power the alarm LED on the dashboard.  The thing is, the family were off to France in it 3 days later and I didn't want it breaking down over there so back to the garage again.

 

"It's your alternator, it's overcharging and that's causing the regulator to discharge the battery".  £300 worth of diagnostics and labour, £400 for the alternator.

 

Christ on a bike, this is expensive, but thank goodness it's fixed.  And the family were able to drive off to France last Wednesday morning.  Until I got a phone call "we're on the M25 and the battery warning light is on".  I told her to call the RAC out once they arrived at Dover, the very nice man put a voltmeter on it and pronounced it was definitely charging and perhaps the car's diagnostics were having a bit of a hissy fit.

 

They drove through France with the battery warning light on, arrived safely.  2 days later when she went to start the car, the battery was totally flat.  The local garage absolutely defined the French attitude of "if you can afford a car like that, and it's British (my wife is French) you can how-you-say piss off".

 

RAC called again, and off to the nearest Jaguar dealership.  Unfortunately this is France in August and everyone is on holiday, there was only one technician left.  He did some diagnostics, suggested that changing the alternator was the first thing but as that had already been done, further work would take at least half a day which he couldn't really spare.  But the garage staff were very polite and as helpful as they could be bearing in mind there was almost nobody there.

 

This brings two things to mind; if a French person went on holiday to New York where things are open 24 hours, all year round, he'd probably think he'd arrived on Mars.  Secondly, I wonder if it really needed this alternator, as the car is now slightly worse than it was before, back when I was £700 richer.  It's booked back in to the garage as soon as they come back, and I'm expecting a tricky phone call.

[michael1703]

I think he's done alright, It has a few bubbles round the arches, the rear dog legs need welding up, the vinyl roof is flaking and the gas struts have gone but I think it will get back on the road without too much drama.

 

Find me a local one please trig

[ShiteRider]

I just went on ebay to list some crap as the house is overrun with bits of broken cars and ended up buying a type 9 box and an atlas axle.

I really need to get grip on my compulsive purchasing of shite.

[dollywobbler]

I've had these thinks before, but I'm having them again, which makes me think it's the sensible course of action. It may be time to say goodbye to the one that has been a part of my life for 14 years. Yes, I think the 2CV needs to go. It was bloody lucky to scrape an MOT this year. It's going to need pretty major surgery to sort it out. But it's at the stage that chasing the rot will see pretty much the whole bodyshell needing to be stripped and de-rusted. 

 

On top of that, it's not actually very nice to drive at the moment, as quite a lot of things are worn out. I'm really not feeling the love and being cold-hearted for a moment, it is just a car. I know I've had great times with it, but that isn't going to change if I sell it. I'll still remember those good times. 

 

On top of all that, I admit it. My head has been turned by another. Her name is Dyane... I really must own another one! It is the Autoshite 2CV after all, and a decent one is still a huge chunk less than a decent 2CV. Or making my 2CV decent.

 

Nothing lasts forever, all good things come to an end, there's plenty more ol' shite in the sea - or something.

[richardmorris]

I've had these thinks before, but I'm having them again, which makes me think it's the sensible course of action. It may be time to say goodbye to the one that has been a part of my life for 14 years. Yes, I think the 2CV needs to go. It was bloody lucky to scrape an MOT this year. It's going to need pretty major surgery to sort it out. But it's at the stage that chasing the rot will see pretty much the whole bodyshell needing to be stripped and de-rusted. 

 

On top of that, it's not actually very nice to drive at the moment, as quite a lot of things are worn out. I'm really not feeling the love and being cold-hearted for a moment, it is just a car. I know I've had great times with it, but that isn't going to change if I sell it. I'll still remember those good times. 

 

On top of all that, I admit it. My head has been turned by another. Her name is Dyane... I really must own another one! It is the Autoshite 2CV after all, and a decent one is still a huge chunk less than a decent 2CV. Or making my 2CV decent.

 

Nothing lasts forever, all good things come to an end, there's plenty more ol' shite in the sea - or something.

 

 

If you think you're getting a "like" for that you're sorely mistaken

[catsinthewelder]

Best of luck getting the S-type sorted Gareth,  the one that I fixed on Thursday initially failed to start with a discharged battery caused by the wiper motor burning out and becoming slightly open circuit (I didn't diagnose it, I just fitted the new part).

 

Yes I got a bit wet DW,  left the kids and Mrs in the chippy on the prom while I legged it barefoot accross to Mill St long stay to fetch the Disco.  I thought about giving you a shout on the way back but the kids were pretty knackered so it was best to just drag em home.

 

It's a shame that you couldn't have stuck that Dyane body you found with the Renault 6 on Ellie's chassis while someone patched her up.  Sometimes you need to say goodbye though,  we're failing to make difficult decisions here as we have 4 cars and can only justify 3.  One needs to have 6 seats so that's the Disco,  the Cherry was supposed to go when it was fixed but we both really like it and it's the only really reliable car here.

 

I now don't have a proper job so I really can't start barning chod but.........well........erm........

[dollywobbler]

It isn't an easy decision. I'm not sure I've recovered from the efforts to restore this car last time though, and it's rusty again now. I just haven't got it in me to do it again, let alone fund it. The alternative is to stash her away in the garage and assume I'll have the funds to sort her out at some point. That'll just turn me into one of those 'no, it's not for sale, I'm going to restore it' types who never do.

[garethj]

Best of luck getting the S-type sorted Gareth,  the one that I fixed on Thursday initially failed to start with a discharged battery caused by the wiper motor burning out and becoming slightly open circuit (I didn't diagnose it, I just fitted the new part)

 

That's the kind of thing that worries me, it could be almost anything causing this problem because it's all linked together.  And it's not like you can take it turns to pull fuses out these days, everything is linked through ECUs.

 

On the flip side, I went to look at an ancient Land Rover today and there was so much room around the engine my normal 3/8 socket set would have got agoraphobic.  If I buy one, I may have to get a new 3/4 socket set so it doesn't get lost in all the empty space.

 

The last two family cars we've had, both suffered from problems which couldn't be diagnosed by garages.  I'm working hard for my salary, driving around in a fucking soulless Skoda just so garage owners can play the automotive diagnostic version of spin the bottle at my expense.

[richardmorris]

That's why I got rid of my citroen C5 - continual ant-pollution error messages that nothing I did in six years would solve. I spent a lot replacing parts that I hoped would fix the problem but nothing did. Decided life was too short and p/xed it for the merc.

[coalnotdole]

I took the Scimitar over to Portsmouth on Thursday to collect some leather car seats I'd won on eBay for 99p. it's been running a bit hot recently which I'd been blaming on the hot weather and constant traffic jams we have locally. I'd just pulled up at the sellers house when a hose burst sending clouds of steam everywhere, leaving an impressive brown stain running down an otherwise pleasant suburban street.

 

I called the aa out who were able to find a bit of second hand hose but the breakdown man reckoned the cooling system might have been over pressurising, he tried a colour test on the coolant system and it went a bit green so he suggested it may be a small leek from the head gasket... He thought I should get it towed home but I decided to drive as I don't particularly like being towed unless it's completely bolloxed. It got pretty hot but made it home without incident.

 

Yesterday I did a bit more investigating I checked the thermostat and water pump but could find nothing wrong, So keen to try find out what's the matter with it I took the inlet manifold and heads off today... and I still can't find anything wrong with it.

 

I'll put the heads back on tomorrow but I'm still not really sure it will have solved the problem...

[dugong]

I've had these thinks before, but I'm having them again, which makes me think it's the sensible course of action. It may be time to say goodbye to the one that has been a part of my life for 14 years. Yes, I think the 2CV needs to go. It was bloody lucky to scrape an MOT this year. It's going to need pretty major surgery to sort it out. But it's at the stage that chasing the rot will see pretty much the whole bodyshell needing to be stripped and de-rusted. 

 

On top of that, it's not actually very nice to drive at the moment, as quite a lot of things are worn out. I'm really not feeling the love and being cold-hearted for a moment, it is just a car. I know I've had great times with it, but that isn't going to change if I sell it. I'll still remember those good times. 

 

On top of all that, I admit it. My head has been turned by another. Her name is Dyane... I really must own another one! It is the Autoshite 2CV after all, and a decent one is still a huge chunk less than a decent 2CV. Or making my 2CV decent.

 

Nothing lasts forever, all good things come to an end, there's plenty more ol' shite in the sea - or something.

 

Is this Dyane the worst T&T'd Dyane in the country? Because you must buy if that's the case.

[wuvvum]

Spent some time on the M25 today.  The "J18-J17 delays" which the flashy boards were warning of turned out to be "J20-J15 car park".  Still, at least there was some interesting tat around me to keep me occupied - a nearly new Mustang in the outside lane (I know they're not shite, but they're a bit shit, so I quite like them), a scruffy A-reg T25 van and a Defender towing a '60s Airstream in lane 2, and a Ferrari 365GTC in lane 1 (I knew what it was because the number plate was "365GTC".  I thought it was a 330 when I first glimpsed it).  I was then overtaken by an early '50s Yank convertible (believe it was a Hudson) on the M4.

 

The journey home was less eventful, but was cheered up by a middle-aged chap in a TR4 hooning up the fast lane of the A11 at 90+ and barging the modern VAGs out of the way.

 

The purpose of my trip was to pick up yet another bike.  I'd been thinking about a C90 for a while, but they're all daft money now.  The modern AN125 equivalents are also either expensive or completely fucked.  So I've bought myself a Chinese replica. I had bad experiences with the Chinese bikes I bought ten years ago when they first started importing them, but apparently they've bucked their ideas up a bit since then.  This bike is only two years old and has only done 750 miles, but it's had a pretty tough paper round by the state of the plastics (although to be fair it's lived in London).  Initial impressions are that the quality of the plastics hasn't improved much and the finish still leaves something to be desired, but mechanically it seems a lot more together than the earlier bikes.  The plan is for it to take over commuting duties from the Lead, which is a) a little on the slow side and b ) at 32, a bit old to be thrashed flat out for 30 miles a day, 5 days a week.  In theory the new bike should be more economical too - I know Chinese bikes are rarely as frugal as the Japanese models they're based on, but I'm only getting 60mpg out of the Lead so shouldn't be too hard to improve on. 

[the judge]

My better half's S Type Jag has had a few issues recently. I bought it 2 years ago and it's been bloody brilliant up until a couple of months ago.

 

The passive alarm sounder was going off in the night, it's not the full noisy alarm but a quieter one, but not quiet enough at 2am. My fix was to run downstairs in my Rupert Bear pyjamas and plug a battery charger onto it. That mostly worked.

 

Until it didn't. The problem wasn't happening all the time, but it got more frequent and even after a new main battery, a few more nights and I couldn't shut the thing off. Off to the garage for a new sounder module which didn't fix it, and then they found some part of the wiring with high resistance that did fix it. A few hundred quid, by the time you've put labour, VAT etc on there.

 

Last month there was a rattling from the front, turned out that the local mechanic who MoT'd it fitted brake pads without anti rattle springs, new pads and all was well. At the same time, the aircon was getting feeble. It would cool the car down once you were up to speed, but when trundling about the air from the vents wasn't cold. The compressor was getting weak but a new one (kerching) fixed it. Best part of £150 for the brakes and £400 for the aircon.

 

And the battery has been discharging overnight sometimes. It hadn't done it for ages, but 2 weeks ago it did again. Not just a bit flat, but not enough power to flip the central locking or even power the alarm LED on the dashboard. The thing is, the family were off to France in it 3 days later and I didn't want it breaking down over there so back to the garage again.

 

"It's your alternator, it's overcharging and that's causing the regulator to discharge the battery". £300 worth of diagnostics and labour, £400 for the alternator.

 

Christ on a bike, this is expensive, but thank goodness it's fixed. And the family were able to drive off to France last Wednesday morning. Until I got a phone call "we're on the M25 and the battery warning light is on". I told her to call the RAC out once they arrived at Dover, the very nice man put a voltmeter on it and pronounced it was definitely charging and perhaps the car's diagnostics were having a bit of a hissy fit.

 

They drove through France with the battery warning light on, arrived safely. 2 days later when she went to start the car, the battery was totally flat. The local garage absolutely defined the French attitude of "if you can afford a car like that, and it's British (my wife is French) you can how-you-say piss off".

 

RAC called again, and off to the nearest Jaguar dealership. Unfortunately this is France in August and everyone is on holiday, there was only one technician left. He did some diagnostics, suggested that changing the alternator was the first thing but as that had already been done, further work would take at least half a day which he couldn't really spare. But the garage staff were very polite and as helpful as they could be bearing in mind there was almost nobody there.

 

This brings two things to mind; if a French person went on holiday to New York where things are open 24 hours, all year round, he'd probably think he'd arrived on Mars. Secondly, I wonder if it really needed this alternator, as the car is now slightly worse than it was before, back when I was £700 richer. It's booked back in to the garage as soon as they come back, and I'm expecting a tricky phone call.

 

Just a thought. Get them to get car out of the garage;buy a cheap charger,and put it on trickle charge every night till they come home???

[garethj]

I should have added that bit, what she's actually doing is disconnecting the battery every night.  The car is on the driveway and you can't really get a charger onto it easily.

 

Of course because it's a modern car (and I don't want this to turn into a modern carz R shit post) it flashes up all kinds of errors when the battery is reconnected, but don't think of it as a car, it's really just a computer.  So switch it off, then back on again and everything is fine.

[Timewaster]

I drove past the local ish MG dealer last week.

 

 

It was closed down.

 

Got to feel bad for them. It was only a few years ago they had a thriving Saab and Subaru business.

 

Dropped models, ugly imprezas and the demise of Saab was probably their downfall.

[twosmoke300]

What about one of those solar trickle chargers ? Got the medium one from halfords for 20 quid ( trade card ftw) for his bx. Might keep the battery topped up on the jag unless it's a massive drain

[garethj]

That's a fiendish idea, I hadn't thought of that!  But the battery in it is huge, it's 2/3 bigger again than the one on my diesel Skoda.  If it's going flat overnight then I don't think a solar trickle charger will be enough.

 

They're back on Wednesday night and it's booked into the garage on Thursday, we'll see how it goes from there.

[twosmoke300]

Your right to go down overnight is a massive drain. Ones that big are usually quite easy to find tho

[Cavcraft]

The S-Type I had had non-working windscreen wipers when I got it. A quick internet search and it was a ridiculously easy fix, I think we just took a sensor off, gave it a wipe over and it was fine after that.

I'd have another, but it'd need to be cheap as the horror stories seem to be mounting about these cars, not least them 'doing an XM' and shitting out their autoboxes when into 6 figure mileages. 

[EssDeeWon]

My dads S-Type has only ever needed new brake pads in about 4 years! Its a bloomin nice example though and only used a couple of days a week.

[phil_lihp]

The CG125 conked out again yesterday, fortunately as I was leaving the house rather than whilst out on the road, presumably to say thank you for me fitting two brand new mirrors and adjusting the rear brake.  This morning I took the carb apart, a first for me, and discovered a load of little bits of dirt and goodness knows what sat in the bottom of the float bowl.

 

All cleaned out and put back together, turn it over and petrol starts dribbling out of the float bowl  where it bolts to the carb body - the rubber seal has completely disintegrated - I think that might be some of the bits in the bowl - so it's been put back to one side until I find a seal kit.  The paper gasket to the exhaust manifold was missing altogether as well so the seller obviously didn't do a terribly thorough job of reassembling it after cleaning it out.

 

I now have a set of little cheap fuel filters en route to put on the feed pipe to the carb, twosmoke was right of course and I should have done that last time.  15 years sat untouched is starting to show through.

[DVee8]

The S type i had would flatten its battery over night if it hadn't been double locked ie press the key fob lock button twice,turned out to be a rear ecu located in the offside rear wing,a second hand one sorted it out.

[ShiteRider]

I just went on ebay to list some crap as the house is overrun with bits of broken cars and ended up buying a type 9 box and an atlas axle.

I really need to get grip on my compulsive purchasing of shite.

Axle isn't an atlas, but the diff isn't rumbling it's tits off like my current one and it also appears to have had all new bushes ( solid top voids for the win!) so every cloud....

The box is just chock full of win selects gears easily and comes with the release fork, bell housing, crossmember and stick. Not bad for £115.

[garethj]

The S type i had would flatten its battery over night if it hadn't been double locked ie press the key fob lock button twice,turned out to be a rear ecu located in the offside rear wing,a second hand one sorted it out.

 

Naturally it doesn't flatten the battery every time so I think this is worth a try.  Thanks!

[DVee8]

^^ Anything is worth a try i ended up carrying a booster power pack in the boot,till i found the problem.

[EssDeeWon]

Right ok, that black 75 sold Friday before I could get down to view it this weekend, kinda relieved in a way because I have never heard a good word said about those KV6 engines but it was a bloomin cheap car with bundles of service history so it could of been a good'un, will continue the search when I am back from Greece in September.

 

Sod all around at the moment it seems unless your prepared to travel 3 hours.

 

90% of cars for sale within a 30 mile radius of me seem to be overpriced shit with dealers (the problem with living in Essex)

[Jim Bergerac]

I drove past the local ish MG dealer last week.

 

It was closed down.

 

Got to feel bad for them. It was only a few years ago they had a thriving Saab and Subaru business.

 

Dropped models, ugly imprezas and the demise of Saab was probably their downfall.

 

Which one was it?