The new news 24 thread

[Mike D]

Got the PPF removed from the MX5 running gear this eve, what a war!

 

 

 

 

Thankfully it was made a sight easier thanks to my crimbo present form Ms D

 

 

It's freaking great, I have the old model at work but this one is smaller and more powerful

[Minimad5]

Yo Mike,

Any info on that (make and model) please !

Borrowed one from the guy next door, and it barely removed two ARB nuts, so had to resort to Halfords breaker bar.

So from then on, pretty much thought battery powered ones were / are Pissh.

[trigger]

I've had the Merc for sale on eBay and a few forums for a couple of days now, it's be picked to bits and I've been told it's too expensive on one of them , and I've had a few offers on ebay but all have been too low, I'd take £850 for it but I'd sooner they saw it first and haggled with me.

 

I'm still trying to arrange a viewing on the Starlet SR, I'm actually quite excited by this one and even the misses said she really likes it, if it's as nice as it sounds then I'll have it but the seller isn't getting back to me very quickly about viewing it tomorrow.

 

I hate playing the waiting game.

[Mike D]

Hey Mark,

  It's a Makita DTW281Z - I have the older version of this, the BTW251 at work, and this one is quite a bit smaller, so easier to wangle in places, and more powerful. I've also got the BTW450 at work as well which is an absolute beast but it's substantially larger.

[320touring]

Roping an American Top Gear celeb into my bro's daimler collection..

https://mobile.twitter.com/RutledgeWood/status/552210230072070144

[dugong]

People are messing me around with the Charade. 

Half tempted to eBay it. 

[mat_the_cat]

Half tempted to eBay it. 

 

That'll filter out the messers.

[Shep Shepherd]

Last night, I found out why The Volvo's rear fog lights weren't working:

 

 

Turns out that for some reason, the aforementioned lights are wired up as per the ones on North American 700s, meaning that their fuse is in a different place on the fusebox than usual. Therefore, the fuse that for 11 years I thought was protecting the rear fog light circuit is actually for display purposes only - I subsequently used it to replace the blown one

[vulgalour]

Makita tools are pretty ace and seem to put up with a good amount of punishment.

[dollywobbler]

Having lost a relay somewhere in the bowels of the XM's engine bay, I checked online with the good folks of Club XM. I was quickly able to find a list of relays and switches that showed me that the missing relay controlled the cooling fans. One post later and someone confirmed that I could swap it for the one next to it, which controls the speed of said cooling fan. It means I've effectively lost the high speed fan setting on the fans until I replace the relay, but that's better than having no fans at all. I love the internet! It was so quick and easy to find out what the relays do and how to overcome a temporary problem.

 

I was removing the relays to clean them up in a bid to stop the car flashing up an occasional low coolant warning combined with the cooling fans coming on. Just behind the headlamp is a bloomin' stupid place to put relays, it must be said!

[richardmorris]

Having lost a relay somewhere in the bowels of the XM's engine bay, I checked online with the good folks of Club XM. I was quickly able to find a list of relays and switches that showed me that the missing relay controlled the cooling fans. One post later and someone confirmed that I could swap it for the one next to it, which controls the speed of said cooling fan. It means I've effectively lost the high speed fan setting on the fans until I replace the relay, but that's better than having no fans at all. I love the internet! It was so quick and easy to find out what the relays do and how to overcome a temporary problem.

 

I was removing the relays to clean them up in a bid to stop the car flashing up an occasional low coolant warning combined with the cooling fans coming on. Just behind the headlamp is a bloomin' stupid place to put relays, it must be said!

 

 

They learned nothing, as it's where they are on CXs too.

[Inspector Morose]

There's a few scattered around the front of the BX too, along with resistors for the fan and dim dip.

 

What sort of relay is it Ian? If it's a standard 40A jobbie, I've got a spare or two.

[dollywobbler]

I think it's a 40-amp one, five pins. Ta. Had the clever idea today of using bubble wrap stuffed below the relays, so if I dropped one, it couldn't be lost. If only I'd thought of that first time around. However, I tihink I shall keep some to hand because apparently tools are very often dropped in a similar place and never seen again (until the entire front end is removed!).

[trigger]

I've bought a new car.

 

 

 

I'm quite excited by it actually, for those trying to work out what it is it's a Toyota Starlet 1.3 SR, Toyota made 1000 of them as run out models with Castrol inspired SR stickers, TTE rear spoiler, alloys, sports suspension and a TTE back box.

 

It needs a few jobs sorting though, the windscreen has a couple of nasty stone chips, one of the tyres is quite persisted, the alternator or a pulley is rumbling and it needs a good polish up but that's all little stuff, I need to find a sticker set for it also but I think Mrs Trigger will like it.

 

I collect it Saturday morning and I can't wait!

[Mike D]

Rumbly pulley might be the crank one, have a look from above and see if it is wobbling like hell, they're a 2 piece bonded effort, common failure but dealer only.

 

I don't think they are any quicker than the normal starlet 1.3, but theyre 88bhp as far as I remember so do go pretty well, ex-Mrs.D has a 1.3 S and apart from needing a new fuel tank and a spring it was faultless

[Lord Sterling]

Lol! Yestersay I noticed that some of my photos were being used on different sites. Firstly was a side-on picture of my 820E on a Rover site to describe some wheel trims.

 

Second were a couple of pictures of a couple of Rover 800s I spotted at the Derek J Ketteringham place in Neasdon. He is seemingly selling off his stock through online site such as Car and Classic where I spotted a couple of my pics being used:

 

 

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C571257

 

 

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C553818

 

Some pics in above advert are originally from my Flickr: Derek J Ketteringham

 

Not that I'm bothered you understand, might have been nice to have been asked though.

[twosmoke300]

Well done trigger. They are great fun little cars

[dave21478]

If they link directly to your account, I would change the photos to close-ups of big, greasy donkey cocks. But then, I am not exactly mature.

[mat_the_cat]

Makita tools are pretty ace and seem to put up with a good amount of punishment.

 

And if they finally do fail, you can still get spares for them, in this case 10+ years later.

 

[skattrd]

The Starlet looks good Trig .... but a Daihatsu would have been better/rustier/faster.

[trigger]

Your probably right but I've fancied one of these for a while and it seemed like a good compromise as Mrs Trigger wanted a K11 Micra and as nice as they are I don't really fancy one of them.

 

I've given £650 for it which I'm hoping isn't to bad, once I've splashed some love over it it should look much nicer.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

This evening I spent 30 minutes entertaining shoppers in my local Lidl car park.

Our little 1.0 Arosa hasn't been started since it was MOT'd in October, so today I pumped up a soft tyre and put some jump leads on it- vroom !! First touch of the key it was away, I left it ticking over for an hour, turned off then restarted ok. I needed to get some boxes for Xmas lights,so off to Lidl( about 5 miles away ) to nick some.

Now, I did give this some thought and parked in a space at the top of a (very) gentle slope.

On coming out of the shop the battery was so flat the doors wouldn't open, the passenger door unlocks manually,but the drivers door stayed deadlocked.

Now , I don't know if you've ever seen a middle aged 6'3" 23 stone bloke try and push start a tiny VAG hatchback from the passenger seat, needless to say it didn't go well.

First attempt ended with me pulling the handbrake on in panic when only halfway in.

Second attempt I almost had a Brian Harvey type incident.

Third try, I thought if I managed to get my right foot on the clutch from the passenger seat dropped into 2nd ,start then straight into neutral and stop with handbrake( which I'm sitting on)- not a fuckin chance!

I then realised I could sit in the drivers seat and reach across with my left hand and punt the car along , just not fast enough.

Then a bloke in a Berlingo came over and gave me a jump start- end of Mr Bean type shenanigans.

[Richard]

If they link directly to your account, I would change the photos to close-ups of big, greasy donkey cocks. But then, I am not exactly mature.

 

You can't do that on Flickr, the slightest edit breaks the link. It works on Photobucket though.

[cms206]

My shite mojo is taking a serious hammering.

 

MISS_CMS is very house proud and spends everything on the house. My wages are shit and go on petrol and bills.

 

The 940 has been my daily for a year now and has barely had a spanner near it. It has lunched a front shocky, rattles like a bastard from the front, the boot release has now packed in, the boot won't lock at all, it's backfiring comically, the emissions light is on, the clutch slave still hasn't been changed and now the crank pulley has started howling again. It gets horsed up and down the M8 and M77 on a daily basis at peak times so it doesn't get a tremendously easy time of it. MISS_CMS understands that running shite means I'm not spunking £300+ a month on a soulless eurobox but fails to understand that like a soulless eurobox they still need maintainance; the 940 had an oil & filter change at the MOT but the to-do list is getting longer.

 

"Use a 740" came the reply. Can't do that due HGF and accident damage respectively.

 

"Use the 340". Can't do that either due no test.

 

"Use the Cavalier". No MOT there either.

 

"You're not getting another car". Great. I still need a car to get me to work, and get her to work... so what do I do when the 940 inevitably chucks it? It's never failed to proceed yet (touch wood) but it's not getting the life it deserves

 

Never mind, eh... brother-in-law is likely to lose his license at court on Thursday so if that happens I'll have a 59-plate Yaris to run about in. Awesome*.

[plasticvandan]

Barely had a spanner near it + long list of brokenness= imminent failure

No money to fix said workhorse and 4 other cars means sell one of the other 4.

Car on the road is worth two in the shed.

[beko1987]

I think it's a 40-amp one, five pins. Ta. Had the clever idea today of using bubble wrap stuffed below the relays, so if I dropped one, it couldn't be lost. If only I'd thought of that first time around. However, I tihink I shall keep some to hand because apparently tools are very often dropped in a similar place and never seen again (until the entire front end is removed!).

I lost a very nice Phillips screwdriver bit down into the subframe when I did the jubilee clips over the leaky fuel hose mod, was a long one from my good set too. Heard it exit around a corner the next day...

[dollywobbler]

I went for a drive in the XM earlier. It steamed up like a bastard due to all the water that has leaked into it and kept flashing overheating DOOM lights at me.

 

I went for a drive in the 2CV later. It was fun and everything worked. Hmmm.

[Inspector Morose]

The Citroen gods are telling you something.

[dollywobbler]

I say everything, I did have to lube the 2CV's ignition barrel when I got home, as it felt slightly reluctant. However, the headlights stayed resolutely on during the drive, so hopefully the new switch can go down as a cure.

[dugong]

That'll filter out the messers.

 

Hence why I'm 'half' tempted.   

 

I need to do some better photos and clean it to death - then the car can speak for itself.