The new news 24 thread

[wuvvum]

More mixed results for Operation Fleet Reduction yesterday. The SVX failed to sell; the 607 sold to a Lithuanian who can barely string a comprehensible sentence together. He's apparently coming for the car tomorrow evening, which should be interesting. My experiences of selling cars to Eastern Europeans have generally not been good.

[RoadworkUK]

The "service me soon, please" warning on the Audi has been blinking away for a little while, now, but the urgency of the operation was put in perspective when I got an oil pressure warning during a spirited overtake. Cost me £12 for an emergency bottle of Shell Helix.

 

So, time for a quick oil and filter change at work. Stuck a bottle of flush through it to get rid of any nasties, and sure enough what came out was blacker than Simon Cowells bank balance. But there wasn't very much of it. I know the sump only takes 3.5 litres, but I'd say quite a lot less came out than that. I wouldn't mind betting that the last 99000 miles has seen a little reservoir build up in the intercooler pipes; there was some in there when I did the cambelt 40k ago. Anyway. New Mobil 1 and filter done, a 15 minute job when you can nick a ramp at work.

 

Next job is to investigate why my temperature gauge doesn't gauge temperatures. First port of call will be the sender at the back of the head.

[Pete-M]

I'd love Wuv's BMW, that's another one on my bucket list....

[Cavcraft]

Something of a result from eBay. Same coloured ace condition door scored for the C*rsa and the (20 miles south of Birmingham based) seller managed to get it to his sister's house in Nantwich, so collected today after work. Just got to fit the bleeder now.

[Negative Creep]

Have been painting my wheels but is now on hold, due to both me and Halfords running out of the paint I need

[rml2345]

Got a good second hand gearstick and mounting for the Yaris at the weekend for a fiver. Result!

Also got a couple of second hand camshaft position sensors whilst I was there. Neither solve the problem. Spoke to my tame mechanic today who suggested trying a flush and oil change before committing to being bum raped for the cam chain.

To be fair, it hasn't been done in a little while...

[loserone]

Unplanned challenge "leave the MX5s lights on for a fortnight and then wonder why it doesn't start" now completed. Aldi battery charger only charges if it's about 8 volts or so, which meant it had some way to go when it read 1V when I checked it this morning. Just jumped it from the 323f and took it for a 20 mile round the block run. Now reading a much healthier 12.6V, and I'll leave it trickling overnight.

 

Accessing the battery without things in the way meant pulling back a bit of carpet, which I then jammed in the boot catch. This in turn switched on the interior lights every time we went over a bump, round a roundabout, or touched the brakes.

 

Just need to find somewhere local that I can trust to cut the rot from the sill and weld some pretty new metal in before it takes over as these things are apparently capable of doing.

[vulgalour]

Decided to work on the Princess today because the weather was so nice. Ended up gardening instead. Oops.

[ashmicro]

Just posted

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-17834710

[Craig the Princess]

Just posted

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-17834710

 

Worked well for MG Rov- oh shit.

[messerschmitt owner]

just had the smart roadster MoT'd - failed on an almost inaccessible sidleight bulb (which I knew about) and a wiper blade - another year's pleasurable motoring from my pile of tat which is rapidly heading for shitedom.

 

The BX is in next Monday for an MoT and new zorst. I'm hoping it doesn't need much as it has done 1100 miles since the last MoT.

[Danblez]

Accepted an offer on the camper, will be gutted to see it go. New car arrives Sunday! Whoop!

[dollywobbler]

BX now has the boot trim re-fitted, and so has a parcel shelf again. A quirky feature of an estate for sure, but a useful one.

 

On the downside, replacing the rotor arm and dizzy cap on the Maverick has failed to cure its misfire. Now a bit stuck. How do I work out what's causing it? My feeling is it's likely to be a sensor up the swanny, but which one? Assuming it has a MAF and a lambda but I'm far from expert in such matters.

[M'coli]

I've been doing some more welding on a mate's Triumph Vitesse, this time the boot floor at the right rear above the rear chassis leg. It's an awkward sod to get to when removing duff metal and cleaning up the surfaces after, partly because most of the rear strenghtening plate's still there! The patch itself is straightforward enough bar the chassis getting in the way, but ran out of CO2 yesterday and had to stop. I didn't have any more CO2 in the shed so today used Argon/CO2 mix - I'd forgotten how differently it operates with this! Still, it did the job.

 

Next I went on to repairing the strengthening plate that goes over the boot floor - and used the stick welder on a car for the first time in 15 years! I was fairly impressed with my results - if I knew where my camera was, I'd take some photos.

[dollywobbler]

BX now has the boot trim re-fitted, and so has a parcel shelf again. A quirky feature of an estate for sure, but a useful one.

 

On the downside, replacing the rotor arm and dizzy cap on the Maverick has failed to cure its misfire. Now a bit stuck. How do I work out what's causing it? My feeling is it's likely to be a sensor up the swanny, but which one? Assuming it has a MAF and a lambda but I'm far from expert in such matters.

 

Progress. A mate reminded me that I've got his strobe. Connecting that up to each HT lead in turn revealed unevenness on the leads to cylinders 2 and 3. Looks like a set of HT leads might be a good idea then. Also proved that the Mav will fit in my garage! This is good. I can now set about changing the rear wheel cylinder indoors. A much nicer job when rain isn't dropping into your ears... (hopefully!)

[Craig the Princess]

We have (Mrs_the Princess has) decided that we should really get round to fixing the Morris Marina we have had for the past two years.

 

It needs the back half of an exhaust and a set of piston rings (hopefully) as it smokes like a bugger after it warms up (no smoke up to that stage). So on Sunday we decided to drive it into our "workshop" outbuilding. That meant starting it, if we had been thinking about it charging the battery might have been an idea. It's ok use the jump start pack, oh it's buggered .

 

Fall back plan A (after breaking one set of jump leads)

Nice to finally get the two Applejack cars together. Made bugger all difference to starting.

 

Fall back plan B

Big diesel battery will work. Nope. In the end plan C was to use a tow-rope (this also freed off the rear brakes). I then took the head off o start the piston rings job, drained the oil, removed the head. Might have been an idea to drain the coolant by this stage . Mopped out the bores and sprayed with WD40.

 

Net job, remove sump and buy a ring compressor.

[scooters]

New phone turned up today...an HTC One X....flipping awesomely powerful and has the ability to be a windscreen mounted 8 megapixle Chod snapper which AUTOMATICALLY!!! uploads photos to photobucket.

 

Very much recommended

[KruJoe]

Ace pics there Craig. Your van looks surprisingly well on those wheels.

Good luck with the Marina!

[peter9000uk]

SOn has discovered that the lights do not go off with the ignition on his 323. Laguna supplied electricity to start.

 

Bloody unreliable Jap cars! Should have bought French, but you can't tell the youngsters of today

[dollywobbler]

Got a new watch.

 

Love it. Had one many, many years ago - though it seems that these days, you can change the colour of the backlight to all sorts of nasty shades.

[RobT]

Got a new watch.

 

 

Didn't know they still made these. I used to wear Lorus watches in my youth, remember those?

 

On VSO a few years ago I bought a cheap watch in Tanzania that looked like a Casio (same font and all) but was called 'a Casino'. It used to lose about 2 minutes every day!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Got a new watch.

 

Wikipedia[/url]":yk73i4rj]According to The Guardian, "the Casio F-91W digital watch was declared to be 'the sign of al-Qaida' and a contributing factor to continued detention of prisoners by the analysts stationed at Guantánamo Bay. Briefing documents used to train staff in assessing the threat level of new detainees advise that possession of the F-91W – available online for as little as £4 – suggests the wearer has been trained in bomb making by al-Qaida in Afghanistan." United States Military intelligence officials have identified the F91W as a watch that terrorists use when constructing time bombs.

[dollywobbler]

Shit. My secret is out. I was worried the beard might be a giveaway but it's actually the fact that I wear a watch that's probably sold millions.

[Shep Shepherd]

Took delivery of one of these today:

 

 

It's GR11 for listening to Absolute 80s on the move and should make my drive to Leeds in The Volvo tomorrow quite pleasant

[CreepingJesus]

Shit. My secret is out. I was worried the beard might be a giveaway but it's actually the fact that I wear a watch that's probably sold millions.

 

You think you've got it bad? I'll see your beardy/hairy look and raise you a My-Birthday's-The-Same-As-Bin Laden.

 

I keep wearing out driver's floormats, due to the near constant presence of nasty manky boots on my leg-ends. So i've adopted the 'shiter's solution...

...£2.98 coir doormat from Ikea. Should last for ages, and it's virtually perfectly tailored already*, to the Volvo's footwell. Job's a good 'un, and eco-friendly too. So now I can swim out to Bass Rock and murder a puffin or two to redress the balance.

[vulgalour]

Finally got that hedge done on one side, filled a whole wheelie bin with clippings and there's still more needs to come off to make it a smart job. In car related news, the plans for car storage have changed again when I noticed it would be easier to construct an extra garage than to reroute the drive. So, when the weather is dry and I can be arsed, I'll be measuring the spaces I think I can fit a double garage and a single garage and then pricing up concrete and garage construction materials. For extra shite points, I could use the Allotment style of architecture. I would like to have all three cars under cover and the massively heavy drive gates rehung for security.

[retrogeezer]

you can buy those cool calculator ones from Amazon for £15 delivered:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Casio-CA-53W-1Z ... 763&sr=8-1

 

[retrogeezer]

This has never happened to me before while a car has been in my ownerships, I found it strangely exciting!:

 

 

[MonsterMaster]

Happy 100 thousand miles!^ I had a casio watch / calculator/ tv controller that i used to play havoc with in school. anytime i was in r.e. watchin jason an the argonauts id just flick it over! used to drive mr. skudlarek mental till he figured it out.

[SambaS]

PRAISE BE! My neighbour's wi-fi is back on so pictures work and pages load in seconds as opposed to minutes =DDD