The new news 24 thread

[cort16]

It wasn't even wet he just looked like a massive fanny.

[HH-R]

Sounds like how most of em are driven.

[omegod]

Front Coil spring on wifeys Fiesta has broken at the top, bought a replacement coil and upon going to fit the bastard it's also took out the strut top bearing, spring has now passed over the top of the strut and the whole thing is being held in with the spring's tension.

 

Going to have to cut a couple of coils out of the bottom while it's still under tension, could prove quite eventful, anyone within a square mile of L28 please wear a helmet in the morning   

[xtriple]

Put the back door back together this morning with its rebuilt window motor. It still sounds horrible in a couple of spots but works okay but the door is a bastard to get back together and line everything up.

 

Spent the evening on the moors having a photo shoot for a camera magazine done. Was fun, but fuck it got cold fast! Oh and 'hold this, press that, start the engine, put the lights on, lights off...' gets old really fast!

[RayMK]

My 205 automatic managed 400 or so untroubled miles with its suspect head gasket, then yesterday gave a cough when asked to accelerate quickly on to a roundabout.  I did not think too much about it - old car and all that - because it quickly recovered and was fine afterwards.  Today, on its way to the garage for another inspection of the various symptoms (slight coolant loss, slimy/scummy coolant, low coolant warning light on corners (bubble?) and a more frequent warning light which according to the owners manual is for catalyst/diagnostic), the car did some peculiar coughing and spluttering when parking at its destination.  The considered view of the Peugeot mechanics - it's at a main dealer - is that the head gasket has failed.  Errr, yes.  That is why you looked at it a week ago but were not convinced.  The estimate for fixing it is about the same as the value of the car.  I could get the work done and then something else fails.  I could pour snake oil into it and have a miraculous cure of all ills.  I could find another suitable automatic and ditch the 205. The dilemma is causing indecision.

 

Why am I not fixing it myself?  Fair question.  I used to, but age and arthritis now make most major jobs impossible - even some minor ones which I have tackled have resulted in me not being able to walk for several weeks. The dilemma is also fuelled by the fact that I have, over the years, tried every course of action and the result is always the same. Expensive.  That includes the 'sod this, I'll buy a brand new car' approach.  I'll decide tomorrow. 

[ruffgeezer]

I can remember when it was something of an achievement not to drift on a wet roundabout.

 

I can remember borrowing an L200 from work that had had the "power upgrade" which basically ment that any time it was unladen, it wanted to swap ends on roundabouts.

[chodweaver]

Hydrocarbons aren't too bad so I'd rule out a missfire,or oil burning. Something is causing it to go rich, coolant temp sensor as mentioned, or I've seen Lambda sensors doing this on Renners. Can you get a diagnostic machine on it, even a cheap hand held one can tell you if the Lambda is switching properly. Inlet air leaks also can give a crazy reading like this as the lambda sensor tries to compensate for the really lean mixture.

I have a reader, I'll put it on tomorrow and see what comes up. Also, the inlet pressure/MAP sensor has had multiple bodges applied to it to try to keep it in position and not leak air - the most recent being me replacing the perished rubber seal with Hylomar instant gasket - i'd noticed it was whistling where it wasn't sealing on the manifold. I'll check if I've obstructed the sensor being over zealous with the goop.

[Guest Hooli]

Front Coil spring on wifeys Fiesta has broken at the top, bought a replacement coil and upon going to fit the bastard it's also took out the strut top bearing, spring has now passed over the top of the strut and the whole thing is being held in with the spring's tension.

 

Going to have to cut a couple of coils out of the bottom while it's still under tension, could prove quite eventful, anyone within a square mile of L28 please wear a helmet in the morning   

 

Drop the bottom link with a jack under it?

[trigger]

The Audi of despair has been toying my patience the last few days, it's been ticking over really slowing when cold to the point of nearly stalling, first i thought it was a injector but that was ruled out so i then tried cleaning the idle control valve with some carb cleaner which didn't make much of a difference so i tried spraying some carb cleaner around the metering head and the rubber boot that goes into it from the air filter and success, the idle picks up meaning there must be a air leak there somewhere.

 

There's a few little nicks and splits around the end which i didn't think were right through the rubber but perhaps they are, I've taped it up for now with some black insulation tape and it does seem better so hopefully that will be a easy fix.

 

I also noticed when driving home from work this morning that there was a knocking sound from the front when i took my foot off the accelerator but as soon as i even lightly touched the pedal again it would stop, expecting the worse and that the gearbox was fucked i decided to take a look this afternoon, on a road test it seemed to be coming from the offside front wheel, so i got the jack out and made a start undoing the wheel nuts only to find them all finger tight! D'oh! Seems i didn't do them up enough when i done the wishbones! At least that was a cheap fix!

[Kiltox]

Scenic just had a few minutes of FTP.... Not sure if fucked or just French

[tooSavvy]

Sat alongside a Tesla-S today, in traffic - saw this cool looking white exec rocket hove into view.... looked across 'Hmm, BigJag' I thought.

 

Only when I, sort of, didn't fully recognise the lines did I look at the wheelcentres... T ....   WTF??

 

 

I passed it later, on the A69, and was surprised to see a 'winker' when he pulled out.... NOT the landing light effect from TopGun you have on Aldis... !!

 

Seems they sell to people who want a car... that looks like a sexxy Jag and not a StarWars fashion statement (BMW I'm talking to you - followed yesterday on the Coast rd.)

 

TS

[captain_70s]

Brush painted the front of the yellow Triumph in red primer. Got tired of seeing the rust and the yellow paint flaking off, the red paint seems to have done an alright job of slowing the rust elsewhere...

 

It's still half arsedly for sale for £600 btw...

[MarvinsMom]

a fella in Castleton has one of them big Teslers, along with a Leaf and some Renner electric thing.

 

the Tesler is a fine looking car, for a modern.....

[trigger]

I got chatting to a older guy last weekend with a Tesla, his is the 4x4 version capable of 0-60 in under 4 seconds and cost just under £100k. I wasn't sure about the massive iPad in the dash although it does look very cool if quite distracting.

 

I'd certainty rock one if it didn't cost so much.

 

 

[dollywobbler]

They're pretty bloody awesome, though the seats and suspension are a long way short of £375 Citroen comfort. Has anyone else done that Head to Head?

 

I will concede that it is an awful lot faster, and probably more pleasant too as it doesn't have a horribly heavy clutch and this one dashed to 60 in 4.2 seconds. Quite often on that test drive...

 

They are HUGE though. I can see why the Model 3 is necessary.

[dollywobbler]

Shit. Calm down lads or we're all going to get kicked out. TESLA LOVE IN.

[wuvvum]

There's several Teslas round this way - in fact on Saturday I passed two coming the opposite direction within about 3 minutes.  They are a nice looking barge - one modern I would give driveway space to if I could afford it.

[Rusty_Rocket]

More Tesla wantage here too.. there's one in our village, in white (obvs) and it looks so classy.

 

In fact, I'd say it's one of the few modern cars I'd love to own, they are fascinating !!

[Ghosty]

The hotel I've been staying in for the last couple of days had four (!) Tesla charging stations, with Tesla logos on the parking spaces and 'Tesla parking only' signs:

 

 

The next day someone parked a Fiesta in there.

 

Also, I found some clothingshite:

 

 

 

UNO TURBO

[richardmorris]

There's loads of Teslas round here in Surrey. They're the current must have cool accessory and there's a dealer in Sunningdale. They do look just like a jag though.

[Lord Sterling]

KV6 Sterling needs to be moved again. Might have to sell it as I really can't be arsed arsing around moving and storing my cars. I need somewhere for a few months so I can get around and sell it.

 

Today I'm near Durham, yesterday I was in Truro, on the way there from Kent I spotted not one but 2 Bedford CF vans, then in Devon I spotted a really clean Mk3 Escort. I also spotted an equally clean Hillman Avenger Estate in Green.

[dollywobbler]

I shall attempt to get things back on track, having contributed to the diversion...

 

I have sold our trailer today. Yes, the one I used to take the 2CV's bodyshell up to Bradford. Don't worry. I have a different plan to get it back.

 

That means I have a bit of cash, and I think I'd like to blow said cash on clutch replacement for the XM. Of course, quite a lot of people are telling me to DIY it, but I really, really can't be arsed. I know it's going to be an absolute arse of a job, with minimal access to change the clutch and a pretty high chance of it all buggering up.

 

One person has suggested going back to the chap I bought the car from. Not a bad shout, and I may go for that. Would be nice to let him know how well the car has been doing. Also, he may be ideally placed to tackle some of the other jobs such work usually uncovers, like the shafted engine mounts. It could transform this car.

[Ghosty]

There's loads of Teslas round here in Surrey. They're the current must have cool accessory and there's a dealer in Sunningdale. They do look just like a jag though.

South's full of them - this hotel was in Bishop's Stortford.

[Timewaster]

I read recently that the new Golf size Tesla has pre orders in excess of all the Nissan Leafs (leaves?) sold in the last 5 years.

From memory I think there have been 240000 leafs sold and Tesla pre orders were in the region of 325000

 

Expect to see extention leads across the paths all over suburbia soon.

[Coprolalia]

When I manage to hold onto £1k long enough I will put it down on a Model3.

Massive man crush on Elon Musk.

[Ghosty]

The Model 3's going to have a longer waiting list than the Trabant...

[RayMK]

Re: My 205.  I have decided to get its head gasket fixed and work has started.  If the work throws up any additional major expense there could well be another decision point.

 

I have yet to see a Tesla but have seen a BMW i8 - fabulous looking machine, and a Fisker Karma - visually spectacular rather than beautiful, and sounded like a spaceship (the vacuum of space makes space ships silent to outside observers, but the Fisker sounded like a Hollywood spaceship i.e. it was humming). 

[chodweaver]

First, a big thanks to all those making suggestions as to what might be wrong with my Renner (apart from it being properly ugly, er and built with electrical bits from gooner IIs, but I digress...)

It's definitely running differently, with its new plugs and air filter, though I couldn't describe the idle as smooth as silk, but there is a dose of crud-be-gone still working its way through.

Anyway, after a run out to meet up with some capital shiters, I put the code reader on and I think I might be onto something, unless there is an acceptable tolerance for the crankshaft sensor output - according to it, the engine was doing 234 rpm when it was most very definitely not running at all

 

 

Perhaps I'll read the ENGINE(RPM) value again tomorrow with the engine running and see if it is able to sense anything other than this steady background reading.

To my distinctly novice eyes, the other readings seemed reasonable, but I'll update again tomorrow

[twosmoke300]

Some cheap code readers can get the wrong crank speed .

[SiC]

First, a big thanks to all those making suggestions as to what might be wrong with my Renner (apart from it being properly ugly, er and built with electrical bits from gooner IIs, but I digress...)

It's definitely running differently, with its new plugs and air filter, though I couldn't describe the idle as smooth as silk, but there is a dose of crud-be-gone still working its way through.

Anyway, after a run out to meet up with some capital shiters, I put the code reader on and I think I might be onto something, unless there is an acceptable tolerance for the crankshaft sensor output - according to it, the engine was doing 234 rpm when it was most very definitely not running at all

 

 

 

Perhaps I'll read the ENGINE(RPM) value again tomorrow with the engine running and see if it is able to sense anything other than this steady background reading.

To my distinctly novice eyes, the other readings seemed reasonable, but I'll update again tomorrow

That's standard on Renault's this era with generic scan tools.

 

What is your car? Vel Satis?