Vorsprung Durch Ticket (MOT) - Ohdearme’s turn of the century emporium

[Ohdearme]

16 minutes ago, snagglepuss said:

That is proper mingebaggery wtih the quidco! Well done ... 

Less of that! 199 more of those and I’ll have paid for the £4 taxi to get to the station

[TataBobu]

Hyundai SantaFe, 2.7l petrol V6

[Ohdearme]

Train is uneventful.

sheds and cloud.

I am likely to be in dog house on return, furious Mrs ODM rang asking where keys to broken Mazda are as her coat in it for school run...obviously they are in my pocket with me and somewhere past Petrtborough.

Tried to get in via back window, deadlocks forbade it so wife went to school coat less with a hat and also snow.

Failed wife burglar has also set 323 alarm off so will be intermittently parping away until I arrive home around 23:00.

Going to take a lot of Percy pigs to recover this situation.

On the bright side, V6 awaits.

[Ohdearme]

London to be specific.

anticipation, can hear the car Nicole-ing me.

[The Moog]

Less of that! 199 more of those and I’ll have paid for the £4 taxi to get to the station

That was meant with an air of awe!

[Crackers]

5 hours ago, Sir Snipes said:

Somebody hasnt been keeping up with the roffle threads!

Damn right. 

If the thread title doesn't contain the words "Land" and "Rover" I've not read it. 

 

*edit: Not to worry, I've got it now. 

[Ohdearme]

@snagglepuss 198...

final train boarded...

[Ohdearme]

Oh and Pez, etc.

great to meet @RobT lovely car and sounds gorgeous.

’Welcome, the vehicle computer is now checking systems for you’ nearly made me crash the car laughing.

 

[NorthernMonkey]

Oh, now that is nice.

Looking forward to collecting this in due course ???

[RobT]

Yeah, the computer bloke is good for the LoLz isn't it.  Chod speed m8.

[Ohdearme]

Home and parked away from the tree.

The drive home best described in a Rutger Hauer Blade Runner monologue...

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe, 6,000 revs bouncing off the blackwall tunnel, cruised with only the moon in my mirrors for company on the A1, marveled at the curious whistling noise on full throttle, all these things will be lost to time, like the last bastard 40 miles of range that went - - - - and shat me right up before my timed stop.

Anyway, home safe - indicated 31.7, would have been better but for acceleration japes towards the end, could do with a sixth gear for the motorway but a cracking addition to the fleet.

Great to meet Rob and the Blue rinse Renault too. Would buy again, etc.

[Kiltox]

Brave man that runs an old Renault close to 0 range. Electric cars have nothing on that for range anxiety 

[loserone]

Can I call dibs yet?

[Kiltox]

10 minutes ago, loserone said:

Can I call dibs yet?

No. I want this so fucking badly ?. 

[loserone]

Just now, Kiltox said:

No. I want this so fucking badly ?. 

You can get it sorted and I'll hire it to drive to France?

[Kiltox]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

You can get it sorted and I'll hire it to drive to France?

On the proviso that if it breaks over there you’ve bought it, sure ? 

[Ohdearme]

2 hours ago, Kiltox said:

Brave man that runs an old Renault close to 0 range. Electric cars have nothing on that for range anxiety 

I did it twice...Rob had left 60 miles in the tank so plan was to get out of London and find a sensible petrol price, then the range surrender monkeyed on me.

Had to stop due to range anxiety and at 1.30+ a litre, I put enough to get me home + some for luck, but the range zonked out on me again just shy of Doncaster and I white knuckle rode it for a good few miles to the Esso garage on the A1.

Cconsulting le manual when I arrived home "When just over one gallon (6 litres) of fuel remains...the range is replaced by dashes."

How very helpful*

[Kiltox]

Modern Renners do exactly the same. Guess they know how much of a guess-o-meter it is. 

[Sir Snipes]

My citroen does that too. Once it hits about 25 miles to empty it gives up and goes blank.

[Ohdearme]

52 minutes ago, Sir Snipes said:

My citroen does that too. Once it hits about 25 miles to empty it gives up and goes blank.

As did my Outlander PHEV...a fact I discovered to Mrs ODM's unfettered joy* whilst driving over the M62 en route to catch a plane for my honeymoon in 2014, why run one gauge to empty when you can have two at zero?

[Ohdearme]

Prior to collecting the Frenchie, Ciara had done this.

£27 pounds and three days later, this arrived.

So as the weather seemed pretty mild* this afternoon I figured I’d get out there and get the whole window situation resolved.

Also an excuse to test my absurd quantity of Aldi birthday screwdrivers, collapsy front seat makes excellent bench.

First  job was actually pushing and steering the ungrateful bastard into a position so I could get proper access to the door as a week and bit of doing nothing had drained the battery so it wouldn’t start.

Once done, sniffing around the door a few screws and studs were spotted but the arm required YouTube and a lot of swearing, its a spring to pop off the top but it was stiff as and required lots of shouting and screaming and I nicked the vinyl  as it finally came out.

Door off and a bit of head scratching, then decided to unbolt the window guide and lever it over so I could the quarter light in.

Pulling down the bar a bit didn’t give me enough room so I pulled more and revealed a random screw hole with no screw in it and found the screw under the door seal.

Unconcerned* it was turning into one of those ‘it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better’ jobs, I rolled down the window more and twisted the bar out of the way to get the window in and then just had to get the main window back into the guides.

Took a bit of brute force to get enough of it back in and then wind it down to guide the rest in. Total fluke I left the window halfway down and not at the bottom or that would have been a twat and meant doing it again.

Found a gap on the outside and after looking around, found a random little clip on the floor, required a bit of persuading to fit back in, should have added it before the windows but hey ho.

Assembly reverse of taking apart, minus swearing, etc. Amazingly for such an old beater, it didn’t even snap a single door clip.

Picked out the nick in the vinyl and dabbed over with a spot of superglue to stop it getting any worse and then cleaned the scrappers marker off the window.

Buoyed by success, I took the White Mazda remote apart, tested the contacts with a screwdriver to lock/unlock and used some professional contact cleaner (ok it was a baby wipe) to clean the contacts and now the remote is fully functioning so double victory today, assuming it restarts when the battery has finished charging of course...

[Ohdearme]

As lockdown end approaches I’ve finally decided to sort out a bunch of jobs that needed doing, mainly by selling on cars so I had to attend to things...

@bangernomics has driven off into the sunset with 323-1, mug to the wife’s dismay as she’s now only got 1 323 to drive around in.

323-1 had been discharging the battery and after pulling (and crushing a fair number of fuses to trace the drain, I popped multimeter on). battery was charged up and alternator is putting out healthy juice and it got him home but it seems the battery was the culprit. 
 

Other Mazda was dispatched for mot, for once I did a check of the lights and obvious bits but it was pissing it down so under car inspections were out.

Failed on a split drop link boot and slack handbrake (never thought to check as it’s been off for months to avoid rusting on. I’m lazy and so paid the garage to resolve it all and give me 12 months ticket.

Laguna has been collected today by @bramz7 so I’m down to one car until I collect the Seicento.

 

[Ohdearme]

Left with the single means of transport for Mrs ODM, I thought I’d better address the ‘wet dog smell’ she had grumbled about.

investigstion in the read located a rusty anchor point and a small wet patch. Main suspect was the light fitting as it looks to have to have work done in there in the past (plus some mention of damage in the mot a few years ago).

Taking off the trim, I actually found a swimming pool in the bottom of the arch as a drain plug of some sort isn’t doing it’s job.

It’s rained over night and the boot is dry so I’m hopeful the liberal application of plumbers gold along the light seam and the drain hole are doing their job.

Having let @bangernomics drive off with two practically new Crossclimates on the rear due to can’t be arsed-ness to change,Sods law says my rear left is going flat so a new tyre will be on the horizon.

Need to figure out timings for getting the little yellow beast now.

 

[Ohdearme]

Well here I am at the railway station with muzzle in hand and nobody but me on the platform.

lots of signs insisting on said masks but seems most people on the trains are wearing them as scarves!

[purplebargeken]

Chod speed Sir.

Pastie count

Poo count

[Ohdearme]

No poos yet and no pasties either on the covid express.

Not really sure of the value of enforced maskness when there’s nobody else in my carriage - I suppose it does make it a bit harder to lick the windows.

Yes I tried. Quite boring, empty trains.

[New POD]

It's okay. You are on camera, and they will just bill you automatically with the fine. 

[Ohdearme]

All is going surprisingly smoothly, had time for a coffee and biccies in a little coffee shop in Stowmarket.

No poo count to add although the whole of Stowmarket genuinely smells of horseshit and I have no idea why.

i even googled ‘why does Stowmarket smell of horse shit’ but drew a blank. Probably for the best.

Collection activity not far now!

[spartacus]

Any clues?

[anonymous user]

48 minutes ago, spartacus said:

Any clues?

Yes, Stowmaket was built out of horse shit. Oh sorry, that probably wasn't what you were asking about.