Ask a Shiter

[M'coli]

Re classic insurance: I've been on classic for the last 2 and a half years, and am now looking at something that's too young for my present insurers - how long does no-claims last for if unused?

[barefoot]

2 years

 

Non automotive - I've just bought a hearth brush & all the bristles are singed to buggery.

Is it possible to get bristles replaced?

Where from?

How much?

 

Thanks

[DSdriver]

Google is your friend

search for "replacement fireplace brush head" and you get lots of options

[catsinthewelder]

Re classic insurance: I've been on classic for the last 2 and a half years, and am now looking at something that's too young for my present insurers - how long does no-claims last for if unused?

 

 

A few years ago the RAC offered to use my girlfriends 3 year expired NCD, might be worth checking if they still do?

[M'coli]

Thanks fro the replies, I've been on to my old company and they can't give me a competitive quote - by about 60%! - but are forwarding me proof of NCD, which is nice!

[Angrydicky]

I'm 21 and have got the Atlantic insured with RH, it wasn't easy though and I had to get a friend of mine who works for the parent company to put in a good word for me! They didn't want to know to start with. I know for a fact RH won't touch him on a Golf at 20, neither will FJ, Peter James or Lancaster. It all seems very marque/club orientated, RH have a scheme with the A30/35 club, FJ have a scheme with the Morris Minor Club and Peter James have schemes with the TSSC and MGOC. If the car isn't one of these and you're under 23, good luck finding classic insurance, especially for something 80's

 

I know Sam (Captain Slow) is the same age as me and has his Montego with Peter James, although I think he had a similar good word put in for him!

[Pete-M]

Any Saab mechanic folk lurking?

 

Phone call today from an elderly chap with a Saab 9-5 3.0 Griffin thing. W reg, but mint and fastidiously maintained. Turns out a month or so ago the nearside seat airbag decided to deploy while he was out and about with his wife and a friend. Just went off. Boom! This has left him with an otherwise immaculate 9-5 and to get it fixed 'at the local place' (a Saab main agent...) he's staring down the barrel of a £1500+ VAT bill. Heated, electric, airbagged, full leather Recaro seats aren't cheap it appears.

 

So, I've found someone who'll replace the airbag and repair the seat panel, but I'm the one who's gonna have to find the airbag unit and reset the computer...

 

As all the other 'bags in the Saab are 12 years old, he's not bothered about using a secondhand airbag unit. I could do with finding out if there are different ones before I go ripping seats apart... Can anyone help?

[cobblers]

I've just done a few patches on my nans Ka. If fill the sills with waxoil, when I come to weld it again for the next MOT (It's bound to need something), just how much is it going to set on fire?

[M'coli]

Lots...that's what happened to my Cavalier a month or so ago! Fire extinguishers FTW.

[Cavcraft]

Fujifilm Finepix camera, Windows 8 (Compaq) computer. Have inserted Finepix disc into drive, downloaded it and the icon came onto home screen after pc restarted.

I still cannot get pictures off the camera though, on my old computer (Windows 7) it'd load up in no time at all, but on this one nowt seems to happen. On the (weird, silly) menu system there's a camera option but when I click on that it just says 'connect camera' and I've already done that of course!

 

There is one Finepix application 'thing' that opens up but this only shows pictures already stored (via e-mail) on my computer and nothing else. On the old one this same thing would load up, say '0 uploads' (or something like that) then would download pictures. This only reaches the '0 upload' bit then sod all else.

Anyone know how to sort this please? Thanks in advance.

[ashmicro]

Makes sure the camera is in PTP mode maybe? What model of FinePix is it, Billy?

[Spiny Norman]

These software discs are worse than useless.

Uninstall the fucker and just connect the camera to the PC with the supplied USB cable and the PC should simply recognise it as another disc drive, and you can copy your pics onto the PCs hard drive from there. Worked with my Fuji camera. And my Samsung. And my Nikon. And my Sony phone.....

 

I never use the manufacturer's disc, they're always full of shite.

[ashmicro]

I never use the manufacturer's disc, they're always full of shite.

 

This, +65487167

[Cavcraft]

It's a Finepix S1850, thanks.

 

It's started doing something now I've pissed about with it! I had forgotten about another disc so I shoved that in and slowly but surely things are happening. I had tried it first without the discs by the way but when nothing happened I assumed it was because of a lack of them (discs) hence putting them in. It now says 561 pictures are being uploaded and happily this includes our holiday snaps which I thought I'd binned somehow.

 

Thanks once again.

[KruJoe]

Ash, that new GIF is extremely distracting!

 

Billy, I've never bothered with disks, cables and all that crap.

Whip out the memory card. If your computer doesn't have an SD card slot, use a USB card reader, they're pennies ont' bay.

Eg:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/All-in-One-US ... 0645226324

Then it works like a thumb drive.

Cut or copy, and paste onto your PC. Job's a good un.

[Cavcraft]

Cheers, Joe. I did put the memory card into the pc tower but crap all happened! I've downloaded the pictures and now Botophucket is piss arsing about and I can't use the 'bulk uploader' bit as the bastard times out then comes up with a stupid message

[KruJoe]

Yeah, those readers do go TITS up sometimes. Invest another 99p.

 

New, but related question...

WHY T F have Photobucket pissed about with their setup? Sux donkey cock now.

I did take advantage of their new 'feedback' feature, no doubt they'll ignore me. Why try to fix it when it weren't broke? (Much.)

[Cavcraft]

You can go back to the old system, Joe. I just did but then because it's impossible to bulk upload at the moment I've gone back to the new one and I'm using 'drag and drop' instead.

The whole website seems to have gone right down the shitter though as even one picture is taking an absolute age to load up.

[KruJoe]

You can go back to the old system, Joe.

Oh, so you can! Long may it last.

Though that option will probably disappear in time.

 

Sunday evening is the busiest time* for interwebz, so that might be why it's slow.

 

*I think I read that somewhere. On the interweb.

[Largactil]

My 205 is off for an MOT next Wednesday; when Will of this parish MOT'd it last year, the washer jets were u/s.

 

He replaced the pump, to no avail - In the end, it turned out it was the washer stalk which was u/s (i.e pulling it towards you did nowt) - He wired a toggle switch directly from the pump to the battery (via a fuse!), and job done.

 

With more time in hand, I'm tempted to swap the wiper stalk out for another to see if that fixes it - But being a povo spec XE, it doesn't have the rear wiper function on it's current stalk and a replacement to match is hard to come by.

 

Therefore, stupid question:

 

I know the 309 stalks are interchangable with the 205, but what about the 405 of that era? (1990).

 

My XE only has two wiper speeds, and no intermittent wipe function...If I plug in a stalk which has this function, will my wiper motor cope?

 

(The higher spec 405's even had a variable adjustment on how often the intermittent wipe mode wiped... )

 

Cheers!

[wuvvum]

The intermittent wipe function is done via a relay with a timer built in. If you wire up a switch with an intermittent position and don't plumb a relay in, then I would imagine the intermittent position will just run the wipers on constant. I think even early 405 stalks are different, but there were quite a few early 309 models that didn't have rear wipers, especially in France - might be worth trying Frogbay for an appropriate stalk.

[Largactil]

Good call Wuv - I did wonder if there was another element in the system.

 

I've managed to score a wiper stalk for a CJ for not a lot, as they didn't have rear wiper's either.

[panhard65]

Bump

[michael1703]

anti spam bump

[CreepingJesus]

Got this odd prob with the Volvo, wonder if anyone can help.

If I'm braking and turning left at about 15mph, the ABS pump kicks in, and the pedal pulses. I've a gut feeling the O/S ABS ring might be a bit shonky, and causing a misfire. Any ideas?

[whitevanman]

could it be the wires stretching and causing an intermitant break? I had something similar once and that was the problem.

[CreepingJesus]

Good call; hadn't thought of a physical problem with the sensor wires.

[meshking]

I'm thinking of buying a fluid extractor so that I can do oil changes without scrabbling about on the floor. What's the shiters opinion?

 

1. Stop being a lazy arse

2. It leaves deposits in the engine, so don't do it

3. Go for it, doesn't make any difference whether the oil is sucked from the sump or dropped out the plug

[whitevanman]

I like the idea...but never quite trust that the debris will all be removed.

[willswitchengage]

In machine mart you can get What are essentially oil hoovers that just suck it all out. I can't imagine it involves any less swearing or mess however.