Ask a Shiter

[steve_earwig]

*puts handful of straws on ebay*

[Lacquer Peel]

I think old (RWD) Volvos have their fuel filler on the nearside as a legacy of driving on the left.

[Skizzer]

What makes a car manufacturer decide whether to put the fuel nozzle thing on the left or the right?

 

You want to get yourself into an old Jag, my friend.  Both sides*, for the win.

 

 

 

*Unless one of the tanks has rusted through, as on mine and 78% of the others.

[Jon]

I made a comment and seemed to have hovered the mouse over something in the replying panel which has reduced the font size of the text on all Autoshite posts and threads I view. Looks like it's Times New Roman too and not whatever default font it was before. Any idea how I get it back to how it was before? None of the options on the tool bar seem to help and I feel like an old man who can't read, the text is so small.

[Negative Creep]

I have someone from Poland who wants to buy the Celica, but I'm confused by the V5. It says that you should send off the blue section to say it's been permanently exported and retain the rest but surely it will still be in my name?

[Slappy]

I'm fairly new to car ownership, and not fantastically mechanically minded, but... lots of juddering in R and 1st, difficulty slotting into 2nd, 3rd 4th at a decent rev range and something sounding like it's loose in gearbox area when idling in neutral. New clutch? Or worse? Mk6 Fiesta btw.

[TimothyClaypole]

Would a garden shredder shred foam?

[rml2345]

I'm fairly new to car ownership, and not fantastically mechanically minded, but... lots of juddering in R and 1st, difficulty slotting into 2nd, 3rd 4th at a decent rev range and something sounding like it's loose in gearbox area when idling in neutral. New clutch? Or worse? Mk6 Fiesta btw.

 

Does the clutch feel like it's slipping? If not, it might be something linkage or hydraulic related rather than new clutch plate time. If it's cable actuated, it could be needing adjustment or something. I'd be inclined to check the gear selector and clutch hydraulics before settling on a new clutch.  

 

Edit. Some of that may not have been much help 

[Luckythirteen]

@Timothy Claypole...Little electric one? It might do, but be careful to clean it out properly after. That shit gets in the bearings if you're not careful. Ask me how I know...

A big one, like a Vermeer? Most certainly. And anything else you fancy trying. Like your mate's lunch, for instance.

[sheffcortinacentre]

check the gear selector cables on fiesta

[dave21478]

I have someone from Poland who wants to buy the Celica, but I'm confused by the V5. It says that you should send off the blue section to say it's been permanently exported and retain the rest but surely it will still be in my name?

 

Send off the Permanent Export section and hand the rest to the Polish chap. This lets DVLA know you are no longer responsible for it. What he does then it up to him, but he will probably need the rest of the V5 to register it overseas.

[Pillock]

Yeah, you keep the blue bit and send it off as it's your responsibility to notify DVLA in this case. It'll never change owners, you're correct, but it'll also have the export marker flagged so you won't be the owner any more. Its the "wrong" way around to a normal sale where new owner gets small slip, old owner keeps rest of form to post off.

 

New buyer keeps rest of form, in case their country needs it as well as "proof" of export at ports, or if they get stopped.

 

I would very much recommend a timed and dated receipt as well as a crafty photo of new buyer with car. Exported cars seem to get driven much quicker than others because they don't care about speed cameras.

[messerschmitt owner]

yep, that's what you do - three times I have had to do this. Didn't believe the last one was heading abroad and sent a nice letter saying so to the DVLA - back came confirmation it was no longer mine about two weeks later. That's all I cared about. New owner did get a receipt and I paid off the finance in front of him with his money so all was good. Never had so much cash in all my life - £15,000 in 20s and 50s.

[Slappy]

Fiesta stuff: I had been thinking gear selector cables/rods too. But when at speed it seemed to slot into gear relatively well, but with extra effort required to do so than normal on pretty much every occasion. Moving off was the worst, sounding like it was trying to engage gear, but the cogs wouldn't mesh. Forgive me, I don't think this is a slipping clutch, but can someone tell me what I would be feeling if it was?

 

The problem got progressively worse as well after the inital sudden flare up after each time I had to move off from stationary. Another forum page that I'd seen mentioned the clutch master cylinder, but it didn't get better with pumping.

[rml2345]

If the engine accelerates but the car doesn't gain speed, that would indicate a slipping clutch. From what you've said though it definitely sounds gear selector related. I had a Yaris with worn selector cables and it was a pig when cold. Sometimes you couldn't get second at all.

[steve_earwig]

 Never had so much cash in all my life - £15,000 in 20s and 50s.

I bought a house here in cash because their banks didn't have any way of transferring money into them from a UK account without giving someone somewhere their holiday money.(well, first it goes into Euros (commission no1) then it goes into Croatian Kuna (commission no.2) and then there are the bank charges...)

 

I still have to carry large wads of cash about now and again for simplicity's sake and I always wonder how long it would last if I put a match to it. You know, would it burn quickly or slowly, would it give off any special kind of heat or toxic smoke and would anything be left, like little metal strips or something?

[dave21478]

Apparently, it takes quite a long time to burn money....

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Quid

[TimothyClaypole]

@Timothy Claypole...Little electric one? It might do, but be careful to clean it out properly after. That shit gets in the bearings if you're not careful. Ask me how I know...

A big one, like a Vermeer? Most certainly. And anything else you fancy trying. Like your mate's lunch, for instance.

 

It would be an on going project. 

 

It's quite time consuming cutting it up with scissors to stuff in the blender so I thought I could shred it first. 

[Luckythirteen]

Make yourself a foam cutter: attach croc clips to a steel wire, attach them to a 9v battery or two. Give it a minute to heat up, and it'll go through foam no bother.

Do it in a ventilated area though, the fumes are only amusing for a short while. Should make nice shredder friendly strips.

[Craig the Princess]

Can anyone recomend a place to get an iPod classic repaired (I know ALL APPOLZ R SHIT) the docking plug seems to have a broken connection (again) but the place I used last year took months to get round to fixing it.

[inconsistant]

Would a garden shredder shred foam?

 

Do you mean white EPS polystyrene packaging foam or polyurethane upholstery cushion foam?

 

If it's EPS you can buy cheap hot wire cutters on ebay for about £10-15, which will melt instead of grind so you won't get a house/garden full of 'snow'. Search for 'hot wire cutter'. 

You can make one with a battery and wire but it should be special high resistance wire so it heats up well.

 

Upholstery foam won't cut with a hot wire cutter, you'll need scissors, knife or bandsaw type thing.

[DeeJay]

Electric carving knife cuts foam cleanly or you could use a hand saw, very messy. 

[steve_earwig]

Oh dear, I guess there had to be someone that would do it for real (probably not the first either). I thought maybe they did it as a publicity stunt, sold the video and made 2 million, but it looks more like they did it because they were soft in the head (Hmm, maybe this will put me off thinking about it).

[myglaren]

I made a comment and seemed to have hovered the mouse over something in the replying panel which has reduced the font size of the text on all Autoshite posts and threads I view. Looks like it's Times New Roman too and not whatever default font it was before. Any idea how I get it back to how it was before? None of the options on the tool bar seem to help and I feel like an old man who can't read, the text is so small.

CTRL++ should fix that for you.

[andy18s]

It would be an on going project. 

 

It's quite time consuming cutting it up with scissors to stuff in the blender so I thought I could shred it first. 

 

[TimothyClaypole]

 

I've a £30 blender for now.  Slow but does work just need something to get the foam into small enough bits to blend.

 

A Blendtec is £360.  A normal commercial one is at least £170 etc.   

 

 

[Richard]

Would a stick blender be any good?

[cobblers]

If you want to leave it in my hallway where I leave the whippet while I go to work it will be in blendable pieces by the time I get home.

[willswitchengage]

Motorcycle

 

Do I read the oil when the engine is running or off? Running = window full, off = window empty

[bub2006]

Engine off,bike upright gives true reading. Should be between between upper and lower mark. Upper being full