Ask a Shiter

[Pillock]

Whichever is Germanner.

[Stanky]

On the motorway if two cars are pulling into the middle lane, one from inside lane and one from outside, who has right of way? 

 

The most battle-scarred one.

[scaryoldcortina]

The situation should not occur because everyone is using correct lane dicipline and keeping to the leftmost lane wherever possible. Also from an insurance perspective I think both parties are probably sol.

[skattrd]

The situation should not occur because everyone is using correct lane discipline and keeping to the leftmost lane wherever possible.

 

I think it can occur as the car on the inner lane is pulling out to overtake a slower moving car and the car in the outside lane is moving left after overtaking a car in the middle lane ... The car on the inside might have just joined the motorway or undertaken the car in the middle lane, but we can ignore this for now.

 

I'd have thought neither has right of way, and both need to be aware.

[gm]

If a cv joint starts to grumble, how long can I ignore it before it gets really fed up ? would it be taking the piss to leave it for a week or so (less than 100 miles) ?

[scaryoldcortina]

week or so should be fine. I get customers who ignore them for several paydays and only get it done for MoT or when they can't hear radio one over it.

[gm]

Ideal, I won't get chance to take a look at it until next weekend but will get the replacement ordered up ready. Cheers, gm.

[cobblers]

I think I did about 2500 miles in my old Saxo when I was skint and at uni with one making a racket. I did an oil change in the middle of that because of priorities.

[spike60]

If a cv joint starts to grumble, how long can I ignore it before it gets really fed up ? would it be taking the piss to leave it for a week or so (less than 100 miles) ?

I bought a Polio with 130k and a CV that rattled like a Gatling Gun on full lock, I had no idea how long it had been like that.. I changed it and the other side at 141k 2 years later in June this year but only because I was taking it Le Mans, 1000 miles for us. At £32 for the pair, you can't just rush into expense like that. I'm sure folk on here will have done 100k with them chattering away.

[gordonbennet]

If a cv joint starts to grumble, how long can I ignore it before it gets really fed up ? would it be taking the piss to leave it for a week or so (less than 100 miles) ?

 

Break the steel clip at the wide end of the cover, peel back cover, stuff fresh new CV grease in, re-secure cover with long cable tie, drive car for the rest of its life.

 

Do this once every couple of years and your CV joints will last for ever.

 

Maybe some clever bugger could come up with a way of getting grease into ball and hardy spicer joints, sort of a nipple type of thing that would accept a grease gun? wonder why nobody thought of it before...

[steve_earwig]

I'm sure they used to, in fact the last time I changed one (on an Avenger I think) it still had the casting for it, just no hole. They did think of it before, and then they thought about doing themselves out of business by making UJs that last forever...

[tooSavvy]

I had 'nipple' u/js on my IMP... But, as the yolk clearance on them is well tight, mine had very short shoulder & the car had to be up in the air.. to drop the driveshaft angle to max clearance

 

TS

[gm]

I'd probably better get it fixed - more of these shenanigans happening next week

 

[mouseflakes]

Why do these TU petrol engines always seem to have characters painted on the rocker cover?
 
18,000 mile example...
 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CLASSIC-PEUGEOT-205-GL-BLUE-/131590650821

[twosmoke300]

Never noticed that before tbh , it's usually rust

[scaryoldcortina]

I always assumed it was a marking from whatever scrapyard supplied the engine....

[mouseflakes]

I thought the same - but that's a really low miles example and I'm sure I've seen others like it. Seems unlikely (though not impossible) that it would be a replacement engine (on this one at least). Always seems to have been written with one of those chalkboard-paint-pen type things.

[sheffcortinacentre]

my ute has grease nipples on the front suspension.

[spike60]

Does anyone know anything about South American Beetles, the car kind? There was a Brazilian one from the late 90's with injection for sale a while back in Tyneside and now there is a 1999 'Mexi' version for sale. Must be less rusty and have better wiring than 40 year old originals, surely?

This kind, not a rebodied Golf.

 

 

 

[skattrd]

HT leads: do the posh big fat Magnecour or whatever type make any difference?

My thinking is that HT leads either work or don't work and the super duper leads are just snake oil.

[steve_earwig]

To an extent, you do get what you pay for to a degree, although leads you cut to length and add the connectors on are usually a disaster.

 

Does anyone know anything about South American Beetles, the car kind? There was a Brazilian one from the late 90's with injection for sale a while back in Tyneside and now there is a 1999 'Mexi' version for sale. Must be less rusty and have better wiring than 40 year old originals, surely?

This kind, not a rebodied Golf.

They can run on alcohol? The only thing I can remember hearing about them was manufacturing defects in the brakes, allowing the slave cylinders to break free with not to hilarious consequences. Still, they must be sorted by now.

[castros_bro]

Does anyone know anything about South American Beetles, the car kind? There was a Brazilian one from the late 90's with injection for sale a while back in Tyneside and now there is a 1999 'Mexi' version for sale. Must be less rusty and have better wiring than 40 year old originals, surely?

This kind, not a rebodied Golf.

 

 

I was working/living in Belem - Para - Brazil for 18 months, all road vehicles under 2 tonne semed to be beetle based running on Alcool but there was vast amount of bodgery involved in keeping most private vehicles on the road - inflation was over 1000% or 3% a day so even buying a tyre the price was valid for the day till the shop closed but in the morning there was new price.  No one could afford "genuine parts".  As with any chod it all depends on previous owner (s) and the beetle build quality in Brazil was not the best, if you find an unmolested one then maybe worth a punt but the vast majority there never had a chance of being well cared for classics.  Maybe Mexico was different but expect crap build quality and cheap moroting abuse for the last 20+ years

[spike60]

Cheers for that, I guess how old  it was when it was imported matters. I assume one in Gateshead will be running unleaded.

[Richard]

It was possible to buy them new right up to the end, as the owner of this one did, probably from the same place that imported the Type 2s.The newest ones are 11 years old, which is now old enough to make age irrelevant on a car like that. That one was a bit crusty around the edges, worse than I remember nine year old German Beetles being. I wouldn't say not to buy one but it won't necessarily be better than an original.

 

P1040022C by RichardB5, on Flickr

 

Edit- just checked and its MOT ran out in November.

[castros_bro]

Though it is no help, I'd like to know how close was the Mexi beetle at the end of it's production in comparason to the European produces ones.  The most fascinating Brazilian beetle was the motorcycle

 

http://www.odd-bike.com/2012/12/amazonas-1600-beetle-powered-brazilian.html

[Station]

Why do dogs carry sticks in their mouths on the way home from a walk? What do they do with them? Is there some instinctive explanation?

[Pillock]

Mexibugs were renowned for being a bit shit in the old rust-prevention area, I think the metal was still OK but the assembly and paint had gone a bit to pot. You tend to get more areas that just didn't get a proper covering than a German Beetle.

Injection engines added complexity and didn't really have any more go, what the injection gave the cat took away.

Parts-wise most bits are fine to get hold of, in fact many NOS parts for Beetles are Mexi parts anyway but they're mostly the same. Just some oddities around things like the rear valance has a bulge for the new exhaust and only one outlet, so you're buggered if you fit it to an older car.

 

Essentially - no real reason not to buy one but you'll have no more or fewer problems than a decent early 70s car. Still be chasing rust, it'll still be slow and noisy, but it'll still be a solid reliable car. 

[Philyc]

Do these fuel additives work? As in the ones that claim to clean the fuel system etc. My initial instinct is no, its just a gimmik.

 

Was wondering if any of you fine chaps have used any as im contemplating trying it on the old fiesta depending on what you guys say.

 

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[Skizzer]

Why do dogs carry sticks in their mouths on the way home from a walk? What do they do with them? Is there some instinctive explanation?

 

It's a trophy, to show off their hunting/retrieving prowess.

 

Have a gratuitous picture of Keith The Dog looking proud of a particularly impressive stick:

 

https://twitter.com/KeithTheDog/status/616178110074064896

 

There's a now big pile of sticks outside the front door.  GR9 for keeping us in kindling, all winter long.

[anonymous user]

Just be glad they pick up sticks to carry, my old Springer carried a dead pigeon home once, without me noticing until she presented me with the maggot ridden thing on the doorstep.

 

My daft question, probably already asked and answered somewhere in these 448 pages is, is there a way I can check online (without paying) for a date of last keeper change on a car, just from the reg. no.? I am concerned because I have not had a confirmation letter from DVLA for the A35. I did get a certificate of posting when I sent the V5 off, hopefully I can find it.