Ask a Shiter

[willswitchengage]

 

Over an hour of sawing from a stupidly inconvenient angle whilst trying not to damage the CV boot finally got this off

 

Stupid idiot amnesty: forgot to close the car door whilst push-manoeuvring it out of the garage... crash!

[The Moog]

Sold Camper on ebay. Guy bought camper and gave me cash drove it away. Today i get a call from him, things have changed and he wants to sell the van on and could I give him the details of the person coming second on ebay so he could offer it. Told him that he could access the bid list and see it there.

 

Is he pulling a fast one in anyway? I cant think how he would be

[Cavcraft]

Maybe his missus has done her nut or something?

Can't see how he is really going to make any money out of it by offering to someone who bid less than he did. I may not be so keen as to give him the bidding list to be honest, perhaps ask him for his contact details and just pass them on to the next highest bidder with a message. My guess is they'll run a mile/back heel his offer as they're bound to think something is amiss.

[The Moog]

Cheers Cav. I couldnt think of anyway it would be dodgy but I would have to say that if someone had bought something from ebay and then change their mind and offered it to me I might think it was properly iffy.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Has anyone bought stuff off French Ebay before?

 

Basically I want these but I have no idea how to get them.

 

The problem I have is the listing doesn't seem to say anything about postage, plus I sent him a Google-translated question asking how much it's be to send them to the UK, and he hasn't replied. USEFUL.

 

http://cgi.ebay.fr/4-Enjoliveurs-de-rou ... 1e6ebf8f9a

 

Thanks!

 

 

Yo GC, have you heard owt from this hubcap dude? I'll give him a call if you like.

[meggersdog]

Anyone seen one of these before http://dieselhead.co.uk/

 

Talking to a chap yesterday who has just bought the franchise for this area.He wants me to do the fitting when needed.I've looked at the FAQ's and it seems it won't fit a lot of cars.Looks a simple device to fit with two allen screws.Any thoughts

[Pete-M]

That dieselhead thing makes little sense to me. Unleaded nozzles are smaller than diesel ones, so how is it supposed to stop misfuelling?

[meggersdog]

There is a flap which only opens when the larger nozzle touches the sides (by the looks of it).Unless you push the smaller unleaded nozzle hard onto the side which opens the flap.I haven't seen it yet but was just going by the red flap on one of the pictures.

[willswitchengage]

Anyone seen one of these before http://dieselhead.co.uk/

 

Ford now has these or some variation as standard on its cars, still intrigued as to how it works. As an intelligent society we've come along way if a 50p sticker saying "diesel fuel only" isn't enough.

[autofive]

Cheers Cav. I couldnt think of anyway it would be dodgy but I would have to say that if someone had bought something from ebay and then change their mind and offered it to me I might think it was properly iffy.

 

unless he swaps a load of parts over and sells it using your description. no comeback on you, but definately sneaky.

[TimothyClaypole]

Sold Camper on ebay. Guy bought camper and gave me cash drove it away. Today i get a call from him, things have changed and he wants to sell the van on and could I give him the details of the person coming second on ebay so he could offer it. Told him that he could access the bid list and see it there.

 

Is he pulling a fast one in anyway? I cant think how he would be

 

He can't see the details of who is on the list only you can - I'd tell him to man up.

 

Bet the missus is giving him grief over it or something.

 

Sell him the list for what the listing cost you, lol.

[Station]

Anyone seen one of these before http://dieselhead.co.uk/

 

Talking to a chap yesterday who has just bought the franchise for this area.He wants me to do the fitting when needed.I've looked at the FAQ's and it seems it won't fit a lot of cars.Looks a simple device to fit with two allen screws.Any thoughts

 

Surely 'team of engineers' = made in China using crappy grade steel/nickel plating.

[The Moog]

He can't see the details of who is on the list only you can - I'd tell him to man up.

 

Bet the missus is giving him grief over it or something.

 

Sell him the list for what the listing cost you, lol.

Given him the guys id but left it at that. At the end of the day I dont really want to be involved with it in case something is up with it

[meshking]

How bad is the ford 1.8 tdci engine? The smax I'm looking at seem to be about 2k less than the equiv. car with the proper job 2.0 tdci engine. Bit new for here, but though I'd ask anyway.

[garycox]

Has anyone bought stuff off French Ebay before?

 

Basically I want these but I have no idea how to get them.

 

The problem I have is the listing doesn't seem to say anything about postage, plus I sent him a Google-translated question asking how much it's be to send them to the UK, and he hasn't replied. USEFUL.

 

http://cgi.ebay.fr/4-Enjoliveurs-de-rou ... 1e6ebf8f9a

 

Thanks!

 

 

Yo GC, have you heard owt from this hubcap dude? I'll give him a call if you like.

 

No, he hasn't replied still.

 

That would be fantastic if you could, thanks very much!

 

If you need any of my details to pass on or whatever, let me know and I'll PM 'em over. Cheers!

[warren t claim]

Laguna II clutch change. A world of pain or pretty straightforward?

[CreepingJesus]

Can anyone recommend a good PC self-help type forum? I've got myriad little 'quirks' with my PC, since it was rebuilt. Some of them are just annoying, one or two are a proper PITA.

I was a trained trainer and such for Win95, and was working on my certs for Win 98, and haven't really studied the guts of PC's since. So I ought to know what I'm doing, but I'm all at sea.

[Pete-M]

Hmm, weird one this and I can't work it out.

 

Replaced the timing belt on the Impreza on Friday, all went to plan, everything eventually lined up like it should and it fired up perfectly first time. It's running more smoothly than before, it's possible to balance a 20p piece on the inlet manifold at idle. But it doesn't seem to be as quick as it was, although it revs more happily than it did and seems to be more driveable in town.

 

To replace the timing belt not much needs to come off the engine, ac belt, and alternator / pas belt need need to come off, as do three front covers and the crank pulley (which is on a woodruff key so only fits one way). All seven points were correct and the belt timing marks were in their correct places too.

 

It's still quick, appears to have less turbo lag, smoother pick up and is happier at high revs, but it doesn't feel as properly quick as it did.

 

The old belt didn't look particularly worn or old, but I didn't do a comparison between the teeth on the old and new belt so that's pretty meaningless.

 

So, can replacing a timing belt make that much of a difference? I've never known it before. I'm thinking that four cams must need the timing to be controlled pretty accurately and replacing the belt may have just brought things back to where they should be instead of 1/2 a degree off here and there. Does this make sense?

[Volksy]

I'd say so. I think that even a tiny degree of stretch in a belt that long, and it is a very long belt on those, would make some difference. The fact that it's smoother would say to me that everything is back as it should be.

 

Edit: I always remember that Vauxhall OHC engines (Astra/Cav) always went like hell just before the timing belt snapped.

[Cavcraft]

Timing is my guess, purely because when we changed a headgasket recently it was a bit of a pain to get it spot on and it took a fair bit of arsing about moving the distributor ever so slightly.

[Pillock]

Without before and after rolling roads, it's hard to say it's quicker.... what's probably happened is that peak power is the same but it's being delivered more smoothly so you don't get the lag... lag.... lag..... OMGTURBOBOOST. That spike will make a car feel quick, my car feels quicker than my GF's despite the fact hers can outrun mine, because mine is fubar so has loads of lag and a huge hole in the power curve till about 3000rpm at which point it picks up like it should.

[ashmicro]

Can anyone recommend a good PC self-help type forum? I've got myriad little 'quirks' with my PC, since it was rebuilt. Some of them are just annoying, one or two are a proper PITA.

I was a trained trainer and such for Win95, and was working on my certs for Win 98, and haven't really studied the guts of PC's since. So I ought to know what I'm doing, but I'm all at sea.

 

I've been a PC & Network Tech for 17 years. PM me your questions and I'll see if I can help.

[willswitchengage]

Where can I do free vehicle enquiries online?

[cobblers]

Where can I do free vehicle enquiries online?

 

 

http://www.theaa.com/vehicle-inspections/index.html

 

That will tell you make and model from a reg plate

 

 

then:

 

https://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPo ... ution=e1s1

 

Tells you when it was last taxed. If it doesn't come up it's likely been scrapped and registered as so after 2006 ish

[cobblers]

How can I find out the layout of drains and what they do? The drains are MEGABLOKKED at my mates house. Opened one manhole cover to find it brimmed to the top with turds and fat/grease etc. Using a shitty stick confrimed it was 1m+ deep, so we moved on to what we though was the drain "downstream" to try and rod from that end, to save getting elbow deep in it all.

 

After realising the cover wasn't going to come up even with a pair of torsion bars fashioned into crow bars, we made this out of an old Saxo rear axle.

 

 

And pretty much bent the 80mm diameter, 3.5mm wall main tube without budging the cover. Maxed the jack out, and with leverage that's 6 tonnes of pressure by my reckoning. After spending about an hour hammering a chisel around the seam on the outside, it shot open and turned out to be a completely unrelated, massive main drain, or something. Massive bore pipe but hardly owt flowing through it about 10 feet below ground level.

 

So yeah, mainly out of curiosity we want to know what this drain is, and also where his blocked up drains lead.

[autofive]

or

 

http://www.rac.co.uk/products-services/car-data-checks/

 

or put the reg no. into an ebay selling jobbie - this gives you the number of previous keepers etc too

 

 

edit: the chinese have a phrase:

 

dont feck about with the sewers unless you like to be covered in shit

[Ross_K]

Like having brain surgery or getting a timing belt changed; unblocking a drain full of turds, tampons and sanitary pads is one of those rare occasions where I don't begrudge paying a professional for his services...

[catsinthewelder]

We have a very good local firm who fix the drains at work. Generally finding out where they lead will involve pouring dye down one and lifting the lids of others to see where it emerges. They rarely seem to follow any logical patten in this regard ( I swear some of ours must run uphill ) but bear in mind that surface water should in theory be kept seperate from the stuff that you flush down the loo. This is rarely the case with older buildings though.

[CreepingJesus]

PM me your questions and I'll see if I can help.

 

You have been PM'd kind sir.

[Cavcraft]

Struggling like hell to upload pictures to Flickr and other websites. I ran a free search thing (reg cure) which naturally told me I had eleven million problems and need to pay for their full version (no idea how much) to clear the problems.

Is there a free thing I can get off the net that will do the job please? Cheers in advance.