The grumpy thread

[Aston Martin]

2 hours ago, anonymous user said:

I always take a flask with me on long journeys, that way if I can't get a cup of coffee there is always whisky.

I have a kettle and milk and coffee etc, but this kettle takes 10 mins to boil and I'll wake every bastard up.

[C1am]

Quote

A sorry (and lengthy) tale of main dealer customer service

Continues (see p3040). The car was returned to me drowned in deoderising spray. I was due to go away for a short holiday, and had booked one night's accomodation. I've now had to cancel, as with the deodorant  finally dissipated, the strong fuel smell has returned (and another headache after driving it today). Now written another e-mail to the dealer and opened a case with Subaru UK. 

[Wack]

Should've stayed in bed today 

Drove 30 miles to preston in the ducato pickup without phoning first because the job will 100% be done for tuesday , nope, wasted trip 

Got back home and theres a splattering of oil all over the rear mud guard, lift the bonnet, no oil cap and a fully rust proofed engine bay

Fucking bollocks , drive 20 miles in the car for a new cap wondering why it's come off , oil is still at the top of the stick so 1/2 a litre of oil goes a long way 

I'll be lifting the bonnet every 5 miles to see if it's still on the engine 

[richardmorris]

Dollywobbler in his Fox Anne road trip has Managed to drive past both my house in Bagshot, and my work without stopping.

[vulgalour]

 

There's no good styling reason for the rear door handles on a Dolomite to be higher and at a slightly different angle to the ones on the front, so why are they?  After having this pointed out today, I cannot unsee it and it is very annoying.

[wuvvum]

I am a twat.  Went out earlier to do a couple of bits on the Mazda, went to put my tools away afterwards and couldn't find my 8mm socket anywhere.  I knew I'd put it down on the ground so assumed I must have caught it with my foot and kicked it somewhere or something.  Spent half an hour searching for it, using my big fuck off work light that I'd been using to light the underside of the Mazda, in the hope that the light would glint off the socket and make it easier to spot.  Couldn't find the poxy thing anywhere, so eventually gave up and came back inside to charge the work light up.  Turned it upside down to plug the charger in.

And there was the 8mm socket, stuck to its magnetic base.

FFS.

[stephen01]

Stupid fucking track rod on the Peugeot, I can’t remove the lock but for love nor money, it’s stuck. Wd40, even a bit of gentle heat and whacking  it with my hammer still sees it stuck. 

Grrrr, I really don’t want to have to put it back together and take it down to the mechanic to sort.. any advise?

 

[wuvvum]

41 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

There's no good styling reason for the rear door handles on a Dolomite to be higher and at a slightly different angle to the ones on the front, so why are they?  After having this pointed out today, I cannot unsee it and it is very annoying.

See also: 5-door Corsa B.

[purplebargeken]

Well, the Trust has had a wonderful event tonight with lots of back slapping, congratulations and certificate handing out in recognition of the staff who have worked for the NHS for 20 or 30 years plus. How odd that the CEO gets his certificate yet several of us lot who qualified for the event never had an invite at all. Thanks cunts. 

[EssDeeWon]

Flickr.

Cannot upload my tat spots anymore, they have put restrictions on accounts with over 1000 photo's and every single one of mine is a tat spot.  There is a small community of car spotters on there and some were moaning about this restriction a few months ago but I was still able to upload until last week.  Think I now need to set up a monthly payment/subscription, whatever.  I'm not doing that. 

[vulgalour]

I don't begrudge a subscription fee if it's fair and you can trust you're going to be able to keep hold of your images indefinitely.  I was with Photobucket for ages and happily paid the subscription until they royally messed up.  Flikr seemed a good alternative until they brought the limit in and I didn't feel I could trust their subscription offering.  I'm just glad some forums are starting to do their own image hosting now, which is massively overdue, and the image hoster here is great if I just want to quickly throw a snapshot into the News thread, or similar.  The only problem is I don't have an easily accessible and organisable gallery of images like I did with Flikr and Photobucket, which is a slight inconvenience.

These days, I use Autoshite and Retrorides for image hosting - since that's primarily where I post anyway - and a little bit of Twitter for other stuff.  Twitter isn't great for hotlinking, quite often images will appear just as a line of code rather than an image so it's a bit of a faff.  There's a certain charm to the clunkiness of images online, though I do wish there was a better and more streamlined solution.

[Bren]

BMW failed its MOT. Trackrod end, rear spring as well as smoke from exhaust at idle. Despite the smoke it passed its emissions. Pissed off to say the least.

[dozeydustman]

A bog seat in a public convenience is more comfortable than the driver's seat fitted to the lorry I drove today, which has given me a trapped nerve and a numb left leg.

[Spiny Norman]

2 hours ago, vulgalour said:

 The only problem is I don't have an easily accessible and organisable gallery of images like I did with Flikr and Photobucket, which is a slight inconvenience.

 

Every (free) Google account comes with 15GB worth of storage, Google Photos is a pretty easy site to use.

[beko1987]

Bastard! Happened this morning, and at lunchtime it had already grown. Gr9. This is exactly what happened to the silver laguna, it grew in the sun! Then I paid for a new windscreen and scrapped the car 2 months later

[wuvvum]

Fit a smaller wiper blade so it's outside of the swept area?

[beko1987]

Somewhere between taking that picture and 5.50, that became pointless

It gets better, I've not got glass cover, fucking great money saving on my part going from fully comp to 3rd party fire and theft. 

 

[beko1987]

Back up to fully comp... Now paying £70 a month because they have me over a barrel. The alternative was to cancel this insurance and take out new for £38 a month fully comp... with whatever cancellation fee's came my way, which probably would have been the same.

Then hope it doesn't fully implode for the next few weeks then call up and stick £80 for the glass excess on the credit card which I really don't want to do but havent got much choice.

Monthly free money is now £20.12. I'd sit and cry if I didn't have a hoover Turbomaster to strip down and get washed as I need the fucking money more than ever!

[wuvvum]

Second hand windscreen from the scrappy and a tube of Tiger Seal would be less than that, surely?

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Second hand windscreen from the scrappy and a tube of Tiger Seal would be less than that, surely?

By the time I've smashed 3 windscreens having never done it before I'd be no better off! 

I'm hoping that once I've done the windscreen I can drop it back down to 3rd party and the price goes down! 

I did an auto glass online quote earlier and good news and bad. Bad news - £396. Good news, they do have them. I remember putting the xantias plate in when we got amys screen replaced and they said to call them for a quote... Ie no chance m8. 

I just want to get to work, half the reason the 406 got cubed was I couldn't have it off the road whilst I fixed it, I fully see why people have more than 1 car (in theory, the practise on here shows otherwise but the thought is there) 

[Stanky]

Erk, sorry this is too little too late, but if you google local indie windscreen companies they are a fucktonne cheaper than autoglass. We got a new screen for a suzuki swift (cheesewedge one) supplied and fitted for £110 about 5 years ago by a local chap who came to us. Was less than it would have been for the fully comp upgrade plus excess.

Also, would it not have been worth waiting until the week before the next MOT and if you get pulled in the meantime (fat chance) then tell the nice officer that it just happened and hope you don't get pulled by the same rozzer twice.

autoglass, like big chain bodyshops are set up to deal with insurance jobs only. its madness to go to them as a private punter, they are wildly uncompetitive. 

Sorry I couldn't have imparted this information about 12 hours ago Beko.

EDIT TO ADD - can you not investigate this tomorrow and use the cooling off period to reverse the insurance change?

[mitsisigma01]

Hi huw, what motor is requiring a screen? 

[Stanky]

Sorry Mitsisigma, not for me - for Beko who's ZX screen was damaged in a recent assassination attempt and is being reamed by the insurance herberts. I'd strongly suggest he sacks off the insurance upgrade and excess and gets a local indie glass fitter to quote for it, its probably not a lot more than the excess is, as they actually have to be competitive when chasing the private customer market, unlike sodding autoglass who are shysters.

[beko1987]

If the little chip/crack had just stayed as it was, then I'd have fully left it! But it's the same as happened with the Laguna, being in the full sun just split it further. I'll have 14 days to cool off, and reading the email I wont get charged the higher amount until next month anyway as it's too close to the bill date now.

I've never tried indie glass places, and I'm not holding out much hope but I'll have a look and see, problem is any money will have to go on the credit card, at least going via the insurance will keep it off that mostly...

[Stanky]

I am in no way associated with these companies but try:

https://www.expresswindscreens.co.uk/

https://www.yell.com/biz/screentec-windscreens-st-albans-7794135/

https://www.yell.com/biz/1st-choice-windscreens-and-tow-bars-milton-keynes-901322194/

[beko1987]

Cool, I've fired off a few enquiries, ready to be spammed to death tomorrow!

It takes the piss, because if I hadn't spent money on the ZX I'd just run it for a few more months and save for another car! But as I've invested a cambelt kit, full service and set of tyres, I sort of need to replace the windscreen now. Ah well, it's not like it's going to be sunny over the next few weeks and cause it to split right the way across... Ah fuck

[beko1987]

That was quick, quote 1 - £195+ VAT. Slightly cheaper, but I don't have £234, and am unlikely to all in one go ever really... Insurance works out £14 cheaper overall (not including if I knock the cover back down after replacement...)

I'll see what the other quotes come back as

[cobblers]

Pattern part fuel injector for a Peugeot 206. £9 off ebay from the UK, £5 from China. but I needed one today for a repair to some truck equipment.

Local motor factors had one on the shelf. £66+vat. That was at trade too, £110 full price. 

I wouldn't moan so much but I only charged £175 for the job and it took me a day and a half.

 

 

[Rod/b]

Invacars on EVERY FUCKING THREAD

[beko1987]

1 minute ago, Rod/b said:

Invacars on EVERY FUCKING THREAD

I remember when it was laguna 2's on every thread! It'll be something else soon