The grumpy thread

[sierraman]

“Someone on Facebook says he can fit a new part for 15 pounds all in, if you can’t match that I’ll go elsewhere!”

”Fukin disgustin how garages can charge 60 pounds an hour, don’t they know I only get £8.41 an hour  n ive got 2 kids to feed”

[goosey]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

‘Right I’ll go down and have it out with these robbing bastids!’

’First the MOT and now this! I’m never buying a Vauxhall again’

The Local Paper will run with the story

YOUNG MUM DESTROYED OVER GARAGE BILL

Everyone in the pics will have compensation faces

[New POD]

On 04/05/2022 at 23:36, High Jetter said:

Even beds can't get shelter! The NHS must have enough. Oh, wait...

They have beds.  It's up-to-date qualified nurses, who pay for their own training and pay to stay up to date, they they have trouble retaining. 

And Doctors and Pharmacists, and ..... insert job title of people required to run a ward....... 

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, New POD said:

They have beds.  It's up-to-date qualified nurses, who pay for their own training and pay to stay up to date, they they have trouble retaining. 

And Doctors and Pharmacists, and ..... insert job title of people required to run a ward....... 

Apart from junior doctors who’s hourly rate must be terrible, doctors are pretty well paid, but having had recent experience of private medicine, they can obviously make much more there.

As for nurses, they could be paid more if lazy management didn’t use agency nurses so much.

[Spurious]

22 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

private medicine, they can obviously make much more there

Quite true.

I could make about 5-8k pa more. 

However, you're back on statutory sick leave, less holidays and far less Unionised workplace where employers take a lot of liberties. 

Takes your money, makes your choices. Most I know stick with the NHS and either moonlight with privates or just pick up an OT shift. 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

And if you're halfway decent, you can take an early retirement and work as a locum.  I remember my Dad considering that when he retired a few years ago.  In the end, the cost of registration and insurance meant that he'd have to work more than he wanted to cover it but if you want to semi-retire, there's plenty of locum work.  Walk in, do a shift, piss off and leave the job at work.

[hairnet]

Fuck walking that again

Taxi next week I rhink

 

 

 

[vulgalour]

Driver's seat base just collapsed on the Princess as I was pulling on to the drive.  Got one more errand to run later today so I can't pull the seat to check just in case I totally break something, but a cursory inspection suggests the hessian webbing or rubber straps in the seat base has torn.  You just know it's going to end up being one of those jobs that's a right palaver to put right, in part because nobody makes anything for Princess interiors, spare seats aren't exactly commonplace to rob bits off, and I'm going to end up having to DIY the sodding thing like everything else.

Serves me right for using it as a car I suppose.

[vulgalour]

Right, further to the above I fixed the driver's seat by shoving a couple of cushions under it.  It's not a great fix but it should stop it tearing further before I can get the seat out of the car to fix it.

Then I noticed the kick panel trims are FULL of water.  I've never figured out exactly how water is getting in here, and I've had all the usual suspects apart, cleaned, etc. to no avail.  It used to just put the water in the footwell where it could be dealt with, this is the first time it's put it inside the kick panels that I've noticed.  The urge to pop said panels is quite strong, instead I'm going to remove them from the car and do more leak tracing.  I can see me having to take the Princess off the road again soon just to deal with the current round of bullshit its giving me.

 

[reb]

I bought a "2 cup" French press.

Well. It has markings for 2 cups. It in fact holds exactly the same amount of coffee as my mug.

[loserone]

Two cups one mug?

[Remspoor]

I never have enough time to read all the threads in this here shite feast. I expect i am missing out on things.

[MorrisItalSLX]

9 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Driver's seat base just collapsed on the Princess as I was pulling on to the drive.  Got one more errand to run later today so I can't pull the seat to check just in case I totally break something, but a cursory inspection suggests the hessian webbing or rubber straps in the seat base has torn.  You just know it's going to end up being one of those jobs that's a right palaver to put right, in part because nobody makes anything for Princess interiors, spare seats aren't exactly commonplace to rob bits off, and I'm going to end up having to DIY the sodding thing like everything else.

Serves me right for using it as a car I suppose.

You may need to use my patented* seat repair method as done on the Corolla when the rubber base ripped, nothing a bit of fine gauge rope couldn’t fix.

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, reb said:

I bought a "2 cup" French press.

Well. It has markings for 2 cups. It in fact holds exactly the same amount of coffee as my mug.

Designed for demitasse, perhaps?

[omegod]

Travelling to New York tomorrow  for the wifes 50th, the stress of having a supervised covid test this morning was immense !! Negative so good to go  

Reminiscent of my driving test !

[beko1987]

18 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Right, further to the above I fixed the driver's seat by shoving a couple of cushions under it.  It's not a great fix but it should stop it tearing further before I can get the seat out of the car to fix it.

Then I noticed the kick panel trims are FULL of water.  I've never figured out exactly how water is getting in here, and I've had all the usual suspects apart, cleaned, etc. to no avail.  It used to just put the water in the footwell where it could be dealt with, this is the first time it's put it inside the kick panels that I've noticed.  The urge to pop said panels is quite strong, instead I'm going to remove them from the car and do more leak tracing.  I can see me having to take the Princess off the road again soon just to deal with the current round of bullshit its giving me.

 

Isn't this just average Maestro ownership life though? 😂

I can see you accidentally fully rebuilding the entire seats because once you get them out of the car and set up upside down your skills will just take over. 

[Remspoor]

Expanding foam. I purchased a "professional gun" and still find it hard to get correct amount where I want the stuff to sit. It is worse than my welding and that is saying something.

[vulgalour]

8 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Isn't this just average Maestro ownership life though? 😂

I can see you accidentally fully rebuilding the entire seats because once you get them out of the car and set up upside down your skills will just take over. 

Well... this is the Princess so...

[Quintus]

On 5/7/2022 at 4:56 PM, vulgalour said:

Right, further to the above I fixed the driver's seat by shoving a couple of cushions under it.  It's not a great fix but it should stop it tearing further before I can get the seat out of the car to fix it.

Then I noticed the kick panel trims are FULL of water.  I've never figured out exactly how water is getting in here, and I've had all the usual suspects apart, cleaned, etc. to no avail.  It used to just put the water in the footwell where it could be dealt with, this is the first time it's put it inside the kick panels that I've noticed.  The urge to pop said panels is quite strong, instead I'm going to remove them from the car and do more leak tracing.  I can see me having to take the Princess off the road again soon just to deal with the current round of bullshit its giving me.

 

There are few things more irritating than having a leaky car.

[Dobloseven]

Had a new cooker as posted on another thread. Old one still worked ok, but a bit scruffy and needed a clean. Mrs D said she wasn't prepared to clean it and sell it. I said I'd weigh it in when I'd got some scrap machines. Probably about a fivers worth. Mrs D stuck it on Free cycle, thinking it might do someone a bit of good. Woman responded almost immediately saying she'd be round at about 4 for it. I even dug out the instructions for it. 4 came and went. Eventually Mrs D messaged her to ask if she still wanted it. No reply. Left it till today, messaged next person who'd expressed an interest, who sent her son straight round in a very smart Citroën Plug in hybrid SUV. Thanked us copiously for it, saying theirs had a cracked top and just wanted one to tide them over till they could buy a new one and then they'd pass it on to someone else. Very disappointed in first woman. Would have cost her nothing to say she wasn't coming. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

My handbrake is needing adjusted by the looks of it. Won't hold at all, which is fab when you live on a hill. Got it pulled as far as it'll go and parked in gear at the moment.

[Popsicle]

13 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

My handbrake is needing adjusted by the looks of it. Won't hold at all, which is fab when you live on a hill. Got it pulled as far as it'll go and parked in gear at the moment.

Turn the wheels towards the kerb as well, belt and braces job.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Just now, Popsicle said:

Turn the wheels towards the kerb as well, belt and braces job.

It's in the drive now - which is flat, but it was on the street earlier so I've moved it. The worst it can do is roll about 2 inches on the drive before it rolls into the rut left by the Dacia Duster.

[RoverFolkUs]

50 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

My handbrake is needing adjusted by the looks of it. Won't hold at all, which is fab when you live on a hill. Got it pulled as far as it'll go and parked in gear at the moment.

If you've suddenly lost the handbrake rather than a gradual reduction in efficiency, I'd be more inclined to say its snapped a handbrake cable, or one of them have somehow popped off

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, RoverFolkUs said:

If you've suddenly lost the handbrake rather than a gradual reduction in efficiency, I'd be more inclined to say its snapped a handbrake cable, or one of them have somehow popped off

It's been getting progressively crappier as time has went on, still on factory drums from what I can tell too. I've had a handbrake cable snap before, that was on the Auris, went like an auctioneer... "going... going... *snap*... gone!" 🤣

[RoverFolkUs]

3 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

It's been getting progressively crappier as time has went on, still on factory drums from what I can tell too. I've had a handbrake cable snap before, that was on the Auris, went like an auctioneer... "going... going... *snap*... gone!" 🤣

Yes I would expect the drums to be original on a 60k ish mile car. 

Is that a phonecall to the scrappy and nearest Vectra B seller, or trusted friendly garage?

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Yes I would expect the drums to be original on a 60k ish mile car. 

They were original on my Granda's Punto at 84k when it went to the pearly gates.

2 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Is that a phonecall to the scrappy and nearest Vectra B seller, or trusted friendly garage?

It's tempting, wonder if @JMotor will sell up when he's done the welding on his...

[Angrydicky]

Fuck.

20,000 faultless miles covered in the Ronda 600 and I went to start it to drive home, and the engine spun over really fast like it had no compression, and refused to start.

Possibly a snapped timing belt. It was running perfectly Saturday when I parked it, lucky it didn't let go at 60 mph I suppose. If it is the belt, it's only 5 years and 30k old so I am a bit surprised.

 

[Back_For_More]

This is just bizarre,,,,,,, can't legally sue the muppets who employed the kid who couldn't use a manual gearbox. Their insurance will be paying it though - so why not just name them in the suit? Pointless legislation ......

Michigan car owner sued after Jeep kills mechanic during oil change (yahoo.com)

 

[RoverFolkUs]

46 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Fuck.

20,000 faultless miles covered in the Ronda 600 and I went to start it to drive home, and the engine spun over really fast like it had no compression, and refused to start.

Possibly a snapped timing belt. It was running perfectly Saturday when I parked it, lucky it didn't let go at 60 mph I suppose. If it is the belt, it's only 5 years and 30k old so I am a bit surprised.

 

I've heard of some Honda engines of that vintage getting away with just a new belt and no valve damage. The fact it didn't happen while driving is on your side.

Very unlikely a belt would snap on its own accord (Honda pun not intended!) while sitting - maybe more like the tensioner gave way or water pump jammed up and stripped teeth on the belt? 

Autopsy time! I hope it can be salvaged and the damage isn't too horrific