The grumpy thread

[crad]

8 minutes ago, andyberg said:

It was only a matter of time. They have been slowly culling the stalwarts for younger types 🙄 I stopped listening a few years ago now.

Edit:

Greatest hits radio isn't too bad. Simon mayo has his old radio 2 show on there with his old co hosts. Also a few other peak music (80s) radio 1 DJs.

problem with greatest hits is the bloody adverts, they drive me up the wall (and the fact i can't seem to ever get a good signal in the motor when i'm in sussex).

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, cobblers said:

Wow, what a surprise! DPD can't find the address that has a massive sign directly off the road and receives a few hundred parcels every day

Oh whats the chance of that I have also just placed an order with TLC Electrical on Sunday as well!

I treated myself to somewhat* of a Variac upgrade when I found the big beasty on the right for a good price on eBay

thats not a Variac this is a Variac!

and realised to make full use of it, I was going to need a bigger boat mains supply! a 13A mains socket just aint gonna cut it anymore

so I started plugging away and what I would need and dont you just love project creep! all the bits and bobs have ended up costing almost what I paid for the Variac itself! its like a cheap/free car, dosent stay cheap for long!

"so I need a 32A IEC socket, ok, and I want one thats switched, right, then ill a suitable amount of 6mm Flex to wire the Variac with and a plug for that, and then another plug and coupler so I can add a 32A outlet to the output of the Variac itself, oh and also an industrial sized terminal lug crimp set to make up the the connections to the Variac itself because its 8mm Stud connections are bigger then any crimp terminals I have on hand currently"

you get the idea!

 

on the plus side, it means I got free local branch delivery, so hopefully no faffing about with unreliable couriers! me and the seller of the Variac had a right nightmare with getting UPS to deliver it to my door!       

managed to get all the way to my local depot when it suddenly became too heavy... (even tho they knew exactly how much it weighed and accepted it otherwise)

so that was "fun"

I was worried things where going to go sideways again when I got this email and I was thinking "oh great its probably going to take them a million years for it to get to the branch"

and in typical fashion it was one of the items in the order that was not critical to function (just an automatic wire striper I thought id finally get one to try out while I was at it)

but thankfully I have an email today saying it will all be delivered tomorrow fingers crossed! (between 8AM and 5PM, knowing my luck, probably 8AM after I have just finally passed out at 6AM LOL)

 

 

I hope your able to get your order in the end! 

[Saabnut]

Top tip boys and girls. When you do an oil change on your Komatsu minidigger, and leave it inside overnight because a) you want to check the oil level again in the morning and b) you have had enough for the night, after you have confirmed the oil level the next day and are driving it out, do remember to open the roller shutter door the extra foot the digger takes over the normal height for the Kubota.

This will save you several hours trying to straighten the door and having to grind a section off the door itself so you can get it to move again!

Still, it is the first time I have hit it hard enough to do damage in over 20 years, which is approximately 20 years longer than expected. Some more fine tuning with heat, the sledge hammer and the welder tomorrow should see it indistinguishable* from a new door!

[motorpunk]

I am beginning to hate most Range Rover drivers, based on the following observations made over 24 miserable hours. 

Brand new RR parked on a hill, nose to nose, against a lovely old scabby Daewoo. Parked so hard that the nose of the Daewoo was pressed in/down, with the weight of the RR against it. The RR also had it's arse parked at an angle making getting by nearly impossible. Driver (old gammony fart) sat in the RR reading a book. "You've hit that car in front" I told him. "No, I've touched it" he said. Whatevs. Parking cameras on the blink, are they? Twat.

Dual carriageway with queuing traffic for 2 miles to join Motorway. Left lane solid. Right lane with fast moving traffic. You know what's coming, right? At the chevrons, covered in the usual debris and shit, a new RR stops the traffic in the outside lane to push in the front of the queue, with perhaps 6" to spare before ending up hitting the armco. No indicators, obvz, no 'thank you', nothing. Twat.

Motorway, 4 lanes, RR gently weaving between lane 2 and 3, over-correcting, causing queue to overtake in lane 4. I get by... driver on the phone. Later on the same thing drives a few mm off my rear bumper as me doing 80ish overtaking things in lane 3 isn't fast enough for him, despite the cameras. Twat.

Top of my street, T junction with school on one side and scout hut the other, RR parked half on the pavement on the corner, making it impossible to see around it to pull out, and impossible for wheelchairs/pushchairs to get by on the pavement. Twat.

Local village bypass, fast but quiet traffic, RR SVR thing slowing to walking pace then zooming up behind the car in front, window down, enjoying the engine noise and annoying the fuck out of me and probably everyone who lives nearby. Twat.

I'm grumpy now. Nipped to the shop to get some bits, what make of car is parked in two bays as it's too fucking big for one, in a busy carpark, in the icy/rainy conditions? RR. Twat. 

What is it with these bloody things? 

[meggersdog]

Had a LR defender in today. The new valeter for one of my best customers  brought the car in and complained about a steering shake at anything over 40mph. He said it felt like the car was breaking in half, the front going one way the back going opposite. Put on the ramp and there is a new A frame balljoint on the rear axle and a new steering damper. The car had obviously  just come out of the workshop. Whether the "technician" missed the bleeding obvious or forgot I don't know. The steering drag link was held on by gravity alone. The nearside balljoint had no securing nut what so ever.

After finding a suitable replacement nut I phoned the workshop manager. The "technician" is the same one who left a wheelbearing so loose it affected the brakes. When it came back from the MoT he spent two hours fucking about replacing the servo, brake master cylinder and bleeding to still have a brake problem. Tightening up the bearing cured the problem. Hope the dangerous twat was given his cards this afternoon.

[hairnet]

2 hours ago, Saabnut said:

blind old man speaks

 

 

youve lived in your house how long?

[New POD]

On 16/01/2023 at 15:30, Wack said:

Last time I was in Costco E10 was 137.9. E5 was 10P more IIRC 

1.469 on Friday for E5 Costco Star city. 

[RoverFolkUs]

1 hour ago, meggersdog said:

Had a LR defender in today. The new valeter for one of my best customers  brought the car in and complained about a steering shake at anything over 40mph. He said it felt like the car was breaking in half, the front going one way the back going opposite. Put on the ramp and there is a new A frame balljoint on the rear axle and a new steering damper. The car had obviously  just come out of the workshop. Whether the "technician" missed the bleeding obvious or forgot I don't know. The steering drag link was held on by gravity alone. The nearside balljoint had no securing nut what so ever.

After finding a suitable replacement nut I phoned the workshop manager. The "technician" is the same one who left a wheelbearing so loose it affected the brakes. When it came back from the MoT he spent two hours fucking about replacing the servo, brake master cylinder and bleeding to still have a brake problem. Tightening up the bearing cured the problem. Hope the dangerous twat was given his cards this afternoon.

I knew someone like that, never could wrap my head around his line of thought on numerous occasions when blatantly obvious defects were missed on a service or something got bodged in a completely ridiculous and unsuitable manner. Like super glueing a broken wiring harness, it duly still did not work. This was on an ECU. Wrote the car off in the end as it would have needed a replacement ECU and loom. It was only a banger, but that's not the point

The last I heard, he's no longer a mechanic!

[Metal Guru]

9 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

I’ve got a DPD delivery for today. Christopher will be here between 15.34 and 16.34. I’ll let you know how it goes!

It didn’t!

[sheffcortinacentre]

2 hours ago, meggersdog said:

Had a LR defender in today. The new valeter for one of my best customers  brought the car in and complained about a steering shake at anything over 40mph. He said it felt like the car was breaking in half, the front going one way the back going opposite. Put on the ramp and there is a new A frame balljoint on the rear axle and a new steering damper. The car had obviously  just come out of the workshop. Whether the "technician" missed the bleeding obvious or forgot I don't know. The steering drag link was held on by gravity alone. The nearside balljoint had no securing nut what so ever.

After finding a suitable replacement nut I phoned the workshop manager. The "technician" is the same one who left a wheelbearing so loose it affected the brakes. When it came back from the MoT he spent two hours fucking about replacing the servo, brake master cylinder and bleeding to still have a brake problem. Tightening up the bearing cured the problem. Hope the dangerous twat was given his cards this afternoon.

Management material if ever was.

[iainrcz]

Can't sleep, again.

Hurrah.

[Zelandeth]

0732...Get up to let out one of the dogs who is doing the I need to pee dance.

"Hmm, feels a bit chilly in here..." 

Consults thermostat.  12C.  Set point 16C.

"Uuuhuhhh..."

Looks in utility room.  Boiler not running.  Pilot light out.

"Arse...let's see if it will re-light."

Ignitor button snaps in half and disappears through the control panel.

"Ah, right.  It's going to be one of *those* days is it..."

[calebaaront]

After fully servicing my Peugeot 205 yesterday and being sent the wrong distributor cap by AutoDoc I've come across an earth or other electrical issue. So now I can't even test it! Will be investigating today

[sierraman]

AUTODOC must be the absolute last of the last resorts. It takes a month of Sunday’s to arrive from somewhere like Latvia so posting it back must be a laugh a minute. 

[Jazoli]

25 minutes ago, sierraman said:

AUTODOC must be the absolute last of the last resorts. It takes a month of Sunday’s to arrive from somewhere like Latvia so posting it back must be a laugh a minute. 

Agreed, I really don't understand why people use them apart from penny pinching, use a local factors, get quality parts, be able to return them in the unlikely event its wrong, its a no branier for a few quid saving.

[Zelandeth]

23 minutes ago, sierraman said:

AUTODOC must be the absolute last of the last resorts. It takes a month of Sunday’s to arrive from somewhere like Latvia so posting it back must be a laugh a minute. 

That's exactly what they're counting on.  The returns process is so convoluted and time consuming they're hoping you just won't bother.

...Which in my case after returning one item a couple of years ago has always been the case.  For the sake of less than £20 it's just not worth the hassle.  Forget ever trying to get them to admit that they've sent you the wrong part for your car.  They are utterly convinced that their computer system is infallible.

 

Boiler update: Did get it re-lit, but wound up having to remove all the covers and light it the old fashioned way.  Was kind of expecting the thermocouple to have died and that to be why it was out, but it's stayed lit since.  No idea why it was out, only happened once before and that was when there had been a confirmed disruption to the supply overnight.  Hoping that's all it was, though I'll be eyeing it suspiciously for a while!

[Rocket88]

11 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

Agreed, I really don't understand why people use them apart from penny pinching, use a local factors, get quality parts, be able to return them in the unlikely event its wrong, its a no branier for a few quid saving.

I’ve got stuff from them before… Peugeot 205 headlamp units , which no-one else had in stock. Arrived pretty promptly, reasonably priced.

[Zelandeth]

16 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

Agreed, I really don't understand why people use them apart from penny pinching, use a local factors, get quality parts, be able to return them in the unlikely event its wrong, its a no branier for a few quid saving.

Simple answer is not much choice unless you have someone decent locally.  None of my local factors are any use whatsoever for getting parts for mainstream stuff...so it's basically Autodoc (or one of their plethora of other trading names) or some random eBay seller.  If you're really lucky GSF *might* have it, but most likely the part you want has been out of stock since 2003.  Or they wind up taking forever to get it transferred in - it took them nearly a fortnight to get an oil filter to me last time I used them.  The package from Autodoc arrived before their bloody filter.  Euro Car Parts I will never touch again since they screwed me out of more than £200 by selling me someone else's used fuel pump a few years ago.

I keep trying to find a decent independent factor to use round here but keep getting disappointed so wind up using Autodoc.  Few folks have suggested there are a couple of independent places in Bedford worth a shot - but that's the best part of two hours gone by the time I've got there and back, and I just can't afford that unless I was already out that way.  Price really isn't a factor for me, it's just availability.

I've only had a handful of things turn up wrong from Autodoc - and it's usually been one item that's wrong out of a whole box of stuff.  Last two occasions what they've sent me has matched what every other online store and GSF would have sent anyway, so I can't really point a finger at them too harshly there.  I've definitely had more incorrect things handed out from Motorserv and GSF than have arrived wrong from Autodoc.

Their returns process is laughable though and does put my back up as it's blatantly a way for them to save money by hoping you just won't bother.  Not using them though given the options I have around here would be biting my nose of to spite my face.

GSF aren't the easiest to return items to either and it winds up feeling like you've asked the world of them for the world on a plate for them to take stuff back.  

[goosey]

41 minutes ago, sierraman said:

AUTODOC must be the absolute last of the last resorts. It takes a month of Sunday’s to arrive from somewhere like Latvia so posting it back must be a laugh a minute. 

It is, and they honestly couldn’t give a fuck about their customers I have the emails to prove this. I leaned my lesson not to use them years ago 

[sierraman]

13 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

Agreed, I really don't understand why people use them apart from penny pinching, use a local factors, get quality parts, be able to return them in the unlikely event its wrong, its a no branier for a few quid saving.

I bought a new PAS sensor last week, obviously could have got one for £11 on eBay but you just know it would have been wrong/shit/took six months to arrive. Went to the factors, £31, a decent brand, I could compare it with the old part and it was in my hand by 5pm. I mean potentially saving £20 and all that fucking about with eBay/autocock isn’t worth my time. 

[Talbot]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Pilot light out.

How old is your boiler? 😳  Pilot lights haven't been used for an eternity.  They're also immensely wasteful.  A new self-lighting condensing boiler would probably halve your gas bill.

[horriblemercedes]

I've had great experiences with Autodoc. Always had the correct part and delivered much more quickly than people online claim it will be.

 

That said, it's always stuff I won't need for a few weeks. If I need to get the car back on the road ASAP, I'll buy a part locally. However if I know that a car I rarely use needs a few bits and pieces and it's not urgent, Autodoc is great.

 

That and buying service parts. If I plan to service the car in two months, I can order everything in advance and be ready. I don't do this with sheds as it would be annoying to buy all the parts and end up scrapping it for some reason before the service

 

[Datsuncog]

The last two times I've gone to my local motor factor for a part, they've tapped their computer a few times, told me they don't stock it and their supplier doesn't list it, so I'd be better off just looking online and ordering it up myself.

I appreciate their honesty and all, but it's still not much use to me - and I wouldn't have thought a 2005 Yaris is all that obscure a model. I mean, the local place is fine for batteries, bulbs and wiper blades but anything more involved just seems to draw a blank these days.

So far, it's been eBay randomers who have been getting all my business for the past while. I think I've been lucky, in that everything I've ordered has arrived quickly and been the correct part. Never used Autodoc, and from the stories related here, I don't plan to... ECP can GTF also.

[Zelandeth]

27 minutes ago, Talbot said:

How old is your boiler? 😳  Pilot lights haven't been used for an eternity.  They're also immensely wasteful.  A new self-lighting condensing boiler would probably halve your gas bill.

Original to the house from 1981.

It has three moving parts, gas valve, ignition button and high/low switch.  It was chosen for being about the most efficient one available at the time.  From memory it's 9.8kW out for 11 in, so around 89%.

We did investigate replacement a few years ago, a guy with a fancy tablet looked at it gleefully, punched the numbers into his tablet, looked puzzled, did it again and then had to concede that the repayment period for savings would likely be longer than the life of the new boiler.

Plus it wouldn't just be a drop in replacement - I think the gas feed would need to be updated (and it runs through the foundation slab, the meter being at basically the furthest possible point away on the property), I think the flue is too close to a window by current rules, and the control system would likely need to be redone from scratch given the only powered thing going into the boiler currently is the signal line to open the gas valve when heat is called for.  Plus there are bits of the heating side of the plumbing that aren't up to current code and they'd want to change.  We did price it up a few years ago and it was looking to likely be well north of five grand worth of work - assuming we didn't need to lay a completely new gas line to the meter.

Even if it did reduce our gas usage by half, gas is less than a quarter of our monthly usage (and drops to basically zero in the summer when the solar provides virtually all the hot water) so it's hardly going to change our world.

[artdjones]

I've found Autodoc to be fine, but parts take a week to get there. The wrong part arriving would only be due to having not taken sufficient care to check all the possible variations in the part and compared them with your vehicle.

For example a timing belt kit for a Mégane 3 1.5 Dci has two variations, one with 123 teeth, one with 119. Autodoc provide the necessary engine codes in their listing to know the right one to order. But if you don't check that, you're going to end up screaming "Autodoc sent me the wrong belt".

Also, with Autodoc you can choose the part make you buy, which you often can't at your local factors.

[Talbot]

45 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Plus it wouldn't just be a drop in replacement - I think the gas feed would need to be updated (and it runs through the foundation slab, the meter being at basically the furthest possible point away on the property), I think the flue is too close to a window by current rules, and the control system would likely need to be redone from scratch given the only powered thing going into the boiler currently is the signal line to open the gas valve when heat is called for.  Plus there are bits of the heating side of the plumbing that aren't up to current code and they'd want to change.  We did price it up a few years ago and it was looking to likely be well north of five grand worth of work - assuming we didn't need to lay a completely new gas line to the meter.

That does rather change the proposition of changing!  Also, 89% efficiency in 1981 is astonishingly good.  You could still buy a Baxi bermuda back-boiler at that point and they struggled to acheieve 50% efficiency when you take into account the fact that they draw in cold air to the house for combustion.

I'd be very intrigued as to whether the 11kw gas inlet (and 9.8kw heat output) makes allowance for the pilot light.  That's probably information based on when it's lit and running.  I wonder what the pilot light power useage is, as best estimates are usually that they'll burn about 4kwh of fuel a day, for no real benefit.  When gas was about a penny per kwh, it didn't mean a lot.  Now, that could be over 40p/day, or £150 a year.  Not a huge amount, granted, but beginning to get significant.

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, Talbot said:

That does rather change the proposition of changing!

I'd be very intrigued as to whether the 11kw gas inlet (and 9.8kw heat output) makes allowance for the pilot light.  That's probably information based on when it's lit and running.  I wonder what the pilot light power useage is, as best estimates are usually that they'll burn about 4kwh of fuel a day, for no real benefit.  When gas was about a penny per kwh, it didn't mean a lot.  Now, that could be over 40p/day, or £150 a year.  Not a huge amount, granted, but beginning to get significant.

According to the documentation, between 50 and 70W.

So even at the high end of that estimate, 1.7kWh of fuel a day.  

The pilot light in this thing is a tiny little pure blue flame which just touches the thermocouple, it's damn near invisible unless you have your face pressed right up against the inspection window.  The only other boilers I've seen which were old enough to use always on pilot lights had far more energetic looking flames.

It's worth noting that this place was built as a somewhat experimental eco home, so everything was specifically chosen for maximum efficiency, with quite a lot of stuff being special order.  Given the rating plate on the boiler doesn't match the figures in the glossy brochure from Thorn, I wonder if that may also have been one of those items.

I do wish the previous owner hadn't ripped half the control system out as their bodgery has done away with useful things like the anti cycle timer and *proper* wiring of the pump run on function.

Sadly that's what you get if you buy a house from an interior designer!  Also missing little things like, you know...a gas safety certificate which apparently we shouldn't have been handed the keys without.

Found the quote we had for rerouting of the gas main (this was 7 years ago...).  £4,900.  Plus the actual boiler, all new control system, and probably wanting to upgrade half the hot water and heating systems.  So probably getting on for ten grand of work.

We'd need to save a hell of a lot of gas to make that stack up.

[goosey]

3 hours ago, artdjones said:

I've found Autodoc to be fine, but parts take a week to get there. The wrong part arriving would only be due to having not taken sufficient care to check all the possible variations in the part and compared them with your vehicle.

For example a timing belt kit for a Mégane 3 1.5 Dci has two variations, one with 123 teeth, one with 119. Autodoc provide the necessary engine codes in their listing to know the right one to order. But if you don't check that, you're going to end up screaming "Autodoc sent me the wrong belt".

Also, with Autodoc you can choose the part make you buy, which you often can't at your local factors.

I had used them plenty of times without issue until I ordered some Moog ML270 ball joints, I got the correct parts but they were second hand parts (as in old ball joints removed from a car with a grinder) in a damaged new box. After a lot of emails I had to return them at my own expense for them to decide they wouldn’t issue a refund as the parts were second hand and in a damaged box ! 
I just give up with the hassle as communicating with them was like pulling teeth. 

this was back in 2017 maybe things have changed but il never use them again 

[Bren]

Looking at RR sport on ebay.

Those that can move under their own power appear to be small in number.

[Popsicle]

Are Lucas bulbs all crap these days? Bloody front indicator bulbs lasted about 6 weeks in the Vectra, no big deal normally, but you have to remove the bumper, to remove the headlamp unit to change the bulb as the indicator bulb is against the inner wing.

Its not a one off with these bulbs either, brake light out on the Caddy, popped a new one in, the amber indicators looked a bit black with bits falling off so swapped them for the new shiny Lucas amber ones, that one lasted less than a month.

Halfords to the rescue, I don't want to be removing Vectra front bumpers again for a while.