The grumpy thread

[barefoot]

I seem to have to blip my carburettor fed Scirocco to keep the engine spinning and ready to go. Perhaps I'm a twat.

[sheffcortinacentre]

That's probably the knackered pierburg carb.

[Spiny Norman]

Don't know if it's just me but is the Auto Trader website as shit as I think it is?
Set the price and a couple of other filters, enter postcode in the west end of Glasgow, radius 50  miles and it shows maybe 10 results per page, at least two of which are for cars in Wales or Hull and another couple are twice the maximum price I set.

Between that and their premium rate phone numbers they can GTF.

[Low Horatio gearbox]

The Volvos handbrake being simultaneously  unable to hold it on anything other than flat ground and still have the pads dragging on the drum with the handbrake released.  

[dozeydustman]

The Saab obviously is jealous of the new-to-me 205 and it shat its back box off.

It was rotten though, but I also need a centre section. Because that’s where it sheared.

Harumph.

[Lord Sterling]

I've come to the realisation that here in the UK, we always seem to have wanky stock when it comes to cars and even car parts.

I first learnt this years ago when I saw the spec of the Mk1 Rover Sterling in the US compared to the UK. The yanks got integrated car phone and ruched leather on the door cards, we got flat fabric, and the car phone was an big expensive extra ffs.

In terms of parts, I'd like to buy some rubber mats for a car, but all I can find are these wanky cheap checker crap mats that absolutely everyone is offering now. The mats come in all different prices but are basically all the bloody same, flat wanky plasticky"rubber" with some cheap fabric edges available in different colours.

Some time last year I bought the Fatha_Sterling some rubber mats for his Mitsubishi ASX from a manufacturer in Europe, they were amazing looking with a very OEM look to them, heavy duty, well made and not too expensive, so much so, old man took them out of the Mistubishi and put them in his Passat! 

They looked like this, big, heavy, purposeful proper moulded rubber mats.

Yet here in the UK, we get offered this shit thay doesn't even fit right 😡

I had these in my BMW and they really were wank, flat, barely lasts a year etc...

Why do we put up with this shit?

[Spiny Norman]

Always liked the heavy duty rubber mats you got in the old Volvo 240. Silly money now though.

Volvo mats

[Lord Sterling]

On 30/04/2024 at 19:56, cobblers said:

Suns out, so now I basically live on a fucking motorbike test track.

All day, every fucking day from now until late September, middle aged pricks will just sit at the traffic lights nearby revving the fuck out of their bikes for no good reason. Starts at 6am (I was literally woken this morning by a bike being pinned on the limiter for about 15 seconds) and goes on til about 10pm. Double glazing etc makes no difference because most people have some horrific sounding sports exhaust on. Harleys are the worst by a long shot.

Can't stand to be at home at all on a weekend, I just stay at work or go and park up in my van a few miles away. Hopefully we'll move soon.

I knew there would be road noise when we moved here, which I can cope with. I *really* wasn't prepared for the cunt noise. 

I have a similar issue. But it isn't just middle-aged tossers trying to capture a life that never was, but also youngsters in their Fiestas with loud pop-pop exhausts and some tosser trying to kill a 3-series BMW ragging it around everywhere with a massive hole in the exhaust, you can hear the hollow insides of the exhaust trying to get out. This is a fucking market town, the road sways and gets carved up so why the fuck these arses come here is beyond me (properly because they're too scared/tight fisted to go into bigger cities)

[Mrcento]

10 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

Don't know if it's just me but is the Auto Trader website as shit as I think it is?
Set the price and a couple of other filters, enter postcode in the west end of Glasgow, radius 50  miles and it shows maybe 10 results per page, at least two of which are for cars in Wales or Hull and another couple are twice the maximum price I set.

Between that and their premium rate phone numbers they can GTF.

Yup, i have the exact same, It's been garbage for a long time. There's something very wrong with their distance filters in particular. Works fine for 10 miles for me from Dundee, I'll only see cars in that vicinity, but if i up that to 20 miles, i start getting shown hundreds of cars in Yorkshire and the Midlands, also several miles outside whatever price i set.

But the price thing alone isn't that a new thing, think it's been like that for ages, always assumed they are 'premium' ads and are getting paid a little more from those vendors to be pushed out to more people regardless of search criteria.

[Dyslexic Viking]

I had the fun of doing the worst job on a gen 2 i10 now, changing the daytime running light lightbulbs.

This involves removing the wheel and loosen the front of the arch liner so sticking your hand into the back of the bumper without seeing much and tearing off large amounts of skin on your hands while fighting a light bulb holder that won't go off or on again. I replaced both bulbs with new ones from Osram which will hopefully last a long time so I won't have to do this again anytime soon. And I got a little angry so I destroyed an arch liner so need to change that also.

Those who work as mechanics who have to do this daily have my greatest respect.

[Rust Collector]

On 01/05/2024 at 21:06, sheffcortinacentre said:

That's probably the knackered pierburg carb.

I had a Mk2 Scirocco Scala with a knackered pierburg carb, when I came to a stop I had to dump the clutch and hold the throttle to avoid stalling it out. Winter was coming and I didn't need another project, so I sold it for £250 with £125 of tax left in the window to a lad who would definitely fix it, who scrapped it a few weeks later.

I'm definitely a twat.

[Jazoli]

13 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

I've come to the realisation that here in the UK, we always seem to have wanky stock when it comes to cars and even car parts.

I first learnt this years ago when I saw the spec of the Mk1 Rover Sterling in the US compared to the UK. The yanks got integrated car phone and ruched leather on the door cards, we got flat fabric, and the car phone was an big expensive extra ffs.

In terms of parts, I'd like to buy some rubber mats for a car, but all I can find are these wanky cheap checker crap mats that absolutely everyone is offering now. The mats come in all different prices but are basically all the bloody same, flat wanky plasticky"rubber" with some cheap fabric edges available in different colours.

Some time last year I bought the Fatha_Sterling some rubber mats for his Mitsubishi ASX from a manufacturer in Europe, they were amazing looking with a very OEM look to them, heavy duty, well made and not too expensive, so much so, old man took them out of the Mistubishi and put them in his Passat! 

They looked like this, big, heavy, purposeful proper moulded rubber mats.

Yet here in the UK, we get offered this shit thay doesn't even fit right 😡

I had these in my BMW and they really were wank, flat, barely lasts a year etc...

Why do we put up with this shit?

You aren’t looking very hard

I buy all my mats from Calibre Autoparts Direct on eBay and they are exactly as you describe., around 40 quid a set.

[Lord Sterling]

1 hour ago, Jazoli said:

You aren’t looking very hard

I buy all my mats from Calibre Autoparts Direct on eBay and they are exactly as you describe., around 40 quid a set.

Tried them, no mats for the car I need it for.

[Remspoor]

At the local health centre the other day for a doctors appointment. In the seating area next to the one I was in was a family, mother son and grandmother. The latter was wearing a mask. That is not the grump. Grandma took out a paper handy and blew her nose whilst wearing the mask. I am just glad I was not near enough to see the results afterwards.  Still make me shiver at the thought of her actions. Yuk!

[chaseracer]

I shouldn't laugh at that... but I will!

[Matty]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fuming-dad-banned-parking-vintage-32719113

DO NOT PAINT. Bastards.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

At the local health centre the other day for a doctors appointment. In the seating area next to the one I was in was a family, mother son and grandmother. The latter was wearing a mask. That is not the grump. Grandma took out a paper handy and blew her nose whilst wearing the mask. I am just glad I was not near enough to see the results afterwards.  Still make me shiver at the thought of her actions. Yuk!

Snot...funny

[sheffcortinacentre]

37 minutes ago, Matty said:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fuming-dad-banned-parking-vintage-32719113

DO NOT PAINT. Bastards.

Would they tell gypos to do that I doubt it or some toff to shift their Bentley, it's about time all this anti motorist stuff was knocked on the head.

Criminals are treated better & have more rights god knows what councils would do without the money screwed out of us year on year by government.

[Stanky]

8 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Tried them, no mats for the car I need it for.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266487142428

I got a set of these years ago in Aldi for £25 and they've been in every car I've owned since. Proper heavy, supple rubber, no 98% plastic rubbish. They are heavy and easy to cut to shape with a pair of stout scissors. Yes they are £40 a set, but they will literally last a decade+

They can be jetwashed, hoovered, and are heavy enough that they self-flatten into the footwell of any car, and being either very high rubber content, or pure rubber they don't slip or slide about in the footwell.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Next door have bought a 15-plate Citroen Cactus.  Good for them. 

Noticed a trail of oil down the road a few days ago.

Turns out that their old 11-plate Juke had a leaky oil filter, ran out of oil and the engine catastrophically failed a couple of miles up the road.  Neighbour said that as far as they knew, the oil filter hadn't been changed recently.  Which means that it probably hasn't been serviced, the seal has failed and it's blown up as a result.  Irritates me that a car has been cubed just because of a 50p seal failing.

[Noel Tidybeard]

45 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Next door have bought a 15-plate Citroen Cactus.  Good for them. 

Noticed a trail of oil down the road a few days ago.

Turns out that their old 11-plate Juke had a leaky oil filter, ran out of oil and the engine catastrophically failed a couple of miles up the road.  Neighbour said that as far as they knew, the oil filter hadn't been changed recently.  Which means that it probably hasn't been serviced, the seal has failed and it's blown up as a result.  Irritates me that a car has been cubed just because of a dickhead owner

FIFY

[GrumpiusMaximus]

They're nice folks next door but I do go the distinct impression that preventative maintenance is low on the list of priorities.

[Lord Sterling]

On 03/05/2024 at 23:58, Stanky said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266487142428

I got a set of these years ago in Aldi for £25 and they've been in every car I've owned since. Proper heavy, supple rubber, no 98% plastic rubbish. They are heavy and easy to cut to shape with a pair of stout scissors. Yes they are £40 a set, but they will literally last a decade+

They can be jetwashed, hoovered, and are heavy enough that they self-flatten into the footwell of any car, and being either very high rubber content, or pure rubber they don't slip or slide about in the footwell.

I know they can be modified with scissors but I absolutely hate universal mats, I cannot stand them. Didn't mind them a couple of decades ago but then I was fairly new to the world of owning a car.

I'd rather search high and low and come across either a properly tailored set or originals. 

When I had my old Vectra B estate diesel I managed to find and buy a set of original front rubber mats.

[Chas4545]

Off topic but anyway...  Ive had to stop watching the PO enquiry as its winding me up too much, but one thing leaves me puzzled. 

Why are there no youtube videos of a certain ex PO boss preaching?

It would be interesting to see her talk about how we should behave.

[MikeR]

walking past the banana shaped  double glazed caravan door yesterday and I finally noticed what's up with it ....

now considering the door  "experts" have been out and looked at it and other doors which were not shutting properly ..

which still needed attention after they had gone ...

I can now see the bottom panel is too big for the opening in the door frame for it , it must of been forced in to place  with some effort when the door was made !!

as its concave in the middle !!  

the door frame is straight , but the pressure from the panel is warping it out of true with the top of the door ..  the rubber seal between the door frame and panel changes thickness under the pressure ..

so even if the trim is removed I bet it would still be interesting to get the panel out and trim it to shape !!

as its a green coloured  door , any work will mark the paintwork , and a replacement panel would probably not match !

[Zelandeth]

Got the news today that my Nan passed away early this morning.  Not too broken up over it to be honest as firstly I really wasn't all that close.  Secondly it really didn't come as a surprise.  She was 97 of my math is right, and has had endless medical issues, especially over the last 10 years and has been resolutely miserable for at least that long, so something of a mercy in some ways.  It's also felt like it was going to happen at any minute for years.  

Timing could be better though...I've one of the two big events I've been looking forward to this year coming up over the last Thursday to Tuesday in May.  I'd be putting really good odds on either the funeral or other legal bits and pieces going on over that period...

I at least used to be noted as the executor or her will, though we're waiting for confirmation on that as as her husband put it "She was endlessly messing with things" so that could well have changed since it was last mentioned to me about 20 years ago.  Either way there will be some input required from my part I'm sure.  On the plus side they're only an hour or so from here so it's not like I'm going to need to endlessly run backwards and forwards up and down the country.  Plus she had actually written and properly registered a will, and everything relating to it is apparently pretty black and white so shouldn't be any squabbling between the remaining family at least.  Hopefully.

[Pieman]

On 03/05/2024 at 19:23, Matty said:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fuming-dad-banned-parking-vintage-32719113

DO NOT PAINT. Bastards.

Stick another vehicle there that's all shiny and new, then set it on fire and tell them someone else did it.

@Zelandeth - sorry to hear your sad news, hope you eventually have something good happen in life. -hug-

[Zelandeth]

12 hours ago, Pieman said:

Stick another vehicle there that's all shiny and new, then set it on fire and tell them someone else did it.

@Zelandeth - sorry to hear your sad news, hope you eventually have something good happen in life. -hug-

Appreciate it.  We're getting by all right all told.  Yes there are frustrations in my life, but compared to the vast majority of folks I've had a pretty lucky roll of the dice in a lot of ways.  We're working on sorting a lot of the real day to day annoyances as well.  I think the biggest source of grumbling for my part there is that the timescales are kinda nebulous as they rely on a number of factors which are completely beyond my control cooperating.

Also, insomnia can get in the fscking sea please.

[Joey spud]

I own just one pair of shoes that are exclusively used for weddings,funerals and maybe a very rare outing to a posh do. They are only cheapies but tidy and really comfortable to wear all day if needs be.

Anyhow I was at a wedding yesterday and sitting down waiting for the death sentence/ceremony to start I jokingly said to the wife "these shoes must be knocking twenty years old and still look new I reckon they'll see me out"...

Later in the day I stood up to venture to the bar,took a few steps and found I had suffered a major fail to proceed in the footwear department.

Gutted doesn't even cover it. 

Any suggestions of what I can use to glue them back together with so I can get another twenty years out of them ?

[MorrisItalSLX]

6 minutes ago, Joey spud said:

I own one pair of black shoes that are exclusively used for weddings,funerals and maybe a very rare posh do. Really tidy and comfortable to wear all day if needs be.

I was at a wedding yesterday and sitting down waiting for the ceremony to start I jokingly said to the wife "these shoes must be knocking twenty years old and still look new I reckon they'll see me out"...

Later in the day I stood up to venture to the bar,took a few steps and found I had suffered a major fail to proceed in the footwear department.

Gutted doesn't even cover it. 

Any suggestions of what I can use to glue them back together with so I can get another twenty years out of them ?

A cobbler should have them back together in no time.

Would it be cost effective compared to buying a new pair? Possibly not, but as a member of this forum repairing old tat instead of doing the sensible thing and buying new is in your blood.