The grumpy thread

[jakebullet]

It's the Mrs's birthday today. What has Mad Jean bought her daughter? Er, nothing. Well you got a card? Er, nope. Wrote on your facebook wall? Nah.

But Mrs's brother has wrote on facebook. And so has the DEVIL, that HELEN WALKER!!!!

Mad Jean is curiously absent from facebook today. None of the usual 40 copies of the same praise JEZZZZUS, or whatever is in her head.

Place bets now, my money's on Mad Jean has been SO ILL and the NHS ALMOST LET HER DIE, 'cos nobody cares about the elderly. So that's why the birthday just got missed* in the trauma of it all, and besides you're in league with THE DEVILS for letting them post happy birthday on your wall. So it's GOD'S WILL that you get nothing at all.

TLDR, Mad Jean is a nasty piece of work, and can get to fucking fuck.

[Rave]

I refer you also @jakebullet to my post above

[Pieman]

9 minutes ago, jakebullet said:

It's the Mrs's birthday today. What has Mad Jean bought her daughter? Er, nothing. Well you got a card? Er, nope. Wrote on your facebook wall? Nah.

But Mrs's brother has wrote on facebook. And so has the DEVIL, that HELEN WALKER!!!!

Mad Jean is curiously absent from facebook today. None of the usual 40 copies of the same praise JEZZZZUS, or whatever is in her head.

Place bets now, my money's on Mad Jean has been SO ILL and the NHS ALMOST LET HER DIE, 'cos nobody cares about the elderly. So that's why the birthday just got missed* in the trauma of it all, and besides you're in league with THE DEVILS for letting them post happy birthday on your wall. So it's GOD'S WILL that you get nothing at all.

TLDR, Mad Jean is a nasty piece of work, and can get to fucking fuck.

Seriously, lay off the acid, all of you.  I'm getting genuinely concerned now.

[Rave]

Anyway, let's get to why I opened this thread that I've never posted in before to my knowledge.

My Audi A6's MOT expired 5 days ago; I knew it would fail on the engine light being on, which was due to the post-cat lambda sensor being dead. @DirtyDaily supplied the replacement with the car, I just never got round to it because it ran fine (post-cat lambdas are just there to dob you in to the MOT man) and it looked like a right prick to get to, being buried behind the engine. Anyway I bit the bullet on Sunday and it was actually quite easy, it cracked off no bother with the 4-sided lambda socket I found lying in the road a year or so ago, and obvs I just bunged the replacement in with an adjustable spanner, fuck doing it up tight. While I was in there I also fitted the supplied cam cover gasket, which was a bit more effort, but still not a struggle. But I could hear that it also had an exhaust leak and I know from bitter experience that you've absolutely no chance of passing an MOT with one as they totally screw the CO/lambda reading.

So today I drove it the 50 yards round the corner to the nearest side street onto my ramps, before wriggling under to inspect the exhaust. I found the leak pretty quickly at the joint between the link pipe and the first silencer section. I went to ECP and paid 4 quid for an exhaust bandage kit, and then went back again to pay £3.69 for a 300g tube of gun gum (vs £4 for the 150g tube of amateur shit) when I found my old one had gone rock hard.

By that point it was tipping down with rain so I effected the repair lying on an absolutely piss wet road. Wriggling out from under the car I was quite literally making squelching noises. I figured I'd just leave the car up on the ramps, as although the gun gum says to dry it off with the engine running , the bandage says to leave it 24h and I wasn't that confident that I'd done it up super tight.

Anyway after stripping off my piss wet clothes, having a shower, ringing the MOT station to book the car in for tomorrow, and cooking dinner for my elderly FIL, I fancied some cans to take the edge off so decided to wander to the offy. On my way out I found this:

...some dick has parked <2m from the junction, and 6" from my towbar. I've zero chance of backing the car off the ramps if they don't move.

I'm not actually bothered about them not noticing that they're blocking me on my ramps, I'm an ADHD space cadet who goes through life not noticing shit like that. But the parking <2m from the junction is a dick move and clearly against the highway code. I've left a polite notice under their wiper, hopefully they'll fuck off to work before I need to get the car out tomorrow, and if not I could potentially MOT it Thursday.

If not would the council tow them for being too close to the junction? I really don't want to have to borrow my brother's car for my airport run on Friday.

 

[sheffcortinacentre]

No they won't give a shit, neither will plod.

[DirtyDaily]

Anyway, let's get to why I opened this thread that I've never posted in before to my knowledge.
My Audi A6's MOT expired 5 days ago; I knew it would fail on the engine light being on, which was due to the post-cat lambda sensor being dead. [mention=28666]DirtyDaily[/mention] supplied the replacement with the car, I just never got round to it because it ran fine (post-cat lambdas are just there to dob you in to the MOT man) and it looked like a right prick to get to, being buried behind the engine. Anyway I bit the bullet on Sunday and it was actually quite easy, it cracked off no bother with the 4-sided lambda socket I found lying in the road a year or so ago, and obvs I just bunged the replacement in with an adjustable spanner, fuck doing it up tight. While I was in there I also fitted the supplied cam cover gasket, which was a bit more effort, but still not a struggle. But I could hear that it also had an exhaust leak and I know from bitter experience that you've absolutely no chance of passing an MOT with one as they totally screw the CO/lambda reading.
So today I drove it the 50 yards round the corner to the nearest side street onto my ramps, before wriggling under to inspect the exhaust. I found the leak pretty quickly at the joint between the link pipe and the first silencer section. I went to ECP and paid 4 quid for an exhaust bandage kit, and then went back again to pay £3.69 for a 300g tube of gun gum (vs £4 for the 150g tube of amateur shit) when I found my old one had gone rock hard.
By that point it was tipping down with rain so I effected the repair lying on an absolutely piss wet road. Wriggling out from under the car I was quite literally making squelching noises. I figured I'd just leave the car up on the ramps, as although the gun gum says to dry it off with the engine running , the bandage says to leave it 24h and I wasn't that confident that I'd done it up super tight.
Anyway after stripping off my piss wet clothes, having a shower, ringing the MOT station to book the car in for tomorrow, and cooking dinner for my elderly FIL, I fancied some cans to take the edge off so decided to wander to the offy. On my way out I found this:

...some dick has parked <2m from the junction, and 6" from my towbar. I've zero chance of backing the car off the ramps if they don't move.
I'm not actually bothered about them not noticing that they're blocking me on my ramps, I'm an ADHD space cadet who goes through life not noticing shit like that. But the parking <2m from the junction is a dick move and clearly against the highway code. I've left a polite notice under their wiper, hopefully they'll fuck off to work before I need to get the car out tomorrow, and if not I could potentially MOT it Thursday.
If not would the council tow them for being too close to the junction? I really don't want to have to borrow my brother's car for my airport run on Friday.
 

Some people are severely lacking in the common sense department unfortunately. I suspect they didn't consider any of it when they parked there.
Good luck with the MOT though, was the 90 degree adapter on the secondary O2 sensor still? When I first tried to fix it, I fitted that as I thought maybe the cat was losing its efficiency but it didn't help so got the new O2 sensor but never fitted it? Thought I did but I could be going mad. Either way you can clear the code just beforehand and get it through the MOT without fixing it properly. Looking forward to seeing this get another year of motoring.

[beko1987]

13 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Sorry but it sounds like you need to get out of that situation as soon as you can, if you can, that sort of behaviour is irrational and borderline coercive. Don't forget men can be victims of domestic abuse as well

I look back on my relationship with the ex now after 4+ years and after the fun bits are removed I think the same, now when she starts screaming at me I can hang up on her 👌

[captain_70s]

Suspect plod would be more likely to book you for no MOT or leaving a car in a "dangerous" position.

Merc driver has likely parked there deliberately as penance for you leaving the car like that. Many folk are of the opinion working on a car on a public road is illegal.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Dad is still in hospital. And the hospital is as crap as ever.

And I've had a trip down to town and there are too many people in this world.

That's mine for now.

[Rave]

They had moved by 10am, and I'm at the MOT station now. It has passed emissions, just waiting to see what else the MOT man finds...

@DirtyDaily I wondered about that elbow, didn't know they were a thing. The fault code was for the sensor being faulty and indeed the new one has sorted it (though I had to clear the code, the ECU didn't seem to just notice). Weirdly the old one showed a voltage in Torque but I'm not going to argue with it any further! 🙃

[DirtyDaily]

They had moved by 10am, and I'm at the MOT station now. It has passed emissions, just waiting to see what else the MOT man finds...
[mention=28666]DirtyDaily[/mention] I wondered about that elbow, didn't know they were a thing. The fault code was for the sensor being faulty and indeed the new one has sorted it (though I had to clear the code, the ECU didn't seem to just notice). Weirdly the old one showed a voltage in Torque but I'm not going to argue with it any further! 

Elbow worked on the Jag x350 I had which had an efficiency code. Also made it a bit easier to get to the O2 sensor on the A6!
Fingers crossed, it's cosmetically challenged but mechanically it seemed good so my hopes are high!

[Rave]

27 minutes ago, DirtyDaily said:

Elbow worked on the Jag x350 I had which had an efficiency code. Also made it a bit easier to get to the O2 sensor on the A6!
Fingers crossed, it's cosmetically challenged but mechanically it seemed good so my hopes are high!

It passed with a few insignificant advisories . Hopefully the new cam cover gasket will sort the oil leak. It's still leaking a bit of coolant from somewhere out of the back of the head (or possibly block), I should really find out where the thermostat is and replace that as it seems lazy anyway and I suspect that's where the leak is coming from as well, but I can just keep topping it up for now. Just got to hope the clutch holds out a bit longer, though there's a specialist down the road who were very cheap when it needed doing on my Mondeo. The thing is I would like to stick the gearbox from a diesel one on as it revs a bit high on the motorway for my liking, but then I'd probably want to stick a bigger turbo on and get it remapped so it doesn't become a slug with the longer gearing. All pipe dreams anyway until I get some more money coming in...

[DirtyDaily]

It's still leaking a bit of coolant from somewhere out of the back of the head (or possibly block), I should really find out where the thermostat is and replace that as it seems lazy anyway and I suspect that's where the leak is coming from as well, but I can just keep topping it up for now.

One thing I did, which has just come back to me, is I replaced a coolant temperature sensor which is at the back of the head. It's all plastic back there so don't know if I disturbed something while I was in there. Seems a coincidence if that's roughly where it's coming from.

[Pieman]

8 hours ago, DirtyDaily said:

Some people are severely lacking in the common sense department unfortunately. I suspect they didn't consider any of it when they parked there.

I'm becoming convinced that people deliberately park in order to inconvenience others - and sometimes it can be stereotyped by what they drive.  By far the worst I have seen are Range Rovers.  They will deliberately park over as many spaces as possible or diagonally across disabled spaces, purely because owners of modern Range Rovers seem to genuinely believe they are more important than anything or anyone else in the world and want to rub that status into everyone's faces all the time.

See also: anything with a number plate spelling "BO55".  Best option here is to run them off the road before they inevitably try to do the same to you.

[MikeR]

What more can I say .... So much for a controlled supply chain ... 

[Remspoor]

4 hours ago, MikeR said:

What more can I say .... So much for a controlled supply chain ... 

That is crying out for pineapple bits thrown on top.

[anonymous user]

3 hours ago, Remspoor said:

That is crying out for pineapple bits thrown on top.

Then into the bin

[GrumpiusMaximus]

3 hours ago, Remspoor said:

That is crying out for pineapple bits thrown on top.

Forget Stalin, forget Ivan the Terrible, forget Genghis Khan.  You are history's greatest monster.

[hairnet]

wtf is the football on two channels live at once

there has never been any need

keane summariser on one

rooney on the other 

fuck that

karate kid now and watch the rugby in a bit and the cricket later

[Metal Guru]

Went to a wedding yesterday. At the sit down meal , the room got louder and louder. Just became white noise to me, unable to have a conversation even with people next to me. When did shouting everything become the norm?

[EyesWeldedShut]

Just now, Metal Guru said:

Went to a wedding yesterday. At the sit down meal , the room got louder and louder. Just became white noise to me, unable to have a conversation even with people next to me. When did shouting everything become the norm?

Me & t'missus get the same problem - used to think it was just our hearing getting worn out. Started avoiding big functions like Xmas Parties (suits me I'm a miserable bastard)
Then I went to my Uncle's funeral last year. Nobody shouting and yelling there, I was fine at the wake.
 

[sheffcortinacentre]

Since people decided their the most important & everyone around them should know how successful/well off they are.

[Zelandeth]

7 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Went to a wedding yesterday. At the sit down meal , the room got louder and louder. Just became white noise to me, unable to have a conversation even with people next to me. When did shouting everything become the norm?

The ever increasing trend for furnishing restaurants in entirely hard surfaces really has done naught to help this.  Couple near us were absolutely fine until they were refitted, at which point if there were anything more than about 10 people in there it just turned into a giant echo chamber.

Edit: Pretty much just had that proven here.  Just had dinner in the restaurant of the hotel I'm staying in just now, and it was pretty much full.  However the noise levels were entirely comfortable, and I'd have been absolutely able to hold a conversation with someone else at the table at a perfectly normal volume comfortably.  Simply because they've used some common sense when choosing materials for the walls, seating and ceiling coverings.

[Back_For_More]

Plus you're all talking through your costumes - must have a muffling effect 😉

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

The ever increasing trend for furnishing restaurants in entirely hard surfaces really has done naught to help this.  Couple near us were absolutely fine until they were refitted, at which point if there were anything more than about 10 people in there it just turned into a giant echo chamber.

Edit: Pretty much just had that proven here.  Just had dinner in the restaurant of the hotel I'm staying in just now, and it was pretty much full.  However the noise levels were entirely comfortable, and I'd have been absolutely able to hold a conversation with someone else at the table at a perfectly normal volume comfortably.  Simply because they've used some common sense when choosing materials for the walls, seating and ceiling coverings.

Cushty 😀

[RoverFolkUs]

Piss poor car boot sale etiquette 

Not the first time I've moaned about people's behaviour at a car boot sale, but this one particularly annoyed me 

Arrived at a stall, someone has 2x small 32" TVs, nothing particularly special, i asked how much, he said £10 each. Great, I said I'll take them, do you have the remotes by any chance? I'm stood next to both of them, with my hand on one. 

He said he does, so off he goes to have a look in the back of the car. 

I'm getting the money ready, meanwhile a bloke in the distance calls out "how much are those tellys?" - he can see that I'm trying to buy them but he obviously wants to gazump me. 

I think the seller is also in the wrong here, because he said "£20 for the pair" instead of "sorry they're sold" 

I think not much more of it, but about 15 seconds later he comes back from the car with the remotes in hand and goes "sorry mate, that gentleman over there has just bought them" 

WTF? How does that work 🤣

I'm stood by them, I got there first, I said I'd buy them, I haven't haggled on the price, but some bloke arrives after me, asks for the price after I did, but manages to hand over the money before I do and they're his all of a sudden? 

It's no great loss, I can easily find the same deal on FB marketplace and then at least I'd have the opportunity to check they work before buying them, so I'm not worried about losing the items - I'm just really annoyed about the complete lack of etiquette from either side? In my opinion, who ever gets to the item first has first dibs, it's only available once they step away from it. If I see something that I want then I'll stand aside and wait if someone else is already looking at it. 

I hope karma does justice and he gets them home to find they don't work 🤣

[myglaren]

Laptop crashed, which is a first for me.  Killed the power, rebooted, ran BleachBit, restarted, ran the cleaner for each browser.

Th Brave cleaner seemed to just hang so rebooted it and it has lost all passwords.

Luckily I have them saved to a USB dongle and an external drive.  Annoying though as it isn't asking to save them now.

[Split_Pin]

Another day, another incorrectly- sized o-ring for the A8's top coolant hose.

If the next one isn't right I might as well go to Audi, but I'm loathe to travel all the way to Stirling for a tiny part.

Still, I've now got a lovely expanding collection of the things now 😂

Luckily the leak isn't bad so I can still drive it mean time .

[jakebullet]

Idiot sister rings up, and is yapping to Ma for longer than the usual "there was this horse and it had a really big shit" conversation. Ma then starts telling me IS is going playing donkeys next weekend, and moggy is going into moggy storage, and you can only retrive moggy between 10 - 4, and she won't be back by then on Sunday.

We can all see where this is going can't we?

So I cut it off in advance by saying "Unlucky. Guess she's paying for an extra day moggy storage then. Expensive game this animal lark".

[Joey spud]

In my workshop leaning against some racking is a stainless steel sink from a poxy caravan. In my mind it is unwanted scrap but to her indoors it might come in useful (it won't).

So earlier I am crouching down retreaving a pair of mole grips in the bottom tray of my welding cart and as I straighten up I head butt the corner of the sodding sink.

How about a nice inch long puncture wound to the front left of my head and worse still fuck me where's all my hair going.

To be fair it didn't bleed for all that long and I didn't think i needed stitches or anything but then again I'm no doctor so I took myself to the minor injuries unit at the hospital expecting to have to wait hours to be seen but no.

Although they were really busy I was seen to and glued back together within the hour, everyone who dealt with me was super friendly and efficient so well done to the NHS and Medway hospital.

I think her indoors is feeling guilty as she has now removed the sink from my workshop.