The grumpy thread

[Bobthebeard]

Insurance companies and car hire rant.

Having for various reasons decided to decline the hire car after a mild rear end shunt on the Honda, came home today to find a new Insignia on the drive and keys posted through the letterbox. Admittedly I accepted the hire car initially, but then the insurance company rang me to say that the hire car had been cancelled as I was still driving the Honda. They were still waiting for approval. I told them that whatever the outcome, I did not now want a hire car. Too many spurious charges and fees. They told me that the hire car had been cancelled. It is on my drive now FFS.

Rang them again and.... Oh, sorry. There was a note on the system to cancel the hire car, but it seems nobody actually did it.

Sorry sir..... You will need to ring our finance department to get back the collision damage waiver fee and fuelling charges that we have taken from your debit card.... Someone will be in touch to collect the hire car...

Here we go....

[eddyramrod]

You have to ring people to correct their mistake? A mistake they know about and admit to, which has cost you money? Never mind finance department, phone the insurance ombudsman!

[Bobthebeard]

You have to ring people to correct their mistake? A mistake they know about and admit to, which has cost you money? Never mind finance department, phone the insurance ombudsman!

 

Seriously considering it TBH.

Or, possibly if the Insignia tyres and battery will fit the Honda.........

[meggersdog]

All Vauxhalls are shit.

Serviced a mate's Vectra diesel today.Replaced the fuel filter,filled the cannister with extra diesel so it's overflowing.Would it start again ?

Must have been a massive air-lock as I couldn't get fuel to the injectors.Put my 20amp battery charger on to crank it over and nothing.

After a good twenty minutes and fearing I might burn the starter out I had to tow start the bastard to get it going.

Imagine if you were stupid enough to run out of diesel in one of these things.

[Bobthebeard]

All Vauxhalls are shit.

Serviced a mate's Vectra diesel today.Replaced the fuel filter,filled the cannister with extra diesel so it's overflowing.Would it start again ?

Must have been a massive air-lock as I couldn't get fuel to the injectors.Put my 20amp battery charger on to crank it over and nothing.

After a good twenty minutes and fearing I might burn the starter out I had to tow start the bastard to get it going.

Imagine if you were stupid enough to run out of diesel in one of these things.

 

There is an Insignia on my drive if any parts will fit a Vectra!

Lol

[Barry Cade]

.

[Barry Cade]

There is an Insignia on my drive if any parts will fit a Vectra!

Lol

 

 

Dare you to re-arrange the badging on the back to spell vagina.

[RedSparrow]

RE Couriers

I actually stopped buying things which use couriers to deliver them. I only buy items delivered by Royal Mail so if you miss them you can go to the local depot and pick it up.

But I know this isn't always possible with big heavy car parts.

[retrogeezer]

It finally turned up about 10 minutes ago actually! I asked the driver where it was and he told me another driver had left it at an address about three miles away by mistake! The address is quite clear on the box so there's no excuses really. As you say, useless fuckers.

 

haha, yeh - another driver........sure, whatever you say mate!

[Richard]

I can't fix my Saab.

I managed to get a set of wee offset screwdriver thingies but it looks like I've been grossly optimistic in my estimation of the space available. I'm not even getting close to getting a hand to the voltage regulator screw, so it looks like an alternator out job, which I'm pretty sure means the aircon pump has to come off as well.

 

Well beyond my amateur skills and tools, and I can see it being megabucks in labour for a £10 part.

 

Are you going to this Retroshite thing on Sunday? I reckon I could shift it and even if I can't there's bound to be somebody there with the necessary tools and skills. I would suggest putting it back in with hex headed bolts so you can use a spanner to take it out again.

[Spiny Norman]

Is that the thing in Dunfermline? I very much doubt it would make it the 50-odd miles just on the battery, I don't think I'd risk it.

I've asked on the Saab forum if the alternator can come out without de-plumbing the aircon but I've not had a definite answer yet, I'm really not sure the regulator will come out with the alternator in place, there just doesn't seem to be the room for a hand holding any kind of tool to get in the gap, but someone with more skill than me might manage it.

 

To give you an idea, I've nicked a pic of another 900 off the Saab forum, showing the alternator and the red 'X' shows roughly where the screw is, underneath the coolant hose, but the oil filter and associated pipework sits right behind the alternator, about an inch or so away. Taking that coolant hose off might improve visibility but that's all.

 

Bear in mind there's an aircon pump roughly where the 'ALT' is in that pic on my car.

[Barry Cade]

Does the aircon work?

[Spiny Norman]

Nope. Used to when I got it, but not any more. I'd be quite happy to lose the pump and associated shite. Someone on the Saab forum's put up a good link describing how to take the alternator off but it might as well be Greek to me!

[Richard]

I'll drop into my friend's garage on the way home tonight and ask him if there's an easy way. I did see him do one recently and it seemed straightforward enough for him but I can't remember if the car had aircon or not.

[Bobthebeard]

There is an Insignia on my drive if any parts will fit a Vectra!

Lol

 

 

Dare you to re-arrange the badging on the back to spell vagina.

 

Not sure what to do with all the left over letters though...

[Richard]

I'll drop into my friend's garage on the way home tonight and ask him if there's an easy way. I did see him do one recently and it seemed straightforward enough for him but I can't remember if the car had aircon or not.

 

He uses a 2 foot long screwdriver to undo the screw nearest the engine but in the absence of such a thing he reckons the suggestion of a screwdriver bit with an 8mm spanner should do the job. If the screw head is damaged he uses a small pair of vice grips to turn the screw. As soon as you get the screws moving you can undo them with your fingers.

[Spiny Norman]

Apologies if I'm not understanding this correctly (which I'm sure I'm not), but I don't see how a 2 foot long screwdriver will help when the screw has about an inch and a half of free space in front of it? But then I'm not very mechanically minded....

The cranked allen key-type thing (much the same idea as a spanner with a screwdriver bit in it) was my best hope but I tried it again this afternoon and I still can't get a hand plus the tool into the gap. It's hard to describe without pictures but there really isn't much room in there at all, and even if I did manage to get a tool onto the screw, turning it would be another matter. And then there's the issue of whether or not I could get it all back together again afterwards, I usually find things come apart far easier than they go together.

 

Thanks for the advice and help but today's thinking is it'll either have to go into a garage and I'll have to pay whatever they want to charge me, or it just gets sold as spares or repair.

I was going to be selling it anyway after it had got its MOT but given the current market and the poor prices these things fetch I'm just not sure it's worth me paying someone else to fix it and I know I can't do it myself.

 

I'll try again next week to get a local garage to take it on, but the fact that two have knocked me back so far suggests they see it as more trouble than it's worth.

[Richard]

I don't think he gets straight onto the back of the screw but it's close enough to turn it. He did say you can undo the belts and swing the alternator out a bit, though that's not quite as straightforward if you have aircon.

[M'coli]

I don't know whether this belongs here or to the pushbike thread, but after promising to strip a wheel down and re-lace it onto another, better, hub, I began to do so tonight, with quite a few photos thrown in as the cats came to inspect my handywork.

 

I seem to have mislayed my spoke key, but this turned out to be but a minor inconvenience compared to the problem facing me as I began the lacing-up; the good rim has 32 holes and thus spokes, but the good hub is a 36-hole job...

 

 

NOT a happy camper.

[Lord Sterling]

Brill...

 

Looks like my KV6 is not coming this weekend. Getting pressure from Ma_Sterling about sorting a car out for my own. My own Sterling still hasn't been diagnosed and to be honest, I don't think it'll be seeing the road until at least near the end of this year, maybe next? If ever... The 2 other stored Sterlings are in various states of disrepair and need about £500 spending on them to get them roadworthy. The last 800, the 820e, I havent paid for just yet but I will be soon, if this KV6 is just not coming here then the 820e will be my daily.

 

Fuxake

[Station]

Waiting in the queue in co op. been in a line of 7 people for ten minutes. Are these shops trained to be universally slow?

[Cavcraft]

/\

Yes, but instead of doing it to get you to buy other shit like out of date crumpets, they do it so you get to spend longer looking at girls in pyjamas buying 10 L&B and a pint of milk.

[SambaS]

I haven't heard from Hambleton District Council in over 6 months although I was aware I owed them £90 council tax from a while back.

 

Today I get a letter through my door from Jacobs bailiffs trying to recover £119 plus £24.50 costs.

 

Surely the Council should have written me to say they were considering taking me to court?

 

I assume that now means I have a CCJ on my credit file. Awesome.

[Cavcraft]

If we do get new mod's I hope he/she/they nuke the banger thread.

[John F]

If we do get new mod's I hope he/she/they nuke the banger thread.

 

+1

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

If we do get new mod's I hope he/she/they nuke the banger thread.

 

 

Maybe some Cyber Pikeys will arrive in a space-Hiab and nick it.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Is anyone else struggling with this new photobucket site? It may be just me, but as far as I can tell its gone from 'decent' to 'fucking shit'.

[autofive]

you can opt for 'classic view', I have. But dont ask me how i did it.

[Richard]

I don't know anybody who hasn't had trouble with it. As far as I know the "classic view" (IIRC it was a tiny link at the top right hand side of the page) will be disappearing in 16 days.

[wuvvum]

SambaS - CCJs for council tax arrears don't appear on your credit file.