The grumpy thread

[Asimo]

Yesterday I did not win a Renault Avantime on eBay. This gave me a sad face.

Avantimes! once a chap wants one of the darn things nothing else will do.

They are so cheap right now too....Java green with cloth seats, N/A 2.0 engine and auto please. No twatNav (spoils the dash)

 

*Not an available combo, hence . 

[DVee8]

Avantime one man's misery another man's grin.

[dave21478]

Fuck the entire human race. 

 

What a pissy day, and its only lunchtime!

 

 

Driving to work and some dozy cow came round a corner on my side of the road, face buried in the screen of her telephone. I nailed the brakes and went for the ditch, just avoiding a smash. Did she stop, or even acknowledge what happened? nope. With hind-sight I should have just plowed into her, but then my last insurance escapade didnt exactly go swimmingly either. Well fuck you, I have a dash cam....will happily pass that clip to the plod. Oh, except it wasnt recording. Fucking chinese pish seems to be freezing up at random.

 

Whatever, dont dwell on it Dave - just carry on with life.

 

I get to work at one of the chateaus and it seems that "No Entry" and "Private Property" signs actually mean "come on in, climb over the fence and do whatever the fuck you want." Its a private residence...someones home... but tourists seem to think they have some God-given right to turn up and take photographs. Its a really really regular thing. The place is stunning and can be seen from miles away so draws tourists like a magnet, yet they dont get the concept of private property.

This morning, they have broken the fence as they climbed it, trampled all over newly planted flower beds....hey its only seedling plants, who gives a shit if you stomp them to bits right? its only a few hundred quids worth and two days work to plant them after all, and they have then climbed up into the treehouse and trampled muddy footprints over every inch of the wood floors.

Seriously, what kind of brain-damaged cunt thinks that this sort of behaviour is ok? You can bet that if I turned up at their house and treated their garden like fucking Disney Land they wouldnt be too happy about it. No doubt by this evening some arseholes FaceTwittInstaBookGram will be full of pictures of the place with captions like "fairytale castle". I bet they didnt take photos of the fucking mess they made.

 

Whatever, dont dwell on it Dave - just carry on with life.

 

So I went down to town to buy replacement plants and a few bits n pieces. Parked at the garden centre and came out maybe half an hour later. I drive a pickup truck and in the bed I leave an old bit of climbing rope. Its useless for climbing now, but ideal for tying things down on the truck. It was definitely there when I parked and definitely gone when I came back out. Who can even be bothered to steal 15 feet of wet, dirty old rope?

 

meh, dont know why i bother no bloody respect grumble grumble whinge.......

[chaseracer]

This reminds me of a (possibly apocryphal) story I read somewhere about the owner of a nice house with grounds who, following problems with trespassers having picnics and leaving all their crap behind, got her own back by parking her car on the drive of the suburban semi belonging to one of the worst offenders and enjoying a very messy meal on the front lawn.

[Mr Livered]

This is in France, is that correct Dave?

 

I've wondered before what the rules are over there regarding public rights of way. You hardly ever seem to see public footpath signs over there, but plenty of 'Prive' signs.

 

So if you see a nice-looking path when you're wandering around in the French countryside, how do you know if it's ok to walk along it?

 

Mrs Livered is French and she doesn't seem to know, although she did suggest that farm tracks etc might be ok to use unless a sign says otherwise. That would be pretty much the opposite of what we do in England.

[dave21478]

Most land here is privately owned - there is very little common or public land. It varies all over the place but round here public paths are marked as such and pretty well signed. There are also green lanes which are for all non motorised vehicles. So basically walking, bikes and hosses. Everything else is private.

 

You would be very well advised to take heed of No Entry signs as hunting is a big thing here and during the season its pretty common for folks to be accidentally shot at while rambling or taking the dog for walkies - occasionally with fatal consequences.

 

The chateau grounds include a massive area of woodland which is off limits to hunters (I dont mean the formal gardens directly around the house, but dozens of hectares of land around that) Despite being private and marked accordingly, people still use them. They are off-limits to hunters so no real danger, and I have no issue with the odd couple walking a pooch or the old dude that comes and fishes in the lake every now and then, but when kids start ripping around on quads and scramblers I intervene and tell them to FRO. Its all open and unfenced with various access roads and tracks, so impossible to patrol it really, but when people climb over the fences into the gardens I get really hacked off.... in the past I have literally encountered people having a picknick on the garden table and chairs. I have found kids in the fucking swimming pool and feck-knows how many dog turds around the place.

Winter is always a good indicator as while there are less tourists, their footprints are very obvious, especially when they are tracking across the lawns!

 

Despite it being a private residence, there were loads of brown tourism road signs pointing the way to it. Last year I went round with a step ladder and some spanners and took them all down which seemed to reduce numbers slightly, but the building is perched up on a clifftop and can be seen from miles around, so people tend to just wander round till they find the right road.

[chaseracer]

Have you considered the possibility of 'hunting' a few, pour encourager les autres...? 

[Lord Sterling]

...Driving to work and some dozy cow came round a corner on my side of the road, face buried in the screen of her telephone...

This actually happend to us as we were driving back from work yesterday. Was following a Citroen Berlingo van out in the sticks in France towards our house when some Silver Citroen C5 came blatting around the corner just missing the van in front of us. Thankfully I was far enough away from the van in front to take any avoiding action if needed.

 

I'm in Brussels now and it looks very shit driving-wise here compared to the beautiful, quiet roads out in South France where I was.

[cort1977]

Just found I have got to go to an obscure office in person with ID to do a very basic police clearance check and pay $20 for the privelege.   This could all be done by email in about 5 minutes but no, get in line buddy.

 

If anyone ever tries to tell you that the US is technologically advanced ignore them, it's like living in 1983 when it comes to dealing with the government, banks or any kind of admin.

[TimothyClaypole]

Ebay buyer moaning that bits are missing from a "box of bits".... not moaning because they want them for free as they sell the same stuff, oh no of course not...

[ruffgeezer]

Got the sodding thing out in the end, this is the proper tool from laser for this engine, and it's shit.

 

 

What you ought to do when changing a belt on one of these is chuck one of the pins away and uses a 5.5mm allen key in it's place.

 

Saves you losing over an hour trying to get the poorly formed monkey metal piece of shit pin out before having to re-time everything again.

[Cavcraft]

Having the outside chance of being able to jib my job, then being told it's highly unlikely they'll let me go. For internet reasons I should pretend it's because they can't do without me, I'm a model employee and a vital part of the team. But in reality it's because I'm on shit money compared to everyone else, so they won't really save anything if they knob me off.

[twosmoke300]

Rg, I used a 6mm drill for the job once on a twin cam pd engine, shank inwards. Big mistake. Still got the spiral cuts on my fingers from trying to pull it out. 6mm silver steel is what's best.

[Bucketeer]

Grumble, grumble, garden, grumble, chateau, grumble, trespass, bastards.

 

I'm having exactly the same problem at the chateau I'm tending the gardens of, here in Normandy. It helps to have a big barky dog about the place but other than that, there seems to be no solution. AWL TOORISTS R SHIT etc.

 

Oh and on the subject of Hermes, I worked in their warehouse for a short while a couple of years ago and can confirm that PARCEL CARE IS ZERO.

[AlabamaShrimp]

I hate the eBay threads! In fact I hate most of the cars for sale ones as I don't have any money or places to put all the ones I want!!!!

[laser wheels]

Very sensible, a couple of years ago a Polish guy in a Renault Magnum wiped out my e39 on the M1. When we collected the bits and were about to move up into a 'refuge' layby thing . One of the HA guys jumped in the cab with Kristof the suddenly totally non-English speaking lorry driver. I asked if this was normal ' Yes, we have to ,they just fuck off otherwise and the Police can't be arsed to track them down'

 

Something similar happened to me not long after I passed my test. Left-hand drive trucker pulled right out in front of me across two lanes and totaled my MK2 Jetta TX. Didn't have a hope in hell of stopping. Anyway, he did stop (eventually) and I got his details then he fucked off grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Yup, the details were as fake as a nine bob note including fake plates. One of the witnesses was even an off duty copper and his missus who offered to drive up the motor way to see if they could spot him but apparently he was long gone.

 

Oh, I was so innocent and naive then.

[jakebullet]

It's been pissing it down for a full 24 hours now. It's the weekend and I've no work to do for a change. Doing chuff all, lying on sofa stuffing my fat face sounds like a plan.

 

Unless you're the Ma. No, actually I don't want to go to idiots house and replace the plug on her lawn mower. What's the point? You can't cut the grass in the rain. Face = on like Donkey Kong.

[xtriple]

Hoovered and polished the inside of the car the other day so it was spotless (well, as close as it can be with an insane owner and two fat dogs!) and today had to go to Totnes to pick up some pills for the dog (£347 on pills! Plus, another £21 for TWO worm tablets!!!!!!!!!!!!) and then took them for a walk in the pissing rain.

Got them back to the car, dryed them off and off back home. Car still relatively clean inside - both amazed and well pleased.

Got back to Torquay and along by the beach I spot a friends car so stop for a chat.... bloody dogs realise it's THE BEACH and both leg it the second the door is opened (straight across the road - nothing coming thank God) and that's it, the car now looks I've pinched half of Meadffot beach as it;s full of sand and gravel, shit and general detritus.

Oh, and I got bloody soaked trying to 'persuade' Chester to 'get a fucking move on you little bastard!' but did meet a nice lady....

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Decided to pop into the garage and do a touch of engine work before I go to bed. Just refit the sump, ten minute job. Instead of a gasket it uses some syrup of figs style goo called Wellseal. It looks like syrup of figs, it smells like syrup of figs, it's runny like syrup of figs. Nasty goo. Still, 26 bolts tightened up and the job's done. 

 

Only then I notice the oil baffle plates which I had forgotten to replace. 

 

26 bolts removed, and now the Wellseal is acting more like cheese on a pizza. A hundred long strings of it across my crank as I remove the sump, and that's great because you know how they're always telling you to make sure your engine has a load of glue in it. 

 

Much cleaning later, and more syrup of figs is slopped onto both mating surfaces, then 26 bolts tightened once again and I can go to bed because there are no quick jobs. 

[gordonbennet]

Daughters Aygo now 4 years old so just had its last main dealer service, she'll use a good little indy from next year to get the annual stamp..unless she decides its a really long termer. in which case i'll take over.

 

The service was around £280 iirc on a bloody glorified wheelbarrow that holds about a cupful of engine oil, but i'm going to be doing the extra jobs they suggested at home in the next couple of weeks when she comes up.

 

Further to the service...so what exactly did they do FFS....the quotes for some of these extras are staggering ie £30 to adjust the handbrake cable, so here's my list of things to do

 

Gearbox oil change... £12 ish for 1.7 litres of GL4/5?

Pollen Filter  £5

Conti Fan Belt £9

Brake fluid change...approx £4 worth of DOT4?

Handbrake adjust...5 mins with a 13/14mm spanner and a squirt of oil/chain lube.

 

I'm just annoyed, seeing as she's a regular there, that whilst they had the wheels off for brake service (yes Toyota do this on the large service) that they could easily have replaced the fluid whilst there and the handbrake adjustment is seconds with a spanner, if they'd done these two for a nominal fee she would probably have had them do the other things too.

 

Piss taking of the highest order and the way to lose customers for the sake of a quick buck, and they have lost her.

[twosmoke300]

Don't adjust the cable , click them up in the drum. Much better brakes , both foot and parking.

[Rocket88]

why use main dealers at all..........it doesn't invalidate the manufacturers warranty if you don't [contrary to what they'd like you to beileve......]

[r.welfare]

Is that still the case? I had it in my head that EU block exemption had been dropped/overturned by the manufacturers...my dad was asking me the question this morning as he fancies ordering a new Note next year, but wants our trusted independent to service it if possible, without invalidating the warranty.

[gordonbennet]

Don't adjust the cable , click them up in the drum. Much better brakes , both foot and parking.

 

A sharp brake whilst reversing is supposed to be the best way to shake up the Aygo rear adjusters, i shall slacken the cable, then do the semi manual adjust, then re-adjust the cable.

Auto adjusters should be ok so long as the dealer did the correct brake strip clean etc, should be able to tell if the drum has been off as soon as i get the wheel off.

 

Colc, this was the first service that cost anything, the first three years servicing was free, i'm of the opinion that using the main dealer, within reason, makes sense during warranty period...indeed my Hilux servicing was so cheap at the local Toyota palace (happy for me to supply my own bulk bought oil) that it wouldn't have been any cheaper elsewhere, and that paid for itself with the frankly amazing price that it sold for at 3.5 years.

[gordonbennet]

Is that still the case? I had it in my head that EU block exemption had been dropped/overturned by the manufacturers...my dad was asking me the question this morning as he fancies ordering a new Note next year, but wants our trusted independent to service it if possible, without invalidating the warranty.

 

I'm certain its still applies to new cars and standard new car makers warranties (Ford owners could find themselves on a sticky one there), but does not apply to makers extended or used car warranties.

 

Obviously still the proviso that genuine parts (or parts of equal quality, that could be a bugger to prove/disprove) are used and a VAT regd garage does the work.

[Pillock]

For my third party warranty on the Focus, they were happy for me to use any garage that was VAT registered.

 

My local large independent (as in they have a few branches and advertise locally) are still proudly stating the block exemption rules mean they can service brand new cars.

[Mr Lobster]

Mrs_L's Mazda is 4 in September so out of warranty now so normally I'd send it to my trusted local independent rather than the main dealer. Trouble is these days Mazdas don't have a service book as everything is recorded electronically so if I send it outside the dealer network the service history ends here which is a bit annoying if we come to sell in a year or two.

[Pillock]

But if you sell it, how will a private buyer check the Mazda e-History? They surely have to offer a print out, at which point just staple a load of tatty oilstained receipts from a indie garage to it.

[Lankytim]

Volvo are good for that, if you ring up your local dealer and give them a reg they will print out and post you the service history of that vehicle while it was in the dealer network.

[r.welfare]

That's interesting, Tim - I had heard Volvo do that (pretty sure Peter Simpson wrote an article in Car Mechanics on how to get missing history), but when I identified and phoned the Toyota dealer that originally supplied and serviced our Avensis for the first three years, they refused to give any printouts due to "the Data Protection Act".  Bastards! 

 

Still, the car was well cheap at 8 years old purely because it had no service history at all, and was evidently worth the punt as it'll turn over 200k in the next month.