The grumpy thread

[MrDuke]

DW, you weren't in Holyhead by any chance? Marstons have erected one of their ridiculous eating-pubs (or whatever they're called these days) at the end of Morrisons' car park. Happily I've never felt the slightest urge to enter it. Amusingly, they built it without waiting for planning permission to be finalised, so there's a reasonably good chance they'll have to close again very soon.

[M'coli]

Get a bike with tyres more than a pubes width wide then 😃

That's like telling us to buy a 4x4 because the roads are full of potholes! :) It doesn't solve the problem of having spent thousands on a cyclepath but not being arsed to make the surface smooth. I'll go out on the fat tyre bike this weekend and video what I mean - there's a section near me that's good for 30mph even for kids but the sensation of pitching is terrifying.

[M'coli]

Also, what possessed Leeds council to not tell us that they were replacing our dropped kerb today? Came home from the shops to find a team half way through the first part of it, now they've disappeared and left it like this? Fine, supposedly the job needed doing because some twat reported it - the state of the rest of the roads around the estate is shocking, so this makes the mind boggle - but as to the utter lack of information nor communication from the clowncil, I am not a happy fucking bunny, I can tell you...

[Tetleysmooth]

Also, what possessed Leeds council to not tell us that they were replacing our dropped kerb today? Came home from the shops to find a team half way through the first part of it, now they've disappeared and left it like this? Fine, supposedly the job needed doing because some twat reported it - the state of the rest of the roads around the estate is shocking, so this makes the mind boggle - but as to the utter lack of information nor communication from the clowncil, I am not a happy fucking bunny, I can tell you...

I know that looks particularly grim, but consider yourself lucky.

We enquired about a drop kerb for our place.

If I remember correctly, the quote was a bag plus.

Still haven't got one.

Greedy Havering Council.

[messerschmitt owner]

I know that looks particularly grim, but consider yourself lucky.

We enquired about a drop kerb for our place.

If I remember correctly, the quote was a bag plus.

Still haven't got one.

Greedy Havering Council.

ha ha

 

We had ours done same time as the driveway and the council complained because we didn't ask them. I said, if they came and did the rest of the disintegrating pavements that hadn't been touched since 1960 and were patched to buggery to the same standard as our part was now, then we'd pay them some money, but until then they could f*** off.

 

Surprisingly, I never heard a peep from them.

[Station]

They'll fill it in with tarmac (not paving stones), and use a living, angry snake to make sure it's flat and level.

I've not seen a decent repair job for decades, these people don't care about the job they do, and they don't realise they have to use the roads as well.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Just got a phone call from my dad to say his car's broken down. Golf 1.4 TSI. Loss of power, "workshop" light on dash. From the vague description it sounds like it's gone into limp home mode. Hopefully it's a knackered sensor and not one of the multitude of horrible things the internet says can go wrong with a TSI engine. 

 

It's been abandoned at a VW dealer. The dealer who contacted him a couple of weeks ago to schedule a cam belt change on his chain driven engine. 

 

Place your bets now!

[Station]

Isn't 'limp home mode' the default setting the ECU has when you start up a cold engine?

[Slappy]

The idiots who walk across the side-road junctions without looking....

 

It happens every so often at the end of my road, and I'm wary to it. Mentioned it to a friend who dropped me off after a gig on Monday night. Lo and behold on Tuesday it was a be-headphoned lad who didn't even so much as glance. Last night it was a granny with her shopping. I'm already making my manouvere when they start crossing, it's not like they're already halfway across when of course they have right of way.

 

50 points (or whatever) just going begging*

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Isn't 'limp home mode' the default setting the ECU has when you start up a cold engine?

 

Pretty much a catch all to let the engine run to some extent regardless of temperature, including a restriction on engine speed to something like 3,000 rpm. I don't know any more than the absolute basics about modern engines. 

[vulgalour]

I've nearly had a couple of people at junctions doing that, usually younger folk wired into some device or other and not paying attention to the world around them.  You end up with this situation where you might run them over, or collect the car behind you trying not to and even if you don't hit anyone there's a chance you'll get someone hurling abuse at you for not paying attention.

 

Funnily enough, pedestrians do lose their nerve when they notice you and find out that you're not going to back down when they play chicken.  Old fashioned bumpers and a semi-psychotic stare are a great way to persuade people to get a move on without ever having to make contact or touch the noise making button/pedal.

 

 

On the subject of idiots at junctions, now the weather has got better it would appear most of the drivers around here have switched to their psychic indicators on all junctions, including entering and exiting roundabouts.  What fun!

[Junkman]

I've just been trawling ebay for Classic Cars, filtering my search by distance (nearest first).  In ten pages I've got as far as 80 miles away and added two cars to my watch list.  Two, how disappointing.  Almost everything is miles over budget (so far away that I have no hope of ever buying a car that will carry me that distance), and those that are in budget are at least 90% utter shit described as projects, or they're early 90s Mercs or VWs, neither of which I would touch with yours.

Of course I really need to move the Volvo on before I buy, but even so... it's quite depressing.

 

What makes me grumpy is the plethora of newfangled shit you have scroll over when you surf the Ebay Classic Cars section.

[Sigmund Fraud]

When will drivers of modern cars learn that cutting up a 42-year-old shiteheap which is exempt from MoT brake tests is fairly dangerous practice ? Idiots !

[eddyramrod]

Surely MoT exemption only begins at 54 years old?  Or is it a specialist application that falls under an exemption of its own?

[dollywobbler]

DW, you weren't in Holyhead by any chance? Marstons have erected one of their ridiculous eating-pubs (or whatever they're called these days) at the end of Morrisons' car park. Happily I've never felt the slightest urge to enter it. Amusingly, they built it without waiting for planning permission to be finalised, so there's a reasonably good chance they'll have to close again very soon.

 

Nope. Aberystwyth. They've cunningly opened a fancy pub right next door to the council offices. I was desperately trying to find somewhere within walking distance of Morrisons while I was on my break. The choices are a non-chain hotel (not bad brew but not cheap), Morrisons or this Marstons pub (bad brew AND not cheap). I wish I could remember to make a flask of tea. Would be sorted then!

[hairnet]

The idiots who walk across the side-road junctions without looking....

 

It happens every so often at the end of my road, and I'm wary to it. Mentioned it to a friend who dropped me off after a gig on Monday night. Lo and behold on Tuesday it was a be-headphoned lad who didn't even so much as glance. Last night it was a granny with her shopping. I'm already making my manouvere when they start crossing, it's not like they're already halfway across when of course they have right of way.

 

50 points (or whatever) just going begging*

had one of them on home from work - if im working theyll be notfied loudly that if they walk out in front of me they will be run over - due to 'image' issues i can do nothing else

 

on the way home it happened (on my bicycle) and i didnt have uniform on - but i clothes lined them because they didnt even look coming off the pavement = fair game

 

when they got up they were informed they were lucky i wasnt a car

[Sigmund Fraud]

Surely MoT exemption only begins at 54 years old?  Or is it a specialist application that falls under an exemption of its own?

 

Specialist application : belt-driven cars are excempt from MoT rolling road brake tests

 

Theoretically, testers are meant to road test using a decelerometer instead. In practice, most older testers haven't used a decelerometer in 20-odd years and have long forgotten where their Tapley wooden box is stored, and most young testers have never seen one !

[vulgalour]

New auxiliary belt fitted to beige Princess, took a deal more effort than the old one and there's no belt whine now, which is good.  What's not so good is the row of tiny bubbles from the head gasket seam all along the front of the engine.  I'm hoping I just need to check the head bolts and torque them down, I don't think I've rechecked them since doing the head and it's about due now.  Still no air bubbles in the coolant though so I hope I've caught this soon enough for it not to be an issue.

[MrDuke]

on the way home it happened (on my bicycle) and i didnt have uniform on - but i clothes lined them because they didnt even look coming off the pavement = fair game

 

when they got up they were informed they were lucky i wasnt a car

 

 

I had this happen in the village, where a young lady strolled around a corner in the road while studying her phone, ignoring the footpath on the other side - despite me trying to swerve, she received one end of my brahma bars in her stomach, which hopefully left her with massive internal injuries a very big bruise.

[Lankytim]

Could be moisture in the joint getting hot and escaping? Could just disappear after a bit.

[vulgalour]

Hadn't considered that.  Probably sensible to give the bolts a check anyway, just in case, just a case of waiting for my brother to be around so I can get the torque wrench back from him.

[hairnet]

Specialist application : belt-driven cars are excempt from MoT rolling road brake tests

 

Theoretically, testers are meant to road test using a decelerometer instead. In practice, most older testers haven't used a decelerometer in 20-odd years and have long forgotten where their Tapley wooden box is stored, and most young testers have never seen one !

older motorcycle mot places that dont splurge on bike rollers will have the decelerometer

[Cavcraft]

Could be moisture in the joint getting hot and escaping?

 

No, she's drier than a camel's flip flop these days. Whoops! Wrong thread, sorry. 

[Station]

Just re torque the bolts in the correct order - same thing happened in my MGF.

[mat_the_cat]

Funnily enough, pedestrians do lose their nerve when they notice you and find out that you're not going to back down when they play chicken.

 

Back when I was younger and (more) foolish, and I'd just passed my test I was driving through a village when a group of lads just strolled out from the pub and straight across the road. I gave a quick beep, and all of them scattered except one, who decided to play chicken and stand there in the middle of the road with him arms folded.

 

I decided that I wasn't going to be made to stop, and maintained my speed while I aimed to go as close as possible without actually hitting him. Only (perhaps due to my inexperience) I misjudged ever so slightly, and clipped him on the hip with my wing mirror. At the time I found it quite amusing to see him shouting and waving his fist at me like some kind of comic caricature, but now I feel mortified about what could have happened...

 

Still, he might think twice in future.

[oldford]

Specialist application : belt-driven cars are excempt from MoT rolling road brake tests

 

Theoretically, testers are meant to road test using a decelerometer instead. In practice, most older testers haven't used a decelerometer in 20-odd years and have long forgotten where their Tapley wooden box is stored, and most young testers have never seen one !

I used one the other day, which reminds me of a grump - people who present their cars for MOT with the back seats and boot absolutely full, next time it'll be a refusal to test and you'll have to rebook it.

[twosmoke300]

Indeed. They dont like that ! Or farmers land rovers that are too dirty to test.

[dugong]

The Amazon keeps finding new ways to break itself. Today it tried to bump FATHA_DUGONG off on the way to Wales.

 

Today the offside sunroof catch failed and the cover plate tore itself off the car while still in the locked postion.I was doing 60 on the A55 at the time. It very nearly took FATHA_DUGONG'S BMW out who was following behind me. It bounced down the carriageway and landed on the hard shoulder.

 

One lock is completely destroyed but the panel itself is one piece. The roof hasn't distorted either but I'm loathed to repair it given that Golde sunroof parts aren't exactly easy to come by.

 

So now I have a car that's taxed, MoT'd and more or less runs (bar some dodgy timing) that I can't drive or leave anywhere because there's a sodding great hole in the roof.

 

Luckily no-one was hurt - there could have been a major accident. The panel is almost the width of the roof and has a large quantity of bracketry attached. All I remember is massive bang and watching FATHA_DUGONG panic brake and swerve in the mirror behind me.

 

 

Here's the hole it left, rather suddenly.

 

 

The remaining nearside catch still in its locked upright position. I found the smashed remains of its opposite number in the roof cavity after a stiff breeze dislodged all the crap stuck in between the plate cavity and the outer roof skin.

 

If (and that's the operative word) I can find spares, I'll have it reassembled with a different locking mechanism another seal. 5/1 odds I lose the will to live after three months and have it welded up.

 

Sobering stuff.

[chaseracer]

Still, he might think twice in future.

Doubt it.

 

When it comes to crossing roads, there's nothing quite so visually impaired and fundamentally oblivious to its surroundings as the collective entity otherwise known as "a bunch of fourteen-year-old girls". This was demonstrated earlier today as I dropped the sprogs at school.

 

Mercedes-Benz horns are LOUD...

[mat_the_cat]

Today the offside sunroof catch failed and the cover plate tore itself off the car while still in the locked postion.

 

Don't you wish that sort of thing would happen when you have an aggressive and obnoxious tailgater hanging off your bumper?