The grumpy thread

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I'm with Dave on this one, the ad title says "wheels and tyres", the description says "Complete as photo", and the photo is of a full car set of wheels. As for the 'four available' bit of the auction, it's not unreasonable to think a car breakers would have four full sets of Mercedes wheels for sale. 

 

If you're selling per wheel you need to write "price is per wheel" very prominently, and that ad doesn't say it anywhere. 

[the judge]

These Eco spaces are bollocks, I managed to convince the doorman at Eurodisney hotel that the missuses Gaylander was electric ,left it for 3 days in one of their empty charging spaces. When quizzed as to where the lead was,I told him it was an experimental microwave charging system,then pointed out the special electric blue colour. Every time someone even the kids went to the car to get something,one of the staff would ask about how it worked. We just said it was a secret.

image.jpg

Bwahahaha!!!!! love it!!!!

[Angrydicky]

Re. the low emission spaces at Asda, as far as I can tell they were installed at just one store, in Handsworth, Sheffield, following some council condition for gaining planning permission for the new store.

 

I'd also take great pleasure in parking my car in them if I ever came across any low emission spaces. Keeping a 20+ year old car on the road using mostly secondhand parts has to be far greener than buying some new eco-motion shitbox every three years.

[hairnet]

wtf is that combat dealers bloke

 

imagine alexei sayle doing his cocknee geeza impression for an hour and.........

 

cnut spolis what looks an interesting program - worse than brewer ffs

[Alfamale]

Re. the low emission spaces at Asda, as far as I can tell they were installed at just one store, in Handsworth, Sheffield, following some council condition for gaining planning permission for the store.

Thank god for that. I saw them there about about a year ago and this made me think the idea had caught on elsewhere.

[Pillock]

I stopped at some services that had spaces near the electric car charging spaces, marked up as OMG £200 FINE IF YOU PARK A FOSSIL FUEL THING HERE. I had a load of extension leads in the back of the car, I was tempted to just dangle a three-pin plug out the bonnet and leave it there.

 

I think my car is a low tax band - it's £30 a year tax. More to the point though, how the fook would a trolley chimp at Asda know how much CO2 my car is kicking out?

[Lankytim]

They don't enforce FA at supermarkets (from what I've seen), so you can park with impunity, which is V funny, except when an old person has parked in the parent and brat area and I'm forced to park up with the other plebs in minute parking spaces.

[philibusmo]

Shitefest 2015 in the carpark of Asda in Handsworth then?

[jakebullet]

Park your V8 series landy in the low emissions space. Challenge asda man to detect any trace of emissions. This will only work if you turn the engine off mind.

[AnthonyG]

Love the Eurodisney magic Freelander story. Wireless car charging FTW!

[Cavcraft]

Some silly bitch in an X5 who nearly ran me off the road in Morrisons moaned at me for taking the last parent and child space. I pointed out the fact that I was a parent and the 19 year old six foot lad next to me was my son. That didnt really appease her so I just swore at her instead as everyone knows if you use the language of the gutter, you win.

[Lacquer Peel]

Asked SWMBO if I could bid on something on ebay, she said yes, so I bid and won then she went into a rant about how skint we are and bollocked me ffs.

 

DONT TELL ME I CAN THEN YOU STUPID BASTARD...

 

And breathe...

 

Seek relationship counselling.

[Pillock]

Focus shat itself on the M42 this morning. AA read codes - two DPF (regen time and pressure), one EGR and a clutch pedal switch.

 

All modern blah blah blah. It's sat at the dealer now until they can look at it Tuesday. Thankfully work have taken pity on me and just told me to lob a weeks worth of hire car on account.

[Bucketeer]

Right, there is nothing worse than getting the hump just because you read a thread about things that give other people the hump....So, this weekend I vow to find one of these fuckwitted Eco parking spaces and dump the Minor in it complete with its colossal incontinence from the A Series multigrade sprayer.   Nothing irks me more than pseudo-green-frippery.   Fuck it I am going to get all the aerosols out as well....

 

A rusty old fridge full of DDT and asbestos strapped to the roof would finish off that scene nicely.

[overrun]

Waiting and waiting and FUCKING WAITING on my DBS application.

[Angrydicky]

They don't enforce FA at supermarkets (from what I've seen), so you can park with impunity, which is V funny, except when an old person has parked in the parent and brat area and I'm forced to park up with the other plebs in minute parking spaces.

Judging by the amount of fat lazy arseholes without blue badges who park in the disabled bays at my local Asda, while they nip in for fags and lottery tickets, this is correct.

[Negative Creep]

So it turns out the rear brakes of the Celica are shot to a dangerous level. That will be the best part of £400 gone then. Sigh.

[Lankytim]

Judging by the amount of fat lazy arseholes without blue badges who park in the disabled bays at my local Asda, while they nip in for fags and lottery tickets, this is correct.

 

 

Ah, these are called "cashpoint cripples"

[Cavcraft]

A local tyre/exhaust place repaired the Audi exhaust today by replacing a sleeve that everywhere else said was knackered and wanted £180+ to replace as they said it needed a centre and rear pipe, or whatever.

My joy was extremely short lived as the sleeve has done it's job but now the exhaust is resonating like a bastard, so I suspect knackered baffles/more expense.

[dollywobbler]

So it turns out the rear brakes of the Celica are shot to a dangerous level. That will be the best part of £400 gone then. Sigh.

 

Buy tool kit, fix for pennies. Brakes really aren't difficult. Most of the time...

[Negative Creep]

Fitting isn't that much of a problem, it's the new calipers and discs both sides that bump up the price, and the fact my mechanic advised it's dangerous to drive in its current state means I can't mess around hunting out replacements. Add to that it's leaking oil and power steering fluid. After doing the same thing with the Volvo, I think next time I'm going to buy something with drums on the back.

[HillmanImp]

Drums? Why? I hate them. Its the automotive equivalent of Buck-a-roo. One false move and the inside of the drum is on the floor in bits.

 

Disc brakes are soo much easier.

[gary_davidson]

audi have decided that retina burn LED lights don't quite cause enough permanent damage to your eyes, so they've added lasers on

 

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-562bhp-audi-r8-lmx-laser-headlights-revealed

[gordonbennet]

Discs and drums both have their merits and drawbacks.

 

Drums will stand neglect better the important bits at least being protected from the worst of the elements, which is just as well as no bugger seems to be bothered with servicing any more, out of sight out of mind.

 

Calipers require at least annual proper maintenance, again no bugger bothers, seemingly peering at the fraction of visible pad from through and from behind the wheel, then squirting brake cleaner in the general direction is the modern version of brake servicing, leading to corrosion, seizing sticking and premature failure and real expense.

 

There is no reason for any car to require a new caliper, if serviced correctly, by which i mean an annual strip clean lube and re-assembly (including pumping the pistons most of the way out several times, using the correct grease on the piston and sliders) then calipers will last almost indefinately.

 

Neglect of modern brakes starts with the first owners and their dependence on main dealer servicing, who are among the worse culprits for poor brake maintenance.

 

Oh and the most important wash of the year, where the sensible owner fully washes all the bloody salt out from underneath their car around May, i bet its only us silly buggers who do this.

 

 

A thought...seeing how many people seem incapable of even washing their own cars, more money than sense, and Christ some of the lardy bastards you see lounging about whilst the car washers do their worse...i wonder if cars washed by the plethora of immigrant car washes suffer with worse brake problems than even unwashed cars.

I've seen them squirting seriously strong solutions of chemicals at the baked on crud on alloy wheels, these chemicals must get right into the brakes, and often enough don't get rinsed out properly, can't think of a better way to remove all existing brake lube as  well as leaving the salt ingrained to do its worse.

[dollywobbler]

Sounds a lot for discs and pads. Have you had a good hunt around for prices?

[Parky]

Had to have an op on the old chap earlier this week. Was expecting discomfort but oh my god........

 

Dosed myself up on codeine and had a lie down. Whilst dozing the kids had a row leading to one smashed Nintendo DS and facial bruising to the other. I specifically said that Daddy needed a lie down, could they not kill themselves for the next couple of hours and they couldn't manage that. So disappointed with them.

 

Have them all day as Mrs P is at a conference. No food in the house, too painful to walk or drive, fucked off totally. And they are already winding each other up, not what I need. They hate my sister so I think I will be asking her over later!

[Negative Creep]

Sounds a lot for discs and pads. Have you had a good hunt around for prices?

 

 

Those bits were pretty cheap, it was the £100 a side calipers that did it

[dollywobbler]

Calipers can be overhauled though. They're £60-100 a piece for the Sirion, so I dismantled and cleaned them up instead. I can't afford to be replacing calipers at the moment, so I was forced to salvage the ones fitted. Replacing is an easy option, but it's never cheap.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

There is no reason for any car to require a new caliper, if serviced correctly, by which i mean an annual strip clean lube and re-assembly (including pumping the pistons most of the way out several times, using the correct grease on the piston and sliders) then calipers will last almost indefinately.

 

 

who can realistically be arsed with an annual caliper stripdown though? Not me.

[Asimo]

Some modern rear indicators are just not visible enough. 

What was wrong with orange lenses for indicators? I am sure they were easier to see in bright conditions. I find that the instant switching of LED indicators and brake lights also makes them less noticeable and when they are tiny like these VAG offerings...