The grumpy thread

[Skut]

What's the likelihood of a motorcycle blowing over. There are two parked next to my car in the hotel carpark, and it's currently blowing an absolute gale in Oban.

I will be very, very unhappy if one of them does.

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

Hope thats not transpired. In Ardnamurchan same gale in a wank tent thats slready needed torchlight bodging. Fuckin thing

[New POD]

Tax credits, bloody things, wish I had never got started making a claim for them but they did it at the job centre when I went to sign on (once a long time ago) now apparently at some point we have had a £3000+ over payment, God only knows how they've managed to come up with that figure.

There doesn't seem to be a way to get away from them either once you are in the system its fill in the form or get a big fine so that is what i've done

because of a misunderstanding when our first born went to university i faulted to tell them he was no longer in full time (secondary) ed education because i did not read all 50 pages of the book let that came with the claim form. By the time it was realised. we owed £3600.

They later changed the wording on the classroom form to include the word secondary. They allowed us to repay offer 3 years. Interest free.

[sierraman]

I picked it up today and looks cleanish so just going to check it every week and go from there.

 

I could clean the EGR but it's behind a water pipe that I don't want to take off so it'll have to stay like it is for now.

 

Good new is we didn't pay again. 'ring on Tuesday' was the words of the blokes son.

Clamp the pipe. Some of the 2.0 like on the mk3 Mondeo have coolant pipes going into them.

[Shirley Knott]

Yesterday comprised of,

 

1. Find out the spark plug on cylinder 4 of the 940 was stiff to remove for the entire thread.

 

2. Discover new spark plug will only screw halfway in.

 

3. Spend 2 hours with a spark plug chaser working in and out of the thread.

 

4. Achieve complete spark plug insertion then tighten only to find the car misfiring and sounding like Thomas the tank engine under load.

 

I've removed the plug again to have a look, the crush washer has obviously flattened so it must've gone all the way in, so why won't it fucking seat/seal properly!?

 

I think it might be head off time... FML

[beko1987]

Also, my right ear is still partially blocked since last week. Tried the usual ear unblocker stuff but doesn't seemed to have helped.

I had this for a while earlier in the year, including shitefest. Emptied a bottle of otex in a d nothing. Eventually booked a nurses appointment and she jetted them out again, beautiful! I could hear the birds in the trees 3 miles away!

 

Obv I had to go through the fun* of trying to get either a 7am appointment or on a Saturday morning but I got there in the end

[Des]

^^Matey's plug thread chaser might help there.

Is the chuffing and missfiring the plug though? Chuffing could be exhaust  and missing could be a lead or cap, you might be dealing with multiple faults, cars love doing that shit.

[jollysmart]

Indeed it is. I had labyrinthitis Christmas 2015 which made me very very dizzy to the point of much pukage, an ambulance being called and hostipalisation for a few days, which damaged the labyrinth (balance centre) of my left ear. I reported it to DVLA as any good driver should do, and they said as long as I don't get another bout of dizziness within 12 months I won't have to report it again.

 

September 2016, 5 days from returning from my honeymoon, I woke up with a spinning head, the pukes and inability to walk without falling over. Hospital again. MRI on ears, and balance part of my left ear was by now severely damaged by a new, aggressive infection. Declared it, lost car license for 3 months and HGV for 12. All vertigo had gone by January 2017, and I got my car licence back in April 2017 with no problems but I have a medical marker against my license, which caused no end of problems when I moved house.

 

The annoying thing is I've been discharged from the hospital, and the consultant there has said fit to drive HGV. The migraine & dizziness specialist GP at my practice has said clear to drive HGVs. Both of these doctors have filled in their counterparts of the medical form I sent in.

 

It's this letter from a doctor that has never seen me at all in the past, let alone for this condition that has fucked everything up for me - sounds like they've had a quick glance through my notes, and as the practice has periodically been monitoring my vertigo since September 2016 and since January 2017 there have been no signs of Benign Positional Paroxysmal Vertigo when they've checked me over, but has probably written something that makes it sound like I am still suffering. Basically interfering because DVLA were getting impatient with waiting on my practice to fit me in.

I've had this twice, very little warning and really not very nice. After the first time the doctor said unlikely to happen again and when it did he was a little sceptical that I had it again until he actually came to my house and examined me, so twice does seem to be unlucky/unusual.

 

The worse things were the first time I was driving to work on my own early morning, a 30 mile trip, and there was a warning that the main road was blocked so I took the back road, began to feel ill and my vision was impaired so I turned the car round but I couldn't see to drive and felt really sick. I got out of the car but was reeling like I'd had 20 pints and eventually got to the passenger side and sat there with the door open puking.

 

The second time was in a city centre, I was crossing a dual carriageway, on foot at a crossing and as I started to cross the second carriageway I began to feel unwell, by the time I had got to the other side of the road I couldn't stand up and slumped against a building looking like a homeless drunk to all the passers by. Luckily a lady came back to her car and offered me some water and phoned one of my colleagues who came to pick me up.

 

My temporary manager at he time said he had it and drove back from the Lake district with his caravan, I called him out a a liar as there is absolutely no way you can even stand up if you really have it.

 

The best way to describe it is that your own movement causes you to be have momentum sickness, close you eyes and you can be moved and driven, slowly, but your eyes and brain get differing signals and you suffer. It is horrible and it took me over 2 months each time to get back to something like normality. You have my sympathy and you clearly shouldn't have had issues with the medics.

[Richard]

I get labyrinthitis sometimes, I find that driving is the one thing I can do when I have it so I can believe your temporary manager. I couldn't be a passenger though.

 

I was in Blackpool the first time it happened and went to the drop-in. I was sick while I was speaking to the triage nurse and she called an ambulance because there was blood in the vomit. I spent over 12 hours on a trolley, answering the same questions every hour or so. The only variety being when one of the doctors gave me a cavity search after asking the same questions. I was parked between two beds until about 1am when a bed became available. I'd just drifted off to sleep when a nurse came and told me they had found a bed for me, apparently the thing I was sleeping in wasn't a bed.

 

The next morning they gave me some tablets and told me to visit my GP in two weeks. My GP was the first person to actually tell me what it had been.

 

Since then I don't bother going to the doctor, just take Stugeron and try not to throw up before it kicks in. The dizziness only tends to last a day or two with me, but it does take a while to be right again.

[dozeydustman]

The weirdest thing is, before I had the first attack, and between the 2 attacks I struggled being a passenger without feeling rather nauseous, thankfully not to the point of throwing up. I just had to sit quite still with my eyes closed. Couldn't ride on the top deck of a bus without feeling ill either. These things affected me from being a kid.

 

After I stabilised with the prolonged second bout I can be a 'normal' passenger again, but just have to have the window open, in a car I can't look at a map or read either without feeling giddy, fine in a lorry, but not a transit. weird. Not been on the top deck of a bus either since recovery, because the buses round here are shit, both the service and the actual vehicles.

 

I'm quite glad both times I woke up with the ear problem, and wasn't caught out while driving or working. It also depends on which of the 3 loops in the labyrinth gets infected or clogged up with uric acid crystals - on does up/down, one does left/right, third does in/out from what I understand of it - and that affects what you can do when you have an attack.

[dozeydustman]

Fuck sakes. Had to go into the loft at Ma's as she wanted all of my car parts removed or whatever. Spent four hours climbing in and out of the loft and still didn't half as much as I wanted. Didn't wear very protective gear and now my arms have a couple of bits of fibreglass stuck in them, I gave taken a full shower but I can still feel some glass particles. Also, my right ear is still partially blocked since last week. Tried the usual ear unblocker stuff but doesn't seemed to have helped.

 

Glassfibre particles in the skin is a cowbag to get rid of. Hopefully they'll just work out over the next few days or so.

 

Phone your GP surgery and ask for an ear syringing as wax is clogged up and won't break down with Otex etc.. Soften for at least 10 days prior with warm olive or vegetable oil. This may actually draw some of the clogged wax out with it when you drain it out.

[dozeydustman]

Davenumbers is very quiet. I hope he's alright.

[Richard]

The weirdest thing is, before I had the first attack, and between the 2 attacks I struggled being a passenger without feeling rather nauseous, thankfully not to the point of throwing up. I just had to sit quite still with my eyes closed. Couldn't ride on the top deck of a bus without feeling ill either. These things affected me from being a kid.

 

After I stabilised with the prolonged second bout I can be a 'normal' passenger again, but just have to have the window open, in a car I can't look at a map or read either without feeling giddy, fine in a lorry, but not a transit. weird. Not been on the top deck of a bus either since recovery, because the buses round here are shit, both the service and the actual vehicles.

 

I'm quite glad both times I woke up with the ear problem, and wasn't caught out while driving or working. It also depends on which of the 3 loops in the labyrinth gets infected or clogged up with uric acid crystals - on does up/down, one does left/right, third does in/out from what I understand of it - and that affects what you can do when you have an attack.

 

 

Funny you should say that, I always got terrible travel sickness too, and once vomited into the door of a brand new car that some friends were showing off to us. I don't know who they were because we never saw them again. I travel on ferries quite a lot and used to really struggle but now you mention it, I've been fine on them the past few times. 

[Shirley Knott]

^^Matey's plug thread chaser might help there.

Is the chuffing and missfiring the plug though? Chuffing could be exhaust and missing could be a lead or cap, you might be dealing with multiple faults, cars love doing that shit.

Threads seem good after much chasing, unfortunately the chuffing is definitely the plug, dsconnecting the coil and turning the car over air can be felt escaping around it.

 

It's bloody annoying because as mentioned the plug is 100% screwed in, flattened crush washer upon removal after the chuff developed proved this.

 

Currently rifling through the shed in full bodge mode looking for a copper crush washer with a slightly wider outer diameter.

[Noel Tidybeard]

Its 2am and I am sitting here waiting for the sweet release of death - Seriously....God.....You and I both know I dont believe in you, but on the offchance I am wrong, just hurry the fuck up and kill me.

 

I am one of those annyoing twats who never gets ill....the odd sniffle, sometimes a dose of the runs if food doesnt agree, but when I do get ill, holy fuck do I cop it bad.

 

Sore throat that is agony when swallowing....its like deep-throating a handful of hacksaw blades. This has spread to sore neck and stuffy head, and while this is just about bearable during the day its hellish at night....I havent had more than about 10 minutes of continuous sleep since Tuesday...just a few snatched minutes of dozing here and there until I am awoken by coughing and pain. Weird side effects include excess saliva production so I smear dribble all over my face when lying down and have to constantly spit into a bucket on the floor like some fucking Alabama hick, and most bizarrely I seem to have developed an air-leak in my plumbing somewhere as I am ripping out the most disturbing, life-changing farts imaginable.  

 

I have been to Le Boots and bought all the medicines and have been chewing that shit like its tic-tacs but its doing fuck all.

 

Add in the heat...the fucking unbearable, savage, unremitting heat that is supposed to get even fucking hotter next week and here I am sitting butt-nekkid in front of the computer with a fan pointed at my nads, moaning to a bunch of imaginary people on an online forum about cars that is probably all just a delusion in my head.

 

you need to add some le haribo to your medicine pile- nice gelatine sweeties to suck/chew and soothe a sore throat- honestly cola bottles are my friend when i get a sore throat!

[Noel Tidybeard]

Yes. If i hear anything homophobic uttered by anyone at work I usually say

 

Don't knock it until you have tried it.

 

This probably confuses people because erm stupid.

 

Obviously every global corporation has a diversity and ethics policy but there is no test in the recruitment process for bigotry.

 

and the wink you gotta give a wink with this statement! lol

[Noel Tidybeard]

Thing is, the management at my current place aren't that shit, they just don't really understand what we do.  We've only just got a new head honcho after 18 years of the previous one being there so it might just be down to 'transitional issues'.  I'm not the only one and I suspect that there might be a critical mass of others much more senior that will point a few things out to him.  That has happened before.  He doesn't have supreme executive authority.  There's a board above him that really like my department...

 

Truth of it is that I'm going to go to today's interview and see what it's like.  I meet most of the job description and I tend to interview well (apparently) so there's at least the possibility they'll offer it to me.  I applied because it was there as much as anything.

 

there is nothing like a refference request to make current employer realise "shit might happen" of course it may* also burn bridges!

[Noel Tidybeard]

The prick in the white van overtaking a lorry on a blind sweeping be d this morning as I was wafting around it doing 60... Nowt wrong with my brakes or tyres (in the dry at least)

 

Cock. Luckily the look of sheer horror on his face was a picture, almost wish I'd let him hit me...

 

 

...wouldnt need to get a/c fixed!

[Guest Hooli]

What's the likelihood of a motorcycle blowing over. There are two parked next to my car in the hotel carpark, and it's currently blowing an absolute gale in Oban.

I will be very, very unhappy if one of them does.

 

 

It can happen. More so with smaller bikes and faired ones.

[Des]

Threads seem good after much chasing, unfortunately the chuffing is definitely the plug, dsconnecting the coil and turning the car over air can be felt escaping around it.

 

It's bloody annoying because as mentioned the plug is 100% screwed in, flattened crush washer upon removal after the chuff developed proved this.

 

Currently rifling through the shed in full bodge mode looking for a copper crush washer with a slightly wider outer diameter.

 

That's not good, wonder if there's a crack in the thread, or has a plug been forced in on the piss at some point. Some PTFE tape might give an indication, but before you whip the head, look into the helicoiling inserts, I think there was a type that had a bit of meat to it rather than the skinny coil things. There's a budget option, I've made a moped take a fat Cortina plug with a plug chaser and brute force.

[Des]

What's the likelihood of a motorcycle blowing over.

 

 

I've had one do that while on it, fucking bastarding things.

[Shirley Knott]

Weirdly two copper washers seems to have done the trick (for now a least).

[iainrcz]

Luckily enough nothing occurred over night but it was a fair old breeze and a good rainy session.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

[Guest Hooli]

Map websites!

 

Trying to plan a route around the Alps & using websites that claim list route files etc, but none of them work! They have maps of the routes that even after waiting 15mins fail to load, all of them are the sodding same. My laptop is only 4Gb W7x64 but it copes with everything else ffs. I can't even find a simple map of all the passes to work out a route myself as they all want to be 'helpful' by providing complicated pages that don't work.

[theorganist]

I am sure this has been covered before, but one thing is making me very grumpy at the moment and that is what seems to be an increasing amount of rudeness of Facebook car pages. I suspect is has been forever thus but I have only just started looking at them. I put pictures of my Maxi on a Barnfind page and got mainly positive comments but several comments saying it should be scrapped and put it it back in the barn and very imaginative posts like "sh@t". Someone on another page has posted a picture of a Megane Coupe which he is hoping to restore, it looks a bit of a mess and is probably worth very little and personally I wouldn't bother with it but he is getting some pretty nasty things said about him as well as the predictable comments about the car. Yet I have noticed if someone puts a photo up of Ford then they are immediately sainted!

 

I thought these pages were for enthusiasts and that people would be encouraging not knocking people for their car choice, it seems almost tribal! The trouble is I have found it quite hard biting my tongue and have failed on several occasions. I have also noticed on a couple of organists pages some debates get heated but not quite to that personal extent.

[vulgalour]

It IS tribal, that's why.  Car ownership is a very tribal thing for many people, and aspiration to a certain manufacturer or model is fairly prevalent.  What Ford has in its favour is a golden era and marketing.  On paper they're the safe bet for the most part, no better or worse than their competitors, and a bit backward in the technology.  It's a safe thing, and people don't like taking risks.  Now, Fords have a reputation for being money makers (unless it's a Mk3 Granada, for some reason) so people go a bit silly at the potential for Get Rich Quick style ownership.

 

Rolls Royce people are the same**.

 

The trouble is if you buy outside of the popular choice, you're going to be ridiculed for it because you're the weird kid.  Allegro mocking isn't as easy to do as once it was, neither is Skoda knocking.  Ladas are no longer the joke they were, and Beetles are now desireable.  Ford fanbois are likely to always be shiny headed knuckle dragging football chanting lager swilling bull necked strawberry faced sunburnt nylon wearing wrecks.  Ford owners, on the other hand, are likely to continue being a fairly broad church.  I quite like Fords, as it happens, I just don't rate them as highly as the general public, I'd rather spend the mega bucks on something left field and keeping it tip top without fear of theft nightly.  But then I always was one of the weirdos and never really got popular culture.

 

 

 

**some exceptions apply

[mrbenn]

Some people on the Internet seem to think it is acceptable to treat people in a way that I suspect they wouldn't in "real life".

 

There is a chap on a Ford group on Facebook that I frequent. I genuinely thought he was trolling people's topics, but now appreciate he believes his misguided comments. Unfortunately, he has a tendancy to be quite unpleasant with it, making fairly personal comments. After quite some prodding, I eventually responded in kind, though did explain why I took my stance. I was not proud of myself but later found he has something of a reputation.

 

In summary, lot of idiots out there

[theorganist]

I like Ford's too and I have my favourites, BL and Renault but appreciate everyone has their personal tastes. You don't get that unpleasantness here though, must be something about Facebook. A bit of light hearted banter is fine but these people have took it to another lever. These people would never go up to someone in the street in a Renault Megane and say to them "are you on day release" (which was one of the comments). I suppose it is the same as supporting certain football teams, I just find it unedifying and wonder why people bother posting on these pages, there was another one involving an mark 3 Cavalier which started turning nasty (in fact the thread was eventually removed). I image the Megane owner will think twice about posting again and I certainly may not bother again. 

[vulgalour]

If only there were some way to find all their personal details and then post their own hateful remarks to them anonymously.  If only they used some sort of website where they shared all their personal information for everyone to see.  If only you could quite literally give them a taste of their own medicine.

[iainrcz]

I've had shit off folk for years for buying a raft of Peugeots.

At least with with my rcz if someone says "French shit"

I can say well actually it's made by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria. Penis breath.

I don't mind being insulted if the insults are factually correct. Water off a duck's back anyway, i can insult most folk without them noticing.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

[DeeJay]

Water off a duck's back anyway, i can insult most folk without them noticing.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

 

That's not right. 

A good insult should be like a slap in the face and kick in the plums.

Then sit back and picture them turning purple and frothing at the mouth with indignation.