The grumpy thread

[LightBulbFun]

  On 23/08/2019 at 17:10, Zelandeth said:

The Xantia is basically unusable on a warm day like this just now thanks to the air con being stuffed.

It suffers very much from having been designed with the intention of having A/C from square one...as such the ventilation without it is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.  It just blows vaguely warm air at you when set to cold.  Combined with a black leather interior it's bloody murder.

Fixing the A/C involves replacing one hose and a valve core on the HP service port.

The problem is that I cannot for the life of me see any way to replace the aforementioned hose (liquid line from compressor to evaporator) without removing the engine (and entirely probably the entire dash) as one end is buried down behind the engine and I can't even see where it goes from either above or under the car.

So barring lottery wins it's likely to remain dead.  Though I'm becoming increasingly tempted to grab a couple of appropriate compression fittings and just chopping it off before the flexible bit that's failed and getting Pirtek to make up a new flexible section and sort it that way.  At this stage I can't make the system any more broken as it's already dead...dare not get it recharged currently given how much the hose was swelling a few months ago.

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at least you do technically own a convertible so you could take that member of the fleet for a spin instead

[beko1987]

I've started looking at Laguna again. I can't afford any... 

[Iamgroot]

Trying to tax a car with the new keeper supplement of the V5 and it has an 11 digit code not 12, you will have to go to a post office, the wonderful website helpfully tells me. the logbook was issued in the last week, why not put the right bastard code on it!? Grrrrr.......

[Zelandeth]

  On 23/08/2019 at 19:19, LightBulbFun said:

at least you do technically own a convertible so you could take that member of the fleet for a spin instead

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Doesn't really work when I need 1 or 2 passengers plus cargo space though!

Would have taken the van if the car park in question didn't have stupid bloody height barriers on.  1.8 metres too rather than the usual 2.1 or 2.6, so sure they've clobbered a few small vans over the years.

[LightBulbFun]

  On 23/08/2019 at 19:30, Zelandeth said:

Doesn't really work when I need 1 or 2 passengers

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No Roof no problem!

 

(shame you dont have a Post March 1976 Model 70 in this case, then the passengers would at least have a rollover bar to hang onto )  

[Zelandeth]

  On 23/08/2019 at 19:09, beko1987 said:

My white one had had its air con removed and by fuck it gets warm in the estate! Used to drive up the m40 at 75 with all 4 windows open in the summer! 

Fuck I miss that car

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That's something I don't get about it...you can have all four windows and the sunroof wide open, this produces biblical levels of noise and buffeting, but somehow doesn't actually seem to produce any applicable airflow through the cabin.

I've never owned a car with such a shockingly poor ventilation setup...I have to assume it is because the assumption was that nearly all the cars would have air con, as when that worked it did a perfectly decent job.  Always just left it set to 20C and the blower set to auto.

[beko1987]

I used auto all the time! Mainly because I broke the adjuster knob... 

Carried a pair of needle nose pliers in the car in winter to point it at the windscreen for demisting! 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

  On 23/08/2019 at 17:10, Zelandeth said:

The Xantia is basically unusable on a warm day like this just now thanks to the air con being stuffed.

It suffers very much from having been designed with the intention of having A/C from square one...as such the ventilation without it is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.  It just blows vaguely warm air at you when set to cold.  Combined with a black leather interior it's bloody murder....

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This seems to be very much in the Citroen tradition of shite HVAC.

[paulplom]

  On 23/08/2019 at 09:57, GrumpiusMaximus said:

The puppy (15 weeks as of today) has had some disgestive issues in the last week and a bit.  We have been to the vet and sent off some samples and recommended some special food for the meantime.

The vet is excellent but we may as well be feeding her with five pound notes!  It's eye-wateringly expensive food.  So on day two of issues (last Wednesday) we tried chicken and rice.  Cue the most foul and disgusting lawn you've ever seen.  Aafter a couple of days of head-scratching and further issue, we put two and two together.  Her symptoms started the day after we'd given her chicken slices at treats at a training class - so we cut out the chicken and continue with the banknote diet, which is working.  Now we're waiting for the results of the samples, which have all come clear apart from the last so we can have a proper chat with the vet about it.

But that's not all!  On Tuesday we did another training class so we gave her some alternative puppy kibble as treats.  No chicken.  I'm up five times in the night with her making a giant mess of the lawn again.  That kibble had turkey.  Other than the banknotes, we've fed her nothing else.

So, it would appear that the puppy may very well have some kind of poultry intolerance.  Guess what almost all dog foods have?  That's right!  Poultry...

And she was sick last night.  So at quarter to 7 this morning the dog is in the bath and I'm hosing down the crate tray.

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Our 15 week old ate a full tub of chewing gum when I left him in the car. He had the squirts for 6 days. Tried everything to stop it. It cleared up the day we decided to take him to the vets. He would have a normal crap then about 15 mins later a massive gush usually in the house. Not sure where it all came from.

[MikeR]

try some of that Weblox chubb roll ,    I have used it for our grey and he has a sensitive stomach and anything can have him pebble dashing the lawn .

I worked on the surmise that a lot of this dog food has a lot of additives in it that upset his guts , so he just has chubb roll and dog biscuits for meals .

so far he has put on weight and had far more manageable dumps ...

[MikeR]

Audi drivers ... 

[DoctorRetro]

You'd expect Halfords to have at least some generic radiator hose wouldn't you? 

Nope. Fucking useless bastards.

Currently stranded at Lakeside

[Tadhg Tiogar]

  On 24/08/2019 at 14:13, TheDoctor said:

You'd expect Halfords to have at least some generic radiator hose wouldn't you? 

Nope. Fucking useless bastards....

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Halfrauds has been steadily withdrawing all the useful stuff they used to sell. I found this out a couple of weeks ago when I tried to buy GunGum to seal the CX's exhaust leak. There was none to be had in-store.

[clayts450]

  On 23/08/2019 at 10:24, clayts450 said:

FFS, must have dropped my phone when I got out of the car yesterday.

Thankfully, modern tech means I have been able to trace exactly where my phone is down to the door number, and send them a message asking them to ring me.  After picking up my phone, the finder went to the park in the afternoon, stopped off at the doctors, caught a number 17 bus home and got home at 5.25pm after popping into Tesco (exact address known).

Fuck me, Big Brother most certainly is watching us.

Anyway, hopefully the honest finder will be accommodating and give me my damned phone back tomorrow.

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Got my phone back - lovely couple, wouldn't take a reward. Nice to know there are still a lot of genuinely nice people out there.

[clayts450]

  On 23/08/2019 at 19:28, Iamgroot said:

Trying to tax a car with the new keeper supplement of the V5 and it has an 11 digit code not 12, you will have to go to a post office, the wonderful website helpfully tells me. the logbook was issued in the last week, why not put the right bastard code on it!? Grrrrr.......

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Pretty sure you can just stick a leading zero on that number and it should work - sure I've read that somewhere before. May be bollox, but worth a go.

[xtriple]

Having decided last night to get to 'sleep early' and then have a 'productive day' today, I failed miserably in both regards. I stayed up most of the night watching shit films, woke early and watched MotoGP until I fell asleep (about 10 minutes before the bit I wanted to watch came on!) and woke up about 4;00 p.m. Normally this would be impossible as two dogs would have given me a severe booting/woofing at by about 1;30 as they want to go to the park but not today. One was fast asleep blocking the gate and the other was fast asleep cuddling the fridge - yes, it is effin' HOT and neither of them seem remotely interested in going out/doing anything energetic/anything at all.

So in time honoured tradition, I have done and achieved precisely sweet fuck all apart from pulled my loose front tooth out when I cleaned my teeth this morning.

I am now layng on the floor and thinking about going back to sleep as I am tired after so much activty and stress. I did manage to take Chester round the block this morning before I fell asleep so his 'needs' have been seen to, lessens the guilt dontcha know  

[DoctorRetro]

  On 24/08/2019 at 16:33, clayts450 said:

Pretty sure you can just stick a leading zero on that number and it should work - sure I've read that somewhere before. May be bollox, but worth a go.

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I think it is a 2.

[Mrcento]

One of my pet birds died this morning. Losing any pet is so hard, no matter what, you always feel fucking useless because it happened.

[Iamgroot]

  On 24/08/2019 at 16:33, clayts450 said:

Pretty sure you can just stick a leading zero on that number and it should work - sure I've read that somewhere before. May be bollox, but worth a go.

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I tried a 0 after I read it here on another post, but it didn't work unfortunately

  On 24/08/2019 at 17:01, TheDoctor said:

I think it is a 2.

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Haven't tried a 2, tried 4 and 6 though because they were on another couple of logbooks I have here ?

[LightBulbFun]

if its just a single digit then just try 0 through 9 until it works  

[Iamgroot]

  On 24/08/2019 at 18:20, LightBulbFun said:

if its just a single digit then just try 0 through 9 until it works  

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I was just doing that actually, computer says...

 

So it still won't let me do it ?

Thanks anyway guys

[LightBulbFun]

sounds like your having about as much luck as I did with the new keeper slip for my Invacar!

https://autoshite.com/topic/32723-invacar-model-70-acquired-and-general-ramble-thread-index-on-page-1-phase-2-finding-a-suitable-driving-schoolinstructor-getting-lessons-and-a-licence/?do=findComment&comment=1841306

it basically said "the previous keeper has not told the DVLA that your the new keeper"

right until they issued the new V5 in my name at which point my "new keeper slip" stopped working since the new V5 (that I did not yet have at that point) had a new number

so I just had to wait for the V5 to show up in the post and then SORN her with the new 11 digit number

[myglaren]

My son was going to sorn his bike, hasn't used it for a year due to injuries when he came off is a few years ago.

They have send him a reminder and he has to enter the 11-digit code on it to tax/sorn it online.

There is no code :(

[LightBulbFun]

  On 24/08/2019 at 20:12, myglaren said:

My son was going to sorn his bike, hasn't used it for a year due to injuries when he came off is a few years ago.

They have send him a reminder and he has to enter the 11-digit code on it to tax/sorn it online.

There is no code

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on both 2012 and 2019 V5s I have for REV,  the 11 digit code is displayed in several locations

so I would be a bit worried if its entirely missing from all locations on the V5 of that bike!

[myglaren]

Not the V5 but the tax reminder, he thinks it will be different - related to this year's tax.

I have just sailed through the process each year without taking a lot of notice, always been simple enough.

 

Other son and new girlfriend were supposed to be here for the holiday, was out this morning and bought loads of fresh food, texted him to leave his car at the front of the house and mine is buried round the back.

Text reply - "I think you have the wrong number"! - he's forever changing phones and numbers.

Tried another number for him.  Not coming after all, just came home from Seattle this morning and has to submit some work for his PhD.  Said he had emailed me yesterday.

He sent the email to all his siblings but forgot to copy me in.  Been doing this for months now.

[LightBulbFun]

  On 24/08/2019 at 20:31, myglaren said:

Not the V5 but the tax reminder, he thinks it will be different - related to this year's tax.

 

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well it probably wont hurt to try the 11 digit number from the V5 anyway?  

[myglaren]

Probably not.

He seems to be hoping for another reminder.

[dozeydustman]

I can describe my grump with an emoji.

?

 

Mrs d, madam and myself have been talking on the big white telephone since silly o’clock this morning.

Tittybiscuits

[Tamworthbay]

I was about to head off to The Wigginton pub for a classic car meet, checked up on their page to make sure it was still on the be met by a message stating that ‘as long as your car qualifies for historic vehicle tax you are welcome to attend’. Mine is 38 years old so doesn’t, so presumably I am unwelcome. Well fuck off Wigginton, I will get a pub lunch at the far superior Feathers in Lichfield, the landlord loves my car even though it isn’t quite 40 years old.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

  On 25/08/2019 at 10:47, Tamworthbay said:

.... ‘as long as your car qualifies for historic vehicle tax you are welcome to attend’. Mine is 38 years old so doesn’t, so presumably I am unwelcome....

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So near, yet so far.