The grumpy thread

[scaryoldcortina]

Thats a good point! I had to help recover a car from a hospital pay car park (in Newcastle) because the owner of the car was detained by the hospital (routine clinic turned life-threatening) and his wife couldn't drive. Car park bods couldn't care less either, so I ran her home in their car (10 mins away) and got the bus back for mine. Trade policys come in handy sometimes.

[Albert Ross]

Luckily I can get in my local Hospital car park, as there's no height barrier. In Nottingham, they have multi storeys, ( no good for an 8 foot tall motor) so when a mate of mine was dying late last year, the choice was, drive from Doncaster and park in a dark side street, expecting to see a vacant spot when I return, or indeed an empty wheel-less Land Rover.... OR, (Which I opted for) Train to Grantham, thence to Nottingham, walk to QMC, see my mate, give him a huge hug, Say my goodbyes all the while holding back the tears, (and share a smuggled pork pie, stilton and guinness feast with him) than get the bus back into Nottingham, wander into the Salutation and quaff many pints of ale, before catching the latest possible train home via Sheffield.... Total saving was about 3 quid, considering that I drank most of the savings......... So I had a better deal using public transport. He died in January.... 50 years old.... We had a quiet send off, but in my heart, he's having a party.

I do miss him.

 

Cheers Jon.

 

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

[myglaren]

Thats a good point! I had to help recover a car from a hospital pay car park (in Newcastle) because the owner of the car was detained by the hospital (routine clinic turned life-threatening) and his wife couldn't drive. Car park bods couldn't care less either, so I ran her home in their car (10 mins away) and got the bus back for mine. Trade policys come in handy sometimes.

 

Which hospital?

 

I was in the RVI a couple of years ago and a guy came in for something to do with his eye. He expected it to be an outpatient treatment but they kept him in overnight and he wasn't able to drive for 48 hours after the operation.

Lived out in the sticks with his wife unable to come and get his car that day so the overnight charges would have been - significant.

He mentioned this to one of the nurses who went to see a supervisor. They waived all but the first hours parking fee.

 

My eldest grandson was born in the same hospital, a nightmare as he had gastroschesis and wasn't expected to survive.

They provided my daughter and son in law with a flat in one of the hospital wings* and gave my son in law a free parking pass as he had to go to work every night. Most accommodating.

 

 

*(The wing of flats were paid for by Frank Spencer)

[scaryoldcortina]

Funnily enough, it was the RVI, and about 4 years ago. Maybe the verbal pasting I gave the duty manager when I got back for my car sank in somewhere.

[myglaren]

Why were you stopped in the first place and where did it happen?

 

Have no idea why I was stopped, it was by Green Lane station (I actually pulled into Esso garage - I think the rozzer wanted the seizure on full show of the dual carriageway, but I hid round the back). It was a silver/gun metal BMW estate. I was given no option even if it wasn't my fault, my car was getting seized - all this while one of them was texting his mate about his golf clubs - ffs have some professionalism in your job, please! They seemed quite pleased about that, it's probably the highest achievement of a police officer nowadays (what else can they do in their cars).

 

I think that this merits a letter to your MP. Zealotry beyond imagination.

[myglaren]

Funnily enough, it was the RVI, and about 4 years ago. Maybe the verbal pasting I gave the duty manager when I got back for my car sank in somewhere.

 

Lets hope that they do respond to feedback.

My grandson is 11 now so they were quite sympathetic in the past.

[autofive]

my household has one in hospital today, (ready to come home in 3 hours) the only reason im at home, and not accompanying is the car park charges, i await a phone call to provide transport.

 

@scary: shotley? as you go through the gate/barrier turn left to the bottom of the bank, a couple of months ago, this was still a free 'clinic' car park

[scaryoldcortina]

autofive - No, University....

[chaseracer]

Why were you stopped in the first place and where did it happen?

 

Have no idea why I was stopped, it was by Green Lane station (I actually pulled into Esso garage - I think the rozzer wanted the seizure on full show of the dual carriageway, but I hid round the back). It was a silver/gun metal BMW estate. I was given no option even if it wasn't my fault, my car was getting seized - all this while one of them was texting his mate about his golf clubs - ffs have some professionalism in your job, please! They seemed quite pleased about that, it's probably the highest achievement of a police officer nowadays (what else can they do in their cars).

 

I think that this merits a letter to your MP. Zealotry beyond imagination.

And copy it to the Chair of your Police Authority.

[autofive]

autofive - No, University....

 

it was the mention of the hill......

 

 

.....and i was reading last week, two entire housing estates near to that hospital are becoming residents permit parking only sometime in october.

[MrDuke]

The patients-only car park at our hospital is currently run and patrolled by the local council, who send traffic wardens out when they can be arsed. Strangely though, although the hospital trust can't afford to employ car park patrol staff, they can afford for one of their 'transport office' staff to spend several hours wandering about writing down reg numbers every other day, which he then checks to see if staff members are using the car park themselves, even though he now has no authority to ticket them. The reason that staff may well be using it, is that the 'staff-only' car park is 15 minutes' uphill walk from the actual hospital, on paths which are never, ever gritted in winter. Well, I say staff, that's for all staff apart from the senior consultants, who get their own barriered car park closer than the disabled spaces.

 

On the subject, our council came very near the top of the cuntishness league a couple of years back, when a cancer charity was holding a weekend fun run in town. Bearing in mind that only 1 or 2 wardens are ever patrolling at weekends, the locals were a bit pissed when, by "total coincidence" on the Sunday of the event, about a dozen wardens descended on the town and ticketed every single car they could find. Made the front of the local rag, but even then the council refused to accept that they'd done anything remotely underhand.

[Guest]

Ebay, and the VOC forum. AGAIN.

 

I'm having a rather amusing semi argument \ discussion with an eBay seller and various members of the VOC. This bloke is selling a rather tasty set of KN Geminis that will look the nuts on my Volvo, if they're the right PCD.

 

Trouble is, he's a daft dubber who bought them thinking they'll fit his bus. They don't, so they're not 5 x 112 mm. He's spoken to someone who used to work for KN (apparently) who says they were made in a Volvo Amazon fitment. So that's 5 x 114.3 mm (mine) or 5 x 108 mm (B20 engined Amazons). Cue a mass of ill informed and gibberish opinions in the Q&A section, including an exclusively caps-typed message from one twat that's sent the bidding mental, because he's got his memories mixed up and is now claiming they were a factory option for the 123GT (the most scene taxed word in the old Volvo lexicon).

 

Dealer option perhaps, factory no. I've seen most of the factory literature for the 123GT (there's a shitload) and not one shows a set of KN Geminis as a no cost option wheel (why in the name of fuck would a car with 4" steels as standard have alloys as a no cost option?) Like a bunch of gestalt fly-crows, all the eBay Amazon owners are amassing around the shrine of shiny shit with a predictable effect on the bidding. With five days to go they're at £107.

 

Now, this is where my pathological hatred of the VOC forum comes back into play. Half of them can't even decide what the correct stud pattern for an Amazon is, and then this misinformation is banded about as if it's gospel (123GT idiot notwithstanding). Someone has got back in touch with the seller and pointed him to a how-to PCD measuring table on the MWS website. He's gone out with his measurement tape and by his reckoning the PCD is '5'. I ring him up. Here's how the conversation went.

 

Me: 'So what did your measurements come out at? 5 inches?'

Him: 'No, 5', he says, clearly confused and ignorant of the fact that half of the table is transposed in inches and half in millimetres, for imperial and metric wheels respectively.

 

Two seconds of work with a conversion chart brings the PCD of these wheels out at 5 x 127mm. So a Rover SD 1 then, or various full size GM sedans. I'm going down with my PCD checker tomorrow and have told matey boy this in a text message but he doesn't seem impressed with me.

What infuriates me about the internet \ forums \ eBay is that I'm not practical or particularly resourceful, but I worked out in about 5 minutes with the supplied information that these wheels aren't going to fit an Amazon unless our intrepid dub friend has measured the stud distance wrong.

 

If I can work it out, why can't they? If I'm right some other mug can buy them and get the fitment hilariously wrong.

If ever there was an excuse to get out of classic car forum usage, this is it. My CV and bank balance are now posed to suck me off in gratitude.

[cobblers]

eBay.

 

I'd got rid of my 106, and had a pile 'o bits to sell. Nothing amazing, a couple of ECUs, A few coilpacks, and a couple of engines.

 

106owners is useless, so I swallowed my pride and went on eBay.

 

 

Most stuff seems to have gone OK, apart from one of the ECUs. It was unlocked, IE didnt need recoding in to work. It's simple to unlock them, you just start the car and unplug the immobiliser box, then the ECU will work on anything, until you plug it into a car with the immobilser box still plugged in and turn the ignition off, then it sends the "lock" signal and the ECU wont start anything intil it gets the right "unlock" signal off the immobiliser box that matches the original car it came with.

 

Anyway I sold the ECU, tested it before it went out, packed it well, sent it quickly and even took a kick in the balls "best offer" on it to shift the fucker sooner rather than later, clicking "accept" on my phone after about 15 cans late saturday night at vanfest.

After about a week I get a message of the buyer saying the ECU won't start his car, and his old one starts it sometimes, and the immobilser light is on with my ECU plugged in.

I was as helpful as I could be but said that if he had left his immobilser box pluuged in (hence the immobiliser light) it could have re locked the ECU.

 

A few days pass and I forget about it. Now he's sent me a message saying the ECU I sent him was locked and he wants another.

 

I don't have another, and it was fine when I sent it him. I've told him this.

 

What are my chances of paypal having my pants down over this? It's only £60, but that's a day and a half's work to me. I can handle some bad feedback (infact I couldn't really care less!)

[Lord Sterling]

Hospital carparks infuriate me. The Russells Hall hospital in Dudley started charging back a few years ago, which resulted in a huge sway of cars lining the road just outside, on double yellow lines. When my mum worked at Russells Hall, even staff were charged to park at the hospital. Bastards.

 

Even the Merry Hill shopping centre, just down the road doesnt charge (or at least it didnt last time I went) I wish the f***ing government had the balls to abolish charging for parking at hospitals, but of course, as motorists we are the enemy.

 

back to the ticket machine, ticket back in, £2.40!

 

Thats happend to me a few times, mostly at the Birmingham Bullring. I hate the place and wont go unless I really have to.

 

Sorry to hear about your car getting impounded Station, what a shitter. It really doesnt inspire confidence, dont the DVLA send out letter when your licence is due up for renewal, its not as if you will remember when its due up, just because its up doesnt mean suddenly you cant drive, there again, common sense in this country has but been eroded. With what others have said Station, I'd make a complaint if I were you, and stick to it. As motorist we cant just let the powers push us around.

 

This is fucking SHIT, the way motorists are being treated in 21st century Britain is absolutaly disgusting. All this with cars getting impounded because your licence expired a few days ago, cars getting ever more expensive to run and a PITA to tax and insure, charged through the fucking noses just park for 5 minutes somewhere - Something somewhere had got to give, this just cannot go on.

 

No wonder people with drives wont lend space to me for my car. Space is fucking huge premium these days.

[Guest]

eBay.

 

I'd got rid of my 106, and had a pile 'o bits to sell. Nothing amazing, a couple of ECUs, A few coilpacks, and a couple of engines.

 

106owners is useless, so I swallowed my pride and went on eBay.

 

 

Most stuff seems to have gone OK, apart from one of the ECUs. It was unlocked, IE didnt need recoding in to work. It's simple to unlock them, you just start the car and unplug the immobiliser box, then the ECU will work on anything, until you plug it into a car with the immobilser box still plugged in and turn the ignition off, then it sends the "lock" signal and the ECU wont start anything intil it gets the right "unlock" signal off the immobiliser box that matches the original car it came with.

 

Anyway I sold the ECU, tested it before it went out, packed it well, sent it quickly and even took a kick in the balls "best offer" on it to shift the fucker sooner rather than later, clicking "accept" on my phone after about 15 cans late saturday night at vanfest.

After about a week I get a message of the buyer saying the ECU won't start his car, and his old one starts it sometimes, and the immobilser light is on with my ECU plugged in.

I was as helpful as I could be but said that if he had left his immobilser box pluuged in (hence the immobiliser light) it could have re locked the ECU.

 

A few days pass and I forget about it. Now he's sent me a message saying the ECU I sent him was locked and he wants another.

 

I don't have another, and it was fine when I sent it him. I've told him this.

 

What are my chances of paypal having my pants down over this? It's only £60, but that's a day and a half's work to me. I can handle some bad feedback (infact I couldn't really care less!)

 

You won't want to hear this, but paypal is heavily tilted in favour of the buyer, no matter how brow-beatingly stupid they are.

I would try for a compromise, presuming that you still have the car the ECU came off.

 

I'd tell him that he's tried to unlock the ECU wrongly, and ask him to send it back to you. Unlock it by using it on the car it came from, and send it back to him with a very specific set of instructions with a little clause at the end stating that if he does it and locks it up again he's a fucking idiot and you can't help him any further.

 

Failing that, tell him you want the old one back, unlock it and send it back as 'another' unit.

 

On another topic, I was sorry to hear of your car getting taken Station. The DVLA are useless fuckers at the best of times and I'm dreading sending my photocard license and paper counterpart off to them to be renewed, mainly because of the horror stories that abound with them losing licenses, removing entitlements and generally being an incompetant bureaucratic organ who are arrogant in the extreme.

 

I've photocopied everything just in case.

[Station]

A buyer broke an electric aerial I sent to him. He claimed it was half broken when he received it, and then buggered it even more trying to fix it. I'd say that was a reason not to refund, but I know how people can be with feedback on ebay, so I offer a refund, but he wants refund on postage as well. He left me bad feedback anyway. I'm not bothered, I was going to refund, but he can kiss my arse now.

 

We have a pay parking bit in front of the hospital (Arrowe Park), but a large free car park about 1 minute away (they even flattened half a Victorian park for it), and even use Sainsbury's car park with a free bus down the road.

[Guest]

A buyer broke an electric aerial I sent to him. He claimed it was half broken when he received it, and then buggered it even more trying to fix it. I'd say that was a reason not to refund, but I know how people can be with feedback on ebay, so I offer a refund, but he wants refund on postage as well. He left me bad feedback anyway. I'm not bothered, I was going to refund, but he can kiss my arse now.

 

Agreed. He can ram it.

[cobblers]

Failing that, tell him you want the old one back, unlock it and send it back as 'another' unit.

 

If I could do that I would, but I bought the ECU already unlocked and the car it was originally on is now the side on an argos DVD player. He's relocked it, and it'll cost about £70 to get it unlocked again (with the right kit you can overwrite one of the chips with virgin data so it thinks it's brand new, but this nob would only lock it again!)

 

I suppose it's not much of a moan compared to getting a car towed!

 

This towing business has become a punishment that doesn't require any real evidence, and there are towing companies making a mint out of it.

I was threatened with it when the driveshaft fell off the Lupo and I was stuck parked on the grass in the middle of a dual carraigeway with a simple problem that needed a pair of mole grips to fix. RAC man said it was unfixable and wanted £150 for a "specialist recovery" 4 miles home because the car was lowered (even thought I had paid up relay cover), and the police said if I didn't get it shifted in an hour then they would send their own recovery company out, who would charge £130 to tow it to their depot 2 miles away, then charge £30 a day storage.

[Cavcraft]

eBay.

 

I'd got rid of my 106, and had a pile 'o bits to sell. Nothing amazing, a couple of ECUs, A few coilpacks, and a couple of engines.

 

106owners is useless, so I swallowed my pride and went on eBay.

 

 

 

It might not help you feel much better but an acquaintance of mine shagged the idiotic forum owner's girlfriend, which a fair few people (myself included) found highly amusing when Mr106 started getting gobby.

 

Local hospital to me gives you 20 minutes free (quite what you could do in 20 minutes is beyond me but I suppose it's a start) otherwise it's £2.50. When my wife gave birth to our first child she (wife) was in a very bad way and spent 8 weeks in hospital including a few days in ITU.

The staff were brilliant, we were given tips on where to park for free (until caught!) and one of them told me to use one of those petrol station points cards on the barrier which worked a treat!

 

Going grumpy again:

 

How remarkably fucking brave of the gobshite with seven or eight of his bumchums who clocked my mate last night. My mucker was at the bar minding his own when some clown starts jostling/pushing/getting cocky so my was told to piss off. My mate turned his back and the wanker hit him on the side of the head. He's not one to take things lightly so colcked the gobshite back a couple of time, traded a couple of punches and the idiot and his bumchums got thrown out. Then my mate realised his face was bleeding as he'd been hit by a sharp object or a ringed finger.

 

I love getting pissed and having a laugh but the day I started picking fights with people, or going out to cause agro will be the day I stop going to the pub. Why do these fucking mongs do it?

Typical really as whenever the races are on it's dicksplash central in town at night.

[autofive]

hospital car park users, sunday drivers and spiders

 

this morning local hospital car park entirely used by fuckin' idiots - parking in the middle of the road and taking stuff out of the boot, while a queue forms then have the fuckin' cheek to use a mobile phone standing next to the car while the queue gets agitated - i dont thank i have ever before shouted so much abuse at one man, and he already been shouted at by the 5 car drivers in front of me

 

not very often i use the roads on a sunday morning, but.............42 MPH everywhere, using mobile phones, slowing down to point out the window, 4 up in a corsa diesel ARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH and then after i overtook the corsa at speed had the gaul to flash their headlights and shake a fist. a sharp brake and their face changed from anger to absolute fear. On the return journey i was behind a honda typeR at 38 mph in a 60mph zone, i pull out to overtake - he tries to out-accelerate me - foolish behaviour even for a typeR driver - i overtook him, then at the next roundabout waited until there was traffic coming before pulling away, ensuring he was stuck behind more traffic

 

last night i spotted a huge spider in my kitchen, (i do mean huge, 2 inch body and easily 4-5 inches including legs,far bigger than any other spider i have seen in the uk) i chased it around for a bit, but it escaped down the side of the cooker.

At about 1am, i ripped out the cooker, fridge and washing machine, dining table, chairs, torch and mirrors to spot it - but it completely dissappeared

 

and now i have to reinstate the kitchen before i can start sunday lunch

 

AAAARRRRGGGHHHH

[mattblack]

The MOT is up on the Sceptre in about 6 weeks, last time it got an advisory about some rot on the chassis rail under the front wing. Basicaly, it had been patched before but there was still some rot next to the patch. Anyway, I ground off the old patch and when i cleaned up the inside of the chassis rail I found a small hole in the inside face, in another patch...

 

 

So I thought I'd better have a good poke around the ajacent areas...

 

 

 

 

 

Floor has also gone, next to a patch...

 

 

Buggering bumhats of buggeration....

[Negative Creep]

Think I've lost my expensive (in my terms) watch

[Station]

Ouch @ progressively worse rust.

 

Nothing worse than the slow realisation you've lost something. I slowly realised I left my wallet on the top of the car.

 

This morning, walking back from Asda, two school urchins dropped a load of litter on the floor. I was fuming, but knew if I did anything, I'd regret it. It's just not worth it.

Looking out of my front window about 1/2 an hour ago, I witness an 8 year old shit and his equally as shitty boyfriend unscrewing the valve caps off my car, with a fucking little smile on his face. I pounded the window so hard he nearly put it through, and uttered some incomprehensible roar. Caught them in the act. It's a 10p valve cap, why don't save up their 'our little secret' money from their uncle and buy some, you little bag of horrors.

[Guest]

Ebay, and the VOC forum. AGAIN.

 

I'm having a rather amusing semi argument \ discussion with an eBay seller and various members of the VOC. This bloke is selling a rather tasty set of KN Geminis that will look the nuts on my Volvo, if they're the right PCD.

 

Trouble is, he's a daft dubber who bought them thinking they'll fit his bus. They don't, so they're not 5 x 112 mm. He's spoken to someone who used to work for KN (apparently) who says they were made in a Volvo Amazon fitment. So that's 5 x 114.3 mm (mine) or 5 x 108 mm (B20 engined Amazons). Cue a mass of ill informed and gibberish opinions in the Q&A section, including an exclusively caps-typed message from one twat that's sent the bidding mental, because he's got his memories mixed up and is now claiming they were a factory option for the 123GT (the most scene taxed word in the old Volvo lexicon).

 

Dealer option perhaps, factory no. I've seen most of the factory literature for the 123GT (there's a shitload) and not one shows a set of KN Geminis as a no cost option wheel (why in the name of fuck would a car with 4" steels as standard have alloys as a no cost option?) Like a bunch of gestalt fly-crows, all the eBay Amazon owners are amassing around the shrine of shiny shit with a predictable effect on the bidding. With five days to go they're at £107.

 

Now, this is where my pathological hatred of the VOC forum comes back into play. Half of them can't even decide what the correct stud pattern for an Amazon is, and then this misinformation is banded about as if it's gospel (123GT idiot notwithstanding). Someone has got back in touch with the seller and pointed him to a how-to PCD measuring table on the MWS website. He's gone out with his measurement tape and by his reckoning the PCD is '5'. I ring him up. Here's how the conversation went.

 

Me: 'So what did your measurements come out at? 5 inches?'

Him: 'No, 5', he says, clearly confused and ignorant of the fact that half of the table is transposed in inches and half in millimetres, for imperial and metric wheels respectively.

 

Two seconds of work with a conversion chart brings the PCD of these wheels out at 5 x 127mm. So a Rover SD 1 then, or various full size GM sedans. I'm going down with my PCD checker tomorrow and have told matey boy this in a text message but he doesn't seem impressed with me.

What infuriates me about the internet \ forums \ eBay is that I'm not practical or particularly resourceful, but I worked out in about 5 minutes with the supplied information that these wheels aren't going to fit an Amazon unless our intrepid dub friend has measured the stud distance wrong.

 

If I can work it out, why can't they? If I'm right some other mug can buy them and get the fitment hilariously wrong.

If ever there was an excuse to get out of classic car forum usage, this is it. My CV and bank balance are now posed to suck me off in gratitude.

 

Yerp!

 

I'm going to take back some of what I said here. Yes! Wat admits I R RONG shocker.

 

I went down with my wee batch of PCD checkers to meet John the seller yesterday on the way to Stondon. He had an amazing house in a pleasantly leafy suburb of Walsall. Far from being a 'daft dubber', he was a really enthusiastic bloke with two Type 4 Variants (one a daily driver) and a T25 camper van. I measured up the Geminis (which were a bit cobby but otherwise stunning in the flesh) and they came out at 5 x 127mm. What a pisser. John was gutted too as he had to amend the advert. I am still tempted actually to lob a bid on and then get them stitched and plugged. MM5 tells me it's an arsearche but since when has common sense got in the way of anything I've ever done previously?

 

So in the highly unlikely event that John's reading this, sorry mate.

 

I still think eBay bidders and ill informed VOC forum types are bell ends though, so it's not a whitewash.

[retrogeezer]

oh fook Jon,didn't know you were going to Stondon fella...I would have hitched a ride and chipped in for fuel/lunch on the way..

 

R.E.S.T.E.C.P for making the journey though...how long did it take?

[Guest]

oh fook Jon,didn't know you were going to Stondon fella...I would have hitched a ride and chipped in for fuel/lunch on the way..

 

R.E.S.T.E.C.P for making the journey though...how long did it take?

 

Er...it took about two hours. It was broken up because we stopped in Walsall to have a look at a set of KN Geminis that I was convinced were for an SD 1.

I might 'ave them anyway and take them to my mate's speed shop to get them redrilled. As with everything I do at the moment it was very much a spur of the moment thing - a bit like the last Cholmondeley. PM me your number on faecesbook (because I lost it when I changed my SIM over to the W995) and I will give a you a bell the next time something like this crops up.

[retrogeezer]

2 hours eh - I shoved the info in on AA routefinder and when it said 150 miles and nearly 3 hours I thought it was a bit far for a day trip...ah well.

Phone number will be on it's way shortly like.

[mattblack]

Some sort of wanky anti virus pop-up keeps appearing on my screen and minimising whatever I'm veiwing... apparently someone is trying to access my Skype password, which is strange as I don't and never have had or used Skype...

 

[trigger]

It took me over 2 hours and I'm only in Ipswich!

[Mr Lobster]

Took me four hours to get home. I'd like to have stayed in the pub later but thought that Sunday teatime + M6 wouldn't be a great combination and I was right.