The grumpy thread

[Tamworthbay]

Fucking idiot micro management. Them - how do you know that this one at point x will be this far along at point Y? Me- Because we have set up the process and perfected it over twenty years and we have twenty years of end point data to prove it works. Them - but how can you be sure at this exact point that that will happen? Me- errrr because it’s been set up to do just that and has always succeeded without fail. Them- sorry we think you need to measure it at point A-Z to prove it’s going to plan. Me- but if I do all that measuring I won’t have the man hours to get to Z as we will be spending the time measuring not doing. Them- ah! So you can’t prove it gets to point Z! Me- yes I fucking can as it has done for the last twenty years you thick fuckers. Them- but there is no evidence this one will do the same. Me- what evidence is there that it won’t and why do you think it won’t? Them- no reason at all, we are sure it’s all fine. Me- so why the fuck do you want me to measure it? Them- so we can be sure, Me- but if I do that it won’t happen as I will spend all my man hours proving what has been done instead of doing it. Repeat for two hours. Only me pointing out that I was the most productive member of staff for twenty years running, that my team was the most productive for the last 18 years running and that I would fuck off somewhere else and no one else can do my job has prevented it being immediately put into place. They are going to ‘look at it’ which means fucking about and trying to do it by the back door. What the fuck is wrong with these bean counting twats who add nothing to a company?

[Saabnut]

Had a day like that myself. Four and a half hour meeting, that lasted for 6 hours. Woman taking it knew all the terms but obviously never done the job. Forgot to organise the lunch so had to go to the canteen as usual and pay. Twenty people in the meeting. 6 under 50 years old. Woman said "in my head" when describing scenarios seventeen times! 16 of the people there said not one word. One slide shown had no less than 27 acronyms/abreviations. I was the one who asked if everyone was familiar with them all, just before she moved to the next slide. 16 said no so I quietly smirked as leader lady had to explain them all. Four she did not know and had to ask me......

In the old days, I would have chosen 4 people, half an hour later we would have had it sorted and off to the pub. None of that allowed now. 4 HSE people there, none spoke, none mentioned the elephant in the room, ie why was this method chosen as it is inheritently unsafe. I did not mention it either I am sad to say, as I do not want to cause trouble after 4 years away, and I am confident I can keep my bit of the plan safe.

Good job they are paying me obscene amounts of money to put up with the bullshit!

[SierraMikeHotel]

Today I installed new windscreen wipers on the front of my wife's company car, a 2017 Mercedes C-class.

Windscreen wipers!  Christ, that's literally the first thing I learned to do on a car.  I used to do them for my mum on her Pug 309 before I learned to drive; probably before I'd finished primary school even.  Not hard, I hear you say.

Two minute job, sez I.  Be back in five, put the kettle on.

First you have to get the wipers to the vertical position or you can't raise them off the screen because they're hidden under the trailing edge of the bonnet.  That's a pedestrian safety feature so no arguments from me, that's all good.  Apparently there's a "wiper service" button hidden somewhere around the car but I'm fucked if I could find it so I used the older technique of turning the wipers on then whipping the key out of the ignition at the right moment.

OK.  Check the instructions on the box containing the new wipers (they're Bosch and not cheap so I do have an expectation of something useful).  Nope; just a line drawing of a windscreen wiper (so, a line) and an arrow next to it.

I look closely, puzzle, think, manipulate the thing any which way I can think of and there's not a millimetre of movement or give.  It's like the fuckers were built into the car - except for the small problem that they're worn out and need replacing.

Finally, to my intense embarrassment, I sit in the car, get my phone out and start searching YouTube.

Finally I find my answer.  You have to tilt the wipers to a certain point, which will allow you to move a slider, which is of course stuck because it lives on the front of the car and therefore gets very dirty.  When you have managed to move the slider (which is especially difficult on the passenger side, because the wiper has a big suspension system so when you pull it you're just pulling the suspension and not the slider itself) the old wiper pops off.

Is this any better than the system on my 2007 Merc, where it's totally obvious to any idiot how they come apart?  Does it improve the performance of the wipers?  Does it bollocks.  It just makes some designer look clever and makes the job harder for a poor schmuck owner like me.

[FakeConcern]

9 minutes ago, SierraMikeHotel said:

Today I installed new windscreen wipers on the front of my wife's company car, a 2017 Mercedes C-class.

Windscreen wipers!  Christ, that's literally the first thing I learned to do on a car.  I used to do them for my mum on her Pug 309 before I learned to drive; probably before I'd finished primary school even.  Not hard, I hear you say.

Two minute job, sez I.  Be back in five, put the kettle on.

First you have to get the wipers to the vertical position or you can't raise them off the screen because they're hidden under the trailing edge of the bonnet.  That's a pedestrian safety feature so no arguments from me, that's all good.  Apparently there's a "wiper service" button hidden somewhere around the car but I'm fucked if I could find it so I used the older technique of turning the wipers on then whipping the key out of the ignition at the right moment.

OK.  Check the instructions on the box containing the new wipers (they're Bosch and not cheap so I do have an expectation of something useful).  Nope; just a line drawing of a windscreen wiper (so, a line) and an arrow next to it.

I look closely, puzzle, think, manipulate the thing any which way I can think of and there's not a millimetre of movement or give.  It's like the fuckers were built into the car - except for the small problem that they're worn out and need replacing.

Finally, to my intense embarrassment, I sit in the car, get my phone out and start searching YouTube.

Finally I find my answer.  You have to tilt the wipers to a certain point, which will allow you to move a slider, which is of course stuck because it lives on the front of the car and therefore gets very dirty.  When you have managed to move the slider (which is especially difficult on the passenger side, because the wiper has a big suspension system so when you pull it you're just pulling the suspension and not the slider itself) the old wiper pops off.

Is this any better than the system on my 2007 Merc, where it's totally obvious to any idiot how they come apart?  Does it improve the performance of the wipers?  Does it bollocks.  It just makes some designer look clever and makes the job harder for a poor schmuck owner like me.

Why do they make it so difficult? On a Citroen C4 that came out in 2004, to get the wipers into service mode (as they sit under the bonnet when parked like on the Merc) turn off the ignition and then switch on the wipers in the next 30 seconds. The wipers go vertical and it's easy to change the blades, all cars should be like this. Also turning the ignition off on this while wipers are running, wipers park!

[Fumbler]

Well isn't this great. Grandmother Fumbler came home from Hospital after a 3-day stay. I then learned that as a result of this, Mother Fumbler's operation to remove a bone from her thumb (arthritis) had to be delayed to facilitate for Grandmother's care. My mother can barely use her thumbs anymore because of the pain and she was so selflessly putting off her treatment because of this. Yesterday Grandmother Fumbler went to the surgeon. He's done masses of bone replacements and only had 6 recalls. We're the seventh. According to him, something isn't right and since she's dislocated twice already its just going to happen over and over again. So, on the operating table again it seems. Date set is 31st March, and Mother Fumbler has decided to go ahead with her operation. Grandmother came to terms with the fact that 31st March is a long way away, and so asked if she could drive. "Yes yes" said the surgeon, "but only for local journeys." So that's something for her to stretch into oblivion. We, as a family, have concluded that we're going to have to sit back and watch as she is so gun-ho and adamant that her "services" are always required to her friends and aquaintences. We've advised her friends to refuse transport so all we can do is watch and wait. Considering that the first manouvre that she made after being given the green light was reversing into the main road, I can only hope and pray things don't head south.

[Bren]

The passat has only been on ebay for minutes and already the life is being sucked out of me. Offers of £250, buy it now price and a checklist that would make the owner of a five year old car sweat have been sent to me. I may check into the priory next week.

[High Jetter]

24 minutes ago, SierraMikeHotel said:

It just makes some designer look clever and makes the job harder for a poor schmuck owner like me.

A cynic might suggest it makes more money for M-B

[SierraMikeHotel]

A cynic might suggest it makes more money for M-B

I thought that but you can get aftermarket wipers for it. It smells more like someone looking for a promotion to me.

[richardmorris]

On 2/10/2020 at 5:05 PM, Tadhg Tiogar said:

There is one for automatic gearbox cars, because it was quite involved to get it all reconnected. If that has failed, then it would be a job to get hold of a new one. It looks like this:

I am tending to think it's the head gasket that has given up, as "richardmorris" suggests, mainly because of the speed with which the coolant turned into the colour of Bailey's liqueur / tea. Really quite frustrating, as it had a cooling system flush (three times) in November and a new water pump and hose at the same time. Everything was alright until around the New Year when I took it for a jet wash and the coolant temperature went past 90 deg.C (usually it sits around 84-88 deg) on the way home.

I pumped out the expansion tank at the weekend to remove a foreign body that I had spotted floating in there, then refilled with new coolant - just enough to cover the tank marker/sensor as the manual dictates. It didn't make a great deal of difference when I took it round the block, and the dull rattling sounds (a bit like rapid pinking) that I could hear when I accelerated leads me to think that there is either inadequate oiling or inadequate cooling. I also noticed that once the engine was off, there was a pressure build-up and the coolant - which was once again the colour of Bailey's/tea - rose high enough to leak through the screw cap at the top.

Yet another problem for Garages Dubois-Loizou to try to solve if/when I can get the CX down there again.

I have now managed to find someone who stocks a complete head gasket set, so an order has gone in. I know I've spent far far more than I paid for the CX in the first place, but I've got to chase down all the faults that happen as they arise, and whilst I can afford it! The rest of the car is too good to give up on.

Don’t blame me, I haven’t even seen the bloody thing. Could be an oil cooler. None of my cxs had one, but why did it need the coolant flushes?

I think Neil hotham’s car CGAT was off the road for over a year waiting for a head gasket. So well done for finding one.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

6 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Don’t blame me, I haven’t even seen the bloody thing. Could be an oil cooler. None of my cxs had one. I think Neil hotham’s car CGAT was off the road for over a year waiting for a head gasket. So well done for finding one.

No, but the symptoms were familiar enough for you to diagnose. 

Head gasket sets for M25/659 engines aren't that easy to come by, but I've been notified that my order is with the courier now.

The turbo engines are better catered for because they are more numerous - probably  the most numerous - amongst surviving CXs, as they are the ones that get all the hype.

The oil cooler is even more difficult to find. Might have to bother Stan Platts. Again.

I've also noticed that the rubber seal in the coolant tank cap is distorted, so that's another thing to find.

[Pieman]

1 hour ago, Bren said:

The passat has only been on ebay for minutes and already the life is being sucked out of me. Offers of £250, buy it now price and a checklist that would make the owner of a five year old car sweat have been sent to me. I may check into the priory next week.

When my current Focus reaches the end of its life or if I get fed up with it, I honestly think I'll just strip the thing and banger race it rather than selling it just so I don't have to deal with the public.

[somewhatfoolish]

16 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

No, but the symptoms were familiar enough for you to diagnose. 

Head gasket sets for M25/659 engines aren't that easy to come by, but I've been notified that my order is with the courier now.

The oil cooler is even more difficult to find. Might have to bother Stan Platts. Again.

I've also noticed that the rubber seal in the coolant tank cap is distorted, so that's another thing to find.

What's the internal arrangement of the oil cooler, could it be amenable to being rebuilt by a rad repairer?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

10 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

What's the internal arrangement of the oil cooler, could it be amenable to being rebuilt by a rad repairer?

No idea. Never had an oil cooler fail. There was one on the 635CSi I had, and that never went wrong in 18 years 

[mitsisigma01]

Is it an airflow cooled oil cooler or a liquid cooled oil cooler?

Can you not just get a aftermarket one of the same area/efficiency and if needed use silicon pipes and adapters. 

[New POD]

On 2/10/2020 at 3:46 PM, barefoot said:

Little more than a bucket full of snow on the M1 & this happens;

It took me 1 hour to leave Derby on Monday afternoon. I then drove to the M6 whilst taking care to avoid Stoke which was Code Red.  Google maps showing the whole place dark red.

Left London Road on Derby at 2:30. Arrived in L37 at 6:15 

Wife wonders why I dont commute daily. 

No she actually said: there's no need to come home for my Birthday. 

I'd rather die trying. 

[Dan the van]

Popped by to see my friendly MOT chap yesterday to book a test (he's always mega busy,2/3 week wait) to be greeted by a totally deserted unit.Not only his,all units empty,all cars gone and the whole ind est securely fenced off.Bugger bugger bugger.Internet evidence suggests he may* be working in Plymouth now.That's bandit country as far as I'm concerned,haven't been out of Cornwall for ten years and have no intention of doing so any time soon.Arse.

[83C]

23 minutes ago, Dan the van said:

Popped by to see my friendly MOT chap yesterday to book a test (he's always mega busy,2/3 week wait) to be greeted by a totally deserted unit.Not only his,all units empty,all cars gone and the whole ind est securely fenced off.Bugger bugger bugger.Internet evidence suggests he may* be working in Plymouth now.That's bandit country as far as I'm concerned,haven't been out of Cornwall for ten years and have no intention of doing so any time soon.Arse.

There's a decent place in Truro near Treliske (Truro MoT Centre) - used them a few times and they're fair. All they really do is tests, so no incentive to try and grab extra work by failing on minor stuff.

[Dan the van]

Thanks for that,that's how I ended up with Steve many years ago after another place tried fishing for work off me.I used to be a mechanic before I came down here so I knew they were bullshitting.I'm Liskeard area sadly so Truro is a bit of a trek.Appreciate the thought tho'.Just have to give somewhere else local a try I guess.Sigh.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

8 hours ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Is it an airflow cooled oil cooler or a liquid cooled oil cooler?

Can you not just get a aftermarket one of the same area/efficiency and if needed use silicon pipes and adapters. 

Liquid cooled.

Aftermarket one could be an idea. Not seen it done on a CX automatic.

I did approach Samco regarding reproduction silicone hoses a while back. They do need originals as patterns.

[xtriple]

Got a text from my bank on Monday. That alone was a worry as do banks text? Seems my card has/had been used at a site known/suspected to be 'dodgy'.  Because of this they are/were sending me a new card immediately and to use it straight away with the pin.

I was worried....

Seems it's NOT a scam but a very real security thing and I have used a dodgy site or it's been copied in a petrol station or shop. Bastards.

New card arrived today and Ihave been and used it, all seems good to go so... bank said it was legit and there was no link to click on fro the text.

[Datsuncog]

On ‎2‎/‎10‎/‎2020 at 11:44 PM, Datsuncog said:

Snow's a-falling in Co. Antrim... understandably, MrsDC announces that she'd sooner take the Forester up over the hills to work in the morning, rather than the Yaris.

Since I've been meaning to replace the ever-weakening battery in the remote key for several weeks now [...]

Well, I managed to find a replacement 1632 battery for the Subaru's fob, only to find it makes no improvement to the difficulty in locking/unlocking. Looks like the microswitch beneath the lock/unlock button is banjaxed.

I did manage to get it working yesterday morning, so MrsDC took it to work.

Given the Yaris' exceedingly twitchy ABS - which verges on dangerous since it has a nasty tendency to kick in at about 2mph, just as you're about to come to a controlled halt at a junction and so pushing you on out into oncoming traffic - I felt a bit happier knowing she was in the Forester with its surefooted AWD gubbins.

I was a bit less happy when I heard her come home yesterday evening, reversing down the driveway and straight into the trailer, which then took out the back fence... the fence I only repaired in October, after she smashed the post out of the ground pulling exactly the same manoeuvre in the Volvo a few years back. The back bumper took the brunt of it, though a cursory inspection seems to indicate a crack in the rear lamp cluster.

Of course, somehow it's going to be My Fault...

*sigh*

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Are ye sure she wouldn't prefer a horse to do the same job now?

[yes oui si]

1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Are ye sure she wouldn't prefer a horse to do the same job now?

"fuck your subaru, I've a..." 

[jumpingjehovahs]

Got a text from my bank on Monday. That alone was a worry as do banks text? Seems my card has/had been used at a site known/suspected to be 'dodgy'.  Because of this they are/were sending me a new card immediately and to use it straight away with the pin.
I was worried....
Seems it's NOT a scam but a very real security thing and I have used a dodgy site or it's been copied in a petrol station or shop. Bastards.
New card arrived today and Ihave been and used it, all seems good to go so... bank said it was legit and there was no link to click on fro the text.

All very normal, as someone who’s had more debit cards than got dinners it’s all very situation normal for banks to text now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dozeydustman]

Bollocks. Sitting at tip and this has come on.

also EML for shits and giggles. Only topped it up with coolant this morning.

[Sir Snipes]

20 hours ago, Saabnut said:

4 HSE people there, none spoke, none mentioned the elephant in the room, ie why was this method chosen as it is inheritently unsafe.

This has been my experience of HSE too. Get up a pair of steps and they're all over you with fire and brimstone but something actually dangerous, like crane lifting chunks of a timber frame house about, and they can't run away fast enough.

[Kiltox]

‘kinell 

https://youtu.be/ILYh7zM8Nck
 

[LostnotFound]

22 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

‘kinell 

https://youtu.be/ILYh7zM8Nck
 

At least some people aren't just talking the talk when it comes to fighting back against electric cars Clarkson should take note...

[Supernaut]

28 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

‘kinell 

https://youtu.be/ILYh7zM8Nck
 

Nice Fiat 124 parked on the street though.

 

Also, the fuck is wrong with some people? "Hurr durr I blasted through a give way sign but IT'S THEIR FAULT NOT MINE AAARGH"

[Spurious]

26 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

‘kinell 

https://youtu.be/ILYh7zM8Nck
 

Jesus your woman has some neck there.  He was just plodding along, nothing wrong at all.