The grumpy thread

[sierraman]

3 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

They quote silly prices because they don’t want your business for whatever reason. They do it that way so you don’t have to say you’ve had insurance declined on future proposal forms which really does make your insurance expensive.

I have had insurance companies refuse to quote... Direct Line won’t. 

[Split_Pin]

48 minutes ago, Mally said:

I insured my last one as a classic, 3,000 miles, with Peter Best. Around £300, but 4? years ago. That was '02 reg.

This one is '04 so I expected a bit higher due to inflation.  Forget the actual P B quote, but iro £1,350.

Couple of other specialists refused to quote.

Tried a classic comparison place, Came up with Flux at £1,237. Massively undercutting some of the others. I'm 77, it may not help.

Checked with our in house Flux man, who to his credit reduced the Flux figure by almost £500!

Seems the underwriters or whoever are sticking to age on Classics (or maybe just 75's?) more that they used to. Mine is less than 19 years old.

That's mad, at least you have insurance sorted now.

I'm £80 a year on a classic policy with my Cavalier. I'm going to ask my dad, who is 75, how much his Volvo V40 costs him. 

[Mally]

My AA insurers have a £25 administration fee. As they do.

They didn't charge me anything at all. I was on the phone almost half an hour. Do they make money on the phone calls?

[Zelandeth]

21 minutes ago, Ged said:

£800 to insure Xantia, £380 to insure Xantia engine swapped 305 with all modifications declared mmok. I was shocked how cheap it was for the 305 with mods being 21 I was expecting to get absolutely rinsed.

Xantias as just fscking expensive for insurance I found, both the Activa and the low spec TD were more than double pretty much anything else I'd had on fleet around the same time.

 

Of course I wanted to be dismantling this door again in the fading light when I should be cooking dinner.

Window decided to not wind back up.

[Pieman]

To the fucking stupid woman I encountered this afternoon whose method of crossing a busy 40mph road was to suddenly walk out into the middle of it and make the traffic stop for her, then somewhat sarcastically wave a "thanks" at me when I'd braked to a halt to avoid her, I hope next time you try that you get a smacked arse from someone's mirror.

[ruffgeezer]

Clipped a pothole this morning at 5am,  seemingly burst a 2 week old tyre and broke the rear shock top mount too.

That's going to be an expensive shift.

Got the spare swapped on grazing my knuckles with the widow maker jack and still got in to work on time.

[mitsisigma01]

Eufy robotic 30c won't connect to WiFi or Bluetooth... Any ideas please 😕

[loserone]

16 hours ago, Ged said:

£800 to insure Xantia, £380 to insure Xantia engine swapped 305 with all modifications declared mmok. I was shocked how cheap it was for the 305 with mods being 21 I was expecting to get absolutely rinsed.

I found most of my quotes on the Xantia were four figures except Sheila's Wheels who were £300.

I'm 38, married with kids.  Mental.

[Rust Collector]

The worst part is I have a slide hammer, I just don’t have an adapter to take it to M8 thread.

[Remspoor]

On 1/28/2023 at 9:12 AM, mitsisigma01 said:

Eufy robotic 30c won't connect to WiFi or Bluetooth... Any ideas please 😕

Reboot everything.

Ensure you are using the correct GHz.

Ensure all the software is up to date.

read this https://www.eufylife.com/support/5507/robovac-30c

Maybe the machine is damaged. If so just get a normal vacuum clear it is more likely to work without connectivity issues.

 

 

[richardmorris]

On 1/28/2023 at 9:19 AM, loserone said:

I found most of my quotes on the Xantia were four figures except Sheila's Wheels who were £300.

I'm 38, married with kids.  Mental.

I think it’s availability of body parts from Citroen. Ie none.

[cobblers]

5 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

The worst part is I have a slide hammer, I just don’t have an adapter to take it to M8 thread.

What's it on? On a 106 it was always a running joke that you could ever just pull a torsion bar out, even 15 years ago. We always had to beast them out of the other side with a drift and a full on sledgehammer, and even then we've nearly knocked cars off axle stands with the sheer force required.

[Talbot]

If it is a 106/306/AX/Spaxo/any other PSA nonsense with torsion bar rear suspension, the trick is to have absolutely no load on the splines of the bar, which usually means removing the trailing arm from the bar in question.  The slightest hint of load/torque on the splines and they lock solid.  Useful, as that's the only thing really stopping the trailing arm from coming off, but it does work REALLY well.

TBH I would be welding something up so you can use your slide hammer.  Or do as Cobblers suggests above and get the big guns out...

[Metal Guru]

WBAC have achieved the impossible. New ads with the “I sold my car…” dances even more irritating than Philip Schofield.

OK ad men have achieved their aim, I’m easily remembering it and the brand but these days they rarely do it with clever amusing ads,  they just set out to annoy you. 

[Vantman]

My car insurance started to get expensive when i turned 70, then even more expensive when i turned 75 and then my insurer said 'just wait until you are 80!  To be fair £400 for my V70 is bearable considering i am a stroke survivor☺️.

[Rust Collector]

10 hours ago, cobblers said:

What's it on? On a 106 it was always a running joke that you could ever just pull a torsion bar out, even 15 years ago. We always had to beast them out of the other side with a drift and a full on sledgehammer, and even then we've nearly knocked cars off axle stands with the sheer force required.

 

10 hours ago, Talbot said:

If it is a 106/306/AX/Spaxo/any other PSA nonsense with torsion bar rear suspension, the trick is to have absolutely no load on the splines of the bar, which usually means removing the trailing arm from the bar in question.  The slightest hint of load/torque on the splines and they lock solid.  Useful, as that's the only thing really stopping the trailing arm from coming off, but it does work REALLY well.

TBH I would be welding something up so you can use your slide hammer.  Or do as Cobblers suggests above and get the big guns out...

Yeah it's a ZX so PSA nonsense. The trailing arms need to come off and go on the new beam so pulling the arm isn't an issue in so much as it needs to be done anyway. There's some suitable threaded bar lying around so welding up an adaptor from that and a bolt was on the 'escalations' list, I was just trying to cheese it with the least effort possible. I did get to watch the spectacle of a spanner bouncing off both walls of the garage and somehow not go through the single glazed window/my face after I gave it an ill advised croquet swing in frustration. Going ham and cheese from the other end with a drift and sledge hammer sounds like a good shout, I'll revisit the situation this evening.

[cobblers]

2 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

 

There's some suitable threaded bar lying around so welding up an adaptor from that and a bolt was on the 'escalations' list,

Don't waste your time with threaded rod, it's always cheese grade super soft stuff (4.8 grade) and will stretch and pull the threads out of the torsion bar. You need a proper 12.9 hard bolt to have half a chance!

[Rust Collector]

4 minutes ago, cobblers said:

Don't waste your time with threaded rod, it's always cheese grade super soft stuff (4.8 grade) and will stretch and pull the threads out of the torsion bar. You need a proper 12.9 hard bolt to have half a chance!

I'll have a look around for one that isn't now a banana 😅

[myglaren]

1 hour ago, Vantman said:

My car insurance started to get expensive when i turned 70, then even more expensive when i turned 75 and then my insurer said 'just wait until you are 80!  To be fair £400 for my V70 is bearable considering i am a stroke survivor☺️.

Oddly enough, mine got cheaper year on year.  Perhaps as my son is on it too.

My grandson's reduced considerably when he put me on his insurance.

[motorpunk]

Bloody insurers increased my renewal by 100 and took the money despite me having not ticked 'auto renew'. On hold forever. Finally they agree to refund the money in full, can't match the price that everyone else has quoted me (100 less than them, and the same price I paid last year), so I pick the cheapest meercat, pay in full, then have to create a bastard account online to "chat" with them to remove the auto-renew function, and I am 23 in a queue. 23 in a fucking queue to talk to a bot. My custom is worth so little?

Also, BMW is twice the price to insure as my Elise, why?!!!!

[JMotor]

2 hours ago, motorpunk said:

Also, BMW is twice the price to insure as my Elise, why?!!!!

Some insurers won't touch BMW's at all. 

Think because they are viewed as higher risk now?

Was quoted more on my Altezza, because it was my first "high performance" rear wheel drive car. Sucked it up and paid up the extra. Because the company I was using to insure my last hot hatch  with wouldn't entertain the replacement for the same reason. Got a refunded the left over policy term and they wavered the cancellation fee because they couldn't insure it.

[Ghosty]

Our dentist's chucked my family out and cancelled any future appointments as they're going private only. Could have seen it coming really as they kept trying to sell people on cosmetic procedures, and once gave me the somewhat baffling advice that using mouthwash is pointless.

This is after having to find another dentist when our original one retired, and sold all the patients to a practise in a converted council house in the middle of Hattersley, who proceeded to fleece everyone with expensive, over-frequent checkups.

I think my new work offer something on dentistry though so I'll have to look into that.

[motorpunk]

1 hour ago, JMotor said:

Some insurers won't touch BMW's at all. 

Think because they are viewed as higher risk now?

How can a fat, old, diesel estate car be higher risk than a flighty, plastic sportscar?

Never had a problem insuring BMWs before. 

[horriblemercedes]

I saw my then-dentist shit himself in Innsbruck Airport in 1999

[horriblemercedes]

1 minute ago, motorpunk said:

How can a fat, old, diesel estate car be higher risk than a flighty, plastic sportscar?

Never had a problem insuring BMWs before. 

My 320d costs quite a bit more to insure than my Boxster S

 

Neither is expensive, but the Porsche is about two thirds the price of the BMW

[Talbot]

2 hours ago, motorpunk said:

How can a fat, old, diesel estate car be higher risk than a flighty, plastic sportscar?

Never had a problem insuring BMWs before. 

Because insurance groupings are based on main stealer repair costs, main stealer parts costs and also the likelyhood of how much damage your car might do to someone elses.

Ergo a heavy car with eye-watering parts and labour prices is in a higher insurance group than a lightweight one with cheap parts and labour costs.  No allowance is made for the fact that it's now an old car, until it qualifies for classic insurance.

[Talbot]

6 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

Yeah it's a ZX

There are many videos on YIAWtube showing how to remove arms.  This is mainly under the guise of fitting new arm radius bearings.  Once the torsion bar and anti-roll bar are disconnected, you should be able to just thump it off by twatting the "back" of the arm with a clubhammer.  Done this several times on 306/Xsara, which is identical to ZX.

Once the arms are off, the torsion bars will knock out with a punch and hammer.

[Bren]

M56. In particular the temporary 50 limit after the airport.

The road surface is so bad it will cause an accident. Holes everywhere.

[Rust Collector]

11 minutes ago, Talbot said:

There are many videos on YIAWtube showing how to remove arms.  This is mainly under the guise of fitting new arm radius bearings.  Once the torsion bar and anti-roll bar are disconnected, you should be able to just thump it off by twatting the "back" of the arm with a clubhammer.  Done this several times on 306/Xsara, which is identical to ZX.

Once the arms are off, the torsion bars will knock out with a punch and hammer.

Cheers mate, the ARB is out and the torsion bars disconnected so removing the arms complete with torsion bar may be the path of least resistance at this point. I've not had the pleasure* of working on a torsion bar setup before so it has been something of a learning curve. It's nice to be doing something different though, even if it is a bit of a bastard.

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, Talbot said:

Because insurance groupings are based on main stealer repair costs, main stealer parts costs and also the likelyhood of how much damage your car might do to someone elses.

Ergo a heavy car with eye-watering parts and labour prices is in a higher insurance group than a lightweight one with cheap parts and labour costs.  No allowance is made for the fact that it's now an old car, until it qualifies for classic insurance.

The tendency for an Elise to be out only on sunny Sundays for a nice drive in the country rather than thundering up and down the M6 1" off someone's bumper every day in rush hour like the BMW will also heavily skew the risk stats from an insurer's point of view.