The grumpy thread

[IronStar]

17 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

The only serious alternative for me then is to rip out the whole system, condenser, pipes etc... bin it, blank off the A/C button and be done with it. That way I won't be tempted to try and fix it again, it'llnever be fixed and has been the bain of my existence, so maybe as well get rid. I might do that for both Vectra and Jag. 

I'll probably be in my 50s by the time I get around to having a car with working air-conditioning. It's  a pathetic situation to be in, but, here I am.

I fully understand your frustration and also hate bits that are not working in my cars. My suggestion here would be to sleep on it, find a 4.5+ rated garage with a bunch of reviews that specializes in car aircons, go there, explain the issue, bring the biscuits and tell them to fix it properly, money no object. Promptly forget about needing that car for a week, come back to a fully fixed system, hand over as much as they say and tip 20 over. Then bring the other car once you verify the fix after a few weeks of use and repeat the process. 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, DavieW said:

A few years ago, I broke down on the M74. Got recovered to Abingdon services where another truck picked me up and took me 3 hours home. First thing he said was "you got me out of my f*cking bed to recover you". I felt like saying that was his job he'd signed up for but bit my tongue. The 3 hour journey was completed in virtual silence after that.

I would have liked to have said "Really? That's terrible. Surely they can only call staff who are on shift or maybe on standby?" Maybe he shouldn't have been in bed at that time.

[Markeh]

The one time I don't pay for anything other than the basic excess and 100km in the TPMS light is on. Best hope it's just low and not a puncture...

[cobblers]

I've found a new type of person to hate, and it's the absolute dipshits that waddle round forums and facebook groups, answering peoples questions with a screenshot of the (wrong) answer google AI gave them.

Fuck off, you absolute losers. If the person asking the question wanted the wrong answer, they would have asked chatGPT themselves.

 

[GeorgeB]

On 30/07/2025 at 22:56, artdjones said:

BMW Owners, you are being conned. My brother wanted to have a ballast fitted to his E87 1 Series. His garage informed him that a ballast in a BMW box would be €536 plus fitting, about €90. They told him to go look on the net, buy one and they'd fit it for the €90. 

Price on the net? A genuine OE Valeo part €133, almost exactly a quarter of the dealer price. Hella, €45, which is what's getting fitted.

How can BMW justify a more than 300% mark-up on a part that's almost a consumable?

What is a "ballast"?

[artdjones]

1 minute ago, GeorgeB said:

What is a "ballast"?

It's the electronic box screwed to the bottom of a xenon headlamp to control it.

[D.E]

27 minutes ago, cobblers said:

I've found a new type of person to hate, and it's the absolute dipshits that waddle round forums and facebook groups, answering peoples questions with a screenshot of the (wrong) answer google AI gave them.

Fuck off, you absolute losers. If the person asking the question wanted the wrong answer, they would have asked chatGPT themselves.

 

I've asked AI, and it is -again- wrong. The answer should be yes, of course.

[Yoss]

35 minutes ago, artdjones said:

It's the electronic box screwed to the bottom of a xenon headlamp to control it.

That explains why I didn't know what it was either. H4s all the way here. I was wondering but didn't want to look stupid so I sat back and let somebody else ask. Cheers! 

[artdjones]

3 minutes ago, Yoss said:

That explains why I didn't know what it was either. H4s all the way here. I was wondering but didn't want to look stupid so I sat back and let somebody else ask. Cheers! 

Having Xenons would put me off a car, even a comparatively modern one.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

4 minutes ago, Yoss said:

That explains why I didn't know what it was either. H4s all the way here. I was wondering but didn't want to look stupid so I sat back and let somebody else ask. Cheers! 

You didn't think to ask ChatGPT and screenshot the answer?

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, cobblers said:

I've found a new type of person to hate, and it's the absolute dipshits that waddle round forums and facebook groups, answering peoples questions with a screenshot of the (wrong) answer google AI gave them.

Fuck off, you absolute losers. If the person asking the question wanted the wrong answer, they would have asked chatGPT themselves.

 

Maybe look at your forum & socials? AS still seems to be WYSIWYG, thankfully.

[IronStar]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

Having Xenons would put me off a car, even a comparatively modern one.

Great tech, bulbs are reasonably cheap and last for ages. If the ballast dies and replacements are too expensive or unavailable, it’s easily replaced with plug and play LED kit. No downsides whatsoever really. 

[Remspoor]

On 01/08/2025 at 01:18, Metal Guru said:

Every TV since has been bigger and bigger

Yet still see people using their phones to watch programs. I just do not get that.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

Yet still see people using their phones to watch programs. I just do not get that.

Yup. 32" is adequate for viewing. Why use a tiny screen for a relaxing evening?

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Yup. 32" is adequate for viewing. Why use a tiny screen for a relaxing evening?

We had a 32in waiting for the new 50 in to  be delivered. Seemed tiny, but when we first had a 32, it seemed huge.

[SunnySouth]

On 01/08/2025 at 16:35, cobblers said:

Quite ironic that new mercs all have "class" in the name, because none of them have any class in the drivers seat (hohohoho) Absolute fucking scrote chariots, every one of them. 

A class being the worst, especially a sporty one.  100% cast iron guarantee that the driver is an absolute dickhead.  One of a few cars that I will purposefully stay well away from when I'm on the roads. They make coked up Golf R drivers look like fucking Bob Ross in comparison. 

As much as I love old barges, and German ones are especially appealing in general, I’ve just never been able to get my head around the appeal or supposed luxury of a Merc. The late 90s - mid 2000s stuff was made of the cheapest, shittest tin they could get their hands on, the interiors were just f’king nasty with Fisher Price chunky switchgear when their German colleagues were fitting nice soft touch stuff. The newer stuff is well into “it’s just a car” territory, and anything C Class or above just screams “TAXI” very loudly. A recent trip to Cyprus confirms that a battered Merc remains the minicab of choice. Reliable oily bits sure enough (except the original A Class, obviously; hateful things), but luxury they aren’t! 

[SunnySouth]

On 31/07/2025 at 22:27, LightBulbFun said:

is there not some sort of standards body or watch dog you can report to regarding the polices piss-poor response? (especially if you have clear photos of the car in its entirety clearly in the public car park so you can challenge the police to explain how it got there if not driven on the public highway)

Pffft. It’s very much intentional, plain old ‘managed decline’. Could vote for somebody who wants to fix it, but I’m not sure any of them do?!

Same old story every time whether it’s decent folk reporting no tax, no insurance, pissed, etc etc. Unless it’s dashcam footage of somebody 2 inches over a white line they’re not interested/haven’t got anyone to do feck all about it. See also shoplifting, robbery, putting jewellers’ windows through in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon etc etc.  The concept of law in this country is rapidly becoming entirely optional; something which applies to those who choose to adhere to it and a total irrelevance to those who don’t. Meh.

[Jazoli]

On 01/08/2025 at 21:46, artdjones said:

Having Xenons would put me off a car, even a comparatively modern one.

God forbid you ever own a car with LED lights then.

Xenon’s are great, relatively cheap to replace and a massive step up from a halogen bulb.

[Yoss]

10 hours ago, Remspoor said:

Yet still see people using their phones to watch programs. I just do not get that.

 

9 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Yup. 32" is adequate for viewing. Why use a tiny screen for a relaxing evening?

Yes but it's the whole small - far away thing isn't it. Our telly isn't massive by modern standards, about 42 inch I think, but if I lift my phone up from where I'm sat it easily covers the TV screen.

So watching on a phone isn't really smaller because it's normally only about a foot in front of your nose and you would never normally watch a telly like that. 

[Yoss]

5 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

 

Xenon’s are great, relatively cheap to replace and a massive step up from a halogen bulb.

Yes, but only for you, not for everybody coming the other way. 

[beko1987]

34 minutes ago, Yoss said:

 

Yes but it's the whole small - far away thing isn't it. Our telly isn't massive by modern standards, about 42 inch I think, but if I lift my phone up from where I'm sat it easily covers the TV screen.

So watching on a phone isn't really smaller because it's normally only about a foot in front of your nose and you would never normally watch a telly like that. 

I sometimes feel a bit stupid for turning off YouTube on the 48" TV at bedtime, yawning and going up to bed to then watch more yt in bed on my phone...😬

[IronStar]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

Yes, but only for you, not for everybody coming the other way. 

Only if they’re not adjusted properly. If misaligned , they are way more problematic for oncoming traffic than halogen bulbs though.

[Yoss]

8 minutes ago, IronStar said:

Only if they’re not adjusted properly. If misaligned , they are way more problematic for oncoming traffic than halogen bulbs though.

 Oh yes, completely agree with that. It's just the number of cars you see like this seems to have risen considerably over the years which also coincides with the rise in the amount of xenon and LED headlights. 

Actually what might be a bigger problem is the much higher proportion of SUVs. So when their lights are misaligned they are right at my eye level when I'm sat in my little Škoda. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

6 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Actually what might be a bigger problem is the much higher proportion of SUVs. So when their lights are misaligned they are right at my eye level when I'm sat in my little Škoda. 

Autodip headlights seem to be my biggest bugbear - they don't seem to sense our H4/H7 equipped shite until we've had at least one or two seconds of LED dazzle from the oncoming tank. Flicking the main/dip seems to either trick the thing or else wake up the driver to our existence 

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

9 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Autodip headlights seem to be my biggest bugbear - they don't seem to sense our H4/H7 equipped shite until we've had at least one or two seconds of LED dazzle from the oncoming tank. Flicking the main/dip seems to either trick the thing or else wake up the driver to our existence 

Not much fun as a pedestrian either!

[Knotty Ash Towers]

3 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

As much as I love old barges, and German ones are especially appealing in general, I’ve just never been able to get my head around the appeal or supposed luxury of a Merc. The late 90s - mid 2000s stuff was made of the cheapest, shittest tin they could get their hands on, the interiors were just f’king nasty with Fisher Price chunky switchgear when their German colleagues were fitting nice soft touch stuff. The newer stuff is well into “it’s just a car” territory, and anything C Class or above just screams “TAXI” very loudly. A recent trip to Cyprus confirms that a battered Merc remains the minicab of choice. Reliable oily bits sure enough (except the original A Class, obviously; hateful things), but luxury they aren’t! 

They are just regarded as taxis in a lot of countries. I've also never understood the attraction or supposed prestige of Volvos, I just find them bland,  devoid of any style and usually bought by people with no interest in cars.

[EyesWeldedShut]

2 hours ago, Momentary Lapse Of Reason said:

Not much fun as a pedestrian either!

As I am allergic to walking I have a question.

Do the auto dip sensors actually 'see' a pedestrian or do you need to (somehow) attract the driver's (in)attention?

 

[MrGTI6]

Someone is visiting a neighbour and arrived in a 25-plate Build-A-Bear Funky Dolphin. It's locked itself with the keys inside the boot and the alarm won't stop going off.

I've volunteered to assist by putting a brick through the window. 

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Do the auto dip sensors actually 'see' a pedestrian

No.

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

do you need to (somehow) attract the driver's (in)attention?

Yes.

[SunnySouth]

2 hours ago, Knotty Ash Towers said:

They are just regarded as taxis in a lot of countries. I've also never understood the attraction or supposed prestige of Volvos, I just find them bland,  devoid of any style and usually bought by people with no interest in cars.

I might be inclined to suggest that a Volvo could be considered the ‘thinking man’s German’, as the recent crop like the XC90 etc do certainly seem premium. A generation or two back they very much had their purpose, “Volvo estate” being something that just about everybody understood the meaning of, not to mention a fearsome reputation for safety. In today’s market they are probably just another wheeled box, of course.