Escadrille Ecosse Posted March 4, 2022 Share Posted March 4, 2022 Bollocks all right but guess it could have been worse! Important thing is you finished - well Clonking underneath is always a bit of a worry. Once got my old Hillman Avenger Estate balanced on a large boulder. Awkward.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John I Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Loaded the van with a bed which was going to the upholster in Higher Wrackleford near Dorchester, also loaded SM/Memsaba plus one dog. Drive should have been about 2 1/2 hours there, drop off bed have lunch walk the dog and drive home another 2 1/2. Seemed like a good plan for the day.......so you would think! Off we went filled up at local garage heading for the great car park that is the M25. Hadn’t even got up the hill to the slip road when a metallic sound striking the bottom of the van resonated into the cab. SM says shall we go and look to see what that was.......driver no just something on the road. A few minutes later SM’s acutely sense of smell kicks in....”I can smell burning rubber, can you?” Driver not at first but after a bit yes. By this time we’re on said M25, luckily Chobham services just up the road so pulled over into slow lane and eventually into services. Bonnet up, nothing untoward there but did spy piece of plastic inner wheel liner missing on passenger side. Closer inspection said this had been rubbing before missing piece separated. Me thinks that’s ok, report to SM and off we go again back onto M25. Within minutes SM’s nose was reporting burning rubber again. We pulled off at next junction and slowly made our way home only 15 mins away! After a cuppa out with the jack and front end up. Passenger side first to reveal part of front coil missing and tyre rubbing lightly on what remained. Just thought I’d check the other side....... bugger that one as well but the rubbing was far worse. We wouldn’t have got much further let alone to Dorset some 130 miles down the road. Near miss thanks to SM’s nasal prowess. Two new springs on order! The clunk was a piece of spring from the drivers side about this size parting company with us, and this bit was wedged some how on the passenger side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Well spotted/smelt on her part. Something about modern springs. Leaf springs could be a bit dodgy but the old coil springs seemed to go on forever, just sagging graciously as they approached their dotage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Springs on moderns…. I have a pile of busted ones in my scrap metal heap. One from a Fiesta, one from TT, two from an Octavia, one from an Arosa and one from an A6, though not mine. I’m told that nearly all springs on European built vehicles of any make come from 1 factory. They are obviously doing something wrong (or right if they want to sell lots of spares). Generally the failures are fairly benign… except on French stuff which seems to like to have the spring fail into the tyre….. which is not benign! Colleague had a Megane as a company car. After about 18 months /30k a spring broke as he was backing out of his drive and immediately punctured the tyre. The dealer fixed it. He inspected it and noted only one had been changed, and complained. They told him to take a running jump. The next day he backed out of his drive and the second one broke andnn by punctured the tyre, so they got to recover the car twice and replace two tyres….. We considered it justice. Bloody lucky they both broke at parking speeds though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpbarrett Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 I have wondered if its a side effect of all the road humps and traffic car calming stuff that has been added to the roads. Some around Cambridge are brutal, and they usually have a good range of pot hoes around them. mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gt64fun Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 14 hours ago, Nick Jones said: I’m told that nearly all springs on European built vehicles of any make come from 1 factory. They are obviously doing something wrong (or right if they want to sell lots of spares). Perhaps a case for some metallurgical analysis ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 I think it’s partly a metallurgical issue and partly a design issue. The design issue being that few if any modern cars use coils with fully finished ends, but rely instead on the shape of the spring cups to match them. Quite often the profiles don’t match all that well, creating stress raisers. This is what causes the last 50 - 80mm to break off - typically only detected at MoT time. The ones that more dangerously snap in the middle I think are metallurgical, the result of the drive to reduce cost and weight. It is possible to make springs that last. The ones on my A6 are the original 26 year / 340k ones, powder coating long gone and battered by 14 seasons of Woolbridge 12 Car rallies. They’ve seen off at least 4 sets of dampers and rather more more TCAs. Not even saggy…… Never had a Triumph coil spring break either, though they can get saggy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 No bollocks, but sometimes rallying isn't exciting. Timekeeping on the Malcolm Wilson today, and the second tranche of cars, the 4x4s, come in 15 mins early! So they stand around chatting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted March 15, 2022 Share Posted March 15, 2022 Yesterday actually. Herself announced a while back that with the gas prices so high we needed to sort out the 30 year old malfunctioning thermostatic valves on the radiators. And getting in some more insulation and sorting draughts would be a good thing too. So while she was off in London for a few days break 'we' got down to the job. Friday, Saturday and Sunday had bits of the kitchen out and floor up which I go in some more insulation. Long days but if nothing else the lack of an oven was a good excuse for getting a couple of nights carry out delivered. Yesterday was radiator valves and some seized lockshield valves while I was at it. Did the upstairs a while back so it was 6 TRVs and four lockshield valves. Isolated the upstairs and HW tank. Drained everything else down and all went to plan, half done by lunch and rest by 4pm. Great. All ready to refil. Which is where the fun started as it wouldn't. Header tank re-filled but not feeding. Turned out something had got stuck in the fill line from the header tank to the system where it went from 22 to 15mm. Fortunately the isolation valves I have in the system let me attach a hose in by the pump and use mains to push back up into the tank. So syphoned out the tank, flushed the lump of cack out the feed line, cleaned out the tank again and then all went after that. If a little late. As the kitchen was back together by that point I made myself steak and chips to celebrate. Today I have been corresponding with a very nice but sadly innumerate Lisa at Greenpeace about why dropping everything in a headlong rush to throw our resources at retrofitting heat pumps for everyone isn't necessarily the best use of our limited financial (or even unlimited) resources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerguzzi Posted March 15, 2022 Share Posted March 15, 2022 Hello All I fitted these these type of valves several years ago and you can program the rooms to be heated only when needed! They have save us lots of LPG just look for the cheapest Roger ps the cheap ones like we have the display is upside down but you can take the head off to program https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265463507059?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=7101533165274578&mkcid=2&itemid=265463507059&targetid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted March 15, 2022 Share Posted March 15, 2022 I think it was you who mentioned these before Roger. On the basis of which I got one for the bathroom when I did the upstairs TRVs. Turned out to be excellent as the bathroom is nice and toasty morning and evening and otherwise just comfortable. And easy to boost if you want a bit of extra heat at other times. Good recommendation. Other rooms I'm happy with the dumb TRVs as the system has various zone controllers and thermostats to manage them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 Last night was the final round of the Woolbridge 12 Car season. Something a little different with a large chunk of “jogularity” in it, where you are not using maps, but following a list of instructions based on time and odo readings. My limited previous experience has shown that it is “easy” if you keep calm and avoid cock-up…. But if you loose the plot thinks go downhill real quick. We managed to hold on to the plot for that, though keeping to time without crashing proved impossible (fantastic road/route choices by the organiser) and it revealed that my odo didn’t agree very well with the organisers. However, we struggled a bit with the last two sections, which were back to the maps. First impressions were that we’d been given a set of expert clues… There were lots of grid references to plot and a set of clues involving directions leaving grid squares we just couldn’t fathom and had to guess at, which cost quite a lot of time and (as it turned out) a couple of code boards. We were initially a bit down about that, we hate guessing, but then at a couple of controls the comments “oh, a car, thank god, first we’ve seen all night” and “you are only the second ones through” (we are car 3 but running a good 10 minutes late by now) made us realise that if we were finding it tough…. So was everyone else. Arrived at the pub to find that indeed, everyone else was finding it tough and, apart from one expert crew who had made it round, and another who had cut and run, was still out there. Final result was first beginner and second overall by a small margin. The margin to 3rd was huge….. Pretty sure that SM has the beginners cup in the bag which is well deserved and, more embarrassingly I appear to have the novice drivers cup…. Last night was actually a double header, with an optional second event after dinner. We had declined that one as being too much of a good thing for one night, but I hope that the hardy souls who went on to the next found it a bit easier! Final footnote is that SM forgot her travel sickness pills last night, but managed bravely without redecorating the inside of the car, in spite of some fairly violent motion at times. Although I was aware she wasn’t quite on top form, the reason was only revealed to me a few miles before the end when I was pressing on a bit to try and claw back some time and was instructed in no uncertain terms to back off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 Good on her. Dealing with all that and motion sickness is verging on heroic. Oh and I guess you deserve some praise too it would seem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamish Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 20 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said: Good on her. Dealing with all that and motion sickness is verging on heroic. Oh and I guess you deserve some praise too it would seem. Motion sickness is soul destroying so massive respect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted March 27, 2022 Share Posted March 27, 2022 It is now officially confirmed that she is indeed the winner of the navigator beginners class. Less expected is that she is also the overall winning navigator in the 2021/22 championship! She is very pleased with this and it seems that she now expects to win the novice navigator next year. Entirely possible I reckon. Also that I am the winner of the novice driver category.... something of an embarrassment as I've won it several times over the years and probably ought to be classed as expert..... though there is damn-all chance of my winning anything if classed as expert! The "rally car" got a wash and hoover out. It needed it, though these days it's only shiny while actually wet.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted March 27, 2022 Share Posted March 27, 2022 Well done, Team Jones! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted March 27, 2022 Share Posted March 27, 2022 19 minutes ago, JohnD said: Well done, Team Jones! John Thank you. Turns out SM is actually rather competitive in a quiet sort of way.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamish Posted March 27, 2022 Share Posted March 27, 2022 That’s a fantastic result and a great partnership. well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted March 28, 2022 Share Posted March 28, 2022 Superb. As long as she doesn't belt the compere at the awards ceremony all is good. We wouldn't want news of that to occupy the entire broadcast output for the next few weeks. Congratulations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted March 28, 2022 Share Posted March 28, 2022 Early morning visit for my check up at the dentist and stopped for a coffee in the park to enjoy the sunshine walking home. And then read the Economist headlines which summed it up the superficial nature of it all superbly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT6MK3 Posted March 28, 2022 Author Share Posted March 28, 2022 Nicely played Jones family. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossmonaco Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 I seem to have broken my bike. I've just cycled from Peterborough to visit my mum in Cornwall. Spent the last night camped just outside Plymouth Then while cycling from there to St Austell got a bit of a speed-wobble on some long fast downhill stretches. At the time I put it down to too much weight on the back wheel but when I removed most of the mud from the bike..... The frame has internal corrosion and has cracked almost all way around the bottom tube. I'm going home by train. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 Oh crap. Orange P7 too. Takes me back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mossmonaco Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 1 hour ago, Escadrille Ecosse said: Oh crap. Orange P7 too. Takes me back well it won't bloody take me back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 18 minutes ago, mossmonaco said: well it won't bloody take me back! That’s a rather scary failure…. My condolences on the demise of what I assume is an old friend We’re in Cornwall at the moment, but a bit further down in Helston…. Africa style repair…… take both ends off a bean can (eat beans first), slit length-ways and wrap tightly around the offending tube and secure both ends with jubilee clips….. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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