The road worker who was stood in one lane of a traffic controlled area leaning on his/her brush holding it with his/her right and left arm out in a "I'm a little teapot" position facing away from traffic.
The control light went green and there was plenty of room to get by so I approached with caution.
I could see he/she was having a conversation with an HGV off the main road and was waving his/her teapot hand around.

I thought he/she was flirting with the the HGV driver and carried on. It is 2018 after all. I got to about five meters away, indicated to change lane and as I went around him/her he/she decided to try to hale me. I am not a Taxi/Minicab/Uber so I carried on.

Apparently the I'm a little teapot leaning on a broom handle pose means stop and not...

road worker said:

I like reality TV, having things stuffed up my arse and cocktails at Nandos.

Click to expand...

...for the record Mr/Mrs road worker this...



...means stop.

1/ Face traffic.
2/ Arm out almost straight.
3/ Palm flat with fingers pointed upward.

I encountered a similar situation last Saturday. A road worker, apparently bored with directing traffic was looking around almost everywhere except at the traffic he was gently waving at. Apparently the traffic signals had failed, but the workers were not clever enough to turn them away form the traffic. So I'm presented with a mandatory red light, and an idiot waving at no-one in particular. The horn on the Panda has been upgraded to a pair, that got his full attention.

Car says 'Service 2 days'. Box of goodies arrived. Weather wet.

Coming back from shopping today in the Panda, cars queued at cross purposes over the mini-roundabout, I slow down and take it carefully. Honked from behind. Grey VW Golf. He doesn't manage to follow me through the roundabout as someone comes across from the right, behind me but ahead of him.

A couple of hundred yards up the road, I'm doing 20 in a 20 limit, grey VW Golf appears in my rearview mirror, doing the "run right up, drop back, run right up" game. Honks me. I indicate left for my turning, he overtakes, honks again, and hammers it up the hill.

Had a Mercedes white van man do much the same to me on the dual carriageway the other day, but then I was doing 70 and it was raining. That one gave me the finger when he got past.

Glad I'm getting a rearview dashcam (why do we call them dashcams when they are at the opposite end of the car to the dash?) fitted on Tuesday.

We have two Ford Rangers for work. Currently one has been off the road since the end of March waiting for a new part because Ford don't stock them and the other is driving around with a severely damaged belt because Ford don't stock that either. They can't tell us when either part will be in stock as well!

These are company vehicles so we have just hired something else and are driving the other one waiting for it to lunch a belt soon.

I feel sorry for any self employed people who have bought a Ranger and may end up in our situation!

Paddynabs said:

We have two Ford Rangers for work. Currently one has been off the road since the end of March waiting for a new part because Ford don't stock them and the other is driving around with a severely damaged belt because Ford don't stock that either. They can't tell us when either part will be in stock as well!

These are company vehicles so we have just hired something else and are driving the other one waiting for it to lunch a belt soon.

I feel sorry for any self employed people who have bought a Ranger and may end up in our situation!

Click to expand...

Aren't they based on a Mazda? Any chance of spares from the Mazda dealer?

Have you tried the wealth of other parts companies out there, that will sell you all mannor of parts for any car and you usually wait no more than a day or two for parts if they don’t have them in?

GSF, eurocarparts, partco etc. If you limit yourself to the ford dealer then yes, you’ll be very stuck if they can’t get bits in for an older car.

I would imagine it would depend on the company. If they have maintenance agreements on them then can go else where?

We had the DS3 off the road for week because the VW leasing tyre fitter wasn't available but the garage it was in wasn't allowed to touch it either!

I haven't looked into it as it's not my problem. The guys who drive 'em chose 'em. I suggested a nice sensible van but they wanted to look cool in the "truck". I don't pay the bills either!!

As the weather seemed a little warmer, I decided I could do the service on the Panda.
Sump plug removed, left to drain into a bucket.
Now for the plugs.
N0.3 plug lead would not let go. Lots of heaving and swearing. Eventually, 'pop', off it came. Or at least, half of it.
Why do they have to be such a tight fit? Snug would be fine.

This lead set was fitted early 2014. New one ordered, will be here tomorrow. Car not needed, so will fit it Friday.

What is needed is a release agent, that does not conduct electricity. If such a thing exists. Any ideas?

portland_bill said:

As the weather seemed a little warmer, I decided I could do the service on the Panda.
Sump plug removed, left to drain into a bucket.
Now for the plugs.
N0.3 plug lead would not let go. Lots of heaving and swearing. Eventually, 'pop', off it came. Or at least, half of it.
Why do they have to be such a tight fit? Snug would be fine.

This lead set was fitted early 2014. New one ordered, will be here tomorrow. Car not needed, so will fit it Friday.

What is needed is a release agent, that does not conduct electricity. If such a thing exists. Any ideas?

Click to expand...

Silicone grease such as Dow Corning DC-4 is ideal, just don't get it on the elecrodes. Silicone grease can also be bought from plumbing supplies "WRAS approved" and some model shops. It's a near perfect insulator and resistant to high temperatures.Just use a thin smear.

Robert G8RPI.

P.S also available in 50g tins on ebay for under £3 inc postage. search for WRAS Approved silicone grease.

Will this do?
https://www.wd40specialist.com/products/silicone-lubricant/
I've got a tin of that lurking in the depths of the garage.

portland_bill said:

Will this do?
https://www.wd40specialist.com/products/silicone-lubricant/
I've got a tin of that lurking in the depths of the garage.

Click to expand...

It would not be my first choice as it seems to be a dry film of some kind, but better than nothing. Just don't get over-spray on the electrodes, it will turn to glass and interfere with the spark. Spray it on the insulator were the rubber boot sits.


Robert G8RPI.

I discovered some wonderful stuff several years ago. I bought a 75gm tube of it. Not cheap but very well worth the money. I stuff it inside electrical plugs and connections on the cars and it stops corrosion and shorts due to moisture. The plugs always separate really easily so it may work for you although I haven't actually tried it on plug connectors so far, maybe I should! It looks like a thick silicone grease when squeezed out of it's tube.

Oh dear! I nearly finished up without telling you what it's called! Contralube 770. It comes up on Google if you search for it.
Regards
Jock

[ame]https://youtu.be/oO3L0FHj5Us[/ame]

As the electric car thread is dead...I'll put it here model 3 review.

If that touch screen is the future..just no. The car itself is impressive but the lack of absolutely any buttons or any other displays on the dash for anything is mad (even adjusting the mirrors is done via the touchscreen and speedo is relegated to the top corner of the screen!).

Makes a compelling argument for autopilot and automatic braking I suppose!

All on the touchscreen, quite distracting.
So what happens when the sunlight hits it?

The Tesla touch screen is just wrong. It's not even in the drivers line of sight. You have to look down and across to see it. Another issue is you HAVE to look at it, to check what mode it's in if nothing else, you can't operate controls by feel. I can adjust my mirrors, heating etc without looking at the controls. They are always in the same place, can't change to iTunes or whatever, and I can tell by feel that my hand is in the right place.


Robert G8RPI.

If they keep building them like that the Germans are going to win despite Teslas head start. Their newer offerings are heading towards aircraft style glass cockpits with configurable screens in front of the driver for things like speed, night vision, sat nav e.t.c. and a seperate one on the centre stack for less immediate things.

By fitting a large single touchscreen for everything out of the drivers natural line of sight they will be significantly limiting their market.

StevenRB45 said:

https://youtu.be/oO3L0FHj5Us

As the electric car thread is dead...I'll put it here model 3 review.

If that touch screen is the future..just no. The car itself is impressive but the lack of absolutely any buttons or any other displays on the dash for anything is mad (even adjusting the mirrors is done via the touchscreen and speedo is relegated to the top corner of the screen!).

Click to expand...

Not strictly true.
There are two scroll wheels on the steering wheel which are used to operate all the functions, you select the function on the screen and then use the scroll wheels to make the adjustments, this is how the wing mirrors are controlled and a multitude of other functions.

I do think tesla get a bit carried away with what can be done and don't give much thought to function, the best example of this is not the wing mirrors as most people set them once and don't touch them again.

There are no air vents in the model 3 you can direct to your face or torso, this function is controlled by the scroll wheels or touch screen, thats a really simple thing that doesn't require technology but tesla decided it was necessary to motorise this.

you even need to use the touch screen to open the glovebox !

It also means that the car costs a lot more with all the extra electronics and motors needed for basic functions and it means that in years to come there are that many more failure points that could get costly.

I wonder if tesla will treat old teslas like apple treat an old iPhone, buy a 10 year old tesla and you find its no longer supported and no more updates.

StevenRB45 said:

By fitting a large single touchscreen for everything out of the drivers natural line of sight they will be significantly limiting their market.

Click to expand...

Its not much different from the dash of many other cars which did away with the central instruments, the original yaris, the french people carriers that put the display in the middle of the dash.
apparently a lot of model 3 owners have said this isn't too much of a problem, the speed and other essential information is in the top left (on left hand drive cars) of the screen in the top corner.


Edit: apparently there is a very good reason for everything to be electronically controlled which makes perfect sense. however it is something which would likely put off some customers, currently they have something like 400,000 models 3 cars on back order with a lead time of 18+ months, so they are not worried about getting any more orders in at the moment and are trying to push people to wards the Model S which they can produce in 7 days.

AndyRKett said:

<SNIP>

Its not much different from the dash of many other cars which did away with the central instruments, the original yaris, the french people carriers that put the display in the middle of the dash.
apparently a lot of model 3 owners have said this isn't too much of a problem, the speed and other essential information is in the top left (on left hand drive cars) of the screen in the top corner.
<SNIP>

Click to expand...

All the cars I seen with a centre speedo were A, small and B, had it in a binnacle above the dash coming e.g. in the windshield vision area. The Tesla touch screen seems to be much lower.
Maybe they are going to fit a HUD.


Robert G8RPI.