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What's made you grumpy today?

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What's made you grumpy today?

 
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Around 9am a carer arrives to get my partner out of bed, washed and dressed.
Across the road is a large parking space, where two cars have gone to work.
Just before the carer arrives, my neighbour's mother arrived, and has managed to park her Kia Picanto to take all the space. You'd now struggle to get a Smart car in. Incompetent, thoughtless and selfish. She could have parked on her daughter's drive!

Care has now had to park 100 yards away, and jog down in the rain. She seems quite happy about it, but I'm still miffed.
 
hi portland bill , many years ago had a similar problem parking in our lay bye.the person also had a large dog .myself and two neighbours came back very late no were to park .up on the green i went,neighbour said got an idea with headlights on guess what dog had been (they never cleaned up after it) found a piece of cardboard put it down by the drivers door. car damiler soverian with white carpets from then on no trouble clean street and we all could park
 
Reminds me of a time at college. There was a space we parked our motorcycles, between a small brick shed housing the electricity sub-station and a grassy bank. One lunchtime, we found a car, an MGB GT, parked in the motorcysle park. So a great many of us picked the car up and turned it 90 degrees, so that its front bumper was almost touching the shed, and its rear bumper almost touching the steep grassy bank.

5pm, out we all go, to find the owner of the car cussing and vowing never to lend his car to anyone again. Oops!

A heavy car an MGB GT, but strong when still nearly new, so any grip, like bumpers or wheelarches could be used to help lift, without bending the wings or tearing them off.
 
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Lets just say the French Car Forums / DS / Peugeot forums don't give FF a run for it's money....


My mum's 1.0 208 has suddenly stopped blowing cold AC. About as much as I could get off of them was to take it to a mechanic.... I mean.... I could do that, but why would I be posting online asking for advice?! :bang:

If anybody can volunteer any tips on what to check and whether or not it can be fixed without specialist equipment, then I could post a follow up post on the 'smile today' section!! :D
 
SB1500 said:
Lets just say the French Car Forums / DS / Peugeot forums don't give FF a run for it's money....


My mum's 1.0 208 has suddenly stopped blowing cold AC. About as much as I could get off of them was to take it to a mechanic.... I mean.... I could do that, but why would I be posting online asking for advice?! :bang:

If anybody can volunteer any tips on what to check and whether or not it can be fixed without specialist equipment, then I could post a follow up post on the 'smile today' section!! :D
Click to expand...

The usual aircon advice, if you press the aircon buttons and the compressor is not engaging then it’s more than likely out of gas.

If the compressor does spin and there is some very slight difference in temp then it’s running low on gas. What ever the issue the fix is always going to be take it to an aircon person to fix/regas
 
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AndyRKett said:
The usual aircon advice, if you press the aircon buttons and the compressor is not engaging then it’s more than likely out of gas.



If the compressor does spin and there is some very slight difference in temp then it’s running low on gas. What ever the issue the fix is always going to be take it to an aircon person to fix/regas
Click to expand...



I’ll give that a try later. So if I can hear the compressor doing nothing it probably needs gassed? Is that the same thing they’re referring to when dealers say ‘air con recharge’ for a fixed fee?
 
The aircon system should be sealed, needs to be sealed. The fridge in your kitchen has a sealed system, as it is easily put together and welded. The car system however needs an ability to be dismantled, so there are joints, sealed with O-rings. The gas will gently escape past these over time, and eventually teh pressure inside will be insufficient to allow the compressor to run. Cooling performance deteriorates as gas is lost, so most will have a regas before it is completely out.

A regas, or recharge, involves the machine being attached and all gas evacuated. The amount recovered is measured. Then a correct amount is injected, along with a small amount of special oil, and if there are no leaks, you're good to go. Most garages will charge you only for the gas needed to 'top up', but some just do a fixed price.

Once the gas is out, they should then create a vacuum, and see how long it will hold it for. This checks for leaks. If it leaks, they will then inject a dye, and pressurise it, and the dye should be visible where leaking. Sometimes an ultra-violet lamp is needed.

The oil lubricates the pump, and importantly the seals. The system needs to be used regularly, including through the winter, to circulate the gas and oil. If the seals dry out, they shrink and let the gas out. Re-gassing may not revive the seals. Seals are cheap, the labour to replace them, not.

What you can do, is follow the pipes around the full circuit. Start at the pump, follow the pipes to the heater, and back to the condenser (radiator) at the front, and then back to the pump. Look for any corrosion or damage. Also check the condenser for damage, as a sharp stone can puncture it.

If the system has been deteriorating over time, a regas will probably sort it. If it gave up suddenly, there is more likely to be a leak, such as a fractured pipe or condenser. Occasionally the pressure switches fail, but this is rare.

Summary: Have a good look over the system, then off to an aircon specialist.
 
The garbage man knocked over my garbage container and everything was a mess. He didnt care and kept on going.
 
Bloke posted a video of same model as my car but younger with what sounded like a spun bearing at 95k...

Turns out it he had it 5 years and never serviced it...ah that would do it then..
 
DaveMcT said:
Bought cheap, run cheap, then moans it's made of cheese.
Click to expand...

His actual words were "it's been an absolute tank" so he wasn't complaining given all he'd ever done was top the oil up once and put fuel in it..and it did 80k miles for him before it let go he was fairly chuffed.

The only reason I found this out is Mazda Z engines are fairly legendary for never dying so 95k is very low miles for one to have such a large failure so I wanted to know how he had managed to kill one.
 
varesecrazy said:
Happy (damp..) yet..??

Had to dash out and close the puntos windows..


Wouldve been a damp trip back from work..
Click to expand...

Happier.

Had a lot of thunder, and the wind increased, some time before just a little rain. Waited some time more before the heavens opened. Cooled it down quite well, downstairs anyway, sadly upstairs is still hot, and now clammy of course.

More rain tomorrow, out with a supermarket driver, looking forward to that. I suppose these masks are waterproof, being made of polyester or similar.
 
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