What's made you grumpy today?

[StevenRB45]

Well just off the phone from the local independent garage.

Somehow between me stopping at work and leaving a stone had got wedged between the disc and backing plate right down the back.

They had to strip brakes off to get it out, but 30 quid isn't bad, especially compared to Jack a car up on a cold and windy day in December.

 

[portland_bill]

Now all you need to do is return the stone to its pothole.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Well just off the phone from the local independent garage.

Somehow between me stopping at work and leaving a stone had got wedged between the disc and backing plate right down the back.

They had to strip brakes off to get it out, but 30 quid isn't bad, especially compared to Jack a car up on a cold and windy day in December.

I see you're a man afflicted with the "worst possible scenario syndrome" just as I am. Stone trapped behind disc? My brain would translate as - complete front suspension strip down needed and at least a couple of the most inaccessible fixings are going to be corroded to such an extent that they'll snap off, and even then all that's only if I'm lucky! _ Oh, and the ABS sensor wire, whilst looking OK externally, is actually going to be open circuit after I've "fiddled" with it.

 

[StevenRB45]

I see you're a man afflicted with the "worst possible scenario syndrome" just as I am. Stone trapped behind disc? My brain would translate as - complete front suspension strip down needed and at least a couple of the most inaccessible fixings are going to be corroded to such an extent that they'll snap off, and even then all that's only if I'm lucky! _ Oh, and the ABS sensor wire, whilst looking OK externally, is actually going to be open circuit after I've "fiddled" with it.

As someone who one cold December day watched a Suzuki that was in gear, chocked with handbrake on fall on flat tarmac off a scissor jack causing far more damage than the money in was saving by doing it myself...I tend to avoid Jacking stuff up unless I literally have to..I.e. flat tyre side of the road.

That and I happened to see them removing the front discs on the Mazda 2 years ago when the factory discs had worn out after 5 years..persuading them off with a 4 pound hammer with such force it was rocking on the ramp.

So yeah..tame local garage is the preferred option.

 

[portland_bill]

..persuading them off with a 4 pound hammer with such force it was rocking on the ramp.

Most stuff does not require such force. The danger of hitting it hard, is that it tilts, jamming itself, so requiring more force to dislodge.
A DIY person hits things with a hammer.
A 'fitter' hits things with a very large hammer.
A mechanic chooses the size of hammer and hits it with more precision to gain a better result with less effort.
A technician gets the apprentice to hit things.

I frequently hear neighbours hitting things with hammers. The sound made by a hammer doing work is quite different to one where the force is wasted. So much effort being expended, so little result. Makes me cringe every time.

Reminds me of a time, 1973, when four people were trying to break up a cast iron bath. (No idea why such a thing was at the garage). Lots of hitting by all four, lots of noise, even a sledgehammer used, the bath resisted. After half an hour, the boss, fed up with the noise and wasted time, walked up, took a 2lb ball pein hammer, looked, thought, then hit the bath once with the ball end of the hammer. Result, about six pieces of bath! I learnt a lot from that man over a few years.

 

[StevenRB45]

Its a known 3 thing unfortunately, they do like to weld themselves on, the rears are verging on notorious.

Mine have been off on the front so shouldn't have been so bad..but there was a guy on the 3 forums ending up chopping a disc off.

 

[puntofan01]

Getting the demand for ground rent through the post this morning. And happy Christmas to them too!

 

[StevenRB45]

Voltage warning just came through to my phone again..

It's minus 2 and the Mazdas been standing for a few days. If the battery gets through this winter it'll not make the next one. It's holding charge but only for a couple of days by the look of it and definetly not a fan of the cold, hope she fires in the morning otherwise it's 4 up in the C3 for 60 miles or dicking about with jump leads but the stop start capacitor on the C3 means I'm not to keen. Do have AA cover, but calling it in Christmas morning is likely to be a long wait.

7 years old so as with all the other niggles it's been giving me recently not the cars fault...but another week..another bill..

 

[varesecrazy]

Voltage warning just came through to my phone again..

It's minus 2 and the Mazdas been standing for a few days. If the battery gets through this winter it'll not make the next one. It's holding charge but only for a couple of days by the look of it and definetly not a fan of the cold, hope she fires in the morning otherwise it's 4 up in the C3 for 60 miles or dicking about with jump leads but the stop start capacitor on the C3 means I'm not to keen. Do have AA cover, but calling it in Christmas morning is likely to be a long wait.

7 years old so as with all the other niggles it's been giving me recently not the cars fault...but another week..another bill..

Maybe just wait until an hour before you planned to leave.

Dip the clutch and crank it.. the 60 mile trip would do it good.

 

[Liquid Knight II]

Replacing perfectly good track rod ends that were an MOT failure apparently. Advisories for the wishbones that are barely a year old from the looks of them.

So I thought the MOT tester was trying to rip the previous owner off.

But; where the car has had welding done to the passenger side floor in the past none of the rust was cut out. Just plated over. It has spread throughout the whole passenger side where the floor meets the sill up to where the rear subframe bolts in place and including the front seat rear mounting points. :bang:

I now think the other failures were fictitiously added to make the repair quote unrealistic. If it's the same garage that did the welding before they would want to avoid having to do it properly.

 

[Liquid Knight II]

The old ends were perfectly fine. No movement, no cracks, no splits; no way dust had got in there. I had already bought new ones and it's a half hour job so it got done anyway.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

To be perfectly correct it's not so much me as Mrs Jock that's the grumpy one! She went to do a supermarket shop in preparation for Hogmanay and was rewarded with a discount chitty for fuel. Very timely she thought, as Becky was running on fumes. (I've tried for years to get her to refuel before the needle hits the red but it's hopeless and now I've given up). Usually it would be me doing the refueling as she doesn't like the dirty hoses, and smell etc. however this time she decided to do it herself as she thought she might not get home on what was in the tank.

The first I knew there was a problem was when she rushed past me as I opened the front door tearing off her trousers and long john underpants as she went! I almost jumped to the wrong conclusion (silly boy, but even a 72 year old has delusions) but then realised there was a strong smell of petrol in the air. Although we bought Becky about 9 months ago this was the first time she had tried to fill her up. She suffered a major blowback - more than a teacup full I would guess - which soaked her "nether regions" right through. She was more worried about the smell and chemical burning feeling on her skin (a shower followed by a soak in a bubble bath soon sorted that) She hadn't considered the fire risk to herself which was considerable. Strangely - well I think it was strange anyway, but I'm glad for it - she had the presence of mind to sit on a bag to drive home so the seat is not contaminated! Now I'm thinking it would be best to hang the clothing out on the line overnight to allow evaporation to reduce the potency of the fuel in the clothes just in case it attacks the main bearing drum seal in the washing machine?

Well, I'm off now to try to cheer her up with a nice cup of tea and a big slice of the Christmas cake my daughter made for us. -
Happy new year when it comes everyone
Jock

 

[Schumi2001]

The Porsche deciding to trigger its alarm when I unlock it with the key... the remote died a few years ago.

Looks like I'm buying a new remote key (£200) and sending her for some diagnostics in the new year, then.

Work is stacking up on it - I need to fettle the window cables (they stretch, meaning the windows snag on the roof when opening the doors), replace the door membranes (60 quid EACH), and potentially replace the torque converter this year.

Better hope for a decent 2018 bonus at work, then!

 

[chr1s]

Arrived home last night from a brilliant week in Edinburgh to find that some drunken b@stard has kicked off the Panda's passenger door mirror again. (We didn't go in the Panda). Third time in 4½ years. Fortunately it looks repairable (like https://www.fiatforum.com/panda-2012-guides/355853-how-repair-door-mirror-twisted-off-its-bracket.html), but it means that I have to spend a chunk of my remaining holiday repairing it and polishing out the 6" long scuff mark on the door - presumably left by the drunken moron's boot.

I also have to find time to get a tyre replaced or repaired after a puncture from a screw in the tread two days before we went away.

At least the weather's dry.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Arrived home last night from a brilliant week in Edinburgh to find that some drunken b@stard has kicked off the Panda's passenger door mirror again. (We didn't go in the Panda). Third time in 4½ years. Fortunately it looks repairable (like https://www.fiatforum.com/panda-2012-guides/355853-how-repair-door-mirror-twisted-off-its-bracket.html), but it means that I have to spend a chunk of my remaining holiday repairing it and polishing out the 6" long scuff mark on the door - presumably left by the drunken moron's boot.

I also have to find time to get a tyre replaced or repaired after a puncture from a screw in the tread two days before we went away.

At least the weather's dry.

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself in our fair city! It's not a bad place to live at all! Just now it's all a bit mad as it gears up for Hogmanay though.

Commiserations on the mirror, know just how you feel! A few years ago my old and trusty Cordoba, which, for some strange reason, I had reversed onto the hard standing in front of my house (we're all open plan), had one of it's headlamps kicked in! It was about 3 o'clock in the morning and no doubt the numpty who did it got a Heluva shock when my neighbour's son, who was just returning home from a late night out, chased him down the street! Unfortunately the said numpty was a bit handy on his toes so he got away which was lucky for him as the neighbour's son is a big healthy lad!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I was feeling very pleased with myself. Last year we decided to cancel our Sky TV, to save money, but we kept the phone and broadband package. We bought a Humax HDR 1100s, plugged in the twin sat feeds and ethernet cable to our router and everything worked great! - We find, now that I'm not obsessed with F1 any more, that it gives us all we need - Our broadband/phone package was up for renewal just before Christmas and I succeeded in negotiating, what I think is a very good price to stay with Sky. At that time I mentioned that our router was a very old (sky supplied) Netgear and probably not very secure - how about a new one? More negotiation resulted in a Sky Q Hub for £15.00p. I was delighted! It's now arrived.

Yesterday I unboxed it and set it all up. My laptop is working fine with it, I can get my emails and go on the web. My home network (cabled in NAS) all working fine, although I didn't check the smart functions on the TV and Blu-ray, that was a bit silly of me. The Humax won't do On Demand but works fine as a receiver. I rang Humax (very helpful people by the way) and they emailed me the procedure to reboot the whole thing as if it were new, but without loosing any of our already recorded stuff. (this reboot makes it automatically search for the router connection) Still no go! I have everything connected via ethernet cables, because I prefer this way of doing it, and, during the setup procedure, one of the screens confirms that it "sees" the cable - but still no "smart" functions on the sat box.

I then removed the new router and reinstalled the old Netgear one and it all worked absolutely fine! There are a couple of things I didn't try. The new Q box has 2 ethernet ports (I only need to use one on the router as I run it to a TP link switch which then connects to the individual devices) Stupidly I didn't think to try the other port (Q hub has 2 ports) before reconnecting the Netgear (Just in case the port I did try had a problem - not likely though I would have thought?) The Humax is wireless enabled too. My preference is to wire it in but, maybe I should try connecting wirelessly (because I understand you get faster downloads?) and see what happens? My preference is still to use cables though.

So. Anyone got a bright idea as to what I might try? Is there something different about ethernet on newer machines compared to my old Netgear? I was so pleased to get my nice "posh" Q hub but I'm really feeling pretty fed up with it just now! Grrrrrrr. Tech. - Makes me want to hit something with a big hammer!
Regards Jock.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Just re-read what I said about connecting wirelessly. Of course I meant that a cabled connection should be faster than wirelessly.

PS also got the Humax to search for updates but it seems to be running the current version OK.

 

[Eklipze3k]

As you have a TP-Link switch connected to the Router, did the other devices connected to the switch work OK?

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Ok. I didn't try them all but the Blu ray was able to pull pictures off the NAS and display them on the TV screen also my amp pulled music files from the NAS and played them. Didn't try the smart TV function.

 

[Eklipze3k]

Definitely localised to the Humax then is the point I was trying to get at. Now Sky being the utter bastards they are may have convinced their hardware to shoo Humax connections away, but I doubt it because - while they may be bastards - they're not that clever! As long as all the settings within the Humax's network connection page are set to "auto detect" or similar, it should just work ...