Gas Guzzling Money Pits
pointless expenses and cars
Reply
My 2005 LX Focus is a bit of a shitbox really but it runs, cheaply, and shows no sign of dying just yet. The electric mirror adjustment has stopped working, probably since I left all the windows open during a massive rainstorm and the controls got wet. The mirrors do not fold automatically.
After watching top gear last night. I really want a defender :)
Just not in that colour. They look great
Not a white one.. :)
My Focus has been collected by the scrappers, new car is in order but not expected until late May/early June.

In the meantime I'll just have to borrow my daughter's Audi.
New car!
Got myself a 2015 Dacia Sandero Stepway to replace my beloved Lacetti that I had to sadly send to the Knackers' a while back. Feels a bit odd being so much higher up but I'm pleased with it. Now to work out what all the buttons do.
Here you go. Haven't decided on a name yet.
Kern wrote:
New car!
Got myself a 2015 Dacia Sandero Stepway to replace my beloved Lacetti that I had to sadly send to the Knackers' a while back. Feels a bit odd being so much higher up but I'm pleased with it. Now to work out what all the buttons do.

James May will be delighted!
Kern wrote:
Here you go. Haven't decided on a name yet.


Blue cars are the best...
Yep, blue is the colour.

I thought silver looked neat, but then everyone else thought so too and finding my old car in a large supermarket car park became a live-action automotive "Where's Wally" game.
Silver cars make me nervous when I’m in a car or a pedestrian, because I just can’t see them in the fog. I love the blue. Very Smurfy.
I've got a silver machine car.

I'm so sorry, Mimi. It does have fog lights though so I'll keep them on if I'm ever near you.
New car congrats, Kern!
Brexit Blue > Sovereign Silver
Romanian marque owned by a French multinational. It's a Brexiter's nightmare.
Zardoz wrote:
I've got a silver machine car.

I'm so sorry, Mimi. It does have fog lights though so I'll keep them on if I'm ever near you.

We were heading back from Chester Zoo (I think we’d been with Davpaz and a load of others (weirdly, I only remember Davpaz) and got caught in a huge cloud of smoke on the motorway as someone was having a bonfire in a field next to the motorway. We couldn’t see even a car’s length ahead of us, and I was absolutely terrified. At one point a silver car came from nowhere alongside us and was just a few inches from us. It comes from that, I think. It probably sounds silly, but there was a huge fatal multi car pile up a minute or two later, and I have never been able to really shake that experience.
I’m the same with volcanoes.
It was me, the wife and firstborn, Jazzy and Joans with various offspring, Rach and Mallowbar at Chester Zoo. I remember you and Russ wore interesting hats
Zardoz wrote:
I’m the same with volcanoes.

Sorry, Z, I can’t tell if you’re joking or not. Hopefully there are fewer volcanoes around you than there is fog, though :)
DavPaz wrote:
It was me, the wife and firstborn, Jazzy and Joans with various offspring, Rach and Mallowbar at Chester Zoo. I remember you and Russ wore interesting hats

We were at a zoo, of course we are going to wear animal hats. I think Rach had one too, now I think of it.
DavPaz wrote:
It was me, the wife and firstborn, Jazzy and Joans with various offspring, Rach and Mallowbar at Chester Zoo. I remember you and Russ wore interesting hats


"...and that's my alibi, officer"
MaliA wrote:
DavPaz wrote:
It was me, the wife and firstborn, Jazzy and Joans with various offspring, Rach and Mallowbar at Chester Zoo. I remember you and Russ wore interesting hats


"...and that's my alibi, officer"


I have photographic evidence!
Attachment:
hats.jpg
That was a good day. It’s a lovely zoo. Did we go for a meal afterwards?
We did. A chinese buffet in Chester
Yes... that’s right. I remember Russell’s bank card stopped working, and I had no money as I’d moved out of the refuge that actual week and was living off of nothing, so I’d saved up like a tenner over the course of a few weeks, which covered the meal, but couldn’t afford a drink, and couldn’t borrow any off of Russell because of his bank card. I was so embarrassed. And I look awful in that picture/that day :s I look so much older than I (was), and my skin looks terrible. It was a great day but I was so stressed :D We should do it again when the world is less crap and we can hug people again.
I don't think you look awful or old, nor does your skin look terrible, if that helps :luv:
Haha, thank you. I don’t mind that it does (to me, anyway), please don’t think that, I think I was still just very far from being in a good place, but at the same time I was having the best time of my life to that point, despite how difficult it was. Anyway, ahem, yes, that’s why silver cars make me nervous, especially being in one. I think Russell’s car was actually silver at the time, too (or were we still in that company car, @mr Russell?)
Meems, you look as lovely as always.
Mimi wrote:
Haha, thank you. I don’t mind that it does (to me, anyway), please don’t think that, I think I was still just very far from being in a good place, but at the same time I was having the best time of my life to that point, despite how difficult it was. Anyway, ahem, yes, that’s why silver cars make me nervous, especially being in one. I think Russell’s car was actually silver at the time, too (or were we still in that company car, @mr Russell?)

I think the company car was silver. We were going back north so we didn't have the Focus yet.

It was a hairy drive though when visibility suddenly dropped to not being able to see the car bonnet. Great day at the zoo though.
Birds have already started decorating it. Shame I'm not a fan of Jackson Pollock.
I'm thinking of going to look at this:

https://www.sandicliffe.co.uk/ford/puma ... oor-198881

Does anyone know what picture 34 is of?

Anything I should be looking out for if I go for a test drive?
Unicycle dispenser.
Boot close button, but it looks like you can set how far the boot opens up if you open it electronically. Pretty handy if you park it under a car port or garage actually.
Trooper wrote:
Boot close button, but it looks like you can set how far the boot opens up if you open it electronically. Pretty handy if you park it under a car port or garage actually.

Ah! Thank you! :)
Goddess Jasmine wrote:
I'm thinking of going to look at this:

https://www.sandicliffe.co.uk/ford/puma ... oor-198881

Does anyone know what picture 34 is of?

Anything I should be looking out for if I go for a test drive?


Cor, that's smashing.

Look out for other road users.

Put it in neutral and bounce the engine off the limiter a few times, bounce up and down on each corner, and turn the steering wheel lock to lock. Stick an OBD reader into it to see when the error codes were last cleared.
Get Joans to climb in the boot and see if you can hear him scream with windows fully up and then down.

Repeat with stereo on full.
Zardoz wrote:
Get Joans to climb in the boot and see if you can hear him scream with windows fully up and then down.

Repeat with stereo on full.

:D
That is lovely.. Welcome to the blue car club..
I have pulled this fuse out my car (Nissan Note 2014) because I think it's burnt out. What kind might it be, as when I went on Amazon there were micro blades and mega blades and mini ones and it all got A Bit Much.

Any help great fully appreciated.
I should say that this is not one of the regular fuses, it is one that goes in to the dashcam jumper thingy and has the dashcam fuse (working) and this one I've pulled out (Aircon) in the same jumper cable to completely replace the fuse that was in there originally.
Does that mean you've replaced it with a different fuse and it's now working? Because that doesn't look burnt out, the u-shaped bit in the middle looks intact and there's no shit stain.

(I can't help identify the fuse sorry, but if it's out of the car's fusebox either the underside of the fusebox cover or the manual should tell you exactly what type is called for. Which it's not, reading fail, sorry again)
When the man who fitted the dashcam fitted the dashcam he put in a jumper type thing that meant two fuses were now in one slot. The original fuse from that slot is bigger and he left it with me. That is the one I have plugged in and it is now working.

That means the jumper with the two fuses in it is not plugged in. When it was plugged in the dashcam was working but the Aircon was not SO I have taken out the fuse that was (not) powering the Aircon from the jumper cable slot and took a photo of it.

I guess the alternative question now if I don't buy a replacement fuse is Can I stick the dashcam straight into any of these ports or is it useless to guess without a multimeter?
The blue 15 fuse in the third slot up on the left column is the one I put in to make the fans start working again, hence the dashcam jumper cable now hanging in midair. You can see where one of the red fuses is still in it whereas the other one I took out assuming it was busted.
Update!
We have taken the red fuse from the piggyback cable and put it back next to the other one. This gives power to the dashcam and the fans don't work. We then swapped the two fuses in the piggyback cable and this also gives power to the dashcam and the fans don't work.

So we reckon maybe the fuses are ok and actually it's the piggyback cable. Amazon are going to send a connector tomorrow so that will be the next experiment to see if it's somehow the cable or the slot in the cable.

If the new cable doesn't work then the next thing will be to ask someone to wire in the dashcam to a different slot.
Feel free to bring it over here if you’d like a hand. I’ve fitted a few dashcams and have a multimeter to help test.
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
Feel free to bring it over here if you’d like a hand. I’ve fitted a few dashcams and have a multimeter to help test.

Thank you.
Mr Russell wrote:
Dr Zoidberg wrote:
Feel free to bring it over here if you’d like a hand. I’ve fitted a few dashcams and have a multimeter to help test.

Thank you.

The cable has arrived today. We will attempt to fit it later and report back and then see if we need to take you up on your kind offer.
Page 599 of 613 [ 30628 posts ]