Xac's adventures with Cassy (and friends + wife)

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 25 Dec 2009, 01:27

Xac wrote:searching for the source of the leak I found the heater matrix pipes hanging free.
tried to refit them but the o rings were stopping it sliding home.

Coat the 'O' rings and hose connection pipes in Vaselene, place the 'O' rings on the ridge inside the matrix then push the connection onto the matrix.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 25 Dec 2009, 11:13

I had the same thing exactly happen on my 2.1TD shortly after we replaced the matrix. The common factor here is poor access, new seals and the difficulty of pushing the joint right home

Put the seals on the connector spigots and LIBERALLY coat in vaseline. Push hard and listen for a click...

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 25 Dec 2009, 18:56

job done

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 25 Dec 2009, 22:55

Excellent!

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 31 Dec 2009, 16:10

As part of my xmas presents, Danielle found a 2 night stay in the Ramada Brighton, which was lovely.
With Cassy's starter motor out of action, we went down in Juliet.
Leaving on Tuesday, the trip was hell, so many idiots on the roads.
There was spray, lots of standing water in lane 3 on the motorways, so many (mostly grey) cars with no lights on, on the Dartford bridge, which Danielle wasn't keen on as she suffers from vertigo, we saw a lorry nearly pull across over the top of a car which had to brake hard to avoid the collision.
So many 4x4s and Vauxhalls tailgating.
The weather in Brighton was frankly pants, either heavy rain or that soaking drizzle.
We did have enough of a break in the rain to look around the shops and Danielle picked up a few comics from Dave's comic shop

Yesterday evening as we were getting ready to go for a meal, the fire alarm went off. Our fire exit route was out the french doors (which can't be secured from the outside so we grabbed the laptop and camera) onto the balcony/walkway, through the fire door, down some wet and slightly slippery stairs out into a dark alley at the back of the hotel.
We wandered round to the front to find out what was going on.
Turns out they had a wedding party and someone had set the alarm off by mistake.
The plan for today was to head along the A27 to Portsmouth, show Danielle where I grew up, then carry on up the A3 and home, but because of the journey down, we thought best to head straight home.
I filled up on the way out of Brighton at the Shell garage, and Danielle did some quick calculations for me, 27.4MPG which for my right foot is very economical!
The trip back was a doddle, very few idiots on the roads, actually traffic was quite light, and the weather was kind to us.
Juliet performed admirably

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 31 Dec 2009, 20:08

Xac wrote:The plan for today was to head along the A27 to Portsmouth, show Danielle where I grew up, then carry on up the A3 and home, but because of the journey down, we thought best to head straight home.

A wise decision Xac, I did that journey in the reverse direction on Sunday and it was murder, the A27 changes from a decent dual carriageway around Brighton to a single carriageway residential street as it passes through Worthing, then Arundel, if you're lucky you might just have got into second gear for 50 yards

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 01 Jan 2010, 17:41

Ah Arundel, I could have pointed out the school up on the hill that looks like a cut down version of Hogwarts to Danielle, and stopped in the McD's there (where a mate and I once discovered an intelligent person behind the till, she didn't last long though).
I used to do Portsmouth to Brighton once a month in my old Vauxhall Mushroom (Cavalier Mk2) to see friends and do the comic book run

Once the tunnel finally opened it cut about 30 mins off the trip.

You can see where the dual carrigeway should have carried on past Arundel and on to Chichester, but I guess it was never meant to be, like the missing junction of the M27 on the way to Southampton.

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 02 Jan 2010, 19:26

I have an Activa!!!!

Spent the day round Jim's swapping front bumpers and roll correctors.
The lock nut on the short arm of the RC had damaged threads, so wasn't locking, adjusting the RC slightly every time the car rolled.
I was also missing the bolt holding the corrector arm to the drivers side wishbone!
Jim had an old RC that he'd been soaking in old hydroflush as it was seized, which I duly fitted to Juliet, set the control arms to their 73mm distance between ends of threads.
Started her up while on ramps, she was leaning slightly, so under I went, using a small magnetic spirit level as a guide, gently adjusting the control arms flat by flat, I leveled her out.
Then it was time to take her for a spin, and OMG! what a difference!
The handling is so much tighter!

Thanks Jim!

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 02 Jan 2010, 19:59

No worries Xac, I'm delighted

It's been a seriously good day today, much achieved and very enjoyable!

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 02 Jan 2010, 20:51

Just got back from a quick spin with Danielle and she said it's much improved, feeling a lot more stable and safe.

Was a very productive day indeed!

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 08 Jan 2010, 00:05

Well Juliet has been taking the snow and ice in her stride, although I am driving her sensibly, she's handling like there's no snow at all.

Windows 2008 has been keeping me busy at work, specifically with terminal services, or Remote Desktop Services as it's now called.
No one likes the Windows 7 desktop it gives them.
Windows servers (since 2003 I think) have something called Internt Explorer Enhanced Browser Security.
Basically what it does it prevent you going to any websites, so most people turn it off as it's a PITA.
With RDS however, it gives you the option of disabling it for admin, or for users, or both.
Well that's the theory anyway.
If it's enabled before the RDS roll is installed, then you're stuck with it, even if you "turn it off" so a bit like the Windows Firewall.
Microsoft's solution? Rebuild the server, disable it, then install the RDS role. Not good when it's a live server.
So some registry hacking was required, and then everyone has to have their profiles wiped *joy*
This was so that users can access website which run Java.
Next problem is getting Adobe Flash to install for all users. Works fine for admins, but for users it asks them to install it again, which of course they can't do and shouldn't need to.
Then one user pointed out a strange problem with Visio.
They have their printers set to use black and white by default to save costs.
Users can manually select colour and print, but when they printed £600 of colour last year and practically no monochrome, it makes sense to push people away from colour unless they need it.
Now in Visio, if your default printer is monochrome and you create a new document, then no matter what settings you pick, it will print black and white.
Microsoft's solution? Have your colour printer as your default. Great.
I suspect that MS have taken on a load of Apple employees, they don't appear to like their users either.
Grrr.

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 16 Jan 2010, 19:46

Danielle and I had a productive day once the rain stopped.
Replaced Juliet's hydroflush with fresh LHM and bled the brakes.
The fluid that came out was brown!
So the hydroflush has done it's job and she's now running on bright green LHM

The ride has improved and the brakes are more as they should be.

Work have finally given me a laptop, well a tablet PC (the screen rotates and folds down in tablet mode).
It's a nice bit of kit, but, it's running Windows 7 *AAAARGH!*
I have found how to regain the quicklaunch taskbar, so now I have the benefit of a fast OS, without the awkwardness of having to use the GUI any more than I have to.
The most frustrating thing is that it it has many really good features, but it also has so many quirks that are just a PITA.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 16 Jan 2010, 22:41

Xac, You and I are in complete accord about the latest Microsoft offerings

XP, Server 2K3 and SQL Server 2005 were the pinnacle. Fine, stable and fit for purpose..

Microsoft arrived at a crossroads after those systems and have now chosen the road to mediocrity sadly...

They'll have to watch it as everyone will move wholesale to Linux. In fact if our forum server doesn't soon start flying straight and level I'll be seriously considering asking the host to swap me over to a Linux server...

If they carry on like they are, it's won't be long before Bill Gates will be out on a street corner busking... What goes up must always come down...

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 16 Jan 2010, 23:49

Don't forget office 2003.
When people are starting to move onto widescreen monitors which don't give as much vertical view as 4:3, what does MS do?
Brings out Office 2007 with a whopping great big useless ribbon to take up 1/4 of your screen that everyone I know hates because they can't find any of the tools.
Now with Windows 7 the taskband (no longer taskbar) takes up 1/4 of the bottom of your screen.
scrolling scrolling scrolling.
This laptop does 1280x800
I prefer the reading pane in Outlook to be at the bottom.
With W7 and Office 2007 I might as well not have a reading pane as I have to open every email because there isn't enough space!
Grrrr.
Tempted to buy the 3rd party package that MS themselves suggest which gives you the office 2003 interface but it's £60ish.
Likewise there's a 3rd party app which gives you the classic start menu in W7.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 17 Jan 2010, 00:04

Xac wrote:Don't forget office 2003.

Yes, sorry forgot the best Office ever

Luckily, even though we use Vista (

) and Office 2007 (

) we still use Outlook 2003 (

) for backward compatibility with NT and Exchange 5.5! Have you seen how Outlook 2007 chews up system resources

Don't even get me started on IE7 and IE8

Truly the work of the devil