LazerBrain

Might be worth asking these guys: Wilkes Motorsport on FB They're trying to work out whether to rebuild or reshell after a nasty off at the Tempest Rally a couple of weeks back.

Anyone interested in seeing New Order's Peter Hook and his band playing in Reading this Friday? I have a spare ticket (gf can't get back from work in time.) It's an Eticket - both printed on the same bit of paper and requiring my ID to go with it apparently, so you'll need to meet up with me. The ticket was about £22 inc fees I think. Hooky's website Following a string of dates across the summer months performing both New Order and Joy Division material Peter Hook & The Light are to tour North America in September 2013, South America in early October 2013 and the UK and Ireland in October and November 2013 peforming New Order's "Movement" and "Power, Corruption And Lies".

as many people run with dipped headlights during the day, it could be more useful to have a dimming circuit with a LDR (light dependent resistor) perhaps...

I've got a mate who is looking to buy a car to replace an MOT failure. He'd quite like an A3 diesel estate - definitely with MOT and with a few years more life in it. Anything out there - preferably within 50 miles of Reading?

I have a gauge from a 1997 K series if you don't wish to repair the existing one.

Mav - I saw Roy last night and mentioned this to him as I saw your 7 list posting.

Brightened up my morning - I was driving past in the tintop.

Phil Waters had some Triton seats (which are similar to Tillets) and documented his seat pads here

Thanks guys - the Halfords set I saw was only 4 cables. I'll take a look at the Lucas 5 part kits on ebay.

My HT leads could do with replacing - I had a misfire the other day apparently caused by one of the connectors not mating correctly with the top of the spark plug. Also the plastic cap at one of the spark plug ends has been chewed up by pliers in the past, making it difficult to remove. Where's the best place to get a complete set - planning to replace the king lead too? Should I be going for Rover replacements or some other brand?

Are you able to bump start the car? That would prove the ECU is ok (providing the battery is good enough.) I have an EU2 SS MEMS ECU and SAS immobiliser you could borrow, but you'd need to collect it as I'm busy today I'm afraid. I'm close to M4 J10 if that helps.

I've now replied.

HP OmniBook 3000CTX Slightly battered (but still running) Pentium MMX 233MHz based laptop with 4GB hard drive and 80MB memory. CD Drive (20x reader only) Floppy drive (in storage pouch, can be used in place of CD Drive) single USB connector hard drive has been wiped - was previously running Win 98. Mains PSU Battery (though this didn't last for very long when last tested!) serial, parallel and VGA ports Various PCMCIA network/modem cards and cables (no LAN built in.) Screen, trackpad & keyboard are working. PC was running Win 98 until wiped this evening. Casing is "tired", with bits missing around hinges and ports. Might be useful as a garage laptop for Emerald software perhaps - or web use if network can be set up. Collection from RG6 (between J10/11 M4), Bracknell, ReHaB meetings, GONADS. FREE or your choice of donation to NtL Happy to post or send by your choice of courier at cost. Edited by - lazerbrain on 28 May 2013 23:51:50

It's the original mirror - I'm tempted to use double sided tape for now, and pick up another unit off ebay as it's only about a tenner.

The glass in my heated wing mirror has detached from the heater element. It looks like the element clips into the motorised part of the housing and the mirror is bonded on. What can I use to stick it back in place? I guess the adhesive needs to expand at the same rate as the mirror glass and conduct the element heat through... Edited by - lazerbrain on 21 May 2013 10:06:59

Any recommendations for where to buy a new set from?

I've just bought a new pair of Alpine Music Safe Pro earplugs They're similar to the ER20s, have a choice of 3 attenuation filters (there are also bike filters which cut out more wind noise) and don't stick out so far from your ears. I had an ER20 yanked out of my ear at a gig once by a manic dancer behind me who caught the cord with a flailing arm!

My Bosch fridge/freezer has had this behaviour a couple of times. It seems to get iced up in one place - pushing the inside at one point I can feel the ice creaking. I manually defrost the freezer - there's normally less than a litre of water afterwards.

Thanks - just found it Idiot's guide to fitting uprated hubs

Quoting Stationary M25 Traveller: Shouldn't have to slacken it unless it was overtightened on assembly. Bearings only wear ... not grow. That was my concern... The car hasn't been driven much (600 miles) since July when it was serviced. I'm wondering if it had been tightened then and I hadn't noticed the change.

Is it normal to need to slacken off the castle nut for a front wheel bearing? I jacked up the front of my 7 and noticed the front left wheel was binding. I slackened off the castle nut by one notch and re-assembled and it now behaves like the other front wheel. There is a slight vertical play in both wheels now. Previously the right wheel had slight vertical play which was noted at each MOT, but tightening up to the next notch round is too tight. Wiser mechanics have said this was normal.

Quoting Andy-M: I guess the best thing with the diff ratio is to see whether it bothers me at cruising speeds? If I understand right the 3.92 diff might be tiring due, mostly, to the noise / feeling from being at higher revs? I guess if it doesn't bother me it shouldn't really be an issue? I've got the 3.92 diff (on a 1.6 SuperSport with 6 speed box - it's around 133bhp with a CAT according to the books.) I definitely like it for the acceleration and it hasn't really affected me when travelling longer distances. I drove from the 'Ring to the ferry for example, pretty much at 80ish the whole way (you pretty much have no choice on Belgian motorways!) Earplugs (opinion time!) are a necessity for all but the shortest blats - you will have engine/exhaust/tyre/wind noise all competing to damage your hearing. You still get to hear the car with decent earplugs. Is there more wear and tear on the engine/gearbox if they're spinning faster compared to a 3.62 diff? I guess there must be, but I don't believe it's anything to worry about. It might be worth finding 2 owners willing to take you out in similar cars with the different diff ratios so you can get a feeling of the difference in revs. There are gear calculator websites - I'm sure it wouldn't be too tricky to work out the difference in revs for your chosen cruising speed. Edited by - LazerBrain on 26 Apr 2013 14:03:27

Quoting Andy-M: I've been finding it difficult to find a useful source of information on the different engines and the terminology around them. Welcome to the club Andy The Magnificent 7 book is a great guide to the various models. This edition has been superseded, but covers all the changes up to around 2001 I think. It's worth looking elsewhere for a copy, or posting a wanted ad in case anyone here is thinking of selling. I read my copy cover to cover when I was 7 hunting...

James Whiting is another option too.

If no-one here wants it, consider your local Freegle group. I had about ten people very keen to have a similar Dell I got rid of recently.