Brown's latest activity

The bolts and bushes typically need a lot of force to move them - a lot more than you'd usually need for Alfa Romeo maintenance, anyway. I've got a hydraulic press with a dial on it and it is not unusual to see 10 or 15 tons needed to shift...

I'm sure the organisers did say that. My experience is much more like your daughter's. It's lovely when the wind drops a bit and the sun comes out, but equally you have to be ready for the wind-blown rain driving its way through the seams of...

That sounds very like the weather on Anglesey to me. It's a bit bracing at times. You don't even have to wait for the winter either - you can get incidents like that in the summer too. I used to live there in the early 1980s, mostly leaning over...

Just had an email from my insurer about my renewal - it's due early next month. I was quite pleased to see that it's £311, for a 2006 TD5 model for 12,000 miles a year. That's good for the current climate. The company has a silly name - 'Quote Me...

Just looking at ECUs for sale on Ebay over the years, there are some that have been cleaned up and garnished with the supplier's stickers (and maybe with a pre-installed remap) which are more expensive, and others which are all dirty and appear...

The fact that it'll move in difflock suggests an axle problem rather than a gearbox or clutch problem. Yes, as above, splines can strip, and also halfshafts can break. Put it in neutral and have a look underneath and see if either of the...

Is that claimed bhp at the flywheel, or at the wheels? A difference of around 16% (which is what yours amounts to) between the two wouldn't be unusual.

I had something similar at the start of last year. The ECU has permanent lives and ignition switched lives. If one or other are disabled some of the functions work (such as the starter motor) but not others (warning lights, some ofthe gauges...

We've got semi-pet squirrels too @Hippo. Xylia spends a fortune on nuts now. The squirrels seem to spend a good deal of time begging. Ours prefer walnuts and will ignore lesser offerings like peanuts and Brazils now they know they can get walnuts...

I've had this situation with loved ones too - operations getting postponed, sometimes at the last minute. In a sense, once they're actually in theatre, it's somethign of a relief. Then they're in the recovery suite, and the process of being an...

That's funny, there seems to be plenty of MTF 94 advertised for sale here in the UK, so it doesn't look like it's gone out of fashion just yet. Interestingly, whilst the old Difflock Evo overpriced transmission fluid seems to have diaappeared...

If they're rivnuts (or some other sort of self-expanding captive nut) once you've ground the outer flange off, you should be able to push them through so they fall down inside the chassis and then you can put new ones in. I should know, becuase...

Beware of stud or bolt extractors - they can snap off when force is applied, and as they're made of harder metal than one's drills this can be difficult to deal with. If you can get a hole drilled reasonably centrally, it might be easier to get a...

Don't forget, that warning light also serves as a brake fluid level warning for the master cylinder reservoir. I've had that problem when one of the wires going to the master cylinder cap broke off. So it's worth checking that the master...

Those pansies look more like polyanthus. Their unconventional home has clearly brought on an identity crisis.

I had a pleasant trundle over from Leicester to my place in Wales yesterday afternoon, as it was nice and sunny I was able to do some proper Land Rover driving with my window down and my elbow on the window sill. Consequently, when I saw Land...

Just to add to that, yesterday I trundled from Leicester to Wales yesterday and made good progress when the road was clear. However the near-stationary traffic on the M6 slowed me down a bit and the stop-start-creep-stop again etc. meant that my...

I don't know what all the fuss is about myself. I drive thousands of miles in my TD5 and don't find it burdensome at all. The most miles I've covered in a day is around 700. My everyday motoring includes rural roads, motorway trips and the...

No doubt it'll be in the slow cooker as soon as it's expired.

How are those of you with boats or in the martitime trades responding to the new net zero policies? There was a piece about it in the Telegraph a couple of days ago...

Is there anywhere in the West Midlands that can be trusted with an engine rebuild I wonder? I don't need one myself, but was having a conversation earlier with a friend who wants one. We've had long running threads on here about people operating...

Somebody's got very feathery legs. Looks like he's wearing little plus fours.

It seems to me that the solution to Dan's dilemma is to find a period correct SU electric pump. The low pressure ones are designed to work with carburettors that have a float and needle valve, unlike many of the modern pumps that are intended to...

A while ago Xylia was looking to buy a Ouija board but all the products online seemed to have really low customer feedback scores, which made her reluctant to press the 'buy' button. On reading the reviews, the problem became apparent. People...

I've had a few things that rattle over the years, including: 1 The alloy heatshield that goes on the gearbox mount on the exhaust pipe side. I assume it's to stop the rubber mounting block getting hot. Mine had a crack in it and rattled. I...

It's getting more and more difficult to bury yourself under the side of an HGV now too, as a lot of them have barriers on the sides as well. But that telegraph pole fits the bill nicely. The side I took the photo from wasn't the side that had...

I think I can see wht's happened. Looks like the Audi pulled out from a parking space at the same time as the silver BMW estate was passing, which accounts for the damage down its right hand side. The BMW was tipped onto its side and scraped...

Makes sense to me. A few years ago I had what I thought was a door lock mechanism problem but it turned out to be the pastic surround of the lock button which had broken down inside the trim panel and the lock wouldn't latch, or would only do so...

Yes, as I said above, there was another vehicle , an Audi, which was dented down one side and one of the rear wheels was at an odd angle. I didn't take a picture because there was a group of young men around it shouting and gesticulatuing...

Many years ago, during my teenage years in Somerset I was in a car with some friends one night, driving along one of those narrow country roads with high sides when all of a sudden a cow appeared on the bonnet. The car nose-dived under the weight...