Leaderboard

Regret to say I think it will have to be let go. Whilst there may be the odd regular prepared to contribute I doubt it'll be enough to warrant continuing. Apart from the excellent technical info, the forum has been a nice "matey" sounding board, with some of us probably sharing thoughts and feelings that we wouldn't necessarily do with our partners or family, but with Tony passing that will dwindle away. WIM has brought a few of us together randomly and I'll always be thankful for that, but life and interests move on & change, new technology and platforms pop up and I've seen other forums disappear for much the same reasons as this one's decline. We have already lost some that have had massive respect, such as Sagitar and now Tony, and while its a nice thought to continue I think the hard reality is that we will all wander off on our own tangents and maybe connect with new people via other platforms. Rich, you have been a real pal to Tony and to all of us, but you shouldn't feel obliged to be out of pocket or to soldier on regardless. Andy

I only found out about this yesterday and I have been debating whether to post about it. But I have decided I will as I don't want Tony's good name to be tarnished. It seems the owners of Blackboots sold the company to Protyre at the end of January. At the moment they are including the name Blackboots but I suspect this will change in time. They are covering everything from tyres to geometry. So if you go to the centre or book your car in for a geometry please be aware that you will no longer be dealing with WIM and Tony's excellent reputation. I don't know if any of the staff have been kept but I would hate for anyone to go there expecting the WIM treatment and be disappointed. So it's looking like it is the end of an era sadly. As for the forum, it will be staying for the meantime but I can't say for how long 😔

Well, it is sad that it may come to an end, but without Tony and the team giving us info about cars (HOTW was great), I'm not sure what purpose the forum serves now . I have enjoyed it immensely and can't thank the people here enough for everything that has been discussed and debated. It's been an incredible time, but feel it has lost its heart and soul with Tony B now gone. Paying out of your own pocket isn't financially wise and without WIM behind the forum what shall it be for? All I can say, and I'm sure this is echoed through all the users on here is thank you Rich for your selfless support in running and maintaining the forum. It really is one of those roles thank can be thankless and forgotten about, but we really do appreciate all you have done .

I reckon it's all a big story you've invented to cover the forthcoming newspaper article in case any of us read it: Tony Bones exposed himself to 2 old Ladies One had a stroke, the other couldn't reach.

Decided it's time to part with an old friend who has been languishing in lockups since the mid '80s... Good old bus started up without too much persuasion, but won't drive away as I've taken the front calipers off and the clutch is rusted on. Other than that mechanically it's not a difficult project for someone, but it will need quite a lot of bodywork surgery. Was hoping to sell the registration separately but I believe it has to be roadworthy for a while before I can do that so it's now out there on Facebook Marketplace and Car & Classics at £5500 - let's see how it goes. Certainly had lots of initial interest but no offers near what I want yet.

If there aren't enough contributors and it must go, we will still have the knowledge that it was Tony's passion and he wanted to communicate with the world. He wanted to build this all up and he succeeded. It is such a terrible shame. However, it would need all of us to put to it and you are right - you couldn't and shouldn't do it alone. I'll contribute.

This thread might help you 🙂

What have we told you about selfies Tony 🤣🤣😂😂 . .

Glad it passed and hope you can make use of it! With ref to your E10 question in another thread. I believe you can add dye and it separates out the ethanol.. Loads of videos on YouTube on it.. Apparently loads of classic car owners do this already

Call the hospital

Here you go:

The orange illumination wire needs to connect to a wire that goes live when your lights are on. It's used to dim the screen. You may not need it if the system has a built in light sensor. You can't take it of the existing Lexus harness as it gets it's signal from the instrument ECU and you wouldn't know what you might be back feeding. Best bet is to take it off one of the existing panel lights. The easiest will be one the seat heater switch backlights lights as you will have them disconnected already with the headunit out. I would try it without first as most detect the lighting levels in the car. Does the Android want an illumination input? Have you got the pinout for it? Blue wire for antenna remote goes live when you turn the system on to extend the antenna, or to power a radio signal amplifier. Unless you have one, that's not needed. Same with the other one labelled power control. If you want, you can use it to power anything else you want switching on when you turn the system on. (pretty low current though). Only one of the blue wires will work - it will be the one from the new stereo. Yep, you are right on the mute wire - you would only need that if you have something external to your system. I can't remember now, Has yours got the factory satnav in? Will you be using it or the Android one? Only because you will have to make another change or the satnav screen won't work, you have to fool it into thinking there is an original headunit. Are you fitting a reversing camera too? Well worth it for the price they are.

Yes it would be difficult if the charge has become quite low. When I had my Bluebird (blast from the past) I had terrible troubles with batteries on it. I got a reel on mains cable and extended the croc connectors on the end. Had it running under my back gate and under through the engine so I could close the bonnet. I would imagine it would be ok at 5A as you would expect the charger to drop at around 80% of the charge to a lower current. GEL batteries are more sensitive to charging currents though so there is the possibility the manufacturer isn't just being over-cautious. In saying that, it's only 0.8A of a difference and you would expect the tolerance margin to be larger than that. I'm 50/50 on whether you should give it a go or not. I bet loads of people have lobbed on those crappy large 8A chargers Halfords used to sell. For testing, do you still have your multimeter? Put on 20V setting and read the voltage. Should be about 12.4-12.6V. (If it's less than 11v, charge it) Turn the car on but don't crank it. See what the voltage drop is. Switch off, leave for 1 minute and do the same. If it's more than 2v drop it needs a charge and may not be in best condition.

Yes, definitely, assuming there was a standard set of battery sizes and capacities but even then it wouldn't be easy. Lots of checks would need to be in place, the main one being capacity testing on board the battery with full display of history and energy used. This could be fed to the car. Without that you wouldn't know it's true capacity, only the usual vehicle voltage tests and maybe a quick cycle test. I wouldn't like to hire a 100kWh battery only to get 88kWh. They would have to be laden with a lot more stress sensors if in and out of cars. Minor bumps measured and that sort of thing too because you wouldn't know what's happened on previous trips if it wasn't your own battery pack. Maybe the answer is for everyone to have two packs - one on the car and one in the wash? At 500kg would still need a method to store and swap but possibly something to look at. Negates cost savings but still goes to help using more fossil fuels. We'll still need charging stations for a long time into the future though.

BTW looks like the garage have now agreed on a replacement , largely thanks to the technical views people have offered

Sorry to diversify on this but it did tickle me. While I was looking through the police and newspaper reports, I read that someone broke into the local petting zoo and swapped all the animals around. Andy Johnson, owner of the shop said: “Someone got in in the middle of the night and mixed up all the animals. Nothing was taken and the wallaby must have got out through a fence. We haven’t seen it since.” Asked if he wanted an appeal launched for the return of the animal, Mr Johnson said: “Not really because the last time it happened a few years ago people brought a lot of wallabies that weren’t even ours.”

Well 10 days on and had a call from the seller. He's had it in for service and detailing, changed a tyre which had a cut in it (fitted a Uniroyal so I'm good with that), needs an MOT, and he's got to get the wheels refurbished as they're a bit scabby. He gave me the option of having them done now or he'd knock the price off the car if I wanted to take it as is. Looks like I should be going to have a look on Wednesday. If it's as it should be then the deal is as good as done.

Just to update I sent all of the documents and they emailed back to say everything was fine. Certainly less hassle than cancelling and changing but I hope this is a one off!

I did all of the servicing I mentioned above but need to change the gearbox oil again. I had enough left from last time so used that as a flush to do a few hundred miles and then fill with the new oil but I didn't get around to it in the summer! The MOT was yesterday and it passed but with a couple of advisories this time. My MOT garage has a new tester and he's more thorough! A cut in a tyre needs to be monitored. That must've happened on the way there as I removed all 4 wheels on Monday and checked them over. Foggy headlights, so I need to polish them again, it's been a few years since I did those. Front brake pads are low but I knew that anyway. I replaced the discs and pads 8 years a go so will do both again. The discs have a slight lip on them so I don't think it's wise to fit new pads on to them. I had to seal the plastic door lining behind the door cards as they were leaking water in to the footwells but other than that it's been ok. Hoping to keep it going for another year.

If you go to account > my attachments you can check the ones you don't want and delete 👍

This is a real shame. I have known Tony since his days at STS in Watford and he always took so much pride in his work - he was the one that originally calculated the correct geometry settings for my Lexus IS300 back in 2003 when I took my car to him with worn out tyres after only 4,000 miles. # One thing that amazed me about Tony was how good he was with the geometry numbers and how he could calculate things that most people would need a spreadsheet to do. From then on Tony had always done the geometry on my lexus (which I still own) and he did it again for me a couple of years back (seemingly for the last time). Always had a lot of time for Tony and was happy to take my car to WIM because I would get treated well and we would also have a laugh. Here's a photo of where it all started, with the Lexus Owners Club at STS in Watford back in 2005.

Here's that last pic:

It's surprising how many unreported issues there are in aviation. I subscribe to Weekly Dose of Aviation on Youtube and there's some good stuff as well as problems.

I don't think that pic can be from JetBlue 292 as this picture is of the main gear, not the nose gear, and the JetBlue aircraft is blue on the bottom where this is white? I can't find what flight it IS from though .. !

Drury Lane is best.... I trained some the staff. Nigel owns the centre and Pete is a top tech regarding geometry. In addition, if there's something not understandable they will call me for advice.

Some years ago a new Jaguar in a dealership was having the engine replaced? Wondering why i went over to them and asked what's wrong. Seemingly the chain had jumped a tooth and it's cheaper to change the engine

When I bought my first Prius I used it little at times and soon ran into trouble with the 12v battery running down when the car was unused for an extended period. There were warnings in the handbook about limiting the current used in charging the battery, so I sought advice from the Toyota dealer where I bought the car and was advised to get a tecMate Optimate 4 charger. The connections were exactly as you described and I left the comfort lead exposed in the boot so I could make an easy connection when the car was in the garage. The Optimate 4 is a sophisticated, microprocessor controlled, charger but the most significant thing about it is that its maximum charging rate is only 0.8 Amps. I used it successfully with both standard and plug-in Prius but I've never had need to use it on the Mitsubishi PHEV.

It's merely a copy & paste of the same few satellite dish images. I've highlighted some, they're all the same image just in different places.

Try Google translate if you don't want to send it back. (Assuming they aren't odd characters like Chinese)

Can't really find any - it's probably banned now ha. There is a similar nethacrylate one HERE but they are talking about bonding fibreglass and metals, etc. Non porous so could do the same - maybe worth contacting them on their website? What about glues that fix rear view mirrors to windscreens? They tend to be plastic.

Hello Tony, I have had three Lexus IS 300’s. My current 300 has excessive tire wear on the inside edge of the tires. I have taken it in repeatedly to have alignment checked and it is stable. I found on an American forum that you have sorted out the geometry for this car suggesting I contact you. I am hoping you are willing to share that data so I can have the front front end adjusted to eliminate or reduce this issue. Thank you.

Nice one Terry, I might pick up a copy next time I'm in town

Tony. No affiliation with these guys and there is lots more info available online. https://www.enginelabs.com/engine-tech/exhaust/performance-exhaust-system-design-and-theory/

I live near Formby Red Squirrel reserve and a member. They have certainly caused a large yes but probably not for the reasons most people think. It's a number of reasons. They actually live alongside the Reds quite happily and that's why the Reds suffer. Greys are immune to Squirrel pox virus which is the biggest killer (80% of Reds by 2008) and the grey get it but act only as carriers and pass it onto Reds which unfortunately have close to 100% mortality rate. Grey live in much higher density than Reds so overtake their feeding grounds and living spaces, plus if there are any diseases they pass them straight on and with a smaller population, proportionally more die. Greys are much more efficient at feeding and storing in woodlands, and being bigger also store more fat in their bodies so tend to survive for more winters. One of the reasons the reds are doing so well on this reserve is because they feed on the seeds found in conifer pine cones. Reds can get to them but the Greys are too heavy so just move on elsewhere and don't bother living near them if there isn't much of another food source. Plus, the volunteers locals "remove" any Greys that are sighted in the area.

https://www.dukevideo.com/prd3638ED/Nissan-Skyline-GT-R-Story-Download?utm_source=Youtube&utm_medium=Youtube%2BTrailer%2B&utm_content=Nissan%2BSkyline%2BGT-R%2BDL&utm_campaign=YoutubeNSkylineGTRDL This is good watch

Just seen this thread, so apologies for the delayed response. The chemist in me jut begged for attention:- "Another point is they say the molecule is much larger so less likely to leak through the tyres inner liner or at the bead line" Nitrogen molecule is 155 pm (picometers); oxygen molecule is 152 pm. That's pretty much the same size, so there will be no difference detectable in the gas diffusion rate - whether through the bead or the rubber. What will make the difference is that the pure nitrogen filled tyres should last longer as the oxygen will cause the tyre to perish more quickly from the inside (you can't do anything about the outside!). And, as already noted, the nitrogen is dry, whereas compressed air still has moisture in in. Colin

Miss-alignment AKA four wheel alignment AKA tracking is a shared angle or put it this way. You just hit the curb and knocked the alignment out 10mm, as soon as you move the front wheels will self centre meaning each wheel has 5mm and not as many think one wheel is 0 and the other 10mm. As for cost we charge by the adjustment and not by the car, so on the MB it would be a full chassis image £30+ vat or full image and front - rear toe correction £95+ vat. Add to this the MB adjuster bolts they are £30+ vat each and it reads like you would need two. £30+ per bolt reads expensive but the entire under-tray needs removing, fitting the adjuster bolts are a bugger and then replace the under-tray. Before you spend any money there's something you need to test first which costs nothing? Move the front wheels with the tyres side - to - side. The reason for this is to see if the pull is due to the tyres. If it goes straight or pulls the other way then it's the tyres. Don't worry though it's not a defect it's a build issue with radial tyres.