The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

LydiaJ

Taught DS how to change a tyre today.

That's because I had a flat on my car this morning. And one on my bike too.

Friend at work who's into bikes has offered to take a look at mine and find out what's caused it. It was fine on Saturday, so I suspect a valve problem, but we'll see. Car off to the tyre place this afternoon because the spare is only for short distances and low speeds, so I need to get a proper new tyre asap.

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

Taught DS how to change a tyre today.

That works, until the machine-tightened nuts won't undo even if you're bouncing your full weight on the bar that undoes them

Jackmydad

PasturesNew wrote: »

That works, until the machine-tightened nuts won't undo even if you're bouncing your full weight on the bar that undoes them

Could be worth having similar to this is the car.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Extending-Wheel-Nut-Key-Wrench-1-2-Drive-Long-Breaker-Bar-17mm-19mm-Sockets/311554628008?hash=item488a1a59a8:g:5~QAAOSwUuFWzyHo
(No affiliation)
The places I use torque them up these days though, so the ridiculously tight nuts thing seems to be a thing of the past!

PasturesNew

Jackmydad wrote: »

The places I use torque them up these days though, so the ridiculously tight nuts thing seems to be a thing of the past!

I've never tried, to be honest. I didn't have a puncture from about 1982 until recently! I've had two punctures: 1/ while parked at work, the tyre depot was 50 yards on the same site, so I drove it there; 2/thought the car felt a bit bouncy, it was a slow puncture, the local depot has a van and does local mobile fitting calls for no extra cost, so they popped round.

Jackmydad

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never tried, to be honest. I didn't have a puncture from about 1982 until recently! I've had two punctures: 1/ while parked at work, the tyre depot was 50 yards on the same site, so I drove it there; 2/thought the car felt a bit bouncy, it was a slow puncture, the local depot has a van and does local mobile fitting calls for no extra cost, so they popped round.

Had the first I've had for years sometime last Summer. Slow puncture going down over a couple of days.
I blew the tyre up and drove it down to the nearest tyre place.
3" nail picked up from somewhere. Tyre was getting near the end anyway.
Tyres are better than they used to be I think. (That's done it now! )

GDB2222

I've heard it said that the following works as a means of loosening stubborn wheel nuts.

1. Jack the car up.
2. Put the spanner on the wheel nut with the handle on the right.
3. Place a little tower of bricks/blocks of wood etc under the handle so as to bridge the gap between the ground and the handle.
4. Lower the jack carefully, and the weight of the car loosens the nut.

chris_m

A lot of cars nowadays don't have a spare, not even a "pram wheel" spacesaver. They just have and electric pump and a can of tyre sealant. That's all my Rover and Mercedes came with.
I paid extra for a spare (spacesaver) for the Rover but later picked up a second set of full size wheels so sacrificed a couple of inches of boot height to give me a proper spare. For the Merc all I could do was get a spacesaver because it didn't have a spare wheel well so a full size spare would have eaten too much of the boot space.
My Duster has a proper full size spare, but only because it's the 4x4 variant - the 4x2s only get a can of jollop as standard but a spacesaver spare is available as a chargable option.

PasturesNew

chris_m wrote: »

.... Mercedes ....
...Duster ....

Posh alert!

Two car bloke!

One of those is posh ...no idea what the other one is/never heard of it.

EDIT: Googled it .... that's a biggun ... that'd not fit in my parking space ... well, it would, if you never wanted to open a door to get out of the car.

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

Posh alert!
Two car bloke!
One of those is posh ...no idea what the other one is/never heard of it.
EDIT: Googled it .... that's a biggun ... that'd not fit in my parking space ... well, it would, if you never wanted to open a door to get out of the car.

No, I got rid of the Merc - I hung on to it for a while to decide which was the more suitable, then returned the Merc and kept the Duster. Although it's not as comfortable for long journeys the Duster's far better suited to the hilly, narrow, twisty, bumpy roads around here, especially for seeing around corners over hedges and walls.

I "should" have kept the Merc until the end of the contract in September this year but worked out that it'd cost me at least 4 grand just to have it sat on the drive in case I felt like using it. So I paid the outstanding amount to make up the minimum due under the PCP contract, returned it and then paid off the PCP on the Duster as well.

Surprisingly, the Duster's not much bigger a footprint than the Merc. There's only about an inch in it length and widthwise, although quite a bit on the height. It's actually easier for getting in and out in tight spaces because you step up into it and down out. With the Merc I had to try to stand up at the same time as getting out so needed the door open further.

Pyxis

Pastures, regrading your key, if there were letters in the box, might you have put the key down with the letters?


Out of interest, did your front door not have a letter-box opening, then?
I've never understood why that happens. I would hate to have to go outside to get my post. Plus, lots of things would end up sticking out of the box and invite unwanted attention.:(



Oh, and I'm back, by the way! Spent today half asleep, (as got back extremely late last night), and doing loads of washing and going through the post!

One of my credit cards had had some fraudulent activity on it just before I went away; luckily I was able to sort it before I went, and the new card and pin was waiting for me when I got home. Got a couple of texts while away to say they've refunded me the fraudulent stuff. I must admit, I was very impressed that they picked it up so quickly, and very glad that it wasn't a day later when I would have been away.


Re. keys, I've got loads of duplicates of everything. Two neighbours have front door keys, in case I lock myself out. The keys all have their specific place........ I'd never find them otherwise, so I do sympathise!

It was interesting that Pastures said if she loses her car key she still has her house key, because when I go out, my car and house keys are on the same key ring! Mind you, there is a large 'thing' on the key ring, so would be hard to lose.

My house insurance has a system whereby if someone finds the house keys and rings the insurance company, they get a monetary reward. Good idea.


Had a dreadful internet connection while away, so gave up in the end.