Recent content by Cambman

I didn't know Martin and never met him, but it was clear from his posts that he was a generous, friendly man who wanted to share his knowledge and help members to improve their cars. I must admit that a lot of the technical stuff went over my head, but I regarded him as so much more than 'that...

My GR's battery died on the front drive yesterday, without any warning. Good job it didn't happen during my walking trip to the Derbyshire Dales earlier in the week! I've gone for a 60Ah Yuasa (with a 4-year warranty) for £90 from GSF. I've had this brand before and it's not let me down.

I've always parked up my GR86 in this fashion. The handbrake doesn't use the rear pads and discs. There's another small set of shoes inside the centre drum of each rear wheel which are activated when the handbrake is pulled. Mine used to crack on my old GT86 when parked for a few days until I...

Would be great if entrants included location of pics. Maybe from next month?

Presume that the tyre on the spare is not markedly different from the set you are running?

Out of the frying pan...?

My runaround is a 56 plate 1.3 T-Spirit Yaris on 126k. It has had a few replacement components, but nothing major and is reliable. It has no rust on the body, despite a few chips and scrapes. Such is my faith in it that I'm about to give it a set of new tyres.

I had the same problem with my old GT86. I took it to a mechanic friend and he dismantled each brake, cleaned the components and greased as appropriate. The pads and discs were fine. He remarked that this usually happened because dealer servicing rarely did brake maintenance of this nature. So...

Spotted a small chip in the passenger-side windscreen yesterday and had it repaired by a very efficient and competent man at Halfords this morning for £45. It's difficult to see where it was now. I think he's had plenty of experience - his wife used to drive a Celica.

It's insurance time again and my current insurers (Swiftcover) clearly don't want me any more as they've sent a renewal that's 70% greater than last year's. Thankfully, uSwitch have done a comprehensive survey and found some reasonable quotes, the best of which comes from Lloyds Bank at around...

Finally got my diff oil changed after 20k miles with the 40% cheaper genuine Toyota oil from Fish Bros. I was a little surprised at the level of swarf caught on the magnetic drain plug and how relatively thick and black the oil was, but I read that this is usual at first change. Nevertheless, I...

Get it repaired asap before it starts spreading. I had one a year ago and it was about £35 at Halfords. They'll tell you if it's repairable and refund if it's not. I left a previous small chip for 3 months and ended up with a new screen after a sudden hot spell spread the crack 3ins. 😲

164.9 for E5 at Cambridge Sainsbury's this afternoon - plus there was a tanker pumping in some E10.

"...while i was eating my Panino..." 😀 Wonderful to see the correct singular spelling there! So surprised that I nearly knocked over both my Cappuccini. 😂

In the old days, this meant that one of your indicator bulbs had gone.