Other What's ruining your life right now?

Can confirm.

I had a pre-loved 2004 Vectra years ago.
5 months after buying the car, the belt snapped at 70mph and the whole motor chunked itself.
Luckily for me, it was still under warranty with the dealer I got it from, so I had the AA stretcher it there.
Luckily for them, it was 2000 miles under the 1st belt change interval (40k) Vauxhall recommended, so they dragged it to the main dealer.
TL;DR - I had a hire car for a month (no courtesy available) while the car got a refurbished block with all-new giblets, all on Vauxhall's bill!

 

Run Away, gather a mob and hunt down whoever's great idea it was to use wet belts and flog them with one.
Cam chains for the win.

 

That's a dry belt, a wet belt slowly disintegrates, clogs the oil pick up, starving the engine and turbo of much needed oil and other not so great party tricks, a curse on them.

 

It's an engineering marvel, designed to destroy the engine a week after the manufacturer's warranty expires; great if you want to sell new cars, terrible if you want a car that will last.

 

Timing chains are no panacea these days.
Plastic guides wear and they tensioners are usually hydraulic.
They're subject to the vagaries of oil cha ges at the right time and the right oil.

One of my customers is a whizz with the dreaded Ford 1L eco boost engines and getting tidy youngish fiestas and foci on the road again that will last fine of tended right.

 

True enough, but still 1.37 million times more reliable than a wet belt, I vowed to only have cam chains after 2 dry belts snapped on me, it just boggles my mind that someone thought wet belts were a good idea.

 

I’ve never read anything good about wet cam belts. Cost cutting taken a big step too far.

 

I can't disagree in the least.

My diesel car that I bought 5 years ago even though I swore I wouldn't buy has had it.

Collecting a petrol car with timing chain and proven reliability at the weekend.

Hopefully cheaper fuel will offset the potentially lower MPG. However, I have been advised to buy E5 to minimise carbon build up on the inlet valves

 

ok now i see why c++ does people's heads in

 

Yeah, so, I don’t want to scare you or anything, and it’s hard to judge someone’s level of knowledge… But these guys aren’t wrong:

That’s the main issue with wet belts: the engine oil corrodes the belt, tiny chunks of belt to fall into the oil pan, those little chunks get slurped up by the oil pickup, eventually the mesh on the oil pickup gets clogged, engine and turbo get starved of oil… and nothing good ever happens when you starve an internal combustion engine of oil (or coolant, for that matter, but that’s a different story).

Ford’s small 3 cylinder turbocharged “EcoBoost” (aka EcoBoom) engines are the most notorious modern example.

You absolutely can mitigate against these issues, it just carries a maintenance burden: never delay an oil change, use specially formulated belts & oils, and keep the oil pickup clean.

But don’t take the word of some random blokes on the internet, have a chat with the garage when you take it in and get a professional’s opinion

 

Got the car radiator off. But have removed so many parts, screws, hoses and electrical connections I'm genuinely worried how it's going back together.

Also Autodoc are taking ages to send my new part so it's going to have to sit there for a few days now. Wont be using them again. Part was listed as in stock. Hmm.

 

Grr. Hit a deer on the drive in this morning. Considering everything, the cosmetic damage isn't that bad, but will need to have the business estate's friendly car mechanic look it over.

That'll teach me for thinking everything's starting to feel on track life wise.

 

Yikes. On the plus side, is your freezer now fully stocked?

 

You cannot take anything you kill on the roads, it's illegal, however the car following you can. so you need to work out a deal, they pick it up, and later give it to you, or share it.

 

Dear god I hope nothing like that happens to me. I don’t have the balls to shout at people in any real situation. Horrendous treatment that.
What an escalation that they bring up calling police. Although it isn’t so surprising nowadays.

Hope the scans are clear and not what you fear.

And I’ve just had a hernia done too, by a surgeon who screwed me up a bit from an Op 6 months prior. Just praying it’s fixed.

 

I really feel for you buddy, GP's are utterly awful, and such terrible gatekeepers, I've basically stopped going to them being I've had so many bad experiences its just exhausting! The NHS is lovely, if you can get access, the issue is that first step us utterly broken its awful and needs radical overhaul! Its one of the few domains I hope AI wipes them all out because they're paid too much for awful service, and I've experienced it multiple times at multiple GP's in different parts of the country!
MRI's are defiantly industrial, I'm hoping Venjent makes a song with them soon, his one with grinding wheels is great! xD

And try not to fixate on things too much, one thing at a time, don't start pre-catastrophising, I'm terrible for it too, and it does no good and is totally wasted energy!

 

Most GPs are useless idiots

Prime examples from various:
Refused to prescribe rizatriptan, migraine medication. Apparently all I'd get is ibuprofen. Pointed out I'm allergic to it which I wrote in known medication allergies when registering. "I can get you ibuprofen". Mate you trying to kill me?
Same **** tried to push statins which I have a strange reaction to: intraocular pressure goes dangerously high. Dude... I'm not going blind because you want a kickback or something. Besides I solved cholesterol problem via dietary changes
Several GPs near Preston Road tube were outright twats about monitoring DIY HRT. Some said DIY is illegal. One of the practices continues to text me about vaccinations starting with "Dear Mr. Deadname"
Outright cancelled my HRT and completely blanked out on the issue when raised. Dude... I'm dependant on exogenous hormones for rest of my life you idiot. Did prescribe a glorious amount of co-codamol though
Awful management of HRT, wanted to keep me at low end of female E2 reference range + stop progesterone and dutasteride. Nope, happy spot is at 600pmol not 370. I'm no stranger to DIY HRT so had to guide two GPs at the practice. Never stopped getting weird looks tho
Claims my balance issues stem for peripheral neuropathy. Yup got that, arms and legs. Oh just a thing. PN doesn't cause whole body pins and needles. MRI shows numerous plaques in my brain + got the diagnosis so there we go. You're not neurology, you're a GP. Know your place bruv

#4 is why I stock a minimum of two years worth of everything HRT and maintain a list of active grey market suppliers

Current GP? Acceptable. Could do better in some areas such as booking appointments and actually blacklist one specific nurse from my care: loves to interrupt, talks over me and ignores a sizeable portion of what I say

 

Cellulitis... again.

Got what I thought was the start of another dose of cellulitis on my right calf on Friday night. Then it went away, fine must've just been an irritation or something, the skin on my lower legs is screwed from cellulitis already. Woke up this morning with my lower right leg on fire, bright red and blotchy, hot, painful to the touch and itchy at the same time.

Called 111 got a call back within a couple of hours, sent a picture of the glowing red goodness that is my leg (which I shall spare you all, you are most welcome...), doc looked at that and promptly sent a prescription for some lovely lovely flucloxacillin to a local pharmacy, Gave it an hour for all that to get sorted and welt and grabbed it. That whole process worked wonderfully, just REALLY wish I didn't need to have done it.

4th time with cellulitis, 2nd time on this leg, the eternal joys of a compromised immune system. Hopefully got it in time to prevent too much additional scarring and nerve damage but we shall see...