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I have had my 2008 Chevrolet Spark for 11 years and it has been super reliable but on Wednesday it overheated on a hot day in a motorway traffic jam. I removed the thermostat, put in some water and I did complete my journey. I didn't think it was the thermostat but it was an easy thing to try...

I have a pine desk which I have had for 20 years or so. It was flat pack but I assumed it had some kind of matt varnish as it was not shiny. Over the years I realised it must have been bare wood as parts would get grubby looking. I finally got round to dismantling it, sanding off stains etc and...

I am thinking of changing from a woodburning cooking range with boiler to a pellet stove which will be in the utility room adjacent to the kitchen. House is a 3 bedroom bungalow. I can't afford a new pellet stove but have seen one secondhand, a Ferroli GN1 N05, maximum output: 58.1 kW. I...

I'm in Croatia and have done my bathroom floor with Sinteros vinyl flooring which I think is made in Poland. I also want to cover the plywood bath panels with the same vinyl. I initially did the end panel with double sided tape but it started falling off after a couple of days. It stuck to the...

Often when I try to search for something on Google the results I need are swamped by irrelevant stuff. This is partly because I'm from UK and the internet is largely USA populated. Is there a way to exclude certain results using keywords? For example, today I was trying to look up a song...

Not sure if anyone here has dealings with continental water heaters but here goes. I'm from UK but living in Croatia. I have no gas here but plenty of forests so I put in a woodburning central heating system. I used a UK type indirect cylinder for the hot water and the system was pumped CH...

My PC was full of building dust so I dismantled it and blew the parts clean with an airline. I thought everything on the motherboard was labelled and it mostly is but the single socket for the 4 plugs to HDD led, Power Led, Power button and reset button is confusing. It is right at the bottom of...

I posted recently about problems with a shower pump. One of the replies suggested that the hot water might be too hot for the pump. The water has been getting very hot lately so I tried turning down the immersion heater thermostat. The thermostat has never worked since then. The water gets...

My hot water is a gravity system and the shower has always been a pathetic trickle. Some time ago a friend gave me a couple of secondhand shower pumps, the sort with a central motor and pumps each end for hot and cold. He also gave me some hoses for connecting to the supply and shower mixer...

Years ago it was dead easy to fit a universal roof rack to your Moggy Minor but these days it seems to be a pain in the proverbial! Even if your car comes with roof rails you still need to then get roof bars before you can use the wretched things. I have got a pair of bars I bought in Lidl a...

I have been doing pointing work on weak Eastern European bricks using a 6:1:1 mix of sand, OPC and hydrated lime. I would like if possible to go to a proper lime mortar and avoid using the OPC. I have watched various YouTube videos on lime mortar but am just getting more confused! In one video...

I just bought this machine secondhand and when I tried to fill it with petroil it leaked. The fuel leaks from a hole in the tank next to where the fuel hose comes out. I saw a YouTube video for a Model 340 and that has a nipple and return hose in addition to the fuel feed to the carb. Should my...

My central heating system went wrong in the evening of Christmas day and I think I need a new pump. The system is solid fuel boiler with indirect cylinder and pumped CH, gravity DHW. It still works for hot water but all rads are cold. I have tried the hosepipe method on a couple of rads in case...

Today I have been fitting an isolating valve in the hot water supply to my kitchen sink mixer. The valve is one intended for wall mounting, with 1/2" male thread which goes into the wall and 3/8" male outlet at 90 degrees which fits the stainless flexi hose to the mixer. My problem is that if...

I can't use my phone because I keep getting an error message "Google Play Services has stopped working" If I click OK the message comes back about a second later. I've tried rebooting and it makes no difference. Sometimes I get a different message offering to report the fault but so far I've...

I inherited a very old Clarke generator, model CPB1200, fitted with a B&S 3.5HP engine, model 130292, type 3204 01. I can't get it to start and tried a compression test and only got 30psi. I suspect the rings are rusted in the piston as it probably has not been run for about 20 years. The...

Some months ago I purchased an old Hercules bicycle that is fitted with Woods type tyre valves. Within a few weeks of getting the bike the tyres started getting soft but so far I've not been able to pump them to the correct pressure (65 psi) I've tried the normal bicycle pump and a car foot pump...

I was just looking at a few Youtube videos on laying cork tiles but the methods used look very time consuming. I was just wondering if it is possible to treat cork tiles the same as ceramic tiles i.e. apply tile adhesive, comb it and put down the tile? I realise a roller or something would be...

I am putting in a new bathroom in my house in Croatia. I have fitted a larger bathtub which partially covers the floor drain. I need to either move the floor drain trap or do away with it completely. I would prefer to manage without it as it is not a wetroom bathroom so the water in the trap...

I have been doing some rewiring of my house in Croatia and discovered that the supply from the meter is 3 phase but only one phase is currently in use. The other 2 phase wires are just hanging loose behind the board upon which the consumer unit is mounted. I think all the houses in the village...