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SotonFarang I am making almost the same trip as you. Flying from Don Muang for 8 days and driving to the airport. Could you please tell me your experience of parking at Don Muang. I am arriving there in the evening after 6pm on March 18th. We are going to South Korea, so it may be a different terminal than you used, but I don't mind having to walk any distance to the terminal after parking - I just want my car parked safely and hopefully not on the rooftop in the sun. Thanks for your help.

Arjen, yes I am just living in the past I guess! I will go and buy some epoxy and some fibreglass as well tomorrow. Thanks again for the advice.

RichCor, thanks for the comment. When I went to see the Thai guy who has welded parts for me before, he looked at the casing and said he couldn't use that method on the flange. He actually suggested I use an epoxy as I don't think he liked the look (quality?) of the metal used on the casing. I thought it odd he mentioned using an expoxy, as I come from an era (I am 62) when glues were not very good. However, all that seems to have changed nowadays, they are much better quality, so I will try an epoxy and see how it goes.

Crossy, thanks for the recommendation. I watched some youtube epoxy tests, comparing different epoxys and Loctite Metal 2 part Epoxy came out on top. So I will pop into Pattaya tomorrow to try to find some proper Araldite or Loctite.

One more question, does that part of the pump ie: the inlet flange area get hot at all? I was thinking I would need an epoxy that would withstand some mild heat, but on reflection I cannot think why it would get any heat at all. In fact, the end of the flange where the hose pipe is connected is made of plastic and there is cold water flowing through as well.

David B In Thailand - thanks for that link. I will go and have a look now.

Crossy, thanks for that idea. I hadn't considered 'gluing' it before. I will look into it.

Arjen, thanks for the advice. It shouldn't damage the rubber and plastic parts at that heat.

Any thoughts on the best glue/epozy for this task??

Thanks again for the help, it really is appeciated.

Hi There

I live in Pattaya and have an 8 year old FASA Exxel Pressure washer. It it 130 bar, 2100 watts and is perfect for the jobs I use it for.

It is broken.

I will explain the problem below if you are interested, but I am really keen to find somewhere that I could buy a replacement cylinder head for the engine and fix it myself or where I could take it to a repairer and get them to fix it for me. So if you have any suggestions on where I could get FASA supplies or get it repaired I would be most grateful.

The Problem If You are Interested

The water inlet flange was cracked and leaking - not sure how it happened.

I took the plastic cover off and removed the engine and dismantled the casing and as you can see when I removed the valve connecting the hose, the whole thing came off. I think I made a major error in connecting the inlet hose pipe using a metal valve instead of the plastic one they provided, as it was corroded on. Hard to explain really. I had to cut it off in the end.

I have removed the cylinder head and now have parts that needs welding or replacing. This is harder than it seems, as there are rubber-o-rings

and plastic parts in the head so they would have to be removed before there could be any welding. I could remove them, but then I suspect they

would be damaged anyway and so I would need to find a FASA repairer or parts supplier anyway.

Your help would be appreciated.

Thanks for the reply.

Normally I could go to loads of places locally.

I have 4 motorbike shops near where I live in Banglamung - past Naklua going North.

I went down to 2 of them today and they are both shut already for the holidays. So before I head into Pattaya I was interested to know if the bigger chains like Mityon are open.

I will drive into Pattaya and head to that place you mentioned - a nice trip to Soi Bukaow will be fun and that new shop looks huge.

Thanks again

My wife's Yamaha Spark was having some trouble starting. I have just found a crack in the battery. She could use the kickstart, but I would rather buy a new battery. Do you know if Mityon is open tomorrow, or anywhere I could get a battery tomorrow?

Thanks for your help.

Thanks a lot starrdog, that's miles away from where I was looking. I will try to find it later today.

I went to the old centre on Friday on the Sukhumvit and it has gone! So this thread is a great help. However, I could not find it. I think I misunderstood this:-

'Going down 3rd road turn right onto Nua and the turning into a bit of a complex is about 100m on your left.

Turn in and it's 50m facing you on the left. '

Could you please expand on this.

Thanks for your help - and Merry Xmas.

partington - thanks for your feedback. I don't think you only can provide a utility bill for proof of address. I think a bank statement will suffice as will other documents according to a couple of banks I looked at.

I do have to give a previous address if I have not lived in the address for 3 months. I would provide them with my Thailand address. I don't know if I will have to wait for 3 months until I have lived in the UK before I can open an account (do you know?). I have never heard of that rule before, but it does not mean it does not exist. Like I say I only started looking into this a few days ago so I am still pretty naive about all the rules at them moment!

I have asked Nationwide what I need to do to qualify as a 'resident' for opening a bank account with them. I will post the reply here again when it arrives.

Thanks again for your feedback.

edit: re Barclays, I just told them to close the account. I had been with them over 40 years and had a current account with them that was all and they wanted to close it so I said go ahead then.

To the OP I say - I suffer your pain. The number of 'large reputable' offshore banks in the Channel Islands gets ever smaller. There were 8 a few years ago, now there are just 2. I suspect they will vanish soon as well.

I live in Thailand and have my money offshore with Nationwide International. I only read about this last Monday.  So I am just starting to think about my options only this week.

I am an expat, with no address in the UK.

That changes next year anyway, as for personal reasons I will be staying in the UK for at least 4 months next year.

So I will then have an address in the UK, for 4 months anyway.

I asked the Nationwide International 'advice service' dealing with this closure if I could open a bank account with them in the UK onshore as soon as I arrived back.

I am British with a British passport, so no problems with proving my legality to live in the UK. I will have  an address with proof of address, as I will be giving Nationwide Int my UK address anyway. So I will have plenty of bits of paper from them with proof of my address!

Of course, I then realised if I can open an account onshore with Nationwide I can open accounts with any bank.

It would suit me to open an online 5 year savings account(s) with the new banks offering 2 percent interest.

In fact as one of the posts above stated, I have no real idea what the advantages are now to having any of my savings offshore. The interest is poor and the money is not as safe as being onshore with the 75k FSCS guarantee.

So, I am thinking of moving all my money back onshore - money I have with LloydsTsb int and Santander int as well.

This would mean opening the onshore accounts as a 'permanent resident' and then leaving the UK 4 months later and sending the new banks my address in Thailand.

I am not a 'dodgy geezer' type and this seems like it could be dodgy. Opening an account then leaving the UK 4 months later.

I do not know why I think that.

From reading about the definition of 'permanent resident' it seems the UK authorities are more interested in people claiming they are NOT PR - to avoid paying UK taxes  - than claiming they are!

I had other onshore accounts with Barclays, HSBC, Coventry BS, Alliance and Leicester, Halifax and some others,  when I first came to Thailand 13 years ago and I just gave them my new address in Thaiand when I left the UK.

It was no problem. In fact I still have most of these accounts and access them online now and then.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thanks to all of you for the advice. It was a great help. I thought changing tyre sizes may be a hassle. You have convinced it isn't.

I used the tyre size comparison charts - they were very useful - and then went to my local dealer and decided to get the 225/70/R15 fitted.

I contacted the insurance broker and they are fine with this.

So sorted.

Thanks again.

Thanks Transam, I will go and have a play with it now.

Lickey, thanks for the feedback. Yes, I will head down to the tyre place today and see what they have.

Jas22, thanks for the reply. It isn't the mental arithmetic that concerns me, I am just thinking like I am still in the UK and the 'fun' the insurance assessor would have if the speedo was 'inaccurate' and I had an accident. Like Strange said and I agree, I am probably overthinking this and over here is does not really matter.

In the UK, I have had friends (not me yet!), who have had sizeable insurance claims turned down (car, housing, medical) for the most trivial of reasons!

Strange, you could be right. I do tend to 'overthink' things. I have lived here for 13 years and still think Thailand (insurance companies etc..) are as bad as the UK, where they will take little notice of you when you pay the premium, but analyse you in minute detail when you make a claim! Car insurance, medical insurance, house insurance - if they can find a way to avoid payment in many cases they will!

I had not thought of re-calibrating the speedo. That is the only thing that would be changed that would be incorrect - possibly illegal - anyway. What a good idea. I will google that now.

34 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

the difference is very minimal and you will barely notice.

 

 

 

Thanks for the chart Don Mega. To be honest, I would just like to go to the shop, choose the tyres I like the look of size-wise and fit them on. Since I was a kid I have been working on bike and car engines etc... just for fun. Not so much now I am older. However, in all that time I have never really learned anything about tyres. So I am trying to decide such things as - if in Thailand anyone cares if the speedo is not so accurate? Maybe I am over thinking this and am acting like I am still in the UK where every little change to a vehicle seems that it could incur a traffic violation or invalidate the insurance.

28 minutes ago, Naam said:

correct!

Thanks for the feedback Naam - I thought that was the case. I hadn't read up about tyres for some months when I first thought about replacing them. So I wasn't sure.

1 hour ago, Anythingleft? said:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc?tires=205-70r15-215-70r15

Thanks Anythingleft, very useful. I have asked the broker if the 215 tyres are OK. She said they are with this insurer. I did not really want to go back and ask her about every tyre size, so I thought I would check out what size I would prefer before I contact her again.

I will have a play around with this tool and pop down and have a look at some different sizes at the shop tomorrow.

Strange, thanks very much for the quick reply. When I read about tyres on the Bridgestone web-site it said the '70' in the sizing is not the height directly, but the ratio based on the width. So the height is changed slightly as well.

I am from the UK, where insurance companies are (in)famous for not paying out on claims where the vehicle is considered non-standard. Fitting larger tyres without letting them know would be a bad idea for sure!

Is it not the same in Thailand?? I really have no idea.

I would like to raise the height by at least an inch if I could, more if possible.

I don't have GPS.

Thanks again for your help.

I have a Toyota Hilux. I will be replacing the tyres next week and would like to fit slightly larger tyres.

I have Bridgestone 205/70/R15 at the moment and want to go to 215/70/R15.

This will give me slightly better road holding as they are wider.

Also, where I live my driveway has a steep slope at the entrance and the frame of the vehicle scrapes the ground

if I get the angle slightly wrong when I enter the driveway. So if the tyres were a bit bigger, then I would avoid this

problem as well.

I would like to go (a bit) bigger than 215/70/R15 if I could, but I am concerned about the speedo being wrong

and more importantly if it would invalidate the insurance.

I contacted my insurance broker and the 215/70/R15 is not a problem with my current insurance company.

However, I wonder if I want to change to another insurance company it may become a problem.

So any advice you could give me about how big the tyres could be without there being significant problems with

the speedo accuracy or renewing insurance would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for you help.

I voted for Brexit and was very pleased when we won. I knew then that living in Thailand, I was going to be getting less for my pound over the next few years whilst the negotiations to leave were underway. The FX market does not like uncertainty. When Mr Carney needlessly reduced the bank rate and started printing a load more money, it was obvious that it was going to be a very very bumpy 2-3 years ride for FX rates indeed!

I am not only way down on the money I would be getting from the FX rate had the remain vote won, I am also getting hammered on the reduced interest rates on my savings as well.

I believe it will be bad for the next few years then it will get better as new trading conditions are established and the UK economy will go from strength to strength as the EU and the euro slowly disintegrates.

I agree with the poster above, the pound is more likely to go down further rather than rise and the expected rate rise by the Fed in the near future will also make matters worse.

I am surprised though that he says that ' ...but I don't think anyone expected to be where we are now'. I would have thought these guys would have expected to be right where we are now.

We are leaving the EU after all, it was never going to be an easy task and there will be a lot of negotiaions ending in failure once article 50 is invoked in March next year. I don't think anyone knows how this is going to end up. Interesting times indeed.

For me personally, Brexit will be worth the lost income. I have every sympathy though for those expats out there living on just their basic UK state pension. I have friends in this situation and I do not know what they can do about this at all to survive the next few years.

Faz, thanks for the feedback. Sadly my 400k won't be seeded until the 23rd of August.

elviajero, thanks for your advice.

That could be a life-saver for sure.

Thanks Ubonjoe for the advice.

The trouble is my 400k money in the bank is not not seeded until 22nd August as I could only move it over on June 22nd.