Has the format changed for searching? In the past I have put in a word i.e. brakes and it came back with lots of posts including ones posted minutes earlier, now it comes back with ones posted weeks ago and not in the same format as before. Has it changed or am I doing somthing wrong?

It's changed.

It will remain a bit crap until faster hamsters can be sourced for the servers.

faster hamsters? more like hamsters that are alive.