January 2002
Finally got round to putting my 280mm VR6 brakes on my ancient Jetta 16v the other day. Unfortunately, when I took the passenger side wheel off I found everything covered in grease. Oh dear. New CV boot needed. I haven?t done this job before and wondered if any of the knowledgeable people here could offer some advice? To do it properly I understand the CV joint should be removed. However, this will take time. I don?t think many garages would bother. So I asked the guy at Central Tyre, while he bled my brakes on his electronic machine, how he did. He said he used to do it properly but damaged a CV joint on a Mondeo one day so since the he has just bodged it. He used a plastic cone that he stretched the boot over and just forced it over the CV joint from the cone and held it in place with zip-ties. He said don?t bother with specific boot, just buying general purpose ones. I like the idea of not removing the CV joint but where do I get one of these cones, is this item most car spares places stock. I only ask because I am in a hurry and need to drive the car 300 miles on Sunday!
Additionally, does anyone have any advice on changing the tie-rods; one of mine is completely shot. I think I can get the boot off easily enough, but how does one get a spanner to the end of the rod to undo it.
Any advice or comments very gratefully received.
Ben Read more
Advice please on the best way to use the air-con system on modern cars.
Honest John suggest use at all times? My friends are not convinced, claiming high fuel bills and loss of power. Any setting of the heating system to the screen on modern cars automatically turns the A/C on, so is the manufacturer and honest John correct or should A/C be used more sparingly (cold/weekly/or unless you need it)? Read more
THe Growler wrote:
> Possibly
> the a/c is specc'd for the area where sold? as I found on
> what passes for a hot day in UK none of the systems produced
> the cooling quality I am used to
When I was first in Brazil there were two different Astras for sale; one bult in Belgium and the other in South America somewhere. It was a well known fact that the air-conditioning on the European one was much weaker.
Certainly comparing the one Vectra 2.2mpfi I sometimes drive here and a simialr one I rented in Geneva a year or so ago, the cooling on the one here is much, much stronger.
Had a look at an Audi A3 the other day - nice car but SO damned expensive - about 16K for a small hatchback! Makes the Golf and the even cheaper Leon seem like great value. How does VAG get away with such a wide discrepancy for more or less the same car with differnt badges?
btw- anybody out there got first hand experience of a Leon - reliability, running costs etc.? Read more
Why go for a used A140 when for the same money you can have a new Honda Jazz, which is a better handling, more reliable, better built car in the first place.
HJ
Has anyone (other than Alwyn, who mentioned it ref: 9/10/01) a considered opinion of the TrafCam (www.trafcam.com) ? (Does the HJ site do product testing?)
With so many cameras about, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before my licence of 30+ years gets besmirched, so I'd like to get protected. But at £300 entry level, I want to make sure it's worth it. Read more
For reviews of all GPS systems see here.
www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/frames.htm
Roll down the index on the left.
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hosb1299.pdf
You might enjoy this one...
I'll see if I can dig up anything a little more recent for comparison. Read more
another link of interest...
Roads & Road Planning & other stuff..
www.roads.dtlr.gov.uk/
Friday aftenoon, bar in 10 minutes, currently bored. Can you tell ?
I am not suprised so many people drive without insurance today, with quotes for many younger drivers being four figures, while the fine for being caught is usually a few hundred.
If you drive an anonymous car sensibly you have no chance of being pulled for a spot check by the police, hence the only risk of being caught is if you have an accident.
Surely some system can be devised to stop people taking this risk and hiking up our premiums, I'm paying roughly the same now as what I was when I first started driving, despite being older with full no claims driving a lower ins group car! Read more
Mark is correct.
Section 144 Road Traffic Act, 1988 gives an exemption from the usual third party insurance to a vehicle owned by a person who has deposited and keeps deposited with the Accountant General of the Supreme Court the sum of £500,000 at a time when the vehicle is being driven under the owners control.
Greater sum may be ordered by Sec of State.
See you all at the Supreme Court tomorrow with your wallets?
DVD
Read the very interesting thread on numbers in Germany......1 per 5000 in the UK, you're having a laugh. My old patch - which had 8563 souls on its electoral role+ under 18s, was Policed by three of us - one on a day off, one on days and one on lates and we covered everything bar fatal TAs and Serious Crime. In one 12 month period I recall, I dealt with an Air Crash - the bodies, and associated enquiries, 13 "other" fatalities. An average of one a week of damage, and injury TAs, a domestic a shift and all the other c***p. And if one car was screwed you had a half dozen to deal with each victim expected a Gold Plated service with a smile.
As an example I will describe my last late turn before I got a new job
1700 on duty, paperwork, catching up with the previous evening's work (all time critical)
1730 Called to a two vehicle injury TA, Traffic not available, more paper, accident book 30 pages, Issue tickets to drivers, breath test both(one in local hospital 1 hour wait.), injury forms.
1900 called to Burglary in progress, on arrival find two persons in a house where they had a reason to be, say that they climbed thru insecure window as owner was out. Search them and vehicle (more paperwork) nothing obvious. Check on one male shows as Disq. Driver.
2000 called to a suspicious youth in a remote location, find youth who is suicidal, detain him under MHA to nearby hosp. 2 hour wait to book him in an associated papers. Whilst there get a call from the occupant of the house to say
that property is missing.
2200 return to patch, to see occupant, on my way see the offender's van, stop it
and disq driver was driving nick them both for the burglary, take them to custody, arrange recovery of van to the nick to be searched properly.
0010 return to patch from custody (13 miles each way) to search their flat, whilst there encounter a wanted person sleeping there, call for back up (20 minute wait) she threatens us with a hypo filled with blood, saying she is HIV+ (what would you do ?) and escapes...search flat find property return to station at 0400, to file report book in seized property in case I,m accused later of nicking it.
05o0 finish
0900 return to duty, record statement from Burglary victim, trace Wanted Person and nick her,1030 return to custody Interview Burglars, also interview them for jobs elsewhere, 1500 finally finish paperwork bail prisoners. Of course the driver said I was a dirty rotten liar and that the other was driving. 1600 Attend interview against three others for my current job. 1730 finish.
Hours Worked in 24 hr period was 20 , no meal breaks, had 3 hrs sleep. Drove over 150 miles, during those miles I kept to every signed speed limit, but admit to breaking it to the 3 "immediates" I was called to the previous evening. Also had to keep eye on the ball as regards powers and other legal angles in case they are dissected by a sharp suited brief in an Air conditioned Courtroom months later. Acts considered were Road Traffic Act, Theft Act, Mental Health Act and PACE all of which needed a good working knowledge in the cases I encountered that night. No doubt I was seen driving by members of the motoring public. I can predict their thoughts as
1. Typical Plod no regard for speed limits as he goes for his Burger/Doughnut.
2. Typical Plod driving around aimlessly wasting taxpayers money,when he should be standing on my street corner guarding my property whilst I'm out in the pub.
3. Typical Plod picking on the motoring public.
And no, after having worked in the front line for 22 yrs, I will, I hope manage to work my 30 and that my health will continue to be good. I will be retired at 50 but only after contributing 11% of my Salary to a Pension scheme for the 30years I will have worked.
mode off. Read more
Mr u-like,
reading in your post how few PCs there are to deal with real crime makes it even more scandalous that there seem to be so many employed purely in Traffic. Glad to see that this is being addressed to some extent in London.
All the best
This fellow constantly seems to throw caution to the wind with his potty and ill considered remarks. A sympathetically benign view on my part has been replaced by annoyance in recent months.
See below.
Regards
Julian L
people advertising on HJ.
Author: ladas are slow (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: 25-01-02 15:38
>Andrew
>www.hispecgolfs.co.uk
i thought that advertising wasnt allowed on HJ's website. Read more
Alvin, Tomo,
My reaction is disappointment when such a quality and enjoyable site as this is diminished by throwaway lines and ill judged comment.
This country of ours has an enviable reputation for tolerance, which has my whole hearted support. However, I notice that almost everywhere within our society, standards of quality decency and refinement are being undermined. My own imperfect character felt obliged to respond.
Don't go away LAS. Please contribute to the "Backroom" thoughts, words and views that are balanced and considered, providing constructive benefit for all of us. I will be the first to read them.
Regards,
Julian L
I needed 4 new tyres for Mk4 Golf Gti 1.8t. The tyres are Pirelli P6000 205/55- R-16-91W. As I work in London during week I didn?t have time to travel too far to obtain the best deal. So, with one exception, I confined my enquiries to the London area. These are the quotes I obtained (all in price including VAT, balancing, valve, old tyre disposal etc)
Kwik Fit - £512.96
National Tyres £468.12
Several Small firms £410 to £430
Budget Motorists Centre £300.00 ? These I bought.
Micheldever Tyres(Hants) £248.84
I am staggered that there is such a huge discrepancy in price between identical products. Read more
click here for spectator
click reply to this message , click the quote button on the lhs of the post button, this will show you the text layout you need ,copy to a spread sheet and modify and copy paste as required
Has anyone any idea how the insurance companies decide on the grouping of a car for insurance purposes. I was always under the impression that there were two main criteria.
1. Performance (hence risk!)
2. The cost of getting a bent one fixed.
Having studied a buyers guide for all UK cars , there are glaring anomalies in this theory. For a range of European cars with tyhe same performance
i.e Top speed 125 , 0-60 10.9 secs, the insurance grouping goes from 9 - 15, an enormous range in terms of insurance cost. Any underwriters care to comment? Read more
Ian Chandler wrote:
>
> The annoying thing about groupings is that they also apply
> when you buy third-party, fire and theft - or just third
> party insurance.
And how many of the factors listed earlier were related to cost of repair ? How about making TP more expensive, since a less valuable car may be treated and driven with less care than an expensive one ? Would that be fair ?
Tell you what, we could base it on claims experience, how about that ?
>You can insure a large but intrinsically safe old car for third party liability and........
Cars may or may nor be intrinsically safe, but they are not inherently so, neither are their drivers.
> penalised on the basis that it would have cost a lot to fix
> had it been new and insured comprehensively.
>
> We used to get caught on this when we insured an old Passat.
> It was probably less likely to have hurt anyone or to have
> crashed than a Mini - but we used to get clobbered just
> because it was in a high grouping.
> Insurance is a po-faced racket presided over by a sanctimonious gang of suit-wearing bean counters.
Either that, or a bunch of people out to make a profit and increase revenue. And I`m sure you would never consider doing such a thing.
The only issue with Motor Insurance, is that it is compulsory. Now, as far as I know, insurance companies don`t make the law, so it probably isn`t their fault - that would be one of our governments.
With Motor Insurance there are some things to bear in mind....
1) It is a very competitive industry
2) It pays to shop around
3) You, largely, get what you pay for
Or you can indulge in self-insurance - since this means raising a bond, upon which you receive no interest, then that would cost you several thousand a year. But, at least then you wouldn`t have any po-faced or sanctimonious person taking your money, just one losing it.
Browse
Thats a good point. I have bought a good quality replacement from Euro Parts. The one that has just failed is the original item- which means its just over 13 years and 95k miles old! Luckily i have just found out that an elderly female friend of the family has an inspection pit in her garage! Im just going round there now to see if i can sort out the boot and he tie-rod.
Thanks for everyones help, particularly the detailed and very useful post from Andrew.
Ben