January 2002
So the other day, Saturday I think, my heavily pregnant wife was driving though Ipanema which is normally a fairly well-behaved part of town - at least by Brazilian standards.
Two cars in front of her but one lane over and at the front of the queue, is a fairly normal looking saloon car. Going by her description, probably a Vectra or similar, and the lights are red.
Suddenly a police car without lights or siren, squeezes past Adriana's car, pulls up next to the other car, two policeman leap out and start firing their guns into the guy in the passenger seat.
At this point the target car jumps the lights and screams off around the corner out of sight. The policeman get back in their car and drive off at a normal pace in the other direction.
And you lot worry about speed cameras !!!!! Read more
My Synergie has a CD player which lives in a cubby-hole by the back lights. Because my music gene is either damaged or missing, and I drive solo much of the time, the unit was last used sometime during the summer. During the Christmas running around, one of the girls asked me to switch it on. It was fully 10 minutes before it started to play anything, even selecting different discs. It now seems to play normally.
Question; why? Do CD players have a rechargeable battery which needs time for a charge to build up. Would it have condensation in it, and if so would the unit be smart enough to detect it. What should I do to keep it in good order. Is it like air con in that it needs playing at regular intervals? Read more
Darcy,
I think you'd regard them as such.
The day one of your daughters arrives home with a guy in an Iron Maiden t-shirt...........well don't expect a son-in-law who'll join the Caravan Club just yet!
David
Can anyone help me open my glove box please?!
Someone got into my car at the weekend and tried to force open the glove box on my Golf (MK3). It was locked though and when I tried to open it the catch fell off. Any hints how to open it?
Does this necessarily mean that the lock is broken too? The ignition key is also the key for the glovebox, so I have nightmare visions of having to go to the dreaded VW dealer to order a new lock if I want to just have one key for the whole car.
Thanks
Happy New Year. Read more
Same here - I learnt that very quickly after living in London!
Is there any way of checking that recall work has been done on a second hand car ? Is there a central register kept by the manufacturers ? Or do you just take your new second hand car in and ask for the recall work to be done.Is this a dangerous thing to do if the dealer finds everything has been done ? Read more
Tone
If the work has been done a main dealer should be able to check with manufacturer records - recalls are always accompanied by paperwork which has to be returned to the manufacturer - it's usually how the dealer gets paid, I imagine - so a good incentive to keep the records straight. After recall work I've also found stickers attached to the car under the bonet to give the dealers a quick visual indication of work done.
By definition such things are free to the customer, so no risk involved.
Regards
John
Ouch!
I could hardly believe how much damage they can do to the front grille, bumper & radiator of a Focus, from a 70+ 'meeting'.
Now, do I use up the 2nd & last 'life' of my protected NCD, or just pay up?
Don't REALLY want advice - just had to share the pain!!!! Read more
Back in the early '70s I was with a friend in their pride 'n joy (a Mini) and she hit a pheasant (or dit it hit us?) at about 35 mph on a essex country road. It stove in the wavey metal radiator grill and ran off before we could catch it... Doh!
Luckly it was not too expensive to replace the grill but the shock and suprise lasted for quite a while.
I've had problems with my car radio- it kept on switching itself off when I was going over the rumble strips up the road. I took it to be repaired and was told it required a bit of soldering. That seemed to cure the problem for a couple of months- then it started playing up again.
Do you think that the vibrations from these rumble strips could have caused the damage to the stereo? Even at a 40mph the car vibrates considerably when I pass over the strips.
P.S. I bought myself a new Panasonic CQ-RDP151N- it was only £90 (normally I worry about buying anything described as "entry level") but the sound quality is exceptional, one hundred times better than on my old "Pony" Read more
Like those on the appoach to a roundabout or when you are entering a village they are often on the road to slow you down, the slower you go the more you notice them
Regarding the directive on new car gaurantees if I read the paper correctlly then second hand cars must also be given a 1 year warranty including private sales.This applies upto 4year old vehicles ,I have ordered the full directive to read fully .It may or may not have something to do with so called dealers passing themselves of as private sellers. Read more
The directive number is 1999/44/EC. I found it using the Yahoo! search engine. Andy - it only covers consumer sales, which are defined somewhere in the document as sales made by a business to a private individual. I first became aware of this directive when a German company demanded that we give a 2 year warranty on our scientific equipment 'in line with the new EU directive'. The customer in this case was wrong.
May I take the liberty of repeating John Davis's message which was posted in the middle of a thread and may not have been seen by all. If I'm out of order here, then I apologise and trust Martyn will deletete if I am, but I agree with Johns sentiment and think it worth highlighting.
Author: John Davis (---.server.ntl.com)
Date: 01-01-02 11:32
Nothing at all to do with helping David with his Vectra starting problems but, on the first day of the new year, I must comment on the reasoned, well thought out, and extremely helpful comments by all the contributors. This, surely, is what HJ intended when the back room forum opened up and, if this is to be the standard, and quality, of the discussion subjects, without that tiresome sidetracking into those non motoring and obscure threads which we seem to have seen of late, then it looks well for this forum in 2002. Read more
Chris Watson
What do you know about the EU ,I self confessed lunatic who cannot even use a keyboard correctlly, why do you not grow up start taken the tablets again and maybe they will let you out into the outside world from your place of restraint.I lived in the UK for over forty years and know a little bit more about it than you ever will.
Apparently we have a 'hard' frost today: despite bright sun all day still lots of white on the ground where the sun hasn't reached.
Will a quick squirt of WD40 stop a padlock from freezing in the 'shut' position? I can turn the key OK, but then can't easily pull the thing apart.
BTW, I've now tried both the 'hot water bottle on the dashboard' and the fan heater. Fan heater wins hands down, but is probably only practical if you park on a secure drive.
I may not have put the hot water bottle in soon enough. However, it was very nice to have it sat on my knees once I set off ...
I've also tried filling several plastic bottles with hot water and placing them on the dashboard and parcel shelf. Results similar to hot water bottle: have to get them in place in good time rather than at the last minute. Read more
I warm the key with a cigarette lighter. Repeating this two or three times usually frees the tumblers. Where practicable do the same thing to the lock itself.
I've just tried using the RAC traffic report site and the infomation is there but rendered unreadable by the RAC logo covering the page???
SteveS.. Read more
The screen resolution is clear.It's the RAC logo as a repeated pattern that makes the text unreadable. What ever the cure it defeated the object of having a quick check before making a long journey.
Browse
Hi Mark.
You are in Rio, and you are married!
Rio must have changed since I was there!
Regards Rob K.