March 2002
I recently noticed that a stretch of road I have used daily for 4 years actually has a different speed limit in each direction.
Leaving a village (30mph) there is an ordinary derestriction sign, but approaching from the opposite direction there is a long stretch of 40 before the 30.
Is this common? Have I just been asleep?
If these kind of speed mixes (30/40, 30/50, 40/60, etc ?)are common, doesn't it pose problems for different kinds of activities that can or can't take place in 'roads' with particular limits?
eg if the limit is 30 in one direction but 60 in the other, it would mean you could sound the horn at night after 11pm in one direction but not the other!
What about the spacing of streetlamps, or need to park with lights on?
Can someone explain? Read more
I am thinking of purchasing a 1995 AUDI Cabriolet, has anyone out there got any tips on what to look out for?, or horror stories!! Read more
Miles,
The 2.3 is a nice engine too - much smoother than the 1.8 or 2.0 - but these cars will be older, I think.
Good hunting.
Martin.
I know we've talked about the various options before but I'm interested in current offers.
Joined the RAC with joint roadside cover last year for £34....bargain. Now they want £65 renewal for the same cover! OK so I know they get you hooked on an offer then hope you'll continue to renew without looking at the price. Thing is they are still offering new joiners the £34 deal.
Haven't the building societies just had to cough up as this was deemed unacceptable practice...ie that the new offer should always be available to existing customers.
Phoned the renewal hotline today and the best he could do by putting in some code was £54...still too much difference I think.
Put the point to the guy that SWMBO could go on-line tonight and join up with me as the additional member at the £34 and I could cancel my membership. He agreed it was daft, would involve loads of admin for them and yes we could do it.
So what are the best roadside (joint membership) deals about and what do you think about relating the RAC practice to that the building societies have been hassled for?
Thanks,
David Read more
David,
comments re the different services.
Over the years we have been with AA, RAC, Green Flag, plus when GF were National Breakdown.
Only had to call RAC once, colleagues had slow response times but no complaint here.
AA several times including once when SWMBO locked herself out of the car in a dodgy area doing a courier job. No problems at all, very helpful even when the call was from me who was not the member covered, and didn't have the membership number etc (don't even ask!) they passed messages and the AA arrived within 15 minutes as SWMBO classed as priority. Otherwise bit bureaucratic but no complaints about the troops at the sharp end.
National Breakdown only had to call them once after an accident, (remember the swan incident!) and they impressed, no messing about like others sending a small van to confirm that what you are telling them is correct and then sending a tow truck later.
Considering the complexity of modern cars I think the RAC is much more advanced in their IT and communication systems supporting the patrolman with electronic and similar problems, but of course its at a price.
Re dodgy pricing practices:
Suspect that if the Building Socs experience were to be extended elsewhere then a whole lot more might be in the dock, insurance companies are just one.
Re your user needs.
I guess what you really need oh Fenmeister is the level of cover I had with National Breakdown this was recovery only, which did not cover breakdown but nationwide recovery for problems you could not solve yourself. However I see its £51 today with Green Flag unless there is an offer on somewhere and this does not beat the RAC offer of £34. At least that would cover the holidays and days out bit.
Got to go get back for Salvage Squad and the Tiger Moth plus see how many miles SWMBO's been putting on the Fabia today, Brum to Kidde via Edinburgh again?
cheers,
S
Hello to all,
The deadlock on my n/s rear door appears to be stuck on as under no circumstances will it open (following a period of sometimes working, sometimes not). Have managed to get the interior trim off, which wasn't the easiest of jobs and at the expense of a few trim clips :-( but having previously assumed a separate solenoid would operate the deadlock (so I would be able to disengage it), it seems the lock is an all in one affair.
Does anyone have any tips on how to either:
1. open the door
2. get the lock to a state where it will lock normally but without deadlocking i.e. effectively make the deadlock disabled.
I assume a total fix will require replacement of the locking mechanism but this is impossible with the door stuck shut.
And yes, I realise now that I should have fixed it while it was working every so often!!
However, the most important question follows here - will the car pass its MOT tomorrow with a rear door stuck shut?
Thanks in advance,
Chris Read more
Congratulations!
Replying to Steve Boreham's post earlier this morning regarding exporting 4X4 to Sri Lanka, I remembered an incident from my youth;
Colombo, early '80s;
A friend of the family came to visit and knowing both my father and I were motoring enthusiasts happened to mention whether we had seen the new 4X4 that had just been introduced that runs on both Petrol and Diesel? We both looked at each other in puzzlement; I remember debating with him the possibilities of running an engine "dual-fuel". The discussion went on and on until we were thoroughly perplexed at how any manufacturer could achieve this without actually using 2 separate engines or changing the properties of the fuel itself.
Anyway, we set about looking for this mysterious vehicle, only to come across the then newly introduced (to Sri Lanka) Nissan Patrol; Unfortunately our friend?s English wasn?t that great ? he had mistaken the word Patrol for petrol and also seeing the word diesel on the rear of the Nissan had put 2 and 2 together and made??...
Chad.R Read more
I did some work for Haymarket onece and the then editor of a used car mag called 'Car Choice' got very keen on a Skoda Rapid. He took me home in it once and I tried to stop him driving it up our close in case the neigbours saw me emerging. He insisted on driving me to my door. As revenge for this, I sent him a package labelled 'Special Skoda Rapide Headgear'. It contained a large brown paper bag with eye holes.
HJ
Have we not see this format before - deals on wheels - CH4?
With BBC 4 now broadcating {what about BBC 3?}, can we expect even more copy cat programming? Read more
>>Everyone knows that nearly all cars that go through dealers get clocked.
>>I saw an estimate that the figure is as high as *80* per cent.
Where did that come from ? (thin air perhaps?)
Had to laugh when she said they had a phone call from someone wanting a Ferrari clocked. In a post a few weeks ago 'Clocking and Ferrari's' i asked if anyone had ever seen a high milelage Ferrari. A lot of money to be saved by clocking a Ferrari no doubt.
hi all
bit of a technical one this, further to some recent postings regarding power failure, i have managed to locate the source of all problems, at least that is what the VW diagnotics test told me. There were a few readers also experiencing this porblem so i hope you find this helpful.
Apparently loss of power can often be due to a faulty injector (often number 3 in diesels) and a diagnostics check should highlight this as so. Anyway, i have been advised to change the troublesome injector and i would like to do this myself, so can anytone briefly say what kind of a job this is? I have consulted my Haynes manual and it seems straight forward enough, do people agree? Do i need to change all the rings?
thanks
p.s what i have said regarding causes of power failure only applies in this example, but i hope it can at least be identified as a common problem in VW TDI's and Audis. Read more
I would love to find a local injection specialist, these people seem to be getting less common. VW told me that they do not have any recon injectors, they were none to helpful in fact (just quoted £178 for injector 3) but i have sorted it out now..
>further to an email i sent you some weeks ago I have managed to locate the >problem in my VW Passat's loss of power down to a Faulty 3rd injector, i >ofund this out thanks to a check made by VW diagnostics. I have brought a >used injectore (as new ones cost £135) and fitted it myself. Apparently all >TDI's are proun to this wear item casueing loss of power, Kangarooing etc and the VW computers will pick up the readings from the on borad sensors.
Hope this helps, if you were wondering what the casue could be. One last thing is that i could not get the new injector back in as far as the orginal (which was a real @!#$ to remove) do you envisage this as being a problem
thanks for all advice
Last night while out on a driving lesson I came across an accident on a roundabout. Nothing serious, rear end shunt with a bit of broken glass and a bumper hanging off, both female drivers standing unaided and apparantly unhurt. Neither of them or their passengers made any attempt to move the vehicles, leaving queues to build up on all five directions from the roundabout while they stood arguing over the cause of the collision. A further five minutes passed with surrounding roads now gridlocked before the reason for there leaving the vehicles in the middle of the road. One of them had called the police!
Within minutes plod had moved the vehicles and got everybody mobile in their usual efficient way. Being a nosey sod, I directed my pupil round the town and arrived back at the scene ten minutes later. NOTHING! They had all gone, police, both drivers and there mildly dented cars, not a sign that anything had happened. The number of times I have seen similar over the past few years, minor scrape, no injuries, but out come the mobiles and and police and god knows who else wasting valuable time racing to what some hysterical caller has described as a serious pile up.
These people should be charged with causing an obstruction and wasting police time if they cannot sort out a minor injury free bump without causing chaos and distracting the emergency services from more vital duties. I will bet every backroomer has witnessed similar to the above countless times, especially since the advent of mobile phones. The cost per year must be incalculable. Read more
I sort of agree. Of course, if you suspect the other driver had acted in a dangerous manner, or had been drinking, it may be different.
About 20 years ago, at 2-00 AM on Boxing Day morning, I was rear-ended by a van with a company name on the side. Lots of damage to my car, a tiny dent in the van's grille. The driver had no ID, insurance or anything.
The short story is that the driver gave me a false address and the company reported the van as stolen, but magically parked back in the yard at the end of the Christmas holiday!
If the same thing happened again, I would definitely call the police.
I wish I had never bought this car...its full of faults that the dealer has failed to fix, AND Alfa GB dont seem to care or believe there is a problem...Even though I have an independant AA report that Alfa GB actually asked me to arrange.. I also have video of the failures..
I phoned Alfa on the 7th Jan 02 to tell them that there is serious and dangerous problem with the Alfa. They didnt believe me! I invited them to send an engineer down to look...They said that the dealer said there was no problem! hence they would not come and see it.
I am now having to drive my 22 year old TR7 which is much more reliable, economical, and better than the complete rubish that I feel I have wasted all £19,100 on.
Here is a list of my faults of which most are on the AA report.
1) Selespeed failure to engage gear. Leaving car in dangerous position.
Normally happens when on roundabout or turn when engine cold.
Video available of this.
Alfa dealer has already had car in 4 times and not solved this!
2) Boot when unlocked with remote control, opens and then Alarm sounds!
Sometimes it takes minutes to stop the Alarm.
3) Boot plastic gutter trim is not secure at rear edge, and hatch not
aligning.
4) Some oil leak benieth the car.
5) Positive terminal battery cover is broken
6) CD Player skips on normal CDs even when car stationary.
7) Front Windscreen washers very poor
8) Power Steering level below minimum
9) Handbreak cable on left is not fitted properly to floor bracket
10) Timing belt cover not fitted correctly, with gap at top, and its loose.
11) Carpeting hanging out of passenger front lower trim
12) Carpeting loose on side of center console
13) Alternator fails to charge battery
14) Only 25 to 26mpg
15) Car uses oil
Other problems
16) Rattles from Door trims
17) Rattles from rear seats
18) Rear seats not locking in position
19) Sunroof blind completely missing
20) Where sunroof blind eventually fitted after months, grease, and bad fit.
21) Sunroof fails to open
22) Selespeed Paddles on steering wheel. Finish keeps coming off.
The steering wheel has been replaced twice!
23) The Climate Control kept going to HIGH and MAX !!!
The dealer accused me of not knowing how to use it.
It took 3 attempts. On the 3rd the car came back with a replacement Door Mirror! With overspray!!
They told me a sensor (I have the Climate Pack) in the door mirror had to be replaced.
The Climate control is almost ok now, apart from annoying way it goes to high if you open the door. Read more
For the last 2 years, J D Power survey has reported that the VERY worst thing about Alfa ownership (ALL models) has been the DREADFUL dealer service.
Until (if ever) Alfa bulid their cars with Toyota build quality so that owners dont need dealers, this sorry saga will continue.
TrevorP
Hi guys
I've got a 97 Mondeo 5 door hatch and I looked underneath today to see what I can only describe as a 6 inch sq "fabric" mat hanging down from the chassis of the car.
Its on the passenger side just behind where the suspension parts are.
It is securely pegged at its top and appears to move back ie presses against the car underside when driving forwards.
Any ideas what this is?
Thanks Read more
Just to tie this one up as it were :0)
I had a look under another Verona , same colour and mileage as mine and it had a flap hanging down as well - must be that year then.
Thanks for your help guys
Regards
John
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We've got a dual-carriageway with a different road number depending which way you're going.