April 2002
Having a problem with an "S" reg MGF
When the engine is warm and you're idling in traffic, the coolant is being forced out of the expansion chamber.
The car isn't overheating because the it doesn't feel too hot and the fan isn't coming on.
Rover say that it needs a new engine and that this is a common problem.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
Laura Read more
I hate to sound stupid.... What is really meant by pinking?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
CJ Read more
My astra (1.8i CD F plate) pinks intermittently usually when it is hot but also sometimes when it is cold. Sometimes it can be a lot worse than others, sometimes it doesn't happen at all.
I have no idea what the problem is with it - any suggestions?
Mark.
Test drove a new Toyota Yaris 1.0 and a Skoda Fabia 1.4 today. Same 68 BHP output for both but the Yaris wins hands down. The Skoda interior is a big let down. Silly little switches that you're afraid to touch in case they break etc. Can any one tell me whether the headlights on a Yaris are any good?
We are inundated with fast talking TV presenters-cum-car dealers telling us that we should be able to knock shedloads of cash off the price of a brand new car at a dealer just by asking the right questions and looking well hard, blah, blah.
I can't reconcile this with the letter from Toyota Uk that my local dealer showed me. It states that there is a 2% profit margin on the pre-tax price for a 3 -door Yaris and a 4% margin for a 5 door meaning that the lowest he could go for a cash buy on a Yaris 5 door GS manual with mettalic is £8,647 i.e. a £300 discount from list. Referring to the letter he said he could not move on the price any further.
Could the letter be a salesman ploy or are we getting a load of carp from TV land? On the other hand how can these salesmen afford to put bread on the table if that's all they're making?
Any one had an experience from buying from Car supermarkets, good or bad?
Alf Read more
Several comments to be made here.
Why do people think that *only they* should be the one to profit from this situation and consider the individual down the line trying to take a share of the profit as trying to screw them. How childish and arrogant can you get?
To give a made up example. Person A buys a £10,000 car @ UK dealer market price (not list), but saves £3000 by paying £7000 for an import.
Making the maths simple, suppose that when they decide to sell the market price of a UK dealer supplied car is £7000, ie depreciation is 30%.
Then the whingers, of which there are quite a few on this thread/site complaining that when Person B finds out its an import they only offer say £5000. ie roughly 30% depreciation as opposed to the £7000 they think should be offered. Plus note the saving for person B is now £2000 ie this has also been reduced by roughly the same proportion.
Why should Person B pay for A's motoring. Why take the risk that the car might not quite be UK spec in some way? Plenty more fish in the sea. The market rules. A car or any other commodity is only worth as much as anyone is prepared to pay for it, in that condition at that time etc.
I agree that it is wrong for a dealer to offer the reduced trade in price and then put it up for sale at the full rate, but it is up to us buyers to check out the details, and just refuse to buy any car without the necessary history.
Then why accuse dealers, when quite frankly some of the dodgiest most untrustworthy people to deal with are not in the trade.
"Why are you selling it?"
"Oh I feel like a change."
Nothing mentioned about the gearbox noise of course.
Then the dealer goes out of business and we have to travel miles to get it serviced. For example local Ford agent to the office has just gone bang.
The real villains in this are the manufacturers who abuse the block exemption they have under EU competition law to prevent UK dealers from operating on a level playing field with their foreign colleagues.
These are EU competition rules by the way which are eye watering in their complexity and draconian in the penalties that can be applied if you fall foul. So I name the EU as also guilty in allowing the block exemption to remain for car manufacturers.
Should the space-saver not be the same diameter as the rest of the wheels.My better half has the honda jazz and the space saver wheel is a lot smaller than the standard wheel, so if she were to get a puncture in the front would it not want to pull to one side, or are you supposed to always put the space-saver on the rear although it does not advise this in the handbook. personally I do not like them and will certainly take a full-size spare with me if I ever go any great distance because I would never trust any old place repairing a puncture in my alloy wheels! Read more
The space-saver on my wife's Honda Civic was definitely smaller in diameter than the normal wheels. I supposed that it was so you would always be aware that the space-saver was fitted, and so would drive with circumspection. I replace the space-saver with a normal spare as soon as I could.- just as well, as when we did have a puncture it was 160 miles from home!
(Anyone requiring a free unused Civic(G Reg)space-saver spare please contact me!)
P.
My car will soon need 2 new tyres on the front.
Car is front wheel drive (with continental ecocontact tyres). Rear tyres are OK.
Should the new tyres be put on the front? or should I put the rear tyres on the front, and the new tyres on the rear? Read more
nope! - new on the rear, always. Its all to do with how the car responds in a crisis not just everyday motoring. The last thing you want is the rear of the car doings its own thing when you are braking hard in an emergency. Anyone who has driven a rear wheel car will know the feeling of the rear breaking away under gentle acceleration on slippery roads. The same can happen to front wheel drive cars but only at the limits of traction. Ask the tyre manufacturers for their views if you do not believe me.
My stepbrother has recently returned to the UK to visit family after working in Holland. According to him, many cars out there are LPG converted but those with older cars are not using the LPG tanks but putting "Calor" gas cylinders in the boot and running from those instead as it is cheaper.
Now obviously in the UK this would be very naughty as like red diesel there is no road fuel duty on gas cylinders but in theory how easy would it be to convert an LPG car to run from cylinders? I asked someone I know in the business and he said he'd never heard of it being done but you certainly get gas cylinder powered fork-lift trucks. Would be easy to get away with in theory surely? You could just remove the cylinder at MOT time and have the car MOT'd as just running from petrol. Would it be a case of simply remove the LPG tank and have a secure fitting for the cylinder plus a regulator connecting to the old LPG fuel pipe? At 10 odd quid a cylinder it has to be pretty tempting...
Dan Read more
There are only 2 commercially available types of LPG. Butane (what you think of as blue Calor cylinders) and Propane (what you think of as orange Calor cylinders)
All others (Flogas, Shell, Calor etc) are the same
Not wishing to deprive anyone of the chance of depriving Gordon, I would suggest that LPG conversion should only be done by competent people, cylinders must be secured, the conversion is quite complicated, and of course you would be without any form of insurance.
I am sure an auto LPG specialist will be along soon
We've all read the horror stories of garages (and previous owners) who've jacked vehicles up using inappropriate jacking points. Apart from the obvious sill locations for the jack provided with the vehicle, can anyone recommend how/where to use (a) a trolley jack (b) axle stands without risk of causing damage to a modern vehicle (Pug 406 to be specific)?
Thanks in anticipation...
Phil T Read more
On all the cars I have owned, the jacking point on the sill is marked in one way or another - usually a small imprinted triangle or "arrow".
I'm a criminal !
Today i used a car park on he outskirts of the New Forest and paid for a parking ticket as usual. I returned to my car a little later but there was 2 hours left on the ticket so i walked over to a old couple who had just entered the car park and handed over my ticket. To my amazement a man jumped out of a nearby van and asked what i was doing. I said its none of your business ,but he replied i'm from the local council and its an offence to transfer ownership of a parking ticket.Well I laughed and so did the old couple, has this country really got so bad that councils pay people to sit in car parks watching out for people commiting parking ticket offences ?
Needless to say in future i will be more covert when commiting such a *serious* criminal act. Read more
Don't understand why they lost that one. It isn't a question of fining - it is a question of breach of contract.
If their terms & conditions state that you can only park there if you have a valid tax disc, which they often do, then not having a valid tax disc is the same as not having a valid parking ticket - breach of contract and the penalty can therefore apply.
Over at a customers yard the other day doing a puncture on her tractor. She asked if two tatty old engines under the bench were any use or should they be tipped.
JAP single cylinder four stroke "industrial engines I think. With a pink Lodge spark plug in the top and a simple points set-up (magneto?) on a gear drive from the crank to bring it at right angles to the crankshaft. Simple side-draft carb. Great big flywheel and I guess a handle to crank start. One looks complete and might run. The other looks identical but is missing cylinder barrel, piston and carb.
Wonder what they were for and do I really need them cluttering up the workshop..or should they just go to the tip?
David Read more
We still have an old 2-stroke lawnmower powered by a single piston JAP engine. It's a Nash Boudicea, an amazing example of simplistic engineering, with hardwood rollers front and rear. It's over 40 years old. It doesn't get used anymore but we keep it as a bit of old history and every year I start it up.
A friend of mine had just bought a Vectra, and wants to replace the radio. Is it simply a case of replacing the one fitted with another unit (with the correct wiring harness). I realise this will not feed the dashboard-mounted display, but is this a problem?
Andy Read more
Forgot to mention the Vauxhall headunits have allen key / hex grub screws down the holes to put the removal tool (bent coat hanger) they are painted black and can be hard to see. I thought this is a good idea to make it take a more time to remove the stero to put off those of us who are light fingered, but then again it doesn't stop brute force and ignorance!
Browse
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Check the Fuse for the fan,
I know of somebody whose MGF had exatly the same problem, the cause was the cooling fan not working which lead to the engine overheating, the Fuse for which was rated too low, we don't know who had replaced it.