April 2002
Don't speed anywhere but especially not in Brecon! Before Easter a motorist was caught doing 51 in a 30 and was fined £500 with £35 costs and this took into account "His early guilty plea and co-operation with the police". Phew!
No mention of any 'points' though so perhaps it was a bargain, of sorts Read more
I bought my car last spring and i used the Aircon back then and it was only blowing normal cold air and i took it back to the dealer and they said that they forgot to put some sort of fuel for it. I only used during last summer for 2 weeks max and 8 months later (well today) i've to use it today and its now blowing normal air which is annoying .. can anyone shed me some ideas why it has happened again?!?!?...
cheers Read more
Sounds like you got a leak, my friend. The garage just regassed it to shut you up, and now it's all leaked out again. Take it to a specialist to get it properly leak checked before you waste money on more regassing.
Has anyone use this system lately. I dialled 177 from my Orange mobile some time ago and was asked to punch in the number of the road I was calling about.
No problems there.
Last week I called again and this time I was told the menu had changed.
Instead of punching in the road number, I heard, " Please wait while we find your location" ............................pause....................." Your are near ...............Liverpool"
Actually I was in Llandudno, which is near Liverpool across the water, if you have a motor cruiser with the speed of Virgin Atlantic Challenger, but is 60 miles, or 1 hour 37 minutes away by road and ageing Volvo. They then proceeded to tell me about conditions on the M62.
Is this a case of some young whizz kid being too clever, I wonder. Worked fine before; now it doesn't. Read more
cellphone local services can only work from knowledge of which cell you are in
sadly the cell with best reception (ie signal from your phone to the base station) may not correspond with where you physically are, this is due to buildings/hills etc in the way, signal bounce off hills/atmosphere etc
so in these instances you will get info based on which cell is giving you signal (best reception) not the one nearest
this has same limitations when they are tracking drug dealers with known phones etc
however there is some new technology which allows gchq/mi5 etc to triagulate based on the nearest three base stations and tell pretty much exaclty where you are at any given time, due to the big brother nature of this it has been kept pretty quiet, but in future this will with satalite positioning allow much better locale specific services
Coming to a town near you?
www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000...p Read more
In the south (Curitiba) they have installed these traffic lights with more than one green light.
There is a red, and then about 5 greens. When they first go green all five are on, and then they gradually switch off until the red comes on as the last green goes off.
I always thought it was rather a good system. There is now one of these in Rio, and it seems to be working just as well.
OK guys a question for you. I hope that there is a good cross section of vehicle owners out there! (and opinions).
If I want a compromise between a really good off roader (Land Rover) and the practicalities of life, (reliability, economy, safety, motorways, 20,000+ miles per year, dogs and children), but still want to go green laning, what would you suggest?
I asked the Honda dealer about a CRV - You mustn't take it off road, sir! The Vauxhall dealer tell me that the Frontera is good off road. Is that true? Would I be better off with a Frontera than a Freelander?
Any other suggestions?
TIA Read more
A friend just called me about going out of town this weekend - off to do some jumping-off mountains.
He's driving us.
In his new Freelander.
Hi,
My MGF has been in the garage (an MG Rover dealership) for over two weeks, waiting for new metal coolant pipes to be delivered. Apparently Rover are having probs with their parts dept. and things can take ages to be delivered. The garage are saying they can fix the leaking pipe welds by rebraising the join. Is this a good fix? Will it fail again or, assuming they do it right, will it do the job?
rgds. Read more
Andrew
The reason MG Rover dealers are having parts supply problems is that they are changing from Unipart handling their supply logistics to Caterpillar. Its now turning out to be flawed changeover.
HTH
Charles
from a letter to a British MEP:
A British motorist driving in France was stopped on the A10 south of Poitiers, and told that he would be fined for possession of a radar detector, even though it was not switched on. If it had been, the fine would have been twice as great.
It is not clear how the policeman became aware of the radar detector, as there was apparently no other reason for stopping the car. In the absence of any other information I assume that it had been left in place on the windscreen, visible.
The driver was escorted to a bank to draw cash to pay the fine, for which an official receipt was given.
The purpose of this note is to advise travellers of this potential problem and seek to clarify the law.
Radar detectors are legal in England and Wales, but not in Scotland and some other countries, including France, it seems.
A problem arises for anyone using a detector legally in England or Wales who crosses into any other ountry where they are illegal. If mere possession is an offence in some countries and subject to such swingeing fines and confiscation, what is the driver to do on a journey which involves travelling through several countries in succession in which the law differs?
If only use is prohibited then it would seem reasonable to pack the unit in the boot, or even in the spare wheel compartment, to show that it cannot be in use. But given stories we have all heard of traffic police conduct, is that safe enough?
If 'possession' in some countries includes even having one packed away and inaccessible, where it might be found during a search for other reasons. the potential fine is a major problem.
The driver involved has now been advised that under EU law a car which is 'road legal' in its home country is 'road legal' in all other EU countries. It does not seem to me however that this would apply to extras such as radar detectors which can easily be removed or fitted.
Can anyone advise:
1/ Is mere possession rather than use an offence in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
2/ Does French law permit such swingeing fines and confiscation, just for 'possession'?
3/ In France and elsewhere does 'possession' mean having one inside the car where it could fairly easily be switche on, or does it include even units packed away in the boot or elsewhere and relatively inaccessible?
Idris Read more
David,
Perhaps I ought to put in for two vouchers thinking of *that* photo.
No problem phoning home though.
Stuart
I tried this stuff last week - seems to be giving better economy (Rover 24 1.4)
but my nearest shell garage is miles away. Is there an additive available which will give the same result if added to my usual supermerket petrol ?. Read more
I tried searching for "..... I wish one of the backroom "boffins" could come up with a homemde formula for petrol fuel system cleaner, which is very likely comprised of cheap and readily obtainable ingredients.....", but no luck there either :0)
What is the difference in practical terms i.e owning/driving pleasure/stability etc in a front wheel and a rear wheel drive?Why are most cars front wheel drive whereas cars like BMW/MERCS (which keep getting top marks from all motoring journalists esp likes of 5 series BMW)rear wheel drive.And how do the likes of Audi quattro compare to the these rear wheel drives.Your thoughts on the subject will be very much appreciated.
yours sincerely
ravi Read more
A good compromise might be a torque tube transmission. The rear wheels push against the engine mountings, and the mountings pull the car along.
Thought this would amuse/intrigue/worry you all;
The same car goes in for an MOT at two garages a couple of days apart, one a main dealer and one a small family owned business.
MOT Failure 1:
1x 195/45/16 tyre (£60)
1x CV boot (£15 plus hour or so labour)
2x rear suspension beam bushes (@£50/ea and at least 4 hours labour)
1x loose rear box (cheap as chips)
MOT Failure 2:
1x CV boot (£15 plus hour or so labour)
1x loose wheel bearing (5 minutes or new bearing)
A possible couple of hundred pounds less for the same, necessary sheet of A5.
Guess which one I chose and which was carried out by the small, local, family owned firm?
Is this common?
Needless to say - the LPG powered show winner flew through the emissions! Read more
What golf do you have- mk2? I would think about it before fitting poly bushes to the rear beam on a mk.2. Mk.2's rely on a bit of passive steer in the rear. With poly bushes things can get a bit twitchy, and they wear out quicker. Im going for VAG replacements when i attempt to do mine, despite having poly bushes just about everywhere else.
Ben
Browse
.jpg)
As a Breconite who feels he knows the local roads pretty well, I can only assume that this guy must have been in a built up area - the only non-national speed limit roads are those at 30 in town or the 40mph efforts on the way in and out. He (she) was probably on the main road (The Watton), a wide straight rd, but with cars parked all down one side many roads coming off it. Most locals all know that the police are stict along there - I'ld do 35 max even at 2 in the morning.
You might be interested to know that ourfriends in blue are also very strict (and like to hide around corners), on the part of the A40 going through Bwlch (yes that is it's real name) about 5 miles out of Brecon, it's a 30 limit. I know of at least 4 people caught there in the last 6 months.