June 2002
Has anyone experienced water leaking into the spare wheel well of a 406 saloon? Despite application of garden hose etc I can't find the source of entry. Rear light cluster seals and boot lid seal all look ok. Anyone got any ideas? Read more
I wonder if I can pick your brains In february 2003 I have to change my Mercedes C240 for a new car. I quite fancy a new C270 CDi saloon or estate but my wife wants me to get an ML270 4x4. I have test driven both and prefered the C-Class to drive but was very impressed with the ML's space which came in very handy for my job and for carting the kids about. My question is this. If you had £35k to spend and wanted to stick to mercs which one would you go buy.
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My own car was in the garage for a week with an air con problem and they lent me an ML320 to zip around in. The space in the back and boot was what made me consider an ML but as you say the build quality was not what you expect from a Merc ( "b***** awful" said my dad). I spoke to the garage about this and they assured me that the new ones were like driving a different car.
I have now test driven a new model and can say that it is much more like a Merc should be apart from the fact that the instruments appear to have been sourced from a Vito van.
4 year old alfa romeo 2L twinspark Spider Roadster,A.R serviced from new.At 41 k miles shortly after full service No 4 Bigend fails. No warning from Oil or Temp Gaiges Do I fit new engine or rebuild old one-Has this happened to you??
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yes oil changed to synthetic by alfa main agent 1 week before failure.
Marie.
- - - will have to be replaced one day. It is seven and a half years old,has done 64000,has had its cambelt changed and 6 new spheres,had new glowplugs a while back unnecessarily when a main dealer failed to cure bad starting, has 2 brand new tyres on the front,rides perfectly,has no rattles,no rust (but paint is flaking off the bonnet because of a lousy repair done by my insurers when a deer impaled itself on the front)and I would start it up in the next 5 minutes and drive it to the south of Spain with no worries at all and have in fact done this 3 times in the last 6 months.Fantastic car.
It is the best car I have ever had.
My wife thinks we need a more modern motor. No idea why but I have little idea how her mind works at the best of times.Nevertheless one day it will have to go for something newer.How much more can I expect out of my Xantia ?
Should I try to find one of the very last Xantias registered or should I go for a Sinclair ,sorry,C5.
The C5 does not seem to have caught on like the Xantia did.Is it simply too technically overloaded with gizmos ?
Is it a worthy replacement for the Xantia? Does anyone have a view on the C5 based on everyday use? Please. Read more
Dear Tony,
How her mind works! Are you having a Larf?
Alistair Darling probably never expected to be Transport Minister, and undoubtedly needs all the help he can get. So why not use the combined thinking power of Backroomers to put together a coherent transport policy, and then send it to him? Here's my contribution for starters:
Cars:
1. Abolish road tax for cars under 1100cc, and motorcycles under 500cc. Increase motorcycle parking provision, and consider providing dedicated ?small car? parking bays in cities.
2. No stopping zones within 400 yards either side of school gates ? improves safety and discourages parents from driving their children half a mile to school instead of making them walk. Police to patrol the area when children coming in or out of school ? both to enforce the no stopping zones and to persuade parents that their children are safe to walk on the streets.
3. Set up a clear and well publicised system for the public to suggest changes to road layout, traffic light timing, speed limits etc. (The Internet is an ideal medium for this.) No-one knows more about the roads than the people who use them every day, and people are more likely to accept some restrictions if they are given a genuine means to suggest improvements.
Buses:
1. Forget about trying to persuade people en masse to use buses instead of cars ? it won?t work, and there?s no point trying to build a transport strategy around the assumption that it will.
2. Dedicated bus lanes are pointless ? they just create a tailback which stretches beyond the point where the bus lane starts, and the buses get trapped with the rest of the traffic. Buses are mainly used by children, students, pensioners and the unemployed, all of whom have plenty of time on their hands. They don't need speeding up, especially as they spend half their time stationary at bus stops anyway.
3. Use tax incentives to persuade bus operators to switch to LPG or biodiesel.
Other public transport:
1. Encourage tram and light rail initiatives where they make commercial sense. Make it as easy as possible for private operators to build and operate these systems. Don?t leave all the decision making to local councils or nothing will ever happen ? like the proposed St Ives ? Cambridge route, where various bits of local government have spent 15 years arguing over whether it should be rail, light rail, tram, guided bus or conventional bus, and who will pay for it. A private operator could have had the system installed, paid for and making money by now.
2. Railways ? dig out some old history books, and reorganise the railways on the same lines as in 1923. Four or five geographically distinct operators, each with responsibility for trains and track in its area. Ensure that specialist independent operators (like Freightliner) can run their trains on the new companies? tracks.
3. Explain to the railway companies that people need to get to their stations before they can use the trains, and they will probably drive there. This means car parks. Explain to them that it is possible to build a car park on more than one level (it?s called a multi-storey car park), and that if they only charge a small parking fee for people who buy a rail ticket, they?ll get more passengers.
General
1. Recognise that you do not get unbiased, sensible views by talking to self interested lobbying groups, that consultants will always propose the solution which generates the greatest amount of consultancy fees, and that government employees will always propose the solution which creates jobs for the greatest number of government employees.
2. If people say that they want to drive everywhere, don?t insult them by telling them that they are wrong. If you want to change their behaviour, by all means bribe them with their own money (that?s what the tax system is for), but don?t penalise them personally and individually for choosing the private car over less practical alternatives. Make the alternatives equally practical and no more costly, and some (but not all) people will use them.
3. Ignore the wilder predictions about increased car ownership / use. A man may own ten cars (or three Jags), but he still can?t drive more than one at a time. If you want to control car ownership, you can only do it by making the poor poorer, so that they can?t afford to buy cars. Pretty much everyone above poverty level who wants a car, already has one.
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com Read more
perfectly serious..
madf
Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, I have broken yet another car. Since I am only in Brazil for a further 5 weeks, they've kind of gone off the idea of giving me anything nice, so they've given me the Vectra.
I've only been driving it for two days, but why does everyone hate them ?
Ok, its not a luxury car, but its well equipped and has got plenty of go. Its quite fun on the windy beach road through the hills and it seems to go around corners well, it seems pretty good on the highway, and its easy to drive in town.
I could only make two niggly complaints; I don't like the window switches being next to the gear lever, I would prefer them on the door, and I don't like the way the revs drop slowly when you take your foot off.
Other than that, I think its very good at being what it is.
M.
p.s. yes, I know its being replaced. Read more
HJ
I don't disagree. The Vectra isn't as good dynamically as some cars, but it's a good motorway car, which is how many are used. After a couple of motorway trips in a friends Alfa, I found the 'tuneful' engine was a damn nuisance, so it's horses for courses.
The key point I was trying to make was that I can't square the apparent low fleet running costs with the dire results of the JD Power reliability survey.
Regards
John S
A quiet day at work, so I've been thinking about the use of plastics in car engines. We now have plastic manifolds, cam covers, throttle bodies and much more, so why not go all the way and mould the engine block and cylinder head in plastic, with metal inserts in the appropriate places? (combustion chambers, cylinder liners, bearings and thread inserts) Cheaper, lighter, won't corrode, lower heat loss, and there must be a plastic out there that would be suitable.
Anyone know whether this is already being worked on by any car manufacturers?
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com Read more
"We now have plastic manifolds, cam covers, throttle bodies and much more"
I don't think so.....anybody here experienced throttle body distortion on their Rover car?
Makes the engine revs hang when very hot due to barrel distortion, which holds the buterfly slightly open.
Now cured by a metal body :-)
Plastic Inlet manifolds warp and melt when the engine overheats, too
MG-Rover Questions? Click on www.mg-rover.org
After some thought l have posted this in technical as it might prove informative to future searchers.
I am interested in getting a private plate. I see that predictably the plate market resembles the early days of web design, a few cowboys trading on the ignorance of others. (Some would say the motoring trade has always been like that!)
From what l can gather the following is true (and corrections would be massively welcome):
1.Future millenium plates can be reserved if not deemed worthy of auction by the DVLA.
2.Unissued plates may be requested from the DVLA which l THINK applies equally to historic PREFIX (Y999 AAA) and Millenium plates. This is assuming that the DVLA haven't decided it spells 'donkey' if you squint, and reserved it for auction.
3.SUFFIX (AAA 999Y)format plates are apparently no longer available AT ALL except through private transfer (go on, find it if you can!) or again auction/one of the numerous plate dealers.
4.Certain letters (Q etc) and numbers (10,20,100,200 etc..) are not issue-able until the DVLA decide otherwise.
Despite my research, l am unable to find out why SUFFIX plates are unavailable (simply phased out l guess) even when they have not been issued.
I also don't understand the current state of play with E and F PREFIX registrations. Perhaps one of the older heads on this site can enlighten me. Apparently these were restricted but now only some number combinations are still unavailable.
I am particularly interested in an F reg plate (format F999 AAA) the letters do not spell anything offensive and the numbers are not any of the normally restricted combinations. It hasn't been issued so logically l can phone up the DVLA, request this number and unless they want to get greedy about it, it should be relatively straight forward. Yes?
Please comment/correct, many thanks,
dan Read more
If you can get to the Licensing Office then do so.
It took less than half an hour locally and the registration document with the new number came through in a few days.
One for Dave N but I've lost your e.mail address.
This time last year air con gave up the ghost due to leaking pipes to and from the compressor ( common 306 problem! ). When I
eventully got the pipes from Peugeot summer was nearly over. Pipes fitted and re gassed. Worked beautifully.
Have run system every week as recommended. Now have noticed that there is a gushing sound from behind the dash. Compressor is kicking in but system is not getting cold.
I'm sumising a leak but despite being filled with the dyed gas cannot find any indication of a leak from any of the pipes around the engine compartment. Have also checked the radiator type thingy (can't remember its official name !) infront of the radiator as best as possible in situ as I recall you mentioned that is was a weak point. Appears OK.
Any ideas??? If it is the 'radiator type thingy' what is an approx cost of a replacement?
Andrew. Read more
Andrew, seems a bit strange having a leak in the middle of the rubber section, unless it rubs on something. The other thing to watch out for, is that some dye may have been spilled there, plus other things (like antifreeze) sometimes show up under the lamp.
Did you inspect the expansion valve, where the pipes disappear into the bulkhead, and around the compressor shaft seal? There is always the bottom of the condenser where the pipes go in, and this can be hard to see as it sits on top of the crossmember and can't be seen from below or in front.
Other option is to pressurize the system with dry nitrogen to about 10 bar and put some bubble spray on that hose, whilst giving it a good twist and bend, to see if any bubbles appear.
Dye doesn't always come out though! As it gets carried by the oil in the system, it relies on the oil leaking out to carry the dye, and in theory, if the leak is very small and only allows gas molecules (which are smaller) and not oil to pass, then you'll be looking for dye till the cows come home. One things for sure, it must have leaked out some place, so keep looking.
As per Dr Dave, if you can't find anything, get it gassed again, and take it back after a couple of weeks, when there is still something in the system, and leak check it then. The one place you can't easily check is the evaporator, but these only normally go on a select few cars, and so far, 306's aren't one of them.
Ello again. I have got 3k to spend on a car (thnankyou parents!) and am thinking about a Punto 1.2 sporting in yellow.
Can any1 offer any words of wisdom on this car and if so where i might find one? if not an other reccomendations? bearing in mind i am 19.
thanks guys Read more
If you can't stretch to a Sporting to start off with, try a Punto 85 16v SX or ELX - you can probably get a very late T / V reg 3 door for peanuts. Unfortunately you can't get the ELX/SX in Broom yellow (I like that colour too). If you're set on a Fiat, Bravos are extremely cheap (around £3k for a really good example on P-plate) these days and are a lot of car for the money, provided they have been maintained and looked after properly. They are excellent to drive too. If you want something smaller, the Seicento is a little cracker and prices for those start at under £3k.
If you do plump for a Punto Sporting though, dont buy pre-1997 (post P-reg) - they have the aged 1.6 engine and are far from sporting. The 1.2 16v is far, far superior.
regards,
Paul
www.fiatbravo.org.uk
Browse
Search under "cluster" in the archives.
There are two threads which will come out at the top relating to leakage on rear light clusters (on Mondeos in the case) and remedies.
HTH