September 2002
Guys,
Not even the slightest claim to be a motoring one but I need some info fast.
If you need a web based e-mail account to use in America is Yahoo OK as well as Hotmail? I ask as Hotmail seems to get loads of spam so Yahoo seems best.
But I notice my existing Yahoo "spare" e-mail account has an address *********@yahoo.co.uk.
That's not going to work in the USA with .co.uk is it?
Advice from wealthy pond hoppers much appreciated.
Thanks.
David W Read more
I have just bought a 98 Mondeo which has air-con. Assuming it has not needed repairs or replacement from new how much longer can I expect it to go before needing re-gassing or replacement?
Ive heard about 5 years is the best you can hope for, obviously I will run it often as recommended in the manual to try and keep it 'healthy' Read more
Gas used in cars since 1994 is R134a. Older cars had R12, which has now been banned. Fridges used to use R12, as well as R22, which is due to be phased out soon as well. Some fridges now use R134a, as per cars. As fridges don't generally have service ports, and they can use a variety of gasses, it's usually cheaper to buy a new one, than pay an engineer to fix the leak and recharge.
A 'helpless female driver' friend of mine is borrowing a 1992 Astra 1.7d and reported that the brake and battery warning lights have come on. She has stopped using the car but doesn't have the manual so can't ascertain exactly what these lights might indicate. I have told her to check the brake fluid level but she tells me that she can't open the bonnet to do so. Is there a 'knack' to opening the bonnet ?
Also what do these warning lights actually inidicate and is it just co-incidence that they've come on together.
She's had a really bad time with cars lately so I know she'll be truly grateful for any help the Back Room can offer. Read more
Bim - see HFD's thread "Astra Drive Belt - Fitting Problems".
About 18 months ago I bumped a parked car when I slid on ice. due to driver error on my part. (A valuable lesson was learnt about ice and roads.) So I sent in a report to my insurer just in case I had caused damage. Well no claim was made by the other driver. I now have on my Statement of Insurance a summary of that 'accident' as follows:
damage to own car = £0.00
damage to other car = £0.00
injury = None
Loss of NCB = No
Is this really an 'accident'? Why is this on the statement? Am I legally entitled to request the insurer remove the 'accident' from my records? Am I obliged to inform other insurers about this when asking for quotes? (I have done 'cos I don't want to be prosecuted.)
FYI It seems to make a difference to my next insurance premium of about £15. Read more
Marky, I think many of our problems dates back many years ago when Insurance companies adopted the knock for knock policy and simply pay out for their own customers car repairs or write off. Previously an accident would bring them directly into the fray to ascertain who was to blame and obviously be on your side to save themselves money.
The scenario today is that excesses are normal which deters one from making small claims and also cuts down the amount they have to pay out.
Then, unless you have taken out insurance to have your excess recovered you are entirely on your own.
The company you are trying to recover your excess from will not willingly pay out unless they are ultimately forced into this position.
I have heard of others who have had great difficulty in recovering the excess from the other company.
You also will have seen in the small print of your insurance documentation that you must never admit liabilty.
I presume that with the knock for knock principle where they will be paying for your car they are also thinking ahead that the other driver may be trying to recover his excess as well as 3rd party claims.
I think that in insurance as in other products you get what you pay for and some of these cheaper companies cut the corners in paying out where they are able to do so.
alvin
Hello,
My 2000 W 406 HDI has recently got a strange " feel " to the clutch pedal. it is like treading on cockroaches,
At first I thought it was like the cable getting worn, however I now know that it is a hydraulic system. And after reading about it on the site I noticed a problem experienced by a reader who had lost all his fluid.
What could cause my pedal to feel strange like this ? I don't fancy losing all my fluid whilst on the M 42 overtaking a truck near droitwitch.
Marc
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As I hadn't yet received new paperwork I e-mailed my present insurer earlier today seeking the figure of the renewal premium (due 01/10). In my signing-off paragraph I included the footnote "in case I need to shop around"...
Lo and behold ? this idle threat appears to have generated me a grand saving of 63p for the next 12 months!
Needless to say ? I'll be ?shopping around?... Read more
I've just renewed with www.esure.co.uk , they beat most other quotes by at least £100 (paying £330 now) - the only other insurer to come close was Direct Line.
Kind regards,
Cyrill666
Litigation, especially when allied to persons of such obviously limited intellect, seems to pay off in the USA. This "gem" was considered the best in a list of frivolous lawsuits and I am told that it is absolutely true.
"In November 2000 Mr Grazinski purchased a brand new 32 foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having joined the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly the Winnie left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the handbook that he couldn't actually do this. He was awarded $1,750,000 plus a new Winnie (Winniebago actually changed their handbooks on the back of this court case, just in case there are any other complete morons buying their vehicles.)"
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Ever notice how much smoother your car runs on misty or foggy days? Its because the air drawn into the intake is denser with the water particles in it (I think). I've checked the fuel consumption on my car(old model Mondeo diesel)on days like this, and it is slightly better than on 'normal' days. I'm sure I heard of a system for injecting water into the inlet manifold many years ago. Does anyone know if this idea does work and who markets such a system?
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Any idea what the proportion of methanol was? I met a chap some 30 years ago who had added a carburettor to his single-cylinder AJS 500, so it had two Amal carbs in tandem, one supplied with petrol and the other with water containing a small amount of alcohol. In this case, the alcohol was simply to improve the flow and atomisation of the mixture (he said). It ran very sweetly, and apparently went 180 miles to one gallon of petrol! The exhaust pipe was also spotless inside, so it would be interesting to know the effect on emissions...
Could anyone advise please ? It seems, nowadays, that speedo accuracy is of ever increasing importance, especially when we hear of drivers being booked for, seemingly, small increases over a particular limit. Also, in my case, having converted my Japanese import's speedo face from KPH to MPH, I am getting a bit paranoid about it's accuracy. I can, of course, do a check by some arrangement wherebye I follow a driver who will indicate his speed but, with the knowledge that most speedometers are not very accurate anyway, this method has it's drawbacks. Does anyone know if the Police, or Dept of Transport, offer speedometer testing at any of their national centres? It is to be hoped that the police vehicle speedos are regularly checked, probably on an accurate chassis dynamometer but, is this facility available to the public ? Read more
>When we hear of drivers being booked for, seemingly, small >increases over a particular limit"
>
>No we don't.
>
>An oft repeated urban myth.
I think this varys from police force to police force. I was on the M40 the other day and noticed a marked police Vauxhall Omega behind me. Looked at my speedo and was doing 85mph.
I just moved over into the middle lane and he went passed.
I read somewhere that vehicles with more than 8 seats were automatically classed as Vans by the taxman in the UK, thus qualifying for the £500 benefit-in-kind tax assessment. I know these waters are muddied by things like double-cab pickups, but I gather that the Revenue is accepting the Customs and Excise view of things that they are commercial vehicles if they have a load capacity over 1 tonne.
I mention this because the C&E also have a ruling about numbers of seats, and in their case the threshold is 12, so is the 8 passenger rule figment of my imagination, and if it isn't, is it likely to change soon when everyone with a company car opts for a pickup or a large people-carrier?
I'm specifically thinking of the LWB Land-Rover station wagons that can carry 11 people, but I daresay there are others...
(I did look on the FAQ first, HJ!) Read more
If it's just for email, can you get an internet enabled organiser instead?