October 2002
The short story is that a neighbour has accused me of damaging rear bumper of her Vauxhall Corsa by driving into it. I did park very close (within 1 cm) in order to unload a fridge after she parked appallingly outside my house. However I did not touch the car. In any case the damage was 2 vertical gouges which could not have been inflicted by a mark 2 golf in parking mode.
There are no witnesses to this fictitious incident. However she has clearly claimed on her insurance for a replacement bumper.
I am concerned she will try to reclaim this from me. Where do I stand. Can she without contacting my insurers? Doesn't she need a police report?
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It seems that the bus drivers are getting very upset that they are being paid £18k compared to the tube drivers (at present - depending if Ken back dates their pay increase etc) £31k.
Expect more strikes.
If public transport keeps getting shut down, albeit for a day or so at a time, how can you expect people to choose PT Read more
Funny how these 'essential' services should be paid a mickey mouse wage or be told to like it or lump it!
Everyone wants the OTHER person off the road except themselves, so it seems.
I know this sounds stupid but how do you change the wiper blades on a 406? Do you have to unbolt the arm? Cheers. Read more
My T reg 406 HDi also suffers from a mild vibration coming through the steering at between 65 - 70 mpg; but it builds up and fades away in 2 to 3 second cycles. If I hold the wheel with the tips of my fingers, you can feel the vibrations build up then decay. It's not a problem (yet), but I'm curious as to why it's happening. One of my friends suggested disconnecting the ABS at the plug to make sure it wasn't that which was causing the problem. The Pug is ex lease and the computerised paperwork does not mention any work which could be due to accident damage, just servicings, new tyres (4) and a new water pump. There's no obvious damage to anything under the car, tyres are wearing evenly and in every other way the car's a real pleasure to drive. BTW, many thanks for the tip on the wiper blades, mine are due a change. I've also just noticed that the blades are different sizes!
I have a problem,when we start the car in the morning we have to turn on and off a couple of times to get the heater light to come on.It then goes off after 5 seconds and starts ok.When car has not been used for about a couple of hours you switch on and the heater will not come on and then takes a while to start.Could this be a fault in the relay or glowplugs as runs fine? thanks JJ
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I totally agree with what Andy S has mentioned regarding the drivers door. Both the '94 Seat Ibiza and 2000 Skoda Felicia that I have owned used this set-up.
The next time you get into your car, if the glow plug lamp is not illuminated by the time you turn the key in the ignition, just try and start the engine and you will probably find that it starts okay. Either that, or leave the door open while you turn the key and you will probably see the light, so to speak!
When I bought the Ibiza new, I too was concerned and approached the dealer who thought that there was a problem with the heater plug circuit, and had the relay replaced. This was before they discovered that it was supposed to work like that.
My car is a VW 1.9 turbo diesel Sharan (90hp) which recently broke down due to camshaft failure. The breakdown occured about 600 miles after I had checked the oil and topped up with less than half a pint. The engine itself has used little oil throughout it's 70000 miles. When the engine was examined, it was found to be 'very low' on oil. The oil warning light never came on, there is no sign of any leak including oil film over the back of the car. It is possible the piston was holed but I can't say for certain. Where did the oil go? Could the failure be caused by no oil?
Chris Read more
I have followed this story with interest and I'm glad to see that you have won the case. It just shows how easy a garage can fob people off and I'm sure a lot of people would not have bothered to follow this up like yourself.
Best of luck with actually getting the money.
Marcos
Golf 1.8 MK111 Driver Monotronic single point injector.
After a local VW agent rebuilt the gearbox due to failed diff cluster bearings the noticed the throttle body to manifold rubber gasket was slit and changed same. Since this the engine feels a little rough both cold i.e. in choke mode and when running at normal temps the engine continues to feel slightly harse when on the cruise.
The garage had rechecked the engine and run some diagnostics but no fault found. I've run a tank of loaded injection cleaner and different fuels. Tick over and starting are perfect, and fuel consumption as before 34/37 mpg. Lambda probe tested OK and all pipes etc are correct. Any ideas welcome Thanks Peter
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How would you rate your car out of 10 in the following categories ?
Car make/model/year:
a) Reliability -
b) Running costs -
c) Dealer support -
d) Practicality -
e) Build quality -
f) Performance -
g) Fuel consumption -
h) Overall
satisfaction -
i) Likelihood of buying another of same make/model Read more
Everyone here seems to have a reliable car. Why hasn?t anyone posted with details of problem cars in this thread? I am sure there are many problem cars around, aren?t there?
Also, hardly anyone has mentioned the cars mileage in this thread.
My car=
Toyota Camry 1985 turbo diesel
Mileage 260,000 miles
a) Reliability -10/10. Never broken down, but only wear and tear parts (radiator, alternator, exhaust etc) and head gasket once replaced
b) Running costs ? 9/10. Insurance expensive, everything else reasonable inc fuel
c) Dealer support ? do not use dealer but independent. Experience from dealer = overcharge, miss service items, support poor and general attitude was shoddy
d) Practicality ? 10/10
e) Build quality -9/10. Nothing fallen apart, seats like new. But rust is only problem
f) Performance ? 8/10 slow with age and mileage
g) Fuel consumption ? 9/10. 40 mpg thrashing in town only. Long motorway journey 50-58mpg
h) Overall
satisfaction ? excellent car. Ultra-reliability as standard even at this age. Very comfortable and excellent fuel range of 460-960 miles per tank. New cars do not compare to this vehicle.
i) Likelihood of buying another of same make/model: will only risk buying TOYOTA?s
Car just goes on and on. Looking for replacement but this car just doesn?t want to finish its life. It will probably go onto 400,000 miles without a problem.
I have just read last weeks local paper and was astonished to learn how many drivers have been in court for driving with no insurance, and guess how much the average fine was...?????? Read more
Is replacement number plate production regulated in any way and if
not, why not ? Surely it would help if people
weren't able to pop down the road with a number on
a scrap of paper and get some plates made up.
They could be made in prisons full of Insurance dodgers...
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These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads.
Hi,
Anyone have an intermittent fault with their Focus along the lines of: speedo suddenly reads zero, slight loss of power, all other electrics normal, then a few seconds later speedo returns and power back to normal?
Martin - Bristol, UK Read more
My traction control light has always glowed dimly when the lights
are switched on - methinks it's a badly positioned bulb in
the instrument display.
My TCS light glow goes away completely when the dip beam position is selected on the light switch.
Most odd.
I recently bought a secondhand 406 coupe which I love except for......
The passenger footwell started to fill up with water!! (literally) with some days over a pint of water hoovered out. With the radio and fan turned off I can hear water trickling as you go around a right hand bend and the left hand side is lower than the right. The leak is freshwater and not coolant / washer fluid etc.
Water appears to be coming out of a small drain hole in a unit (I think a fan housing)up behind the glovebox
During the 15 days I've owned the car it has spent five days in with the Peugeot Dealer trying to sort the fault. When it came out they had replaced the door seal. I drove the car for about an hourand the same problem existed.
I have tried (unsuccessfully) to fix the problem myself. I removed the aircon drain hose to check and see that the unit was draining successfully - it seems OK. I have checked the air intake in front of the windscreen - all the covers and seals appear to be in place.
Please does anyone have any ideas on how to fix my mobile aquarium???
John Read more
The leak I reported some time ago has been sorted. But I'm not entirely sure which of the following two methods provided the solution. Like your problem a considerable amount of water in the passenger footwell and the sill.
The garage had several attempts at trying to sort the problem none of which seemed successful. I traced some of the water problem to the internal heating system. I'm not sure how the water got into the system but was backed up to the blower housing. The water also was coming out of the air channels that link to the passenger air vent and was running down the plastic fittings through a hole into the sill. I disconnected the air conditioning drain hose under the centre console and after dislodging bits of sealant etc got quite a lot of water coming out. I refitted the hose (quite fiddly)
A few days later the car went into the dealer, as arranged the previous week and they replaced the door seal.
I never got to find out which of the two solved the water problem. However the inside of the car is dry!
Hope this helps
John
Browse
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It just goes to show some of the terrible scams that are pulled.
All I can think of is this. If this "accident" in the car park was supposed to have caused "terrible damage" to the other car, i.e. yours, a visit to a bodyshop and an inspection by someone who knew what they were doing should have proved that no bodywork repairs had been carried out on your vehicle for several months. There are many signs that can be looked for. So where had all this "terrible damage" gone?!
Would be interested to know whether the insurance company came to inspect your vehicle, for this reason, or, perhaps, they simply weren't bothered. Quicker and easier for them to take away your NCB without getting involved in further investigation.