November 2002
I am about to do a service on my 1997 1.6 Carisma and will change the coolant. I cannot locate any maintenance manuals for this car.
Can anyone tell me how to drain the system, are there drain plugs on the engine block & if so where. Same goes for the radiator and expansion bottle.
For refilling, are there any bleed points etc or any special method of replenishing.
Many thanks in advance.
For what its worth, Homebase sell Holts Coolant 5ltrs for £6.99 in Swindon.
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I was driving at 5am, through a relatively wide road in a town when I needed to make a three pointer.
I briefly checked my mirror and saw that the only car behind me was a good distance away, I judged it to be time enough for me to complete the turn before he even got close.
Then, I swung a little (no more than 15 degrees of turn, if that makes sense) towards a left junction and pulled around to the right. I probably crossed the junction barrier to the left before I made my turn to the right. When I was across the road completely (I drive a large car, I would have taken up pretty much both sides of the road) I checked out my drivers door window that I was clear to reverse and as I did I saw the taxi that had been behind me crash into my door. The car was moved back a fair amount and we got out and exchanged details etc.
Was it my fault?
I realise I may have confused the driver behind by steering towards the left, however I had my right indicator on throughout, and for an appropriate time before I made the turn. I judged him to be too far away to cause a problem and I think he must have been speeding, to have caught up with me. It was a 30 limit.
To my mind if I'd been the car behind, surely he must have seen me slow down and indicate right? Even if he'd been right behind me and I'd misjudged the distance or something the first thing he should have done was to slow down to see what I was going to do?
Or does it not work like this? If you do a turn in the road to you automatically not have any priority? I can't find any information about it in the highway code on the net.
Thanks
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Thanks y'all, some interesting points...
I'll just let the insurance get on with it :/
This is the first week of silence here on the subject of Top Gear.
I assume, then, that everyone is as shocked as I am.
Clarkson stood between the Aston and Ferrari to ask "which one is the better car?"
Instead, he said "which one is BEST"..........the nation gasped.
Will the BBC now do the honourable thing and consign this miscreant to the Deayton Dump? Read more
I wrote much the same comments several weeks ago in an e-mail to BBC Points of View. Needless to say it was like dropping it down a hole in the ground.
However I have to say that at least they now seem to show a grudging acceptance that diesel cars have earned a significant market share, instead of the merciless p***taking and perfunctory dismissals in the early programmes.
I agree too that all the exposure given to power sliding and doughnut-driving is just a total waste of air time.
I took a break from Evelyn Waugh's 'Officers and Gentlemen' to flick through my newly acquired copy of 'Motorcycle Roadcraft'.
I've by no means read it cover to cover so can't really offer an informed opinion but that's never stopped me before!
Couple of interesting points:
1) Most advice either fits into the category of 'I already do this and it's common sense' or into the category of "I know I really should do that but don't for either good or bad reasons and it's common sense."
2) It doesn't recommend riding on dip beam 24/7 which the highway code does.
3) It gives some examples of junctions but doesn't really mention blind empty junctions which I think should be treated as though they had a Nova 1.4 driven by a drug crazed baseball cap wearing moron about to pop out.
I was aware of the existence of 'the system' before but now I know what it is it seems to me to just be the way people should drive or ride anyway.
Would any of the police riders/drivers tell us how they apply the roadcraft system and it's general information on observation etc?
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These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads. Read more
DVD, TOTH & teabelly -
Thanks, point taken. I will follow it up further, let you know how it goes!
I haven't worn a baseball cap since my multi-drop 7.5t days...
This weekend has been spent looking for a replacement for the twelve year-old BX (running like a good 'un but has developed a leak and SWMBO doesn't like it any more). Anyway, we reckoned that among new cars (not really out bag, but hey), the Berlingo/Partner would be a good replacement. Apart from the fact that the Citroen dealer was completely uninterested in selling us a Berlingo, I'm not sure the Citroen deal is as good as it looks. The Pug Partner Combi HDI is more expensive, but the basic model comes with more gizmos, and cheaper add-ons (nearly £200 less to add ABS). Best of all though is that Peugeot are offering a 0% finance deal over three years, with a deposit of £1500. On this basis, the Pug is better value. We actually have enough cash, but this will save us more in lost interest than our estimated bangernomics replace and/or repair budget of £500 per annum, and we are very tempted. Oh yes, and our local dealer offered us £600 off if we _didn't_ p/x the BX! Any thoughts? Read more
Chris
Apart from the tailgate pull strap falling off in the early days, nothing but good reports to make. Still early days though as SWMBO uses it as her loadlugger for work with the occasional blast down the motorway to clean everything out and it's only done 6k miles in 18 months.
Terry
A ?92 Rover 416Gsi.
110,000 miles
4 owners
Last owner had it 3 years.
10 months MOT.
Known problems:
Water leak in the boot.
Lights on buzzer doesn?t buzz.
Bodywork not ?as new?.
Apart from that it?s a gem.
I paid 400 quid. Plus I can use keep my roof bars which saves me 50 quid.
We must have looked at over 30 cars between 500 and 1500 quid. (Cavs, Mondeos, a 318, an Alfa 164, a golf!) This was the best by a large margin and cheapest by an large margin.
Was quite stressful weekend. We started looking at 2pm on Friday and didn?t decide on the Rover ?till Lunchtime Sunday so at one point I really thought I was going to be carless this week.
Also got the best reason for sale I?ve ever heard when I called a K plate Cav 1.8 at a grand:
Me: So why are you selling it?
Him: I bought it six weeks ago and it?s given me nothing but trouble. Frankly, I?ll be glad to see the back of it.
Whichever way you look at it that is a genuine reason for sale.
Thanks to all for help advice and assistance.
Couple of questions on the Rover:
Is the cam belt change tricky on the 1.6? Will it need pulleys etc?
Is it worth draining and re-filling the water? I?m surely more likely to introduce an air lock than suffer damage by not bothering?
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These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads. Read more
A very simple question. What is the colour of the new
Toadmobile and did this influence you at all?
It\'s british racing green.
Colour was not even the slightest factor in the decision.
Out of the 30 odd cars it was the only honest clean car that drove well and appeared to have no noticable mechanical woes.
It tends to be the fairer sex who rate colour of a car above the fact that it\'s had 15 owners in one year and pulls badly to the left and is covered in stone chips.
Cooincidently BRG is my favorite colour for a car even though it clashes badly with my green warty skin!
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These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads.
My '88 VW Golf Gti (4 headlight grill) has a crack in one of it's main beam lights fitted in the grill. It's due its M.O.T next week. Headlight still functions: do I need to change it to pass the test?
Tim Read more
Tim
As I understand it, a damaged headlight can be a fail. The condition of the reflector is an MOT issue, and if there is unreapaired damage that will allow the reflector to deteriorate it's likely to fail. Also damage which will upset the beam pattern will result in a fail.
However, small repaired areas do appear to be acceptable, although it's up to the judgement of the tester. Like Brian W I had a car with a small repair (blob of Araldite) pass two MOTs without problems.
Regards
John S
Hi Everyone,
I had new brakes at the front about 3000 miles ago. When the brakes was
lightly applied, the brakes squeaked. I thought it was part of the bed-in
process so I ignored it.
Now, I noticed another squeaking while I was driving normally. It would
squeak when I am driving in a straight line or NOT touching the brakes. It
would stop squeaking when I go round a corner or touch the brakes very
lightly.
What is more interesting, as mentioned above the squeaking would stop when
touch the brakes very lightly, then start squeaking when I brake slightly
harder, then it would stop when I brake slightly harder still.
Any ideas?
At seems to me the brakes rather than bearing. I'll jack the car up as soon as it stop raining.
Thanks,
Garrison
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Can anyone tell me if there is a conversion/adapter kit to put an upright engine (Maybe Ford Deisel)in the back of a T25 so that I can get away from V Dub horizontal engines. I realise this would mean a lump in the engine cover but I could live with that as its a camper. Read more
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Hi Peter
I own 'one' of these car's, and the answer to your question is, looking from the front of the car there is a plastic wing nut. bottom right, undo this and let the coolant flow out...