November 2002
I bought a new Golf recently from a well known national car importer/supermarket. The other day I found that a couple of lines of the rear window heater element were not working, at the bottom of the screen. On closer inspection I saw that some of the conductive part of the heater lines has been damaged. I assume that when they were preparing the car they ripped off the old VW dealer sticker and replaced it with their own sticker, damaging the heater element in the process. I know there used to be a sticker in this position because it left an imprint on the screen which is clearly visible when the screen is misty.
What I would like to know is do I have a case against the car supermarket for replacing the rear screen? I know that the damage cannot be repaired under warranty, so I called them and they have asked me to bring the car in to be inspected by the workshop manager, which I will be doing on Monday. Am I likely to be fobbed off with "We didn't do it.", and if so what should I say to them? Strangely the customer services department said they weren't aware that they were removing the original dealer sticker and replacing it with their own.
Any help appreciated,
Matt Read more
My SRI seems to have a lack of fuel getting into the engine.
When then u have about a quarter of the tank, at accelerating it seems to be very hessitant as in , accerate then stop then goes again, u can put the foot to the floor sometimes and it will just not accerlerate at all, then will suddenly go fast. Also when starting from warm when the car has been driven about then stopped, if u start the engine straight away it cuts out all the time until u keep revving it up when its about to stall. then it will eventually keep running.
I have changed the fuel pump, fuel regulator, air flow meter, vacum, fuel filter,
its even been away to a garage, which tuned the car up and still has the same problem,
Be much appreciated if you could give me as much feed back as possible please. thank you Read more
How's about the fuel pump relay?
I had one go some years ago on a year old 2.0 8-valve CD Cav 3.
Used to stall, then refuse to start until left for a while.
New relay fixed it.
Looking at HJ's roadtest of the Skoda Superb. The Classic model of the TDI 130 at £16,000 looks very good value and it has most of the goodies I want.
The Elegance version of the same model at £20,600 doesn't look anything like as good value. You get:
Extra, or substitute on Comfort:- rear parking sensors; 16" alloy wheels; leather wrapped gearknob, gaiter, parking brake lever and steering wheel; multi-function steering wheel; 6 CD autochanger; cruise control; front and rear sill covers; auto dimming rearview mirror.
Extra, or substitute on Elegance:- 17" alloy wheels; part-leather upholstery; wood trim on centre console and gearknob; bi-Xenon headlamps with integrated pop-up washers; electric sunroof; heater front and rear seats; electrically adjustable front seats with three memory settings for seats and mirrors.
Some nice toys there - but worth another £4,600? Not for me anyway.
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It is a pain when manufacturers spec cars up to increase the total price. Invariably, you end up with a car with equipment on you don't want.
I'd much prefer they had a basic vehilce for each engine size then you could add or delete the options you wanted. The only draw back is when you come to sell it, the new buyer may not like what you haven't got on the vehicle!
I have a citroen zx 1.9diesel and it sometimes surges forward when im traveling at a normal rate of speed. can anyone tell me what this is causeed by,
also does anyone know what the 0-60 time is Read more
Air is more likely than the throttle cable.
That said, mine has a very stiff cable that I oil every 3 months, which eases it. I must fit a new one soon.
In response to the throttle cable issue, mine had totally different power delivery with the stiff cable, so do check it.
Cheers - Jon S
Friend has just bought a 95 merc e320 coupe with just over 180k miles. He bought it knowing that it needed engine work. KNown problem was that the crankshaft pulley had come loose (do not know why or how as they are tightened to 300 ft lbs) and may have caused damage to the end of the crank. Further inspection shows that the engine is short of oil pressure on first start up and clanks like the bottom end is shot. The only option seems to be a replacement engine; question is 1. new merc engine - probably out of the question on price 2. recon engine - but who is dependable? and 3. secondhand from a breaker - same question as 2.
Any recommendations?
Any ideas why the crank pulley came loose - crank vibrating as a result of bottom end gone caused it to loosen? any other ideas? Read more
Forgot to say that Crewe Engines will quite possibly take the old lump in part ex against one of their remanufactured units.
Are motor dealers allowed to buy tax (VED) discs in advance of a sale and fill in the vehicle details later?
I can see how this might help when they have a number of vehicles to register in a short space of time, such as the start or end of a month.
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Thanks HJ.
The situation I am thinking about would involve going to a post office and paying for a stack of discs effectively in advance of the vehicles being sold. More likely with used cars than new, I expect. The question then is what happens if there are some discs left over?
I've recently bought a Yaris 1.0 GLS, but it didn't come with a handbook, so I was wondering if someone could advise me a good place to obtain one from, or at least give me a brief run-down on basic things.
I'm mainly interested in:
What the tyre pressures are.
How the double-locking works.
What the temperature indication means.
Anything else I really need to know.
Also, I realised after I got it home that it didn't have an aerial. Is this something I can complain to the dealer about, or should I have noticed it before I bought it? And how much will it cost to get one, and from where?
TIA! Read more
If the car has a "stub" that the arial screws into then I assume it has a roof mounted arial in the middle. These regularly get pinched. It's probable that the car originally had one but that some twerp took a shine to it on the way home from the pub. It'll probably cost you about £6 - £8 for a replacement.
Ian Cook
I want to buy either a.....new style honda crv ii
or....new style toyota rav 4
But am having major problems deciding which to go for
Please advise which one you would choose and \"why\"
Kind regards Read more
Good decision. I previously had the old style RAV\'s and changed to a Merc A Class which was a disaster!! and when I could
I bought a new RAV VX which is a brilliant vehicle in every way, much, much better that that A Class. I even hired a new C class Merc in the South of France and found the steering very hard compared to the smooth drive of the RAV.
Toyota have really excelled with this vehicle.
I'm hoping someone can advise me as to my best course of action here. About 3 weeks ago I had a minor bump leaving work. The other driver appeared to be pulling out from the driveway, I started off after her, glanced left to make sure the road was clear, but by the time I'd looked back, she'd stopped (for no obvious reason) and I couldn't stop in time to avoid gently running in to her bumper.
At the time of the accident, I said that I'd be prepared to pay for the repair unless it was very expensive, on the basis that it was likely to be cheaper that way than claiming off my insurance. She then got two quotes, one from a main dealer who said it needed a new bumper, one from a garage who were happy to respray it. I suggested she get a quote from a reputable bodyshop to see what they advised. This took her over 2 weeks to do (she said she couldn't find the place at first, but finally did on Friday). She claimed she phoned me on Friday afternoon to advise me of this, but the only call I had was from an unknown number and as I was driving at the time I couldn't answer it.
As a result, on Monday she asked for my registration and said she was phoning the insurance. I had a message today asking me to phone Direct Line, but the number they left doesn't seem to work.
To slightly confuse matters, I've changed my car since the accident, but did not report the incident as I thought we'd be settling it outside of the insurance.
My main question is can she force me to go through the insurance? Even though the bill is £350 (seems excessive to replace the body-coloured bumper on a 97P Polo) it'll still be cheaper than the extra premium I'll pay on my insurance. I'm currently paying £380 with 3 years NCD. Even without taking premium loading in to account, I reckon I'll be paying £600 extra over the next 4 years.
Will the fact she has reported it mean my premium will be loaded from next year anyway?
I have been advised by people at work that as the accident happened on private land she can't actually force me to go through the insurance. Is this correct?
I'm not trying to get out of paying for the repair, I just want to do so at least cost to myself.
All advice appreciated! Read more
Technoprat is, on the whole, correct. The court will hold you liable for reasonable expenses incurred as a result of the accident including the repair costs. However, the judge will want to know that these expenses are reasonable and that the plaintiff has been reasonable in her pursuance of the case. If you can show that you offerred reasonable compensation before the case was brought to court the judge will award what he considers to be reasonable 'out of pocket' expenses but it is most unlikely that he will award costs to the plaintiff if he thinks she has prevaricated in the hope of gaining an unreasonable reward. The word 'reasonable' has cropped up here rather a lot but it an important concept in law. You could substitute the word 'fair'.
On my N reg Passat the driver's window now refuses to work. It's not the switch as I've changed that. From the double switch the passenger window doesn't open either but it will from its own switch. The 'windows up when you hold the key in the lock' routine also fails to work on the driver's window (but does close everything else including the sunroof). I'm pretty sure its not the motor that's gone any other ideas? Read more
My wife's 1995 M-reg Polo had a similar problem recently - broken wire in the bunch between the A-pillar and door.
HTH
Regards
Paul
Browse
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As HJ says, it wont be covered by the warranty unless you can show it was not manufacturered properly. It appears to be damage rather than a fault.
You could used to buy little bottles of conductive paint which you could paint on to repair the broken elements from some car part shops IF the car supermarket refuses to replace it (and you don't want further hassle).