November 2002

Question At auction tonight

DavidHM on 27 November 2002

Some of the more interesting cars at auction today

90H Renault 5 Campus, 6 months' MoT but blowing exhaust, £8
91H Nissan Figaro, finance repo, some body work needed, £3100 provisional
96P Renault Laguna RXE, 134k, purple, £750, a bit rough
96P Mazda MX5, UK car, 44k, fsh but not mint, non standard alloys, £3700 provisional
98R Mondeo 1.8 LX a/c, 102k but lovely condition, £1225

Mostly though, nothing exciting and I only included the Mondeo because it was an amazing bargain that I wish I'd bought myself. Read more

Maz on 29 November 2002

I'm not sure what to think!

I think £5k is very competitive for a P plate 1.6 MX5 and I wonder if there's a reason when H & J's are going for much the same in my neck of the woods. (Ad says good condition)

Unless I can get a definitive answer I guess I'll have to go and test drive the car and see for myself. As this would involve me staying sober over the weekend it's not ideal though!! :->

Does anyone have any other views? Is the P-plate 1.6 going to have the same power & weight as the H plate?

Question Seat Ibiza front brakes

simonsmith473© on 27 November 2002

I am going to change some front brake pads on a T reg Seat Ibiza 1.4 this weekend. I was wondering if anyone could tell what type of braking system it has got? is it vw or girling? does it have bolts(with nuts on the guide pins) or alley key type bolts? Read more

Question Help! unwanted illumination

Tim Allcott on 27 November 2002

Vehicle is 'R' plate Passat 1.8 saloon. This p.m. all indicators came on in static mode. I have removed fuse for indicators and for hazards, and disconnected relay (attached to back of hazards switch) and they STILL stay on. Finally turned them off by disconnecting the battery!
Is it anything to do with the alarm? Wife left no 2 son in car, locked it, then unlocked it realising he was still in.
Car 'autolocked' again, 'cos she didn't open a door after unlocking it (in case you unlock it accidentally) which presumably armed the alarm. I cannot work out how, having disconnected both fuses AND the relay, there is still power getting to the indicators. HELP!

Tim Read more

Tim Allcott on 28 November 2002

It was the (in)convenience unit! Took it to main agent, 'cos this am the RH indicator was still on all the time (solid state, not flashing) When they removed the box and tapped it, indicator went off! then spent 20 mins trying to recreate the fault. Wiring to box was questionable, with both live feeds having been cut and spliced at sometime, but badly (?!) which they then replaced properly. All now seems to work. Charge? £64. Unwanted Christmas present, but all now seems to function. Cross fingers that was it...

Tim

(Peter : do you know WHERE the fuses for the alarm are on the Passat? or where the alarm unit is for that matter? email me direct if you do, please)

Question tapits?

gary on 27 November 2002

Just wondered if anyone can help with this one?
I have a cavalier 2lt j reg fuel injection which i think the tappits have gone on.
How do you know when they have gone and how easy are they to do?
I want to know as i am keen to learn to repair my car.
Thanks to anyone who can help! Read more

lezebre on 29 November 2002

over the past few days some strange things have happened in this forum regarding the subject of hydraulic valve lifters

>>

I'm glad you said 'the past few days, DD, because my Clatter question on 13th Nov (Tech Matters page 5), about hydraulic lifters rattling, but then discovering my car didn't have any, was, surprisingly perhaps, for real!!!!

Question Seat Ibiza problems

Dave N on 27 November 2002

Here's the deal. My girlfriend bought a new Ibiza 6 weeks ago, and when she got it home she noticed the speedo glass was cracked, and there was a gouge on top of the dash. After much to-ing and fro-ing getting it booked in to be looked at, them loosing the booking and the courtesy car availability, them ordering parts and not getting back to us, usual stuff. Eventually get it booked in to be done, but declined their courtesy car as they don't insure them, and her insurance wanted money to cover it etc, so borrowed her mums car.After first day they admit they didn't start on it till 3.00pm then following day they said they couldn't code the dash in and someone was coming from Seat to help. Then following day, still can't code dash. So it's been 3 days (so far) just to fit a binnacle and instrument cluster, and to be honest it seems a bit of a joke.

But what can we do about it? What would you do? Read more

Question I.C.E. - MP3 ?

borasport20 on 27 November 2002

I'm looking at replacing my car radio with a cd/mp3 tuner.

(1) has anybody got any recommendations for a unit under £200 ?

(2) the benefits of mp3 are 8+ hrs on one cd - what are the pitfalls ?

(3) what software do you recommend for copying cd tracks to mp3 cds ? (and can you copy the other way ?)

I have to grow old - but I don't have to grow up Read more

Shigg on 24 December 2002

Nearly forgot, a big advantage of MP3s in a car like mine, small with poor suspension, is that you seem to get very little skipping of the music when the road surface is poor. This I must be down to the fact that the head unit must have to buffer a considerable amount of data ready to decode. I find the sound quality more than up to the job, some people think that MP3 files are low quality (I don't think they're at all bad if you encode them using a quality encoder) but let's be honest we're playing them in a car not a studio. I store all my music on my PC now as MP3s, using Nero I can tell it to make a normal audio CD drag the MP3s across and when Nero burns the disc it automatically converts them to audio tracks. Nero can also be used as a conversion tool between the different music file types. It's fast at converting files as well!

Question Single Cam 416 GSi Cambelt.

Toad, of Toad Hall. on 27 November 2002

It's the Honda 1.6 SOHC.

Haven't got the Haynes manual yet.

Does a engine mount have to come off?

Are there known difficulties?
--
These are my own opinions, and not necessarily those of all Toads. Read more

David Lacey on 21 December 2002

"Are you saying the dealers are the only ones with scaffold poles then?"

No, but we have some b***** big hammers!! (lol)

MG-Rover Questions? forums.mg-rover.org/

Question Xantia-II suspension

Mr. Xantia on 27 November 2002

Hi
Does any of you have a description of how to exchange the spheres on a Xantia-II 1.8 with 6 spheres? I have never tried it before, but i'm used to using my hands (not all thumbs).

Please e-mail salg@sol.dk or just put your suggestions in after this.

:-))

Regards, Lars P. Read more

PhilW on 27 November 2002

Check your e-mail!!

Question Mondeo central locking

Cicero on 27 November 2002

I have an intermittent problem on my 1999 Mondeo. Sometimes when locking the car, either with the remote or by using the key in the driver's door lock, the car locks and then immediately unlocks in rapid succession. Does anyone have any ideas about what is wrong and, more importantly, how to fix it?

Thanks. Read more

Adam {P} on 16 August 2005

Sorry - I should have read the entire thread before posting all these.

The above is in reply to Tosca.

(DD, if it's too cluttered, please merge all my posts into one. Cheers)
--
Adam

Forum BMW 318 TDS Compact ('99 T)

JimmyB on 27 November 2002

Hi,

My search for a decent diesel continues...
Could anyone offer me some information on a 3 Series 1.8 TD on a 99 T plate? Who built the engine, what the power output of it, is it any good etc?

Also, does £9,500 sound good for this model year with a decent spec (alloys, air con, leather etc)?

Thanks in Advance,

James Read more

andymc {P} on 29 November 2002

Clio dci - nice car alright, but depreciation slightly worse than I expected. Terrible dealers. Terrible dealers. Terrible dealers.

Bigger car for £9500 - Rover 75 Connoisseur SE with highish miles say 80k or more. You can get a 2000 plate car for under £10k now. Not hugely fast, but the chip upgrade might help. Or get a Seat Leon TDi and chip it from 110 to 150 bhp.