February 2003
Going to see a transit minibus 2.0 petrol A reg 1985 in the morning - is there anything I should look for aprt from the usual.It passed its MOT in Dec and has four months tax.
I'm trying to buy it for £200 (advertised for £500)to deliver a load of stuff to SW France where, after its last grand journey, I will scrap it.
Will I be able to insure it having ripped out the seats?
Any thoughts gratefully recived.
MB Read more
Mum has sold the 309, it was a K '93 1.4i GLX, 87k with a good maintenance history but poor tracking and ran poorly when cold.
Bought for £700 about 9 months ago
13000 tough miles (delivery driving) in 7 monthsthen near zero for the past 2 months
Given the faults, was £600 a good price? It did have a CD player installed so lets say £550 if it had still had the original Peugeot-fit tape deck.
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When I had my 98 VW Polo 1.4 serviced last year at a VW dealer they stripped the sump thread when changing the oil.They repaired the sump with a Heli-Coil.I have recently changed the oil myself and found that they had put in the original sump plug which had about 3 good turns of thread left on it.I replaced this with a new plug.Last year the garage told me this was a common problem because the sump is made of aluminium and the plug is steel.Considering this was only the fourth service and had only been worked on by trained VW technicians,I found the "wear and tear" explanation a bit poor.I think the sump plug had been overtightened causing the thread to strip.Has anyone else had a similar problem?
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I took my vectra to a national fast fit chain for an oil change about 6 months ago. A few weeks ago I took it for another, this time at a small independent tyre place. They informed me that they were unable to do the work as the plug was just spinning and would not come out. I returned to the place which had done the previous oil change and to cut a long story short the area manager sent me a fax stating that he accepted the threads could have been damaged when they changed the oil but similarly the second garage could have done the damage when attempting to undo the plug. He offered to cover half the cost of having a helicoil fitted and invited me to bring the car in to one of his branches for this to be done.
I have since paid for the sump to be helicoiled at a cost of £100 from a 3rd garage as I did not trust any of the other two to work on my car.
It seems fairly obvious that this damage can only be caused by over tightening and therefore would be entirely the fault of the first garage- I'm really annoyed about this as through no fault of my own I have picked up a £100 bill. I have not yet replied to his offer as I am still considering my position. Can anyone suggest a best course of action? Thanks
I am new here, and female too, but do need some good advice, not bothered in the least by street cred, but am looking for another car S/H, between 6-8k, now looked in the car by car breakdown over the Civic, but it says it is not a galvanised body so it has turned me off a bit, the other car is the Nissan Almera, one thing i have learnt on this site, buy Japanese so i have listened to you.Not in a rush though, like my Ford Fiesta zerec, well how it drives but quality is crap and it was a friday afternoon car too, its cost me a bomb and Fords main dealer cannot/will not fix my raining in so i just want to change my car and let one if the kids have this one as a runaround, i do about 25-30 thousand a year. Read more
Don't forget to let us all know what you eventually decide on.
Too many on this forum leave us all in suspense,like missing the last episode in a tv series!.
Informed yesterday by e-mail that my 330 is finally for the chop.
Leasing company replacing it with a 530d (the new 200bhp, this being the only compensation) by the first week in March. I have never been sadder about the departure of a car. Read more
On the 530d, i know the engine was remapped from 184bhp
to 193bhp
sometime during 2001 (Y plate onwards it seems) - But, is
their any way of physically checking ? Also, can you upgrade/remap
a pre-2001 car to 193bhp?
I have a 2000x 530d 184bhp and have asked BMW if they could remap to the 193bhp and they said no!
I believe that the new generation 3.0d is a differnet engine rather than just a remap as the CC has dropped from 2996 to 2993
Hi All,
Following my recent Head gasket change on my Granada, everything has been OK, bar the transmission blowing up, (£528, Ouch!!!). My only concern is the coolant system. The system isn't loosing coolant any more, but the radiator doesn't seem to get anything like as hot as all my other cars. The top and bottom pipes to the radiator are very hot at normal running temp (Can barely touch them), but the radiator is cool to the touch. I've flushed it while in the car, and the water ran through OK. Can you flush a radiator seemingly ok, but still have a blockage in it??
Many thanks for any help supplied
Nick Read more
If all these above fail why not try this from the Maestro forum
The best solution I have seen is to hang a camping gas radiant heater from a length of wood going between the passenger seat to the dash top
Style wot!!!!
I’ve just come back from test driving one of the new Mazda 6 diesels. Obviously a very good engine inside a promising car. Only problem is that road noise is so obtrusive I would go so far as to suggest that my cavalier 1.7 TD diesel is quieter on some motorway surfaces – shame since this could well be the thing which stops me buying the Mazda.
However, given the fact that Ford historically has had problems producing a quality diesel, why don’t they stick these Mazda offerings in the Mondeo instead of this much maligned TDCI? Vauxhall did this in the 90s when they started using Isuzu engines rather than their own offerings. Obviously GM had some stake in Isuzu so it made sense. Now Ford has a pretty hefty stake in Mazda so why don’t they do the same?
Incidentally, I’ve spent a long time researching my next car – big family diesel estate with pots of room, don’t care for image or gimmicks - can never seem to find the perfect option. Mazda – great but road surface noise a considerable problem. Primera – poor load space. Anything French won’t be countenanced by SWMBO. VW overpriced and not without problems. Mondeo would suit if only they could find a decent reliable diesel. My “perfect” solution so far is a Mondeo with a Mazda diesel! Any other suggestions?
Splodgeface
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I can understand you looking towards Japanese models for their reliability, - if I were you I would hang on a couple of months and try the new Toyota Avensis, - their 2L D-4D diesel variant is being released in May.
Just a question for you tech minded guys, do the 8v 1.6 engines in the new shape astra's have the same prob's as the 16v, and do they still need the cambelts changed at 40,000 miles along with the plastic tensioners ( if they are plastic ). I only ask because I had a reminder from my Vx dealer about how important belt renewal was on the 16 & 24v engines, but nothing about the 8v. Thanks in advance.
Paul Read more
AFAIA, the 40,000 mile change applies to all Vaux Engines fitted with a c.belt.
Again though Vaux have moved the goalposts. The suggested change on my old 2.0 8v Cavalier was every 36,000 miles when I owned one a couple of yrs ago.
Hi
I would like to know what people think of ratchet spanners. I have seen people using them and would like to know what the verdict on them is.
I would also like to know who the best manufacturers are for them and where the best places would be to buy them.
Cheers
GAM Read more
I have a set of snap-on ratchets that are the following sizes:
9mm/10mm
10/11
12/13
14/15
16/18
17/19
Strangely, all except the 10/11mm spanner is hex fit, with the 10/11 being multi point (is this the right expression??). I much prefer the multi point type as the insert angle of the hex spanners has to line up with the nut/bolt head before engagement and this can sometimes be tricky if you can't see what you are doing.
They are circa 1990 and all are of the clicking ratchet type, and have to be reversed through 180deg to work cw/acw. They are very well made, but to be honest I haven't used them too much. I think they are a bit of a luxury, but when nothing else will fit into the space available they are great tools.
I keep them in a separate pouch away from regular tools because it is important to try to keep the mechanism clean and lubricate the regularly.
Hi all.
Apparently this has been tried before and failed so I'm not getting my hopes raised. Anyway, it would appear that a few of us are interested in getting together and so I thought it would be wise to seek some feedback and ideas on how/when/where it could be done.
Mark agrees in principle but points out that this has been tried before, tends to get too complicated and becomes impractical. A single 'national' meet-up might be impossible but what about the possibility of more than one regional event ?
Haven't given the practicalities of this much thought yet
so anyone got any ideas ? Read more
David,
I see that you are west country based.....if a pub lunch in the Cotswolds (Moreton-in-Marsh) is possible for you then email VD5D at his address given above, looks like 4 or 5 interested so far
regards
Ian L.
Browse
Thanks to all who posted. The first one was right - no company will insure it even on a third party only basis. Barmey but there you are...
It drove really well, as well
MB