February 2003
Hi, urgent advice needed here with my Astra's central locking!
On way to pick up son from Cub's today, stopped off and local garage, locked car, bought purchases, and went back to unlock car.
Wouldn't unlock. Tried and tried, no luck. None of the doors would open.
After much panic and unanswered panicky phonecalls, realised that I could actually get in through the boot. Which I did, to the amusement of the bloke in the car next to mine. Tried leaving boot a little bit open so I could get out again, but it shut. More major panic until I realised I could get out through the window.
Parked up at Cubs place, of course crowds of people suddenly amassed so I couldn't perform my antics. Had to drive off again to simewhere more discreet, and in a delicate and ladylike manner, climb out of window. I have many bruises to show for it.
Son and I had to get back in car via boot, and I later had to again climb out of window to let him out of the boot.
I *really* don't want to have to do this outside his school tomorrow morning!
So, once you've stopped laughing at my afflictions, can anyone tell me what's happening here, and is something that I can very easily sort out myself? As most of you know, any advice will need to be explained in very simple terms.
Any comments much appreciated.
Thanks,
HF Read more
Ah, happy days. Been a while since I had a car that bits drop off as you drive along, last 5 years had Toyotas, bullet-proof but boring.
My Xantia has a bit under the engine that I can only descibe as a sump cover board. Its an oily horrible board that covers the bottom of the engine from the front bumper to the footwells and from wheel arrch to wheel arch.
I guess its intended to serve two purposes, 1. Aerodynamics to improve economy and 2. to stop oil dripping on the drive.
Mine has been always looked a bit saggy to say the least and to cut a long post less long I drove very fast, there was a bang followed by some rhythmic clattering. The aerodynamic board was not very, and had semi-detached due to turbulence.
To get to the point....
Is the board important?
Should I replace it?
Is it required for the MOT?
Will it being less than aerodynamic explain poor MPG and top speed. (I cannot get better than around 33-35 MPG which for a 1.9 TD is poor)
Still, made me smile, I thought the cat was blocked and the exhaust had dropped off (assuming I have a cat)! 8p
Mike Read more
Yeah - I know the oil flap "splash syndrome" only too well from when I was on the shop floor!
MG-Rover Problems? forums.mg-rover.org
I am going to post two threads for advice on diesel cars. Both inter related but dont wish to confuse the two.
Firstly, I am considering changing to a diesel but a friend who was in the motor business for over 40 years has made me think again due to the mileage and the pattern of my driving.
I currently drive a Merc. 320 Estate petrol. Due to retire soon and need a car cheaper to run as I will be paying the bills - hence the diesel.
I will cover 6,000 to 7,000 miles a year, about 60/70% of the mileage will be on short runs of a few miles and my mate reckons that I will not get the economy due to the volume of these short runs. I know you get less to the gallon on short runs with a petrol engine and probably less also with a diesel engine but even with my driving pattern the diesel should be more economical.
I am also told that diesels are OK for going up and down motorways but not short journeys.
Surely with the new diesel engines (Merc or BMW) they cope with short journey economy ?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
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Oldsinjun....Please let us know in due course what you settle for.
Anyone else out there find the seats in the new mondeo uncomfortable?
After a test drive I liked the car but not the seat. I found it too narrow with very firm side bits which stick into your hips. I'm tall but not wide.
The dealer claimed this was the first negative observation on the seats in years of selling mondeo's!
Is he right or have the seats put anyone else off? Read more
My mate's Mondeo MK1 is the most comfortable I've ever drivin in, and I'm including my dad's BMW in that. :)
Only been in a new Mondeo once, but I don't remember them been bad...
Blue
Mrs Smokie is now the proud owner of a 99 Aquafrost 1.8 Focus Ghia with just over 30k. Paid £5750 for it at Blackbush - did I overpay? I think it was about right (for a private mug punter) and the auctioneer had to get approval from the Lex rep to let it go at that.
So, to the technical questions - the first is lazy cos I'm sure I've read the answer here...
It has fFSH printout but no service book. Will a dealer flog me a service book and stamp it up? How much?
The (openable/closable) vent by the passenger door does not seem to work, where do I start looking? (Do these become detahced behind the dash?)
Most importantly, how can I find whether the recalls have all been done - there are a lot in the cbc which might apply.
Thanks
Read more
01906 5533447.
The number I once called was 0906 5533447.
I got what I wanted (the correct handbook) but was in a queue for 7 minutes - at £1 a minute I wasn't too happy. I did phone around midday so it might be best to try a quieter time.
James
My 96 Fiat Ulysse 1.9 TD has now been into the garage 3 times for a problem with the steering, it makes a clunking noise and the steering wheel almost jumps from one side to the other.
It has had a new track rod and power assisted steering pump fitted and the problem is still there.
It is intermittent and usually get worse the longer it is driven when the clunking noise becomes continuous. The steering wheel then judders and it feels unsafe to drive. The problem is worse at speeds between 25 and 40 mph. The garage keeps on telling me that they are unable to replicate the problem. Any ideas? Read more
I had a similair intermittent fault on a old Golf, first time it happened I thought I was going to run off the road, replicating it was nigh on impossible, eventually it was diagnosed as the collapse of an engine mount, which allowed vibration to be transmitted through the engine to the wheels. As it was an old banger I just scrapped it, so the diagnosis was never testedd
We went to the skidpan on Saturday. National Driving Centre in Croydon (found easily by web search). Not a particularly glamorous location, but an interesting, well-run and fun experience.
We drove a front drive Primera with ABS switched on and off and a rear drive Sierra without ABS. We had 30 mins in a classroom plus 90 or so in the cars. Cost was £120 for the two of us.
Instructors were both ex-Police and the skidpan and training are apparently modelled on Hendon. Slipperiness comes from an oil/water mix and there are different road surfaces. The pan itself is quite small, but I never found this to be a problem and they made a fuss of it being purpose-built.
The course covered various techniques, including:
- thinking about ?exit routes? (e.g. mounting a clear pavement) rather than just braking;
- learning to feel when the back is going to let go;
- correcting rear-wheel skids in both FWD and RWD cars;
- taking effective lines into and out of corners to minimise chances of skid;
- using ABS effectively to steer around an obstacle;
- cadence breaking;
- steering out of a locked-wheels skid by releasing break pedal.
We learned a lot and had a good time. Mrs B, who was reluctant to go, has been telling all her friends about it.
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So a thumbs up then.
I take the Mrs later on in the year. Thanks for the feedback.
I've got the above (March 2002), an import to UK spec with 6000 miles on the clock in metallic paint. Any ideas on what I could sell it for and should I focus on the private buyer?
I'm not too sure on what I should ask for it as it's an import. Read more
If you want to shift it quickly you might have to go as low as £9,500 - you can get brand new, UK spec 1.6S models for £11k (or you could). Otherwise I reckon £10,500 tops. Anyone got any other suggestions though?
The problem is that, for mainstream cars at this money, there aren't likely to be too many takers as most buyers will want someone to sort out finance and part exchange for them; I know it's usually much cheaper to do it yourself but that doesn't seem to be how the market works. Good luck.
Sorry to use up valuable Back Room bandwidth tonight, but I'm hoping someone can give me a useful answer to this:
My friend's car tax expired at the end of January. She can't find her MOT certificate to renew it. She hasn't been using the car, and it has been parked off the road on private land. However, I believe that she is still in breach of the law, in that she should have SORNed the car.
However, she had assumed she'd find the MOT within a few days and would be able to tax it and that it wasn't worth SORNing it for a few days. 10 days later and she still can't find it though. What trouble might she get in to, and how likely is it that she will? As I say, the car is parked well off the road, so someone would have to go looking for it not having a tax disc, but she can ill afford to get a fine or similar over this.
Also, will she be able to get a copy of the MOT from the garage that did it, or will she have to have the car tested again?
Any advice for best course of action would be appreciated. Not having the car isn't causing her any major problems, but she doesn't want to get in trouble with the law. Read more
Possible problem with loophole -
driving TO garage for pre-arranged repairs may be OK,
but driving back home again?
I'd be interested in how the other backroomers interpret this: If a road is wide enough to have more than one lane in each direction, but only has centre markings, is it one lane or two? The reason I ask is that there are a few places around here where a certain 'class' of driver make two lanes, usually resulting in people like me who assume one unless marked getting blocked in.
My interpretation would be that it is one lane unless traffic is queuing. Is this correct? Read more
The Armoury roundabout up towards Shaw Heath. That roundabout gets more than it's fair share of drivers who just push in rather than following the highway code... :s
Browse
found it!
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=i&t=56...0