June 2003
Have just renewed the Comp ins on my 2.0l Accord, including business use and high miles - £294. Green Flag cover for absolutely everything, home start, recovery of any car etc etc including the wife and her car - £99. -esure, run by th eex-direct line chap, Peter Woods - nearest was £480 for both with less breakdown cover. Read more
Is it me or have Ford simply made a 4/5 scale model of the Focus? (Im not knocking the shape as I like it)
I'm a loser, baby....so why don't you kill me?! Read more
As we sat in the pub yesterday and looked at it from the side, all we could see was the bonnet, and yes, it looks almost identical to the Focus. Very nice!
After having owned mine for an entire week now, I've rapidly developed a liking for the shape, even the seats are very Focussy, the only bit that isn't is the dashboard.
Great car though, no rattles at all... so far.
Blue
hi all, anyone know of a spares source for fiats similar to german and swedish,euro car parts etc as im sick of paying allmost double for service parts for my wifes punto as i do for my v70! thanks Read more
Sorry - can't help on this one, but I am also finding Fiat spares very frustrating. I need ht leads for my 2001 1.2 16v Punto. I have tried about half a dozen main dealers and none carry them as a stock item, and all want full payment (£36)upfront before they will even order them. If they don't carry spares, for what is after all a fairly common replaceable, for a 2 year old current model car, what hope for when the car is 5-10 years old.
In the past with my old Golf I could go to German and Swedish for a fraction of the cost for oem parts
I'm looking at getting a Corrado VR6. The HJ write up suggests buying one from Germany.
Question is, what's the best way to go about doing this? Is there a german version of "Die Auto Trader" on the web. Are there other resources to look at?
/spoiler Read more
Thanks for the information. My preferred choice would be to buy one from this country, but thought it would be worth a look to compare ones in Germany. Not too many VR6's about here either.
Had a look on ebay & i see what you mean about german mod's. There's one on there & it looks nasty!
Hi
Just had my rover 214i (8 valve) stolen. M' reg (95). 76K on the clock and in very good condition. What should i claim assuming i don't get it back?
Mark Read more
SpamCan61 said,
"IIRC the small print in direct line's T&C s states that if the car is written off it is their property and they'll give you what they like; whether this would stand up as a fair clause in court I don't know."
Until you actually agree a value and get the cash it will not become their property.
They often offer well below what you expect because some mugs simply take the first offer. You have to negotiate - sometimes they will not raise their offer, sometimes they will. If you can prove the value of your car (via engineers reports before the claim, and/or adverts for similar vehicles) you should be able to increase the pay-out.
It will still be classed as written off, but this is only their estimation that it is worth less than the cost of repair.
However if you think you can repair it cheaply (by doing the work yourself and hence negating the labour cost) then you can offer to buy the car back after your claim has been settled.
After cleaning of my Citroen C5 with a very strong car shampoo (label states 'for heavily soiled and greasy cars') the windows (or doors or both) have started to clunk and creak. Its worse after rain. It seems to me that it is caused by somehow dried up windowrubbers or doorrubbers. My local dealer hasn't came across this problem thus can't help. The C5 is almost two years old and I have experienced no rattle or squeak until now. Any suggestions?
Read more
Try applying Holts Rubber Lubricant - and give your fanbelt a blast at the same time.
Hi - Can anyone please help?
Have a 98 Corsa 1.4 single point injection 38000 miles- (all short journeys) ECU light has just started illuminating each journey after about a mile.
Can I read the fault codes in any way without buying a gismo? I seem to remember being able to do this with a cavalier- by shorting terminals in the diagnosis port you could read the fault codes from the number of flashes on the dashboard ecu light?
I took a gamble and replaced the lambda sensor without sucess- dont want to waste any more cash by trial and error! Read more
You are dead right Aprilia. Another example of Rip off Britain at its worst.
The most worrying thing is that it says on the topbuzz site that you cannot download the codes for more recent cars - only main dealers can do it. So it looks like they have a licence to print money.
The happy footnote to my little saga is that the EGR valve was fine once I had scraped the crud off it- it was jammed shut on a ridge of carbon deposits.
Hi
Iam deciding whether to buy a car that i see at cutts of campden in Gloucestershire
its a Ford Sierra 1.6 Laser
I havent seen it yet i have only seen it advertised
What should i look out for and what do some jobs cost on a sierra
i dont know its mileage yet,
cutts dont seem to like replying to emails as i have sent numerous to them
Regards
J Stephenson Read more
James, if you haven't seen already, check the classifieds section. www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=5&t=13...5
It is a little surprising that the following has not been quoted.
tinyurl.com/e4gm
There may be some on here with interesting comment, one way or the other. Read more
I would say that this technique could be used on the track because you need to move the wheel as little as possible and as slowly as possible to get round bends as fast as possible but most of us are driving round town and need to turn the wheel full lock really quick and when exiting the corner get it streight real quick. For me a quick grab on the bottom of the wheel a quick spin and if required I hook my thumb on a spoke and turn right to full lock in a split second and the quickest way to get it pointing forward is to loosen your grip and plant the throttle. This works good for me and has never cought me out or caused an accident.
NB
FIAT UNO not very aptly named a FIRE 999cc version.
Problem 1
The ignition light fails to light up prior to the starter being activated. I sometimes get a very very dim light if I rev the engine. So the lamp is OK but Haynes says the alternator or the control box is the cause. Any suggestions /confirmation of diagnosis before I raid the breakers yard. It appears to be a sudden failure.
I feel fairly certain I would have immediately noticed the lack of the ignition light as it is so large on the UNO.
Problem 2
A few days ago the noisy clock stopped working but I ignored its loss. Then the first use of the UNO after dark showed the internal light had also failed. Cause appears to be an obviously blown 10 Amp fuse. I replaced the fuse and clock plus light now work.
I have had the UNO for four years. I know fuses can occasionally just fail but I am concerned that something else caused it to blow. Maybe a chafed wire somewhere.
Problem 2 occurred days before the ignition light problem.
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Re: problem 1, Alternator.
Check to see if the alternator earth wire is still attached. I remember on my old Astra the earth brade rotting between the block and alternator and leaving me with no warning light on the dash. A couple of days later the battery went flat. At the time I just thought it was the bulb that had blown and decided it was ok to leave it until the weekend before replacing the bulb. How wrong was I?
Browse
I was with e-sure last year - over £100 cheaper than the nearest quote - £350 for a Focus (changed to an A2, one additional driver and business use). Had a claim due to a joyrider deciding to cause £2,500 worth of damage to my car whilst parked, as well as wrecking another car and almost killing someone then driving off. Renewal letter came a week ago - next year's premium £843, I expect an increase after the claim but thats rediculous!! Needless to say they've lost my business, I'm off back to Frizzell for £375.