August 2003
Sat here waiting for the phone to ring announcing Polo's fate, thought I'd ask another question...
New Seat Ibizas come with a years free insurance for people aged 25-80. I'm 23 next month so don't qualify. Insurance to me though is worth about £700, so would I be being cheeky to ask for that much as a discount in addition to anything else I'd managed to get??
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There has been much discussion about the site advertisments and pop-ups.
To summarise our position;
This is a \"free to use\" site which makes no charge for use of its resources. We strive to make the Backroom, which is only one part of the site, as useful and enjoyable as possible.
The greater part of the site holds a lot of useful and valuable information around motoring - whether this is things such as the Car by Car breakdown, Buying/Selling Cars and Road Tests and much more or things such as the useful website list. If you haven\'t explored the rest of the site, then I encourage you to do so.
This all takes a great deal of people\'s time, in particular HJ\'s. It also takes a fair amount of money.
There are people who either do their work for free or at greatly reduced rates. People such as Stephen, Dave, Me and HJ himself.
Adverts and pop-ups provide a source of revenue. There is no profit at this time, and every piece of revenue keeps this site alive and functioning.
We need the adverts to survive. Not to make money, merely to survive. We remain as impartial as possible, partly for the good of the site and partly to protect HJ\'s name - which, as I am sure you will realise, is valuable both to him and to the site.
Consequently, if you have a technical problem caused by one of the adverts, then advise me ASAP and we\'ll look into it.
However, if you simply don\'t like the advert, get over it and don\'t bother mentioning it in here. If you feel you have something to say about the advert which needs saying then you have the following e-mail addresses;
mailto:moderators@honestjohn.co.uk
mailto:letters@honestjohn.co.uk
In e-mail we\'ll listen and take on-board your comments.
Everytime you click on an advert revenue, albeit very small, is generated. That revenue does not, at this time, cover the full costs of running this site.
You have a free and, in my opinion, very worthwhile site. Adverts seem a very small price to pay.
Conversely, we do appreciate that we are amazingly lucky in the \"quality\" of participant we have. Without you, who are knowledgeable on so many different subjects and willing to put significant effort into sharing that knowledge, the Backroom would not be what it is, and we all are both appreciative and proud of that fact.
And that, I feel, is enough conversation on the subject.
Please don\'t try and have further conversation on this, whether it is supportive or not. We all know the position and there really isn\'t much more to say.
In order to remain even-handed, then I shall delete *all* discussion on the subject of advertising and associated topics, whatever standpoint it takes. I will weed out notes, comments and/or threads which I find not to be supportive or are possibly hindering our progress, or even those that are potentially so.
But I do assure you that we all, HJ, Stephen, Dave and myself, read *all* e-mail we receive and any comments you wish to make in that forum will be listened to.
I have not write-locked this thread, trusting that it is not neccessary and that you will read this note in the spirit I intend it.
I hope that covers it,
Regards,
Mark. Read more
I recently passed the big four-oh, and Wifey very nicely bought me a morning on the skid pan at Castle Coombe. I think it was about 70 quid (it's 100 odd if you buy one of those 'Red Letter Day' packages you see around - she booked direct).
Well, what a revelation. Twenty years of driving experience and I learned more in a morning than in any one of those years. And, I laughed so much I thought my head might fall off.
For years I have been reacting to front wheel skids in a front wheel drive car by very carefully and deliberately doing exactly the wrong thing. Apparently, what I was doing is what everyone does, and is the reason why skids in front wheel drive cars are called "killer skids" by those in the training world.
Format of the morning? Swan around in a rear-wheel drive car (BWM 3 series) and a front-wheel drive (Rover 216), four to a car. Spin a lot, laugh a lot. Then a talk about what the correct reactions should be, followed by another swan round and a faster (30mph?) braking test. This involves trying not to hit a cone when braking hard in a straight line. Then finally a timed test in both FWD and RWD car.
Highlight of the day? Up against a group of twenty year old know-it-all kids, I managed the best time in the final timed test. Why? Because I just did what the instructors had told us to do, rather than what felt faster.
So, if you're looking for a good day out that's great fun and that could save your life one day, I can heartily recommend it - any skid pan should be OK, I'm not specifically recommending Castle Coombe, though their instructors were excellent.
V
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Thanks for the link Vin - their prices are reasonable (my £25 was about 8 years ago now), but i'm at the wrong end of the country.
The ones i've attended in the past were IAM ones, run at the Gtr Manchester Bus depot, which is now shut. Very interesting it was too. Space was limited, with a 'track' in the shape of an arc, so you spent the first half of the session driving a right hand bend, and when you'd got the hang of it, the second half of the session driving a left hand bend with nothing more than a rather solid set of railway arches to bounce off if you lost it. What it was like to drive in a bus, lord only knows !!
Matt - the secret is to drive straight from the skid pan to the nearest car wash - don't ever let the stuff dry (p.s. - it is actually a special skid pan oil ! - anybody using used engine oil would have the council, environment agency, water companies on there back in no time at all, which would be fair enough)
I have to grow old - but I don't have to grow up
This is about my VW (again).
Should you see air bubbles in the fuel return pipe at idle? I've got lumpy idle with lots of bubbles!!!! Read more
Well I say that as I have observed small air bubbles in the clear fuel lines of many VAG/GM Diesels over the years - Yes, I'd admit any air to be bad news but these engines were (and still) run without incident.
Can anyone tell me the symptoms of worn shock absorbers.
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Unless the rears have already been replaced separately, then replace all four. New shocks on the front with worn ones at the rear could unbalance the car quite badly in some circumstances.
Hi technical subject for the trade watchers. Can anyone tell me where I can find out the exact weight/volume of refrigerent for my Honda prelude climate (air con) control system
4th generation 1993?
Thanks
PS is is an old R12 sytem now filled with R24 Read more
The R12 weight is 750g. I don't mess with 'drop-in' blends, so you really need to speak to the manufacturer of R24 to see what they say about charge weight. There may also be specific charging instructions as well, as blends can seperate when charging.
Hi all
A friend who is emigrating has a private plate on retention, he doesn't want to keep it, and has tried selling it but to no avail. He wants to give it back to DVLA.
Does anyone know if he can get the £80 transfer fee that he paid when he put it on retention reimbursed?
Thanks
Jonathan Read more
He ought to see if he can sell it for a couple of hundred to a boating enthusiast.
H
Has anyone found a good way to remove tree sap? I gave the car a serious going over at the weekend but never seem to be able to get the stuff off clean. AutoGlym 'intensive tar remover' is great for tar but doesn't seem to have any effect on the sap drops.
thanks,
Robert. Read more
Try a Quik Clay Detailing kit from Meguiars. www.meguiars.co.uk I used one on my last car and it removed *everything* including paint overspray and tree sap spots which even AutoGlym Super Resin couldn't shift. Once I'd finished the paint was perfectly clean, then I polished and Extra Glossed the car and it stayed looking fantastic. Blue
I agree with this. I use a very fine Sonus clay but it still removes everything without removing previous sealant. Especially good on tar spots. Brilliant product. If you use one make sure you have a trigger spray bottle filled a lubricant. I just use water with a dab of car shampoo. You must keep the panel wet to stop the clay sticking.
My 1998 1600cc Ford Escort Zetec regularly revs at between 1800-2000 on cold start. Driving before the revs drop to idling (3-4 minutes) is unwise, as revs become very erratic. After a diagnostic check (£96), the main dealer advised that the remedy was a new PCU at £453, but that no engine harm would result if not done. Does this sound correct? Am worried about engine wear, both on the initial high revs and the delay before driving off. Would value any advice. Also is here an alternative to the main dealer fitting a PCU.
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Thanks Adam. I will give it a try and let you know how I get on
Donny
Hi everyone. Has anyone any advice about wheel balancing? My situation is this: I've a 2000 BMW 323i. I had a new set of tyres fitted at the weekend (due to vandalism) and now I find the wheels aren't balanced properly, despite paying to have this done when the new tyres were fitted.
This came as no surprise to me, as I've had loads of problems with wheel balancing in the past. I've no confidence that the fast-fit joint that fitted the tyres will be able to rectify the problem if I took it back as Fast-fit tyre places just don't seem to be able to do it effectively (or care). In fact, the last time I had this trouble, it took several visits to my BMW dealer (and several hundred £££) before they managed to balance the wheels totally. It's got to the stage where I hate anyone touching my wheels at all - each time weights are prised off and new ones fitted just seems to damage the wheels' rims, the problem doesn't go away and I'm left out of pocket.
I've started wondering whether my kind of car is particularly sensitive to wheel balancing and maybe I'm being unrealistic to expect that my wheels can run without any vibration at all at all speeds. The question is this: does anyone know of a specialist who I can be confident can do this work for me a) the first time and b) without carelessly damaging my wheels. I'm in Surrey. Any ideas? Cheers! Read more
If you want to go for off-car balancing, ATS always seem to do a good job for me. The one at Leatherhead will also use stick-on weights so you don't get any rim damage.
What worries me more though is the apprentice who uses the air gun to put the damn things back on - then checks with a torque wrench. Of course, if the air gun over-torques it, the wrench bit is merely window dressing!
Terry
Browse
Thanks for that. I've done a bit of research into the Ibiza, as by all accounts the 1.2 is a fab little car. Would you beleive it would be less for me to insure a brand new 1.2 than it would be to insure my polo again for another year (like £150 less!)?!
Now if I could just find another £5000 :)