August 2003
I was surprised to see Fiat in 3rd position in the reliability index (www.reliabilityindex.co.uk), one place above Honda.
Does this put paid to all the flak thrown at Fiats recently in some of the posts? Read more
Hi Guys,
Need a quick and difinitive answer to the following question.
Renault Megane 2.0 RXE which sparkplugs should be used - champion part number or plug number needed.
Would really help with the following story for those who care to read it:- Read more
Hi,
Maybe i should put this one to bed, The car came back, and we asked for a description of the work carried out and the reasonings etc.
It appears that the head was removed and taken to an engineering company where an "insert" was fitted. Hopefully this is a legitimate insert and not the Double Helicoil which they were intending. The £312 was arrived at by taking off the labour charge from job number 1 but was done by giving a discount, not a refund as i guess that could have been seen as admission of liability.
Car is running fine, and they have put a 6 month warranty on the work.
Time will tell.
Anyone wanting to opine on this, feel free.
Not me HJ, but I use mailwasher to weed out spam so far nothing has got as far as my virus checker. Was the mail correctly adressed to look like genuine email or were the viruses attached to dubious product offers? Read more
pulling the volumes together
hello im in two minds,
ive got the chance of a 2.0 dti vectra estate this time next year for 2-3000 of a relative
there a few things that puts me off......
one is the 20000 mile oil changes, it will have done 100000 appx by then. surely that doesnt do a car any good. i know vauxhall will tell you otherwise but come on..
another thing is what do you reckon it will be worth its a 51 plate estate be worth in a year
also the get absolutely slated on here. things like the computer reliability trim falling off etc
ive got one and never had aproblem with it
in anyway am i lucky should i buy it or run away as fast as i can??????
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Don't listen to me. Just do a search on this website to see the amount of aggro Vectra 2.0 DTi problems there are with dealers next to useless in trying to work out what the problems are with huge bills for nothing!. They are a pandoras box, best left closed. Run away.
Regards,
Alf
Just sent to me.
I wonder if someone's scanned the Volvo press release material before the press release, and posted it on the web?
www.8ung.at/werner-beinhart/ (Can be slowish, even with ADSL)
My opinions?
Well, yes, it is predictable an S60 shrunk in the wash, and the front looks a bit dumpy (may be camera angle, but should look great as a T5 on steroids), but the back is fabulous.
Very cohesive use of shape from the rear quarter light back.
The instrument shroud is too Lexus 200, and the centre console is fine apart from that horrid metal-look panel. Apparently, the reason for it is to make everything look more '3D', a theme carried out throughout the rest of the cabin which we cannot see yet.
Only other comment is on the ignition 'key'.
It looks like this is of the 'pseudo key' type as fitted to the likes of the new Benz E, and I guess it is dashboard mounted to help get four stars at NCAP. If I recall correctly, this is not allowed, regardless of how the car actually performs, when steering column mounted, because of risk to knee in a heavy collision. Apparently even not having an audible seat belt reminder automatically precludes four stars, and whether NCAP is contrived or not, it does sell cars.
Will be interesting to see what Volvo have done with the V40 replacement, the V50.
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Like most modern cars it looks like a cross between selected others in the class: think 3 series, baby lexus...know what I mean?
Splodgeface
A friend of a friend (honest!) is in a spot of bother after having knocked over a lampost. The lampost was I understand in a pub car park, as was her car. She is 21, and as her Dad was away at the time, she did not have any sensible advice, so did nothing. She was visited by the boys in blue (who presumably had got her reg number)and she confirmed that it was her. Obviously, she is now aware that she should have reported the accident both to the publican and possibly also to the police.
She has paid for the damage.
She has now been summoned for failing to report under RTA 170(4).
I think she is guilty, as long as a pub car park qualifies as a public place. Has anyone any experience on this?
I have advised that if she is indeed guilty, she should go to court in her best clothes with parents (she is 21 and lives at home), explain the circs, apologise sincerely etc. Although this is going to be a bit nervewracking for her, I believe that she will be given some credit for going to court as opposed to pleading by post, if they will let her. They may of course not let her plead by post as they have a discretion to disqualify.
Any help much appreciated! Read more
Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) Regs 2000 (SI 726)
tinyurl.com/kufd
also adds the need to have third party Insurance when driving in a Public Place.
DVD
Wife making decision today on buying a '96 2.7 TD 5 Door. Vehicle shows history of heavy front tyre wear, despite tracking, four wheel tracking, and suspension re-shimming by dealer. New fronts required every 15,000 on average.
My question is this typical of the marque, or have we a rogue vehicle?
Any info gratefully received. Read more
From a previous colleague with a Maverick, and friends with a Cherokee 2.5TD, typical.
Prompted by a thread this week on www.volvospy.com/ , I remembered something I wanted to share, but didn't.
Recalling that my Vectra GSi had hidden menu options within the CCR-500 stereo head unit, several months ago, I spent half an hour pressing combinations of buttons on the HU-803 in my V70.
Low and behold, I found that this too has hidden menus, invoked as follows:
1) Head unit power 'off'
2) Press and hold the |<< (previous track) button
3) Switch on power
4) Continue to hold |<< button for several seconds
5) Bingo! Masses of menu options, some of which I understood,
some of which I did not, so I left well alone.
Courtesy of the above web site however, I found the following document that explains exactly how to use them:
www3.sympatico.ca/p_bruno/volvo/Audio_System_HU803...f
Want to compare diversity antennae strengths?
No problem! (Though I don't want to!)
Want to adjust the surround sound defaults?
No problem!
Want to adjust the tonal range sent to each speaker individually?
No problem!
The most interesting to me was displaying vehicle speed (only in km/h) as used in the automatic volume control function. This appears to be incredibly accurate from measurements I have just made. In fact, whilst the speedometer itself over-reads (I am sure deliberately) even though it probably gets its' digital feed from the same source, the stereo head unit uses it without any filtering and with close to 100% accuracy.
Have fun, but don't come to me when something is broken and you need a VADIS session to put it right!
Queue Sean to tell us about VAG hidden menus.... ;-)
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I hope someone can help here because this has got very expensive.
Coming back off my holls yesterday my trip computer was showing around 16/20 mpg instead of 29/35mpg ,i checked the range setting on a full tank and that was showing about 200 less miles than normal.
After running the car empty the trip computer was shown to be correct,I took the air filter out and this seemed to rectify the fault for about 20 mins then it returned
The engine seems to running ok its a carlton 3000 gsi
I would be interested to see what you all think
Cheers Read more
the consumption had dropped by about 200 miles a tankfull,but over
the last few days it appears to have gone back to
normal...very strange!!!
You may have been victim to a temorary blockage in your air intake.
It could have been anything like a leaf, or a wine lable left on those French roads!
I remember when my Pug had a garage service, the mechanic left the slip of paper that tells you how to fit the air filter in the filter. That caused no end of problems for a while. I took the air filter out just to check it for elimination and found it!
H
Driving down the motorway yesterday minding my own business, noticed a donk in a gte doing the normal boy racer thing, tailgating, weaving in and out of traffic etc, passes me but pulls into middle lane. Cautiously I overtake and the donk pulls straight out, I hit the brakes hard and swerve to avoid, luckily there is a big space between lane 3 and the barrier or I would have been a goner. We touched, nice big white paint scratch down my wing, lump out of the passenger door.
Pull into middle lane, indicate to go off at next junction, donk slows down too, as I pull off he floors it and is gone, no way am I going to catch him.
Question 1 - Is there any point in reporting to the Police?, in fact should I?, do I have too?, I suspect he will have no insurance etc, doubt if the motor is even registered in his name.
Question 2 - anyway of tracing him (in the unlikely event that the motor is registered), I got the reg ?
Luckily mine is a company motor so I am not going to cop it for repairs but would like to get some kind of revenge!
Cheers
Drink Lager Talk Piffle
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Cheers for the advice, been to the old bill, filled in all the forms, those places give me the creeps!
Drink Lager Talk Piffle
Browse
Vansboy
The reliability league table was for FIAT group as a whole. I just picked the Brava/o as being a representative FIAT and the Civic as its nearest Honda competitor.
I agree with you: for the money you get a lot more FIAT than you do Honda (optional extras notwithstanding--see above).