August 2003
I have a query relating to my and my wife's cars.
We have 2 cars, a Seat and a Nissan. The Seat is in Mrs Joe's name and is insured by her, fully comp with me as a named driver.
The Nissan is in my name and is insured by me (fully comp), with her as a named driver.
Trouble is, she hardly ever drives the Seat and prefers the Nissan. Therefore, the kiddies seats and all related clobber is permanently in the Nissan, and I drive the Seat.
In reality, the Seat ought to be registered and insured by me, and the Nissan registered and insured by Mrs Joe. This would involve changing both logbooks (which would show an additional owner on the records) and changing both insurance policies.
Am I taking any kind of risk in continuing as I am? Read more
looking at the 8v Gti, hopefully from 1990+ so big bumpers
any thought on this car? budget is around £700
thanks :) Read more
I really miss my Jetta. I had an '88 Gti 16v for 4 years. Great car. Good power and economy for the time. And once i had replaced all the suspension, great handling too. gearboxes aren't great though.linkages wear, but you can get parts cheap for these cars. I stuck the braking system from an early vr6 corrado, with braided hoses, on mine. Early 16v and 8v gti's dont have very good brakes, but its really cheap and easy to upgrade them. If you want a fun car and have the time on your hands go for it.
Have searched the forum but can't find the definitive answer I am looking for.
1990 Volvo 240 "Lambda Sond" - i.e. car is fitted with fuel injection and a catalytic convertor.
Obviously given its age the cat can be removed but is it a simple process of using the downpipe from an earlier pre-cat car or simply smashing the honeycomb out of it with a broomstick a la HJ's advice? Anyone know if this car would need an ECU remap or would it be able to work life out for itself?
My only concern is I'd not want to adversely affect the performance of the car.
Cheers in advance - Dan J Read more
75 K from memory but will check when in the garage. Peter
My SL500 is currently at the dealer having the air con tested. It was running cold but not as good as it has been in the past. The dealer called to say it needs re-charging and, incidentally, that they will charge me £152 for the priviledge.
Is it normal for systems to need re-charging as a normal course of events or does it suggest there may be a leak somewhere which may require replacement of some horrendously expensive part.
The car is still under it's 1 year Signature warranty until end October so I would like a diagnosis before then so I can get any work carried out under warranty. Read more
Probably not a bad time to get it done. In theory they should only lose about 5%/year. The key is to ask them how much they got out of it, that will tell you a lot.
The price is a bit on the high side, but it is a main dealer.
Maybe it's time to put my prices up a bit!
Hey
Just had a full Mongoose decat system fitted to my 306 - it's making a loud whistle when the boost is running, is this just the sound of the turbo cuz of the silencers being removed or is there a problem???
Also can I fit a dump valve to this??? would sound good with the whistling exhaust.
Cheers Read more
Hello Jim. Please see my reply to your D-turbo tuning thread as of a few days ago for more information.
The whistling is normal with an aftermarket exhaust, you have reduced the amount of back pressure in the system and the turbo will sound like that now.
Dump valves do nothing on diesels as there is no vacuum - if you install a boost gauge you will notice that the engine never creates "negative" boost - but they have been made to work properly now. They are expensive though, upwards of £150 I believe.
My father in law passed away recently, leaving a Rover 400 in the drive. Naturally with all the arrangements, checking the car insurance is still valid is quite a way down the list, but what the wife and i have learnt may be useful to others.
The car is not insured. The contract died with my father in law.
With a R reg Rover worth what £3k, that's not a big worry in the scheme of things, but for a high value car, it would be. Eagle Star (bless 'em they deserve a mention because they have been good) have given a three week extension on the insurance against fire and theft in good faith (long standing customer and all that). That runs out next week.
As the car now belongs to my wife and her brother, it can be driven third party only on their own insurance.
Like i said, probably not a big worry when the inevitable happens to your nearest and dearest, but something to be aware of.
Read more
My mums car was stolen on the day of her funeral, which was 11 days after her death. The insurance company, CIS, stumped up the cash with no hassle what-so-ever once the vehicle was found burnt out.
I've recently acquired a cheap 2001 model Volvo V70 from the GTC (good price, car seems fine) but I have a couple of questions about the spec.
The ride seems quite hard for the model, it's a March 2001 V70 2.4 170 SE on 16" rims. I'm wondering of the car has the "dynamic chassis" option - is there an easy way to tell whether it has or not?
It's also has "STC" which I assume stands for stability and traction control. Was this standard in 2001 or was it an option and is STC in Volvo speak a full stability system (i.e. ESP) or just traction control. If so, what's the difference with "D-STC"?
Thanks,
Read more
Hi All,
Has anyone actual practical experience of nitorgen filled tyres? I know that some tyre retailers claim nitrogen keeps tyres inflated for longer thus enhancing tyre life, reducing fuel consumption and 'helping with vehicle handling' - whatever that last bit means.
Seems to me it seems like a good scam on behalf of garages to charge a premium to fill a punters tyres with a low cost gas.
Look forward to replies from someone with experience. I'll try and keep an open mind until then! Read more
Hi John,
I posted a reply from a pilot friend back then, basically the heating up of the tyre forces the rubber to give off combustible fumes which can ignite if the tyre contains normal air.
Filling the tyre with nitrogen gas prevents hot tyres expoloding if the fumes can catch light.
The example given was for a 747 when the tyres are too hot to approach after a landing and fans are used to cool them down.
No benefit for road going tyres I would imagine....F1 perhaps given the extreme conditions experienced there.
regards
Ian L.
Hi all
after a trip to Edinburgh this weekend, I noticed on a gantry on the A74(m) a set of what looked like cameras. They looked like the blue roadside monitors that are prevalant around blackpool but they were grey. Also there were across the whole gantry and were 2 high, there must have been about 40 of them in total, anyone got any ideas what they are?
Also I must take my hat off the girl who was driving the white pug 106 on the way up on Saturday afternoon, way to go, stay in lane 3 all the way! She only pulled over when someone came up behind her, then she pulled back into the fast lane once they had overtaken. Wouldn't be so bad, but she was only doing a jot over 70. (almost as bad as the couple in the opentop crx who never went into lane 1 EVER despite no traffic for 2 miles.
Jonathan Read more
Cumberland Gap? Lonnie Donegan wasn't it?
Around 2 months ago my car (Astra 1.4Lsi 1992) failed to start. The mechanic tested it to find that the alternator wasn't functioning. So we replaced it and it was then running fine. Two days ago the same thing happend, again we had it tested to find this time it was the battery and again this was replaced. We then took the car for a run and with lights, wipers and fan on found the battery to be draining yet again? Does anyone have any suggestions? Did we need a battery? Did we need an alternator? What can we try next? cos we don't have a clue!!!
We would apreciate any ideas.
Thanks.
Angiet. Read more
You may have some other fault that is draining the battery too - check current drain with engine and all electrics switched off (this will require the multi-meter!).
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Theoretically, your insurance could refuse to pay out on the grounds that the main driver is not who you say it is. This is hugely unlikely, and in one case, you're overpaying, so the Insurance Ombudsman would not let them get away with that, not that they'd even try.
There's no need to switch the logbooks around. Most companies allow a car to be owned by one spouse but insured by the other. Another thing is that switching the logbooks could be taken by potential buyers as an attempt to disguise who the previous owner was if they wanted to check the mileage or history.
If you want to be absolutely above board, speak to your insurance company/companies about switching the main driver around, either keeping the policy holder the same - effectively meaning that you're each accruing NCB based on the other's driving - or switch the policies altogether.