September 2003
Has anyone got any experience of fitting original Ford roof rails (the ones running running from front to back) on a secondhand estate. All the aftermarket ones look pretty weedy & don't have a large enough distance apart (front to back) to give me chance of carrying large timber sheets etc.
I bought the car without rails thinking it was easy to remove the black roof strip & bolt the rails into the slot on the roof like Vauxhalls - alas a nasty surprise was in store when the Ford parts guy told me you have to take out the head-linning & drill the roof and that he reckoned it was 6 hrs workshop time at the Ford garage - so for me at home god knows how long !!
Am I trying to do somthing V difficult or should I be ok ?
Any advice appreciatted.
Jools Read more
Saw last weekend on a campsite in Leicestershire a 53 reg (ie brand new) Type 2 VW camper van. The air cooled engine sounded brand new. I thought they had been out of production since the late 70's or has a company started making them again? (Didn't get a chance to speak to the owner.)
If they are being made again a whole new generation will experience the abysmal hill climbing ability, noise and dodgy handling that I endured in the 70's in my Uncles 1300 cc one. Read more
I have just found out today that I have been offered a job abroad. The only problem is I currently waiting for a new car to be delivered on the 25th. I've only paid a 'small' deposit and am now wondering what the legal implications are if I cancel the order so close to the delivery date?
Any advice, abuse, suggestions welcomed! Read more
That's the most likely scenario.
The legal position is that they are highly unlikely (i.e., all but impossible but I'm not prepared to say that) to be able to force you to buy the car, although theoretically you could be liable income or other losses arising from your breach of contract.
However in practical terms they've got to mitigate their loss and that means that they will want to sell the car on as quickly as is practical at a fair market price. If it is a popular car or you got a big enough discount, you have nothing at all to worry about, and even if it's a Nissan Almera and you got a £2k, instead of a £3k, discount, the dealer is far more likely to want to spend its time selling cars than suing you.
In some cases they may even give your deposit back, although you can't really force them to do this.
Any of you bright sparks on this site got any ideas on this one.?? My car is a 1995 Audi A4 1.9TDi with 130K. Smokes real bad. Ok i expect a bit of black smoke on hard acceleration but this is more or less constant. When cruising at 80 on the motorway there is a constant heavy plume obscuring the view of the car behind, and of course REAL embarrassing. Sometimes seems to clear, but gets worse particurly when going up hill when at times the car seems to go down on power for a second or two.
The car starts ok, has new injectors fitted (yes tried that first), and new fuel oil and air filters. The car has FSH and the engine is smooth enough. My source of diesel is OK. My mechanic says it MIGHT be the fuel pump, but at £600 to replace I would not want to go down this road until sure. The other possibility is the air flow sensor, though he claims if this was troublesome the car would hardly drive at all, and it does pull well most of the time.
Help or ideas would be Really Really appreciated!!!!!! Read more
Please excuse me, I do not wish to seem rude.
How long have you had the car? A stab in dark, but if you recently brought it did the previuos owner have it chipped?
These chips alter the mapping on the ECU, some of the cheaper analogue chips have a tendance of producing plently of black smoke the better digital chips reduce this smoke.
Stab in the dark, I just know a mate with a Golf 1.9TDI, goes like hell but you think she running on waste oil)
Laters
H
A work colleague has a 1992 Clio that has started cutting out.
Does this car have a filter? If so can anyone tell me where it's situated?
It's a 1.2 model.
Thanks Read more
Thank you
Hi, I've been lurking here for a while. Hope someone can help me. I'm just learning to drive, at the grand old age of 35, & with lessons at £20 per hour, I'm anxious to buy a car and get some hours in with a friend, rather than just with the instructor.
I'm learning in an auto, as I have a dodgy left leg, & I've decided to buy a 5 dr Yaris auto, as it's nice and easy to get in and out of (high seats)
I'm limited as to where I can buy from, because I obviously can't drive it back myself, without someone sat with me, & the only local 'supermarket' type dealer doesn't have any in, & I don't want to wait for months.
I checked on the Toyota website, where you can do a national search, & it came up with several suitable cars. I toddled off to my local frcanchise (less than a mile away) & the saleswoman said she'd get back to me. When she rang, she said that all the ones on the site must have been sold, because the only one available was an 03 reg at £10k (I told her my budget is 8-9k)
The one she found - the only one in the whole country according to her - just happened to be within their 'group' of 2 franchises owned by the same firm. She was quite pushy, but I told her I didn't want it.
Now, I could afford to buy new, I just don't think it's very wise as I'm only learning. I'd be heartbroken if I bumped a brand new car! I don't want to call her a liar, & she said she'd let me know if anything else came up. but not to hold my breath!
I checked the website again today, and there are still several showing as available. What should I do?
Sorry for the long post, but never having bought a car before, I'm pretty much at a loss here, & I don't have anyone knowledgeable to ask. Any advice would be most welcome :) Read more
Now that sounds like a nice car :-)
My gran went for a Yaris and got a 5 door as she was told that the doors on the 3dr models are much larger and heavier, and have to be opened wider to allow access.
Blue
A friend of mine has been having mysterious troubles with his 1994 calibra turbo 4 x 4. Vauxhall have had the car for the last week and they can\'t seem to work out what is wrong with it. His description of the problem is below:
The car smokes when it feels like it! Usually it needs to warm up first or after a run when hot. Colour is dirty white/grey. The exhaust is then black with soot. When idling it will start putting out a little then quite quickly build up to a lot. High revs either clears it (and then it starts again) or just lets lots of smoke out. I have driven slowly in queues on the motorway for ages and nothing comes out (the exhaust is then very clean - no soot). Then at other times I start it up and it smokes. Usually it clears and then nothing for ages. The emissions are either off the scale (!) or just outside limits, again they keep changing.
One other thing, the electrics did something interesting. The engine warning light started coming on intermittently for say a few seconds when under load at speed. Then it did it when doing 30 (this has lasted about 10 months) then stopped doing it altogether. Vauxhall said the TEC test was clear but it may be the lambda sensor. However they now think that the sensor is ok as there is no tec reading. Then a few weeks ago the 4x4 warning light came on (and remained on) after the car had been idling for a few mins although when switched off and then on again and
driven it was fine. It did it again on a second test but has not done it since. Vauxhall have not been able to repeat the electrics problem but have seen the smoking problem. They say the turbo has a tiny movement in the shaft but nothing that should cause concern.
The car has a high mileage (157k) but has had regular service with semisynthetic oil and all other oils have been changed at recommended times.
Any ideas?
teabelly Read more
Thanks for the info. It is the 16 valve engine. My friend has been looking under the bonnet intently and didn't find the coolant sensor but did find a pipe to the manifold that was broken that had a valve in it. He said it seemed just to be there to let more air in. This may or may not be the evap system that you mentioned but either way it wasn't connected properly. He completed the connection with another bit of pipe and that has removed some of the other longer term running problems like lurching when the turbo kicked in and has made the car run a whole lot smoother. A proper replacement for the missing pipe is on order so this may just solve the problem by itself or further fiddling may be required!
teabelly
I regularly read the technical section and I can tell you i'm totally fed up that my terrano 2.7TD has covered 45,000 miles in 4 years and has failed to develop a single annoying fault. This means that all I can do to it is wash it , polish it and service it. I've a good mind to invent some kind of problem to put on this website.
Now, to top it all my wife has gone and bought a new Honda Jazz, can't even service that for 3 years! Read more
Apparently he will be able to panel beat the roof and make
a profit of about £4k on the deal.
Which should just about pay his first year's insurance on a 1.0 micra if he was breathalysed!
Did anyone else notice this last Saturday (13/9/03). With no advanced warning the M62 to M1 Southbound access was coned off and no diversion signs. I more or less knew how to get around this but somebody having no idea of the area could have ended up travelling miles to the North. Read more
Silly me. I was driving my daughter's 900cc Cinquecento at the time so must have been concentrating too hard on pedalling to keep up to notice the matrix signs!
This, I suspect, has been discussed a few times before. So if it has, apologies to the mods.
As has been documented elsewhere I had a trip back oop north this weekend to visit my daughters. The journey back was started at around 1720 on Sunday and completed at 2230. The vast portion of my journey was on the M6, M1 and M25. So far, so normal.
The odd thing was, there seemed to be some sort of invisible force field on almost the entire length of the M1 that prevented cars from moving into the inside lane from the middle lane. At one stage I must have travelled at least six miles in the outside lane at 60 mph purely because the motorway was in effect reduced to a dual carriageway. All this time, there was not one vehicle (not even a lorry) in the inside lane to prevent vehicles moving over. If they had moved over, then traffic would have been a lot more free-flowing and the outside lane would have been travelling at a more respectable speed (well, the cars in it would anyway).
I guess that the root cause was the fact that it was a Sunday evening members of CLOC were out in force, having just been to Auntie Doris\' for a slap-up Sunday lunch.
How, though, can we educate these eejits? I find it very exasperating, not to mention ignorant, that somebody else can hold up my journey for no reason other than sheer stupid-mindedness. Maybe the police should start stopping these people and explaining gently but firmly that their driving can be just as dangerous as someone who speeds.
Cheers
Rob Read more
If they put rumble strips every 50 metres in lane 3 and every 100 in lane 2, this problem would absolutely solve itself... but they won't. And speed kills, apparently!
DVD we brought one back once from India on one of our many tripos back and forth from UK. Before leaving Afghanistan we literally scrubbed the thing down inside and all over before reaching the Afghan/Iran border. We also had to be careful to watch Iranian Customs police, because they were fond of planting stuff on the unwary. Also Afghan kids used to run alongside the van and throw lumps of hash in through the windows hoping to get a few coins.
All proceeded well till we drove off the ferry at Newhaven. Customs must have had a slack night because they were going to nail us if they could. The fact they found a bong pipe really energised them. So we were there six hours interrogated together and separately and strip searched and verbally abused and I was a bit concerned UK Customs wanted us so bad they would also have no compunction in planting the evidence. I remember insisting that any inspection of the vehicle must be undertaken with one of us present and they diodn't like at at all. Used rude words like "Sonny" etc. Anyway we had the total air of the innocent which we were and they gave up in disgust.
At 3 a.m. we dropped off one of the girls at her place in Hove and went in for a much need coffee. Meanwhile the local Morris Minor Panda in baby blue with white doors happened by. There was a knock on the door. Who is the owner of this vehicle outside which does not display a current tax disc etc etc. Well officer we've just driven back from India and haven't had the time to tax it. Pull the other one, sir. It's true, let me show you my passport stamps. Shows passport stamps. b***** me sir if you'll pardon the expression. Don't s'pose (snigger) you've got anything to smoke in there have you? (You'll have to excuse the remembered dialogue, this was 1970). Absolutely not officer, you can check with Newhaven Customs, they wanted some too, but they couldn't find any.
All right all right, enough of that, you get that thing taxed tomorrow you hear?
The "pong" you mention was most often the smell of those uncured woolly Afghan jackets that everyone wore then. We used to bring a stack back and sell them in Brighton Market.