September 2003
Looking for the legal definition of a dual carriageway, as embodied in UK legislation.
Think it is included in Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, possibly Schedule 6, but do not have access to a copy.
It is clear from other UK legislation that in broad brush terms a central reservation needs to be in place.
One definition of a central reservation is as follows:
"central reservation" means -
(a) any land between the carriageways of a road comprising two carriageways; or
(b) any permanent work (other than a traffic island) in the carriageway of a road, which separates the carriageway or, as the case may be, the part of the carriageway which is to be used by traffic moving in one direction from the carriageway or part of the carriageway which is to be used (whether at all times or at particular times only) by traffic moving in the other direction;
source Traffic Signs and General Directions Regulations 2002 part 1 section 4 general interpretations.
Might seem a simple question with an obvious answer I know.
However it has been suggested that a ghost island (ie white paint cross hatchings solid white line surround) could qualify as a central reserve. I disagree with that view.
Pls discuss.
PS Where is DVD when you need him? Read more
Dear All
Just a quick note relating to my damaged VW Golf Mark 4 TDI crankshaft. Having been a VW \'nut\' all my motoring life (beetles/type 3\'s/golfs etc) I became the owner of a 2000 model 110bhp Golf TDI. Brilliant car etc. Treat her like my baby with regard to condition/service etc. 85k mileage always taken in to VW dealers for service (prior to service interval dates) always run on premium Mobil one oil etc etc. taken into dealer for 60k cambelt change (at 56k - early)got car back - all seemed above board etc. Over the next 20k noticed car not quite a \'sharp\' as used tobe but put it down to ever increasing mileage etc. decided to change dealer (for service) at 80k service (done early at 76k)because unhappy with original dealer for putting additional items on service that were not carried out. When i take the car into new dealer for 80k service inform them of the \'flat spot\' under excelleration etc. Dealer runs VAG.COM software to find that \'fuel pump timing\' is not set and could have been a result of 56k cambelt service. Advised take back to original dealer for reset etc. As i have no confidence in original dealer authorise current dealer to sort problem. £170.00 lighter i pick the car up - seems sharper etc. 1200 miles later flat spot is back and car running like a \'dog\'. Call dealer inform of problem. they say it may cost to sort but I beg to differ and book car in. Car in - fuel pump timing recalibrated and they inform me that \'sorted under parts warranty\'...hand car back with fuel pump timing recalibrated and seems ok. 1500 miles later same problem (car running gutless and problems starting etc). As I have a mate whom is a VW tech at different garage - same garage chain - he says he will sort it. Same problem - recalibrates fuel pump timin for 3rd time in as many months. 1500 miles later - same problem. Take it back to mate (VW Tech at VW dealer in Bolton) he strips car down to find that crankshaft end is burred and worn and that was probably due to 56K cambelt change and crankshaft bolts were probably not torqued correctly and over the course of the next 20k has worn the end of the crank and this is what is throwing out the fuel pump timing etc. He refits new cambelt and bottom cog along with all bolts etc and says he is confident that it will hold (he has never seen this problem on a Mark 4 TDI golf though). I was charged another £250.00 and on the receipt from the dealer it states - \'work cannot be guaranteed as crankshaft is damaged\'. Can you imagine my frustration. The car has only been serviced by VW dealers. car initially ran very well but after 1500 miles has begun to get flat spots and once again is goig the same way.
Can anybody offer comments or a course of action? The approximate cost of a new crankshaft will be the thick end of a grand and I feel that I should in no way be made to pay - dealer incompetence ehh. Please offer some advice.
Rgrds
Pez Read more
Mark (RLBS)- thank you for pointing out the error of my ways. True, i am annoyed and frustrated at VW dealers but I agree that negative responses like mine will get us all nowhere. As for the site etiquette, now that you have \"laid down the law\" I shall not speak out of turn in any future correspondance.
Yours apologetically
Pez
edited, as if you hadn\'t already guessed. DD.
Anyone any experience with the reliablity of Toyota gearboxes ?
My 2.5 year old Corolla, with 100k, now has a nasty whine and my Toyota garage tells me it probably has a duff bearing - so a £300++ strip down job....
Annoying thing is the gearbox has been the one bad point of the whole car - it has been difficult to use since I bought it (compared to other Corolla's I drove as courtesy cars) - and 3 dealers I tried to get to fix it under warranty all told me it was fine - even though it wasn't - I'm convinced I must have had a Friday Job - odd since it's a Japanese built model, too... anyone think I can pursuade Toyota UK to help out financially here ? Read more
Probably output bearing. It might continue to whine for many miles to come, without harm.
Try going to a good independent gearbox specialist, you might get a better and cheaper job done. I doubt anyone at your Toyota dealer has experience of rebuilding these gearboxes - in fact they might just farm it out to a specialist and add a 'mark up'.
My father bought a Berlingo on 20th February and has since experienced 3 failures of the power steering, the last one stranding him 5 miles from home and forcing him to walk home as the car was in such a remote part of rural Wales. He's contacted CAB and Trading Standards who advise him he has a good case to reject the car, but he is yet to instruct a solicitor. The car has been repaired and Citroen want to return it to him, he has refused to have it back and is in correspondence with the dealer and Citroen UK. The car was bought just before the new EU rules came in concerning rejecting goods within 6 months. He has indicated that he would, as a compromise, accept a new replacement car ( which he would immediately dispose of).The main dealer is resolutely ignoring his requests and trying to get him to accept his repaired car back, which he is adamant he wont do.
I believe he will see a solicitor this week but in the mean time I wondered if anyone has an opinion on where he stands in law? Read more
Finally got a resolution of the above. A solicitor suggested he may have a case against the Citroen dealer but also pointed out they would contest and the outcome was far from certain. Dad had a mailshot from the local Honda dealer the following day offering 3 Jazzs at cost price to buyers ( I'm a bit sceptical of 'special offers' and don't know details of price) but Dad saw this as fate intervening so arranged a part-ex. deal on Berlingo and Honda offered to pick it up for him from Citroen dealer and dispose of it ( it had been fixed again by'adjusting the steering' whatever that entailed.) He's probably somewhat out of pocket but balancing that against a long and stressful wait for a court hearing I think he's definitely made the right decision.
He was appreciative and amused by all the posts on this subject which I sent him-Thanks all!
A friends wife is learning to drive and is opting for the auto-only license at this stage. They are looking to buy a small automatic and have a budget of about £2K + whatever insurance cost is required.
They have decided on a Micra CVT at this stage. Other than a Punto Auto I can't think of that many viable alternatives within their budget.
I'm sure the backroom will come up with a few ideas so fire away please!
Thanks very much
Read more
From a reliability/repair perspective I would stay away from ANY CVT's. They are not particularly reliable and repair is a very specialist business. A CVT failure on the Nissan could well cost £2k to fix.
Much better choice would be the Almera Auto. A little bit bigger but a conventional (and very reliable) auto box. Any other small Jap car with non-CVT is probably OK too (e.g. Honda Civic - quite a few about).
I would appreciate informed opinions on the possible causers of a loss of cooling water only when the engine is running. The car is an 8 value 2Li Cavalier. So far the car has had the cylinder head gasket changed plus a new header tank all hoses & radiator checked in an effort to solve this problem, yet the car still users about 300 ml of water in 25 miles.
The car can stand for a week without water loss. There is no evidence of any exturnal leak during and after a run. The system appears to be under full pressure when hot and stays so until cool! The car runs well, but continues to use water! I should perhaps mention that flushing and RadSeal has been tried.
Has any one out there experience a similar problem?
Any suggestions as to the possible cause and or investigations that might reveal the reason or culprit would be much appreciated. My thanks in anticipation Nikki Read more
Dynamic Dave. The object of this note is to report the solution to the loss of coolant whilst driving. It took three attempts, the last one involved changing the cylinder head for a S/H one from a scap yard. Unfortunately this head needed some work, one of the valve spring was broken and it must have been running on poor fuel the valves were crudded up and in bad condition.
No matter alls well that ends well and at 8 pm this evening I took the car out for test drive -- Its now back to its old self running as sweet as a nut. The way I proved that exhaust gas was being forced into the \'water circuit\' was to over fill the header tank and watch the bubbles leap out. At the standard level fill the venting pipe is about the water level!
When the old head was examined the chamber nearest the distributor showed small white spots on & around the valves. No visible crack could be detected, but the car now goes fine and no bubbles emerge from the header tank. Total cost to repair £54.plus the cost of a torque wrench. My thanks to all those who took the trouble to give me their opinion. This matter is now closed Regards Nikki
Ive been using my wifes 306 for a couple of weeks, no problems whatsoever...actually a nice drive and pretty quick for a 1.8 auto...but parking outside the house today I indicated left to park...no clicks or snaps from the stalk, but its stuck in the left indicator on position...it moves around a little but wont return at all...Its not loose as if its snapped somewhere, and all the other functions work (horn and lights) but just wont return to indicator off position.....like i said i didnt notice it making any clicks on operation and it didnt feel any differant, its just stuck. Does this sound like a replacement stalk job, or would it be able to be unstuck with a little force...I was frightened to just incase it did snap. I know this isnt exactly a major problem, and maybe not worthy of these pages, but its damn annoying and although probably pretty cheap to replace a lack of any funds at the moment makes this difficult...anyone got any suggestions? Read more
You probably can't 'un-stick' the stalk - I expect some small piece of plastic has broken off and jammed the mechanism internally. You could try a bit more force and see if it will come back - you wil be no worse off than you are already as you can't (legally) drive it anyway! A s/hand stalk should only be a few quid at a breakers, and a Haynes manual is only about £15 - you should be able to get it fixed quite cheaply. You might be able to dismantle the switch and get it going, but this will involve removing it (which probably means removing the steering wheel anyway).
Do not even think about poking about under the steering column unless the battery is disconnected and has been for at least 15 minutes. You do not want to set the air bag off and decapitate yourself....
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
Any comments on diesel models of C3 please, thanks Read more
the 195/65/15v tyres on my mk4 golf tdi are due for replacement soon. can anyone suggest a good tyre which wears well and is quiet. the original fit continentals have lasted ok but are a bit noisy. Read more
tahnks for the replies folks.i must admit i looked at michelin pilot primacys in costco yesterday and at 64pounds a corner inc vat for v rated 195/65/15s it seems good value.They seem good tyres ill probably go for that!!
Like many others, I've been thinking about chipping one of my cars - 1999 VW Passat with the 110 bhp TDi engine, which has now reached 100k. To try and avoid repeating what's been said/asked elsewhere, I took the time to search through the plethora of relevant threads. While doing this, I realized that it's obviously a subject in which many people (including me) are interested but seem to lack a real knowledge/understanding of what it entails. So to try and help people make an informed decision, I thought it might be useful to draw up a sort of "what to watch out for" maintenance list for anyone thinking of increasing their engine power, and arrange them in approximate order of repair/replacement cost in case of consequent faults. Some I'm not sure of (I'm pretty hungover today!), but so far I've got:
Gearbox & clutch
Cylinders/head gasket
turbocharger (including any possible difference variable vane turbo makes?)
Cambelt?
injectors?
Suspension/shocks
Brakes
Wheels?
Flat spots at lower revs?
I'm also aware that different engines (eg TDi, PD, HDi etc) will all have different tolerances. Perhaps someone with more knowledge than me could give some guidance in terms of how likely/unlikely it is that chipping may lead to problems with any of the above. Any corrections or additions to the list are welcome - the idea is to share knowledge and experience. Also, it seems that there are a number of people who have gone ahead and chipped their turbodiesel with excellent results. It would be interesting to hear of anyone who has done this and regretted it, and why.
Anyway, hopefully this way there won't be a constant stream of threads all asking similar questions (saving bandwidth!). If this thread does what I hope it will, it could perhaps be linked to the site FAQ on chipping.
As for my own interest, I reckon that paying out £250 or so for Upsolute to upgrade my Passat is probably a better value option than changing the car for a newer, faster equivalent with the same level of kit. According to the Upsolute site, their chip would take power from 110 to 143 bhp and torque from 173 to 214 lb ft. Once it's out of extended warranty in February I'll probably go ahead and do the deed. However, I don't know whether an increase of 33 bhp is too much for the head gasket in that car to cope with and would certainly be grateful for any thoughts on this.
andymc Read more
yeah, where's sean when we need him???
Thanks for the hard work boys
don't know if i'm any the wiser apart from the bit in bold.
By the way, the road about which I enquired in this thread is now just about to be subject to a speed limit reduction and a host of 'traffic frustration' measures
Bora - what Bora ?