October 2003
Had a thought while pootling up from Dover to the Midlands via M20, M25 & M1 last night(not a bad journey 'cos we set off from Dover at 9.30 pm - only one hold up where 3 lanes of the M25 were coned off for 3 miles or so so that 2 men could seemingly hand paint some white lines).
However, to get to the point, those big new overhead illuminated signs for messages seemed sadly underused. There was only one or two used on the M25 and they just said that motorists should "expect long delays J25 to Heathrow on Friday" and I don't suppose that would be news to many. But could these signs be used for safety notices? How about "Use inside lane except when overtaking", or "Is your child belted up in the back", "Have you checked your tyre pressures", "Don't tailgate - keep your distance" or even "Get off that mobile phone while driving" or "Switch those b****y fog lights off - it ain't foggy" or "It's dark now, how about switching on dipped headlights instead of those invisible parking lights?" (a bit long winded that! but you get my point!)
Or would these be too distracting? Read more
When I was setting up the insurance on my Fiesta I was asked the mileage question, so I told them 10,000 as this was what I had done in the previous year.
Now, so far this year my mileage seems to be going up much quicker, I'm estimating that I'm covering around 18,000 miles per year.
Thinking that 8,000 over the estimate was a bit much I rang them up to tell them, after all, it's free insurance so I didn't think it would be a problem.
Wrong - apparently what they should have told me at the time, but didn't, was that if I changed any details afterwards then I was liable for any premium rises, so they presented me with a bill for £360!!
I'm not impressed, especially as they say that if I had just told them 18,000 in the first place then the policy would still be free!
Any thoughts or ideas people? I really dont fancy invalidating my insurance, but I will not, and can not afford to pay this extra premium.
Thanks in advance!
Blue Read more
I have 25000 miles mentioned on my insurance with ASA, and will have actually only done 22000 this year. I just called to ask out of interest what implications would be should I ever go over that amount. The representative said that it would depend on the amount over, and the claims department. She then checked whether there would be a premium increase if I stated 30,000 miles. The answer was no, I would not have to pay any more.
Sorry about the ponderous thread title - I couldn't think of a better one.
I have seen an awful lot of cars recently which, as well as a normal sticker in the back window, have a "discreet" dealer logo placed on the rear, often next to or above the model name.
Is having this applied to your car a condition of sale that is buried in the small print? If I was in the position of buying a new car, I'd be most annoyed if the dealer vandalised it by putting one of their tacky adverts on the back. As someone who has taken the dealer sticker out of the back of every single car I have owned, I fail to see why I should provide a car dealer with free advertising.
Any thoughts?
Cheers
Rob Read more
Mine are always ripped off straight away and replaced by a Harley-Davidson Motorcycles eagle and wings decal.
www.fast-autos.net/ferrari/ferrari612.html
Looks like a great update/replacement for the 456! Read more
ROFLMAO! Good one Nitro.
Has anyone been the victim of a number plate cloning incident? A friend (honestly) has recently received a court summons for failing to produce the name of the driver of "his" car as it was court speeding in a town in south west England.
However, at the time of the offence, the owner of the vehicle was at work, with many witnesses to verify it, and his car has NEVER been to the town in question!
I've read a few news stories of people being the victims of vehicle cloning criminals (mostly in London - people copying number plates of similar cars to avoid paying the congestion charge).
Has anyone been a victim? What can be done to prove your car wasn't where a speed camera says it was???
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The other possibility here is that it wasn't a clone. Many of the newer cameras, including those that do the Congestion Charge, work on number plate recognition. You have to bet that there's a bit of "fuzzy logic" in this (camera angles, visibility due to weather, dirty plates etc.). Given that the new restrictions on plate design (font, spacing, use of spurious screws et. al.) are about as widely enforced as the requirement for Hackney Carriages to carry a bale of hay, I suspect that a large number of these "mistakes" are actually down to inherent bugs in the system. Of course, I would never suggest that the tolerance for automatic recognition may have been "widened" to reduce manual intervention and, therefore, admin costs....
Hiya All,
We needed another car as the wife got a job a lot further out of town, so I got a free 1990 1.1L fiesta as a temporary car until i get some money together. There are a few problems and I wondering if I should put them right or send the car to the scrappers.
It\'s a 1990 1.1L ford fiesta with 93K miles on the clock. The bodywork is sound, but the back box is about to drop off (£30 to replace).
I changed the oil and air oil filters at the weekend - being a bit of a novice I think I might have made an error somewhere. The oil I used was Castrol magnetec (It was the only oil they had). Before changing the oil I used the choke for 2-3 mins until evertything had warmed up and I was away (17miles each way on country lanes approx 50mph, 5 times a week and no use at weekends). I\'ve notice the power has dropped and dropped (but not immediately), until this morning when I had to have the choke 1/2 out otherwise it felt like the car was about to stall.
Is this oil incompatible with the engine (the nubers matched the haynes manual 10W40 I think or the other way)?
Someone mentioned that a fully synthetic oil (like magnetec), is a bit like a cleaner and all the old crud is now coming free.
I\'m sure I did everything else correct (I regulary do a oil and filter change on my 220SDi)
Thanks for any help. Read more
Hi
Check these things it may be one of them.
1. Check the ht leads replace if they are the originals
2. Take air box of and spray loads of wd40 at that flap that controls the hot cold air flow.
3. there is anoter pipe that connects the bottom of the air filter box, to the back of the carb they are renowned for being full of oil carp take this pipe off and soak in redex or similar, it will clear it out do this with all breather hoses especially the breather cap that you remove to put oil in i suggest that you deffinitly soak this it will be filthy.
4. Change the oil to ford reccomended oil
5. give it a thrash on the local motorway and i mean do about 30 miles in 4th rather than 5th if it has one.
6. check the tightness of the accesory belt ie the one that connects the alternator with the water pump
7. get the tappets adjusted they may be loose and out of adjustment
8 if it happenes when you turn sharply i suggest you check or top up the gearbox oil
9. if its a duel choke carb give it a good spraying with carb cleaner when the engine is running follow the instructions on the tin carefully this is sold at halfords
Hope this helps
i have had many of these fiestas and my wife has one just the same as ures.
Regards
Martin G Winters
Hi all,
I\'m having trouble with my old (\'H\' reg) VW Polo 1.3L CL. Several signs of age have manifested recently (in the last year), but the major pain is an intermittant loss of power which I\'ve noticed when motorway driving (although it could be happening at other times), which is reducing the car\'s top speed to about 50 mph even with the accelerator floored. This can persist for some time, but alternately flooring and releasing the accelerator pedal (still while driving) seems to fix it. Has anyone got any thoughts on what might be causing this? Other \'signs of age\' and general recent features have been:
- The idle jet has become blocked a couple of times. Easily cleared by AA/mechanic.
- The (2 month old) fuel filter put in at the car\'s last service is very dirty for such a new filter.
- Developed a slight oil leak. (Typically a few isolated drops on the ground below the engine after a drive).
- Developed a slight coolant leak. Both a mechanic and an AA guy have put the coolant under pressure, but didn\'t find the leak. The coolant drops significantly in level over a month or two.
Hope someone can help!
Rich
Read more
Polos used to suffer from the fuel pipe between the filler and tank rusting, this would explain why your relatively new filter is dirty. There could be rust in the carb or partially blocked fuel pipe which would explain the low top speed. New tanks did not used to be expensive from Europarts.
Good luck
As the days get shorter and darker, one thing really gets my goat - the number of vehicles, especially vans and lorries for some reason, with their lights dazzling you, presumably having pushed the adjustable setting on them up to 'none' !
This is great for them to see, of course, but bad for you until your eyes get back to normal - I wonder how many accidents have been caused to drivers on the oppostive lane going into something they haven't seen ?
Anyway, complete nuisance from very selfish drivers; wish plod would do something about it. Read more
I find HID etc lights very distracting and blinding. It may be down to misalignment but if so, then most (nearly all) I have come across following me or coming towards me are misaligned.
They seem to be especially bad when following me on anything other than the flattest of roads where each little bump causes the light to flash at me which is very annoying and off-putting. I must admit to never having driven in a car with these lights, so can't comment on the benefits from the driver's point of view, but from the person driving towards and especially the person being followed, I find them very irritating indeed.
Hi All
I have a Ford Granada Diesel2.5 1994 m-reg,my
1.water pump sheared last night and i need to find the route for the 8ft long fan belt...can anyone help
2 after this happened and the rac loaded the car i noticed that i was leaking oil,it is coming from what looks like a breather on the right hand side of the engine (as you look directly at it) just above the engine mount ,it travels up and joins a pipe on the top of the bulk head,
Thanks
Read more
Colin
Not really familiar with that engine and believe it or not it has been dropped out of current dealer workshop manuals. I have an old disc that should still have the info and I'll have a look when I have reloaded the disc. If I find anything I'll let you know.
Charles
Not being a Peugeot fount of knowledge (Ford’s my game mainly) I was wondering whether any of the fans of Gallic transport could help with this one:
My father’s car has a problem where the drivers electric window on the one touch closure will go to the top then drop to half open. It is possible to edge it shut by tapping the switch.
I have disconnected the battery with the window fully closed to reset the anti-finger trapping system, as per the owners manual, but it has made no difference.
Does anyone know how to properly reset the system or what could be wrong?
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Blasted ebay!
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
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In Australia they have fixed roadside signs on the highways with 'Return to left after overtaking' which seem to work well. I've always thought that we could do with something similar on our motorways.