October 2003
Hi Backroomers,
A couple of years ago, there was an advert on my local radio station, using a re-worded version of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang song - 'our road tax dodging friend' or was it fiend?
I e-mailed the radio station and the DVLA to inform them that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is exempt from road tax ? so the advert was something of a nonsense {though Chitty would need to display a tax exempt / historic vehicle disc ? which is free}.
Neither replied, but the advert soon stopped, I assumed that they had seen the light? ? ? ? ? ?
In the film, Chitty first entered the 1901 {approx} Grand Prix.
Even the film was made in the late 60s {?67?}, so cars made for the film will be tax exempt too.
Some bloke in Lancashire {was in the national newspapers} has recently built a replica of chitty chitty bang bang - this may have to pay road tax??
But now, the government has spent a fortune {no doubt} producing and putting on air a TV advert - which still implies that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang should pay road tax. How long has the advert been running? Such TV ads can cost many £1,000s per second at peak times?
Are they daft, or am I missing something!!!!
More proof, if proof were needed,
The government / local councils even fine greengrocers for quoting prices of fruit and veg in pounds rather than kgs.
Yet Gordon Brown's baby is too, apparently, weighed only in pounds and ounces - no mention of kgs.
Anyway, back to cars - why not abolish road tax all together, put it on fuel instead - then those who drive the most / drive large engined cars, pay the most? Saves queuing at the post office every twelve months, and why not have an insurance disc in the windscreen ? a third party?s lack of insurance is more of a worry when he crashers into you than is his lack of tax disk?
Ditto MoT, an MoT disk in the window would go someway to keeping unsafe cars off the road, something the road tax disc does not.
Paul {Forest of Bowland} Read more
Mr Moderator appeared to \"pull\" this posting earlier today. Check that you have \"sense of humour\" enabled under \"Settings\", Mark!
Mark didn\'t pull it, I did. Well actually I moved it to the silly thread in discussion - where you should have posted it in the first place!! The funny stuff goes in discussion, the technical stuff stays here. Having been a subscriber to the BR since the 7th May 2002, you should already have known that.
As for having a \"sense of humour\", it\'s not in the job description. Locking accounts for impertinence is however.
DD. Read more
had tracking done had it in any amounts of garages there is no visable damage to wheels,the wheels spin freely,any ideas,ive been told it could be the diveshaft, could be costly and not sort the problem,cheers Read more
I had similar problems with my 306 pulling to one side. The tyre pressures did make difference, but didn't solve it. I got the tracking checked, but everything was OK. I changed the front wheels around which only made the pulling 10x worse, combined with a very wonky steering wheel - some very peculiar problem with the tyres.
Put new tyres on, and everything was fine.
I\'ve had my 94 Cavalier diesel (1.7 TD) for over three years now.
For the first two winters there was never any problems starting it in the morning.
During the third winter it became more difficult to start, usually only starting on the second attempt. One day it wouldn\'t start at all, I could hear some compression/ignition going on (black smoke from the exhaust confirmed this), but never enough to start the engine . I thought it was a block/leak in the fuel line but couldn\'t find anything. I took it to a mechanic who replaced the glow plugs (I\'d only replaced the glow plugs a few months previously, although I did use budget plugs) and it started .
Ever since that day (Last Feb) its got worse and worse on starting from cold. When warm there are no problems at all. This morning it started on the fourth attempt (I reckon about twenty turns of the engine). What\'s the most likely cause and how much will it cost to fix?
Also, is there any way to search these forums? I\'d guess that the answer is already here somewhere but I\'ll never be able to find it otherwise. Read more
Thanks for all the replies.
When the problem first appeared I had all the glow plugs replaced and it was still tricky to start from cold. I also put in a new battery about 18 months ago and could see the obvious improvement in cranking speed, its currently still at about the same level.
> When the engine is cold, even after the glow plug light has gone out, the glow plugs remain on for a short while.
I wish I'd known this last winter! The light kept going out after two or three seconds which seemed way too short to warm the engine. Took me a couple of hours and the help of a mate to realise that the plugs were still drawing current for five to ten seconds after the light went out.
I've taken it down to a vauxhall garage and they confirmed that the shims need adjusting. They're quoting me £95 for the job (just under that psychological £100 barrier!) so I'm having it done to make sure I don't get stranded somewhere in the middle of winter.
Thanks for the help
Okay a generalisation I know but it got your attention!
When I turned 16 there were 3 youths of similar age in my neighbourhood that decided motorbikes were the way to go as opposed to a car. Within 6 months one was dead and the other two had more than one extensive stay in hospital. They all had one thing in common - they all thought they were invincible jack the lads.
Many years later I still see acts of reckless motorcycling that amazes me. For example the persistent weaving in and out of traffic at speeds well in excess of the limits without considering the consequences that another driver may not see them and pull out/overtake at the wrong moment. Another favourite is when the traffic on the opposite side is at a standstill so they decide they'll use the spare lane instead ie the lane I'm driving in in the opposite direction. Result is that I have to pull over as far left as I can go to avoid hitting them. My toots of disapproval are met with two fingers yet they're in the wrong!
The racing away from the lights, including wheelies, like they're in some kind of drag race makes me hope, and I am not ashamed to admit this, that they crash before they kill some other innocent driver or pedestrian. What makes them behave like this? Surely they must realise they're more vulnerable on a bike than in a car and in which case make them ride at sensible speeds and adhering to all rules of the highway? Obviously not in most cases. Only this morning a colleague was delayed getting to work as he had to witness the fire brigade scooping up a motorcyclist of the road!!
I know people will argue that you see just as many bad car drivers and I agree but proportionally you see more motorcyclists breaking the rules than you do car drivers. Read more
I agree with a previous comment that applicants for a driving licence should firstly have a motorcycle licence. It is my personal experience that a few doses of gravel rash gives one a different outlook and makes one much more aware of other road users.
I've just bought a 1997 P Astra Van, and the heater only works on full (4). I'm guessing this is a problem with the switch, but what I find strange is that the 4 on the dial is on a separate indentation to the 1,2 and 3, and the owners manual says to use 4 for demisting the windscreen, but says to rapidly warm the car I should turn the dial to 3.
Has anyone had a similar problem to this, and if so, what's the easiest/cheapest/best way to fix it?
Thanks in advance
Kev
Preston, Lancs. Read more
I had the same problem, and got this fix, but the panel under the windscreen, i could get to lay flat and there is a gap, I noted from your post you had the same problem and wondered if you manage to get this panel to lie flat, and if not have you had any problems.
many thank...
Hi all!
Had front brakes' pads replaced this morning. You never expect the car to behave so differently after such a replacement, but it does! The brake pedal 'bites' so high now (comparatively) that I kept stopping meters before where I intended to!!
Anyway, having to travel this weekend, I wanted to know if I have to run-in the brakes before I can safely 'step on it', without causing damage. In that case I could drive the first part of my journey 'conservatively' (low speeds - light braking) to give a chance to the pads to 'bed-in'.
It's not my first set of pads, but the thought just popped up.
Vagelis.
PS: First pad replacement for Clio after 46000km (28,583.0748429 miles - thanks www.onlineconversion.com )!! The garage-guys couldn't believe it! Got mad when they told me 'you must be a slow driver' :-O Read more
Cheers all!
I tend to agree with you RichardW. No matter how uniformly worn the discs may be, and flat shaped the surface of the pads, they won't be in contact 100%. This will cause hot spots on the pads and 'circles' on the discs, that could possibly damage both. So I was thinking that lighter use of the brakes could help wear-down the various 'humps' without creating hot spots.
BTW, searching this forum on the subject, I learnt that modern pads are made without asbestos, which makes them harder. This means that any humps on their surface will also be harder and cause damage to discs - which are in turn softer to compensate for the harder pads.
Thanks for your responses, mates!
Vagelis.
Lots of stuff about today , refreshing the conspiracy theories about Diana's death .
I would like to know...if she expected someone to sabotage the car , why wasn't she wearing her belt? Even if not expecting it, it was the law of the land, and what any sane adult would do anyway ,let alone one who it is said, was so devoted to her children.
And for that matter why hadn't the bodyguard insisted she did ?
The risk of her being hurt in a car accident was akways greater than through attack
Read more
Ok, I know she died in a car and that is, to some extent, motoring.
However, this thread/dicussion/argument will never be motoring related and therefore I'm locking it.
Mark.
The starter motor on my wifes 95M 1.9TD Passat gave up the ghost last week and is being replaced. Trouble is the garage said that there is a problem with the starter motors not disengaging and hence burning out. And indeed in the two years that we have had the car the starter motor hasn't disengaged properly and normally lets of a screach when starting - like what you would get if turning the starter motor on when the car is already started.
Apparently some of the ignition parts also need to be replaced. Is anyone familiar with this problem? Read more
There are no ignition parts on a diesel - are they talking about the glowplugs?
If they are make sure they use OEM parts, cheap glowplugs aren't worth the savings.
Are there a lot of people who can't read these days?
Dropping into M40 sevrices today I parked towards the back, behind the well marked and signed "Caravan only" bays. These are, unsurprisingly, double length.
Some unfortunate turned up with his rig in tow, unable to park in any designated spot because each row (maybe 20?) was full of single (mostly small) cars and a few white vans. There wasn't a single bay which had a caravan in.
I can remember coming across this when towing, and it really is frustrating. Why oh why do people do it? Read more
terryb has it. It's the very noticable selfishness that has pervaded society in general, and driving particularly badly.
People now park in disabled bays, mother & child bays, in fact '...any damn where I please!' is the attitude. Try asking them not to - I have, and unless you happen to be particularly hard, don't bother. It isn't worth it.
A couple of times I have asked security staff in Tesco to check if a parker actually has a disabled badge. This is when I've seen, for example, a teenage lad screech into a disabled bay, leap out of his car and jog into the store!
It's all lack of good manners and consideration for others. Personally, I'd flog 'em! :-)
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Good sport looking for these oddities in adverts. Used to be one for Wrigley's chewing gum (sales point was it helped you concentrate)starts on flight deck of airliner on appraoch in thick fog, four throttle levers clearly visible. Cut to exterior scene of three engined Trident as it breaks cloud dead on the centre line. Only spoiled the message for pedants in the know!!!