October 2003
Mrs PU has decided to do her CBT and intends to buy a bike. She is lucky enough to over 21 and have a pre 1997 licence so she is going to go for the Direct Access route. The question is what bike for her to buy. We have (aka she has) decided to buy something over 250 cc up to 400cc, it needs to be a lightweight. She is about 5'6" and at the "upper end" (to quote her) of a size 12. So physical size and weight is crucial. Any ideas out there ? Read more
Hello folks,
Wonder if you could put my mind at rest on a ticking noise coming from my 1.9 Diesel engine?
The noise only appers when I am cruising at 65-upwards and not when I am stationery; I wouldn't go as far as to say it is loud but it is noticeable with the radio off.
The car only has 18,500 on the clock and is due a service, aswell as an oil change(6,000 miles ago). Could that be the reason..?
The noise is certainly new with no apparent loss of power?
Any comments greatly welcome.
Cheers
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Sorry, I misunderstood what you meant regarding when the oil was changed. I would take the car back to Peugeot. The Peugeot Citroen diesels are very tough normally, but I believe they prefer frequent oil and coolant changes.
Ben
On my 3rd Citroen. Saxo, Xsara, C5.
I am curious as to whether there are any service advisors that work for a main car dealer,here on this great site !
I may apply for a job with that position in mind , can anyone give me any tips or comments as to what the job entails ? Is it a difficult job , or could anyone do it ?
Sorry for sounding a little silly , but I really would like to know .......Please ? Read more
I dont think I have ever, ever, been to a main dealer and not been told after a service or having work done that my brakes need changing as there is only about '1000' miles left on them. And every single time i checked them myself and found that they will last a good 5-10,000 miles.
It must be the biggest garage scam going to change brake pads/disks when they dont really need changing.
I sense they prey on people safety paranoia fears.
Does anyone else have problems with the rear portion of the exhaust on petrol Clios? The pipe on my wife's 1995 1.2 keeps coming apart slightly at the join just in front of the rear wheel.I've tried several types of clamp and assembly paste but the join just opens up a little after about 1000 miles. Do they make two part pipes - front part up to the catalyst and then one long rear pipe or do I just have to struggle with poorly designed three part pipes. The whole system seems poorly designed and in need of an etra support bracket.
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/rant mode on
Since my daughter has got a part time job up the dale, I find myself travelling to Middleham, North Yorkshire once or twice a week. Middleham is a centre of racehorse training and contains (among others) the most arrogant, pig-headed, obstructive, incompetent horse riders that I have ever come across. I consider myself a reasonable horseman and a considerate motorist, and I'm used to giving way to horses, passing them carefully and waiting for novices to regain control over their mounts.
The Middleham riders habitually;
Wave you on into oncoming traffic,
Get annoyed, then abusive if you don't overtake when they think you should even when it's obvious that forward visibility is limited
Ride 3 and 4 abreast in contravention of Highway Code Rule 39
Never signal
Rarely look behind them
Never wear anything that looks as if it might be high-visibility clothing
Although I've never met them in the dark yet, a pound to a penny they won't carry lights
It's not unusual to see them in groups of 20 or more, many of them riding animals so nervous and skittish that they shouldn't be on the road at all. I doubt if any one of them would pass the British Horse Society's road safety test, if indeed any of the riders have heard of it. May this test soon become compulsory for all horse riders in which case we'd soon see this lot relegated to shovelling horse manure which is apparently all they are fit for.
What distinguishes the stable men and women from the normal horse rider?
/rant mode off
feel better now ...
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land Read more
Horse
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
Does anyone have any suggestions on who to lobby to get a dangerous stretch of road looked at? For those that know Stockport I\'m talking about the Armoury roundabout at the top of Edgeley, for those that don\'t, you have a fairly small roundabout that (the two ways I approach it) has two lanes on the entry. Coming from my house there is a \'short-cut\' before the roundabout itself so that way you\'ll only get people taking the first exit if they are either in a daydream or don\'t know the area at all.
What tends to happen is that, as with most roundabouts, you can\'t get straight on to the roundabout itself so a queue of 4 or 5 cars builds up. Of course, you always get idiots who decide that they will go in the right hand lane for going straight on rather than the left hand lane as they should. The roundabout itself is fairly narrow and the exits quickly narrow down to a single lane.
It wouldn\'t be quite so bad if the right-hand lane users did the decent thing and did a full loop of the roundabout, but they always barge their way in, often racing for any tiny gap that is left. Today, I was very lucky to have fairly good tyres as I was almost forced off the roundabout and had to brake hard in wet conditions by one of these impatient idiots, but it\'s not an uncommon occurance - there aren\'t many days go by when someone doesn\'t barge infront of me.
I\'ve contacted the council about this before but they didn\'t reply. Recently they have installed a puffin crossing just beyond the roundabout which makes matters worse as not only do you have to try and avoid people barging their way in, you also have to be aware that the traffic flow may stop suddenly and backup on to the roundabout itself which it never did before. Coming the other way they have also changed the road markings to show both lanes as being for straight ahead. This is very stupid as while the exit of the roundabout is wide enough, it very, very quickly narrows to one lane so there is plenty of scope of comings together...
So, who do I voice my concerns to? The council don\'t seem interested in anything - I\'ve contacted them on a few points before without a successful response. It\'s hardly a police matter, so what next? Read more
Yes, I am, because they are effectively queue-jumping. They
know where everyone else is going and choose to barge in
rather than keep in the queue, this delaying everyone else.
Let me get this straight; you're sat in a queue of traffic in the L/H lane while the R/H lane is empty? A motorist comes along and sees the R/H lane is empty and the L/H lane with traffic in. Now as this motorist wants to go straight on (ie, the 2nd exit off the r-about) he has a choice; does he join the queue in the L/H lane or take the empty R/H lane? As he is legally entitled to use the R/H lane, he does so. What is so wrong with that? He is reading the road and using that knowledge to his full advantage.
No wonder this country is grid locked with people sat in one lane when there are two to choose from.
What is really annoying at r-abouts is when the person in front of you comes to a complete stop when the r-about is empty. It's far better, and less traffic congesting to slow down, look ahead and keep moving if the r-about is empty.
I have recently seen ads for LED replacement light units for my Land Rover which claim to be "E" marked and therefore totally legal for road use - these are for both rear lights and indicators ( with suitable ballast resistors fitted ). When I look at replacement bulbs for my other cars I can only find LED replacements which are marked as only suitable for show or off road use. The advantages of LEDs in terms of reliability and life are obvious. Do any of you know of where road legal units can be obtained or if not why they are not currently legal ?
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Funnily enough, I was stuck behind a new bus today, and it had all LED lights. The brake lights were circular and made of a matrix of red LEDs, but when the bus came to a standstill, they changed to a wedge shape (2/3rds of LEDs went out) presumably to prevent dazzling following vehicles, the wedge shape extinguished when the bus set off.
I also noticed that the tun signals were the same circular matrix, but orange, however, the LEDs instead of all blinking on and off simultaneously, were phased in rows diagnally, and each row would illuminate or entinguish a few milliseconds before the other to create a sort of very fast expansion and contraction of the light. This makes it look a lot more like a conventional incandescent lamp which obviously takes a split second to illuminate and extinguish fully. When LEDs blink for an indicator all together it looks a bit odd, like a strobe or flashing neon.
I'm trying to get an accurate reading of the amount of oil in my 93 Astra 1.6 autobox.
Followed instructions in manaul to the letter but every time I take it I get conflicting readings, ie, slightly over, slightly under, perfect, in the middle etc.
Current method is:
Take car on reasonable journey to warm up the innards.
Stop car and move selector through all positions, ending in Park.
Check the oil level immediately after that.
Oil's still a nice bright pink but I wonder if I'm doing something obviously wrong.
Any help appreciated! Read more
I was checking with the engine running, thanks for the advice!
I didn't think to leave the dipstick in for one minute, though - I just stuck it in and pulled it out. Using your method shows the level spot on.
Much appreciated!
Returned to my work car park one night last week to find the rear bumper of my car badly scratched at one side and covered in turquoise paint. As I work for a bus company with such coloured buses it did not take a genius to work out that one of my workmates had managed managed to hit it whilst driving a bus (the car park is right next to the bus depot entrance).
As it was late at night I left it too the next day before reporting it to the manager, not unexpectedly the culprit had not owned up to (or may not have realised) causing any damage.
My manager hummed and harred a bit, asking if I had any witnesses etc, almost implying that I may have been the offender! Eventually he asked me to get a couple of estimates for repair but stressed he did not want it to be "an insurance job" (i.e cheap)
As the bumper is colour coded it needs a total respray, cheapest quote I got was £100 + VAT. Went back to the manager with this figure and he more or less refused outright to pay it, claiming it was far too high (yes it is not cheap but it is my company who will be paying, not him!) He then offered to pay half, take it or leave it. At this point I left his office, seething! That was earlier today.
What makes me sick is the fact that if it had been anyone other than an employee they would have paid out without the slightest hesitation for the repairs. I am thinking about getting my own insurance involved to claim from my companies insurers, but the fact that I do not have any witnesses may count against me. I have however taken photos of the bumper with the offending coloured paint clear to see.
Any advice on how to take it from here? Read more
Miller
Any accident in the workplace should be reported.
This is no exception. Get it down in the accident book. Although there was no injury, damage has ocurred and the Health and Safety Rep (Union) should be informed.
Your manager won't like this but $!^ him! It just shows to what level the situation is being managed.
In addition get a photo of the damage and share it with the Union Health and Safety reps.
There was a vehicle accident at work when it was snowing and as the Health and Safety rep for our union I was entitled to investigate and report on it. It was great! I walked in to see the head of security and explained that I needed to use a camera on site for the function of H and S rep. There was nothing anyone could do to stop me. Photos were taken and sent to H and S officer, HR Director, Site Services Manager etc etc.
The company had no choice but to act. I had successfully embarresed them into a corner after repeated attempts by several senior employees and managers had produced no results at all.
The result was a bad weather procedure involving gritting of the road in the event of snow etc.
Hugo
"Forever indebted to experience of others"
...then you need one of these.
www.ihavetohave.it/
Follow the link in the middle of the box. It's a device that can connect your iPod to you OEM head unit, using the CD changer port. Good things 1) You don't need that stupid cassete connector or the illegal FM transmitter, 2) You can access the FF and REW on the Pod from you head unit controls.
Pretty cool, I reckon!
Alex.
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Dr Alex Mears
Seat Leon Cupra
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner. Read more
Browse
DVD you cheeky young man. Promise if I pass my test I will get PU to photograph me with bike in my "boob tube". I see now why this site takes up his time when he should be doing other things.
Mrs (not quite as) PU