December 2003
A friend has a (new to him) L reg 2.0L 8V SEAT Toledo Automatic with about 90k miles. It seems to have the same engine etc as a Golf. It has a couple of annoying engine problems. One is an intermittent misfire/jerkiness at any speed. This problem does not last long perhaps 10 ? 20 seconds and does not seem to be affected by the level of work being done by the engine. The second problem is an occasional tendency for the engine to stall when the car is brought to a halt. It does not appear that the auto box is ?hanging on?, perhaps more like when the throttle is shut the engine no longer idles it just stalls. When the auto box is moved to N or P the engine can be restarted easily but sometimes stalls 2 or 3 times on attempting to re-engage D. Has anybody got any ideas please? Read more
After the Best Ferrari thread and the mention of the Countach its got me thinking of what is the best Cars/Film moments.
I go for Cannonball Run (1 of course). The noise, the excessive gear changes, the defacing of the speed sign, the two great looking chicks. Above all tho it was the fact that the car was an original, rather than kit car (unlike late Cannonball Run movies) Lamborghini.
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You got me riffling thru my consderable library of long-forgotten stuff. Not a road race job, but a real tear-jerker.
1966 - "A Man and a Woman"
Starring a gorgeous Anouk Aimee and a red Mustang which is very prominent and some lovely music scores.
Hello
Soon to be made redundant, will give up my trusty company Focus, need to buy something and am hoping for some help.
OK here goes,
£5K to spend, want Focus size vehicle, Diesel if possible, will be doing 15-25K miles per year, mostly motorways.
Love the Focus handling, but this is not so important if I am driving my 'own' vehicle as I wont be thrashing it quite so much.
Servicing, Insurance, Fuel costs (or lack of) quite important as I have a feeling I am going to be skint for a while before getting the new business going.
Any advice most appreciated.
Cheers
--
Drink Lager Talk Piffle
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406 hdi 110 bhp
The record breaker - peugeot are *still* the leader in diesel technology after 8 years or so: www.fastlane.com.au/Features/Peugeot_bowserbuster....m
High depreciation on 406 cars (especially estate models) means you get a lot of car for 5 grand.
VW/Audi/Skoda probably a close second, although give a choice between a PUG and a german car with all the charisma of the berlin wall, I would choose the pug any day.
But then, I'm biased.
As mentioned in another thread, my company experimented with paying for driver training days to cut insurance costs. They found that half day sessions resulted in a 50% reduction in insurance claims for company car drivers. My firm has now expanded this to be available FOC for all staff, company car or not.
If this is a worthwhile investment for a company to reduce insurance claims, it must be a worthwhile investment for a Government to reduce deaths. Discuss.
V Read more
Pass Plus seems a good idea but it can be abused. There's little to stop an unscrupulous instructor issuing the certificate, for a fee, without the lessons. My own instructor told me he knew of one or two who did this.
Anyone who saw 5th Gear last night will know that they asked people to vote on their favourite ever prancing horse.
I wonder what Backroomers would would vote for - and why.
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Rudedog,
Miami Vice used a convertible Daytona early doors. When Ferrari found that was a fake they gave the programme makers a white Testarossa for the cops to ponce around in.
The 288 GTO did collect one vote (Stackman), and is very beautiful.
Am I correct in the belief that bonnet mascots were in the past banned for obvious saftey reasons?.
The reason for asking is that today I saw a brand new Jag parked up with a chrome Jag mascot addorning the front of the bonnet.
I shudder to think of the kind of injury this would inflict on an unlucky pedestrian!.
Mal.
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If the Americans LOVE them it can't be long before the non-thinking over here LOVE them too.
As previously mentioned I had a 5 series on loan (new style) this weekend as my "firm" decides how we approach company car allocation and actual conditions of a new lease contract if indeed there is a contract. The car in question was a fully loaded 530d - in a rather dank gunmetal grey. It had the six speed auto box (not my choice)and since it was dropped off on Friday afternoon has notched up a considrable mileage over the weekend. The car was driven in all road conditions both traffic wise and actual road type.
Not to everyone's tastes in the looks department it drew glances wherever it went and parked, as HJ said the looks do not bother me and in fact from certain angles are quite attractive - conventional it ain't. When it left mid-morning today I had grown to like it.
Build quality seemed consistant with the old 5 and is a very convincing drive in all conditions it was used.
All in all it felt as if it had more character than my five. There is little point in repeating what HJ had to say other than to say I would buy one.
The motor/gearbox. Superb in every sense, smooth fast and frugal
I estimated about 40 mpg,on brimming,overall,performance is close to T5 territory a remarkable car by any standard and a clear advance on the "old" 5 which in itself speaks volumes.
I could see myself in on of these. Really sorry to see it go. The only suprise that the 9 mile dash home tonight did not make the old 5 feel like a nail. Superb cars both. Read more
How times change. Look inside any BMW of the last thirty years and you find that the instrument packages have a strong family appearance. Why ? - Possibly 'cos they were the best laid out in the business, they worked and people copied them. All of a sudden they are fiddling around with them and changing things and one has to ask why. The exterior is clearly progressive and possibly they felt they had to sort the inside as well and make it appear trendy. Still very very good at night.
Our 106 appears to be losing most of its brake fluid via the offside rear wheel. Apparently the brake warning light was on when my missus started the car to drive home tonight & when I checked the car over (in the dark) I noticed the lack of fluid & leakage on the bottom half of the hub and rear tyre. Luckily she has a short drive home!!!
Brake cylinder failure?????
Any more/less sinister suggestions?
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to secure the nuts you have to hammer over a bit using a chisel/ centre punch.. Hence when you remove them you tend to damage the nut.. best to replace it.
Been there done it...and btw the removal of the pipes to the wheel cylinder should not be difficult.. just spray nite before with WD40 around the back of drum where pipe is screwed into cylinder...
madf
A friends 1999 Passat became disabled in flood (river) water, they were fortunately able to exit the vehicle via the (still working) electric windows, and then wade to safety. The vehicle was recovered several hours later and towed to a garage, where it remained for 10 days pending assessment by the insurance company. After inspection the assessor was of the opinion that a days work was all that was necessary to put it back as was.
My view is that the car will be a disaster waiting to happen, and that at the slightest sign of any electrical trouble (or preferably earlier) he should get rid of it!
Any views? (The owner was previously intending to keep it as a long term 'run it to the death' vehicle).
pmh (was peter) Read more
Although we have all seen the floatworthiness of old Beetles, I doubt that a VW which has been immersed 'halfway up the doors' will have stayed dry inside. Doors usually have drain holes in the bottom edge, so water will presumably have travelled up inside, and it will depend on how effective the inner membranes were. Expect the worst. :(
I have a Peugeot 406 2.0 hdi estate y reg 24000 miles and have had it for just under a year and have done about 12000 miles.I replaced the discs and pads around 15000 miles because the car was juddering when braking, and this solved the problem.However the same thing started happening about a month ago and the main dealer has told me that they need replacing again.A good mechanic friend has told me that both the discs and pads are fine,(the pads only about 50% worn and not 80-90% as the dealer told me.)He has replaced the pads and has only partially solved the problem,he maintains that the discs are perfect, so i am at a loss as to what else it could be.
Does this mean that i will need to repalce both discs and pads every 8-10000 miles or about every 6-8 months? This seems very frequent.I would appreciate any advice or feedback.( I have noticed on Johns column that they are prone to discs warping, but so soon?) Read more
Thanks again all-and Robin-I will visit my local partco in Kingston.
Browse
Sure enough the stalling became more frequent, and the car went to the local SEAT agent. Part of the answer was to clean the ISCV and throttle body. The other part was to replace two split hoses. One hose was between the ISCV and the inlet manifold (vacuum). The second hose was between the cam cover and air inlet (breather system). At £170, another lesson in motoring, but at least the car is running again!