December 2003
Hi Guys,
The drivers mirror on my Pug 406 (1999) does not defrost. I suspect a wire coming off but wondered if anyone out there had experience in removing the glass without breaking it- or how to get at the wires on the rear of the class.
Thanks
Robin
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These are the views of Robin the Technician with 35 years in the trade. I fix, therefore I am... Read more
Hiya...
As described in two very long and old threads ('think I've seen the last of my car' 1 and 2), I've had my polo back for about 6 weeks now. Initially (3rd time I rejected it) the driver's door hadn't been refitted properly so it wouldn't always open from the inside and was chipping away paint in the bottom corner of the frame. They fixed it, but subsequently scratched the door and had to take it off again to respray.
The door seemed fine when I finally accepted the car back at the beginning of November, but within a couple of weeks it was up to its old tricks again and I mentioned this to the area manager for the insurance company, who said it sounded like an intermittent fault but that if it got any worse I shouldn't be worried about taking it back to the bodyshop, even though the manager had been so rude and aggressive to me.
It has got a bit worse, in that the door fails every day or so...and the paint is being chipped off again. But I really don't want to take it back there again because they will either scratch or damage my car deliberately or through incompetence.
I know with kitchen cupboards (bear with me!), you can adjust the doors slightly if they don't quite fit, and wonder if the same applies to Polos? Is it some screw that I could just adjust myself or does it really need to be taken to a professional? If so (because I'm not taking it back there), how much should I be looking at just to adjust a door?
Thank you! Read more
Hopefully that's it sorted. How nice to get a satisfactory conclusion. Trust there was a good Chrissy present for Dad!
Do enjoy what's left of Christmas and New Year.
Graeme
I would really appreciate some advice please, chaps and chapesses..
SWMBO has had a letter from Broxbourne Council requiring her to declare the driver and address for a parking infringement at the end of october. I know she wasn't in Cheshunt, Herts at the time of the offence since she was leaving for work at the time from Leighton Buzzard towards Aylesbury, Bucks.
Although, they have quoted the correct number plate they offer no car description so it is not obvious if the reg number was mistaken or it has been cloned (I assume anyone cloning the number would ensure that his/her make and colour corresponded to the cloned vehicle).
I suppose I would be best approaching the council first and ask for a further description of the vehicle, stating her case and perhaps enquiring if there was any CCTV coverage and so be able to compare it to her car.
Councils will be pretty hard to budge over this situation I can imagine and the time of the offence was 7.56am, a tricky time to prove she was elsewhere due to the fact that she would have been driving at the time.
Does anyone have any experience with the situation and/or care to offer some advice. Is it worth consulting the CAB/other solicitor at this stage?
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Well, thanks for all your advice. She rung the office today and the car description was a blue BMW not her blue alfa. So now she's got to ring the DVLA, they passed her to the police and the police passed her onto someone else.
Anyhow, panic over, it doesn't seem to be a problem now!!
The council seem convinced that her plate has been cloned, no chance one of their operativces has mispressed a key!!
**** Thread closed. Discussion continues in Vol 9 ****
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=22134
Anyone else see Top Gear tonight?
I didn't, because some PFD at the BBC decided to put it on at 7pm rather than 8pm.
Git.
V Read more
Yes, true on motorways, but how does that work on single
carriageway roads?
For example when i drive in europe, in my own car,
i am on the 'wrong' side to be able to see
ahead for overtaking etc as to wander out for a little
look ahead involves using almost all of the other side of
the road!
Same problem with LHD in the UK surely
>>
Funnily enough single carriageways aren't really a problem either. Bends in the road mean that you can always see down one side or the other and if you can't see past on the straights you're too close. Often though it's not even worth overtaking on single carriageways, you only get to the next obstruction quicker.
The only real problem I've encountered was an artic parked (illegaly) on a gentle left-hand bend with a tall hedge down the LHS. I couldn't see down the inside of him because of the hedge so I was totally blind. Luckily I've only come across this situation once and I had my wife in the passenger seat who could call the shots. Even RHD vehicles were having problems with this one.
Kevin...
I realise that, to some people, this will seem pretty trivial, but it still sometimes comes back to haunt me after several decades:-
Driving down what was then a nsl country lane at around 35-40mph, I rounded a sweeping left-hand bend and spotted a family of four walking on the raised grass bank on my offside. What I could not see was their lovely old spaniel exploring the ditch amongst the long grass on the nearside.
From the way he emerged I would guess someone instinctively called him without thinking, but it gave me no chance to avoid him - I simply managed to miss him with my wheels and he went under the centre of the car.
I just wanted to get away from the scene, so I promised the tearful family I would phone the police for assistance for the dog, and headed for the nearest phonebox.
It never crossed my mind to look at my car until hours later when I spotted a severely dented valance. Even if I had seen it at the time, I could never have contemplated claiming against the dog owners.
It couldn't have been worse if I had run over one of their kids....... which I suppose is what I did, in a sense.
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\"work\" should read \"woke\" of course....
{It does now. DD}
I've got a 1998 registered Fiat Marea Weekend HLX 2.0L 20v. It needs a cambelt change but unfortunately it involves removing the entire engine. The cost I've been quoted is £800 which is approximately 70% of the current value of the car!
Does anyone know of a garage in the North West who will do it for substantially less?
Thanks.
Mark Read more
Give HJ credit here, it is already mentioned in the Car-by-Car Breakdown.
This is the most ghastly bit of engineering design, and one that would cause me to advise never buying one of these used...ever, at any price.
There are going to be loads floating about where the owner hasn't bothered with the belt...or they think they have but the garage has kept the thing in the workshop and just charged for the work but in reality not done it.
Trust me it'll happen.
M.M
My wife came home from WI and said she couldn`t get in the car! I discovered (by unlocking the driver`s door with the key) that as well as the driver door the opposite rear won`t unlock either. Also the windows no longer open, the wing mirrors don`t respond and the filler cap won`t unlock. Has anyone out there had experience of this? The Audi Centre said "Well it`s driveable". Until it needs diesel that is. Read more
Got my A2 back today. Quote from bill "Rectified poor connection on central control unit". Cost me £209.24!
I run a fairly new Renault and am looking without much success for a replacement bulb for a front fog lamp ( no rush cos they only get used abou twice a year ). The bulb is quoted in the owners handbook as H10 which is what is stamped on the plastic bayonet fitting integral with the bulb. I have tried the uaual outlets for a bulb with no success - even my local Lucas branch say they have no such bulb on their lists. It looks very similar to a 9006 type. Is this another main dealer job or can I get one of these bulbs somewhere else ?
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I\'m off to France tomorrow - back on Monday - would be willing to have a look if you wanted me to.
Would the mods be able to pass on my email address? {Done. DD}
Ive copied this article on the possibilities of universal road tolls which seem to be less than 10 years away. It would suit me down to the ground as the polluter would pay, rayther than me paying the same for my 6 return mile daily commute as a 20000 mile a year company rep.
Tolls on All Roads
Are 'Inevitable'
-- First motorway toll road
ROAD tolls are now inevitable, a top Government transport adviser has said.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling was thought to be opposed despite setting up a committee to examine the scheme earlier this year.
But Mr Darling has now been won over and charging will become commonplace, according to Professor David Begg.
Even the smallest country lane would be covered by satellites tracking on-board computers, the Sunday Mirror reports.
Charges of up to 16p a mile in congested areas would be offset by cuts in petrol costs and the abolition of tax discs, it says.
"It is now a matter of when, not if," said Prof Begg, who chairs the Commission for Integrated Transport.
"Six months ago, it was on the shelf, but Mr Darling is now very serious about it. The Government has realised that there is only one way to reduce congestion and that does not mean trying to build a way out of it."
Details of the plans come after the opening of Britain's first pay-motorway, the M6 Toll, north of Birmingham.
Prof Begg said the scheme nationwide could reduce congestion by 30% and pollution by 40 per cent.
A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: "The committee reports next year." Read more
I should have said ...
travel passes no good because there's no suitable bus/train
service. I suppose that's why they run the special service.
Granted there will be a lot of this - one of my points is that this is more likely to be the case in the areas they have chosen than in many other parts of the country. Even where PT is readily available it is common to run special school services as it is cheaper to do it that way than to pay for travel on normal buses. After all, most companies have spare vehicles for the rush hour traffic or that aren't being used on (mostly weekend) hires.
This is really triggered by HJ's road test of the BMW 520iSE. In it he says that it is worth paying the extra £1,400 for the extra power and torque of the 525iSE.
Much as that may be true, as the cars have an identical specification, it seems to seems to me that £1,400 is a lot to pay for just having 6 bigger holes in the middle of the engine. Even worse is the price differential between the 520iSE and 530iSE - a whopping £5,410. Of this approx £1000 is for the metallic paint and park control and the rest is for even bigger holes in the engine.
Although the report doesn't say so I accept there may be some beefing up of the running gear, but there must be a huge extra profit margin in these bigger engined cars.
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That's the beauty of capitalism. Ifpeople will pay it, it's justified. This, by the way, is not a criticism of capitalism, it's the beauty of it. Because the world is like this, you get the choice of all the thousands of makes and models you can currently buy. Provided one of them meets your requirents of spec vs price, you can buy it and be happy. You're happy and the manufacturer is happy. What more could you want at Christmas?
V
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